Guthrie Still In The Hunt For New Theatre

Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theatre has revised plans for the $125 million new home it is trying to build. Whether it will be built is still in question. The Guthrie has only raised $63 million for the project so far, and has been unsuccessful prying money out of the state government. Governor Jesse Ventura vetoed a $24 million appropriation for the project last year.

Hytner Explains How To Run A Theatre

Nicholas Hytner on his qualifications for running London’s National Theatre: “Of course I’ve never run a theatre, but I’ve always felt a bit of an impresario. I’m a director who’s whored around, kicked around for the right offer – and I’m not talking money. If an affair has looked exciting, I’ve leapt in. Some of my best times have been at the National, going back to the days when I worked here when Richard [Eyre] was director. It’s a good stage of life to be working hard. I’m hungry enough and confident enough to take it on.”

White House Poetry Event Cancelled

It was to be a poetry forum featuring some of America’s top poets, the latest in a succession of literary and educational events hosted at the White House by former librarian First Lady Laura Bush. Past forums hosted by Mrs. Bush have been lauded as serious literary discussions, “often turning into lively debates.” Apparently, though, executive branch officials thought this debate might turn a but too lively, and have cancelled the event after learning that several of the participants planned to use the spotlight to protest the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.

American Museums Boost Education Spending

“The nation’s museums spent more than a billion dollars in 2001 to educate schoolchildren, according to a survey released Wednesday. The Institute of Museum and Library Services reported that the median museum expenditure on K-12 programs increased to $22,500 in 2001, from $4,000 in 1996. The survey showed that museums dedicate about 12 percent of their median annual operating budget on K-12 programs, up from 3 percent five years earlier.”

Not That Anyone Would Be Surprised If This Actually Happened…

An Australian writer has penned a novel in which the shoe company Nike develops a marketing plan which includes the murder of 10 teenagers “who buy the company’s latest shoes, to make it seem as though people are killing each other over the new product. The result is instant street credibility and record sales.” Astonishingly, a major publishing house was willing to put out the satire, and perhaps even more shockingly, the real-life Nike swears it has no plans to sue the author.

Why Choose Just One Plan?

As New York City prepares to choose one of the many plans submitted by some of the world’s top architects to replace the World Trade Centers, Lisa Rochon says there’s no reason not to combine two of the plans, each of which stands out for a different, and important, reason. Daniel Libeskind’s design for the huge plaza would bring to the Ground Zero space “a carcass of stone that could become the most meditative public space in the world.” And the Think team’s design for two huge latticework towers could reach “beyond the security of a nation to a new security in our minds — to an architecture that invites intellectual curiosity and the possibilities for cultural humility.”

Fat Girl Okayed For Ontario Screenings

“The Ontario government has lifted the ban it applied in fall, 2001, on Catherine Breillat’s Fat Girl (A ma soeur!). The government had been facing a court action over the ban that, if heard, would have contested the constitutionality of the Ontario Film Review Board.” Canadian film boards have the legal right to censor or ban films which violate vague decency standards, but in recent years, the power has been exercised rarely, and many Canadians want to do away with the practice entirely.

Nagano Has The Critics’ Vote

Kent Nagano, strongly rumored to be the leading candidate to replace Charles Dutoit at the helm of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, seems to have Canadian critics and audiences eating out of the palm of his hand these days, and his latest performances with the MSO are garnering rave reviews. “The audience was now enamoured. Coughs were stifled and allowed to burst forth only between the movements (instead of peppering the music with an independent staccato), and when the work was done, the crowd roared its approval. Musicians beamed, Nagano beamed and the audience was determined to show him they’d love him to bits if only he said yes.”