“[The work,] which debuted last June at Long Beach Opera, … chronicles the racially and politically charged New York trial and conviction of one Latino teenager and four black teens — who were later all exonerated and freed — in the 1989 rape [and beating] of a young white female investment banker in Central Park.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘A Strange Loop’ By Michael R. Jackson Wins Pulitzer Prize For Drama
“Jackson’s win marks the first time the committee has awarded a black writer for a musical. … That’s particularly poignant given the material itself: a discursive meta-tale about a young, gay, black musical theater writer, who’s writing a musical about a young, gay, black musical theater writer, and so on down the rabbit hole.” – Forbes
Colson Whitehead, Jericho Brown, Benjamin Moser, W. Caleb McDaniel, Anne Boyer, Greg Grandin Win Literary Pulitzers
Whitehead received his second fiction Pulitzer for The Nickel Boys; Brown’s The Tradition took poetry honors; the biography prize went to Moser’s Sontag: Her Life and Work; McDaniel’s Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America took the history category; the general nonfiction prize was shared by Boyer for The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care and Grandin for The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America. – Los Angeles Times
L.A. Times Art Critic Christopher Knight Wins Pulitzer Prize
“The jury said Knight’s work demonstrated ‘extraordinary community service by a critic’ through the application of ‘his expertise and enterprise to critique a proposed overhaul of the L.A. County Museum of Art and its effect on the institution’s mission.’ … [The other finalists were] Justin Davidson of New York magazine, nominated in part for his writing on the Hudson Yards development in New York, and Soraya Nadia McDonald of The Undefeated, honored for her work exploring the intersection of film, theater, and race.” (Davidson has already won the criticism Pulitzer, in 2002 for classical music writing at Newsday.) – Artnet
Sotheby’s Reports $71.2m Loss & “Substantial Doubt” About Continuing; Major June Sales Planned
Sotheby’s new leaders, who took the publicly traded company private, are understandably eager to reopen their New York saleroom for post-pandemic business. Having disclosed a $71.2-million net loss in its 2019 Annual Report (compared to net income of $108.6 million the previous year), the company could use a life-sustaining income infusion. – Lee Rosenbaum
Even In This Crisis, Museums Selling Their Art Is A Dangerously Slippery Slope
Yes, the COVID lockdown has deprived most museums of nearly all their income, which is why the Association of Art Museum Directors has given qualified approval for members to “use the proceeds from deaccessioned works of art … to support the direct care” of a museum’s collections as a whole. Sebastian Smee points out the problems (and there are several) that this might create. – The Washington Post
Lockdown lessons: ‘Singin’ in the Rain’
We learned a lot of things about Singin’ in the Rain during the Lockdown Theatre Club group watch. Here are 20 of them – from dubbing the dubbers to Gene Kelly’s buttock-framing trousers. – David Jays
A Lesson in the Art of Drawing: ‘Taking the Line for a Walk’
The point of the exercise is to wean the young artist off result-oriented copying from photos. ‘Taking the line for a walk’ lets the drawing come about in the process of drawing. – Jan Herman
Matthew Shipp’s ‘Piano Equation’
The dictionary defines equation as “the act of making equal.” In his engrossing new solo album, pianist Matthew Shipp creates eleven new pieces of music in which the equality of his powerful hands is important to the venture’s success, but not as important as his fertile imagination. – Doug Ramsey
Is It Feasible To Reopen Cinemas With A Max Of 50 People Per Screen? Norway Is Trying It
Movie theaters in Norway will reopen on May 7 with a mandatory minimum of one meter of space between each audience member and no more than 50 patrons total in any one space. (These rules follow those of Sweden, which did not close its cinemas when the novel coronavirus arrived.) If everything goes smoothly, the limit will be increased to 200 patrons per screen on June 15. – Variety