McNally, once referred to as “the quintessential man of the theater” by actress Zoe Caldwell, died from complications related to the coronavirus, according to his publicist Matt Polk. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2001 and twice underwent surgery. – Los Angeles Times
Blog
Thanks To Social Distancing, Drive-In Movie Theaters Are Having A Comeback
“Drive-in movie theaters may seem like a blast from the past, something out of the 1950s or ’60s. Numerous baby boomers haven’t gone for decades; Gen Xers and millennials, perhaps never. But there are still 305 of them in the United States” — and they’re seeing increased demand from stir-crazy customers. – The New York Times
Voting for arts funding – a short video
We are making the adjustment to teaching arts policy at a distance for the remainder of the semester, and so I’m about to get used to (and hopefully better at) short videos for students, practitioners, anyone with an interest. – Michael Rushton
What’s The Purpose Of Daydreaming?
Daydreaming is taken very seriously within scientific circles, where it is more accurately referred to as mind wandering. The level of interest in this area runs more or less parallel to that of the default network, and that is no coincidence either. The neural activity that can be observed when a person is daydreaming is very similar to that found in the default network. The control situation when taking neural measurements is also one in which the brain is not performing any tasks, and so we start daydreaming. We let our thoughts run free and start associating different memories with each other. – LitHub
How One Top Off-Off-Broadway Company Is Facing Theatre’s COVID Collapse
Helen Shaw: “To try to understand the complexity of a situation that was changing minute by minute — last Thursday, we still had a full theater calendar for April, for instance — I talked to members of one downtown company: Elevator Repair Service,” best known for Gatz, its eight-hour, word-for-word re-enactment of The Great Gatsby. – Vulture
Dame Fanny Waterman, Founder Of The Leeds Competition, Turns 100 And Dishes About Music
Dame Fanny says: “I had courage when people said, ‘It won’t work in Leeds’. Even my darling husband said that and I said ‘I’ll show you’. I rang up Marion and she said ‘Let’s try’. That was the ambition I learned from my parents. My father was concerned about style and ability and never produced anything that was shabby, and I used to try to emulate that. You can either do nothing with your world, or you can say to yourself ‘I’m going to strive in everything for betterment’.” – Yorkshire Post
Gallerist Paul Kasmin, Who Helped Turn Chelsea Into An Art Hotbed, Dead At 60
“In the 30 years since founding the gallery in Soho in 1989, Kasmin developed a program that managed to toe the line between brainy and lighthearted by placing historic postwar artists like Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell, and Stuart Davis in dialogue with established and emerging contemporary figures.” – Artnet
Report: San Francisco Arts Orgs Could Lose $73 Million By This Summer
Every performing arts group in the Bay Area contacted by The Chronicle has canceled its spring season, even as most had barely begun. Now a study reports that arts organizations stand to lose more than $73 million in revenue and donations if the shutdown continues through summer. – San Francisco Chronicle
Hong Kong Museums, Having Reopened, Close Again
“After the city sought to reintroduce normal activity, a wave of new coronavirus cases hit, largely due to returning travelers. The reversal offers a cautionary tale to countries around the world that are eager to ease restrictions on social distancing practices and get business moving back on pace.” – Artnet
Woody Allen’s Memoir Gets A New Publisher
With little advance notice, the 84-year-old film-maker’s book arrives at a time when much of the world is preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic. Arcade is an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing and a Skyhorse spokeswoman said no decisions had been made on whether Allen would give interviews. – The Guardian