Steven Berkoff: “Again, one suffers the bilge of a critic who in reviewing Othello warbles happily how fortunate we are, that actors no longer black up. As if that’s all there is to playing Othello: a bit of shoe polish on your chops. … To reserve, out of the hundreds of Shakespearean characters, the role of Othello for black people only, is a form of racism in reverse and to me, particularly obnoxious.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Man Who Midwifed Impressionism (As Well As Some Of America’s Great Art Collections)
Paul Durand-Ruel was the gallery owner who shepherded Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Morisot and their peers past the haughty skepticism of the Paris art establishment – and their works into the hands of U.S. collectors. “Do not think the Americans are savages,” he once wrote. “On the contrary, they are less ignorant, less close-minded than our French collectors.”
L.A. Music Center Finds Its New Boss – At ABT
“Rachel Moore, a former dancer and the longtime top business executive of New York’s American Ballet Theatre, will be the next president and CEO of the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.” The complex, the West Coast’s equivalent of Lincoln Center, is the home of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Conductor Walter Weller Dead At 75
“He started his career as a violinist, joining the Vienna Philharmonic (in which his father, also Walter, was a violinist) at the age of 17, and at 22 became joint concertmaster with Willi Boskovsky. … In 1977 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and … led the Scottish National Orchestra from 1992 to ’97.”
Joffrey Ballet Gets Its First (!) Endowment
“It seems almost inconceivable that although it has been in existence since 1956, the Chicago-based Joffrey Ballet has never had an endowment, concentrating instead on making its operating budget. But a $500,000 challenge grant from the Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, the match for which was exceeded by the company, has resulted in a new $1.5 million endowment for the company.”
The First MOOC? Why ‘Sesame Street’ Is Such A Powerful Educational Tool
“A new study out of the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that the TV show is ‘the largest, and least expensive, early childhood intervention ever introduced in this country’.” How did that happen?
Judi Dench: ‘I Live In Fear As An Actor’
“I have a fear of everything – of not fitting into that slot, of not fulfilling that piece you are asked to do. I get more frightened [the more I do]. The more you do, the more frightening it is anyway as you are much more aware.’
Anxiety Is Even Worse For You Than You Were Afraid It Was
“Anxiety, this research shows, uniquely interferes with ‘perspective-taking’ – that is, people’s capacity to put themselves in others’ shoes.The idea that anxiety impairs perspective-taking is important because it is just this sort of nervousness that crops up when an empathic connection is most sorely needed.”
The Joy Of Throwing Away An Entire 97,000-Word Novel Manuscript
Laura Dave: “The best thing I ever wrote might be in the trash. Still, I believe it’s a critical gamble. That, regardless of what is left behind, sometimes throwing out is the only way that I’ll get to the stories I was meant to write.”
This Isn’t Skateboarding, It’s Ballet On A Board
Kilian Martin “can skate upside down, hands on the ground, board on the walls. Then he’s upright, pirouetting on the board as if it’s an ice skate. Occasionally, he tips the board on its end and balances on the top edge.” (And he’s becoming a YouTube star.)