“Ideology in Hollywood? You don’t have to look for it, because it always finds you.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Osmo Vänskä To Conduct Minnesota Orchestra This Weekend
“Vänskä, who resigned as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra Tuesday, will conduct the locked-out musicians in three concerts this weekend at Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota. The musicians, who have been locked out for a year, are self-producing the concerts featuring pianist Emanuel Ax.”
Baritone Thomas Quasthoff Moves Into Stand-Up Comedy
Until his retirement from the stage last year, Quasthoff was one of the most admired concert singers alive. Now he and variety artist Michael Frowin have launched a satirical cabaret act called Keine Kunst (No Art) in Berlin’s West End.
Actress Ruth Maleczech, 74, Avant-Garde Earth Mother
“As co-creator of [the experimental troupe] Mabou Mines, Ms. Maleczech directed and/or appeared in many of the company’s productions. A regular presence in the downtown theatre scene in the 1970s and 1980s, she became something of an earth mother figure not only to her own outfit, but to the New York avant garde theatre community in general – a role only buttressed by her warm, matronly aura.”
T. Coraghessan Boyle: “Write What You Don’t Know And Find Something Out”
“I don’t know what a story will be until it begins to unfold, … and it might begin with the exploration of a subject or a theme or a recollection or something as random as my discovery that the wild creatures in Tierra del Fuego were going blind as a result of the hole in the ozone layer that opens up there annually or that the Shetland Islands is the windiest place on earth.”
Theatre Critics Are Thin-Skinned, Nervous And Overly Gentle, Says Theatre Exec
Nica Burns of Britain’s Nimax Theatres: “I do think critics tend to live in a bubble of their own. They are often very thin skinned and slightly nervous about the reaction they may find from those they criticise, and are actually far more gentle people than we actually need to have because we [the industry] do accept that [criticism] as part of the process.”
UK National Theatre Broke Income Record In 2012-13
According to its annual report, the NT’s £87 million incme was £7 million higher than the previous year. “Of this total, 59% was from box office receipts from both its South Bank base and its tours and West End transfers. Funding from Arts Council England represented 20%..”
Norman Foster Will Probably Not Return To Pushkin Museum Project
“Moscow’s chief architect, Sergei Kuznetsov, told Archi.ru, a Russian architecture news website, that while ‘the question of Norman Foster’s participation’ in the expansion of the museum is still being discussed, he admitted ‘chances are slim that [Foster] will continue to work’ on the project,” which he quit in August.
The Minnesota Orchestra Must Die (And Be Reborn)
Lawrence Perelman: “Here’s how the musicians make history: Follow Maestro Vänskä’s lead and resign from the Minnesota Orchestral Association. Immediately announce the creation of the Minnesota Symphony, a self-governing orchestra modeled on the Vienna Philharmonic.”
U.S. Orchestra Players Are Overpaid And Greedy, Says The Telegraph
Ivan Hewett: “These gilded bands exist in some strange never-never land, where questions of pay are discussed in complete isolation from the wider world. … These salaries are at eye-watering levels which would make any British orchestral player weep with envy.”