“Interestingly, I’m finding that more and more of my friends and colleagues from the theatre are operating their careers in reverse. Instead of starting in the regions and building up a resume to take to New York, they began in the city and are taking their talent and experience back out into the world.”
Tag: 05.23.18
Arts Philanthropy In Miami Is Finally Taking Flight
“A dedicated group of snowbirds invested in some cultural enrichment for the city in the 1980s, marking a wave of new institutions that began to pop up in Miami.” Now, a dozen years after the 2006 opening of what is now the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts (and its rescue from disaster by Arsht two years later), “there is more diversity across Miami’s nonprofit disciplines than ever.”
Barbara Ehrenreich Critiques Boomers’ Culture Of Wellness
Ehrenreich contemplates with some satisfaction not just the approach of her own death but also the passing of her generation. As the boomers have aged, denial of death, she argues, has moved to the center of American culture, and a vast industrial ecosystem has bloomed to capitalize on it. Across twelve chapters, Ehrenreich surveys the health care system, the culture of old age, the world of “mindfulness,” and the interior workings of the body itself, and finds a fixation on controlling the body, encouraged by cynical and self-interested professionals in the name of “wellness.”
John Kander And Susan Stroman Construct A Henry James Musical Out Of Waltzes
“It was fun for me to find out how many things you could express in the waltz form,” says composer Kander (Cabaret, Chicago) of their adaptation, with librettist David Thompson, of James’s The Beast in the Jungle. “The first thing I said was, ‘How much do I have to pay to do this?'”
Broadway Has Changed For Women, But Not Nearly Enough
Whew, theatre world, what are you DOING? “The just-concluded 2017–18 Broadway season saw a meager 17 percent of its offstage talent composed of women.”
Has ‘Gender Blind’ Casting In Michelle Terry’s Fresh Tenure At The Globe Truly Meant Something?
Whatever ‘blind’ casting may mean to Terry and the cohort of each play, the audience sees gender, and that makes a difference. “Many audience members in fact cannot and will not easily look past what seems to them to be a fundamental disconnect between who the gender of the actor as understood outside of the production, and the gender they are playing.”
Why The Classic Chicago Accent Is Fading
The classic Chicago accent is heard less often these days because the white working class is less numerous, and less influential, than it was in the 20th century. It has been pushed to the margins of city life, both figuratively and geographically, by white flight, multiculturalism, and globalization: The accent is most prevalent in blue-collar suburbs and predominantly white neighborhoods in the northwest and southwest corners of the city, now heavily populated by city workers whose families have lived in Chicago for generations.
What Do Ballet Dancers Really Think Of Ballet Movies?
Pia Catton talks to members of American Ballet Theatre about their reaction to films from The Red Shoes to The Turning Point to Center Stage to (yes) Black Swan.
The Problem With ABT’s New Women Choreographers Initiative
Lauren Wingenroth: “Hypothetically, this is a great idea. We’re all for more ballet commissions for women. But the way ABT has promoted the initiative is problematic. Part of it is the fact that they plan to provide these women with ‘guidance and feedback from ABT’s artistic staff.’ Though they surely mean for this to be supportive, not condescending, Debra Levine points out … that they wouldn’t dare suggest that male choreographers need ‘guidance and feedback.’ … But what’s really troubling is the way that ABT suggests that they’ve already been doing the work of supporting women, they’ve just now decided to ‘formalize it.'”
Should Actors Get Royalties For Roles They Help Create?
“The time has come to be more honest about the creation of work and to recognise that work through credit and royalty agreements for performers and stage managers. I do not think it should be left to the individual generosity of a director, but this concept should be enshrined in the Equity contracts used by our theatres.”