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- Managing Director- The Old Globe working with Management Consultants for the Arts
The Old Globe is seeking a Managing Director to co-lead the company as it looks ahead to the landmark celebration of its 100th anniversary over the coming decade. This new leader will arrive at a company committed to building upon the highest level of artistic excellence at the core of its mission as it seeks to grow resources to expand its impact as the most vibrant and active theatre producing organization in the United States. The Managing Director will collaborate with Barry Edelstein, The Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director on a visionary approach to creating an environment that offers audiences, supporters, artists, and staff the chance to consistently experience the best-of-the-best, a world-class commitment to producing theatre that matters. Management Consultants for the Arts has been engaged to facilitate this search. A full position description may be found here.
The annual salary range for the Managing Director role at The Old Globe starts at $420,000, will be commensurate with the candidate’s specific experience, role, and expertise, and includes a full benefit package similar to other organizations of its size. The Old Globe hopes to make its decision by the early spring of 2026 with the chosen candidate starting shortly thereafter. The Old Globe is committed to fostering a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of our operation, therefore we strongly encourage applications from populations underrepresented in the theatre field. Multilingual candidates are also strongly encouraged to apply.
The Old Globe is a major force in regional theatre in the United States and presents a wide offering of works, from new plays, to classics, to large-scale musicals, to more intimately-scaled productions. As a past recipient of the prestigious Regional Tony Award, The Old Globe’s producing output is extraordinary and includes new works in many genres, Shakespeare’s canon showcased in its annual summer season, and plays and musicals in development prior to commercial Broadway bound production. Located within San Diego’s historic Balboa Park, The Old Globe is currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, guided by a history of pioneering theatre making and inspired by a future where the company envisions an even more profound influence on the American theatre through its commitment to artistic excellence and transformative arts engagement that brings theater experiences to audiences beyond its home stages. More information can be found on their website: https://www.theoldglobe.org/
- Boch Center, VP Marketing & Communications | In Partnership with DHR Global
The Boch Center in Boston seeks a visionary Vice President of Marketing and Communications to lead brand strategy and amplify the impact of one of New England’s most iconic arts institutions. Reporting to the President & CEO, the VP Marketing & Communications will drive integrated marketing and communications for 200+ annual performances, advance nationally recognized initiatives like the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, and champion community engagement and education programs. The ideal candidate brings expertise in brand storytelling, multi-channel campaigns, digital strategy, and team leadership, with a passion for the performing arts.
Click here to view the full position description. To apply, please submit your resume to Emma Kemper at ekemper@dhrglobal.com.
- Good Morning.
Here are today’s AJ highlights. Hollywood’s “oracle” narrates an industry cruising toward structural collapse, from streaming economics to vanishing theater audiences (The New York Times). The Phillips Collection plans to sell O’Keeffes and Seurats to fund new acquisitions, a move former curators call a betrayal of the founder’s vision (Washington Post). Public media is under strain too: inside the BBC’s latest political crisis and a separate op-ed asking, with some exasperation, “Oh, BBC, what are you doing?”
Music and tech collide on multiple fronts. AI-generated tracks climb charts as The New Yorker and n+1 both chart how a handful of corporations and algorithms reshape what we hear, while an L.A. Times columnist wonders whether software pattern-matching counts as actually “writing” music. Schools become another battleground: a New York Times columnist bluntly connects classroom screens to plummeting performance, while BookRiot traces how “Take Back the Classroom” is weaponizing that anxiety against authors and books.
Editor’s Note: Platforms, governments, and billionaires are busy redesigning the conditions around culture — who gets seen, heard, preserved, or erased. Today’s stories trace the counter-movers: artists, educators, and small institutions insisting that attention, privacy, and imagination are not just product features.
