“The Royal Court Theatre has shelved its planned production of Rita, Sue and Bob Too after The Guardian revealed its original co-director Max Stafford-Clark had been forced to step down after allegations of sexual harassment. The play, which tells the story of two teenage girls who have a sexual relationship with an older married man, has been on a UK tour … Royal Court’s artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, has been a leading figure in the drive to combat sexual harassment in the industry.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Lewis Manilow, Chicago Arts Philanthropist, Dead At 90
By profession an attorney and real estate developer, he was a co-founder of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and led the effort to move the Goodman Theatre into a building of its own, anchoring a “theatre row” in the North Loop.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.13.17
Time to Rethink: Court Extends Injunction Preventing Berkshire Museum Disposals
It’s time for the Berkshire Museum to face reality: Its pursuit of easy money through art disposals has backfired, devolving into a litigation exhibition with no end date, costly to both its reputation and what’s left of … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-12-13
Celebrating Chicago pianist Willie Pickens (1931-2017)
Willie Pickens, 86, a powerful, lyrical and generous modernist who performed, taught and mentored young musicians from Chicago starting in 1959, died of a heart attack on Dec. … read more
>AJBlog: Jazz Beyond Jazz Published 2017-12-13
Aida at the Met
When I was a teenager, my mentor in all things operatic was Conrad L. Osborne. I read him religiously in High Fidelity magazine. I thrilled to his encyclopedic erudition, to his impassioned advocacy, and … read more
AJBlog: Unanswered Question Published 2017-12-13
The Neuroscience Of Changing Your Mind
“Scientists have long accepted that our ability to abruptly stop or modify a planned behavior is controlled via a single region within the brain’s prefrontal cortex, an area involved in planning and other higher mental functions.” Now it seems that this consensus among scientists was, if not wrong, greatly oversimplified.
The New Television Transmission Standard That May Make Us All Upgrade Our TV Sets *Again*
“The vote on that standard” – called ATSC 3.0 – “was nearly as controversial as the net neutrality rollback, but far fewer people are talking about it. So let’s talk about it – and put it in context with the last time the federal government pushed us to upgrade our TVs.”
The Dancer Who Made Art Nouveau Into A Performing Art
“The [Paris] Exposition Universelle of 1900 marked the height of Art Nouveau and its flowing, feminine subjects inspired by nature. [Loïe] Fuller herself personified the movement, with performances that incorporated swirling yards of silk attached to bamboo wands sewn into her sleeves.”
When Hoop Skirts Were New, Women Actually Saw Them As Liberating
“It’s true: The hoop skirt has aged poorly. Its connotations 150 years post-heyday are antiquated at best, antagonistic at worst. From an inside view, though, this ‘choreography of exclusion’ was anything but. Just the opposite, in fact: Its rebellion was quiet, subdued, and feminine, but a rebellion nonetheless. The skirts have lived long enough to become a villain of our racial imagination. To the women who wore them, they were heroic.”
If You Own A Work Of Art, Are You Allowed To Eat It?
“It’s unlikely that any serious collectors have pondered this rather Seussian question – but it did pop up on Reddit last month, and we decided to get to the bottom of it. The answer, as with most things, is: It depends.”
A New Translation Of The New Testament Aims To Be As Messy As The Original
“The New Testament, after all, is not a store of ancient wonders like the Hebrew Bible. It’s a grab bag of reportage, rumor, folk memory, and on-the-hoof mysticism produced by regular people, everyday babblers and clunkers, under the pressure of a supremely irregular event – namely, the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So that, says [David Bentley] Hart, is what it should sound like.” (“Where an author has written bad Greek, writes Hart, “I have written bad English.”)
Neil LaBute, Katori Hall, Quiara Alegría Hudes, And Other Playwrights On How They Think Of Audiences
Hudes: “If you write solely to suit the audience, you’ll be chasing your tail. That being said, I study them very closely – where they laugh, where they lean in, where they ‘go fishing’ in their minds.”
LaBute: “I want to get close to them and make them feel the events in a real way – to break the fourth wall, to look them squarely in the eye, and challenge them to leave, but force them to stay.”