Offstage, she was a dumpy little frump of a Midwestern girl who lived openly with her mother and her female lover. Onstage, she was “la fée éléctricité,” who manipulated with sewn-in rods a gown made of massive lengths of white silk to create natural images and fantastical shapes under rotating colored spotlights — an act that made her a huge celebrity for decades. – The Public Domain Review
Tag: 11.06.19
Martin Scorsese’s Cogent Critique Of The Hollywood System
Scorsese isn’t inveighing against fantasy but against a system of production that submerges directors’ authority in a network of dictates and decisions issued from the top down—a network in which the director is more of a functionary than a creator. – The New Yorker
Machines Become More Creative When They’re Allowed To Wander
Because of biology’s track record, Kenneth Stanley and others have come to believe that if we want algorithms that can navigate the physical and social world as easily as we can — or better! — we need to imitate nature’s tactics. Instead of hard-coding the rules of reasoning, or having computers learn to score highly on specific performance metrics, they argue, we must let a population of solutions blossom. Make them prioritize novelty or interestingness instead of the ability to walk or talk. They may discover an indirect path, a set of steppingstones, and wind up walking and talking better than if they’d sought those skills directly. – Quanta
Here’s A Snowflake From The First Full-Length ‘Nutcracker’ In The U.S.
Seventy-five years ago, in a San Francisco busy with Naval activity in the middle of WWII, the San Francisco Ballet staged the first full-length Nutcracker in the U.S. The snow is still falling – but there’s a lot more of it now than there was in 1944, when 16 white-clad ballet corps members danced with sparkler-style sticks around the stage. – San Francisco Chronicle
How About Supporting Artists Above Productions?
“How could we make more of a difference to the artists we work with? What if we put the same level of investment into their professional development as their show budget? What if we committed to supporting the artists over and above any show they make?” – Arts Professional
Artist Dread Scott Is Re-Enacting The United States’ Largest Slave Rebellion
Scott first became (in)famous 30 years ago with his installation What is the Proper Way to Display the American Flag?, which has incited controversy virtually every time it has been exhibited since 1989. This weekend will see his largest-scale project: a re-enactment of the 1811 German Coast Uprising, in which up to 500 enslaved people marched on New Orleans from nearby sugar plantations. Perhaps surprisingly, Scott is doing this with the support of Louisiana officials. – The New York Times
American Theatre Depends On European State Investment
The box-office receipts of commercial theater are not solely attributable to private entrepreneurs and fierce capitalist competition. Broadway producers are buying an artistic sensibility and a talent for provocation honed in state-funded theatrical laboratories across Europe, plus expertise that is the product of working relationships stretching back decades. – The Atlantic
Opera’s Woman Problem: There Just Aren’t Enough Of Them In Decision-Making Roles
The Stage senior reporter Georgia Snow talks to women working as directors, designers, and administrators in opera in the UK — who tell her that things are getting better, but not fast enough. (Opera companies are, after all, large, expensive, slow-moving machines.) Says English National Opera’s new artistic director, Annelese Miskimmon, “Unless we reflect our audience we can’t serve them. According to every statistic I have seen, it’s women who buy opera tickets. So it doesn’t matter what people’s own feelings are – it’s sensible economics.” – The Stage
The Half-Billion-Dollar Expansion At Houston’s Museum Of Fine Arts Has An Opening Date In Sight
In the $450 million project announced four years ago, two smaller buildings and a plaza have already been added to the MFAH’s campus. The expansion’s centerpiece, the 183,528-square foot Kinder Building, is now scheduled to open next fall, with a grand atrium, two conference rooms, a 200-seat auditorium, a pair of restaurants, and 15 galleries. – Houston Chronicle
Stephen Dixon, ‘Experimental Realist’ Author, Dead At 83
“[His] humorous, freewheeling fiction traced the shocks and jolts of romance, aging and everyday life, in an experimental but plain-
spoken style … [He] published well over 500 short stories in The Paris Review, Playboy, Esquire and legions of small magazines across the country. His first book came out only when he was 40, but he made up for lost time in publishing 35 more novels and story collections.” – The Washington Post