The Green Bay Symphony “has survived world wars, the Great Depression, financial troubles, years-long closures, the introduction of television and the rise of rock ‘n’ roll. It has performed under different names in various venues, and morphed from an amateur community group to a professional one. And now, amid donor fatigue and declining ticket sales, the farewell season is in full swing. Musicians, though, remain hopeful that they can drum up support to keep the symphony intact.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Actors In Failed Musical Tour Sue Producers
“Actors from last year’s failed tour of the musical Copacabana are mounting legal action against the show’s producers for more than £30,000 in unpaid wages. The news comes as it has emerged that planned dates for 2015 have hit further problems.”
How Do You Make A Stage Comedy About A Kidney Transplant?
Michael Hollinger’s Under the Skin “started with a smirk – at a 2008 New York Times ‘Ethicist’ column, about a pair of siblings vying to supply their aging father with a kidney.” Hollinger ended up exploring a whole new concept: kidney-worthiness.
Lincoln Center and New York Philharmonic Move Into Opera (Look Out, Met!)
“For years, the Metropolitan Opera has gently encroached on the symphonic terrain of its Lincoln Center neighbors with orchestral concerts at Carnegie Hall. Now the shoe is on the other foot: Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic said on Wednesday that they would join forces to mount several fully staged opera productions” of acclaimed new works from Europe that the Met seems too risk-averse to touch.
Mark Rylance Gets Metaphysical
“We have people we admire, like Einstein, saying mystery is the most beautiful thing a human being can experience. Yet everywhere in our culture everything that is truly mysterious is immediately dismissed. In a way I think science is the modern religion and at times I despise it as much as I despise other religions, because it really will only accept stuff that fits its masculine ability to define the world.”
The Trouble With Oscar-Bait Performances (And The Movies Surrounding Them)
Richard Brody, on Julianne Moore in Still Alice and Jennifer Aniston in Cake: “They’re virtuosi who are here misdirected to turn ballades and fantasies into drawing-room miniatures. … They play each scene with restrained and unambiguous precision, as if filling out each moment of screen time by clicking out cinemoticons. Neither actor – and neither movie – ever comes close to letting go. I don’t blame Aniston or Moore, but, rather, the Pavlovian reward system – based on false critical values – that makes such self-denying work pay off.”
How The Dardenne Brothers Make Films As One Auteur
Luc: “We do everything together. The only place where there’s a slight division of labor is the screenwriting process. We structure and build the story together, and then I write. … In terms of the casting, the sets, the shoot, the editing – everything we do together.” Do they ever disagree? “No.”
When “Mein Kampf” Goes Into Public Domain, Will It Become The World’s Most Dangerous Book?
“At the end of World War Two, when the US Army seized the Nazis’ publisher Eher Verlag, rights for Mein Kampf passed to the Bavarian authorities. They ensured the book was only reprinted in Germany under special [and controlled] circumstances – but the expiration of its copyright in December 2015 has prompted fierce debate on how to curb a publishing free-for-all.”
The Making Of A Male Ballet Virtuoso
“Men’s ballet technique, unlike women’s, finds its expression in short bursts of extreme but controlled athleticism. … There are so many things to think about at once: the position of the feet, the torque of the turns, the composure of the upper body, the shifting gaze, the placement of the arms.” Marina Harss watches one master, Ethan Stiefel, pass on secrets to ABT up-and-comer Calvin Royal.
Hip-Hop Dance Moves Are Just As Hard As Ballet, Says Darcey Bussell
“I’ve tried to do some hip hop and it is so difficult. You need so many things to be able to do hip hop – extraordinary strength and ability. … Asian dance, with the arms especially, couldn’t be more similar to classical ballet: those emphases on the tiniest amount of detail, just where a finger is.”