The Barrow Street Theatre in New York’s West Village is where a Chicago production of Thornton Wilder’s play made headlines, ran for months, and turbo-charged director David Cromer’s career. Some Barrow Street producers were recently back in Chicago to check out playwright Ike Holter’s Hit the Wall, a new play about the Stonewall riots (which happened just steps from the Barrow Street).
Author: Matthew Westphal
Can Sluts Across America Reclaim That Dirty Word?
“Enlightened men and ladies have spilled a lot of ink trying to kill off the derogatory epithet. But the newborn Sluts Across America project [www.slutsacrossamerica.org] is taking a different tack: Instead of fighting a term that shows few signs of going anywhere – and one that felicitously gives Rush Limbaugh and rap artists something in common – they’re reclaiming it.”
Margaret Atwood: ”Money Is Imaginary. Debts Are Real.’
“It’s real because it’s a visceral, emotional thing and we all know that. We all know that when the engagement breaks up, you give back the ring. People who keep the ring are really [makes a face of great disgust]. These are emotional balances. They’re in us long before money enters the picture. They’re in us as kids, little kids. ‘It’s not fair,’ kicks in probably between 3 and 4, big time.”
A New Yorker Editor Fesses Up About The Diaeresis
“The fact is that, absent the two dots, most people would not trip over the ‘coop’ in ‘cooperate’ or the ‘reel’ in ‘reelect’ (though they might pronounce the ‘zoo’ in ‘zoological,’ a potential application of the diaeresis that we get no credit for resisting). And yet we use the diaeresis for the same reason that we use the hyphen: to keep the cow out of co-workers.”
Russian Oligarch Says Painting He Bought Is ‘Fake’, Demands Refund From Christie’s
“Viktor Vekselberg, 56, an oil tycoon and art collector, is arguing that the painting, Odalisque, bought [for £1.7 million] through his Aurora Fine Arts fund in 2005, could not possibly be by the prominent Russian artist Boris Kustodiev as it was signed several years after his death.”
Salad As Performance Art (This Is Not Metaphorical)
Your correspondent goes to New York’s High Line for a 50th anniversary performance, on Earth Day, of Fluxus artist Alison Knowles’s Make a Salad.
Calls Mount For UK Culture Minister To Resign Over Murdoch Scandals
“Emails released by News Corporation to the Leveson Inquiry on the culture, practice and ethics of the press appeared to show that [minister Jeremy] Hunt’s office gave the media organisation confidential information about its planned takeover of BSkyB.”
Pennsylvania Ballet, At Long Last, Opens Its Own School
“The Pennsylvania Ballet will no longer be the country’s only major ballet company without its own school, the latest pirouette in its remarkable turnaround from the brink of insolvency two decades ago.”
NEA Sharply Cuts Grants To PBS
“The National Endowment for the Arts made sweeping cuts in its support of established PBS shows on Wednesday, and for the first time awarded significant grants to an array of gaming, mobile and Web-based projects.”
Louisville Orchestra And Musicians Agree On One-Year Contract
“After 20 months of contentious negotiations, the Louisville Orchestra’s musicians and its management have reached a one-year labor agreement that will allow for a 30-week season beginning this fall, and both sides are optimistic that a long-term deal will be reached by next spring” under binding arbitration.