The company’s board decided that proceeding with the fourth production of 2013-14, Britten’s Albert Herring, would risk “further financial strain.”
Archives for March 25, 2014
What Can SF-MOMA Do While Its Building Is Closed for Three Years?
Tourists are grumbling, schoolteachers are lamenting, and members are choosing not to renew until construction is finished in 2016. The insane San Francisco real estate market means there’s no affordable temporary museum space in the city, so the art in in storage. What to do? Innovate, improvise, and partner.
Dubai to Put Art Museums in Subway Stations
“In the first phase, four stations have been identified for the project, with each to be transformed according to one particular theme: Islamic art and Arabic calligraphy, inventions, contemporary art and [multimedia] visual art.”
Can London’s Financial District Turn Into an Arts Hotbed?
“The Barbican and the Museum of London want to create a cultural hub that will be as buzzy as those on the capital’s South Bank and in South Kensington.”
Can This Play Change the Way We Treat Psychosis?
The creators of The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland may not transform the mental health professions, but they’re trying to convey to the rest of us what the actual experience of psychosis – the hallucinations and delusions – is like.
Listen to Orson Welles’s Legendary Shakespeare Productions Online
“Being a trailblazer in both radio and the stage, Welles adapted many of his stage productions for the wireless. The Internet Archive has posted many of these recordings online, which you can listen to for free. The selection includes performances of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Macbeth and, of course, Julius Caesar, among others. In most cases, these recordings – along with a few set photos – are the only documents left of Welles’s groundbreaking productions.”
Developing Prosthetic Voices
Rupal Patel and Tim Bunnell have been “developing algorithms that build voices for those unable to speak – without computer assistance. The voices aren’t just natural-sounding; they’re also unique. … [The premise is] that technology now allows us to think about the voice ‘just like we think about fonts for written text’.”
Meet Saudi Arabia’s King of YouTube
“Alaa Wardi’s wiggling eyebrows and bushy hair are as recognizable as the madcap backdrops to his YouTube videos” – which have gathered more than 36 million views. He does a cappella covers of popular songs; the most recent is “a silly version of Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’ embellished with puppets, body percussion, and running commentary in the style of the minions from Despicable Me – only in Arabic.” (includes videos)
Hurricane Sandy Visits Yet Another Indignity on Tenants of Manhattan Artists’ Complex
Up to 13 feet of water inundated the basements and ground floor of Westbeth, destroying both the art created and stored by many of the residents and the large studios where they created it. Now the (non-profit) landlord, to cover huge repair expenses, wants to rent those spaces to a commercial tenant.
Can Manhattan Be the Center of the Literary Universe When Bookstores Can’t Afford to Be There?
Ever-rising rents have been pushing out independent booksellers for years, but now even Barnes & Noble is getting priced out.
Can the Paul Taylor Dance Company Absorb Other Choreographers’ Works?
Alastair Macaulay: “Mr. Taylor has said he hopes for revivals of works by the dead choreographers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and José Limón … But the problems of reviving these pieces are immense, especially with casts used to dancing in a Taylor way. The issue of younger choreographers is something else, though.”
Misty Copeland on Skin Color and Changing Body Types in Ballet
“We’re characters on a stage and portraying a role, so I don’t feel like there is any ideal image that you should have to have, as with actors and actresses. … In terms of body types in ballet, I think the field is becoming more open than it used to be because of the types of movement and choreography we’re doing that are calling us to be more athletic. We have to have muscles in order to support that, so I think that dancers are healthier looking now.”
How Baz Lurhmann’s ‘Strictly Ballroom’ Was Born (As a Sophomore Student Project)
“A black box stage. A shiny piano-black floor. To the strains of ‘Blue Danube’, eight performers – women in garishly bright dresses, men in elegant black tailcoats – are picked out in the lights. Moving in slow motion, they look like puppets slowly coming to life.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.25.14
Bringing People Together to Improve the Place They Love
AJBlog: Field Notes | Published 2014-03-26
What does it mean to be a ‘strategic’ arts manager?
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-03-26
The Many Faces of Spring
AJBlog: Dancebeat | Published 2014-03-25
Dubai Ruler Orders Four New Museums
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-25
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San Diego Opera Chief Gives Reasons For Abrupt Shutdown
General director Ian Campbell: “We are not bankrupt, owe no money, and have no creditors we believe we cannot pay if people honor pledges they made … It is not an expense issue. It is a problem on the revenue side. Drops in both sales and contributions over several years now mean that we doubt we will be able to complete the next season.”
