Charles McNulty: “Even before the pandemic, the theater’s economic model was broken. Our resident theaters, the nonprofit companies that constitute the art form’s national foundation, arose in a cultural landscape drastically different from today’s.” – Los Angeles Times
Author: Douglas McLennan
23 Of This Year’s Best Books On Dance
Wendy Perron makes a list and some recommendations: It’s been a good year for dance history. Most of these books explore the past, deepening and broadening what we know and how we know it. – Wendy Perron
This 1953 Column By Walt Disney Talked About Threats To The Movie Industry
As Disney concluded in his column, “We like to enjoy ourselves in crowds, at sports arenas, at picnics, fairs and carnivals, at concerts and in the theatre. … People are always going to demand and enjoy movies in the theatre. Perhaps not as exclusively as they did when public amusements were more limited. But with a big potential share” of people’s entertainment budgets, “we must compete as never before.” – Variety
2020 – The Year Macro-Culture Paused And Micro-Culture Took Over
“When space shrinks and time expands, we suddenly find ourselves traveling inward—binge-watching ’80s sci-fi, creating new online personas, studying Buddhism, covering our bedroom ceilings in cotton and LED strips so it looks like a thundering night sky and/or reflects our storm-tossed souls. Anything to rediscover ourselves. Macroculture may have been voided by 2020, but microcultures boomed. At the very least, everyone’s just a bit more interested in something as a result, and thus more interesting, as people.” – Wired
Sorry – This Crossed The Line, Say Judges In Star Trek/Dr. Seuss Parody Copyright Case
“The ruling by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concerned a Kickstarter-backed book, created by ComicMix, that inserted “Star Trek” characters into the whimsical pastel world that Dr. Seuss created for the 1990 children’s classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” The ComicMix book, a primer on “Star Trek” characters and lore, replicated broad swaths of the Dr. Seuss original, down to imitating small details of the illustrations, the judges said.” – The New York Times
Building On “Messiah” To Broaden A Multicultural Message
An 80-minute film featuring a dozen soloists from all corners of the country, this unabashed celebration of Canadian multiculturalism has recast the work as a series of deeply personal video narratives. – The New York Times
Time To Drop “Concertmistress” From The Lexicon
“I remember being the “concertmistress” of my youth orchestra and the vague embarrassment over the name. It was an honor that put me in front of everyone, but I couldn’t quite figure out why the “mistress” thing felt weird. I mean isn’t “concertmistress” simply the female version of “concertmaster”? Honestly, it really doesn’t convey the same sense of authority.” – Violinist.com
The Virus Isn’t Changing Us, It’s Speeding Up What Was Already Happening
“There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen,” Vladimir Lenin supposedly observed. It can sound profound and ominous when you read it the first time, but when three books on the coronavirus crisis all quote the same line, it reflects something between an intellectual consensus and a lack of imagination. Still, in the authors’ telling, the crisis didn’t just compress decades of history into 2020; it was also decades in the making.” – Washington Post
Claim: We’re In A Literary Drought
Joseph Epstein: “Rich literary periods are often followed by stagnant ones. We in the United States, but not we alone, are now going through such a stagnant period. What is the last novel you can think of that caused a genuine stir?” – National Review
Stimulus Bill Includes $15 Billion Rescue For Performing Arts Venues
The long-awaited second stimulus package, which still needs to be passed, designates $900 billion of direct payments and jobless aid to Americans crushed by the continuing scourge of Covid-19. It also incorporates the Save Our Stages Act and with it the establishment of a $15 billion SPA grant program for indie establishments. – Forbes