“Let’s just skip over the customary jokes about 40-year-old virgins who still live in their parents’ basements. Klingon speakers have heard them all. But the insults don’t bother them, because they know … that Klingon is a sophisticated, extremely complex language that very few can master … Klingon is difficult but not impossible, weird yet totally believable [linguistically].”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Super-Agent Sam Cohn, 79, Co-Founder Of ICM
“Cohn repped thesps and filmmakers including Meryl Streep, Jackie Gleason, Woody Allen, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Nora Ephron, Robert Altman, Paul Newman, Mike Nichols and Sigourney Weaver. His influence extended to Broadway and other fields, and his clients also included Bob Fosse, Arthur Miller, Arthur Penn, Kander and Ebb, Peter Maas and E.L. Doctorow.”
New Plans Underway For London’s Westminster Theatre
“A planning application has been submitted to the City of Westminster Council that would see a new residential development on the off-West End site include two performance spaces – a 350-seat main theatre and a secondary studio with room for around 260 standing, which would be used for jazz and world music gigs, as well as cabaret.”
Why Are Creative People Crazy? Because It Helps.
“According to new research, … [c]reative minds in all kinds of areas, from science to poetry, and mathematics to humour, may have traits associated with psychosis. Such traits may allow the unusual and sometimes bizarre thought processes associated with mental illness to fuel creativity.”
Karole Armitage, The Billy Boys And Slumdog Up For Astaire Awards
Among the finalists for the honors dedicated to Broadway dance are choreographers Armitage (Hair) and Graciela Daniele (Pal Joey) as well as performers Karen Olivo (Anita in West Side Story) and the three young men sharing the title role in Billy Elliot. For film choreography, a category added last year, nominees include Slumdog Millionaire, Mamma Mia and the unavoidable High School Musical 3.
Funding Approved For New Las Vegas Arts Center
“The Las Vegas City Council approved agreements and funds today for the $245 million Smith Center for the Performing Arts, which could begin construction later this month. […] The center will have a 2,050-seat multipurpose main hall and an education building that will house a 300-seat cabaret theater, and a 200-seat flexible studio theater for rehearsals, children’s theater and community events.”
Coming To Blows Over The Israeli/Palestinian Samson And Delilah
Michael Kimmelman: “From where I stood it seemed touch and go whether the Jewish businessman was actually going to slug the chief of the Flanders Opera, Aviel Cahn, a young Swiss-born Jew (a glass-jawed bantamweight, by the looks of him) in an ascot and important glasses.”
Cleveland Museum Cuts Pay But Not Jobs
“The Cleveland Museum of Art, battered by a bad economy and a 30 percent drop in the value of its endowment since June, is cutting salaries and eliminating other expenses to keep its budget in line. […] The Cleveland museum isn’t cutting jobs – for now. And it plans to push ahead with a $350 million expansion and renovation.”
Is Culture In Our Genes? For Birds It Is.
“Knowledge is passed down directly from generation to generation in the animal kingdom as parents teach their children the things they will need to survive. But a new study has found that, even when the chain is broken, nature sometimes finds a way.”
Four Out Of Five Principals Depart Sarasota Ballet
Lauren Strongin, the company’s female star, is leaving to become a corps member at Houston Ballet, where she’ll make quite a bit more money despite the lower rank. Kyoko Takeichi and Saneyuki Kawashima are retiring, and Sarasota artistic director Iain Webb chose not to renew the contract of Sergiy Mykhalov.