Medicis Of Musical Theatre

“Most theater backers seek a windfall or at least some financial return,” but Ted and Mary Jo Shen “instead fund non-commercial musicals that they believe advance the art form, usually through non- profit theater companies such as the Signature [Theatre in Virginia] or New York’s Roundabout and Public Theater.”

For O. Henry, Crime Paid

William Sydney Porter “probably would have remained an obscure hack” if a former employer hadn’t accused him of theft. “As Prisoner No. 30664, he started to submit short stories to magazines in Manhattan. He used the name O. Henry, which he possibly borrowed from a prison guard named Orrin Henry. The most notable phase of his life was about to begin.”

So As Not To Perish With Valhalla, Met Reinforces Its Stage

In anticipation of Robert Lepage’s 45-ton “Ring” set, the Metropolitan Opera “had a steel company install three 65-foot girders under the stage, a feat of delicate engineering involving thousands of pounds of steel that counts as a permanent structural change to the opera house, the most extensive work yet to prepare for a new production there.”