Last week’s NEA study that reported the decline of reading in America suggested that an amazing number of people still read. “For example, if one were to ask most of my conservative friends to name the percentage of Americans who read fiction, poetry or plays, they’d likely have guessed 25% at most, not the actual 46.7%. Extrapolating its data to actual readers, the Endowment finds the number of people reading or listening to poetry in 2002 was 30 million. Thirty million! What are they reading? If only 20,000 of them read John Donne, Wallace Stevens or Yeats just for the pleasure of their company, the nation’s mental health is more certain than we imagined. Seven million read plays. That seven million Americans would read a play for pleasure is astonishing.”
Blog
Remembering The Chess Side Of Bobby Fischer
With chess master Bobby Fischer now in custody, attention focuses on the unpleasant side of his personality. But Gary Kasparov would like to see beyond that: “Despite the ugliness of his decline, Bobby Fischer deserves to be remembered for the great things he did for chess and for his immortal games. I would prefer to focus on not letting his personal tragedy become a tragedy for chess.”
Why The TV Star Got Fired From Sondheim Play
Why did Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan get fired from Stephen Sondheim’s “The Frogs” on Broadway? “The departure of Kattan from ‘The Frogs’ could be turned into a sort of morality tale — or fraught disaster movie. After all, what could have been more promising and foolproof than to be summoned, as he was, from Hollywood to Broadway by some of its most dazzling citizenry — multi-Tony winners Stroman and Lane, not to mention Sondheim? They invited him to take his first role on the stage.”
Figuring Out The Royal Ballet
“The impression I have of today’s Royal Ballet is that of a company that places its highest value on technical precision in the legs and feet, a prescribed sculptural eloquence in the port de bras, and gentleness and gentility even in the execution of bravura feats and the rendering of powerful emotions. Other factors that one might look for in dancing—spontaneity, risk-taking, the projection of an individual stage temperament—are muted by some sort of consensus decision about dancing that the company has arrived at (no doubt, in part unconsciously). As happens anywhere under these circumstances, only the great stars—the Darcy Bussells, the Alina Cojocarus—transcend the prevailing code of behavior. What I wonder about the Royal is how many potential stars (I saw several, especially among the men) are being stifled by it.”
Dance Pioneer Bella Lewitzky Dies
“Los Angeles-based modern dance pioneer Bella Lewitzky, who transformed herself from a powerhouse dancer into an indomitably independent, internationally known choreographer, master teacher and arts advocate, died Friday at an assisted-care facility in Pasadena. She was 88.”
Orange County – A Fundraising Contradiction
Southern California’s Orange County Performing Arts Center, which “recently issued $180 million in bonds to ensure that an expansion is built on time despite lagging fundraising, announced Thursday that it had raised a record amount of money to support its operations in the last year. The seemingly contradictory news reflects the continued softness in high-end donations that have plagued arts groups nationwide in recent years.”
Visual “Noise” Tricks The Brain
“The equivalent of snow on a TV screen, visual noise is a major but poorly understood part of the daily input into our minds. The noise can have many sources, including changes in the number of light particles hitting cells in the eye, which can alter people’s perception of facial expression.”
O’Neill Theatre Director Resigns
“In an unexpected move, J Ranelli has resigned as artistic director of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center a little more than half a year after he was named to the post at the 40-year-old Waterford, Conn., institution.”
Informing The Public, Or Forcing A Strike?
AJ Blogger Drew McManus says that the Philadelphia Orchestra’s new web page offering a supposedly impartial “informational update” on contract negotiations with the orchestra’s musicians is full of hypocrisy and hyperbole. “It’s almost as though [board chairman Richard] Smoot wants to force the musicians to go on strike. And when that happens, no one wins. Yes, changes need to occur, but this is the absolutely worst possible way to draw them out. This is a clear sign that the Philadelphia community and the classical music community at large should call for the resignation of Richard Smoot as Chairman of the Board and Joe Kluger as President.”
Criticism As Blunt Force Trauma
John Leonard is tired of Dale Peck. “This isn’t criticism. It isn’t even performance art. It’s thuggee. However entertaining in small doses — we are none of us immune to malice, envy, schadenfreude, a prurient snuffle and a sucker punch — as a steady diet it’s worse for readers, writers and reviewers than self-abuse; it causes the kind of tone-deaf, colorblind, nerve-damaged and gum-sore literary journalism that screams ”Look at me!” The rain comes down — and the worms come out — and just what the culture doesn’t need is one more hall monitor, bounty hunter or East German border guard.”