In All In A Row by Alex Oates, “a puppet portrays the character of Laurence, who is described as ‘autistic, non-verbal and occasionally violent’. … The play has faced a backlash online since a production video previewing it was released.” Critics say that the casting “fed into ‘a negative narrative of dehumanising’. A spokesman for the play said it was ‘untenable’ to get autistic performers to play the part.” – London Evening Standard
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘Melancholia: The Diamond’ – Lars Von Trier Wants To Recreate All His Films As Gemstones (With Virtual Reality Attached)
Yes, seriously: the Danish director “intend[s] to turn all 13 of the films he’s made so far into diamonds and to present them at art institutions across the globe. … A museum visitor is invited to wear a virtual reality helmet and step inside an enlarged rendition of the same double diamond, and to stand for a moment inside its silent, glittering core.” – The New York Times
How A Teenager’s Lecture On The US Constitution Made It To Broadway
“Much as Hamilton gave America’s founding a progressive cool factor and became the quintessential Obama-era musical, [Heidi Schreck’s] What the Constitution Means to Me captures the mood of a time when institutional protections feel shockingly vulnerable and the country is getting an unwelcome crash course in constitutional arcana. (How many Americans knew about the emoluments clause before November, 2016?)” – The New Yorker
Dance Meets Urbanism — Could Choreographers Help Create Better Cities?
“Ellie Cosgrave, a lecturer in urban innovation at University College London, is collaborating with Theatrum Mundi to look at how choreographic methods could improve urban engineering. Choreographers and engineers have some key things in common, she says: they both design materials and experiences through time and space.” – The Guardian
Robert Ryman, Abstract Painter Who Had A Way With White, Dead At 88
“Over the course of the more than half-century of relentless experimentation that followed, Ryman radically expanded the possibilities of abstract painting, continuously rethinking how it could be made and what it could look like, even while seeming to confine himself to a single color: white. His death … brings to a close one of the singular careers in postwar America art.” – ARTnews
Norton Museum Of Art In Palm Beach Reopens After $100 Million Renovation/Expansion
The project, designed by Norman Foster and his firm, has “add[ed] 12,000 square feet of gallery space, along with new classrooms, a restaurant, a sculpture garden and a 210-seat auditorium.” – South Florida Sun Sentinel
Tomi Ungerer, 87, Artist And Author Who Specialized In Children’s Lit And Weird Erotica
“[He] leaped between genres and mediums, crafting works that included anti-Vietnam War posters, darkly comic children’s books, a mischievous reworking of The Joy of Sex and a cat-shaped kindergarten building in Germany.” – The Washington Post
Stage Manager Sues Royal Opera House For £200,000 Over Falling Curtain
“Gary Crofts, 68, claims that he has been plagued by depression and anxiety since a half-tonne section of stage curtain fell down near him without warning. The incident happened during a 2016 production of Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet, Anastasia.” – The Times (UK)
English Arts Orgs Are Becoming A Bit More Diverse, But Too Slowly: Report
“An annual statistical report, published on Tuesday by Arts Council England (ACE), showed slow progress in representation of people from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background, and barely any progress in the area of disabled employees.” – The Guardian
Kahlo: It’s Fridalandia in Brooklyn
I enjoyed seeing the Brooklyn Museum’s Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving, but the exhibit was about her, not about her art. (That was its goal, and it succeeded at its goal.) The balance between her life and her art is, as ever, askew. — Judith H. Dobrzynski