Company CEO Judy Lisi: “Rather than having the season from fall to spring, we thought we’d take advantage of the high season, when there are a lot of Canadians here and a lot of Europeans.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
New Chief, New Style At Stratford’s Shakespeare Festival
“Des McAnuff has unquestionably raised the festival’s profile, in Canada and around the world – but that hasn’t stopped certain observers from wondering whether he was the right man to run it.” His controversially free-wheeling approach to Shakespeare, going for visual stimulation and flash even at the expense of the text, differs wildly from the work of his successor, Antoni Cimolino, which “is known for its fidelity to what the playwright set down on the page.”
Making Theatre In East Timor (It Has Its Challenges)
“On a steamy afternoon in Dili, I am heading to a rehearsal of an East Timorese-Australian co-production when my phone rings. The caller has instructions about the route to take to the venue on the capital’s outskirts. ‘Ask the taxi to come by Banana Road. There’s rock throwing and gunfire the other way,’ he says.”
Learning New Scents As We Sleep
“Wake up and smell the coffee. Or stay asleep and smell it. You might learn something either way. People can make new scent associations while they slumber, which suggests that sleep has real learning potential.
Prairie Futurism: The Forgotten Architecture Of Bruce Goff
“[The] divisive nature of Goff’s work, coupled with the location of many of his completed design projects – most in rural or residential areas in the Midwest – has limited his work from receiving the recognition it deserves,” despite the admiration he received from no less than Frank Lloyd Wright.
Hipster Violinist Hahn-Bin Changes His Name To Something Very Un-Punk
“He already had an exotic, double-barrelled name that wouldn’t seem out of place alongside Björk, Madonna, Rihanna or Lady Gaga – and a daring performance style and aesthetic to match. But the classical chameleon formerly known as Hahn-Bin has changed his name to Amadeus Leopold in a bid to pay tribute to his violin idols.”
Ukrainian Dance Camp, Led By A Nuyorican
“Think of it as a kind of Ukrainian Hogwarts. This retreat, the Roma Pryma Bohachevsky Ukrainian Dance Academy … is secluded in an enchanting patch of forest purchased half a century ago by Ukrainian immigrants. … So it is curious that among those most responsible for imparting this important bit of Ukrainian culture is Orlando Pagan, a son of Puerto Ricans who grew up in the Bronx.”
Real-Life Lysistratas: Can Sex Strikes Actually Work?
“A civil rights group in Togo is urging women to participate in a weeklong sex strike to put pressure on the country’s men to urge the president to resign. Do sex strikes ever work? Yes, but mostly as a means of garnering media attention.”
Russia’s Answer To The Onion
“The best news in Russia these days comes from www.fognews.ru. It’s a news agency – sort of – whose home page warns readers that the news is ‘new things we have made up’.” For instance, a story this month that conductor and friend-of-Putin Valery Gergiev had interrupted a performance to give a speech in defense of Pussy Riot.
Oddsmakers Tip Haruki Murakami For Nobel Literature Prize
“The acclaimed author of titles including Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and, most recently, IQ84, Murakami has been given odds of 10/1 to win the Nobel by Ladbrokes.” Last year’s odds-on favorite, Syrian poet Adonis (who did not win), is now in a three-way tie for third place at 14/1.