Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group is killing off its programs to develop new plays and playwrights. “Artistic director Michael Ritchie, who took the helm of Los Angeles’ flagship theater company in January, is eliminating the Other Voices program for disabled artists — a Taper fixture since 1982 — plus the Latino, Asian American and African American labs established from 1993 to 1995.”
Tag: 05.24.05
ABT Averts Musicians’ Strike
American Ballet Theatre avoided a musicians’ strike with a new contract that “the union said requires the ballet to use only live musicians and bans so-called virtual orchestras. The union portrayed the deal as a victory in a fight by theater musicians, including those on Broadway, against the use of virtual orchestra machines, which save money over live performers.”
Record Number Of Books In 2004
“A study announced Tuesday estimates that a record 195,000 new works came out in 2004, a 14 percent jump over the previous year and 72 percent higher than in 1995.” But a previous study says that while more titles are being published, fewer books are actually being sold…
Corcoran Director Resigns, Museum Quits Gehry Expansion Plan
“David C. Levy resigned yesterday as president and director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The Corcoran’s board of trustees, meanwhile, suspended the museum’s efforts to build a new wing designed by architect Frank Gehry, for which fundraising largely has stalled.”
Whitney Has Plan B For Expansion
The Whitney may have an alternate plan to propose for its extension, as the museum goes into hearings with New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. “The original design would require razing the two brownstones that are closest to the Breuer building. The current entrance would be maintained for school groups; the rest of the public would enter through a new 32-foot entrance that would lead through a passageway into a public piazza.”
NAJP Alums Respond To Program Closing
Arts journalists who have been fellows of the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia, weigh in on this week’s decision to close the program…
Art Theft Is Less Lucrative
Art theft pays less these days. “Changes to legislation, together with police crackdowns,have spelled an end to the days when a stolen work of art could command a high price, a conference in London heard. In response, the black market has itself grown more sophisticated.”
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Kluger Years
What was Philadelphia Orchestra president Joe Kluger’s impact on his orchestra in 16 years at the helm? “He leaves behind an orchestra that for several years was worse for his presence, and in more recent years, better off. A lot went wrong at Philadelphia’s most important cultural institution in his 16 years – an awful 64-day strike that took the mayor to settle, an impotent response to the orchestra’s losing its national and international presence in radio and recordings, and the hiring of a music director whose name, when announced to musicians, was greeted with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. How much of what went wrong was Kluger’s fault? How much the board’s? The musicians’?”
London Symphony Scores Coup By Landing Gergiev
Valery Gergiev will succeed Colin Davis as music director of the London Symphony. “Gergiev will join the LSO for an initial three years from January 1 2007, while at the same time retaining his posts as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.”