“Films have become bankable entities in the West End, sure-fire brands ripe for conversion into hot-ticket shows. It’s hard not to confuse today’s theatre listings with a Christmas TV guide: here are Mary Poppins, The Producers, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Saturday Night Fever, Grand Hotel and The Lion King. Even “difficult” movies are getting the treatment.”
Blog
Spellings: PBS Should Be “Straight Down The Line”
New American education secretary defends her concerns about the cartoon Postcards from Buster on PBS because it shows gays in the background. “When people turn on the Public Broadcasting System, they expect to get something that is very straight down the line that is educationally oriented. And I think that particular topic, of sexuality and lifestyles, are things that need to be introduced by parents and families in their own way and in their own time.”
NY Mayor Proposes Arts Funding Cuts
“New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented a preliminary budget last week, forecasting a $1.4 billion overall surplus and proposing a Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) cut of some $20 million.” The arts budget cuts weren’t a surprise. Bloomberg had told arts groups in December of his intentions.
Virginia’s Desperate Arts Groups (And A Creative Play For Funding)
Virgina’s culture groups have hit on a creative way to try to fund their projects after the state legislature cut them off. “The proposal’s sponsors are respected organizations. Their projects will be a boon to Virginia. The annual cost of what they’re seeking, $6.8 million in debt service, is a modest sum, a footnote in the state budget. Their claim on state funding is valid and their strategy, in a difficult legislative environment, creative. But instead of backing cultural organizations into the corner, Virginia should recognize their value in regular appropriations from general funds.”
Seattle’s Empty Space Theatre Rises From The Ashes
Seattle’s Empty Space Theatre will resume operations after raising enough money to continue. “Crippled by debt and non-existent financial reserves, the board decided in October that unless $350,000 could be raised by Jan. 31, the Space would go out of business. As of yesterday, $403,865 had been raised.”
A Theatre Plan To Help Scottish Opera
“Glasgow City Council meets next week to consider a financial package to pass control of the Theatre Royal to the Ambassador Theatre Group, one of the UK’s largest stage entertainment companies. The complex deal is designed to rid Scottish Opera, which currently owns the building, of the heavy burden of maintaining it. But it also promises to bring high-profile touring works to Glasgow.”
What Contemporary Art In New York Looks Like
A team of curators has been tramping all over New York for the past twn months looking for art that represents the city. “From more than 2,400 submissions, museum directors and curators will choose the work of 175 artists who they say best capture the city’s contemporary art scene for “Greater New York 2005,” a giant survey show opening on March 13 at P.S. 1. For curators, the studio forays are an exercise in discovery – a chance to break away from the routine of organizing exhibitions by proven names. For the artists, they are a nail-biting exercise, not unlike a callback audition for an Off Broadway production.”
Rhetorical Punches Finally Thrown In St. Louis
The St. Louis Symphony strike/lockout (depending on whom you ask) is now a month old, and the odd civility that initially surrounded the situation appears to be all but gone. As the musicians crank up the PR machine, playing a free children’s concert at a local church, they are also taking shots at the SLSO management for refusing mediation and failing to make any counterproposal to what the musicians offered several weeks back. In return, the orchestra’s president is calling the musicians “really dumb” for not being willing to accept the management’s last contract offer, which would have dealt them a pay cut of more than $10,000.
Officially, It’s A Strike
Since the work stoppage in St. Louis began, musicians have been claiming that they’re locked out, while the orchestra management insists that the players are on strike. Four weeks in, the state of Missouri has weighed in, and the verdict is that the stoppage is a strike.
Sanctuary Vs. Urban Sanction
“Burning Man’s renowned temple-builder, David Best, was one day from completing a towering art project dedicated to the day laborers in San Rafael’s canal district when the city decided it was all too much. ‘The Chapel of the Laborer,’ a small-scale version of the respected plywood structures that Best builds for the weeklong festival in the Nevada desert and then burns in remembrance of the dead, was to be a temporary sanctuary where Latinos could gather, pray or light a candle for loved ones… But this week the city received a complaint and ordered Best to stop construction immediately. Yellow caution tape now lines the front of the 30- foot-tall structure, and a stop-work order sits near the Virgin Mary’s hand.”