Michael Billington is afraid plays are getting into a rut: “While I’ve no wish to lay down laws, I find myself increasingly disturbed by the fashionable tyranny of the 90-minute play. It is everywhere; and I believe it is crippling ambition, ironing out contradiction, and effectively de-politicising drama.”
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Remaking Denver
Denver is remaking itself “combining an old pragmatism with an intensifying progressive bent. Some longtime residents are worried the large flock of newcomers are reshaping Denver to resemble the coastal cities they left behind, while others celebrate the new push toward public transit and a vibrant downtown.”
Predock To Design $300 Million Human Rights Museum
Architect Antoine Predock has been chosen to design the new Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg. “The $300-million museum aims to be the largest human-rights institution and education centre in the world. Scheduled to open in 2009 or 2010, the museum will be built at the historic Forks site in Winnipeg, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.”
In Australia: Just Give Them The Money!
The Sydney Dance Company and Australia’s symphony orchestras are underfunded and endangered. Now a popular swell of support is rising up, with Sydney’s leading radio host taking up the cause: “Are we cultural slobs, or are we prepared to step up to the plate and get behind our orchestras and the Sydney Dance Company, when we know their cultural worth and the level of community support that they enjoy? So let’s forget the debate. Provide the money, and get on with it.”
Cubs Fans, Meet “Ring” Fans (Hey, It’s Chicago)
“Perhaps it’s a stretch to insist that a passion for baseball and a passion for opera are related, though the link is documented. But as Placido Domingo intimated, the link seems most intense in Chicago, where the ache for a baseball victory is palpable (the White Sox are virtually as hapless as the Cubs), where theater, the symphony and the opera are virulent inspirers of local pride, and where a recent newspaper poll asking whether sports or the arts were more thrilling ended in a dead heat.”
The Hardest Working Man In Music
Valery Gergiev “has become, since the deaths of Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, the most talked-about maestro on the planet. Known also as ‘the hardest working man in music,’ Gergiev would have his hands full just being artistic director of the Kirov or Mariinsky Theatre, with its 2,000 employees, including an opera company, a ballet company and a giant orchestra. But when he is not in St. Petersburg, he can often be found in New York, at The Met, where he has been principal guest conductor since 1997 (a new three-year contract is about to be signed), or in Rotterdam, where he has been principal conductor of the Philharmonic since 1995, or at one of several festivals he organizes annually.”
Ontario Asks For Extension On Film Censorship Ban
A year ago an Ontario judge stripped the Ontario Film Review Board of its censorship powers, ruling that “sections of the Theatres Act, which require all films and videos to be submitted to the board for approval, violate guarantees of freedom of expression under the Charter and are an unjustified form of prior restraint.” Now the Ontario government is seeking an extension of the deadline to make the censorship rule changes…
California’s Venice Fights Over Nude Sculpture
In usually free-wheeling Venice California, a controversy has sprung up over plans to erect a headless nude sculpture. “In keeping with the community’s contrarian reputation, unexpected alliances have formed on both sides: Conservative church leaders have joined with staunch feminists in opposition; some old-guard activists have connected with ambitious developers to defend the torso.”
Ashkenazy Named Liverpool Laureate
Pianist and condusctor Vladimir Ashkenazy has been named the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s first “artist laureate” in Liverpool’s capital of culture year, 2008.
A New California Arts Tax?
A member of the California state assmbly proposes a dedicated tax to support the arts. “The bill calls for imposing a 1% surcharge on arts and entertainment admissions — a dime for a $10 movie ticket, about 53 cents for admission to Disneyland or a buck for a $100 seat at the opera or a top arena-rock band. That would raise at least $23 million in annual guaranteed funding for the California Arts Council, the state’s main arm for fostering nonprofit arts organizations through annual grants. From a peak of more than $30 million four years ago, the Arts Council has seen its annual funding cut to just more than $3 million.”