The rest of today’s stories below:
- The Oracle Of Hollywood As It Cruises To Disaster
Matthew Belloni has become a narrator of the industry’s troubles during the most transformative period since the birth of television, brought on by the arrival of tech companies and the disappearance of the lucrative cable TV model, followed closely behind by theater audiences. – The New York Times
- Phillips Collection To Controversially Sell Masterpieces To Buy New Art
“Like many of my museum colleagues,” said Eliza Rathbone, chief curator emerita at the Phillips, “I’m deeply saddened and appalled that the Phillips Collection would so irreparably mar the vision of the founder by selling such carefully chosen works.” – Washington Post
- A $500M American Dream Museum?
Visitors to Washington have a new, free attraction: the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. After a $500 million renovation of two former banks across from the Treasury Department, the center opened in September to explore the past, present and future of this enduring but elusive aspiration. – Washington Post
- What Explains Boomers’ Addiction To Ellipses?
There’s an extensive online discourse on the Baby Boomer generation’s penchant for ellipses. ‘OK . . .’ ‘Thanks . . .’ ‘See you next week . . .’ Sometimes they’re a playful way to build suspense, sometimes a form of passive aggression, and sometimes they relay an implication. – Granta
- Inside The BBC’s Political Crisis
Instead of addressing the criticism, the BBC was silent for seven days. In the vacuum, a wave of headlines became a flood of unchallenged claims that eventually pulled in the White House, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt declaring the BBC “total, 100 percent fake news.” – The New York Times
- Guy Cogeval, Former President Of The Musée d’Orsay, 70
A “free spirit and nonconformist, often impetuous, the passionate lover of the 19th century left his mark on the Parisian museum from 2008 to 2017 with bold exhibitions.” – Le Monde
- The Corporatization Of Our Music
Three record companies—Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group—control more than 80 percent of all recorded music released through a recognized label. And they do so with a collective iron fist, jealously guarding access to their vast catalogs, whether through album sales, streaming platforms, radio airplay, or commercial licensing. – n+one
- Why Online “Critics” Should Review Broadway Previews
Imagine a painter still layering colors on a canvas while a stranger posts, “This looks messy and unfinished!” That’s what happens when someone reviews a preview. The damage lingers, and the artistry suffers. – The Broadway Maven
- Increasingly, That Music You Like On Spotify… Was Made By AI
This month, an A.I. country song called “Walk My Walk” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and passed three million streams on Spotify; the performer behind it is a square-jawed digital avatar named Breaking Rust. – The New Yorker
- London’s Royal Ballet And Opera Makes Bank, Or Maybe Sustainable Income, On Its New Ticket Model
Dynamic pricing is common, and as one performing arts critic pointed out, it “can shift in both directions, with prices increasing when tickets start selling out at popular shows but also decreasing where demand is slower.” – BBC
- How Large Data Sets And AI Analysis Are Absolutely Murdering Our Private Lives
“Personal data isn’t just a record of who we are. It’s our actions, transactions, locations, conversations, preferences, inferences, and vulnerabilities. It’s our identities, our intimate selves, our hopes and dreams, and our fears and flaws.” – Fast Company
- How Theatre Artists Survive Dictatorships
“If you press your ear to the plays of the 20th century, they’ll tell you secrets of human acts gone by and strategies to keep on. Among bloody slings and arrows of inhumane humanity are extraordinary scenes, real and imagined, of survival.” – American Theatre
- The Growing Popularity Of Madrid As A Film Set Isn’t Exactly Thrilling Its Residents
“While city officials celebrate Madrid’s popularity as a film and television set, residents of the most in-demand neighborhoods are not particularly thrilled to find their streets constantly crowded with cameras, cables, coat racks and people running around with spotlights and microphones in their hands.” – El País English
- The Studio Museum In Harlem Reopens, After Seven Years, In Its Own New Home
The museum director: “In many ways I do feel the timing of our opening now is ideal. … We’re opening in a moment that’s very much like the moment when the museum was founded.” – Gothamist
- Have Screens Actually – We Mean It, This Time – Destroyed Education, Worldwide?
“It seems ridiculous to have to say this, but digital distraction is terrible for academic performance.” – The New York Times
- Can Theatre About Sports, Or A Sport, Really Work On Stage?
