The project by the American Shakespeare Center, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, “invites writers to submit plays inspired by each of Shakespeare’s, on a schedule coordinated with the theater’s season. Two winners will be chosen each year, and will be performed in repertory along with the Shakespeare play that inspired them, starting in 2019. (Each winning playwright will receive $25,000.)”
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘Art Criticism Shouldn’t Be The Consumer Reports Of Art’ – Blake Gopnik On The Art Of Art Journalism
“I think art critics should be more like science journalists. We should be some kind of intermediary between the smartest people who talk about art, the smartest writing from art historians and the general public.” (podcast)
That Ballerina Fired For Being Too Tall? She’s Headlining A New Ballet Company That’s Making Diversity Its Focus
Sara Michelle Murawski made headlines in January after the Pennsylvania Ballet told her (shortly before she went onstage) that her contract wasn’t being renewed because she’s too tall to fit in visually with the company’s other dancers. Now she’s joining the American National Ballet, a new company, launching this fall in Charleston, that’s making a point of engaging gifted dancers of varied physiques and skin tones – and giving them a decent standard of living. (Oddly, neither Charleston City Paper nor The Post & Courier seem to have reported on the ANB yet.)
The Art World Has Gone To War With Trump – But Will It Shoot Itself In The Foot?
“The protests started almost immediately after the presidential election. … And it hasn’t let up. Each Trump proclamation has seemed to inspire a new round of agitation and action. … Whether this ideological high alert will produce good art is one question; whether the art will do any good is another.” Carl Swanson explores the battle lines.
What Kinds Of Protest Art Actually Work?
Rachel Corbett of New York magazine asked 22 artists, curators, and critics what works of political art they found genuinely powerful. Here’s a slideshow gallery with their answers (with which one may or may not agree).
Mixing Things Up: Anne Midgette On Two Attempts To Break Out Of The Concert-Experience Rut
“Expanding the concert experience is a pet theme of classical music these days. And if you wonder why the concert experience needs expanding, it’s because the term ‘classical concert’ tends to translate as ’19th-century music played in a stuffy setting’ – at least, to the people who aren’t coming. In fact, classical concerts are more and more varied, and this weekend I saw a couple of different attempts – one more subtle, one more overt – to mix things up.”
A New Tool To Fight Art Forgery And Fraud: Online Bots Trolling The Dark Web
“While several companies already exist to police artists’ copyright, few have the technical firepower to search the dark web for works that are potentially stolen or forged.” But a DC-based art forensics firm and Singapore-based specialists in online intellectual property violations have teamed up to develop that firepower.
Trial Begins For Lawsuit Over Doomed Broadway ‘Rebecca’
“Opening arguments began on Monday in a civil trial about a Broadway musical that never came to be, a real-life drama that, even by showbiz standards, stretched the suspension of disbelief.”
Paris Has Another New Concert Hall, And A Woman Conductor Is Running It
Well, strictly speaking, it’s in Boulogne-Billancourt, about 10 miles and 20 Métro stops southwest of the city center. Designed by the Pritzker Prize winner Shigeru Ban (known for his extraordinary way with much materials as cardboard and paper tubes), La Seine Musicale has a 6,000-seat hall for rock events (it opened on Friday with Bob Dylan) and an 1,150-seat classical concert hall that’s been turned over to conductor Laurence Equilbey and her professional chamber choir, Accentus, and period-instrument Insula Orchestra.
Kristine Jepson, Mezzo-Soprano, Dead At 54
Among the many roles that won her acclaim at the Met, Covent Garden, and two dozen other international opera houses were the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Idamante in Mozart’s Idomeneo, and, in contemporary opera, Kitty Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic and Sister Helen Préjean in Dead Man Walking.