Where is the best theatre in America? Not on Broadway. “Local audiences are getting a better taste of the possibilities of theater than most New Yorkers get in an entire season. The plays that succeed on and off Broadway these days are, as a rule, small things: two-and three-character relationship dramas (those big casts cost money!); minimalist exercises in craftsmanship; tidy little plays that convert big subjects into manageable private dramas. Plays of epic size and scope, works that examine American history and the American experience, plays that attempt to engage the audience in social and political issues — for those, mostly, you’ve got to look in the hinterlands.”
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What Becomes A Great Theatre?
Time’s list of best regional theatre prompts Frank Rizzo to wonder what makes a great theatre. “To me, a great theater engages an audience in a way that lingers well past the time theatergoers make it to the parking lot after a show. A great theater does the classics, but it also understands it is not a museum and must present them in a way that is vital, elegant or challenging. A great theater presents works of new voices, not just in a marginal way. A great theater knows how to attract a great audience, one that will stick by it as it attempts the extraordinary. A great theater is as hungry for the new, young audience member as it is interested in retaining loyal supporters. A great theater reflects the world around it, and that begins with its community. A great theater also knows the difference between art and pretension, knows that you don’t have to pander to be accessible, and knows the distinction between a small show and a cheap one.”
Pining For The Days Of Greater Media Regulation?
“Recently, even at the biggest conglomerates, where deregulation is an article of faith, some executives have professed a certain nostalgia for a more restrictive era. From the libertarian-minded media investor John C. Malone to Donald E. Graham of the Washington Post Company, executives in television, radio, music, newspapers and cable TV have started to talk about the unintended consequences of two decades of deregulation and to ask for new rules, setting the stage for battles in Congress and the courts.”
Can Cultural Development Rejuvenate A City?
There’s an idea that culture can be used to “revive declining places, and the idea of urban living in general.” But does it really work? “The origins of this vigorous, commercially-driven view of culture in cities are in the wider free-market revolution of the 70s and 80s. Large, abandoned city buildings have been converted into cultural facilities at least since the French Revolution, when artists took over empty churches and mansions. But the idea that such conversions should be centrepieces of urban renewal only took root, in Britain at least, with the discovery of the ‘inner city’ as a political issue in the late 70s and the growing official reluctance to address its problems through more traditional, and expensive, social reforms.”
Free Radio, Free Spectrum?
Should radio frequencies be auctioned off as property? Or, since technology has improved and “smart” radios can pick up stations more efficiently, should the whole licensing approach be rethought? “Technology may thus help to create markets; but it also makes some of them obsolete. In this case it has turned land into sea, metaphorically speaking. To draw a historical parallel: the development of better ships did not lead to parcelling up the world’s oceans but to something called free trade.”
US To Rejoin UNESCO – A Move To Try To Dominate Cultural Policy?
Surprising just about everyone last fall, the Bush administration decided the US should rejoin UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency. “The American contribution will be the first since 1984, when the US withdrew in protest against mismanagement, corruption, and Third World bias.” How to interpret the move? “A careful analysis of statements made by administration officials and other politicians reveals that far from being a move towards multilateral collaboration, the decision to rejoin the organisation is seen by the Bush administration as simply another weapon in the US war on terror.”
This Year’s Cannes – What A Stinker!
“The shock of this Cannes was the overall mediocrity of the official competition slate, which, by the time the awards were announced last Sunday, had overwhelmed even the most tolerant and optimistic observers. There were calls for the ouster of Gilles Jacob, the president of the Board of Directors, or of Thierry Fremaux, the festival’s artistic head, and competing theories as to which one was responsible for the debacle.”
Cirque’s New Erotic Show
Cirque du Soleil is moving beyond family entertainment, producing a new erotic show for Las Vegas. “The R-rated ‘Zumanity’ is being billed as ‘a provocative exhibition of human sensuality, arousal and eroticism.’ In addition to traditional theatre seats and bar stools, couples will be able to purchase tickets for two-person love seats and sofas to enjoy the show more intimately. Fifty dancers, acrobats, clowns and musicians are rehearsing in secret at the Cirque du Soleil’s Montreal headquarters in preparation for the Aug. 14 premiere.”
Montana Transfers Arts Money To Fund Emergency Medical Communications System
Just as the Montana state legislature was closing its session, it passed an amendment that canceled $100,000 from the Montana Arts Council budget and transfered it to fund an emergency medical communications system.
Florida Fallout From Arts Cuts
After the Florida legislature hacked down the state’s arts budget, “all across South Florida, arts groups are tallying their potential losses, which range from $1,500 to more than $500,000 per year. The fallout will include delayed construction projects, reduced services and, perhaps most damaging in the long run, cutbacks in educational programs for children. ‘We can no longer count on state arts funds as a part of our annual operating budget. Because the grants are non-recurring and the trust funds are eliminated, we would do ourselves a fiscal disservice to rely on the state’.”