Author: Matthew Westphal

To Avoid Staff Furloughs, Smithsonian’s Top Execs Take Pay Cuts

“The salaries of 89 senior-level executives — all nonfederal employees — will be cut by 10 percent for 12 months, starting May 24, with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III and Deputy Secretary Meroe Park taking 15 percent cuts. The senior executives include museum and science directors and officials overseeing investments, security and facilities … The majority of the institution’s 6,300 employees are federal workers and will not be affected.” – The Washington Post

Sarah Palin’s School District Drops ‘Great Gatsby’, ‘Catch-22’, And Three Others

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska “cited ‘sexually explicit material’ and ”anti-white’ messaging’ in [Maya Angelou’s] I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, … [and] language and sexual references in [F. Scott Fitzgerald’s] The Great Gatsby. … The other books on the list — Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien — were judged to be inappropriate because they contained mentions of rape, incest, racial slurs, profanity and misogyny.” – The New York Times

How Asia’s Theatrical Powerhouse Has Kept Shows Running Through The Pandemic

“South Korea, which has a burgeoning theatre economy with a size and scale to rival the West End, has become the big player in Asia. … Its theatres were given the choice, rather than demanded, to close. A 15-day quarantine restriction has been applied to any theatre that remained open if a member of the audience or company develops COVID-19 symptoms, with a system in place to quickly contact and test all attendees and staff.” – The Stage

Is This An Art Collective Or A Private Equity Firm? Group Buys Brand-Name Artwork And Literally Breaks It Up To Sell Off The Parts

“The Brooklyn-based artists and designers behind MSCHF purchased a $30,000 Damien Hirst spot print and cut out all 88 of its dots. Starting today, they’re selling the dots for $480 each.” (That’s $42,400 in total.) “Meanwhile, the original print, now just a piece of paper with 88 holes and Hirst’s signature, is up for auction for a minimum of $126,500.” (Wow, they really are like Bain Capital.) – Artnet

This Company Is Making LPs Using Actual 1960s Technology

The albums released by London-based Electric Recording Co., “assembled by hand and released in editions of 300 or fewer — at a cost of $400 to $600 for each LP — are made with restored vintage equipment down to glowing vacuum-tube amplifiers, and mono tape systems that have not been used in more than half a century. … Even its record jackets, printed one by one on letterpress machines, show a fanatical devotion to age-old craft.” – The New York Times

Shuttered Theatre Companies Still Need Their Fundraising Galas. So They’re Streaming Them — And It’s Working

“With many staffers on furlough, and operations grinding to a halt, fundraising efforts (and a boost of morale) can be more important than ever. And while there’s some debate over how well stage productions translate to the screen, theatres are proving that virtual galas do just fine online. Fundraising goals are being met, even surpassed, with attendance tripled in some cases.” Here’s how several companies are pulling it off. – American Theatre

Female Choreographers Are Transforming The Story Ballet

“An iconic yet tortured female painter. A mistress wrapped up in a witch hunt in an early American colony. A talented cellist whose life ended prematurely after her battle with multiple sclerosis. … Today, there is a thrilling, 21st-century wave of story-driven ballets choreographed by women. What are their perspectives, and the stories they choose to tell, adding to ballet’s canon?” – Dance Magazine

Irrfan Khan, Star Of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ And ‘Life Of Pi’, Dead At 53

After an unsatisfying early career in Indian TV serials and films (his acting was too subtle and his looks too unconventional for a traditional Bollywood lead), he found acclaim in the British-Indian co-production The Warrior and settled into a career of Bollywood character parts and major roles in Indian art cinema. In the ’00s, his Western career went into high gear as he played the policeman in Slumdog Millionaire, the adult Piscine in Life of Pi, and the owner of the Jurassic World park. – BBC

One Berkshires Theater Is Going Ahead With Its Summer Season — In A Very Careful, Socially Distanced Way

“The Barrington Stage Company, … responding to the coronavirus pandemic, will give up the ambitious musical productions for which it is known (it’s the birthplace of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee). Instead, it will concentrate on one-person shows, and stage a play in which the central relationships are so strained that social distancing will not be a stretch.” 70% of the seats will be removed, as will intermissions (no mingling), and audience members must wear masks. – The New York Times