The Problem With LA Theatre

Los Angles has a big sprawling theatre scene. So why don’t more people appreciate it? “Theater is as vital here as anywhere, but because it’s so spread out, you don’t get that intense energy that you do in New York. But everybody knows that. You can do something here and it just goes out in the Pacific Ocean.”

My Life As A Dishwasher (Or Not)

Pete Jordan has written a book about trying to wash dishes in every state. It’s an entertaining book, but is it true? “Jordan operates out of the medium-tall-tale tradition, using truth as bone structure and fantasy as flesh. It may not all be true, but it’s true enough. Few will doubt his claim that his favorite American city is Portland. He loitered from time to time in Seattle but thrived in Portland: ‘Even before arriving, I pretty much knew it was a pro-dishwasher town’.”

A Theatre Survives The Loss Of Its Visionary Founder

New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre is surviving the suicide of founder Curt Dempster, its guiding light. “Before his suicide in January, Mr. Dempster, 71, was fretting that his theater, perpetually on the brink of fiscal crisis, would have to cancel its pièce de résistance, the annual marathon of one-act plays. Piling his sudden death onto this precarious existence might have made it seem that the end was nigh for the theater. But that has not happened.”

Moscow Art Fair Challenges World’s Largest

The fourth Moscow World Fine Art Fair opens this week. “Only 20 galleries attended the first fair in June 2004, when it was not so common for a Russian to pay more than $1 million for art.” This year 80 art galleries will show works valued about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of work.”That’s close to the $1.5 billion estimate of art shown at the world’s biggest art fair in Maastricht in March.”