Four months ago, the Conn.-based Eugene O’Neill Theater Center announced it would no longer accept open submissions for its annual Playwrights Conference. The change in policy was made as a cost-saving measure. But after much protest, the O’Neill has decided to reinstate its open submissions policy.
Tag: 01.16.04
Are Laws Killing Digital Creativity?
“Who knows what creativity could be unleashed by the growth of digital distribution and the widespread availability of programs to create, sample and manipulate content. But if we treat copyright as an absolute property right, and allow the limitations on re-use forced on us by digital rights management technologies, we will never find out.”
London Symphony In Debt
The London Symphony has much to be proud of, and it’s held up as a shining success. Oh, one problem, writes Charlotte Higgins: “the LSO is mired in financial troubles. It is facing its first deficit in years, despite, to other organisations’ frequent exasperation and envy, being the best-funded symphony orchestra in the country.’ And all about a building?
Springer Opera Picks Up Olivier Noms
Jerry Springer the Opera has been nominated for eight Olivier Awards in London. The nominations include an unusual commendation: “The 20 actors in the line-up of the sell-out show at the Royal National Theatre were jointly shortlisted for ‘best performance in a supporting role in a musical’ in the final stage of the contest to be concluded on February 22.”
Dali, In Retrospect
As celebrations of Salvador Dali’s 100th birthday gear up in Spain, it’s interesting to note how he and his work are now perceived. “The truth is that the savage visions of Dali, once considered genuinely disturbing, have been comfortably absorbed into the cultural mainstream. This has meant, inevitably, a partial sanitisation of the artist’s more excessive expressions.”
The Trouble With Taboo
What went wrong with “Taboo,” the Broadway musical that is closing after losing $10 million? “There are no ‘villains’ in this story, really – just a volatile, distracted and ultimately ineffectual producer; a weak director; a timid bookwriter who watched his key scenes get cut because they couldn’t be acted or directed properly; and a star, Boy George, who wrote a fine score (let’s give him his due) but wasn’t much of an actor. One person involved in “Taboo” calls the show a “missed opportunity. There are a lot of really good things in it, there just wasn’t anyone around who could pull it all together.”
Uta Hagen, 84
Hagen played Broadway stages for 50 years, and “wrote what many consider the actor’s bible on performing.” She was “particularly known for playing the brutal, braying Martha in the original production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, was as at ease with such modern playwrights as Albee, Clifford Odets and Tennessee Williams as with the works of Shakespeare, Shaw or Chekhov.”
TV Ratings Down…What To Do?
If American TV execs are panicking about their ratings being down, they’re not showing it to critics. “This TV season, viewership for NBC is down 9 per cent, for CBS it’s down 3 per cent, ABC is down 5 per cent and Fox isn’t down at all, but it isn’t growing either. In fact Fox can thank a handful of avidly watched baseball games for its holding-steady starts. You’d think this might cause a touch of panic at NBC, for instance, but devil the bit of it.”
Boston: What, No Tchaikovsky?
James Levine is taking over the Boston Symphony next season. And he’s taking the orchestra in a direction it hasn’t been. “What is new in Levine’s programming for the orchestra is an emphasis on the whole of the 20th century, not just the first third. Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Bartok appear, as they have for decades — but so do midcentury figures as diverse as Gershwin and Messiaen, and such late-century masters as Ligeti, Lutoslawski, and Elliott Carter. The 21st century is represented on Levine’s programs by new works from Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, and Boston’s John Harbison.”
Orchestra To Perform Silent Cage On Radio
For the first time in the UK an orchestra will be performing John Cage’s silent work 4’33” on the radio. “Cage’s seminal work, 4’33”, which consists of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence, will be the highlight of a concert on Radio 3 at 7.25pm. In readiness for the performance, Radio 3 bosses will have to switch off their emergency back-up system – designed to cut in when there is an unexpected silence on air.”