The past two years have been busy in the theatre, with non-operatic roles, some time in Carousel, and currently in The Light in the Piazza. – The Guardian
Blog
At This Ballet School, They Are Empowering Their Students With Important Life Skills
“The after-school program at the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet in South Miami … provides ballet, reading, math and etiquette classes along with access to mental health professionals. The program delivers professionally taught dance classes in multiple genres, at little or no cost to 500 students ages 5-11.” – Miami Herald
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Goes To Broadway To See “What The Constitution Means To Me”
Ginsburg got a standing ovation when her famous line about women on the Supreme Court was said by a cast member: “When will there be enough women on the court? My answer is, when there are nine.” – CNN
What Goes On Backstage At The World’s Oldest Theatre Collective
“Theatre collective” may seem a surprising way to describe the Comédie-Française (est. 1680), but it’s accurate: the company is owned and controlled by its actors and other members. Reporter Laura Cappelle pays a visit to see how it all works. – The Guardian
Brazilians Face The Fact That Their Greatest Writer Was Black
“The traditional historical photo of [Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis] shows a man whose skin is nearly as light as his crisp white dress shirt. … Machado was known to be the descendant of freed slaves, but the new rendering, which shows him as a black man, has shaken Brazilians, prompting some to reconsider how they previously read his work and angering others who feel his legacy had been whitewashed.” – The New York Times
Charles Reich, Author Of ‘The Greening Of America’, Dead At 91
“Reich was a popular Yale University professor whose students included both Bill and Hillary Clinton and a respected legal scholar when a 39,000-word excerpt from The Greening of America ran in The New Yorker in September 1970, generating a massive volume of letters. The book was published a few weeks later and sold more than 2 million copies, making Reich a middle-aged hero for a rebellious generation despite scorn from both conservatives and liberals.” – AP
An Oral History Of ‘Oh! Calcutta!, Which Premiered 50 Years Ago
“An erotic revue conceived by the English theater critic Kenneth Tynan, Oh! Calcutta! took it all off at the Eden Theater, a former pornographic cinema that had been renovated by the show’s producer. … [Tynan] solicit[ed] anyone and everyone to submit a titillating sketch. Nothing ‘about art or redeeming literary merit,’ he advised. A lot of the luminaries (Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Edna O’Brien) dropped out or were dropped, but the final, all-male lineup included Sam Shepard, Jules Feiffer and John Lennon.” – The New York Times
Why More Than A Third Of The Board At Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre Quit
A letter from eight of the 13 departing board members noted that two leading candidates for CEO of the theater withdrew after meeting with the president of Roosevelt University (which owns the theatre) and said that, “As a result, we lack confidence about the future outlook for the Theatre, are unable to advance the Theatre’s mission, and have been stymied in our attempts to work with the University’s leadership to find a solution.” – Crain’s Chicago Business
The Ongoing Destruction Of The Bamiyan Buddhas (As If What The Taliban Did Weren’t Bad Enough)
“Most of the time, the remains of the monument are so poorly guarded that anyone can buy a ticket ($4 for foreigners, 60 cents for Afghans), walk in and do pretty much whatever he wants. And many do. Souvenir-hunters pluck pieces of painted stucco decorations from the network of chambers or take away chunks of fallen sandstone. Graffiti signatures, slogans, even solicitations for sex abound.” – The New York Times
How The National Orchestral Institute Is Preparing Diverse Young Musicians For The Orchestra World (And Vice Versa)
Anne Midgette: “Preparing young musicians for a career in music looks different now than it did in 1988, when NOI began. A big part of instrumentalists’ training has always been learning to play orchestral excerpts as best they can, to land a job in an orchestra. But in today’s world, orchestra jobs are ever harder to come by, and orchestras are struggling with their identities, trying to figure out ways to become more diverse in their personnel and their programming. Institutions like NOI can play an active role in that kind of shift.” – The Washington Post