“For most dancers, the costumes act as the finishing touch. At MOMIX, however, the costumes are just the starting point. … We spoke with Pendleton and MOMIX dance captain Sarah Nachbauer to learn all of the details of how they get their concepts from the studio to the stage — and all of the costume mishaps in between.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Most Underrated Composer In History? Reconsidering Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
“If your reaction to hearing the name Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is a shrug, even a smirk, you’re not alone.” Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim visits the Bard Music Festival, dedicated to the man Richard Taruskin calls, yes, “the most underrated composer in history.” Responds CdFW, “I can’t say that’s a judgment I quite came to share … But I left Bard with a newfound appreciation for a quality I had never before considered as a factor in music: shame.”
Aretha Franklin Dead At 76
“Dubbed the Queen of Soul in 1967, Franklin loomed over culture in several monumental ways. The daughter of a preacher man, she was born with one of pop’s most commanding and singular voices, one that could move from a sly, seductive purr to a commanding gospel roar. … For more than five decades, [she] was a singular presence in pop music, a symbol of strength, women’s liberation and the civil rights movement.”
‘With Great Beauty Comes Great Resentment’ – The History Of Helen Of Troy
“Of all Helen’s roles in the literary and artistic corpus (and it is a long career – she has been forgotten by not a single generation since she entered the written record 2,700 years ago), it is her part as fantasy whore that has been most tenacious. Her many sexual partners … are trotted out by ancient and modern authors alike as the gossip columns would the client-list of a high-class prostitute. And so Euripides calls her a ‘bitch-whore’; she is Shakespeare’s ‘strumpet’.”
Could Audiences Really Replace Theater Critics As They Disappear? Here’s The Problem With That
Responding to Lyn Gardner’s recent column arguing for “a new approach to theatre criticism, in which theatres see developing critical voices as part of audience and artist development,” Bill Marx writes that what Gardner seems to be suggesting is both vague and, well, unlikely: “Is the money invested in theater development these days dedicated to making stage audiences more ‘critical’? Are there any plans for ‘creative power sharing’ with spectators? From what I can tell, … the goal is to buff up [theaters’] business plans and marketing efforts, not to encourage the development of ‘critical’ audiences.”
Univision Sued Over Its Part-Purchase Of ‘The Onion’
Financial firm GCA Advisors claims that The Onion had engaged it, for a $2 million base fee, to assist in a potential “transaction,” and then didn’t pay up when Univision later acquired a 40.5% stake. Now that Univision is selling The Onion, GCA wants its fee.
An ‘Oklahoma!’ With Same-Sex Couples? Sure – The R&H Folks Are Fine With It
Laura Collins-Hughes visits the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where artistic director Bill Rauch convinced keeper-of-the-Rodgers-and-Hammerstein-catalog Ted Chapin to let him go ahead with a production of the musical in which both Laurey and Curly are gals and Will Parker pairs off with Ado Andy.
Are ‘New York’ Magazine And Its Websites For Sale?
The Wall Street Journal, followed up by the Financial Times, reported that the Wasserstein family (as in investment bank Wasserstein Perella), which owns New York Media, has retained a firm to explore a sale. Then an internal email from CEO Pam Wasserstein became public, and it makes things seem much more ambiguous.
After 24 Years, San Francisco’s Smuin Ballet Finally Buys Itself A Building
“Eleven years after the fatal collapse of the choreographer, which many assumed would also be the collapse of his company, Smuin finally has its home, in a 1949 warehouse next to the old freight line on Potrero Hill.” Says one company exec, “For the first time ever, we will control the schedule, which will allow us to rehearse for as long as we need.”
Facebook Changed The Way Articles Are Written. Now Articles Are Changing Back, Thank God
“Facebook’s rising dominance as a referrer led to … content that was optimized for social media. … The problem with social-optimized content is that its overt, eerie familiarity drapes a kind of lowest-common-denominator cynicism across the internet … [and favors] exaggeration over subtlety. … SEO content, on the other hand, dispenses with the emotional in favor of the mechanical. It can be stilted and awkward — but it’s more honest and transparent.”