The once-mighty, now-struggling comedy improv institution is giving up the leases to both its theater and its training center on Manhattan’s West Side. Nothing about the company’s Los Angeles location was said in the announcement, which stressed that “UCB is not leaving New York City. The school and the theater will continue on in a pared-down form, which will be very similar to how we operated when we first started in NYC over 20 years ago.” – Vulture
Author: Matthew Westphal
Venice Film Festival Is Still On For September, Say Organizers
“Roberto Cicutto, president of the Venice Biennale, which oversees the film festival, confirmed it would go ahead on 2 September as planned. Meanwhile, the Biennale’s theatre and dance festivals, which were due to take place in June, [have been] postponed.” – The Guardian
What Classical Musicians Are Revealing As They Stream From Home
David Patrick Stearns: “The carefully-curated public images of the past … have, ironically, faded away in this era of social distancing. Any exterior glamour that creates psychological distance suddenly feels out of fashion in a health crisis that we’re all in together. … [And] some use the blank-page spontaneity for the kind of reckless innovation that might not normally be permitted.” – WQXR (New York City)
The Met’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ in the cold light of morning
How often can you say that the Metropolitan Opera rocks? That happens in much of this new recording, taken from live performances of the Met’s hit production. But the price of capturing that live energy was surprisingly high. – David Patrick Stearns
The Video At The Heart Of The Marina-Abramović-Is-A-Satanist Myth — And The Problems With America It Points Up Despite Itself
Critic Ben Read went looking for the source of the bizarre allegations that have had the right-wing internet in a lather for a few weeks. He found a 77-minute YouTube video about a pair of former-stuntmen-turned-Christianists spinning conspiracy theories about a great Satanic scheme afoot in Hollywood. Sure, it’s “outlandish,” Read allows — before putting his finger on the grains of truth that make it seem believable to some of us. – Artnet
Here’s One Case Where Live-Streamed Theater Really Worked
Helen Shaw: “After five weeks of valiant internet productions that looked a lot like readings (even when they weren’t), Buyer & Cellar” — with Michael Urie, live from his living room, his partner as cameraman, returning to the role that kick-started his career — “is the proof-of-concept for low-budget live-capture. It turns out that even without an audience laughing and rustling, a 100-minute comedy can be funny.” – Vulture
Standup Comedy Might Just Be Viable Online
“No one in live comedy is thrilled about moving shows online. ‘Doing standup without an audience is like sex without an orgasm,’ quipped Felicia Madison, the booker for West Side Comedy Club. ‘Why bother?’ …
[Yet] there’s been a startling amount of entrepreneurial experimentation in the last few weeks, proceeding in fits and starts, and it should have an impact on the culture long after the lockdown ends.” – The New York Times
Really, Are The Arts Just A Luxury During Desperate Times? For An Answer, Look To FDR
“For Roosevelt, it was not superfluous to the country’s most exigent needs. And in a move that remained decidedly controversial with his conservative congressional adversaries, he made the radical decision to enlarge and augment cultural provisions across the country.” – ARTnews
How Did Writers Survive The Great Depression? They Organized
Jason Boog recounts how his experience as a (non-)working writer during the Great Recession moved him to rediscover the story of the publishing industry’s first strike. – Literary Hub
No Matter What The Governor Says, Most Movie Theaters In Georgia Won’t Be Reopening Next Week
Gov. Brian Kemp has said that cinemas in the Peach State may begin welcoming customers again beginning April 27. People actually in the business of showing movies say there’s no way things can ramp up that fast: there are issues of reassembling furloughed staff, actually getting films to show, developing and maintaining safety and distancing protocols, and liability if customers start getting sick. – Variety