Assuming that it ever ends – with a vaccine or some kind of terribly expensive, in human life terms, herd immunity – Covid-19 may leave a theatrical legacy that’s hard to shake, at least for a while. And there are some small advantages. “One benefit of staging productions on Zoom, Ridgely says, is the ability to reach a much larger audience than is generally possible with live theater.” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Author: ArtsJournal2
British Women Artists Are Still Massively Underrepresented On UK Radio
It’s bad from the singer side – 51 percent of the top 100 songs were by solo male acts, and only 19 percent were by solo female acts – but it’s shockingly horrible from behind the scenes, where 80 percent of the songwriters were male. One songwriter: “To see that women feature so low across the board in this industry is devastating and something I feel every day working in music.” – The Guardian (UK)
No One Is Listening To The Radio, But Everyone Is Listening To NPR
The drivetime listeners are gone, sending NPR’s radio ratings into the sub-sub-basement. Yet NPR is reaching 10 percent more people than at the same time last year. What gives? “Bringing a younger, more diverse audience into the NPR fold means reaching listeners on the platforms they’re already on — whether that’s putting podcasts on Spotify, music on YouTube, or newsy explainers on TikTok. … Executives are putting two and two together from the demographic reports and, bubbling up from the bottom, junior producers and interns want to produce content that their digital-native friends will actually see.” – Nieman Lab
The National Trust’s Popularization Plans Are Worrying Some In Britain
Turns out not everyone loves mansion tours, or even castle tours. “The trust’s visitor experience director proposes putting thousands of artworks and other items into storage in order to ‘flex our mansion offer to create more active, fun and useful experiences.’ Specialist exhibitions for ‘niche audiences’ should be scaled back, and ‘new sources of experience-based income’ developed.” The National Trust’s decline, one respondent said, started when its gift shops no longer sold ties. – The Observer (UK)
In France, Live Theatre Returns With Voiceovers And A Lot Of Acting In The Eyes
And then there are the outdoor performances, with masks: “When a performer speaks a lot onstage, … masks become damp and stick to the skin, so each cast member goes through four or five of them over a two-hour performance.” – The New York Times
Are Suburbs Inherently Scary?
Horror movies sure seem to think so. A lot of them seem to exhibit “this idea that if you have enough free time, you’re going to just start rounding people up and killing them.” – Wired
The LA Phil Tries The Online Route
The Hollywood Bowl couldn’t have audiences – but the musicians could be there, distanced, and the orchestra took advantage of its city’s geographical advantages. The concerts were only “possible in the age of the novel coronavirus because the [Hollywood Bowl] stage is about 5,700 square feet— more than twice the size of the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage — and completely outdoors, but for the partial cover of the shell. All participants, including artists and tech crews, were tested for COVID-19 prior to filming and stayed at least 6 feet apart onstage.” – Los Angeles Times
Try A Summer Getaway With Italo Calvino
Unless you already live in Venice, in which case, sorry, you’ll have to read something other than Invisible Cities. – The Economist
Live Music, And Music Venues, Won’t Survive The Virus Without A Lot More Help
In the UK, for instance, with social distance requirements in full force as they should be, “only around 100 of the country’s 900 small music venues would be able to operate.” And it’s not as if music venues can expand. – The Guardian (UK)
Nothing, Absolutely Nothing, Can Beat Live Music
The first concert since lockdown is definitely special (not that it’s weird to be masked and distant anymore; it’s simply exciting to be there). “It’s been difficult but clarifying to see how mightily classical music struggles in an online-only format. Experiencing sound in person, among others, turns out to be even more essential than I’d assumed. This art form has long been devoted to recordings — but always as a counter, an implied (or screamed) comparison, to real performances.” – The New York Times