“[O]n Thursday afternoon, he was back at work at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where he sat in on rehearsals for Los Angeles Opera’s upcoming production of Wagner’s ‘Götterdämmerung.’ … He also said that he has already begun singing again but only privately.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
West End Auds Attend Younger & More Often Than B’way
“The figures,” from the Society of London Theatre and covering “the second half of 2008, indicate that West End auds made an average 6.4 visits per year to the theater, vs. the 4.2 average in the Broadway League’s demographic report for the 2008-09 Rialto season. London research also found Brit auds almost equally divided across the range of ages.”
Tony Awards To Restore Some Drama Critics’ Voting Rights
“The new policy allows members of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle–about 20 to 25 people–to be eligible as Tony voters in the 2010-2011 season. The move does not make those critics eligible to vote this season, nor does it address the voting eligibility for other journalists.”
Muriel Spark Shortlisted For Lost Booker; Iris Murdoch Isn’t
“Spark, who won armfuls of literary awards during her lifetime but who the Booker always eluded, is shortlisted for her story of a bored accountant whose search for adventure and sex on holiday becomes a journey to self-destruction. The Scottish novelist, biographer, poet and playwright is one of four women” on the six-author list.
National Gallery Of Canada Eliminates 27 Positions
“Director Marc Mayer confirmed the cuts, a measure he felt was necessary as the Gallery faces a decline in revenue from tourism and rising costs. … Educational programming and the National Gallery of Canada Foundation are taking the brunt of the cuts.”
When Classical Music Is Out Of Context
“The same person who is able to sit in silence in a darkened concert hall while a symphony orchestra plays or clap along when a bunch of people start dancing to ‘Shout’ in a train station may be at a loss when presented with classical music in the absence of any markers indicating what he or she is supposed to make of it.”
Urban Beautification/Graffiti Trend: Yarnbombing
In cities dotting the globe, “rogue knitters … have taken their ‘yarnbombing’ to the street to brighten the cityscape.” One Philadelphia yarnbomber “ties crocheted flowers to lampposts, wraps bike racks with rainbow-colored covers, and gave the Rocky statue a scarf.”
MPAA Asks Feds To Quash Box-Office Futures Trading
“The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been reviewing applications from two companies that, if approved, would open markets to trade movie contracts. Buyers and sellers on the markets would place money on whether a movie will sail or sink at the box office.” The MPAA says such trading could be viewed as “legalized gambling on movie receipts.”
The Art Of The Stage Tattoo
“For Naomi Iizuka’s ‘Concerning Strange Devices From the Distant West,'” at Berkeley Rep, the design “covering actor Johnny Wu is a two-piece bodysuit collaboration between Maggi Yule’s costume shop at the Rep and a film effects studio in Los Angeles. … Often, the process is more akin to regular tattoo artistry.”
On Appreciating The Glory Days While You’re Having Them
“[B]ack in the day,” Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis “was the dramaturge of Eureka Theater, right here in San Francisco. Tony Taccone, currently artistic director of the Berkeley Rep, was also the artistic director of the Eureka. There was ferment, of many kinds, and ferment is not nearly as much fun at the time as it is later.”