“In the past thirty years, the range and scope of American theatre has diversified, and yet most full-time critics in America are predominantly white. When theatremakers of color create art that seeks to prefigure the world we wish to live in, being reviewed by someone entrenched in a white supremacist hetero-patriarchal, capitalist gaze is counterproductive. Being reviewed by someone who is not able to meet our art where it is at is problematic.”
Tag: 04.07.17
A Director And Designer Resign Over Calgary Opera’s Plan To Cast A White Woman To Play A Tonkinese Role In ‘South Pacific’
Former Calgary Opera CEO Bob McPhee: “It’s an enormously sensitive topic, especially in the theatre world, and it is bleeding into the opera world. … So it’s not from a lack of wanting to be sensitive to the issue. I understand. But is there repertoire we stop doing if we can’t accomplish that goal?”
Dissident Graffiti Artist Danilo Maldonado Machado Talks About Art And Freedom In Cuba
Why does the artist, who was jailed for 10 months in 2014 for trying to release pigs with the names “Raúl” and “Fidel” on them in a public park, use humor? “People want to laugh. And with humor, you can demystify these people. They have these uniforms that they’ve invented for themselves, this status; with humor you can pick it apart.”
Joanne Kyger, One Of The Women In Beat Poetry, Has Died At 82
Though there were women in the Beat movement, not many knew of them. “Along with Diane di Prima, Anne Waldman and several others, Ms. Kyger made her mark not only as a writer, but also as a member of the male-dominated post-World War II cultural movement.”
Language Loves Legends About Itself
What happens if you start looking up the word ‘mondegreen’? “The churning sea of language raises its watery head to look around and then dives back into itself, splashing out words like litotes, genericide, and yes, metaphor. I collect these terms like Easter eggs, thrilled to have names for the ways we outfit our messages with color, rhythm, and nuance.”
Almost Half Of Atlanta Ballet Dancers Leaving Company After One Year With New Artistic Director
The turnover may be somewhat normal for new artistic directors, but it’s partly because of an intense change in style: “For some of the veteran dancers leaving the Atlanta Ballet, the switch from former director John McFall’s contemporary style to Bolshoi-trained [Gennadi] Nedvigin’s traditional style was a major adjustment.”
Should Babies Be At The Theatre? One Policy Is Making Parents Mad
Glasgow’s Pavilion Theatre, in addition to asking patrons to try to ensure their babies won’t spit up on other patrons, has a policy that in part says, “We do not think that the theatre is a place for any child who cannot yet walk and can be very distressing during certain performances due to flashing lights and loud sound levels.”
A Famous Los Angeles Mural, Once Whitewashed, Is Now Getting A Different Type Of Washing
Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros painted “América Tropical” in 1932. It was literally whitewashed – covered in white paint – for decades after. Now that it’s fully visible again, there are other issues, says a conservator with the Getty Institute: “We look to to monitor for changes. And what we see is that the mural is filthy — just from all of the particulates in downtown Los Angeles.”
Where The Silence Is Utterly Overwhelming
In this art installation, silence is the plan, but maybe not the point. “In such a deadened room, a body bursts with life, spilling it out through every sense. I felt enraptured and paralyzed, as if I were a disembodied mind seared in the void, listening to a recording of silence played at top volume.”
The Motion Picture Academy Has A New ‘O.J. Rule’ That May Change How The Oscars Deal With Documentaries
You could call it “the O.J. rule” after this year’s winner, or you could think of it as “the Netflix rule” – in other words, if something is intended primarily for streaming consumption, that makes it ineligible for the Oscar documentary prize.