“Montreal-based lighting designer Robert Thomson has won the 2012 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, the largest theatre award in Canada. It is the 12th and final year for the prize, which asks winners to choose a protégé to share a prize pot of $100,000.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Georgia’s National Museum, Shaping A Young Country’s Identity
“Like the country it embodies, indeed for the sake of that country, the Georgian National Museum is reimagining the past to carve out a durable future. … One might call it a struggle to define the Georgian soul, and that defining is what a national museum can do most deliberately.”
In China, Reviving An Ancient City And Its Craft Traditions
The streets and alleys of Cicheng are home to houses and temples dating back more than a millennium. Local officials, hoping to keep the city from becoming merely a tourist attraction, “have embarked on an ambitious program to revitalize Cicheng’s craft traditions by encouraging artisans and designers to study and work there.”
Are You Responsible For The Outcome Of The Election?
“We’ve all heard arguments that go something like this: it’s not rational to vote, because the probability that your vote will make a difference is vanishingly small. … I think there are also psychological forces that drive us to the ballot box, forces that stem from the way we attribute responsibility.”
Why Ibsen’s Enemy Of The People Is Relevant To American Politics
Boyd Gaines, co-star of the current Broadway staging: “There’s a line in Ibsen’s fifth act, when my character says to my father-in-law, you can’t – I can’t change the fact, and he goes yes you can, anyone can change facts.”
Perhaps The Only People In America Who’ll Miss The Political Ads
“On odd-numbered years, Jane Lueders has been the friendly voice of Washington, D.C.-area directory assistance, Washington subway customer service and Pentagon weapons-training videos. In election years, she is the well-modulated and ubiquitous expression of Democratic anger, hurt, frustration, vulnerability, righteousness and quaking betrayal.”
Peter Hall Heckles – Or ‘Heckles’ – West End Uncle Vanya
“Let’s get one thing clear. It wasn’t a ‘heckle’, which is the word the Telegraph used to headline its story about Peter Hall’s curious response to the starry Uncle Vanya, … But it was extremely loud, and it came in the play’s closing moments.”
Staging An Annie For Grown-Ups
“Director James Lapine and his cast and creative team have tried to dig the musical out from the high-gloss varnish that has been applied in thicker and thicker coats since the show premiered on Broadway 35 years ago.” Annie has ditched her bright red wig, and Miss Hannigan “comes across as more of a Eugene O’Neill washout than an outrageous lush.”
France Builds Its Own Cinecittà
“Studios de Paris is part of a €180 million, or $230 million, project called Cité du Cinéma, which has transformed a formerly gritty part of the Paris suburb of Saint Denis. It is centered on a decommissioned and renovated power plant, which houses a film school, a movie studio with nine stages and the headquarters of EuropaCorp, one France’s biggest television and film producers.”
Martha Graham Company Sets, Costumes Damaged By Sandy’s Floods
“Most of the sets and costumes of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, stored in a West Village basement, were submerged under 6 feet of water in Hurricane Sandy flooding, company officials said on Friday.”