“As a sports obsessive and avid theatergoer, I’ve always found the communal experiences staggeringly similar. Either way, we root and cheer and gasp in unison. Worship-worthy idols emerge — and nothing beats seeing them ply their trade in person.” – Washington Post (Yahoo)
- Elizabeth Franz, A Versatile And Tony-Winning Actress, Has Died At 84
Franz’s “vibrant portrayal of Linda Loman, the wife of the piteous title character in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, earned her a Tony Award — and high praise from the playwright.” – The New York Times
- Software Is Good At Pattern Recognition And Spitting Those Patterns Back Out, But Is That ‘Writing’ Music?
“As with most things in life, when expertise is devalued, it’s easier to pass trash off as treasure. AutoTune and AI are enabling people who lack musical talent to game the system — like audio catfish.” – Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
- Oh, BBC, WYD?
“In an increasingly polarized political and media landscape, the broadcaster has struggled to navigate its public interest remit and has proved inept at learning the lessons when it fails.” – The New York Times
- Disney May Be Turning To AI To Help Create ‘User-Generated Content’ On Its Main Streamer
Bob Iger knows it’s, uh, interesting to be suing some AI companies while courting others. “’It’s obviously imperative for us to protect our IP with this new technology,’ Iger said.” – NPR
- The Latest Threat To Authors And Books
What is “Take Back the Classroom” – and how did it get so prominent, so quickly? – BookRiot
- If Your Musical Flops On Broadway, Why Not Just Restage It – At The Met?
Especially if you are, let’s say, a wealthy celebrity musician. “For Sting, 74, this is a chance to play in one of New York’s most storied halls for a second time, and to break a barrier in the process.” – The New York Times
- How The Internet Became A Misery Machine
“Sometimes you gotta use the dark arts, right? In benevolent ways, and just get people to care.” Ouf. – The Atlantic
- Netflix House Is Temu Disneyland, In A Mall
“Let’s say you are a Netflix fan, as anyone making a pilgrimage to Netflix House is sure to be. What, then, are you a fan of? … Netflix has been on a relentless campaign to become a fandom hub, a never-ending Comic-Con celebrating itself.” – Slate
- The Return Of A Night At The Natural History Museum
“Children ran, some of them in stocking feet, through the displays, with abandon. (Running had been discouraged in the safety lecture, but this did not dissuade a young boy who shouted ‘I have to look for the animals that will hunt us in the night.’)” – The New York Times
- Man Who Stole A Banksy Print To Pay Off Drug Debt Sentenced To Prison
He “was seen on CCTV waiting outside the gallery for about 10 minutes on 8 September last year, before repeatedly smashing the glass door with a heavy blunt object.” – The Guardian (UK)
- The Palm Springs Art Museum Trustee Revolt: Just What The Heck Is Happening Here?
Basically, “without consideration of multiple outside candidates, the search committee had in effect become simply a hiring committee for an in-house nominee.” That in-house nominee might be great – but that doesn’t fix the hiring process. – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
- The Musician Who Played The Trumpet For 25 Hours Straight
“It was relentless. But I love the trumpet, and that love carried me through.” – The Guardian (UK)
- Writers On The Gulf Between Books And Screen
Viet Thanh Nguyen: “When poets write, the only thing that it costs a poet is their life. … But when you make a TV show or a film, it costs tens of millions of dollars, and then everybody cares.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
- Marina Lewycka, Author Of A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian, Has Died At 79
The author was born in a German refugee camp after the war, and her tragicomic first novel was an unexpected literary hit. – The Guardian (UK)
- Inside The National Endowment For The Humanities, In The Iron Grip Of The Current Administration
“Many of its nearly 50 grant programs have been paused or ended. … About two thirds of the staff has been laid off and, last month, most members of the scholarly council that must review a majority of grants were abruptly fired by the White House.” – The New York Times
- SAG Awards Are Now, Simply, Named The Actor Awards
It’s a very clear, and useful, switch. “The union said on its website that it hoped to make clearer for its domestic and global audiences what its show entailed. The show has reached a much wider audience since Netflix began streaming it in 2024.” – The New York Times
