“Bringing in new audiences has become an increasing concern for theater companies with aging subscribers. Not only is the coveted 18- to 35-year-old demographic not subscribing, they aren’t even a substantial slice of the single-ticket buying pie. In response, companies are developing clever methods of channeling attention toward their theaters – things like student rush, which offers tickets for reduced rates right before a show. Other theaters are taking more proactive steps, like the College Ambassador Program.”
Blog
What’s Wrong With MTV
“We, too, remember when MTV used to be all about the issues — subversive and usually liberal. Now the network is all gab about the glam lifestyles, love triangles, mean girls and staged cat fights on these impossible-to-ignore unreality shows starring spoiled simpletons. We don’t mean to make like the Rev. James Dobson, but we’re certain that the MTV execs who green-lighted these docudramas about socioeconomic excess are headed straight for hell.”
New York’s Dance Season Debuts
“The most extreme landscape for the art form is found at City Ballet, where dozens of works, frustratingly underrehearsed, are performed each season. Yet by the very nature of the company’s George Balanchine-heavy repertory, there is often ample opportunity for individual dancers to shine. The company, no longer the one Balanchine envisioned, has turned into the punk rock of ballet. Performances are jittery, raw, unpredictable and, at times, horrific, but at both its unprofessional worst and unnervingly beautiful best, programs at the New York State Theater are alive. You go because you can’t fathom what will happen next.”
One-Day Culture Strike In Italy To Protest Arts Funding Cuts
Italy’s public culture has shut down in a country-wide one-day strike. “Cinemas, theatres, concert halls and opera houses and even circuses in Italy will be empty today because of a combined strike and lockout in protest at huge cuts to the arts budget ordered by Silvio Berlusconi’s government. Impresarios and distributors are to join actors and musicians in the initiative. The draft budget for next year lops about a third off the main fund for the performing arts. Cultural institutions said they faced reductions of up to 40% in resources.”
Bussell Says She’ll Retire
Royal Ballet star Darcey Bussell says she’ll retire at the end of this season. “Bussell, 36, says the current season will be her last as a principal dancer with the company as she wants to spend more time with her family. ‘I have always wanted to end my full-time career still dancing the full classical repertoire at the standard to which I aspire’.”
Pinter – Power Playwright
“In his versatile and productive career, Harold Pinter, 75, has written plays and screenplays, directed theater productions, acted on screen and stage, and won awards across Europe. So precise and pared down is his prose, so artful his use of pauses and omissions to invoke discomfort, foreboding and miscommunication that he has his own adjective, Pinteresque, signifying a peculiar kind of atmospheric unease.”
Clear Channel Fires Employees In Payola Probe
Radio giant Clear Channel has fired employees involved in two payola scandals. “Clear Channel said an internal investigation found two cases with evidence of wrongdoing, and those involved have been fired. The statement did not specify how many people were fired in the two incidents.”
Smithsonian Sells The Names Of Two Museums
In return for a $45 million donation, the Smithsonian says the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation will get its name on two museums. “The Las Vegas-based foundation, now the second largest donor in the Smithsonian’s history with a total contribution of $75 million, directed its new multimillion-dollar support to the renovation and exhibitions at the landmark building. The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum will retain their individual names.”
New Energy in British Jazz
British jazz of the 1970s was vibrant, but by the 90s it had lost steam. “If there was an identity crisis in young British jazz just 10 years ago, it is now subsiding, and a lot of that is thanks to the work of F-ire. The measure of inspiration presented in the collective’s work reminds me of the very best of British jazz.”
Study: Classic FM Works
Critics assail the UK’s Classic FM as lightweight and useless in clutivating new audiences for classical music. But a new study reports that Classic FM is a potent audience-builder. “The study, conducted between May and October last year, compared concerts supported by Classic FM with those that were not. The Philharmonia Orchestra reported three times the number of first-time concert-goers at their Classic FM-supported events, and figures for the Barbican’s Classic-backed Mostly Mozart festival were even more impressive, with a massive 38 per cent of the audience attending a classical concert for the very first time.”