The troubled company, which derailed preparations for a very truncated season by locking out its unionized workers, has settled on terms of a contract with Local 802 of the orchestral musicians’ union. The more contentious negotiations with AGMA, which represents singers and some backstage staff, are ongoing.
Author: Matthew Westphal
John Burnside Wins T.S. Eliot Prize After Two Competitors Quit
“The Scottish poet John Burnside has won the most controversial TS Eliot poetry prize in years, for a collection described as ‘haunting’, after two of the original shortlisted poets dropped out in protest over funding from the hedge fund Aurum.”
Strike At Comédie-Française Called Off
“Employees at the Comédie-Française have voted overwhelmingly today to return to work after threatening an indefinite strike over parity of pay and protests that technicians and junior performers receive a far lower share of profit-related bonuses than leading actors.”
Arab Spring Jump-Starts Market For Arab Art
“The perception of Arab art has changed. Before the uprisings people either saw it as exotic and innocuous or steeped in the Islamic tradition; artists were wary of showing work that might be seen as too political. But now there’s an appetite to understand the context of the uprisings, and there’s a real flourishing of work that’s more edgy.”
Even In Death, J.D. Salinger Keeps Us Guessing
“The author, who was famous for demanding control over every detail of his work while living, is still in control. In a sense, J.D. Salinger has been able to cheat death because – in the continued absence of his unpublished manuscripts – he has managed to deny us the ability to measure the second half of his life and to determine his full impact upon literature.”
US State Department Spreads American Dance From Kyrgyzstan To Mozambique
DanceMotion USA, a cultural diplomacy initiative, is sending the likes of the Trey McIntire Project, Rennia Harris Puremovement and the Seán Curran Company to far-flung corners of the globe.
Film Criticism Was Born Exactly 100 Years Ago
WG Faulkner of the London Evening News, in the first regular film review column, on 17 January 1912: “The picture theatre has taken a firm place in the social enjoyment of the people. It is no longer a matter of wonder; it has become an everyday part of the national life.”
English National Ballet Expands Program For Parkinson’s Patients
Results of the company’s pilot scheme of ballet classes as physical therapy for people suffering from the neurological disorder are proving so promising that the program is being extended to four new cities.
Enough Of Pickled Sharks And Unmade Beds! Meet The New Young British Artists
“Few young artists are producing work with the in-your-face iconoclasm of classic YBA works such as Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde or Tracey Emin’s My Bed.” And they’re far less concerned with fame and money (for now). But they’re out there …
Is All-Male Shakespeare Sexist?
The theatre company Propeller has made its name by following the Elizabethan convention of using only male actors. One modern (female) commentator has suggested that reviving that practice is discriminatory and perhaps immoral – robbing actresses of most of the few great classic roles they have. To what extent is she truly right?