“Robert J. Orchard, executive director of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., since it was founded in 1970, will step down at the end of the company’s 2008-09 season. The ART vet will stay on as special adviser to help incoming artistic director Diane Paulus launch her inaugural season and provide support during the leadership transition.”
Tag: 06.24.09
Boston Symphony Lays Off 10 Staffers
“The Boston Symphony Orchestra confirmed today that 10 employees are being laid off, from departments including development and public relations. … The layoffs follow a staff hiring freeze instituted in December 2008 and the cancellation in April of a European tour the BSO had scheduled for 2010.”
Dublin’s Abbey Theatre Faces Job Cuts
“Negotiations on redundancies are under way at Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey, as funding cuts and the economic downturn force budgetary belt-tightening. More than 25 jobs may be cut, mainly from the 120 administrative staff, according to an Abbey spokeswoman, and it is hoped the redundancies will be voluntary.”
Academy Expands Best Picture Oscar To Ten Nominees
“Having 10 best picture nominees is going [to] allow academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” said the Academy’s president. Having ten nominees in the category was the standard between 1932 and 1943.
‘Hollywood’s Version Of A Stimulus Package’
“First there’s the number of people who watch the Oscars themselves. The Academy’s thinking: The more blockbuster films that are nominated, the more people will watch.” Then there’s the box office: “Best picture nominees simply make more money. So the more best picture nominees, the more films moviegoers think they’re supposed to see to stay hip with the cultural conversation.” And think of what all the extra ad revenue will do for journalism …
Artworks Evacuated From Vienna’s Flooded Albertina Museum
“Vienna’s Albertina Museum, home to landmark Impressionist works by Monet and Renoir, will start removing 950,000 artworks from its leaking underground depot following some of Austria’s heaviest downpours in 50 years.”
City Of Malibu Ends Up Buying Performing Arts Center
The complex, which was up for auction earlier this month after the church that owned it went bankrupt, was purchased by the government of the L.A. County beach town for $15 million. “The center will house the new City Hall, but the city plans to retain its cash-generating performing arts venue and recording studios.”
When Patti Talks, By Golly, We Respond!
“On Tuesday, Patti LuPone sent a note to Dave Itzkoff taking him to task for his coverage of her decision to stop a concert in Las Vegas to berate an audience member for using an electronic device. The post received an overwhelming number of readers’ comments (over 760 as of this writing). Theater coverage on NYTimes.com hasn’t been this animated since we posted a slide show of a shirtless Daniel Radcliffe in the London production of Equus.”
New Acropolis Museum Is Itself A Reason To Return The Elgin Marbles (Or Is It?)
Michael Kimmelman: “So the new museum that Bernard Tschumi, the Swiss-born architect, has devised near the base of the Acropolis is a $200 million, 226,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art rebuttal to Britain’s argument” that only the British Museum can take proper care of the Elgin Marbles. “‘But Greek archaeology has always been a kind of fantasy,’ Antonis Liakos, a leading Greek historian, noted the other day. The repatriation argument, relying on claims of historical integrity, itself distorts history.”
Utah Festival Opera ‘Saved From Financial Ruin’
“It’s not curtains after all for the Utah Festival Opera Company, according to founder Michael Ballam. Following a 6-1 vote by the Cache County Council to approve a ‘heroic’ $150,000 stimulus to save the company from financial ruin, Ballam told a reporter Tuesday that the 17-year-old company will be alive in 2010.”