The news came from actress Dakota Johnson, who is to star in the feature, titled Crackpot; the item was buried deep in a news-and-gossip column at the trade website Deadline. The project could be a long-overdue bit of justice for May from Hollywood. – Slate
Blog
Are You Creative Or Do You Just Make Lots Of Mistakes?
A new study reports that it “turns out that your penchant for variability, such as when you toss a new ingredient into a recipe or follow a creative hunch into the unknown, is often driven by brain errors that are imperceptible to you. Your curiosity is a mistake.” – Fast Company
Meet Colombia’s Grand Entrepreneur Of Graffiti
“Where the average eye sees empty and drab building walls, [Camilo Fidel] López, the founder of the graffiti artists crew Vértigo Graffiti, sees blank canvases, opportunities to colorfully further the cause of social justice, whether in his home city — the Colombian capital, Bogotá — or the rest of the world. … Not a graffiti artist himself, Mr. López plays multiple roles: art director, business manager, promoter, negotiator, lawyer, entrepreneur, festival producer, even tour guide.” – The New York Times
Lara St. John: I’m Disappointed With Curtis Institute’s Response To My Abuse Charges
St. John writes a letter to Roberto Diaz, president of the school: “You and the Board have failed both this venerable institution and the Curtis community.” – Lara St. John
Anna Deavere Smith Hands Over The Docu-Play That Made Her Famous — And For Which She Did All The Interviews — To Another Actor
A revival of Fires in the Mirror, Smith’s 1992 solo show about the riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and the tension between Caribbean Blacks and Hasidic Jews there, is opening in New York next week. For the first time, all 29 parts are being played by another actor: Michael Benjamin Washington. Salamishah Tillet interviews both of them about the handover. – The New York Times
Pittsburgh Has A Shortage Of Mid-Size Concert Halls. Does It Matter?
Sure, there’s Heinz Hall, where the Pittsburgh Symphony performs, but that’s 2,700 seats, and smaller ensembles can’t really fill the hall. It’s depressing to be in a half-empty hall, even when there are lots of people there. So what to do? – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
After 48 Years, Guardian Theatre Critic Michael Billington Is Retiring
Says Billington, who began at the paper in 1971 and has written roughly 10,000 reviews, “I shall shortly be 80 and, with the years, the stress of writing to a deadline doesn’t get any easier. Giving up will be a wrench but I feel now is the right time to do it.” (And yes, the paper will hire a successor.) – The Guardian
Look Out, Akhnaten — Your Famous Son Is Getting An Opera Of His Own
As Philip Glass’s work about the monotheist pharaoh gets a major revival at the Met, news comes that a new opera on the life of King Tutankhamun is set to premiere late next year in Cairo. The libretto is co-written by the famous archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities, with the score by Italian composer Lino Zambone. Performances are planned to mark the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. – The Art Newspaper
Annie-B Parson Talks About Choreographing David Byrne For Broadway
“Often when I work with directors, or when I’m directing myself, what you think at the beginning often changes. That’s fair and normal. But with this show [American Utopia], the ideas David first presented me with have not changed. … I’ve worked with him for so long that I can literally get in his body.” – Vulture
Ann Crumb, Musical Theater Star (And Composer George Crumb’s Daughter), Dead At 69
Her most famous role was the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, which she originated in both London and New York (a first for an American in an ALW show), and she garnered a Tony nomination in for the 1992 Broadway adaptation of Anna Karenina. She made most of her later career in regional theater, and she had a notable sideline performing the folk tune settings in her father’s American Songbook series. – The New York Times