New York’s new bargain-basement festival, Fall For Dance, wrapped up its first season this past weekend, and the afterglow is something to behold. “Dance presenters, choreographers and artistic directors are full of praise for what they call courageous programming, for the audacity of trying (successfully) to fill a 2,700-seat theater for six nights of dance and for bringing five companies together on stage each night for a $10 ticket.” And yet, some in the business are wondering if the success of the fest might not indicate a very real danger for the dance profession as a whole…
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London Playhouse To Close
“London’s Bridewell Theatre is to close in January after failing to secure sufficient funding from the Arts Council. Over the past 11 years the theatre has won itself an international reputation for music theatre and become a powerhouse in the development of new British musical talent.”
Maybe They Could Get Bill O’Reilly To Play Rumsfeld?
The new off-Broadway political docudrama, Guantanamo: Honour Bound to Defend Freedom, featured an unexpected cameo this past week by an actor known the world over for his activist tendencies and opposition to the Bush Administration’s policies at home and abroad. And no, it wasn’t Alec Baldwin. The graying eminence presiding on stage as Lord Justice Steyn was, in fact, none other than Bishop Desmond Tutu, who, having wrapped up his engagement in New York, says that he is now awaiting his Tony nominations.
Poet Laureate Puts His Foot In It
In a major embarrassment for the Scottish Executive, the new poet laureate signed an infamous declaration calling for Scotland to secede from the UK hours before one of his poems was to have been read before the British Queen. Edwin Morgan, “who was yesterday given a £5000-a-year stipend for being the national poet, or makar, said his sympathies were very much with the republicans.”
Chelsea’s Guerillas
“Two weekends ago, the staid art galleries of [New York’s Chelsea neighborhood] got a shot of guerilla art, when the RIDER Project parked in the area. The inside of the 15-foot truck had been meticulously sheetrocked, taped and painted white, turning it into a white cube art space showcasing the work of 17 emerging artists… Some of the gallery owners were not so pleased.”
The Plot Against Philip Roth
The swastika is illegal in Germany, but at the Frankfurt Book Fair, they seem to be everywhere, emblazoned across the front of several bestselling books. “All the more curious then that a shipment of [Philip Roth’s latest] book was held up at German customs this week, apparently because of the swastika cover.”
Revising The Brando Legacy
Marlon Brando was a brilliant actor, but his various eccentricities turned him into something of a walking caricature late in life, and his death this year did little to dispel the popular vision of him as a Hollywood joke. But now, “some of the people closest to the actor, who was known for protecting his privacy, have begun to speak publicly about his life, partly to correct the notion, fostered by tabloid stories, that he died a recluse, almost penniless and deeply in debt.”
$100 Million Buys A Lot Of Verse
Two years after a $100 million bequest fell unexpectedly into its lap, the formerly tiny and obscure Poetry Foundation has revealed just what it plans to do with the money. The group is planning “a host of projects, from a national recitation contest for high school students to ‘the biggest and baddest Web site for poetry out there.’ The projects are likely to comprise the most sweeping effort to promote poetry in the history of the United States or any other country. They may also make the Poetry Foundation a major force on the American cultural landscape.”
Frankfurt Focuses On The Middle East
The Frankfurt Art Fair is broadening its horizons, inviting Arab writers to participate in what has traditionally been a near-exclusively European event. The idea is to promote translations of Arab literature, and the strategy may already be having an effect. “Some 50 titles have been translated into German this year, compared to between 12-15 in previous years.”
Scot Wins UK Poetry Prize
“Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie has won the £10,000 Forward Prize – the UK’s biggest annual poetry award. She took the best collection prize with The Tree House, a collection of poems embracing nature and spirituality. The award for best first collection was awarded to 29-year-old Leontia Flynn, from Fife, for her ‘strikingly original’ debut These Days.”