David Dower: “[Foundry co-founder Melanie Joseph has] been so far out in front of the field for thirty years, in a place the American theatre — with its templated, collectively bargained language, practices, and values — can’t reach. And she’s been urgently trying to make herself understood — about what she sees, what she’s learned, and what we could dream, make, become, and do if only we could follow what she was saying. … [Now] Joseph has released a book — a collection of essays from various authors that makes startlingly clear not only what was accomplished but, more crucially, what was attempted.” – HowlRound
Tag: 11.04.19
Dance As Opportunity In The Slums Of Rio
The violence, the hopelessness and the misery in the slums of Rio de Janeiro are all a direct result of the lack of guidance, role models or future prospects — except drug trafficking — for young people. That’s why the 31-year-old Daiana began offering young girls an alternative: a ballet school in the favela. – Der Spiegel
Local News May Be Dying, But NPR Stations Are Growing Quickly
Between 2011 and 2018, the 264 independent local NPR stations (plus 150 unaffiliated) added 1,000 full-time and part-time journalists, having started that timeframe with just over 2,000 journalists. At the same time, newspaper newsrooms were shrinking to half their peak size and local digital startups, with a few exceptions, are making do with well-focused but tiny staffs. – Poynter
‘Slave Play’ Author Jeremy O. Harris Has Made For Himself A ‘For Colored Girls’-Style ‘Choreopoem’
“The new work, Black Exhibition” — which he developed under the pseudonym @GaryXXXFisher — “is described in the script as an attempt ‘to look at a queer black male psyche through the lens of its literary influences'” — those being, among others, Kathy Acker, Samuel R. Delany and Yukio Mishima. – The New York Times
Trump’s Justice Dept. Threatens Publisher Of Book By Anonymous Administration Official
“The Justice Department is going on the offensive against the anonymous author of A Warning, telling them in a letter obtained by CNN Business that he or she “may be violating ‘one or more nondisclosure agreements’ by writing the anti-Trump book. The author’s publisher is rejecting the argument and saying the book will be released as scheduled. And the author’s agents are accusing the government of trying to unmask the author.” – CNN
Trigger Warning: For Theater In 2019 America, Guns Aren’t Only An Issue For The Prop Shop
One night at Hamilton in San Francisco earlier this year, right at the moment of the Hamilton-Burr duel, an audience member had a heart attack; the commotion made some people believe there was a real shooter in the house, and the audience stampeded. A real shooting during a play could happen, as it has at cinemas and rock concerts; live-shooter training for theater personnel is now a thing. And since art reflects life, we’re seeing more guns onstage as well. Lisa Lacroce Patterson writes about how theaters are dealing with guns, onstage and off. – American Theatre
Israel Philharmonic Pulls Out Of Charity Concert Because Rabbi Can’t Abide Female Singers
The November 20 event in Tel Aviv was planned as a benefit for a nonprofit providing medical care to indigent patients. But that organization’s founder, an Orthodox rabbi, asked that no female singers be included, per a stricture observed by ultra-Orthodox Jews. Furious debate broke out around the country, and the Israel Philharmonic was the first among several performers to withdraw. The concert has now been canceled. – The Times of Israel
Gary Wills: On Understanding The Patriarchy
“Alter the status of women and you have affected all the most intimate and significant nodes of life: the relation of wife to husband, mother to child, sister to sibling, daughter to parents, worker to coworkers, and employee to employer (or vice versa). This change in women’s standing that happened what seems like yesterday, and is still happening today at an accelerated rate, is the most profound revolution that can take place in a society.” – New York Review of Books
Pittsburgh Has A Shortage Of Mid-Size Concert Halls. Does It Matter?
Sure, there’s Heinz Hall, where the Pittsburgh Symphony performs, but that’s 2,700 seats, and smaller ensembles can’t really fill the hall. It’s depressing to be in a half-empty hall, even when there are lots of people there. So what to do? – Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Ann Crumb, Musical Theater Star (And Composer George Crumb’s Daughter), Dead At 69
Her most famous role was the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, which she originated in both London and New York (a first for an American in an ALW show), and she garnered a Tony nomination in for the 1992 Broadway adaptation of Anna Karenina. She made most of her later career in regional theater, and she had a notable sideline performing the folk tune settings in her father’s American Songbook series. – The New York Times