So the British government is launching a £2.5 million free-ticket scheme for 18- to 26-year-olds. “But price is not the only factor,” Lyn Gardner argues. “Large numbers of young people simply don’t think that the theatre is for them, and may well end up having that view confirmed if they turned up on a Monday night to see Turandot at Hampstead theatre or were unfortunate enough to get Afterlife rather than War Horse at the National – or, indeed, are forced to deal with the mysteries of the RSC advance booking system.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Philly Museum Names Photography Curator
“In its first curatorial hire since the death of longtime director Anne d’Harnoncourt, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has named Peter D. Barberie curator of photographs.
Although he comes from a post as lecturer at Princeton University, Barberie, 37, is something of an Art Museum insider.”
American Players Theatre Builds An Indoor Space
“At this time next year, American Players Theatre audiences will be attending productions indoors as well as out. The company’s board of directors has voted to continue with previously announced plans to erect a 200-seat black box (flexible) all-weather conventional theater that will increase the number and range of productions the Spring Green company will offer audiences.”
No “Kingdom Of Darkness” In Piano’s Science Center
At the new California Academy of Sciences building, opening Saturday in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, “[e]very penny of its hefty $488 million cost is on view, gorgeously packaged by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Its overarching messages are the essential role of evolution in the work of the natural sciences and the urgency of addressing global climate change. In Piano’s design, the medium is the message.”
Just In Time For The Economic Collapse
“Jerome Kerviel, the man blamed by Societe Generale SA for the biggest trading loss in banking history, is now a comic-book hero. After inspiring at least five books, a ‘Save Kerviel’ club and fan t-shirts, Thomas Editions, a children’s book publisher, yesterday released ‘Le Journal de Jerome Kerviel,’ a fictional, illustrated ‘bande dessinee’ memoir of the trader’s rise and fall at France’s second-largest bank.”
Remember When TV Seasons Lasted From Fall To Spring?
“The prime-time television season started this week — for reasons that have almost nothing to do with how the business of television works anymore. The networks now like to emphasize that they are a 52-week business.”
Another Political Convention, But This Time It’s Art
“‘Democracy in America: The National Campaign’ at the Park Avenue Armory is a nonpartisan, nonelectoral but intensely political convention-as-art-exhibition timed to coincide with the 2008 presidential race. Like its Democratic and Republican counterparts, it lasts just a few days (it opened on Sunday and closes on Saturday) and involves lots of speeches, music, funny hats and parties. But there are differences.”
And The 2008 MacArthur Grants Go To …
New Yorker magazine music critic Alex Ross, lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and installation artist Tara Donovan are among the 25 recipients of this year’s MacArthur “genius” grants. Each will receive $100,000 per year for five years.
How ‘Bout Some Earlier Curtain Times?
“I often think that I would have been at home in Elizabethan London, when performances took place in the afternoon. … Performance start times are only convention but, like Woman’s Hour, they are hard to shift without protest and don’t always seem to be designed for the convenience of audiences – or reflect the fact that theatre is a service industry.”
EU Won’t Toss File-Sharers Off Internet
“European politicians have voted down calls to throw suspected file-sharers off the net. The idea to cut off persistent pirates formed part of a wide-ranging report on creative industries written for the European parliament.”