Carol Shields, one of Canada’s most acclaimed writers, has died of cancer at the age of 68. “Since the publication of her first novel, Small Ceremonies in 1976, Shields wrote numerous works of fiction – including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Stone Diaries – plays, short story collections and poetry. Her books have also won a Canada Council Major Award, two National Magazine Awards, the Canadian Author’s Award, and a CBC short story award.”
Tag: 07.17.03
Star Turns – Gotta Have ‘Em
The secret of box office success for touring shows? Stars. No matter who they are. “There are, for example, fading sitcom stars, former pop teen idols from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, or, in some cases, their extended families. When it comes to casting a touring musical in the American hinterlands or a self-dubbed world-class city like Toronto, any one of the above can headline a show and be guaranteed audience and media adoration.”
Mob Appeal
“The fad for ‘flash mobs’, where hundreds of people gather at a place in the city, perform a bizarre if harmless mass action before scattering without trace, has spread in less than a month from its origins in the New York art scene to cities across the US. Now the movement is to come to Britain with a series of “flash mobs” in London, and if the craze picks up in Britain as quickly as it did in America.”
Aussies Flock To Illegal Screening Of Banned Movie
Some 200 people in Sydney gathered this week for an illegal viewing of the American film “Ken Park” which has been banned in Australia. “A copy of the film, which was downloaded from the internet, was screened last night at a secret Sydney location without police action to close it down. The crowd of more than 200 had been told of the screening by email and word of mouth over the past 24 hours in a bid to avoid publicity and police scrutiny. The independent film was refused classification in May because of its depictions of teenage sex, incest and auto-erotic asphyxiation.”
European Director Angers Japanese Singers With Upgrade Plans
Overseers of Tokyo’s New National Theatre wanted to improve the quality of their opera productions and decided that they needed to hire a European to accomplish it. But the Austrian director hired for the job has angered Japanese musicians and singers with his internationalist outlook.
Next On Springer… I Love It!
Jerry Springer, The Opera is a big hit in London, and Ben Brantley loves it. “Who could possibly forget that exultant song of self-celebration that begins, “This is my Jerry Springer moment . . .”? That number, performed by a grown woman in baby clothes on a swing, comes from “Jerry Springer: The Opera,” the four-alarm fire of a show at the National Theater, and I find myself singing it while doing household chores, the way my mother used to with melodies from “Oklahoma!” and “My Fair Lady.” The scary part is that though it’s a song about parading your exotic sexual tastes on national television, I don’t think, “What a camp,” when I remember it; instead, I feel kind of starry-eyed.”
NY Phil Votes To Pursue Carnegie Merger
The New York Philharmonic board has voted to pursue a merger with Carnegie Hall rather than becoming a tenant at the hall. “That the Philharmonic even considered a tenancy arrangement after it had not been mentioned indicates the level of concern among some trustees that the orchestra might sacrifice its independence by becoming part of Carnegie Hall.”
Mamet: Playwrights Must Confront Violence Of Racism
David Mamet says playwrights have a responsibility to confront the violent past of racism in America. “I am old enough to remember separate waiting rooms, restrooms, and drinking fountains in the American south: one set for blacks, one for whites. Looking back, one says: ‘Was there ever a greater, more widespread or persistent delusion than that of racial superiority?’ And the answer was and is: ‘No.’ So, though I decry and abominate the computer, the mass media and, indeed, most things that differentiate the 21st century from the 19th, I remind myself that I have lived to see the beginning of the end of American racism – and that is something to have lived to see.”