For 18 years, Gersten was second-in-command to Joe Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater (where his interventions twice saved Papp’s and the company’s future), and he spent 28 years as executive producer at Lincoln Center Theater, where, alongside artistic directors Gregory Mosher and André Bishop, he “took a theater that had almost been completely dark for eight years and a failure for 20 and helped turn it into one of the nation’s leading nonprofit stage organizations.” – The New York Times
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For The First Time, There Is No Wagner Running The Bayreuth Festival
Katharina Wagner, the composer Richard Wagner’s great-granddaughter, became co-director of the festival (alongside cousin Eva) in 2008 and sole director in 2015. Now, just short of age 42, Katharina has stepped away from the job indefinitely due to a long-term illness (not COVID-19, according to festival management). – OperaWire
Stratford Festival Puts Entire 2020 Season ‘On Hold’
Last month, the festival canceled all April and May performances and laid off hundreds of workers. But with the repertory company’s actors appearing in several productions and with audience members circulating among four theatres, festival management decided the risks of spreading coronavirus would be too great for the foreseeable future. – Toronto Star
A Glimpse Of The Post-COVID Art Scene: Seoul Reopens Its Galleries
“Elsewhere around the world, art galleries and museums remain shuttered, hemorrhaging staff and plaintively asking, What will it take to reopen? And just as crucially, What will this new art world look like? Seoul, a dense metropolis with a population of nearly 10 million but only two coronavirus deaths to date, is offering one possible answer.” – The New York Times
If Ever The BBC Proved Its Worth, It’s Now
Nick Hornby: “Before all this started, the BBC was under assault, apparently because of its independence. It was, is, being threatened with all sorts, including the loss of its lifeblood licence fee. The BBC, one of our crowning achievements as a nation! I will not waste space here listing what it has given us, the comedy and the drama and the sport, some of the things that have helped to define who we are now . You know that already, even if you’re the dimmest Tory MP in Parliament. But right now, the BBC is helping me to live through and understand a crisis.” – Penguin
Theatre For Nobody? (The Show Must Go On!)
The performance is scheduled to begin promptly at 8 p.m. “No one will be admitted. No one will be onstage,” reads a news release for the production. “Don’t call for reservations. No live streaming.” – Washington Post
An Existential Self-Help Book For Artists
What does it mean to be an artist in an economy that actually doesn’t allow many people to make their living as artists? The art world is in the midst of a larger inflection point at the moment, as it increasingly recognizes itself as yet another industry built on hoarded capital and exploited labor. – The New Republic
Does The Pandemic Signal The End Of American Exceptionalism?
“It’s a reckoning that has stirred intense debate about health policy, inequality and partisan politics, but also extends beyond it, touching on history, values and national identity. And for some, the severity of the crisis — and the slow, disjointed government reaction to a danger warned about for months — has also upended their conception of the country, shattering the already battered idea of American exceptionalism, if not turning it on its head.” – The New York Times
How Shakespeare Became A Modern Superstar
The modern idea of “Shakespeare,” both as artist and ideal genius, was essentially an eighteenth-century creation, though it is often credited to the Romantics. – Hudson Review
The loosely-coupled future of live performance
Any sustainable and resilient plan for returning to live performance will have to be highly adaptable, nimble, responsive, and risk-tolerant. The trick will be to find loosely-coupled approaches to what has become tightly-coupled work. – Andrew Taylor