A letter from eight of the 13 departing board members noted that two leading candidates for CEO of the theater withdrew after meeting with the president of Roosevelt University (which owns the theatre) and said that, “As a result, we lack confidence about the future outlook for the Theatre, are unable to advance the Theatre’s mission, and have been stymied in our attempts to work with the University’s leadership to find a solution.” – Crain’s Chicago Business
Know a Theatre: Tennessee Women’s Theater Project of Nashville
“Among the throng of honky-tonk bars in downtown Nashville is the Z. Alexander Looby Theatre — home to the Tennessee Women’s Theater Project. American Theatre caught up with company’s founding artistic director, Maryanna Clarke, via email to learn more about producing theatre in a changing Nashville.” – American Theatre
New theatre company aims to make pubs and clubs more inclusive for women and non-binary people
“Co-founder of [the company] Part of the Night, Olivia Munk, said: ‘My co-founder Jessica Bickel-Barlow and I realised that while we weren’t comfortable going to a pub or club alone, we always enjoyed going to the theatre alone — so we decided to bring the two together. ‘Having spoken to a number of people who identify as female, non-binary, trans, and queer, we found that this sentiment was echoed by lots of people for a variety of different reasons. Ultimately we’d like to make nightlife spaces social centres where like-minded people can come together to enjoy food, drink and really good stories.'” – The Stage
Relentless Researcher: Robert Caro’s Brand Of History
“All the ordinary limitations under which most writers and scholars labor — deadlines, money, family obligations — have never contained the force of Caro’s curiosity, which he describes as something akin to a compulsion.” – Jacobin
Plans To “Fill In” Some Of London’s Barbican Spaces Would Ruin It
“The grand columns that you see all around the complex are about creating space. You fill in that space, then you have something that was designed to be open becoming cluttered and oppressive. What makes the Barbican special would be lost.” – CityLab
Evening Standard’s Sacking Of Its Theatre Critics Doesn’t Mean Criticism Is Going Away – It’s Just Moving On
“Mainstream theatre criticism is unlikely to disappear. But professional, full-time critics, whose only real job is to review plays, may be a dying breed. It is unfortunately possible for publications to be committed to criticism whilst being utterly cavalier about individual critics.” – The Stage
Palm Beach Opera Director Daniel Biaggi Stepping Down
When Palm Beach Opera promoted him to general director in February 2009, the company was struggling. It was posting unsupportable deficits and the chief administrator job was a revolving door. Under Biaggi’s leadership, the company stabilized and grew. It slashed the budget, reducing the number of operas it produced at the Kravis Center from four to three and eliminating Monday matinees, and re-directed resources to programming designed to broaden its audience. – Palm Beach Post
How Conservateurs Dismantled And Reassembled An Angkor Temple To Save It
“In recent decades a shift in the flow of water across Phnom Bakheng amid heavy tourist traffic had jeopardised its long-term viability, prompting the WMF to seek a solution. Devotional shrines erected on the various levels had become destabilised because of a gradual change in the pitch at the ground level of the various terraces.” – The Art Newspaper
Redefining London Culturally
“More of us than ever consider ourselves culturally engaged, and we are now expanding the definition of culture “possibly to the point of extinction”. ‘Big c’ and ‘small c’ culture now intermix with a day-to-day theatricality that we all welcome, and the stage for this activity is places, from small community-owned plots to large brownfield regeneration sites, where these elements can be brought together in ways that benefit a range of communities and tell great stories.” – Arts Professional
Baltimore Symphony Musicians Lobby Governor To Release Money For The Orchestra
“We put $8 million into the BSO,” Governor Larry Hogan said. “They received the most money of any arts group in the state, 74 percent higher than any other arts group. . . . We continue to pour millions and millions of dollars into the BSO, but they’ve got real serious issues and problems with the management, with losing the support of their donor base.” – Washington Post
Why Is Google Street View Blurring The Faces On Philadelphia’s Murals?
