Category: AUDIENCE

‘Digital Theater Isn’t Theater. It’s a Way to Mourn Its Absence.’

Laura Collins-Hughes: “All that frenzy of streamable online activity — the virtual readings and talk shows, the archival videos and topical new plays — is part of keeping the candle lit. … But theater’s primary public face wears a show-must-go-on smile, so there’s a weird and self-defeating disconnect, as if being supportive means pretending that these works are just as exciting as live stuff would be.” – The New York Times

What Does The Public Want From Art In A Post-COVID World? Here Are Five Takeaways From A Massive New Study

“In what’s billed as one of the largest arts and culture studies ever done in the US, the new report Culture and Community in a Time of Crisis has surveyed some 124,000 people to take a look at their thoughts on the role of culture in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results don’t look good, but it’s good data to look at, to get a sense of the challenges the sector faces.” – Artnet

How To Make Performance Venues Safe In A Time Of Contagion: A Roadmap

For months now (starting before COVID), American Repertory Theater head Diane Paulus and professor Joseph Allen of Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health have been working on this issue, and they’ve now put a guide online for other venues’ use. “Although the Roadmap for Recovery and Resilience for Theater is not meant to be comprehensive or prescriptive, it offers several insightful factors to consider.” – Dance Magazine

An Art Critic Visits The Newly-Socially-Distanced National Gallery In London

Adrian Searle: “Visitors … have to follow one of three designated routes through the galleries, all of which are signposted, with arrows on the floor pointing up the prescribed flow. Quite how this will work, and how much one can deviate or jump between Route A, which begins in the Sainsbury Wing, and routes B and C in the main galleries, … defeated me on my press preview visit on Saturday. I get the feeling the few dozen of us wandering the galleries were guinea pigs for a system that needs to evolve in practice.” – The Guardian

Will “Hamilton” On Disney Bring A New Audience To The Theatre?

“Hamilton’s premiere on such an accessible platform marks a potential for genuine change and improvement in the future. I know that nothing will ever replace the feeling of being in a real-life theater, sharing a room with strangers experiencing the same extraordinary thrills. But if this is the best, most inclusive way to introduce more people to theater, then I am all for it.” – CNET

Smithsonian Chief Lonnie Bunch: ‘I Want Museums To Be A Place That Gives The Public Not Just What It Wants, But What It Needs’

“I believe very strongly that museums have a social justice role to play. … I’m not expecting museums to engage in partisan politics. What I’m expecting museums to be is driven by scholarship and the community. … And if that means that museums have to take a little more risk, … then so be it. I would rather the museum be a place that takes a little risk to make the country better than a place where history and science go to die.” – The New York Times