Author: Matthew Westphal

Filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos’s Archives Destroyed In Greek Wildfires

“‘My husband’s books, his letters from celebrities, all the texts that authors had dedicated to him’ were destroyed in the fire, Phoebe Angelopoulou told local television. … The filmmaker, who won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1998 for Eternity and a Day, often spent summers with his family at the house in Mati, east of the capital.”

Robert Lepage Cancels Second Controversial Production

Earlier this month, the Canadian director’s piece SLĀV, which featured African-American slave songs performed by white singers, was cut from the Montreal Jazz Festival after protests. Now Lepage has called off Kanata, a show about the relationship between European settlers in Canada and First Nations peoples which he created for Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil in Paris. Indigenous Canadian artists had objected to work about them being made without their participation, and the controversy led several North American co-producers to back out of the project.

Court Rules Owner Of $13 Million Giotto Can’t Ship It Out Of UK

“[The London High Court] found that Arts Council England (ACE) was justified in rejecting an application to export [the painting] from Britain to Switzerland. The artwork was brought to Britain by Kathleen Simonis, who purchased it in Florence for about £3,500 in 1990, when it was thought to be an unremarkable 19th-century panel painting. Restoration work led to its subsequent upgrading to one of the most important painters of [the 14th-century Florentine] school.”

Some World Music Artists Are Skipping WOMAD Because Trying To Get UK Visas Is So Awful

“Acts from 128 countries are due to attend this year’s festival. But [organiser Chris] Smith said some had accepted the invitation to perform, only to withdraw after looking into the visa process. He blamed the situation on the 2016 decision to leave the European Union, which sent a message out that the UK was closed to foreigners.”

A Sistema For Opera, Founded By A Music Critic, In South African Townships

“Inspired by the successes of Venezuela’s music education programme El Sistema in effecting social change, South African-born [Shirley] Apthorp was convinced that opera could be a tool for empowering people. She founded Umculo, an organisation that brings music theatre to young people and adults alike, working with professional singers and instrumentalists to give performances that have garnered international acclaim. (podcast)

Egyptian Military Court Sentences Actors Arrested For Play That ‘Insulted The Armed Forces’

The playwright, director, and cast of a play titled Suleiman Khater – about a young policeman who shot seven Israeli tourists in the Sinai in 1985 – were arrested and jailed in March following a performance near Cairo. Following the four months the men spent in prison awaiting trial, the tribunal gave them a suspended sentence of two months.

When Americans Rioted In The Streets Over Theater

“In the years before managers could dim auditorium lights and keep audiences in darkness during a performance, culture and politics met head-on in 19th century American theatres. Endowed with a conviction in their ‘natural right’ of self-expression, audiences would attack bad acting, poor plays and, more commonly, English actors.” That conviction, combined with good old American anti-elitism, ultimately led to the deadly riots outside New York’s Astor Place Opera House in 1849.