The company was looking to commission an adaptation of Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto. Jimmy López remembers getting a call about it from his friend, conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya: “November 18th, 2010, I was having lunch and I got a call from Miguel. He said, ‘You need to go home and upload your vocal music to YouTube.'”
Category: AUDIENCE
There Are Plenty Of Reasons I Don’t Need The Theatre. And One Reason I Do That Trumps Them All
“I am a reporter on The One Show on BBC One, where we get audiences of up to six million. At Edinburgh, the space I play seats 350 people. I am 67, I have six grandchildren, I have been an MP and a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, I have books currently in print in 24 countries around the world; I don’t need this. But I’m doing it – for four weeks, with just one day off. Why? Because the Edinburgh Fringe changed my life.”
Why British Politicians Don’t Go To The Opera (Or Theatre) (Or Dance)
“With the exception of Edward Heath, it is difficult to think of a British prime minister of my lifetime who has had a deep interest in high culture or who even felt any responsibility for associating the office with the arts.”
How Do New Words Catch On And Spread (Now We Can Map Them)
“The uncertain and gradual growth of words makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint where they started or how they caught on. But that is starting to change, as linguists draw on a wealth of data about word usage from social media services like Twitter.”
How Netflix Is Disrupting TV
“It’s less than three years since Netflix debuted its first original series — Lilyhammer, recently cancelled after three seasons — and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said the service expects to roll out 16 scripted dramas, nine original documentaries, three documentary series, 12 comedy specials and 17 children’s series in 2015 for a total of 475 hours of original programming in the United States.”
The Problem With Cutting Theatre In Schools Is That It Cuts Audiences In Theatres
“My own fear about drama getting smaller in regular public schools like Lakeshore is that it limits the ability of kids to stumble upon it – and that affects not just future theatre professionals, but future theatre audiences.”
Public Projects To Transform Neighborhoods (But Who Asked The Neighborhoods?)
“As Thomas Heatherwick’s projects have grown larger, and entangle private wealth with government financing, they present the public with a quandary: Should communities accept the unasked-for gift of a design perhaps more ambitious than what might result from limited public funds, developed in a public process?”
How The Ways We Watch TV Are Changing
“We’re at a media moment where media consumers expect media to find them. They are not going to go to media. They’re not going to go out and find shows in general. Now, it’s to the point where appointment viewing for most people can be narrowed down to a select two or three or four shows that people make sure they always catch.”
Bringing Ballet To Farms In (Where Else?) Vermont
“[Charles] Pregger, a ballet teacher, said Farm to Ballet was born after he led outdoor classes at Oakledge Park in Burlington. He saw that alfresco ballet was possible and joked that he’d like to do something like a flash-mob-styled performance halfway up Mount Philo. That lighthearted thought became a more meaningful and concrete plan to bring dance to Vermont farms.”
Why Are So Many Companies Giving Away Their Intellectual Property? (Hint: It’s Not Charity)
“It’s not happening for altruistic reasons. In his keynote at the O’Reilly Open Source Conference in Portland, Oregon last week, Cloud Foundry Foundation CEO Sam Ramji argued that the shift is being driven by economics.”