An audit of the troubled national theatre company, commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland in response to falling attendance and revenue, says that the Abbey should concentrate more on new Irish writing and on touring beyond Dublin.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Propeller Theatre Co. Could Shut Down After Losing All Gov’t Funding
“Edward Hall, artistic director of all-male theatre company Propeller, has warned that the venue’s future is at risk following Arts Council England’s 100% cut to its funding…. Hall said without the money the company would be prevented from ‘forward planning’ and added that it ‘calls into question the future’ of Propeller.”
Media In Asia Still Use Blackface (Though They’re Finally Getting Grief For It)
“On screens across Asia, it’s not terribly uncommon to see commercials or soap operas that display milk-skinned actors painted brown. Sometimes they try to depict a character with African ancestry. Sometimes they intend to show an Asian bumpkin from the countryside” – or a Filipino guest worker.
When The Power Of Positive Thinking Fails
“But – and here Science of Us offers its sincerest apologies for being a complete and total buzzkill – in everyday life, emerging evidence suggests the ‘I believe’ attitude tends to backfire.”
The Way To Comfort A Depressed Friend (‘Cheer Up!’ Ain’t It)
The power of negative validation.
Hans Christian Andersen, Innocence, And The Truth
“Hans Christian Andersen believed in an untouched innocence at the core of every person. … Innocence could be hidden and emerge, or it could be apparent and then corrupted. .. To be wholly innocent was rare. To be wholly innocent, for Andersen, meant to be wholly yourself. It meant that you were free from the distorted reality of the devil’s mirror.”
The Twee Aesthetic Is Taking Over (Fear It!)
“Is Twee the right word for it, for the strangely persistent modern sensibility that fructifies in the props departments of Wes Anderson movies, tapers into the waxed mustache-ends of young Brooklynites on bicycles, and detonates in a yeasty whiff every time someone pops open a microbrewed beer? Well, it is now.”
Francis Bacon Triptych Sells For $45.7 Million
“A Francis Bacon small-format triptych of his lover George Dyer made what Sotheby’s called a ‘landmark’ price of 26.7 million pounds on Monday in a contemporary art sale that surpassed estimates and set records for some artists.
Tracey Emin’s Bed Sells For More Than $4 Million
“The work, a rumpled bed surrounded by the intimate debris of empty bottles of vodka, cigarette packets and condoms, attracted controversy when it was shortlisted for the 1999 Turner Prize, prompting a debate about the state of contemporary art.”
How Tracey Emin Feels About Her 16-Year-Old Dirty Bed
“It is strange because it still has that same smell that it had 16 years ago. Obviously the stains and everything else are touching me, and it’s like being touched by a ghost of yourself.”