“Into the Woods Sr. and other musicals tailored to older casts are the brainchild of Freddie Gershon, [Music Theater International’s] co-chairman, who first developed similarly shortened ‘Junior’ productions more than 20 years ago for elementary and middle schools, earning him a Tony Awards honor.” Reporter Nancy Coleman looks in on a production of the senior-ized Sondheim show. – The New York Times
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Is The Director Who Turned The Indianapolis Museum Of Art Into Newfields Democratizing It Or Destroying It?
“Critics have accused [Charles] Venable of dumbing down the museum with his crowd-pleasing, cost-conscious changes. But his program has also touched a nerve as institutions around the country confront a tough new calculus.” Andrew Russeth visits Newfields and does a deep dive on the changes there. – ARTnews
Actor Rip Torn, 88
“[He] was equally at home in the comedy of the Men in Black film series or TV’s The Larry Sanders Show (for which he won his Emmy) and in the drama of Sweet Bird of Youth or Anna Christie, to name two of the numerous classic works of theater in which he appeared. … Successful onstage, in films and on television, the actor nevertheless carried a sense of persecution,” which was made worse by “his tendency toward erratic behavior.” – Variety
Artist Thrown Out Of Show For Right-Wing Views, And Controversy Nearly Causes Show’s Cancellation
“It has been a turbulent year for the Leipzig Annual Exhibition — so much so that the show was even cancelled at one point because of an outcry over the inclusion, then exclusion, of an artist who sympathises with the far-right party AfD … It eventually went ahead — six days later than scheduled, and without the artist, Axel Krause.” – The Art Newspaper
Arts Workers Hit Streets To Protest Last-Minute Cuts To Romania’s Culture Budget
“In the first public protest by such artists in many years, well-known actors … attended a demonstration of a few hundred people outside the government offices on Victory Square on June 30 … [and] museum employees around the country took part in a one-hour strike on July 3 urging the government to reconsider the cuts.” – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Is Failure A New Literary Genre?
Karl Ove Knausgård devoted several autobiographical volumes to everyday failures in My Struggle, and since then there has been a deluge of ‘fail-lit’, both in fiction and non-fiction. Could failure be the new literary success? And if so, doesn’t that mean it’s not really failure at all? – BBC
Brexiteers Protest Playing Of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony At Choral Festival
“I was told that some people felt it was not an appropriate programming for a concert in an area that voted overwhelmingly for Brexit.” The complainant then promised to call for other people to stay away. – The Guardian
Jack Renner, Co-Founder Of Telarc Records, 84
“I used to say that my recordings are made from the perspective of the best seat in the house,” he told Stereophile. “And immediately, of course, somebody says, ‘Well, who are you to say what’s the best seat in the house?’” – The New York Times
The Number Of UK Creative Jobs Is Growing Twice The Rate Of The Rest Of The Economy
Between 2011 and 2018, the number of jobs in the creative industries increased by 30.6%, compared with 10.1% in the UK overall. – The Stage
Will This New Museum In Istanbul Be A “Game Changer”?
Thirty-five exhibitions and more than 180 art commissions produced in almost a decade at the previous space were a “testing ground”, Mehli Fereli says, for an institution that aims to foster “contemporary artistic production across all disciplines, from music to dance, theatre to sonic arts, film to literature”. – The Art Newspaper