San Francisco Opera, Facing Problems Similar to San Diego’s, Will ‘Bet the Ranch’
General director David Gockley: “Audience surveys made the point: People want to be wowed every time – with singers, conductors, productions, and we have to deliver or die. … So we have bet the ranch that the increased numbers of productions, the diversity of repertory, five new productions (including the massive epic of Les Troyens, which will stretch us to our limits) should recapture subscribers, fill the houses, and produce [additional] contributions.
‘Noah’ Movie Banned in Indonesia
“Indonesia has banned the release of the Hollywood blockbuster Noah, saying the biblical epic contradicts the teachings of the Koran and may mislead people. ‘We don’t want a film that could provoke reactions and controversies,’ said [a member of the] Film Censorship Board.”
The Decline and Fall of the Conservative Book Publishing Juggernaut
“Ten years ago, the genre was a major source of intellectual energy on the right, and the site of a publishing boom, with conservative imprints popping up at industry giants like Random House and Penguin. But after a decade of disruption, uneven sales, and fierce competition, many leading figures in the conservative literati fear the market has devolved into an echo of cable news, where an overcrowded field of preachers feverishly contends for the attention of the same choir.”
Why So Many People Are Obsessed With Malaysian Airlines 370
Turns out, we can’t help it – it pushes buttons hard-wired in our brains.
Following Outcry, ABC Family Cancels ‘Alice in Arabia’ Pilot
“Four days after giving a pilot greenlight to drama Alice in Arabia, ABC Family is pulling the plug on the project about an American teenage girl kidnapped by her extended royal Saudi Arabian family and forced to live with them.”
Was ‘Alice in Arabia’ Really That Egregious? Oh, Yes
BuzzFeed, which got a copy of the script, fills us in.
I Was a Player in the Global Internet Orchestra
“The concert I signed up for would showcase 100 people from around the world collaborating live in an electronic, computer-driven concert – like a massive group game of Guitar Hero … ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘What could go wrong?’ … If panic had a language, it would probably be very much like what transpired [in rehearsal] that day.”
Indianapolis Tries the Books-and-Beer Combo
Inspired by The Spotty Dog Books & Ale in New York’s Hudson Valley, Jason Wuerfel turned to Kickstarter for start-up capital and opened Books and Brews. He made all the furniture by hand and brews all the beer on-site.
Atlanta Proposes Requiring Licensing For “Public” Art On Private Property
The legislation put forth by 12 councilmembers aims to put in place “a permitting process providing for clear guidelines in distinguishing commercial speech from public art, describing required public input, and reviewing the effect on traffic safety,” because displays of public art “can become excessive.”
Your Subconscious Is Better At Detecting Lies Than You Are
“These results provide strong evidence for the idea that although humans cannot consciously discriminate liars from truth-tellers, they do have a sense, on some less-conscious level, of when someone is lying.”
Airlifting To A Refugee Center Near You: Library-In-A-Box
“The so-called Ideas Box, designed by Philippe Starck, contains 15 tablet computers and four laptops with satellite Internet connections; 50 e-readers and 5,000 e-books; 250 printed books; a movie projector, screen and 100 films; chairs, tables and board games.”
On The Process Of Choreography: “Sometimes It’s Just An Accident”
“The greatest things that happen in choreography are by accident. Sometimes it’s a dancer’s physical reaction to the last step that informs my brain and leads to the next one. Or how a group of dancers happens to stand together, or if they fall out of a lift, or accidentally try a different grip that creates a window of opportunity and gives direction to what should happen next.
The Massive New Skyscrapers That Will Barely Touch The Ground
“Hudson Yards is the largest private development project in U.S. history, and it’s being built without footings or foundations.”
Saltz: Building Plans Would Destroy MoMA
Jerry Saltz: “The greatest collection of modernism on Earth has been relegated to rotating storage. If the wrecking ball swings in May, our beautiful garden of modernism will become another Penn Station.”
New Taxes Will Make UK Downloads (Movies, Books, Music) More Expensive
“Closing the loophole could bring in revenues of about £300m in its first year, according to government estimates. The tax change will apply to downloads of films, music, e-books and smartphone games.”