“I am also interested in consent, by far the least attended to aspect of the play, which we encounter in the especially difficult junction between sexuality and trauma. At this strained intersection, consent is revealed at its most impotent, impossible to help clearly adjudicate desire.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
Tag: 01.10.20
San Antonio Arts Presenter Abruptly Shuts Down
Just after New Year’s, ARTS San Antonio, one of the city’s top presenters of touring music, dance and theater artists, sent a message to donors and subscribers saying that the organization was insolvent and had ceased operations as of Dec. 31. There will be no refunds for tickets purchased for canceled performances. – The Rivard Report (San Antonio)
Book Print Sales Were Down 1.3 Percent In 2019
The decline was not unexpected, as sales in 2018 were driven by strong performances of a plethora of political books and the blockbuster success of Michelle Obama’s Becoming, which was the top seller that year with more than three million copies sold. In 2019, Becoming was the #1 title in adult nonfiction, selling about 1.2 million copies. – Publishers Weekly
Filmmaker Ivan Passer Dead at 86
Along with his classmate Miloš Forman, Passer was one of the key figures of the Czech New Wave in the 1960s, and after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviets, the two escaped to the U.S. and resumed their careers in Hollywood. There Passer “directed a steady series of much-admired and often underappreciated films of economy, fidelity, humor and subtle beauty, among them Cutter’s Way, Stalin, Haunted Summer and Born to Win.” – Los Angeles Times
Time’s Up Creates Database Of Diverse Critics
The new database hosts profiles of underrepresented critics and journalists and invites media outlets, studios, networks, talent and film and television critics associations to find and contact them for screenings, interview junkets and publishing opportunities. – Los Angeles Times
Notre Dame Cathedral’s Roof, Destroyed By Fire, Should Be Rebuilt In Wood, Says Top French Architect
“Eric Wirth, vice president of the Guild of French Architects, … forcefully argued that wood — rather than concrete, material, or other materials that have been suggested — was the most ecological and structurally sound material during at a hearing at the National Assembly this week. …’If the structure had been made of steel, there would be no cathedral to speak of today,’ he said. In a fire, ‘iron holds for half an hour, an hour, and then writhes, pulls on the walls and collapses everything.'” – artnet
Sampling Every Sound A Stradivarius Can Make
Here’s a detailed look at a project by the Museo del Violino in the Italian city of Cremona (the Stradivari family’s hometown and to this day a center of instrument-making) to digitally record and preserve the sound of every note, as bowed and plucked in various ways, that can be made by a violin and cello by Stradivari, a second violin by Guarneri, and a viola by Amati. – Popular Science
LA Chamber Orchestra Names A New Executive Director
Ben Cadwallader has been executive director of Vermont Symphony since 2015. In 2016, he was one of nine arts administrators selected by the League of American Orchestras for its Emerging Leaders Program. An oboe player, he graduated from the Mannes College of Music at the New School in New York. – Los Angeles Times
What’s Lost With The Demise Of The New York Musical Festival
What’s worth saying with certainty is that there needs to be more opportunities for musicals to be developed and showcased outside the auspices of commercial or not-for-profit producers, with development that benefits the work and the artists first and foremost, rather than a financial imperative or looming production deadline. – The Stage
High Line Curator Named As Next Curator Of Venice Biennale
Cecilia Alemani, born in Milan in 1977, has directed the High Line’s art program since 2011, where she has commissioned large-scale works by artists such as Kerry James Marshall, Carol Bove, El Anatsui and Sarah Sze. – The New York Times