Mike Fox, a 56-year-old comedy promoter in London, was fined a total of £500 and sentenced to 50 hours of community service for shoving one of the actors in a 36-seat-theatre production of the Shakespeare tragedy. The incident began with a shouting match between Fox and the director just after Othello killed Desdemona. – The Times (UK)
Tag: 03.22.19
All It Really Takes To Become A Dancer
Marisa Meltzer: “Choreography, as something that isn’t normally part of my life, is incredibly hard to remember and appears to use a part of my brain that has gone dormant. It took so much concentration that I couldn’t think of anything else, which was liberating.” – The New York Times
The SWAT Team That Hunts Out Fakes At Europe’s Elite Old Masters Art Fair
Vetting, as the process is known, is expensive, invisible, and has recently undergone some major changes at TEFAF. But it remains key to ensuring that collectors can trust in the fair’s offerings and know that they are getting exactly what they are paying for. – Artnet
Where Classical Music Has Become An Obsession
Inna Faliks: “Seventy-five percent of my students at UCLA are Chinese or Chinese American. Pianists from China, after graduating from the best music schools in Europe and the United States, return home to pass on classical music traditions in their own distinct ways. This musical exchange is exponentially growing. Concert halls may remain empty in our nation’s cities, especially when traditional classical recitals are offered by a non-household name, but in China, playing a Beethoven or Chopin program is not boring or unhip. Chinese audiences are hungry for more.” – Washington Post
The Disney/Fox Merger Has Forever Changed Hollywood
Disney and Netflix offer the two clearest visions of Hollywood’s future. The former is a media company that’s as old-fashioned as they come, trying to make movies that will pull audiences en masse to the theater. The latter is a tech company that’s largely uninterested in the theater business but has won subscriber loyalty by offering a wealth of viewing options. As the cinema business continues to evolve, perhaps only the biggest films will survive as in-theater experiences, with streaming becoming an equally profitable venue. – The Atlantic
Poet, Playwright, And Sociologist Eve Ewing Is ‘The True Mayor Of Chicago’
Well, not really, but she does have more than one finger on the pulse of Chicago’s fiery cultural heart, and she writes about it in more than one way. “Part of me is an extremely argumentative person, and I really also enjoy just finding information and seeing how I can piece it together to figure out something that had previously seemed inscrutable. But part of me just likes to play and I think poetry allows for that a little bit more.” – The Cut
This Broadway Star Would Love To Make Theatre More Affordable
Playing Eliza Doolittle right now on Broadway, Laura Benanti (whom people might know as the actor who has played Melania Trump on The Late Show) says, “If I could wave a magic wand, ticket prices would be affordable so that people could bring their families, and it doesn’t become theatre for a rich audience. It can be more theatre for the masses.” – The Stage (UK)
Trend: Symphonies Playing New, Non-Film Music By Film Composers
Sure, you’ve got your Harry Potter scores and your Star Wars celebrations (that’s all John Williams, of course), but the real hot trend with film composers now is getting their non-film work into symphony halls. “Adventurous programmers are seeking new works by established film composers in hopes that audiences have developed a thirst for similarly melodic, even exciting, music by names they recognize even if there are no images to accompany them.” – Variety
Ballet Musicals Are Rare, And Super Demanding
We don’t mean Oklahoma! either, though, yes, there’s a ballet in it. This is something different: “It’s very difficult to cast a ballet musical; the Marie ensemble requires dancers with a strong background in classical ballet, but also the ability to sing — while on pointe! — and act. ‘They’re rare,’ said Stroman, ‘but it makes them even more special.'” – Seattle Times
How Miami Became A Book Town
Mitchell Kaplan founded Books & Books in 1982, a time when Miami was seen as a place of drug running, diet culture, and political unrest – and certainly not literary culture. But, well, “thirty-seven years, an international book fair and eight additional locations later, Kaplan is celebrated as the man who turned Miami into a book town, and one of the foremost literary centers in the world.” – The New York Times