“About the same size and shape as a Moleskine notebook, in candy colors, the diaries are full of pages that have been started for people like me. Mad Libs-style, each page has a space for the date, a thought or emotion and multiple-choice prompts. And the bits and ideas that spread out on those pages are actually interesting.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
IKEA Puts On Opera In London Store
“The show, titled Flatpack, offers answers to questions such as ‘Why is my bookcase called Billy?’ ‘What is domestic harmony?’ and ‘What do our homes have to say about us?’ … Four classical singers, a cellist, a pianist, an accordionist and four percussionists, plus a cast of actors and dancers – many dressed in traditional Ikea yellow and blue – are performing the opera in front of an unsuspecting audience for four nights only.”
NY City Ballet Tries “Video Notes’
“In addition to its own notes in daily programs, today’s NYCB provides video footage on screens in the lobby and outside the auditorium of the David H. Koch Theater, as well as on its Website (nycballet.com; see ‘The Viewing Room’). … [These loops] present clips of dancers and choreographers addressing the unheard questions of unseen interviewers about their work with NYCB.”
Former GOP Congressman Leach To Head NEH
“After recently tapping Rocco Landesman, a Broadway producer and theater owner, to head the National Endowment for the Arts, Obama today picked a longtime former Republican congressman, Jim Leach of Iowa, to head the National Endowment for the Humanities.”
Detroit Symphony Gets Money To Raise Money
“The DSO has received a million-dollar grant from the New York-based Ford Foundation for fund-raising and marketing initiatives around music director Leonard Slatkin. The three-year gift is designed to help the DSO expand its donor base.”
Robinson’s Home Takes Orange Prize
“Perhaps the surprise was that there was no surprise. This year’s Orange prize for the best novel written by a woman was last night won by a writer regarded by some as one of the greatest of living novelists: Marilynne Robinson.” The jury vote was unanimous.
The Remains Of The Day To Become A Musical
Says Kazuo Ishiguro, author of the original novel, “Steven Sondheim’s A Little Night Music shows you can set an unlikely story to music. … This is a small scale thing and I might feel more cautious about it if the film version hadn’t been such serious, faithful adaptation. … There is comedy in the book and a musical could bring that out more.”
Let’s Play: Getting Serious Adults To Run (Gently) Amok
“I was so committed to learning how to play and to get over my near-terminal seriousness that I actually took a course: ‘Play for Grown-ups.’ The teacher, a professional recreator, had us hanging from monkey bars and flirting with eternity on a jungle gym from the first night.”
How Is This Tutu Different From All Other Tutus? It’s A Custom-Made Chanel
“The torso is entirely covered with feathers: slender ostrich plumes reaching upwards to tickle the neck, while downy turkey, hen and cock feathers are layered at the waist in a muted mix of pale pink, pale grey and white.” In honor of the Ballets Russes centennial, Karl Lagerfeld, creative director at the House of Chanel, has designed a special costume for Fokine’s The Dying Swan.
Inaugural Philly Arts Festival To Be An April In Paris (With Igor)
“Already funded with a $10 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, the initial festival is scheduled to run April 7 to May 1, 2011, centered on early-20th-century Parisian artistic life. [New executive director J. Edward] Cambron referred to the programming theme as ‘Stravinsky in Paris’ – this was a period when the composer wrote his great ballet scores – though a variety of figures from that period will be examined, as well as some of their 21st-century counterparts.”