“Complaints by staff members and months of internal conflict have led to the ouster of Mosaic Theater Company Artistic Director Ari Roth. … The end to Roth’s tenure at the company he set up in the final days of 2014 is a bitter close to what had seemed a successful revitalization of his career as a theater leader in Washington. Just before creating Mosaic, in December 2014, Roth was fired as artistic director of Theater J, the company he ran for 18 years as part of the DC Jewish Community Center.” – The Washington Post
Author: Matthew Westphal
Art Dealers Are Making Buyers Commit Not To Flip The Art. Are Such Contracts Enforceable?
“Contractual terms preventing buyers from reselling works at auction for a fixed period of time — which have become increasingly popular as dealers seek to stamp out speculation that can damage young artists’ prospects — as well as agreements granting galleries the right of first refusal on resales may violate consumer rights, according to Martin Wilson, chief general counsel at [auction house] Phillips. … Fellow lawyers in the UK and US largely agree.” – Artnet
Ethan Stiefel Named Director Of American Repertory Ballet
“The position has been open since former director Douglas Martin’s departure in 2019. …. Stiefel, a former American Ballet Theatre star with directing, teaching and choreographing experience, [begins next July and] brings major name recognition and international credentials to the New Brunswick, New Jersey–based ARB.” – Pointe Magazine
Unknown Da Vinci Sketch Of Jesus Discovered, And Scholar Says It Proves ‘Salvator Mundi’ Is Not By Leonardo
“[This] is the true face of Salvator Mundi,” said Annalisa Di Maria of the UNESCO Center in Florence. “[It] recalls everything in the drawings of Leonardo: it is his language, and speaks loud and clear.” Di Maria argues that this sketch is the study for the real Salvator Mundi by Leonardo; the painting under that title which was sold three years ago for the highest price in history ($450 million), and whose authorship is still debated, looks very different. – Artnet
2020 National Book Awards Winners Are Most Diverse Crop Ever
“Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown, a satirical, cinematic novel written in the form of a screenplay, has won the National Book Award for fiction. Tamara Payne and her father the late Les Payne’s Malcolm X biography, The Dead Are Arising, was cited for nonfiction and Kacen Callender’s King and the Dragonflies for young people’s literature. The poetry prize went to Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony and the winner for best translated work was Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station, translated from Japanese by Morgan Giles.” – AP
Poland Freezes Its COVID Arts Bailout After Celebrities Are Caught Receiving Millions In Funding
“The ministry of culture released the names of more than 2,000 beneficiaries of its 400 million złoty ($106 million) support fund [last] Friday. Soon after, critics began scrutinizing the list, which included not only cultural foundations, orchestras, theaters, entertainment venues, and arts schools, but also several successful singers and actors.” A big backlash ensued, with accusations of corruption and cronyism flying. – Artnet
Dept. Of Who-Thought-Of-This?: Spike Lee Is Making A Movie Musical About Viagra
The screenplay is by Lee and Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of London’s Young Vic theatre; the songs will be by Heidi Rodewald and Stew, who won a Tony and three Drama Desk Awards for Passing Strange; the project is based on an article in Esquire, “All Rise: The Untold Story of The Guys Who Launched Viagra” by David Kushner. There’s no title yet, but oh, the possibilities … – Deadline
An Oral History Of Alex Trebek
“We talked to nearly 30 [Jeopardy!] contestants [from] over the past four decades — ranging from a player in the first episode to one whose winning moment went viral just earlier this month — about how Trebek became America’s most beloved game-show host.” – The Washington Post
Creating A Museum Of Historical Smells
“Scientists, historians and experts in artificial intelligence across the UK and Europe have announced they are teaming up for a €2.8m project labelled ‘Odeuropa’ to identify and even recreate the aromas that would have assailed noses between the 16th and early 20th centuries.” – The Guardian
700 Pages, 120 Characters, One Actor Reading The Audiobook
“Around 90% of [William Gaddis’s] JR is in unattributed dialogue, with only dashes and ellipses to indicate when a character starts and stops speaking or, more accurately, is interrupted. [The novel] is a teeming operatic racket, an anarchic satire of US capitalism where the flailing voices of more than 120 characters – plus snatches of adverts, news bulletins and TV broadcasts – bellow over one other.” Actor Nick Sullivan’s 37-hour reading of JR has attracted a fanbase in the nine years since it was released, and he calls it “the most rewarding narration job I have ever had.” – The Guardian