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Seattle’s ACT Theatre In Financial Trouble Again

Seattle’s ACT Theatre finds itself looking at a $450,000 deficit on a $5 million budget. “Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at belt-tightening possibilities,” said company manager Susan Trapnell. “One likely option is about a month of unpaid furlough for Kurt (artistic director Kurt Beattie) and me. Salary cuts for top staff are another possibility.” Two years ago, ACT was on the verge of bankruptcy but pulled away from the brink of extinction with emergency austerity and fund-raising tactics.

Taylor Resigns As CBC Chair

Carole Taylor has resigned as chair of the CBC, a post she has held since 2001. “During her term, she introduced new conflict of interest guidelines for members of the CBC board and put through a new policy on whistleblowers. In her statement, Taylor said the public broadcaster needs improved and stable funding to produce quality work.”

Tacoma Theatre Loses NEA Grant

The struggling Tacoma Actors Guild theatre loses a $25,000 NEA grant for producing Shakespeare. A production of “Comedy of Errors” was canceled after the theater announced $350,000 in debt and laid off its staff in December, reopening with a scaled-back production cycle that includes, instead, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).” That disqualified TAG from the competitive Shakespeare for a New Generation program. TAG was selected as one of 22 participating theaters in the nation. These have to be full productions of Shakespeare’s work.”

The Art Of £500

What’s the best art you can buy for £500? “My first port of call is that of any lazy bargain hunter – eBay. At the rock bottom end of the price list are an awful lot of paintings of dogs and tulips. Indeed, should I so wish, my budget could get me 50 portraits of golden Labradors; but I suspect my walls would then be petrifying, rather than powerful. At the £500 mark, there are more exotic animals; a family of elephants drinking by a lake; a tiger with a soul-piercing gaze.”

Will Christo And Jeanne-Claude Move On To Colorado Project?

“Since at least 1992, Christo and Jeanne- Claude have pursued “Over the River,” a project to cover 6.7 miles of the Arkansas River between Cañon City and Salida with translucent fabric panels 10 to 23 feet above the water. But the controversial husband-and-wife artistic duo set it aside several years ago to focus on “The Gates.” After a three-week display that New York City officials estimated drew 4 million people, including 1.5 million from outside the five boroughs, a question arises: Will the couple shift their focus back to Over the River?”

Runaway Boards?

As the actions of the boards of several arts organizations in the Pacific Northwest have shown in recent months, arts boards have a lot of responsibility (and headaches). “I think there’s a belief that to be on a nonprofit arts board, you maybe just show up at some meetings a few times a year. The truth is, the “hand-to-mouth business” of nonprofit art is scary and dangerous, and takes a lot of care and coddling and attention.”

In Search Of Big Sales

“Despite occasional hot sellers such as ”The Da Vinci Code,” book sales have grown little in the past few years, and mass-market paperback sales have declined steadily. One big reason, it seems, is that baby boomers, historically the biggest mass-market buyers, increasingly find those little books too hard to read. Mass-markets are the thick, squareish paperbacks — mostly entertainment fiction — that you stick in your pocket or purse and read on the subway, airplane, or beach. It’s a tried-and-true format. But something is wrong.”

Report: Orchestra Pit Not Dangerous To Hearing

Researchers have determined that noise levels in the typical orchestra pit are not dangerous to players’ hearing. “The researchers found that the noise exposure of players of all of the instrument groups fell below acceptable 85 dBA (noise exposure level measured in decibels – dB, corrected to the frequency response of the human ear – A) for an eight-hour day recommended by institutions such as the U.S. National Institute of Safety and Health, the International Standard Organization (ISO) and also included in the Canadian Standards Association.”

The Serial Book-Unfinisher

Paul Wells finds he never finishes books these days. “It is a dark burden to bear, this business of not finishing books. You start out with all the goodwill in the world. You flip the pages diligently. Your circle of acquaintances expands by a dozen or more as this cast of made-up people enters your life. And before you even find out how it all turns out for them, you set them aside. What’s your problem? You feel ungrateful, somehow. The author put his life into these people, and I can’t even stick around to see who lives or who dies? And yet, as I stare at the books in my library, I realize I have become a serial book-unfinisher.”