James Cromwell talks about the time he directed Beckett’s script and played Pozzo – in blackface, with the black actor playing Lucky in whiteface – in an SNCC-sponsored production that toured Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Denver To Have Second New American Art Museum
“The Anschutz Collection, one of the country’s most-respected collections of Western paintings, will open its doors to the public full-time later this year, adding another attraction to Denver’s growing portfolio of small, quirky art museums.” The institution will be officially known as American Museum of Western Art.
Cambodia Needs Its Movies More Than We Could Know
“Film in Khmer culture acts as an emotional release for all the hidden things these young people were never told about their history, their families, or their country. Cinema in Cambodia – the medium itself – is metaphor. It stands in for historical memory. It makes it tolerable. And unnecessary.”
Bronx Museum Of The Arts Institutes Free Admission
“Though previous admission fees were only suggested – $5 for general admission, $3 for students and seniors – they did create a cost barrier in the low-income South Bronx, according to the museum’s executive director, Holly Block. ‘We know it matters because Friday is our free day, and that’s our busiest day,’ she said.”
Louisville Orchestra Re-Sends Previous Contract Offer To Musicians
“‘It’s going to be very similar to the last offer. We’re just going to make it very, very clear – to clarify exactly what it is going to take,’ [board president Chuck] Maisch said, referring to the terms under which management believes it can employ the musicians and not exceed its budget projections.”
Charleston Ballet Theatre Tries To Regroup After Months Of Havoc
“As the Charleston Ballet Theatre concludes its 2011-12 season, it is coping with the aftermath of a mass resignation of board members, dancers’ allegations of mistreatment and a tenuous financial predicament. This series of blows is threatening to undo the ballet organization, a cornerstone of the city’s cultural landscape for 25 years.”
The Curious (And Revolutionary) Art Of Diagramming Sentences
From an 1847 textbook by New York state schoolmaster S. W. Clark “emerged the profoundly innovative, dazzlingly ingenious and rather whimsical idea of analyzing sentences by turning them into pictures. A Practical Grammar was a reaction against the way the subject had been taught in America since it began to be taught at all.”
‘Crosshatching A Miracle’: Inventing New York’s Street Grid
Ada Louise Huxtable recounts how the 1811 Master Plan of Manhattan was created (ingeniously) and implemented (tortuously), and she considers what the city has gotten from it (besides gridlock).
Opera Australia Head Wants End To Restrictions On Foreign Singers
“Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini wants to break 23-year-old restrictions on the number of foreign singers his company can employ, declaring: ‘You can’t have unions running art’.”
Venice Is Sinking Even More Than We Thought
“Venice has begun sinking again and is even tilting slightly eastward, new satellite measurements have revealed. Despite previous studies suggesting the subsidence had levelled off, new research indicates that the lagoon city continues to sink an average of one to two millimeters (0.04 to 0.08 inches) a year.”