“The theater, at Fifth Avenue and 125th Street, had been threatened by foreclosure and involved in disputes with a neighboring restaurant and with its former business partners, whom theater officials had accused of mismanagement.”
Tag: 06.06.12
Is Political Theatre Over?
“In his 2007 survey of the last half-century or so of British drama, State of the Nation, Michael Billington argues that such drama forms the backbone of post-war theatre. … However, a few weeks ago, playwright Dennis Kelly – himself considered one of the foremost political playwrights – gave an intriguing speech in which he claimed that ‘political theatre is a complete fucking waste of time.’ Is he right?”
Musicians File Unfair Labor Charge Against Lancaster (Pa.) Symphony
“Local 294 of the American Federation of Musicians … union alleges that the orchestra has refused to negotiate a contract that would cover its approximately 127 musicians. A contract would be the first for the orchestra’s musicians who voted 50-34 earlier this year in favor of unionizing.” Orchestra management argues that the musicians are independent contractors and cannot unionize.
Watching Chinese Dancers And An American Modern Dancemaker Figure Each Other Out
“Choreographer Tere O’Connor flails his arms and gyrates an invisible Hula-Hoop, struggling to convey the idea of improvisation to members of the Beijing Modern Dance Co. The dancers, already grappling with the language barrier, simply mimic his moves – not the point, as he tells them in the new documentary Taste of Body.”
Jewish Culture In Poland Is Being Revived – And Modernized
“[Since] the Communist government fell more than two decades ago thousands of Poles have discovered they have Jewish roots … Writers, playwrights, filmmakers and visual artists are tackling everything from anti-Semitism and the Holocaust to coming to terms with their families’ Communist pasts and issues of identity.”
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Love Letters
“[He] flood[ed] the resistant object of his desire with romantic revelations, only to be faced with repeated, composed rejection … But Rilke’s love didn’t flinch and the two eventually developed a passionate bond which, over the 35-year course of their correspondence that followed, we see change shape and morph from friends to mentor and protégé to lovers to literary allies.”
Ray Bradbury Was A Playwright, Too
“In Southern California, where he lived for most of his life, Bradbury was an active and familiar presence in the theater scene, adapting some of his popular fiction for the local stage while also penning original theatrical creations.”
Endless Battles Over L.A.’s Southwest Museum Might – Might – Be Ending Soon
“One of Los Angeles’ longest-running and most adversarial cultural disputes – over the future of the Southwest Museum in Mount Washington, and its prized collection of Native American artifacts – has a chance of shifting to a less contentious footing.”
Video Games That Adapt Themselves To You, Based On Your Facebook Page And Twitter Feed
Designers are working with artificial intelligence technology to create games that personalize themselves based on players’ social media data – for example, “games [based] on news articles using personal opinions gathered from Twitter users.”
103-Year-Old Composer Elliott Carter, Telling Stories
The Unquenchable Uncle Elliott talks about the time Stravinsky snubbed Sinatra, drinking in speakeasies, why he’s still writing new music, and why he’s lived so long (he has no idea).