“A new approach to theatre criticism, in which theatres see developing critical voices as part of audience and artist development and invest in it accordingly in terms of both time and money, is needed. … Particularly when The Stage survey indicates that word of mouth and friends is a more trusted source of opinion than mainstream publications. Could audiences be those friends too?”
Blog
Judge Orders Return Of 2,500-Year-Old Stone Bas-Relief To Iran
“The bas-relief, which depicts a Persian guard, was seized in October by investigators for the Manhattan district attorney’s office from the Park Avenue Armory, where it was being offered for sale at an art fair. … Investigators say the item was reported stolen from Tehran in 1936, and then was stolen a second time, in 2011, from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, to which it had been donated decades earlier.”
Brian Kellow, Longtime Editor At ‘Opera News’, Dead At 59
“Brian left behind an extraordinary legacy within the magazine’s pages — thirty years’ worth of news features, personality profiles, reviews and opinion pieces, every one of them lit by a writerly spark that was uniquely his own. He was also the author of a series of dazzling biographies exploring the lives of Pauline Kael, Sue Mengers, Ethel Merman and Hollywood’s Bennett sisters.”
Did Electrical Workers Just Find A Church From The Dawn Of Christianity?
Technicians laying cable near the Ponte Milvio came across ruins of four rooms from the first and fourth centuries. One of those rooms has carefully wrought floors of multi-colored marble and is adjacent to a small cemetery, which leads the supervising archaeologist to think that the site may have been a place of worship.
For First Time, Graphic Novel Is Nominated For Man Booker Prize
“Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, a work that Zadie Smith called ‘the best book — in any medium — I have read about our current moment,’ is the surprise name among the 13 finalists announced today. It appears alongside Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room, Sally Rooney’s much-hyped Normal People and Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight.”
28 Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Students Injured In Bus Crash
The students, aged 12 to 21, were being transported from the dorms for the company’s summer instructional program to a Sunday evening recreational event when one of their buses rear-ended the other.
Florida Orchestra President Michael Pastreich Steps Down After 11 Years
“In his time at the helm, the orchestra has achieved record concert attendance, become more involved in the community and grown its endowment from $8 million to $21 million. A major growth factor entailed reducing ticket prices in 2011 to a range of $15 to $45. Paid attendance has since increased by 49 percent and eliminated the orchestra’s debt.”
Troubled Arts Center Loses Chairman And Trustee In Conflict-Of-Interest Scandal
The latest round of difficulties at Firstsite, an arts center in the English city of Colchester with a headquarters building by starchitect Rafael Viñoly, began this past spring with the revelation that the organization had paid roughly $120,000 to a consulting firm, two of whose directors were the chairman and a member of Firstsite’s board of trustees.
Frishberg On The Half Note, Revisited
Something brought to mind a contribution by Dave Frishberg early in the blog’s history. Here it is, exactly as it appeared in the summer of 2007, except that ,,,
Twitter Piles On Writer Who Suggests Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries
A Forbes contributor wrote a short piece titled “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money,” arguing that libraries should be shuttered in return for Amazon opening bookstores in local communities. At the gist of the writer’s argument is that Starbucks has replaced libraries as a friendly place to go and read and streaming services like Amazon Prime Video have replaced video rentals, which many local libraries had provided.