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Tommasini: Upgrade Of NY Philharmonic’s Theatre Experience Could Be Transformative

” ‘Amenities’ seems inadequate to describe how transformative the improvements could be for performers and audiences. I’d argue that the physical details of a concert hall are crucially important for classical music, more so than for other performing arts. With theater and dance, there’s much to watch and stories to follow. Opera is in this category. But an orchestra doesn’t offer the same kind of visual stimulation.” – The New York Times

264 Episodes, Decades Of Reruns, And 50 Spin-Off Novels — Why ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Endures

Sure, it’s because of Jessica Fletcher, both an independent woman and a nice old lady who fights crime with a sharp eye instead of a gun. And the TV scripts were solid. Yet, observes Jon Land (who wrote that 50th novel), what made the franchise different from earlier crime series was the setting of Cabot Cove, Maine, “the kind of cozy place where nothing bad ever should happen, but always seems to.” – CrimeReads

Bravo To The Turner Prize For Declaring Four Winners

“The Turner has always been premised on there being a winner. The award garners publicity, feeds the bookies and, apparently, generates discussion. It is all, supposedly, good for the climate in which contemporary art gets talked about. But artists whose works and attitudes have nothing to do with one another are often pitted against one another for no good reason.” – The Guardian

What’s The Point Of The Turner Prize If Everyone Wins?

“While this gesture is charged by the passion of a particular moment, it has huge implications for the future. It places the Tate and subsequent Turner Prize artists and juries in an invidious position. How can they now continue as normal? If the Tate wants the prize to go on, does it install new rules stating that there can be only one victor? That rather undermines this year’s winners.” – London Evening Standard

You Get A Turner Prize And You Get A Turner Prize And You Get A Turner Prize And You Get A Turner Prize

The four nominees had appealed to the jury to consider awarding the prize to them as a collective due to their shared commitment to urgent social and political causes. “At this time of political crisis in Britain and much of the world, when there is already so much that divides and isolates people and communities, we feel strongly motivated to use the occasion of the prize to make a collective statement in the name of commonality, multiplicity, and solidarity—in art as in society.” – Artforum

At The Theater Olympics (Where Russia Is Not Banned)

Like its more famous athletic counterpart, this international gathering, founded in Greece in 1994, happens (roughly) every four years in a different city. This year, for the first time, it’s in two locations, St. Petersburg, Russia and Toga, Japan, and it’s the longest and largest Theater Olympics yet, with 104 productions from 22 countries. – The New York Times

D.C. Fontana, ‘Star Trek’ Writer Who Shaped Character Of Spock, Dead At 80

“Fontana, the first female writer on the show, … was perhaps second only to Gene Roddenberry, the series’ creator, in molding the sprawling Star Trek story-telling empire. … [She] wrote or co-wrote some of the most notable episodes of the original series, which ran from 1966 to 1969, and, with Roddenberry, co-wrote the pilot for its revival as Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.”. – NBC News

Turkey’s Top Court Rules That 1,000-Year-Old Church-Turned-Mosque-Turned-Museum Must Be Turned Back Into Mosque (Could This Happen To Hagia Sophia?)

“The Church of St Savior in Chora, which was converted into the Kariye Mosque in the early 16th century by an Ottoman vizier, was designated a museum by the Turkish government in 1945. Its 14th-century frescos and mosaics are regarded among the world’s finest examples of Byzantine art. Turkey’s Council of State … ruled last month that the historic cabinet decision that made Kariye a museum was unlawful because a mosque ‘cannot be used except for its essential function’. … [President] Erdoğan vowed [during Istanbul’s municipal elections] in March to re-consecrate Hagia Sophia as a mosque.” – The Art Newspaper

Founders Of Chicago’s Halcyon Theatre Abruptly Quit And Leave City

“On Tuesday, the co-founders of Halcyon Theatre, Tony and Jenn Adams, said that they have stepped down [after 14 years] and have moved to Maine. Effective immediately, Arlicia McClain will become the company’s new artistic director. … Halcyon Theatre was founded in 2006 in [the] Albany Park [neighborhood] and describes itself as committed to connecting people, transforming borders and ascending toward a more just union.” – Chicago Tribune