“Of a random sampling of 30 Philly murals that included people, about three-quarters had some degree of facial blurring applied in Street View.” Why? According to a Google spokesperson, the technology that blurs the faces of actual people in Street View images “may be a little overzealous, likely because some of the faces appeared so life-like.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Huge Number Of Works In East Germany’s Museums Were Stolen From Citizens: Report
“Starting in 1945, East German art owners fell victim to an array of inventive methods of expropriation. … In each of the four collections [studied], between 200 and 1,500 objects were discovered to have provenances suggesting they were unethically acquired, accounting for between 1% and 8% of their total inventories.” – The Art Newspaper
Rise Of The Fake Festivals
Over the past five years, ticket sales for Glastonbudget, Tribfest and The Big Fake Festival have seen a healthy increase, according to The Entertainment Agents’ Association, and there are now more than 30 outdoor music festivals in the UK showcasing tribute acts, such as Coldplace, Antarctic Monkeys, Guns2Roses, Stereotonics and Blondied. – BBC
By The Numbers: Picture Books In 2018 Were Less Diverse
Male characters continue to dominate the most popular picture books: a child is 1.6 times more likely to read one with a male rather than a female lead, and seven times more likely to read a story that has a male villain in it than a female baddie. Male characters outnumbered female characters in more than half the books, while females outnumber males less than a fifth of the time. – The Guardian
NYT’s Decision To Discontinue Political Cartoons Is Part Of Wider Trend
Some observers ascribe the paper’s apparent aversion to the reigning Sulzberger family’s alleged attitude that political cartoons, with their in-your-face messages and harsh caricatures of public officials, are “not Timesian” and “too middlebrow.” – The Daily Beast
Thirty Years Ago, The Corcoran Canceled A Mapplethorpe Exhibit, Setting Off Washington’s First Big Battle In The Culture Wars. Now The Corcoran Has A Show About That Cancellation
Few of the people involved in the controversy at the time imagined that the culture wars would still be raging three decades later. Kriston Capps reconsiders that battle and the way museums have addressed the wider issues, then and now. – The Washington Post
JFK’s TWA Terminal Is One Of The Great Buildings Of The 20th Century. Here’s What It’s Like Now As A Hotel
Saarinen’s TWA terminal, like the great cathedrals of Europe, the giant domes of the Renaissance and the miraculous infrastructure of the 20th century, asserts a truth far deeper than its original purpose: If man can build miraculous buildings, he can remake the world itself into something more equal, more fair, and more decent. – Washington Post
‘Little Fresh Meat’ — A New, Androgynous Style Of Masculinity Arises In China’s Pop Culture
“[The phrase is] a nickname, coined by fans, for young, delicate-featured, makeup-clad male entertainers.” (The Chinese Communist authorities, it seems, prefers to call them niangpao — “sissypants.”) “These well-groomed celebrities star in blockbuster movies, and advertise for cosmetic brands and top music charts. Their rise has been one of the biggest cultural trends of the past decade.” – The New York Times
New York City Landmarks Strand Bookstore Building Over Owner’s Objections
The decision came despite strong opposition from the owner of the Strand, Nancy Bass Wyden, who argued that the designation would mire the bookstore “in a lifetime of needless red tape.” – Publishers Weekly
TV Academy Disqualifies Actors For Conspiring To Vote Emmys Together
According to a Wednesday memo sent to the group and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, a few members were found to have engaged in or advocated for block voting. That is to say, they discussed voting with other members of the group with the intention of all voting for one or more specific projects. – The Hollywood Reporter
Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon — Femme Fatale, Enterprising Escapee From Poverty, Victim Of The Patriarchy? All Of The Above?
In the 18th-century source, a novel by the Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut was an archetypal siren, luring a helpless young nobleman to his doom; later operatic adaptations may have had more sympathy for her but weren’t so different. Yet MacMillan found in her one of his most powerful, and controversial, heroines, one that great ballerinas love to play. Alastair Macaulay looks at how their portrayals of the character have shifted over the years. – The New York Times
How Disney Has Been Redirecting The Fairy-Tale Notions Of Love It Did So Much To Spread
“The happy ending of our most-watched childhood stories is no longer a kiss. Today, Disney films end with two siblings reconciled despite their differences, as in Frozen (2013); or a mother and a daughter making amends, as in Brave (2012) and Inside Out (2015); or a child reunited with long-lost parents, as in Tangled (2010), Finding Dory (2016) and Coco (2011). Love remains the all-important linchpin of these stories … but over the past 10 years, we have been told to love a new kind of love.” – Aeon
The Tony Awards’ Most Important Speech, And Most Important Fashion Statement, Were Barely Even Noticed On The Telecast
That fashion statement, writes Chris Jones, was the breathing tube and oxygen device that Terrence McNally wore onstage as he accepted his lifetime achievement Tony, and his speech — as both a major American playwright and a survivor of the worst days of the AIDS epidemic — “was the most beautiful recounting of one of this nation’s most distinguished artistic careers.” – Chicago Tribune
Sylvia Miles, Flamboyant And Party-Loving Actress, Dead At 94
“[She] earned two Academy Award nominations (for Midnight Cowboy and Farewell, My Lovely) and decades of glowing reviews for her acting before drawing equal attention for her midlife transition to constant partygoer and garishly flamboyant dresser.” – The New York Times
Ending A Turbulent Few Years, Berlin’s Volksbühne Appoints A New Director
The playwright and director René Pollesch will take the reins at one of Germany’s most important theaters in 2021. He succeeds Chris Dercon, formerly the director of London’s Tate Modern art gallery, who lasted only six months in the job in the face of regular protests over his presence there. “Those included personal attacks — feces were left in front of Mr. Dercon’s office at one point — and an occupation of the theater by left-wing activists.” – The New York Times