Author: Matthew Westphal

The First Theatre Critic? 17th-Century Notebook On Shakespeare’s Plays Discovered On ‘Antiques Roadshow’

Appraiser Matthew Haley was visibly trembling as he examined the tiny manuscript, written in Latin in 17th-century script. “We don’t know who the person who wrote it is,” says Haley, “but obviously if it’s a 17th-century hand they were either going along to Shakespeare’s plays when they were being performed and taking notes, or they were reading one of the first four printed editions of Shakespeare, which is really amazing.”

The Believer, Acclaimed And Offbeat Magazine, Is Moving To Vegas

The five-time National Magazine Award finalist, which has had contributors ranging from Nick Hornby to Anne Carlson to Lemony Snicket Daniel Handler, had been published by McSweeney’s since it was founded in 2003. The title has been purchased by the Black Mountain Institute at The University of Nevada, Las Vegas and will be edited by the Institute’s executive director, Joshua Wolf Shenk.

English National Opera ‘Would Not Survive’ Without Musicals, Says Producer Who Does Musicals There

Michael Linnit, who co-produces the musicals presented at the Coliseum, ENO’s home theatre (and London’s largest), said the company “only produces its opera six months of the year, so we facilitate those six months by taking in musicals, producing a lot of money for it. … It [ENO] would not survive without the additional rental weeks.”

International Diplomacy Isn’t Theatrical, But Playwrights Keep Putting It Onstage – How Do They Pull It Off?

And they do pull it off: Oslo. A Walk in the Woods. Stuff Happens. The Prisoner’s Dilemma. Pacific Overtures. (Okay, that was gunboat diplomacy.) Even Call Me Madam. “[Alexis Soloski] recently discussed stagecraft and statecraft with the authors of past, current and coming plays. Unfortunately, writing hasn’t improved their own negotiating skills. ‘That’s why I have an agent,’ [one of them] said.”

The Surprising History Of Ballet In Kyrgyzstan

“Under the USSR regime, Moscow put particular effort into developing dance in the area, through the non-negotiable funding of a national dance school. In time, Kyrgyzstan became the best dance training center in Central Asia, forming many dancers who went on to have international careers.” Things changed after the Soviet collapse …

Top Posts From AJBlogs 04.05.17

Doin’ It: Vocabulary
Last fall (in ABCD and Community Engagement) I floated a label – Community Based Artistic Development – for this work. CBAD implies, rightly, that participatory projects can be important to the health of the arts and to arts organizations. But in order to craft participatory experiences, it helps to have language that guides understanding of the options. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-04-04

A Trouble With Museum Boards
When I started writing that headline, above, I wrote “the” trouble with… But I quickly corrected myself, because … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2017-04-05

Celebrating Thirty Years, Moving On
Doug Varone and Dancers shows old and new works at the BAM Harvey Theater. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2017-04-05

The Complete Jazz Masters Concert
The Monday concert that paid tribute to the 2017 National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Masters is now online, all three hours of it. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-04-05

 

Is Ballet Using The Dreaded Old ‘Paper-Bag Test’ On Its Black Stars?

“Janet Collins, Raven Wilkinson, Debra Austin, Nora Kimball, Misty Copeland, Francesca Hayward. All of these successful black ballet dancers have something in common: they skew toward the fairer end of the sepia spectrum. Onstage, the duskiness of their complexions can be all but washed out, bleached by the lights. From the audience, they could present as a white girl back from a beachside vacation, or be perceived as Latina. This observation is in no way meant to challenge these women’s ‘blackness,’ or their talent. It’s to highlight a long-overlooked fact.”