David Dower: “[Foundry co-founder Melanie Joseph has] been so far out in front of the field for thirty years, in a place the American theatre — with its templated, collectively bargained language, practices, and values — can’t reach. And she’s been urgently trying to make herself understood — about what she sees, what she’s learned, and what we could dream, make, become, and do if only we could follow what she was saying. … [Now] Joseph has released a book — a collection of essays from various authors that makes startlingly clear not only what was accomplished but, more crucially, what was attempted.” – HowlRound
Blog
Playing On Broadway… But What, Actually, Is Broadway?
The Times Square area was never the exclusive preserve of theatergoers, but Broadway culture elevated the neighborhood’s rough and raffish character. Today, not even all Broadway theaters have Broadway theater happening inside them. – Los Angeles Times
How Go-Go Culture Stood Up To Gentrification In DC
The story is already legend: In D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood, Donald Campbell had been cranking go-go music from the speakers of his store at the corner of 7th and Florida Street since 1995, and it had been one of the few places one could still hear go-go in a public space in the city in recent years. But, in April, a tenant of a nearby luxury condo threatened to sue Campbell if he didn’t turn the music off. So Campbell let the streets decide, putting the call out to local media, social media, college networks—whoever would listen—that go-go was once again under attack. The response: Thousands of people flooded Shaw’s streets and thousands more signed a petition (80,329 to be exact) – CityLab
The Serious Critic: How James Wood’s Judgment Has Changed
Wood’s earlier essays are more sure of themselves, more eager to please, packed with the kind of aphoristic insights that might have undergraduates reaching for their highlighter pens… In later essays, mostly those written for the New Yorker, there is a more grounded and relaxed voice; a bit less desire to display fizzing erudition, a bit more concern for the messiness of emotional truth. – The Guardian
Art Market Trends Report: Artists Will Need To Diversify Their Income Sources
These changes are symptomatic of several wider cultural shifts that, in combination with rising costs and declining public funding, are ‘squeezing’ the low-to-mid end of the market: the rise of a global elite, art fairs, ‘mega-galleries’ and the commodification of art as the sector became more closely intertwined with fashion, celebrity culture and advertising. – Arts Professional
New Research: 950-Year-Old Bayeux Tapestry Was Made For France, Not England
The textile is long-considered a major cultural icon both in France and England. In light of Christopher Norton’s findings, one news source trumpets that the tapestry is definitely French — a conclusion that pierces as “an arrow in the eye” to some British historians. – The Conversation
Botticelli “Copy” That Lay In Museum Storeroom For Decades Turns Out To Be Authentic
National Museum Cardiff has put on display a painting of a Madonna and child that had for decades been dismissed as a crude copy of Botticelli’s style. Ironically, it had been thought a Botticelli by the collector, Gwendoline Davies, who bequeathed it in 1952. Experts soon began to doubt that and downgraded it to the status of copy. – The Guardian
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ Cycle Will Finally Be Performed Complete
The production presented this week at Suffolk University in Boston, is, according to Wilder’s estate, the first time all seven one-acts will be performed together in a single program.” – American Theatre
By The Numbers: Who Works In Publishing
2017 was the first time women held a greater share of management jobs than men, and in 2018 they once again had a majority of jobs in that area, though their share fell to 52% (from 59% in 2017). Still, the median compensation for a woman in management was $126,000 last year, up from $110,000 in 2017. Male managers also had an increase, with their median pay rising to $139,000 (from $118,000 in 2017). – Publishers Weekly
Macron’s Notre-Dame Reconstruction Czar Starts Ugly Fight With Chief Architect
General Jean-Louis Georgelin, a brusque army man appointed by President Macron to oversee the reconstruction of the fire-damaged cathedral, was speaking to the cultural affairs committee of the National Assembly when he said of chief architect Philippe Villeneuve, “Je lui ai déjà expliqué qu’il ferme sa gueule” (roughly, “I’ve already explained to him that he should shut his fat trap”). The genuinely horrified legislators strongly rebuked the general and suspended further meetings on the subject. – Yahoo! (AFP)