“Now that a generation has passed, it seems fair to ask whether the American theater remains equally capable in 2012 of what it brought forth back then. … Could five years, more than $2 million in today’s currency and so much of an audience’s time be set aside to write, develop and perform an unprecedented kind of work by an unproven playwright?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
New Leader Comes To The Rescue At Florida Grand Opera
“[A]fter more than a decade of unstable finances and artistic stagnation under the 28-year reign of her predecessor Robert Heuer, [Susan] Danis seems the ideal person to take FGO out of its extended slump, restore some artistic integrity and get the struggling Miami company back on a secure financial footing.”
The Nate Silver Of Performing Arts Marketing
“Over the past six years, TRG – a Colorado-based consulting firm – has become as big a talking point for Canadian performing-arts administrators as pollster Nate Silver’s similarly data-driven methods were to political junkies in the recent U.S. election. … At least 15 major theatres, opera and ballet companies … have bought into the group’s dispassionate data analysis” – with impressive results.
The Ballet Where Nobody Knows Who’ll Die At The End
For his adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” for Ballet West in Salt Lake City, choreographer Val Caniparoli “decided that when the villagers draw lots, the performers really are going through a chance procedure … to find out who is the ‘chosen one’ that will be stoned to death.”
Ontario’s Public Television Network Slashes Budget, Cuts Programmes
“Three of the best-known shows on Ontario’s public television network have been cancelled as TVO moves to cut $2 million from its budget … TVO says between 35 and 40 jobs will be affected, between now and the end of March.”
New York Philharmonic Launches Partnership With Shanghai Symphony
“China long ago emerged as a kind of promised land for classical music, and two of America’s great orchestras are wading in with big projects and very different approaches. You could call one the Philadelphia flier and the other the Big Apple plod.”
Will Barnet, 101, Painter And Printmaker
“In the prints and paintings that he produced from the mid-1960s on, Mr. Barnet ranged between a simplified form of realism and a poetic, visionary symbolism.”
Troy Meets The Transvaal – A South African Iliad
The Iliad has been translated into dozens of languages, including more than 70 versions in English, over the past four centuries, by scholars, poets and even a British prime minister. Only one has the word braai, South African for barbecue.”
Sotheby’s Celebrates The Most Lucrative Auction In Its History
“Rich in world-class offerings of Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art, Sotheby’s contemporary evening roared to the tune of $375,205,000, the highest total for any evening sale in its long history. It eclipsed the mark set in May 2008’s $362-million contemporary art sale.”
Have Agriculture And Civilization Made Humans Less Intelligent?
“A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his/her progeny, whereas a modern Wall Street executive that made a similar conceptual mistake would receive a substantial bonus and be a more attractive mate. Clearly, extreme [natural] selection is a thing of the past.”