One of the infamous e-mails by Ruth Padel: “On the chair, there is still no other nomination except (so extraordinarily) Derek W and me. But thye close on 29th April so another or others may well turnup… There is aupposed to be a book called The Lecherous Professor, which has 6 pages on Derek Walcott’s two cases of sexual harassment, which might provide interestigfn copy on what Oxford wants from its professors..”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
For Spoleto’s Chamber-Music Man, This Festival Is The Last
“It has been a pretty good run, as the performing arts go. Charles Wadsworth has hosted the popular chamber-music concerts at Spoleto festivals on two continents for a half century. … Wadsworth turned 80 on Thursday and the Spoleto Festival which opened the following day will be his last as he retires to a life of concerts and composing that may be only slightly less hectic.”
Spoleto, Others Eye $100 Million-Plus Stage Renovation
“The Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, Charleston’s largest performance venue and an essential stage for local arts groups and Spoleto Festival USA, will undergo extensive renovations beginning as early as 2011 if enough money can be raised to pay the hefty price tag. The project likely would cost more than $100 million,” and “a $20 million matching gift already has been committed.”
Even For The Most Acclaimed, Poems Won’t Pay The Bills
“No one should write poetry for money. No one can expect to make any money either. Even a Poet Laureate, or whoever gets to occupy the professor’s chair just vacated by Ruth Padel, will need other jobs, and other income, to make ends meet.”
August Wilson Center Takes Shape In Pittsburgh
“Months away from its grand opening, the August Wilson Center for African American Culture is shaping up into a handsome building whose interior spaces have dramatic, panoramic views of the many historic structures in its neighborhood.” Its “signature element” will be “a four-story, metal-and-glass ‘sail’ … inspired by the Swahili trading ships that carried the culture of East Africa to distant shores.”
Colin Davis Sets Example With Gift To London Symphony
“Celebrating his 50-year association with the London Symphony Orchestra,” Sir Colin Davis has “pledged what a spokesperson called a ‘significant amount of money’ towards the orchestra’s endowment fund” and challenged fans “to increase the fund by £1m. Aside from the huge personal gesture … Sir Colin’s idea makes good business sense.”
For 40 Days & 40 Nights, Museum Gets A Resident Hermit
“An artist will be unveiled as Manchester Museum’s first resident hermit, and will live in its Victorian Gothic tower for 40 days and 40 nights alone except for a computer modem connecting him to the virtual world. Ansuman Biswas fears, however, that it may be too comfortable a gig.”
Plays On TV: Great! But Why Hire Novelists To Write Them?
“I’m always banging on about the dearth of single plays on television. So I suppose it has to be two cheers for Sky Arts, who plan to show a season of six half-hour plays live,” all written by non-dramatists. “I’m all for widening the pool of dramatic talent, but writing a 30-minute play is a special skill that even hardened practitioners find difficult.”
A Free Press Publishes Free Books, And There’s No Catch
“Concord Free Press just released its second free book: Wesley Brown’s novel about a ’60s radical, ‘Push Comes to Shove.’ And — get this — in October, Concord Free Press plans to release a new novel by mega-bestseller Gregory Maguire called ‘The Next Queen of Heaven.’ Again, for free. Nada. Zip. $0.00. Turns out, there is no hidden agenda, at least no nefarious one.”
In New Challenge To Prop. 8, Hollywood May Be Key Player
“Will Hollywood play a bigger role in California’s next round of fighting over same-sex marriages? That was the question for many in showbiz Tuesday after California’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s ban on such nuptials, approved by a narrow majority of voters in November. … [T]he role of the entertainment industry — through activism, money or creative might — is likely to be greater than it was before last November’s election.”