“The cash crisis is so desperate, performers’ lives are at risk from ancient stage machinery because there is no money to update it, damning internal reports reveal. … Opera House chief executive Richard Evans has confirmed it may have to close permanently if state and federal governments do not give $800 million for a renewal project….”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Govt Downplays Reported Dangers At Sydney Opera House
“An engineering report by theatre consultants Marshall Day Entertech warned of ‘multiple fatalities’ in the event of a serious malfunction” of stage machinery. “Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reported the Opera House would be forced to close unless repairs worth $800 million were done. But the NSW government yesterday played down the risks and the cost of work.”
As Jeffrey Deitch Takes LA MOCA’s Helm, A Little Advice
“Change the museum’s operating hours and drop the general admission price, from $10 to zero. Fixing hours and admission could alleviate attendance woes. Both moves require study and planning, but they would begin the long-term process of rebuilding public confidence.”
Adolescent Americans, Learning Their Craft At The Bolshoi
“The ballet pipeline used to run mainly in one direction. Russians — Baryshnikov and Balanchine, Godunov and Nureyev — went (or defected) to the West. But now a handful of young Americans are venturing the other way, apprenticing themselves at the academy here, which has long been the sweat-and-tears training ground for many of Russia’s ballet greats.”
To Fill More Seats, DC Theatres Book More Touring Shows
“In less than a decade, the architecture of Washington theater has undergone the most radical revision in history. … While the physical expansion has given the theaters of Washington more flexibility, it has also upped the pressure, compelling boards and artistic directors to consider new methods of putting the spaces to work. In many cases, that has meant including in their seasons more plays by visiting companies.”
Spoleto Fest Music Director To Step Down At Season’s End
“I love this Festival deeply,” Emmanuel Villaume told the Spoleto U.S.A. board this morning, “and I have always said that if I could not give the organization what I consider to be the necessary time, I would step down from my position.”
Benedict Nightingale’s Successor Reports For Duty
Libby Purves: “[W]hat is a critic but an audience member with the duty to pass on the word? Stepping into his shoes as chief theatre critic of The Times today, not without apprehension and with more humility than you can possibly guess, I take that message in.”
When The Ensemble’s Instrument Is A Laptop
“Every musician in this ensemble was playing the same instrument – a MacBook. You’ve now entered the world of Slork, one of various high-tech musical projects under way at CCRMA, Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.”
Marion McClinton: Where Is Chicago’s Black Theatre?
“It is a question that baffles me because of the adventurous nature of Chicago theater and I mean, it’s CHICAGO, land of Wright, Brooks, Hansberry, Forrest…. I know there are theatres in Chi that presently stand and are successful but I am talking about one that speaks to an America of the 21st Century, the one that voted in the US’s first black president (from Chicago!).”
Poet Peter Orlovsky, Partner Of Allen Ginsberg, Dies At 76
“Although they spent time apart, Ginsberg and Orlovsky’s relationship endured for more than 30 years. … Orlovsky taught at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, founded by Ginsberg and Anne Waldman in 1974.”