Small theatres often become so identified with the leader who brings them to life that it’s sometimes difficult to imagine them without their patron saint. “At least half a dozen of the Twin Cities’ best-known, most innovative, highest-quality theaters face the same situation. Penumbra Theatre Company, Mixed Blood Theatre, Park Square Theatre and Illusion Theater all are facing a future without the artistic directors who have poured their lifeblood into them. Their long-term survival depends on figuring out how to transfuse that lifeblood into a new generation of leadership.”
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Ostrow: Tomlinson Is A Disaster At CPB
Joanne Ostrow is out of patience for the right-wing mudslingers who have been trying to take out public broadcasting for the last decade, and who have recently scored some serious victories thanks to a conservative chairman at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “The politicization of public broadcasting is in full flower… The man who is supposed to be the buffer between PBS and Congress has instead become a battering ram. This former head of the Voice of America seems to have confused the role of PBS and NPR with that of the VOA and Radio Free Europe, explicit political mouthpieces.”
The Evolving Producer
Whatever happened to the Broadway producer, the networking genius who could bring together the right author, the right composer, and the right director to create a great show? These days, most Broadway hits are corporate concoctions, based on Disney movies or the rock bands of yesteryear, and there doesn’t seem to be much room for the old-school masters. A new fellowship program is aiming to train the producers of tomorrow, but no one seems quite certain of what that job will entail.
The New Hollywood Right
The rules of media-politic have been clear for some time: talk radio belongs to conservatives, Hollywood belongs to liberals. But a new generation of conservative filmmakers is determined to change the equation, and they’ve been joined by an increasingly vocal group of Hollywood stars whose political leanings veered right after 9/11.
Art That Won’t Leave You Alone
Video art is hot right now, and collectors are eager to purchase innovative pieces. But what do you do with art that practically requires a major installation space and that, in many cases, never shuts up? It’s an increasingly real problem for collectors, not mention their unsuspecting houseguests…
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em (Finally!)
After years of trying to beat file-sharers into the ground, the music industry appears to be shifting strategies. Rather than focusing on money lost to pirates, the industry is now focusing on creating new revenue streams from new technologies such as peer-to-peer file-trading networks. Of course, this is exactly what many observers had been saying the industry should do from the beginning, but it may be that the years spent fighting online piracy have created a need for music peddlers to find a way for music sales to coexist with the free transfer of concert tapes and unlicensed material.
The Paradox Of Artistic Jerks
Creativity is much revered, and yet, so often, it seems, the individuals responsible for creative genius disappoint when viewed as human beings. “Art seems to require an inviolable freedom to seek the good of the artifact, without either overt or covert messages being forced into it. And history demonstrates that it is simply a statement of fact (to paraphrase Aquinas) that rectitude of the appetites is not a prerequisite for the ability to make beautiful objects. Thus our poisoner with his exquisite prose style. Or Picasso brutalizing the women in his life. Or the legion of artists and scientists who drank or drugged themselves to death.”
LA Phil Ticket Sales Stay Strong
Orchestras are declining? Don’t tell it to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which is continuing to ride a wave of popularity that got a major boost with the opening of the spectacular new Disney Hall. For the second year in a row, the Phil sold more than 97% of its available seats for the season, up from 60% capacity in its huge old home across the street.
Too Many Words, Not Enough Action
Scotland’s Cultural Commission released a 500-page report this week underlining the importance of the arts in everyday life. But do such bureaucratic examinations miss the point? “No committee ever wrote a book, no strategy composed a symphony and no review created a work of art. [The] report fails to make its central case – that only the proposed Culture Scotland, a membership organisation owned and governed by councils for heritage and creative industries, plus representatives of business, education, and the voluntary sector, is the vehicle to deliver cultural rights.”
Napa Arts Caught In A Catch-22
California’s Napa Valley has seen an artistic renaissance over the past five years, with multiple venues undergoing extensive renovations to bring them up to snuff for high-level performing arts groups. But post-renovation, many of the area’s arts organizations are finding themselves priced out of the venues, which must charge high rents in order to break even.