“After I saw [Marcel] Marceau’s performance, I said to myself, if he can do a two-hour show without saying a word, why can’t I?” Bragg once said. And he did: as The Washington Post once wrote, Bragg became “the man who invented theater as a professional career for the deaf.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The 21st-Century Canon: What Are The Most Influential Books Of The Last 20 Years?
“We invited scholars from across the academy to tell us what they saw as the most influential book published in the past 20 years. (Some respondents named books slightly outside our time frame, but we included them anyway.) We asked them to select books — academic or not, but written by scholars — from within or outside their own fields. It was up to our respondents to define ‘influential,’ but we asked them to explain why they chose the books they did. Here are their answers.”
Ex-San Antonio Ballet Dancer Found Not Guilty In Rape Trial
“A jury took less than three hours Friday to find a former Ballet San Antonio dancer not guilty in a sexual assault case brought by a ballerina in the company. The defense had argued that the accuser regretted having consensual sex as the two slept in her apartment bed in March 2017. Prosecutors said Hugo Ihosvany Rodriguez, 27, once a rising star with the dance company, never received a hint of approval yet forced himself on her.”
Britain’s Rachel Dolezal? Or Not? Director With White Parents Given Grant For Minority Theatre Artists
Anthony Ekundayo Lennon has always acknowledged that his parents and grandparents are white, but says that his skin coloring (which his brothers share) has led to his being treated, and discriminated against, as black or mixed-race for his entire life, including his work in theatre. Lennon applied, as a “mixed-heritage individual,” for and won an Arts Council England grant to work a a black-led London theatre company. The company, Talawa, willingly sponsors Lennon, but other black actors and directors are publicly objecting.
Two Miró Works Damaged During Venice Floods Repaired In Record Time
The pair of untitled tapestries, worth roughly €1 million, were disfigured (ironically, by a leaky sink, not the floodwaters themselves) during last week’s record-breaking high water. A specialty tapestry factory was able to clean the works, dry them, and get them back to Venice in time for the opening of an exhibition last week — a turnaround time of two days.
Publishers Say TSA Detained And Harassed Them Because Agent Didn’t Like One Of Their Books
An art book publisher and his companion were about to fly out of LaGuardia after a fair when, following a routine search of the books they were traveling with, they were held in a room and questioned about a book whose content one of the TSA officers disliked, and that the officers damaged the book and berated them about it. (A TSA spokeswoman denied that the incident could have taken place.)
Conductor Antonio Pappano Was Set To Leave London’s Royal Opera House — Here’s Why He Changed His Mind
“I was due to leave Covent Garden in two years’ time … Once I realised the company would be rudderless, musically speaking, I had no choice. I couldn’t walk away having given so much blood, sweat and tears for so long, only to see all our collective efforts wither.” He will not remain as the Royal Opera House’s music director through at least 2022-23.
Art Basel Ends Its Move Into Regional Art Fairs
“In 2016, Art Basel’s parent company, the MCH Group, … announced it would debut Art SG, a new fair in Singapore; took a majority stake in the India Art Fair and a minority stake in Art Düsseldorf; and added Masterpiece London to its portfolio last December. But the experiment didn’t last long. According to a statement on Friday, MCH Group is undertaking a ‘profound transformation’ by dramatically downshifting its ambitions ‘for the necessary stabilization of the company.'”
A. Margaret Bok, ‘Matriarch’ Of Curtis Institute, Dead At 98
“Though mostly a behind-the-scenes presence at the school, Mrs. Bok, known as ‘Stormy,’ stepped into leadership positions at Curtis at critical times. … She is best remembered, though, for her many decades as a loyal supporter of the small school started by her mother-in-law, Mary Louise Curtis Bok, in 1924. … It was during her most active period at Curtis that it shifted from being an inward-looking institution that relied on its own endowments and only selectively opened concerts to the public to one that routinely sends its students — and fund-raisers — to concert halls around the world.”
As Crowds Become Unmanageable, Vatican Considers Limits On Visitor Numbers
“Tour guides claimed that at least 10 visitors fainted each day as slow-moving crowds filed through the long and narrow corridor that leads to the most popular attraction, the Sistine Chapel, while others have suffered injuries and panic attacks. … [There are even] fears among tour guides that overcrowding could provoke a stampede unless security policy is changed.”