“The governor proclaimed that all retail outlets, as well as restaurants, movie theaters, museums and libraries, are free to reopen May 1 — but with occupancy no greater than 25%. That’s expected to expand to 50% by May 18. Debbie Storey, president and CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center, which is home to five resident companies in the Dallas Arts District, summed up what many were feeling. ‘It didn’t specifically give us permission to open,’ Storey said, ‘so we’re still trying to assess what this means for us, and what it might mean on May 18.'” – The Dallas Morning News
Author: Matthew Westphal
Alamo Drafthouse Won’t Reopen Texas Theaters This Weekend Despite Governor Approval
“Opening safely is a very complex project that involves countless new procedures and equipment, all of which require extensive training,” said a statement from company management. “This is something we cannot and will not do casually or quickly.” (Meanwhile, here are the precautions one arthouse cinema in Tulsa is taking as it prepares to reopen in May.) – Variety
Bernard Gersten, Heroic Administrator Who Saved Two Major Theater Institutions, Dead At 97
For 18 years, Gersten was second-in-command to Joe Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater (where his interventions twice saved Papp’s and the company’s future), and he spent 28 years as executive producer at Lincoln Center Theater, where, alongside artistic directors Gregory Mosher and André Bishop, he “took a theater that had almost been completely dark for eight years and a failure for 20 and helped turn it into one of the nation’s leading nonprofit stage organizations.” – The New York Times
For The First Time, There Is No Wagner Running The Bayreuth Festival
Katharina Wagner, the composer Richard Wagner’s great-granddaughter, became co-director of the festival (alongside cousin Eva) in 2008 and sole director in 2015. Now, just short of age 42, Katharina has stepped away from the job indefinitely due to a long-term illness (not COVID-19, according to festival management). – OperaWire
Stratford Festival Puts Entire 2020 Season ‘On Hold’
Last month, the festival canceled all April and May performances and laid off hundreds of workers. But with the repertory company’s actors appearing in several productions and with audience members circulating among four theatres, festival management decided the risks of spreading coronavirus would be too great for the foreseeable future. – Toronto Star
A Glimpse Of The Post-COVID Art Scene: Seoul Reopens Its Galleries
“Elsewhere around the world, art galleries and museums remain shuttered, hemorrhaging staff and plaintively asking, What will it take to reopen? And just as crucially, What will this new art world look like? Seoul, a dense metropolis with a population of nearly 10 million but only two coronavirus deaths to date, is offering one possible answer.” – The New York Times
The loosely-coupled future of live performance
Any sustainable and resilient plan for returning to live performance will have to be highly adaptable, nimble, responsive, and risk-tolerant. The trick will be to find loosely-coupled approaches to what has become tightly-coupled work. – Andrew Taylor
How Dancing African Pallbearers Became A Worldwide Meme (And Why They’re Partying Like It’s 1349)
No, it’s not a traditional practice, but there are pallbearers in Ghana who (at the bereaved’s request) will execute some slick moves while toting the coffin on their shoulders. The social mediaverse, as it’s wont to do, has turned images of these dancers into a meme — first to make fun of epic fails, now to express coronavirus dread and warn people to stay home and wear masks when out. Writer Dan Schindel makes the case that the choreographed casket carriers are just a 21st-century variant of a meme that goes back to medieval Europe. – Hyperallergic
4’33” In Midtown Manhattan: Exploring How Coronavirus Has Changed The Sound Of The City
Karissa Krenz: “Perhaps the coronavirus is forcing us to have an extended performance of John Cage’s … groundbreaking 1952 work that epitomized his every-sound-can-be-music philosophy. … I’ve been taking some of this time to listen anew, experiencing the sonic composition of a paused city. … Hearing it now, slowed to a relative calm, it speaks volumes about what comprises the whole.” – WQXR (New York City)
Ten Playwrights Are Working On A Coronavirus Serial For YouTube. Does It Qualify As Theater?
Turns out not even the people involved agree on the answer to that. Absolutely not, says Ryan Rilette, artistic director of metro DC’s Round House (the theater behind the project): “You can’t actually capture the quality of being with a group of people, breathing the same air, listening to a story together.” But playwright Alexandra Petri (yes, the Washington Post columnist), who wrote the first episode, says that “[it’s] fundamentally a 10-minute play, but it happens to be set inside your computer.” – The New York Times