Lindsay Posner writes about how, stuck in London thanks to pandemic travel restrictions, he fulfilled his contract to direct Twelve Angry Men in Tokyo, thanks to Zoom and an ace translator and assistant director. – The Guardian
Blog
Art Paris Fair Opens Live With Surprisingly Robust Crowds
The fair went ahead on September 10 through 13, offering a model of what a socially distanced art fair could look like, with controlled crowd flow and attendees capped at 3,000 at a time in the main thoroughfare under the cavernous glass roof. Nonetheless, it welcomed some 56,931 visitors, just 10 percent fewer than last year. – Artnet
New Edition Of ‘Pride And Prejudice’ Prints Characters’ Letters In Period Handwriting
Naturally, each character’s script is different, modeled by a calligrapher on surviving correspondence from England ca. 1800 and matched to each individual letter-writer in the novel by project curator Barbara Heller. (Elizabeth Bennet’s handwriting is copied from that of Austen herself.)
Here’s how Heller went about it. – Smithsonian Magazine
Italy Appoints 13 New Museum Directors, With Emphasis On Homegrown Talent
The move is part of the Italian government’s drive to recruit so-called “super-directors” with experience of fundraising as well as scholarly credentials. Crucially this shift, which gave museums greater autonomy, was set in motion in 2015 under culture minister Dario Franceschini when the centrist government hoped to overturn the image of outdated bureaucracy associated with Italian institutions by appointing foreign museum chiefs. – The Art Newspaper
Planned Museum Near Taj Mahal Will Now Ignore Muslim Dynasty That Built It
“The museum was meant to showcase the arms, art and fashion of the Mughals, Muslim rulers who reigned over [much of] the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the 18th centuries. But officials this week in Agra, home to the Taj Mahal — the world’s most famous example of Mughal-era architecture and India’s best-known building — had another idea: a complete overhaul of the museum so that it would instead celebrate India’s Hindu majority, leaders and history.” – The New York Times
‘Tenet’ Was Hollywood’s Great Hope To Revive American Moviegoing. It Didn’t.
It worked overseas: the Warner Bros. blockbuster has grossed $207 million altogether, but less than $30 million of that has been in the U.S. Worse, the much-touted $20 million first-weekend domestic gross turns out to have been heavily padded. These figures are scaring studios off their major release schedules. “Now the question isn’t whether theaters can return to normalcy,” writes David Sims, “but whether they can survive this pandemic at all.” – The Atlantic
Brain Drain: Pandemic Is Driving Professionals To Leave The Arts Altogether
“With veterans and newcomers alike abandoning an industry struggling to confront racial and economic inequities, experts worry that the entire field will soon experience catastrophic losses of talent and institutional knowledge. Others claim that the brain drain is already here.” – Artnet
Three Choreographers On The State Of Ballet: ‘It Can’t Be Business As Usual’
“Trey McIntyre, Amy Seiwert, and Gregory Dawson [talk about] what they are doing to keep their companies afloat and … about their perspectives on dance, ballet, digital dance offerings, and the state of the art.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
La Maestra, A New Competition Specifically For Female Conductors
The event, operated by the Philharmonie de Paris concert hall and the Paris Mozart Orchestra, is taking place this week in the French capital. Conductor Marin Alsop, who is on the jury, talks with host Olivia Salazar-Winspear about why the competition is (still) necessary and the obstacles that women conductors still face, even as their prospects are finally starting to improve. (video) – France 24
YouTube Launches A Competitor To TikTok
“YouTube Shorts will provide a number of tools to allow creators to make [15-second] videos on their mobile devices. It will consist of a ‘multi-segment camera’ that can combine separate clips, as well as speed controls and a timer and countdown so you can create videos without needing to hold your phone. Its most TikTok-like feature? The library of music you can use to record with.” – Mashable