Yearly Archives: 2021
Art Pranks (With A Message) On The Rise?
Most of these prankster examples either take a jab at the art market. This intersection seems to have escalated in the last five years,...
First Time: UK Audiences For Streaming Beat Traditional TV
Out of almost a thousand 18-70 year olds who watch at least 5 hours of television per week, more are watching via streaming platforms than traditional...
Today’s “Natural” Acoustics Are Based On Theatre Experiments in 18th Century Paris
When Hollywood technicians debated how to make movies sound natural, they were unwittingly following a trail blazed by 18th-century architects, who spent decades working...
NYT Jazz And Classical Critics Go Back And Forth Over Met Opera’s “Fire Shut...
Though this opera isn't Terence Blanchard's first work to qualify as contemporary classical, he's best known as a jazz drummer and film score composer....
Nigel Kennedy: Liberace Of The Violin Or Latter-Day Paganini? Or…
"Paganini may be a better comparison: a restless figure of astonishing ability, despised by (some) as a circus performer and accused by others of...
San Jose Theatre Posts All-White Cast, Apologizes, Then Cancels
In attempting to defend itself, San Jose Playhousemade more perceived mistakes, including posting, then deleting, a note that was meant to be private; as...
Director Of New Version Of “Scenes From A Marriage” Explains Why He Flipped The...
"One of the problems that I had when I started working is that I couldn't live with Johan. … And whenever I tried to...
Gotta Love How This Year’s Documenta Artists Were Announced
In Germany on Friday, October 1, you might have picked up a copy of Asphalt—a publication that is sold to benefit poor and people struggling...
Improv Comedy As The Vanguard Of Socialism?
"More than a year and a half into the pandemic, we've come to expect the unexpected. Perhaps the socialist revolution can start in an...
What’s Up With The Movie Museum’s Giant Orb? (Death Star?)
A big glass-and-steel ball is not vanishing into the mist. It sits there and it’s shiny and hard and you have to pay to...
Biden Makes Historic Picks For New Heads Of NEA And NEH
Both selections are historic: Lowe will be the first Native American nominated to lead the federal humanities agency and Jackson will be the first...
After COVID: NYC Artists Testify About The State Of Things
“The illusion of reopening is that we’re back where we were in February of 2020. The reality is that in the meantime, there’s been...
Get M.A.D.D. — This Chicago Company Is Transforming Tap Dance
"Short for 'Making a Difference Dancing Rhythms,' the tap dance company marks its 20th official season this year. … Today, M.A.D.D. Rhythms remains deeply...
How The Booker Prize Became Such A Big Deal
Charlotte Higgins: "It was by such steps" as well-timed leaks and carefully fanned disagreements "that the Booker became not just a book prize, but...
Veteran New York Antiquities Dealer Pleads Guilty To Trafficking In Looted Objects
"Nancy Wiener, 66, whose mother had also been a well-known expert in the field, acknowledged Thursday that she had taken possession of items that...
Playwright Jeremy O. Harris Withdraws “Slave Play” From L.A. Run
The 12-time-Tony-nominated play was to open in February at the Center Theater Group's Mark Taper Forum. But the CTG has only one play by...
France’s Leading Literary Award Finally Makes Nepotism Against The Rules
Following this year's conflict-of-interest scandal (not the first), administrators of the Prix Goncourt have declared that any book by a family member or unmarried...
Two Of Shanghai’s Major Museums Close Without Explanation
Last week the Long Museum West Bund shut for "facility maintenance," though it reopened two days later. Then the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum announced,...
Gramophone Awards 2021: “Peter Grimes” Is Recording Of The Year, Minnesota Is Orchestra Of...
The Chandos release of Britten's opera stars Stuart Skelton with Edward Gardner conducting the Bergen Philharmonic; the Minnesota Orchestra took honors in its final...
The Critical Question (Post-COVID)
Playwright Oscar Wilde once warned an age without criticism is “an age that possesses no art at all.” He never could have imagined an...
Come For The Star Wars, Stay For The Kara Walker…
At the Lucas Museum: “What would be fantastic is if people came looking for Star Wars and learn about Ralph McQuarrie and then they learn about...
25-Year-Old New Play Incubator Closes
According to a press release, the decision to shutter the 27-year-old play development mainstay was a “unanimous yet painful conclusion” of the organization’s board...
Philadelphia Orchestra Ditches The Formal Dress
“We’re well into the 21st century. It’s time to acknowledge that in many ways, and one of them is the way the orchestra looks...
The Future Of Tourism? Venice Uses High Tech Surveillance To Limit The Mobs
The city’s leaders are acquiring the cellphone data of unwitting tourists and using hundreds of surveillance cameras to monitor visitors and prevent crowding. Next...
Inside The World Of Screen Subtitlers
It’s possible for subtitles and dubs to be so seamless that they feel invisible without pushing audiovisual translators ourselves out of sight. - Zocalo Public...
