Theatre That Heals

The Milwaukee Public Theatre is “a theater company without a theater for performances. The company sends its groups all over town bringing puppetry, drumming, improvisation, music, dance, theater, storytelling and more to as diverse an audience as they can reach, focusing on pieces with social relevance. Part of the focus on social relevance includes healing arts programming.”

Who’s The Voice Of A New Generation?

“It’s not an idle question. The novel is one of the most vital cultural resources we have–a private, potent means of sharing the unspeakableness of daily life with one another. So it’s only natural to wonder who’s taking care of the novel–who’s taking up the torch and where exactly they’re taking it. Or whether it has gone out. The novel is one of the platforms from which the voice of a generation speaks. And if you listen closely, you’ll start to wonder if the current generation has a voice at all.”

Ballet Florida Moves To Compete

Ballet Florida is stepping up its game, making new hires and expanding its activities in Palm Beach. “The changes come two years after the Miami City Ballet expanded its presence in Palm Beach County by adding more shows at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and establishing a development arm there. That company’s efforts have paid off with fundraising dollars increasing 45 percent in two years and attendance to Kravis Center performances growing to 25,529 at 25 performances during the season.”

SOS For The Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Museums need some urgent attention from Congress – both financial and ethical. “The Smithsonian’s leaders and their congressional overseers are allowing too much of our national museum to be transformed into a series of pavilions where, in exchange for sponsorship money and other deals, corporations may determine what parts of the American story should be told.”

Why Hasn’t Internet Movie Ticketing Caught On?

“Because of user fees and a confusing tangle of theater alliances, online ticket sellers like MovieTickets.com and Fandango.com, whose purpose is to save people from long waits at the ticket counter, have yet to win the hearts of mainstream theatergoers. But surging revenues from advertising and a possible shift in business philosophy could change that.”

That Picture Of Mrs Mozart? (Nevermind)

Experts are surfacing to dispute the authenticity of a photo from 1840 purported to be of Constanze Mozart. “There are no outdoor photographs of groups of people dating from 1840, because the lenses invented by Joseph Petzval, which were to make such portraits possible, were not available yet. It was simply not possible in 1840 to take sharp outdoor pictures of people as long as the necessary exposure time still amounted to about three minutes.”