Born in 1970 as a sort of successor to Judson Dance Theater, The Grand Union (named after a supermarket chain) lasted only for six years. Yet the group and (subsequently) its members — among them Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Douglas Dunn, David Gordon, and Steve Paxton — changed the course of the art form. Not long ago Wendy Perron came across some old Grand Union videotapes and wondered if the work could be as good as she remembered: “It was even better.” – The New York Times
Blog
Hollywood Likes Broadway Again
After decades of sporadic adaptations, Hollywood has suddenly thrown a lot of financing — and entire brass sections — at theatermakers. Which means that film’s latest special effect is a millenniums-old art form that’s mostly feet and breath and plywood. – The New York Times
Enzo Mari, Who Brought Radical Politics To Everyday Design, Dead Of COVID At 88
“[He] produced thousands of objects over a 60-year career, from pen holders and toys to chairs and vases. Each of those items drew inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement, in the simplicity of their form, and from his own uncompromising belief in communism.” – The Guardian
Creating DeepFakes To Make Controversial People Confess
Recently, Stephanie Lepp has been experimenting with a maligned technology, deepfakes, to create Deep Reckonings, a series of synthetic videos that imagine controversial public figures having a reckoning; in the deepfake footage, Alex Jones, Brett Kavanaugh, and Mark Zuckerberg reflect on the damage they have inflicted on society. – Forbes
When Bernstein, Sondheim, And Robbins Tried To Adapt Brecht
It was a decade after West Side Story, and Jerome Robbins got the idea to make one of Bertolt Brecht’s didactic plays into a musical. Though Sondheim in particular required some convincing, it eventually became a promising project, with John Guare writing the book and Zero Mostel engaged to star. Finally, the piece was set to premiere on Broadway in 1968, and then 1969, as A Pray by Blecht. (The title was Lenny’s.) Never happened, of course. Jesse Green recounts the story of how it came together and then fell apart. – The New York Times
Why Americans Think It’s All About Us
“American thought has always tended to a certain solipsism, a trait that has become more prominent in recent times. If Fukuyama and his neoconservative allies believed the world was yearning to be remade on an imaginary American model, the woke movement believes “whiteness” accounts for all the evils of modern societies.” – New Statesman
Book Festival Bosses Talk About How They Turned Their Events Digital On Almost No Lead Time
“Here, the directors of five festivals — Sara Ortiz of the Believer Festival, Lissette Mendez of the Miami Book Fair, Amanda Bullock of the Portland Book Festival, Steph Opitz of The Loft’s Wordplay, and Conor Moran of the Wisconsin Book Festival — discuss how their teams made it work.” – Literary Hub
Approved And Then Dropped By San Francisco, Design Of Maya Angelou Monument Is Approved Again
“Last year, an opaque selection process opened a rift between public officials and local artists when the city suddenly rejected [Maya] Thomas’s winning design. The reversal attempts to heal divisions. On Monday, the San Francisco Arts Commission unanimously voted to approve a previous recommendation made by a 2019 review panel for Ms. Thomas to design the luminary’s sculpture.” – The New York Times
Pandemic Could Permanently Change How Movie Box Office Figures Are Reported
Revealing a movie’s grosses is not something studios are obligated to do, and for decades, they didn’t. So why, in the late 1980s, did Hollywood start? Because it made for buzz within the industry and beyond to (some of) the audience; sometimes, worldwide headlines were made. But now that lockdowns have led to the release of even major blockbuster titles online, “studios get to rethink whether they want to continue sharing grosses on a 24/7 basis with rivals, analysts and the media.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Classical Concerts Under COVID: Where Things Stand In Asia, Australia/New Zealand, And the Americas
With governments in China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore mostly able to impose safety measures without too much pushback, case numbers are down and concert numbers are up, though usually with reduced audience. New Zealand is almost back to normal and Australia is getting there, with even a Ring cycle planned for Brisbane this month. Alas, reports David Karlin, “the contrast between Asia and the Americas could not be more stark,” though tentative returns to concert life are happening in Canada, Colombia, and Chile. – Bachtrack