“Atwood has written a one-hour, semi-dramatic performance based on her new novel, The Year of the Flood , to be staged in Ottawa, Toronto, Sudbury, Kingston, Calgary and Vancouver, as well as five international cities. As narrator, she will be backed by three local actors and an original score by Los Angeles composer Orville Stoeber, to be sung by local choirs.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
This Is Taking The Eurovision Song Contest Too Far: Azerbaijan Interrogates Viewers Who Voted For Armenia
“Security forces in Azerbaijan have launched a campaign against dozens of citizens for voting for the wrong entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Authorities in the oil-rich country are apparently tracking down people who voted for Azerbaijan’s bitter enemy Armenia in the competition held in May.”
‘Nothing Says “Don’t Mess With Me” Like An Impressive Set Of Pecs’
A study out of U.Cal.-Santa Barbara “link[s] physical strength in men with both a propensity to anger easily and a favorable attitude toward the use of force to settle political disputes. … In other words, the ability to beat people up tends to breed a sense of entitlement, as well as a short fuse.” (But not in women – with them, it’s a different factor.)
Ballet BC Announces First Stage Program Since Canceling Season
“Ballet BC is returning to the stage in September under new interim artistic director Emily Molnar for a single evening’s performance featuring dancers from the National Ballet. … [The company] previously announced it the suspension of its 2009-2010 subscription series and confirmed it would not be participating in the biggest cultural festival in the country next year, the 2010 Cultural Olympiad.”
In Chicagoland, Naperville City Council Unanimously Rejects $190M Arts Center Plan
The proposal – which includes a complex with three performances spaces (2700, 950 and 200 seats) and a parking garage, plus more than 500 condos as well as townhouses and retail stores – calls for locally-backed bonds but no taxpayer funding. Yet every single councilperson said that the financial risk to the city is too great.
Original 17th-Century Theatre Unearthed In Dublin
“Archaeological excavators were stunned to find the original foundations [and walls] of the former Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin’s Temple Bar intact yesterday. They have been excavating the site … for the past three weeks as part of an €7.2m project to reinstate the theatre on its original site, known as Smoke Alley when it was built in 1662.”
‘Lost Archive’ Of Frida Kahlo Works Condemned As Forgeries
“A cache of Frida Kahlo oil paintings, diaries and archival material that is the subject of a book to be published by Princeton Architectural Press on 1 November has been denounced by scholars as a cache of fakes.”
RSC Wants To Hang On To Temporary Digs In Stratford
“The Royal Shakespeare Company is to apply for planning permission to keep its temporary base in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Courtyard Theatre, open for an additional two years, in order to minimise dark weeks while it moves back into the Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres.”
Construction Of New Belfast Arts Center Delayed Because Gov’t Hasn’t Released Funding
“The opening of Belfast’s £17.5 million flagship arts centre may be delayed by up to a year after it emerged that work on the new city-centre venue has not yet begun five months after it was originally scheduled to. Construction of the Metropolitan Arts Centre, the city’s first purpose-built multi-platform arts venue, has been held up because the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure [in London] has failed to release funding of £10.8 million necessary to allow it to proceed.”
Mystery Behind Obama-As-Joker Picture Halfway Solved
“When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from Batman began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image? Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain? Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago.” (The question of who added the word “socialism” and spread the image around remains unanswered.)