Blog

Beloved NY Broadway Show Revival Series Gets A New Curator

Lear deBessonet is best known as the founder of Public Works, a much-lauded program of the Public Theater that once a year stages a new musical adaptation of a classic story, which is performed by a handful of Equity actors and more than 100 amateur performers drawn from across the five boroughs of New York. The program has proved influential, spurring similar ventures in multiple cities across the United States and in England. – The New York Times

Soprano Julia Bullock Is Forging A Major Career Entirely Away From Standard Opera Repertory

“Instead of singing Mozart or Verdi, she has made a precocious impact on the concert stage and as a curator, serving as artist in residence last season at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — where she delved deeply into the African-American experience, past and present — and this season in the same role with the San Francisco Symphony.” Says director Peter Sellars, “This is who we’ve been waiting for. You see someone who’s not just a vehicle, but an agent of change. She’s actually moving the whole art form into a new relevance.” – The New York Times

John Killacky – Artist-Turned-Legislator Changes His View On Arts Advocacy

“Since being elected to the Vermont House of Representatives last fall, my perspective has dramatically changed as to how best advocate for the arts and, in fact, how siloed arts organizations and their funders are. My legislative work focuses on economic development, tourism, heath, education, affordable housing, environment, and agriculture, as well as vulnerable populations: veterans, prisoners, the homeless, those suffering from substance use disorders, and survivors of physical and sexual abuse. Art is barely present in these conversations, but is so needed.” – Americans for the Arts Blog

Despite Difficult Conditions And Sniping From Tabloids, British Theatre Companies Continue Their Work In Prisons

“Last year The Sun ran a story that started: ‘Convicts at a drug-plagued prison performed a lavish version of musical Les Misérables for the public – to boost lags’ morale.’ Two years earlier, in the same paper, a story ran that ‘prisoners in Britain’s creaking jails are to be taught art, music and drama in a desperate bid to slash reoffending’. In 2008, the Daily Mail reported: ‘A sick joke: terrorist signs up for comedy classes at top-security prison.’ So why do these companies do it? Because the evidence that it works is overwhelming.” – The Stage

Berkeley Symphony’s New Conductor On His Transformative Career Encounter With Marin Alsop

Joseph Young: “I went up to her and said ‘I really want to go to grad school for conducting’ and she said ‘why don’t you come study with me.’ That moment changed my life. Before that I had no examples. I had no mentor. All I knew was that I wanted to conduct orchestras. In that moment I had all of that. Someone from whom I learned there is a transcendental power in what we do in music, which I began to appreciate. Someone who showed me, by example, to be a leader not only of an orchestra, but of a community, as when I was with her in Baltimore.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

Chou Wen-Chung, ‘Godfather Of Chinese Contemporary Music’, Dead At 96

“[He] left a relatively small body of compositions, but his fastidious and elegant works are filled with emotional eddies. He wrote mostly for Western instruments, but made them bend single notes to accommodate the microtonal flexibility of Chinese music.” In addition, as a professor at Columbia University, he trained an entire group of now-prominent Chinese composers, among them Tan Dun, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Bright Sheng. – The New York Times

Can This Website Become An Amazon For Independent Bookstores?

This January, the American Booksellers Association Bookshop will launch Bookshop, “a mobile-friendly website with one-click ordering à la Amazon that … will sell physical books and digital audio but not e-books. It will also discount, but not nearly as deeply as Amazon … [and] experiment with various thresholds for free shipping.” – Publishers Weekly

Is This Comedy Quiz Show Responsible For Boris Johnson Becoming Prime Minister?

“An institution in Britain, Have I Got News For You began airing in 1990 and runs on Friday nights on the BBC’s main channel, averaging 4 million viewers. … Political guests are subject to continual mockery, especially if they have a scandalous past or their policies appear muddled. But for those willing to be laughed at, and to laugh at themselves, the show has become a way to endear themselves to the public in a country where self-deprecation is an art form.” And Boris Johnson’s appearances on the show are seen as “pop culture classics.” – The New York Times

The Megahit TV Serial That Jump-Started India’s Hindu Nationalist Movement

A 78-episode adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana, broadcast every Sunday morning for 18 months in 1987-88 on what was then India’s only TV channel, was seen by up to 100 million people. Life in much of the country would come to a standstill while it was on, and many viewers treated watching it as an actual religious ritual. (Some even put garlands of flowers on the TV set.) It was the first religious program the national network aired (previous governments had held the subject taboo), and reporter Rahul Verma explains why its broadcast is seen to have ignited the now-powerful forces of Hindu chauvinism. – BBC