“The idea came from the dancer Miranda Quinn: The opening sequence of The Brady Bunch popped into her head. ‘How they’re all in little squares,’ she said. ‘That made me think of how we’re all being quarantined and are supposed to stay separate, but this was a way for all of us to still be dancing together and creating together even though we’re apart.'” – The New York Times
Author: Matthew Westphal
Hot Young Playwrights Are Now Teaching Workshops Online
Young Jean Lee, Lauren Gunderson, and Jaclyn Backhaus are among those who have begun leading playwriting lessons and seminars on the web since coronavirus sent almost everyone home. Gunderson’s first session had 900 people watching live; by the next night, 23,000 had watched. – Los Angeles Times
Tonie Marshall, First Woman Director To Win A French Oscar, Dead At 68
“[She] won the top directing prize at the Cesars in 2000 for her movie Venus Beauty Institute, a romantic comedy starring Nathalie Baye and Audrey Tautou that recounts the quest for fulfillment of three female employees in a Parisian beauty parlor. After that, she became a prominent figure in the fight against sexism in the French film industry.” – Yahoo! (AP)
Washington Post’s New Classical Critic: What A Week To Start A Job!
Michael Brodeur: “The plan was to spend my first week … seeing concerts and shaking hands. (Just typing that makes me want to sanitize.) The goal was to go big,” with five performances in four days. “Then came the coronavirus, and the sudden lack of things for a critic to critique seemed the least of our problems.” – The Washington Post
Hope! As Movie Houses Everywhere Else Close, China Begins Moving Toward Reopening Them
A very few cinemas in far-flung cities are back in business already (though few customers are coming just yet), and the major cities are making plans. The big problem: nothing exciting to show, since the epidemic scuttled the Chinese New Year release of the new blockbusters. The solution: studios will re-release recent hits. – The Hollywood Reporter
Chicago Lyric’s Orchestra Gives Up Part Of Salary So Freelancers For Cancelled ‘Ring’ Can Be Paid
“The orchestra musicians voted [unanimously] to take a ’10 percent cut of our weekly salary for the next seven weeks that had been canceled,’ said [violist Amy] Hess. ‘Then the dollar amount of everyone’s cut will be distributed to the extra and stage band of musicians, to help make up for the work they wouldn’t have been paid for.'” – Chicago Tribune
Hay Literature Festival Cancelled, With Future In Doubt
“Organisers will struggle to recoup the large infrastructure costs they have already committed to, as 70% of the festival’s income comes from ticket and book sales on site. In a statement on Thursday, the festival said the not-for-profit event was now in ‘immediate financial jeopardy’ and would need to raise funds in 10 days to ‘plot a sustainable route forward’.” – The Guardian
Metropolitan Opera Cancels Rest Of Season And Furloughs All Musicians And Stagehands
The company will pay its chorus members, orchestral musicians, and unionized backstage staff through the end of March but maintain their health insurance. Upper-level administration employees will take pay cuts ranging from 10 to 50 percent, and general manager Peter Gelb is forgoing his salary entirely. – The New York Times
Why It Matters So Much That Cannes Was Postponed And Not Called Off
“To take Cannes out of the equation for even one year would have massive reverberations throughout the world of international cinema. It is, simply put, the most important film event of the year, from which distributors flesh out their art-film slates, festivals take their programming cues and countries make their Oscar selections. Films that launch in Cannes are virtually assured a healthy run at smaller fests around the globe for a year or more.” – Variety
Cannes Film Festival Postponed But Not Cancelled
“The festival made the news public on Thursday, saying that ‘several options are [being] considered in order to preserve its running’ – its preferred one being a shift of the festival to the end of June.” – The Guardian