“Some subscribers [to the locked-out Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra] may be seeking their ‘classical fix’ elsewhere – a few classical groups have noticed a spike in ticket sales. Others are staying home and mourning the loss of a seasonal tradition.” Says one fan, “Not having the concerts, it’s stressing me out. I’m staying home, playing music and getting angry.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Women Outnumbered 2:1 In British Theatre: Guardian Study
“Women buy more theatre tickets than men but are consistently under-represented in English theatre – comprising about a third of actors, writers and artistic directors, and only a quarter of directors – according to research.”
British Theatre’s 2:1 Man:Woman Problem – How The Numbers Break Down
“The research, concentrating on the top 10 subsidised theatres for 2012-13, looked at female representation in a variety of areas from actors employed to the number of playwrights commissioned for the financial year 2011-12. Board of directors, chief executives and creative teams were also examined.”
Why Is British Theatre So Gender-Imbalanced? The Shakespeare Problem
“He was, of course, writing for all-male companies; and, though he wrote transcendent parts for women, there aren’t very many. … [Until] relatively recently, much of British theatre relied on the repertory system: a company of actors performing a handful of different plays in a season. Shakespeare would frequently sit at the heart of such a company; many new plays would therefore tend to be written for a similar gender balance.”
A Skyscraper In Venice? By Pierre Cardin?
“His proposed Palais Lumière – a dizzying 60-story pirouette of glass and steel – represents either economic salvation for a faded corner of Venice or a grandiose fetish worthy of Dubai, depending on whom you ask.”
Into The Vortex Via A Century-Old Quilt
“You might not expect a mind-bending vortex to emerge from an old quilt. But about 100 years ago, a housewife armed with a needle and some red and white scraps of cloth crafted a unique pattern that doubles as a brain trick.”
Soprano Lisa Della Casa, 93
Admired for her elegant physical beauty as well as her pure and soaring voice, she enjoyed a two-decade career as one of the world’s top interpreters of Mozart and Strauss. “Her acting was subtle, occasionally too fidgety, never melodramatic. Her voice emerged with the utmost naturalness, never a suggestion of effort.”
Is The Year’s Best Animated Movie About A Stick Figure?
At least one critic thinks so. Stick figure Bill (not Mr. Bill from the old Saturday Night Live) “is the star of It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” the first feature by animator Don Hertzfeldt, who’s “known for making sick, hilarious shorts films about endless dental procedures and balloons that turn on toddlers.”
The State Of Digital Culture In Russia
“The current generation of Russians tasked with the activity of making culture and heritage more accessible by using digital technology have the unique privilege of starting from scratch. So the stereotypes from the Soviet era are no longer relevant. And in this moment of building something new, some elegant ideas are being developed and put into action.”
Explaining How Americans Live To Mystified Russians
“After 20 years of opining on weighty bilateral issues like NATO expansion and ballistic missile defense, the political analyst Nikolai V. Zlobin recently found himself trying to explain, for an uncomprehending Russian readership, the American phenomenon of the teenage baby sitter.”