The Goodman Theater’s five-and-a-half-hour stage adaptation of Roberto Bolaño’s mammoth, seemingly unstageable novel 2666 drew a stream of ardent fans of the Chilean novelist to Chicago in 2016. The scope and technical complexity of the production – which involved five distinct sets, 15 actors playing 80 characters, and an elaborate movie-within-the-play – made subsequent productions difficult. But now those who were unable to make the trip can binge-watch the entire thing online [for free], from a couch anywhere in the world.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
A Play Staged On A Series Of Shoebox-Sized Sets
“Flight, from Glasgow-based theater company Vox Motus, is not exactly theater in the traditional sense. In fact, there are no live performers. The entire story is told via 230 miniature dioramas on a rotating carousel. Audience members sit in private booths along the perimeter of the carousel, listening to a soundtrack through headphones as the tiny scenes pass by and light up, one after the other.” (audio)
Gina Gibney’s Growing Dance Empire
“Gina Gibney runs two enormous dance spaces in New York City: Together they contain 23 studios, five performance spaces, a gallery, a conference room, a media lab and more. Gibney is now probably the largest dance center in the country. … The new branding calls for it to simply be called Gibney (as opposed to Gibney Dance), to reflect its range of public programs, affordable work space and commitment to social justice issues. … Gibney also houses the Gibney Dance Company, which was founded in 1991.”
Dancing With Death: The Murky Ethics Of Filming People In Life-Threatening Danger
“The Deminer” – a documentary about a Kurdish Peshmerga officer who disarms mines – “makes for nervous viewing. Each of the four detonations we see ratchets up the sense of inevitability. It’s not quite a snuff movie, though haunted by a similar balefulness. What moral responsibilities do documentary-makers have when their subject is a danger to himself?”
Music As Political Activism – Can It Ever Really Work?
“Part of classical music’s conceit (as well as other genres’), even among many contemporary audiences, is the notion of a universal beauty in music, and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that … Classical music isn’t alone in this regard (although it does carry the most Enlightenment baggage). … What a conceit can’t do is provide the foundation for concrete political change.”
One Of World’s Biggest Gallerists Proposes ‘Tax’ On Large Galleries At Art Fairs
“David Zwirner, whose namesake art gallery is one of the world’s largest, said he was prepared to pay more for space rental at art fairs if the extra money could help smaller galleries take part as well.”
Documenta Names Its Third Director In Less Than A Year
“On 1 November [Sabine] Schormann will replace Wolfgang Orthmayr, a producer of musicals who was appointed interim managing director in April. His beleaguered predecessor, Annette Kulenkampff, left her post before her contract ended as the result of a budget deficit of €5.4m following the 2017 edition.”
‘Toxic Culture’ Of Harassment Rampant In Professional Music World: Study
“Musicians from across the industry took part in a survey by membership organisation the Incorporated Society of Musicians. … Of the 600 musicians who took part in the survey, 47% said they had experienced discrimination, including sexual harassment and other inappropriate behaviour, in the course of their work.”
Metro LA’s Two Biggest Public TV Stations To Merge
“Independent broadcaster KCETLink Media Group (KCET), based in Burbank, and PBS SoCal (KOCE) in Costa Mesa, unveiled Wednesday a plan for ‘a merger of equals.’ They aim to become a powerful new hub for original public media content and innovation that serves 18-plus million people in Southern California.”
Mezzo-Soprano Huguette Tourangeau Dead At 79
A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in 1964, the Canadian mezzo had a career at the Met and many North American companies, but she was best known as Joan Sutherland’s co-star on a series of opera recordings conducted by Richard Bonynge, including (among others) Norma, Maria Stuarda, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann.