The opera singer says that the lyric arts are particularly at risk with the shutdown, and he addresses President Macron directly in his column. “I speak on behalf of troubadours and acrobats who go on the road, often far from their own, and whose only possibility of building their life rests on the intangibility of the next contract. There are very few wealthy people in this laborious little world, very few whose calendar goes beyond the next ten months. The life of artists is a daily struggle.” – Le Monde
Blog
For Theatre History’s Sake, Record Your Plays And Musicals
When there’s another pandemic, your theatre can be the one making history with broadcasts on YouTube or, who knows, something on Quibi. – The Stage (UK)
City Lights Books Sends Out A Cry For Help, Gets $400,000 In Donations
The iconic San Francisco bookstore founded by Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti said in its GoFundMe appeal that it was continuing to pay salaries and health care for its employees, but that it wasn’t doing online orders to keep its people safe – and thus was out of money. Thousands of people responded. – San Francisco Chronicle
Girl With A Purell Earring And Other Tweaks Making The Art Rounds During The Pandemic
Truth: “Art meme-ing has long been with us, but some mix of quarantine creativity, idle isolation and the need to connect through humor in these uncertain times is sparking a stream of mischievous art alterations.” (The Scream without the screamer? Whoa.) – The Washington Post
Shailene Woodley, Doing (Now Online) Movie Release Press From A Big Social Distance
The actor, who had success as a child and in her teens and early twenties, says that social isolation with her dog isn’t the worst thing. “This feels like heaven in a lot of ways because I don’t have to talk to people, I don’t have to deal with people, I don’t even have to look at people. I can play the game of being an extrovert when I need to — it’s a big part of my job — but my happy place is honestly being alone.” – The New York Times
When Truth Resembles Apocalyptic Fiction
Novelist Waubgeshig Rice: “It kind of blew my mind. … I wrote that plot point of Moon of the Crusted Snow just as a what if, not as a how-to guide.” – CBC
The Guggenheim Is The Latest Institution To Lay Off, Furlough, And Reduce Benefits
The museum says it’s facing a $10 million shortfall and must furlough 92 people and reduce the salaries for 85 more. The furloughed staff members, “which union officials said include about a dozen people who work in a clandestine storage facility, will be paid through April 19 and receive health benefits covered by the museum through July 31 or the date of rehire, whichever comes first.” – The New York Times
Irish Scholars Have A Rather Large Bone To Pick With A ‘Hatchet Job’ In The New Yorker
Who decided messing with Edna O’Brien was a good idea? Ian Parker of The New Yorker, that’s who. But “after a complicated relationship with her home country – in 2015 President Michael Higgins made an official apology for the scorn formerly heaped on her by the Irish – O’Brien is now regarded as a national treasure in Dublin” and Irish literary scholars have responded to Parker in kind. – The Observer (UK)
Theatre’s Stages Of Grief
Idled theatres can’t earn money, can’t meet grant requirement deadlines, and have nothing they can do with huge sets or out-of-work actors or stage crews. It’s not OK. “O’Gara conceded that theatre’s future appears ‘pretty dire.'” – American Theatre
Restaurants And Retail Are Closed, So What’s An Out-Of-Work Hollywood Artist To Do?
Podcast from home, of course. (Or work in video games or animation – those industries, perhaps unsurprisingly, are doing just fine.) – Los Angeles Times