Mark Shenton: “I always apply the test I also use on theatre tickets to assess how useful they are: would I pay ready money to have one? And the answer is hardly ever. Yet theatre programmes have become a habit for many. They are part of the theatregoing ‘experience’ and a happy aide-memoire of the show. But, I often find the information I need just as easily online. A front of house notice will typically list the cast at a particular performance – especially important with long-running shows where substitutions often appear. So I simply take a photograph of it.”
Tag: 02.15.18
Lost Klimt Drawing Turns Up In Dead Museum Staffer’s Closet
“In Austria and Germany, finding missing art is rarely simple. The drawing, along with three works by Klimt’s contemporary Egon Schiele, was part of a long legal battle and an even longer back story.”
Top Off-Broadway Theater Abruptly Cuts All Ties With Playwright Neil Labute
“MCC Theater, a prestigious Off Broadway company, announced Thursday that it was canceling an upcoming production of Mr. LaBute’s latest play and terminating his tenure as its playwright-in-residence, effective immediately. The theater offered no explanation for its action.”
New York City Ballet’s Investigation Finds Peter Martins Accusations ‘Not Corroborated’
The inquiry, done by attorneys hired by the company and its school, into allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, and physical abuse that led the longtime chief of City Ballet to retire reportedly found no verification for the accusations. However, several former dancers, including some interviewed by the attorneys, argue that the entire exercise was meant more to “whitewash” the case than to find the truth.
Ai Weiwei Writes About The Artwork That Made Him ‘The Most Dangerous Man In China’
The piece, called Remembering, was a response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the thousands of children who died in it because their shoddily built government schools collapsed on top of them. “The kind of authoritarian state we have in China cannot survive if it answers questions – if the truth is revealed, they are finished. So they started to think of me as the most dangerous person in China.”
Activists Use ‘Three Billboards’ Protest To Press London Authorities On Grenfell Tower Fire
In what seems to be the first, and surely won’t be the last, incidence of life imitating this particular piece of art, “members of the Justice 4 Grenfell group paraded billboards emblazoned with the words ’71 dead’, ‘And still no arrests?’, ‘How Come?’ around central London locations in an attempt to keep victims of last June’s tower block blaze ‘in the national conscience’.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.15.18
Pianist Menahem Pressler at age 94: Fragile, fallible but still a credit to his legacy?
Human beings are living longer – and so are performing artists. The question of when they retire gracefully isn’t going away, and if anything, will only require more finesse as musical legends have increasingly few reasons to retire. … read more
AJBlog: Condemned to Music Published 2018-02-15
Obama Drama: Unveiled, Hung and Exiled (with video)
“It’s kind of amazing to think that [the Obama portraits] will be living next to the other portraits of all of the other presidents and first ladies,” Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator at the Whitney Museum, gushed about the latest presidential commissions by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. Sad to say, Ru, Barack Obama is not actually “next to the other portraits” of the U.S. Presidents. … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2018-02-15
Investigation Concludes Former Queens Museum Director Misled Board
An independent investigation by the Queens Museum’s board into the handling of an event sponsored by the Israeli government has concluded that “the president and executive director of the museum, Laura Raicovich, and deputy director of the museum, David Strauss, exercised poor judgment,” adding that they “knowingly misled the board, and otherwise failed to comport themselves with the standards consistent with their positions.”
Nézet-Séguin To Lead Met Opera Two Years Early
The company announced on Thursday that Yannick Nézet-Séguin would become its new music director next season, two years ahead of schedule. The accelerated ascension will give much-needed musical stability to the Met, the nation’s largest performing arts organization, which suspended Mr. Levine, its longtime conductor, in December and opened an investigation into his behavior.