“A Norwegian art gallery lost a Rembrandt etching worth up to $8,600 in the mail after trying to save money on courier and insurance costs, the gallery’s chief said on Thursday.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
BBC To Film Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall As Miniseries
“Her fictionalised life of Thomas Cromwell won Hilary Mantel the Man Booker prize – and now Wolf Hall and its follow-up Bring Up The Bodies are to be brought to television in a six-hour adaptation for BBC2 … by Peter Straughan, who wrote the screenplay for the recent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie.”
Can Operas About Celebrity Icons Ever Really Work?
“Somewhere in celebrity heaven, Marilyn Monroe is doing a great job of jinxing those who capitalize on her icon status by degrading it.” (And Anna Nicole Smith, poor dear, may be doing the same thing.)
UK Government Proposes Dropping Drama From School English Curriculum
“The current curriculum for English contains a dedicated section for drama with statutory guidance on how it should be taught, within the ‘speaking and listening’ strand. However, in the new draft national curriculum for English key stages 1 to 2, there is no explicit speaking and listening strand, which means the taught drama framework has been removed.”
Rio Arts Collective Fights Eviction By Olympics-Hungry Developers
“In the past three years, about 50 artists – including sculptors, painters, fashion designers and sound engineers – have created studios and offices in the Behring factory … in Rio’s long-neglected port area. … Bt the property was recently auctioned and the new owners, Syn Brazil, told residents they had 30 days to get out.”
How To Get Cast As Charlie Chaplin
For his final audition for the lead in a musical about the silent film legend, Rob McClure was asked to bring in “a two-minute Chaplin-y thing.” He wound up working out a fly-and-flyswatter routine, performed to “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” on the Amtrak train.
Repairing Flood Damage At Miami’s Arsht Center Will Cost Nearly $4M
“As a forensic engineering company continues to investigate why the roof drainage system failed at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts during a spring storm, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a memo Wednesday that the estimated bill for repairs would be about $3.8 million.”
Opera Australia May Cancel Its First Brisbane Season As Queensland Withholds Funding
The coming year was to be the first that included performances in Queensland’s capital on a regular yearly basis, as with Sydney and Melbourne. But OA’s inaugural season in Brisbane was planned with $1 million each from the federal and state governments, and Queensland’s new administration wants to cut back its share.
Mexico’s Top Danseur Wants To Jumpstart Ballet At Home
“Just 22, Isaac Hernandez already had performed from Havana to Moscow to Jackson, Mississippi, not to mention four years as a professional with the San Francisco Ballet. The experience left Mexico’s most internationally acclaimed male ballet dancer with one question: ‘Why is it that I can dance anywhere in the world, except in Mexico?'”
Novelist Nina Bawden, 87
The English author published 48 novels, including Circle of Deceit (a 1987 Booker Prize Finalist), Dear Austen, and the children’s novels Carrie’s War and The Peppermint Pig.