Sasha Skochilenko, released in the multi-country, multi-person prisoner swap, was serving seven years for substituting price tags in a grocery store with messages like, “The Russian Army bombed an art school in Mariupol where about 400 people were seeking shelter.” - The Atlantic (MSN)
How did The Great Gatsby get excitement for its cast album flowing? TikTok, of course - and also YouTube, Instagram, and X/Twitter, not to mention a party for influencers on all of these channels. Brand strategy: Snag the kids now, and it’ll pay off later. - The New York Times
Sharon’s Tristan und Isolde opens March 9, 2026 with Lise Davidsen as Isolde. The Ring begins with Das Rheingold in spring 2028, continues with Die Walküre and Siegfried in 2028-29, and culminates with Gotterdämmerung in 2029-30. Davidsen will sing Brünnhilde, and there will be complete cycles in the spring of 2030. - AP
David Henry Hwang wondered that, too. Yet he's part of an impressive team working on a show about the Large Hadron Collider and the discovery of the Higgs boson. "It took a year to get my head around how to tell this story," Hwang said. - The New York Times
This past weekend, the Goodman Theatre called off two performances of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil just before curtain time. On Saturday they couldn't round up enough understudies to cover all the sick cast members; on Sunday they had the same problem with backstage crew. - Chicago Tribune
What if the sport, and its judges, actually valued dance? “That would involve thinking of each floor routine as a miniature choreographic work: an organic whole that deserves to be enjoyed fully by every audience, live or on TV.” - The New York Times
Those lessons in a particular brand of “femininity” aren’t super. Ballerinas “are taught to dance through pain, to perform roles with troubling messages, and that the gaze of an audience (historically male, but even now, certainly patriarchal) gives them worth.” - Vogue
Portland, Oregon, voters recently voted for a new city council structure. That council will have to figure out what to do with the home of Broadway tours and Portland Opera - the historic, downtown, seismically terrifying Keller. Then there’s the end of the arts tax … and so much more. - Oregon ArtsWatch
“Books that are getting published today are not just for Native kids. They're important to Native kids because they affirm our existence as Native people in the present day. But they're also for non-Native kids, because those kids are being shaped by the information in the book.” - NPR
The company is really hoping to make enough money to produce As You Like It in September. "The 50th anniversary performance ... is supposed to mark its return to self-produced Shakespeare after operating exclusively as a rental house for other companies.” - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
Surprised "venues received letters saying that going forward the city would require a paid license for every event that 'falls into the category of an Amusement.” … These events ‘include but are not limited to lectures, exhibitions, theatre, sports, comedy, music and other shows that charge a fee.’” - Investigative Post
Ashley Benefield was acquitted of second-degree murder but convicted of manslaughter in the 2020 death of her ex-husband in Florida. The Benefields were the founders of the highly-publicized American National Ballet, which, in 2017, fell apart for lack of funding just as it was about to start rehearsals. - The Washington Post (MSN)
“A depiction of Greek gods partying atop Mount Olympus at the Olympics opening ceremony spurred conflicting public reactions as primarily conservative critics erroneously claimed that the performance parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s famous fresco The Last Supper (1495–98) and, by extension, mocked Christian beliefs." - Hyperallergic
"With the help of a motley group of intrepid friends, (Leonid) Marushchak has achieved something quite extraordinary. He has organised the evacuation of dozens of museums across Ukraine’s frontline – packing, recording, logging and counting each item and sending them to secret, secure locations away from the combat zone." - The Guardian
Editors are, rightfully, worried - and they’re unhappy with their union, which they believe sold them out on AI - perhaps out of necessity. One member: “If a 70,000-member union like IATSE can’t protect workers, what does it mean for everybody else? … For society going forward?” - The New York Times
"Many of Lapham’s innovations at Harper’s and LQ were elegant systems of thievery. (Copyright holders were always paid for the republication of their poetry or prose.) The Harper’s Index and Readings Section and every issue of Lapham’s Quarterly were exercises in the arts of collage and anthology." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"I was very dehydrated. … I didn’t strike him too hard. I did nonetheless cuff or biff a young singer. … There is no excuse. Provocation yes, but not an excuse. … There has to be a degree of forgiveness and tolerance." Not entirely convinced? Neither is the interviewer. - Financial Times
"One 2017 study put its annual lift to Berkshire County at just more than $50 million. But the numbers tell a less convincing story when it comes to the museum’s economic impact on the people of North Adams." - The Boston Globe (MSN)
