“British playwright Chloë Moss has won the 2009 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for This Wide Night. A sympathetic portrait of imprisoned women, their friendships formed in confinement and their struggles to start life anew upon release, the play premiered at London’s Soho Theatre and toured regionally in the United Kingdom — including performances at four women’s prisons.”
Tag: 02.25.09
Obama Proved Arts-Sensitive In His Chicago Pol Days
“Hopes are running high in the arts because all eyes and ears are on Barack Obama, and Obama’s eyes and ears seem to be attuned to the arts. But go back a little more than 10 years and you discover that Obama, an Illinois state senator at the time, was even then getting an earful from arts and cultural institutions — and apparently receiving their message loud and clear.”
‘A Need To Be Heard’ Fuels Chicago’s New Opera Company
“‘There were way too few opportunities for African-American opera singers in Chicago,’ said Marvin Lynn, executive director of the 11-member group [South Shore Opera Company], which will debut this weekend at the newly renovated South Shore Cultural Center. […] ‘If it’s not a black opera, we may or may not be featured. As a company, we want to present a range of work.'”
The Opposite Of Grand Theft Auto
Chris Suellentrop: “Flower [is] a little marvel of a game that casts the player as a series of petals floating in the wind. What’s remarkable about Flower is the sensation it creates, from start to finish: simple, almost indescribable, joy.”
Well, At Least Somebody Likes Brutalism
“The name Brutalism – from the French béton brut, the raw concrete used by Le Corbusier and favored by modernists – is more commonly used today as a term of opprobrium by a public that profoundly dislikes the style’s rough textures and powerful forms,” says Ada Louise Huxtable. She considers two Brutalist landmarks: Yale’s Paul Rudolph Building, now restored, and Boston’s City Hall, merely reviled.
How Do You Distinguish Your Orchestra In A City With Eight Of Them?
Conductor Lothar Zagrosek: “[T]his building we are in is our great asset. That is why the first thing I did when I arrived was to the change the name. Before, we were the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, so we were the BSO in a city which already had a DSO and DOO and heaven knows what. Now we are the ‘Concert House Orchestra’, so we are identified with our home, like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam or the Tonhälle in Zurich.”
Why Not Just Get A Real Piano?
Yamaha’s $20,000 Avant Grand digital piano “is a ‘hybrid,’ designed to perfectly mimic the touch of an acoustic piano. The Avant Grand not only uses the same key, level, and hammer mechanism of an acoustic piano, but also special embedded speakers recreate the feel of an acoustic piano’s keys to the player’s hands.” (And it never needs tuning.)
Jewish-Arab Eurovision Contest Pairing Draws Ire In Israel
Singer Achinoam Nini, Israel’s representative in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, “asked if she could bring along her current artistic collaborator, an Israeli Arab singer, Mira Awad. … But coinciding as it did with Israel’s Gaza war and the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, the ultranationalist politician who threatens Israeli Arabs with a loyalty oath,” the decision to allow the duo “was labeled by many on the left and in the Arab community as an effort to prettify an ugly situation.”
Musicians: Radio Stations Should Pay Us For Song Play
“Musicians ranging from will.i.am to Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow gathered for a different kind of performance on Tuesday, pushing for legislation to require radio stations to pay royalties to musicians when the stations play their songs. … Bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to require radio stations to pay royalties to performers. Songwriters already receive royalties.”
Asian TV Removes ‘Gay,’ ‘Lesbian’ From Oscar Speeches
“Gay Asians voiced indignation Wednesday after television broadcasts of the Academy Awards in their region censored the words ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ in speeches that called for equal rights for homosexuals.” The censorship did not occur in the live broadcast. “But viewers who caught recorded telecasts in the evening on STAR, an Asian satellite TV service that says it reaches more than 300 million viewers in 53 countries, noticed that the sound was removed whenever both men mentioned ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian.'”