Author: Matthew Westphal

After Years Of Criticism, An Off-Broadway Institution All At Once Agrees To Pay Its Actors

When the Flea Theater was founded by Sigourney Weaver, playwright Mac Wellman and two others in 1996, it was intended to have no stable location and to shut down after five years. Twenty-six years later, the Flea is still here, and in its own $21 million, three-theater building. Yet it continued to operate like a shoestring enterprise, requiring its actors to work for free both on- and offstage. Helen Shaw reports on how the current moment of racial reckoning shocked the Flea into addressing its problems with both pay and inclusion. – Vulture

Please (Don’t) Touch (Without Hand Sanitizer): How Children’s Museums And Interactive Exhibits Are Trying To Reopen Safely

“As states ease restrictions, many museums and animal attractions are next in line to reopen, if they haven’t already. Like other businesses, they must enforce social distancing rules and reduce touch points, measures that run counter to their high level of interactivity. … To better understand how attractions are reimagining their experiences, we reached out to several museums, aquariums, zoos and wildlife centers in the country. Here is a snapshot of their look-Ma-no-hands plans.” – The Washington Post

Director Kirill Serebrennikov Convicted Of Embezzlement In Case Many See As Trumped-Up

The 50-year-old Russian, celebrated at home and overseas for his productions of theatre, film, and opera, is artistic director of the Gogol Center, Moscow’s most celebrated stage for avant-garde and dissident work. (He is also a frequent critic of Vladimir Putin.) He and two colleagues were convicted of stealing 129 million rubles ($1.8 million) in government funding designated for projects that, prosecutors alleged (and the judge agreed), never took place — even though many people saw the productions and they were covered in the press. – Yahoo! (AFP)

Boris Johnson’s Government Releases ‘Roadmap’ To Restarting Live Performance; Arts World Says, Is That All There Is?

“On Thursday, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden published the five-stage plan for a ‘phased return’, which will initially let performances take place outdoors, with indoors performances to follow later.” The plan is being widely dismissed as inadequate: one theatre exec called it “as useful a map as a snakes and ladders board,” and the chair of the Writers’ Guild said that “a road map is only any use if you have enough petrol to get you where you need to go.” – BBC

How America’s Big Three Cinema Chains Messed Up Their Reopening Plans

Last week, AMC, Regal, and Cinemark all issued elaborate safety plans for reopening — but all three said that they wouldn’t require patrons to wear masks except where local governments ordered them to do it. Why? Because, as AMC’s CEO put it, “we want to keep the politics out of our theaters.” And the response to that was so negative that AMC and Regal reversed themselves the next day. – The Hollywood Reporter

Why Studying How To Teach Dance Is Important, Even For The Best Dancers

“There is a pervasive idea that if you are a great dancer, you are automatically qualified to teach, whether you have training or experience in education practices or not. There is also an assumption that training to be a dance educator is only valuable if you’re working with children — that you don’t need it when teaching anyone over the age of 16.” Alexandra Cook, community programs director with Mark Morris Dance Group, learned the hard way that these assumptions are not true. – Dance Magazine

Early, Unfinished Story By Louisa May Alcott Published For First Time — With Invitation For Writers To Finish It

“Aunt Nellie’s Diary,” a 9,000-word piece written when Alcott was in her late teens, “is narrated by the 40-year-old title character, and follows her observations as a romantic triangle appears to unfold among her orphaned, fair-haired niece” and two friends. The fragment appears in the latest issue of The Strand Magazine, which will “post guidelines in the coming weeks” for writers to submit their own endings. – Yahoo! (AP)

Five Arrested, Including Ex-Curator At Louvre, In Major Antiquities Trafficking Case

“The case concerns ‘the sale of hundreds of pieces for tens of millions of euros’, which were allegedly looted from Egypt, Syria and Yemen as well as zones in Libya under Islamic State control. The criminal investigation into gang fraud, concealment of stolen goods, and money laundering was launched [in France] in 2018.” – The Art Newspaper

Co-Founder Of DC’s Signature Theater Resigns Following Allegations Of Sexual Assault

Two actors have publicly accused Eric Schaeffer, who has been the Northern Virginia company’s artistic director since its beginnings in 1989, of repeatedly grabbing their genitals during public events in 2016 and 2018. Signature management says that a two-month investigation in 2018 by an attorney for the company found the allegations “not credible,” but Schaeffer decided to resign this week after the actors made their accusations public on Facebook over the weekend. – The Washington Post