Time doesn’t always proceed in a linear fashion on stage, and audiences are increasingly being asked to follow along with productions that seem to take place in multiple eras simultaneously. Still, there are risks to setting a historical play in modern times…
Author: sbergman
Same Old Debates Dominate Classical Summit
Seattle hosted a national classical music summit last month, and the results were, well, predictable. Those engaged in the performance of classical music cited burgeoning subscriber rolls and a long-term increase in the quantity and quality of available product. Certain journalists claimed the opposite. And everyone agreed that better music education is key to the future.
Arts vs. Arts In Dallas
The city of Dallas is expanding its already impressing cultural district with the construction of a new performing arts center with a huge outdoor performance space. But the Dallas Symphony isn’t happy about the outdoor venue, complaining that amplified sound will penetrate its own 19-year-old concert hall just next door. The city is attempting to mediate the dispute.
Columbus Symphony Facing A True Stalemate
The orchestra’s board claims that it will have to shut down if musicians don’t agree to sweeping layoffs and a 12-week reduction in the season. But donors seem suspicious of whether the organization has a real plan for stabilization, and musicians say the reductions designed to save the bottom line would destroy the orchestra. Worse, the sides aren’t even talking at the moment…
Short Contract Gets Done Early In Birmingham
Musicians of the Alabama Symphony have agreed to a one-year contract for the 2008-09 season with a 3% salary increase, while the ASO attempts to chart a future course following the loss of funding from the orchestra’s home county. Base salary will rise to $35,500 for a 41-week season.
Movie Popcorn Prices Set To Go Through The Roof
“As a consequence of the booming demand for alternative fuels — with farmers replanting acres of popcorn with more profitable crops that can be converted into ethanol and other biofuels — the sellers of the nation’s favorite movie snack say the salty tub will soon take a bigger bite out of your wallet when you’re at the multiplex.”
Anna Madrigal & Friends Headed To Broadway
Armistead Maupin’s popular series of novels about San Francisco, Tales From The City, is being converted to a musical by the writer and director of Avenue Q, and is expected to hit Broadway sometime during the 2009-10 season.
What, The Urinals At Yankee Stadium Weren’t Available?
A Dublin theatre troupe is in New York this month, putting on “a nasty little tale about prostitutes, politicians and other morally questionable types in 1950s Dublin.” Their venue is as gritty as their story: the whole play is staged in the public bathrooms of Central Park.
At SXSW, Musicians Looking Past Record Companies
The record industry (or, at least, the huge corporate end of it) may be in trouble, but at the South by Southwest music festival that just wrapped up in Austin, it’s clear that music – good music – is as popular as ever, and maybe more so. “In an era of plummeting CD sales and short shelf lives even for current hit makers, the festival is full of people seeking ways to route their careers around what’s left of the major recording companies.”
A Tale Of Two SXSWs
South By Southwest is truly two separate festivals this year – one for the music fans, and one for the lawyers and accountants. “Music lovers have never had more choices, or easier access, to great music,” but everyone is scrambling to fill the hole where the dollars used to be. “This year legal panels comprise a full eighth of the seminar discussions.”