Residencies are “moving prisons”, says one poet-artist friend. “Ooh, let’s give someone money and make them move away from all their support networks,” she says sarcastically.
Tag: 08.14.11
Warning: Publishing Must Change Or Else
“Certainly, the mass closure of Borders and A&R stores in city centres, suburbs and rural areas underscores how, for authors, publishers and booksellers, sweeping change is on the horizon. Either we [writers] change with it or we find something else to do.”
The Classic Broadway Musical – What Made Them Better?
“Why do we look forward to seeing one of the legendary Broadway musicals more than, say, the new stage version of Shrek or the latest play at the National Theatre? All musical theatre activity, even today, is still referred back to that period of about 15 years after the Second World War when the Broadway musical was at its peak, on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Have We Lost Interest In Ideas?
“If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it’s not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don’t care as much about ideas as they did. In effect, we are living in an increasingly post-idea world — a world in which big, thought-provoking ideas that can’t instantly be monetized are of so little intrinsic value that fewer people are generating them and fewer outlets are disseminating them, the Internet notwithstanding.”
Going Gaga – The Silly Dance
“While Gaga is a serious new way of training the body, it is also about connecting to pleasure and, hardest of all perhaps, realizing that there’s nothing wrong with being silly.”
Virtuosity? It’s Become So Commonplace…
“The overall level of technical proficiency in instrumental playing, especially on the piano, has increased steadily over time. Many piano teachers, critics and commentators have noted the phenomenon, which is not unlike what happens in sports.”
Does Popularity Of TV Dance Shows Build Audience For Live Dance?
“The question now is what, if any, impact the television dance sensation is having on what might be called art dance, the more rarefied world of tutus and toe shoes, where angst can be every bit as important as acrobatics.”
Chicago’s Goodman Theatre – Ten Years Of Serious Theatre
“A few comedies aside, it has remained a mostly sober-toned place for the serious Chicago theatergoer; a broad-shouldered theater uncommonly comfortable with centrality and power, increasingly disinclined to worry much about outside criticism, and remarkably assured of the tested wisdom of its own aesthetic and managerial direction.”
Warning: Invest In Arts Or Risk Democracy
“Nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticise tradition, and understand the significance of another person’s sufferings and achievements.”
Cast Size Shrinks On Seattle Stages
“Professionally produced, modern plays with a dozen or more actors in the cast are rare sightings lately. The average cast list in professional theaters in Seattle and beyond has been shrinking for a few decades.”