There are many good plays that get produced in America that never get to New York. “Why would a great work go unproduced? The answer is multifaceted, but much conversation swirls around non-profit business models, the economic climate, and changes in funding bases. Simply put, many theaters? particularly those invested in new and challenging work?don’t proffer as many plays as they used to.”
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Great Artists On Film – Disappearing Fast
Among the most interesting records of artists of the 20th Century are films of them at work and in conversation. “In this country alone [UK], there’s probably six or seven hundreds of hours of film of artists working and talking, a wonderful learning tool for children, artists and scholars, a window on a new world for the rest of us. The tragedy is that few can see it.” And much of it is in danger of disappearing forever.
Political Action
“What has happened to political theatre in the US? Engulfed as we are by the coverage of the chaos in Iraq and the ongoing threat of terrorism, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of rarefied world our playwrights are living in. Suffice it to say that the great wealth of work seems strangely removed from anything approaching the urgent reality of our daily headlines. But critics should be clear on how they’d like the theater to respond. Are we merely looking to theatricalize the same journalistic images that CNN and its rivals have transformed into Nielsen rating packages? Or is it a bit of didacticism that we’re after, a cup of moral advice sweetened by a dose of drama?”
Arts Funding Cuts Hurt Economy
Americans for the Arts president Robert Lynch wonders why governments are cutting arts funding just when it’s been shown that investment in the arts helps the economy. “When governments reduce their support for the arts, they are not cutting frills. They are undercutting a nonprofit industry that is a cornerstone of tourism, economic development and the revitalization of many downtowns. When governments increase their support for the arts, they are generating tax revenues, jobs and the creative energies that underlie much of what makes America so extraordinary. Every time our governments, at any level, talk about reducing support for the arts, Americans should demand to know: Who will make up for the lost economic activity? Who will provide the 8-to-1 return on investment that the arts provide in the form of federal, state and local tax revenues? Who will replace the jobs that the arts support?”
Classical Music – Chronicle Of The End
“Welcome to the death of music, or that genre of it we define as classical. For more than a century it has captured the hearts and minds of millions, inspired the building of great concert halls in hundreds of cities, sustained thousands of musicians and created a discography that seemed timeless and enduring in its appeal. Well, timeless and enduring until now. For, despite private patronage and lashings of public funds, concert performance and ticket sales are in free fall. Little wonder the latest attempts by Sir Brian McMaster, director of the Edinburgh Festival, to halt and reverse the decline in concert going are being anxiously watched round the world. For there is a growing fear that the decline in classical concert attendance now looks unstoppable.”
The Online Museum – One-Stop Shopping
An online archive of 100,000 images of artworks is the self-sufficient collaborative project that allows visitors to compare images side-by side. The digital archive offers “the opportunity to compare far-flung works while staying in one place and would be valuable to art teachers, students and scholars. As much as you want somebody to study your collection, those works get their meaning from context, and context is provided by other works in other collections.”
The Literacy Decade
“According to UNESCO, there are currently about 861 million illiterate adults in the world. In response to this staggering number, the UN has declared the next 10 years the UN Literacy Decade. During this period UNESCO will initiate its ‘International Plan of Action,’ designed to mobilize national governments, public and private organizations, universities, and local communities to create literacy programs, research who will most benefit from such programs, and find ways to monitor their success so that they can be improved upon and replicated elsewhere.”
Who Is Sean Doran?
When Sean Doran was hired to run the English National Opera, everyone was asking who he is. “Indeed, the circumstances surrounding his hiring could hardly have been less auspicious. The selection process looked like a dog’s dinner, with well-qualified potential candidates refusing to apply for the position. All this amid chorus strikes, the apparent near-bankruptcy of the company and a bid for a large-scale injection of cash from Arts Council England. Into this smouldering car crash of a company Doran has now ventured. Fresh from the job of director of Perth festival in Western Australia, the 42-year-old has been at his desk for six weeks, during which time the acting executive director, Caroline Felton, has prematurely exited stage left. You can’t help feeling sorry for Doran.”
Pavarotti Says He’ll Return To The Met
When fans thought that Pavarotti was singing his last performance at the Metropolitan Opera last year (before he canceled) they gladly paid as much as $1,875 per ticket to be there. Now the tenor says he’ll return to the Met next March. “My great friend, Joe Volpe, and I have been talking for some time now to try to reschedule the performances I unfortunately had to cancel last year. I’m so delighted to be returning to this great, great opera house to sing in ‘Tosca’.”
Court: No Acropolis Museum
Greece’s high court has ruled that the Greek government cannot build a new museum at the Acropolis to house the Parthenon Marbles. Sources “are quoted as saying the decision was influenced by fears that the construction work on the slopes of the Parthenon – the proposed site for the new museum – could damage nearby antiquities. Correspondents say such a ruling is a serious setback for the Greek Government’s efforts for the return of the Parthenon frieze known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles, which once adorned the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis, from the British Museum in London.”