“There is someone less than a foot away from me, just off of my right shoulder, observing the way I’m holding my hand strangely, but perhaps gracefully? I hope my nails are clean. My arm is starting to tremble. I’m not even sure how much time has gone by. I let my arm gently, almost imperceptibly, fall, allowing my shoulder to melt with it, and stop myself mid-breath. “I am…right here,” I say to myself with my director’s voice in my head. I am ON DISPLAY .” Victoria Dombroski of Heidi Latsky Dance describes the experience of being in Latsky’s ON DISPLAY, a “human sculpture court.” (includes video) — Dance Magazine
Tag: 11.02.18
‘We Are A Country That Has Lost Our Narrative’: What Lynn Nottage Learned In Reading, Pa. When She Was Researching ‘Sweat’
“One of the first questions we asked was, how do you describe your city? People would respond by saying: ‘Reading was … ‘ They were incredibly nostalgic for this glorious imagined past. It nearly broke my heart. I thought this is a city that cannot conceive of itself in the present or future tense. It is a microcosm of what is happening in America today. We are a country that has lost our narrative. We can’t project our future because we don’t know where we are going.” — The Guardian
Historians Have Revered This Book For 30 Years. It’s Only Now Getting Published
“Over the years, it’s been passed around, first in photocopies and later as a PDF. … It’s made its way onto required-reading lists and been cited hundreds of times.” There has even been a scholarly conference devoted to it. Julius S. Scott completed The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution in 1987, and it’s only coming out in print this month. Reporter Tom Bartlett investigates why.
English National Opera To Project Ads Onto Its Stage’s Safety Curtain
“The company, based in the Coliseum in London, has submitted a proposal to Westminster City Council that would see its safety curtain repainted to incorporate a ‘plain white painted area’ … [which] would be ‘used as a projection surface pre-show and at the interval to project films showing the ENO forthcoming opera seasons’. It is not clear whether this could be extended to external advertisers in time.”
Do Swag Gifts To Donors Actually Help Raise More Money?
Some nonprofits insist that donors expect these “premiums”; some donors insist they want as much money and staff time as possible to be spent on the nonprofit’s actual mission. Jonathan Meer, an economist who studies altruism and philanthropy, looked at existing research and did an experiment of his own to find out of giving swag to donors is worth it. The answer? Well, …
Pennsylvania Backs Off Banning Book Donations For Prisoners
This past summer, the state Dept. of Corrections introduced a ban on giving books to individual inmates; the rule was part of a suite of measures taken to sten the flow of illegal drugs into prisons. After pushback from prisoners’ rights and book donation groups, the policy has been relaxed, though books will still have to be inspected at a separate location before being given to inmates.
London Dance Hub The Place Names New Artistic Director
“[Eddie] Nixon is a former associate director and more recently director of theatre and artist development at the Place. … He takes over from Richard Alston, who leaves the role this month after 24 years at the helm of the contemporary dance venue.” (Alston’s eponymous dance company, which has been headquartered at The Place, will be shut down.)
Interactive Theatre? Fine, As Long As I Don’t Need To Participate
“Let me just say that although I don’t mind watching other theatergoers getting into the act — as a longtime observer of how audiences behave, the psychology of these events intrigues me — I hate being compelled to be the show. I’m not shy or anti-social. I simply don’t want to be made to feel that I must cross the line, onto the actors’ playing field, or be a spoilsport if I don’t. “
Publishers Say TSA Detained And Harassed Them Because Agent Didn’t Like One Of Their Books
An art book publisher and his companion were about to fly out of LaGuardia after a fair when, following a routine search of the books they were traveling with, they were held in a room and questioned about a book whose content one of the TSA officers disliked, and that the officers damaged the book and berated them about it. (A TSA spokeswoman denied that the incident could have taken place.)
Art Basel Ends Its Move Into Regional Art Fairs
“In 2016, Art Basel’s parent company, the MCH Group, … announced it would debut Art SG, a new fair in Singapore; took a majority stake in the India Art Fair and a minority stake in Art Düsseldorf; and added Masterpiece London to its portfolio last December. But the experiment didn’t last long. According to a statement on Friday, MCH Group is undertaking a ‘profound transformation’ by dramatically downshifting its ambitions ‘for the necessary stabilization of the company.'”