“There are slightly fewer concerts on the Washington Performing Arts Society’s calendar for the 2009-10 season. There will be less jazz, less world music, and — as yet — no dance at all. Some of this is due, of course, to the recession.” There are also fewer orchestras slated, which means subscribers will pay 20 percent less. “And a new WPAS policy allows subscribers to pay for their subscriptions in monthly installments.”
Tag: 03.17.09
Churchill’s Gaza Play Goes To Washington
“The four-day run of a 10-minute play later this month in Washington has raised a very large philosophical question: Where does the art stop and the politics begin? … ‘My druthers would be to critique this play dramaturgically, not politically,'” says Ari Roth, artistic director of the Jewish Community Center’s Theater J. But that’s not a realistic option right now for Caryl Churchill’s “Seven Jewish Children.”
LA Dance Series Hauls In A $20 Million Donation
“In one of the largest such gifts ever to the Music Center or any of its resident companies, Los Angeles philanthropist Glorya Kaufman is donating $20 million to the Dance at the Music Center program. The donation, to be announced today, surpasses all but a handful of contributions to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Center Theatre Group or the Los Angeles Master Chorale.”
More Strike Fallout: Writers Guild West To Cut Staff
“Confronted with a growing budget deficit, the Writers Guild of America, West plans to cut about 20 positions by the end of the month. The guild, which has about 185 employees, notified worker representatives last week that layoffs, which could begin this week, were needed to plug a budget hole of more than $2 million, said two people familiar with the matter. The union, which has 8,000 members, has annual operating expenses of about $25 million. “
$50 Apts, $10,000 Towers In Model Fund-Raising Scheme
The Queens Museum of Art’s “most famous asset is its 9,335-square-foot scale model of New York City, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair. The Panorama of the City of New York has 895,000 structures, replicating every street, bridge and skyscraper in the five boroughs.” Under the museum’s new “Adopt-a-Building program … the panorama will evolve gradually along with the city — at least, for those who pay.”
How To Get Audiences To Sing Along: Booze On Demand
“Producers of the Broadway jukebox musical ‘Rock of Ages’ will offer an unusual perk starting tonight to attract audiences and loosen them up in a bad economy: in-seat alcohol service during performances. ‘Sometimes theater is perceived as something antiseptic,’ said Carl Levin, a former Morgan Stanley investment banker and a lead producer of the off-Broadway transfer. ‘We find when you have drinking, people are more likely to sing along.'”
British Library: We’ve Mislaid 9,000 Books (Not All At Once)
“More than 9,000 books are missing from the British Library, including Renaissance treatises on theology and alchemy, a medieval text on astronomy, first editions of 19th- and 20th-century novels, and a luxury edition of Mein Kampf produced in 1939 to celebrate Hitler’s 50th birthday. The library believes almost all have not been stolen but rather mislaid among its 650km of shelves and 150m items – although some have not been seen in well over half a century.”