“Award-winning Slung Low theatre company is known for staging epic outdoor theatre productions around the UK. Now it’s decided to cut back on the number of shows it makes and set up a ‘community college’ teaching astronomy, cooking and decorative blacksmithing. Artistic director Alan Lane said it was ‘the most useful and most interesting’ thing they could do with their subsidy.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
How Dancers Can Argue For Dance As An Intellectual Pursuit
“Unfortunately, it’s difficult to explain to non-dancers how corporal movement is a means of thinking and engaging with complex ideas. That’s why it’s so important that dancers can talk or write about their work, translating the corporal knowledge into language.” Alice Blumenfeld offers some suggestions for how to go about it.
Completely Out Of Hand: Visiting A Ventriloquists’ Convention
Elisabeth Vincentelli meets the 525 performers (and even more dummies) at the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention, held at a Kentucky Holiday Inn near the Cincinnati airport and (not incidentally) the world’s only museum dedicated to the art form.
Why MoviePass Was Utterly Doomed
Felix Salmon: “The easy answer is: It was selling dollars for a dime, and you can’t do that for very long until you go bust. … The company burned cash until it didn’t have any cash left to burn and fizzled out. But in the spirit of Chesterton’s fence, it’s worth looking at the thesis behind MoviePass, and to try to make a distinction between the calculated risks that just didn’t pan out, on the one hand, and the crazy ideas that were never going to work, on the other.”
Pat De Groot, Doyenne Of Provincetown’s Artists, Dead At 88
“Ms. de Groot came late to painting, in her mid-40s. But for the next four decades she was prolific, using a palette knife to etch dozens and dozens of scintillating, layered, small-scale seascapes of Provincetown Harbor as seen from the home and studio she designed for herself and her husband … With room to spare under an M-shaped double-gable roof, Ms. de Groot often played summer landlord to creative figures like [John]Waters” – who called her “bohemian royalty” – “[Peter] Hoare, the painter Richard Baker and the gallerists Pat Hearn and Colin de Land.”
Orchestras And Opera Companies Try Young Professionals’ Clubs To Attract Millennials
“Symphonies are attempting to lure these 22-to-37-year-olds with drastically increased social media presences, discounted tickets, and exclusive backstage access. Opera companies are capitalizing on the socializing aspect of their milieu and setting snares of free hors d’oeuvres and drinks during intermissions.” Jeremy Reynolds looks at the programs of the San Francisco and Atlanta Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Houston Grand Opera.
Unseen Sketches For ‘Monty Python And The Holy Grail’ Surface
“Boxes of material deposited at the British Library and seen by The Times contain dozens of unused script ideas, including two sketches written for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” (The early scripts had far more material than could fit in a feature film.) “One is about a Wild West bookshop and another features an amorous Pink Knight.” (includes transcripts of sketches)
Appeals Court Rules Norton Simon Museum May Keep Cranach Paintings, Ending 11-Year Legal Battle
“A federal appeals court has confirmed a lower court’s ruling that two contested 16th-century oil-on-panel paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder will not be returned to the heir of the legendary Dutch Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker … The July 30th ruling seems to put an end to an 11-year court battle over the Nazi-looted artworks, and means that they will stay in California at the Norton Simon Museum, on view to the public.”
L.A. MOCA Has A New Director: Klaus Biesenbach Of MOMA
“After months of turmoil, including the firing of its chief curator and the announced departure of its current director, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has chosen its next director: Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and director of its experimental satellite space, MoMA PS1.” (Biesenbach’s career at MOMA has not been without controversy of its own.)
Māori Has Gone Mainstream: New Zealand’s Indigenous Language Is Now Cool, Even Among Pakehas
“Te reo is undergoing a revival in New Zealand, with jam-packed classes and waiting lists now common. Māori language teachers from Auckland in the North Island to Dunedin and Invercargill in the South say they are unable to meet demand for their services and free classes routinely draw hundreds of students.”