“Directors with whom AFP spoke describe a paradoxical atmosphere in Russian theatre, in which pressure from authorities co-exists with a burgeoning of opportunities. Actress and director Marina Brusnikina says that despite a push by conservatives for ‘going back to tradition’, Moscow’s contemporary theatres are ‘teeming with life. … You can get access, you can experiment. Even with this terrible situation with Kirill [Serebrennikov], we are still working normally.'” – Yahoo! (AFP)
Tag: 03.03.19
In 18 Months At The Helm, Michael Fothergill Has Made Ballet Arkansas Flourish
“We have considerably increased the marketing for our organization and have rebranded the company entirely. We have tripled our seasonal programming, created a series of special performances for young audiences and added a number of popular events.” – Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Académie Française, Like Its Nation, Is Hopelessly Divided
“The elite club of 40 ‘immortals,’ as the members are known, that serves as the official guardian of the French language does not admit just anybody.” Indeed, these days they don’t admit anybody at all: there are three vacancies, and the membership cannot agree on candidates to fill them. As one critic puts it, “The academy is a boat adrift in a dry sea.” – The New York Times
Museum Of Contemporary Art Cleveland Makes Itself More Inclusive Very Simply: Free Admission
The move is part of the museum’s 50th anniversary “Open House” inclusivity initiative, which also includes “the creation of a diversity-focused curatorial fellowship (the first recipient is LaTanya Autry, who has held curatorial positions at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Mississippi Museum of Art), an engagement-guide apprenticeship program, enhanced onsite programming for families and teens, and the addition of an education specialist.” – ARTnews
The Ballet Dancer Whose Workout Film In Pink Stilettos Earned Him Viral Fame
Harper Watters says that sharing his story, including the viral video where he and another dancer wearing pink stilettos dance on treadmills, is good for his dance with the Houston Ballet. “I saw such a response to me sharing myself authentically off stage and outside of the studio, I thought why don’t I do that more in the studio. … And the second I did that, my dancing became so much better and so much more authentic.” – KTRK (Houston)
Letitia Elizabeth Landon Was A ‘Female Byron,’ A Celebrity Poet Who Mesmerized Her Public With Rumors
By the time of her early death, she had been the subject of many dark rumors, most of which she had initiated. But Landon was one of the first modern poets, who “explored the art of performative self-creation in the commercial press—an art fated to become a habit in the social-media age—and she was one of the first to pay its costs. Neither sincere in a 19th-century sense nor confessional in a 20th-century one, L.E.L.’s signature style was a curiously opaque self-obsession.” – The Atlantic
The Former Director Of The Manchester Festival Is About To Open New York’s Huge New Arts Center
So how’s the project, which Alex Poots was first approached about in 2014, going? It’s going OK: “Poots and his board have … doubled the scale of the Shed so that, when it opens this spring with a programme of original commissions including works by Steve McQueen and Björk, it will be in a multistorey glass complex where the largest performance space can accommodate up to 1,200 people. There will be rehearsal and lab spaces for emerging artists, a pop-up bookshop and a 20,000 sq ft outdoor plaza for huge events.” – The Observer (UK)
What Happens When An Author Who Identifies As Non-Binary Is Nominated For A Women’s Fiction Prize?
The author Akwaeke Emezi’s debut novel, Freshwater, is on the 16-book longlist for the Women’s prize for fiction. Emezi identifies as a non-binary trans person and uses they and them as pronouns. The chair of the judging committee: “We’re very careful not to Google the authors while judging, so we did not know. But the book found great favour among us, it is wonderful. They are an incredibly talented author and we’re keen to celebrate them.” – The Guardian (UK)
An HBO Film Gives Michael Jackson’s Accusers A National Stage
Jackson died in deep debt, but his estate is worried about the new HBO film that gives voice to two men who have long accused him (and who had also, at other times, given statements defending him) of molesting them when they were boys. And the estate isn’t taking the threat lightly. – The New York Times
What Will Happen To London’s Famous Whitechapel Church Bell Foundry?
Counterproposals – a boutique hotel with some space for small bell-making and artist and sculptor studios; or keeping the foundry as it is, with invitations to sculptors who work on a massive scale to work there as well – are flying, and the history of the entire area is up in the air. – The Observer (UK)