“An ancient Indian sculpture quietly consigned for sale in a New York gallery by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be returned to the museum, LACMA Director Michael Govan said, as the museum reconsiders policies on the perpetually controversial issue of such ‘de-accessions.'”
Tag: 03.17.07
Venezuelan Distributor Wins Children’s Book Award
“Banco del Libro, a nonprofit Venezuelan network that has distributed books to children for nearly half a century, is the 2007 winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature. The award, which includes a cash prize of $710,000, was established by the Swedish government in 2002 and is the largest children’s book award in the world.”
Hamlet On Trial
Hamlet may have been a protagonist to Shakespeare, but to any conventional legal mind at the time, he would have to have been judged a murderer. Of course, he spent no small amount of time claiming to be insane, as well, a condition which is occasionally used to mitigate murder charges. This week, as part of Washington, D.C.’s ongoing Shakespeare festival, Hamlet’s case came before “no less a jurist than Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, [as] a jury of Washingtonians deliberated over whether Hamlet was in his right mind when he stabbed Polonius to death.”
Humans On The Edge Of Humanity
The question of extreme human behavior, both good and bad, is an intriguing one, especially when trying to measure one life against all others. Was Hitler evil on the extreme end of a normal human scale, or were his acts out of all proportion to the rest of humanity, placing him on his own continuum? Was Shakespeare brilliant out of all proportion to normal humanity, or was he merely one of the best on a more Earthbound scale? Journalist Ron Rosenbaum has made a career out of attempting to answer such questions.
Passe Muraille Looks Across Town For New Chief
Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille has named Andy McKim, longtime associate director of the city’s Tarragon Theatre, as its new artistic director. “He won the job in a competition that began last June; there were 25 applicants from across the country and a short list of six were interviewed and asked to submit vision statements. Forty years old next year, Passe Muraille has been a seminal force in the development of Canadian theatre.”
I Am Woman, Hear Me Ka-Ching!
Broadway has no shortage of famous men trodding its boards this spring, and their presence has cash-hungry producers licking their chops. But so far, it’s the women of Broadway who are showing the fastest commercial appeal: “Vanessa Redgrave, Joan Didion, Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes have been racking up impressive numbers, far outselling big boys like Kevin Spacey, Christopher Plummer, Brian Dennehy, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen.”