“He had recently read my book “Contested Will,” about the controversy over the authorship of William Shakespeare’s plays. Like most scholars today, I freely acknowledged that Shakespeare had co-authored plays, and Stevens wondered if I might be open-minded on the subject of his having collaborated with the Earl of Oxford.” – The New Yorker
Blog
It Will Soon Be Easier For Artists To Enter The UK To Work
Rule changes mean that from autumn, employers wanting to recruit non-European artists will no longer have to advertise the role to citizens of the European Economic Area first, and artists will no longer be subject to a salary threshold of £30,000. “We accept there is a national shortage,” the MAC wrote in a wholesale review of the labour market in May. – Arts Professional
Four Major Dance Critics Stepped Down Last Season. What Does That Mean For Dance Criticism As A Whole?
“Last May, The Guardian reported that Judith Mackrell would step down from her post after a 23-year run, and Alastair Macaulay announced he was giving up his position as The New York Times‘ chief dance critic, effective this past January. Luke Jennings left The Observer in the UK in December, and this winter, The New Yorker quietly replaced Joan Acocella with the historian Jennifer Homans. … In one fell swoop, criticism has lost decades of experience and memories, and these writers won’t be easily replaced.” – Dance Magazine
Can Korngold’s monster opera be saved? Even by Bard?
Getting to know opera via recording is like on-line dating — no reason why it shouldn’t work, and it often does. Then you walk into something like Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane with well-founded hopes, and you leave trying to reconcile what you thought it was on recording with what you’ve just experienced. – David Patrick Stearns
What Stands May Fall
I didn’t read any of the program notes for the Wendy Whelan-Maya Beiser-Lucinda Childs-David Lang piece the day at Jacob’s Pillow. I didn’t even read the spoken text. Why then, did I find tears pricking at my eyes as the piece neared its end? – Deborah Jowitt
How Can Arts Organizations Trying To Lead On Equity Issues Oppose Paying Overtime For Their Own Workers?
That’s what most of Seattle’s major arts organizations are doing, writing to protest Washington State proposals that would dramatically increase the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. “It’s illuminating that the argument Seattle’s arts organizations are making isn’t about whether paying overtime is fair, but whether it’s affordable.” – Post Alley Seattle
Is Dance A Sport Or Not? Does It Matter?
Lauren Wingenroth: “A Google search of that question will yield hundreds of results of impassioned arguments about whether or not we should consider dance a sport. The fact that breaking was recently provisionally added to the 2024 Summer Olympics program is certain to make the conversation even more heated. I would like to make a counterargument: Those on both sides of the issue seem to agree more than they disagree. So who cares?” – Dance Magazine
Oh No – One Of Our Favorite Sources Is Closing Down
Pacific Standard has about 20 full-time employees, 25 writers on contract and dozens of freelance writers who contributed to the publication, Nicholas Jackson said, adding that the employees were offered severance packages. – Los Angeles Times
Watching A Play, In Black And White: Two Critics Discuss How Who You Are Affects The Way You See African-American Theater
“In a cultural medium whose producers, audiences and critics are still predominantly white, [Jackie Sibblies Drury’s] Fairview challenges playgoers to think about how the different backgrounds and assumptions they bring to the theater may produce vastly different results once inside.” Jesse Green and Salamishah Tillet talk about that issue with respect to Fairview and African-American plays more generally. – The New York Times
Does Imagining Our Extinction Change Who We Are?
As ideas go, human extinction is a comparatively new one. It emerged first during the 18th and 19th centuries. Though understudied, the idea has an important history because it teaches us lessons on what it means to be human in the first place, in the sense of what is demanded of us by such a calling. – Aeon