Enough touring orchestras and soloists are now stopping to perform in the United Arab Emirates that, said NSO Symphony Orchestra founder and CEO Janet Hassouneh, “I feel it’s the right time to pass on the baton to these new purveyors, so that audiences can enjoy ever-more outstanding musical experiences.”
Tag: 02.11.18
Looking Into The ‘Toxic’ Backstage Culture At English National Ballet
“Rumours of bad human relations and plummeting morale had been circulating for years, seemingly validated by a staggeringly high turnover of staff year after year. … Fifteen dancers left the company last summer alone. And yet the Times report was the first time allegations of unacceptable managerial conduct in the company came out into the open. … Why have people with compelling stories to tell not spoken out before? Or sought redress in-house? We talked to twelve ENB dancers past and present, as well as support staff, and had sight of relevant documents. And the answer we consistently got was ‘fear.'”
The Reclusive Artist (I’m Sorry, We Don’t Have Tolerance For That These Days)
Once upon a time, not turning up for an awards ceremony held a kind of clout: “When a writer doesn’t show his face,” as DeLillo wrote in his 1991 novel, “Mao II,” about a reclusive novelist who becomes a prisoner of a terrorist organization, “he becomes a local symptom of God’s famous reluctance to appear.” Now it feels a little rude, like not showing up to a dinner party held in your honor.
Meet The Duo Replacing Julio Bocca At The Helm Of Uruguay’s Ballet Nacional Sodre
Graham Spicer talks to Bocca about why he’s leaving and what he achieved, and to Igor Yebra, the incoming director, and Franceco Ventriglia (who recently
departed the Royal New Zealand Ballet), the new adjunct artistic director.
We’re Quickly Becoming A Post-Text World
This multimedia internet has been gaining on the text-based internet for years. But last year, the story accelerated sharply, and now audio and video are unstoppable. The most influential communicators online once worked on web pages and blogs. They’re now making podcasts, Netflix shows, propaganda memes, Instagram and YouTube channels, and apps like HQ Trivia.
Audible Commissions Playwrights For “Audio Theatre” Project
Audible CEO Don Katz acknowledged that radio dramas have been around for nearly 100 years, but he emphasized that what Audible is creating is something different. It’s performative audio for the digital era, and Katz said the contributions of these playwrights could be transformative to industry’s landscape, which already includes established purveyors of recorded theater such as L.A. Theatre Works.
Actors Who Are Working Parents Suggest That It’s Time For Job Sharing In Professional Theatre
One actor set up a forum to discuss West End job sharing ideas, and it had hundreds of members within days. Actor Caroline Sheen is for it. ‘”Eight shows a week for a year – it’s a lot for any parent,’ says Sheen, who has a five-year-old daughter. She’s a fan of having the alternate scheme extended. ‘To explore these avenues further means people who are parents have more options open to them. … I’ve only been able to take short contracts, because of the parental guilt of leaving her for so long. A job share would make life easier for parents.'”
The Oscars Have Begun
That is, the Scientific and Technical Awards, handed out by host Patrick Stewart, but without a red carpet or other celebrities. “This is an awards ceremony where the mere mention of a “rig” — the basic skeleton of a 3-D model used in digital animation — can inspire a hearty round of applause and where a wry joke about the programming language C++ can bring the house down.”
A Gritty French Drama Pictures A Young, Centrist French President, Almost Like Macron
One big difference is that this French president is a woman. “‘Like everybody else, we didn’t see Macron coming,’ said Eric Benzekri, one of the show’s two screenwriters. ‘What we saw is the political space which Macron had, and we gave our president, Amélie Dorendeu, the same space in the series.'”
Brooklyn’s Home Of Horror
The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies takes its name from Lovecraft and was founded in Canada. It has homes in Brooklyn and London, and it’s heading to L.A. as well. At the Institute, those curious about the intellectual side of horror film can take courses “led by writers, scholars, directors and others with a passion for the genre.”