During the transition from Helmut Rilling to Matthew Halls, OBF attendance dropped by over 50 percent : 2011 had 44,148; 2014 had approximately 20,000. There are no figures for recent years.
Tag: 06.12.17
“Wonder Woman” Reveals Generational Divide In Critical Reaction
“In the 2010s, a new school of critics steeped in both intersectional politics and fandom has arisen, a more inclusive but equally obsessive alternative to the toxicity of fanboy culture. (Intersectional feminist pop-culture site The Mary Sue is a perfect example.) The approach embraces the idea that everyone appreciates things (or doesn’t appreciate them) for different reasons, making the social context of a film essential to gauging its quality. Sometimes dismissed as a politically correct “purity test,” by these metrics an otherwise flawed film can be great if it empowers its fan base, or an otherwise well-made film can be a failure if it alienates segments thereof. Therefore, diverse representation is good, and stereotypes and whitewashing are bad.”
Right – So Post-Modernism Is Dead. Here’s What Seems To Be Next
“Postmodernism has lost its value in part because it has oversaturated the market. And with the end of postmodernism’s playfulness and affectation, we are better placed to construct a literature that engages earnestly with real-world problems. This new literature can, in good faith, examine complex and ever-shifting crises – of racial inequality, capitalism and climate change – to which it is easy to close one’s eyes.”
So What Exactly Is “Dance Theater”, Anyway?
“Is it Pina Bausch’s raw examinations of everyday life? Is it performance that mixes movement and text? Is it dance that tells a story? Dance Magazine talked with four choreographers who use elements of dance and theater – but whose work escapes easy categorization – about playing with narrative, integrating movement and words, and what ‘dance theater’ means to them.”
Community Theatre May Not Be Glamorous, Or Even Get Much Respect, But It Changes Lives: Lyn Gardner
“It is the invisible in our theatre culture – those who work tirelessly delivering community and participatory projects or who work in children’s theatre – who are its under-sung heroes. They are the ones who daily demonstrate how art touches and changes lives.”
Mosul’s Great University Library, Left A Charred Ruin By ISIS
As if it weren’t bad enough that the terrorist group torched rare old books and manuscripts in the municipal library while they occupied the city, as ISIS was being driven out of Mosul by Iraqi government forces, it burned down the university’s library building and its entire collection, one of the most important in the Middle East. Robin Wright visits the wreckage.
A Peek Inside James Baldwin’s (Very Large) FBI File
For instance, “this secret FBI summary made the mistake of treating variations on Baldwin’s name and identity” – variations such as “James Arthur Baldwin” and “Jimmy Baldwin” – “as a set of potentially criminal pseudonyms.” Then there’s J. Edgar Hoover writing, in a note at the bottom of a memo, “Isn’t Baldwin a well known pervert?” (Well, look who’s asking.)
Forget Julius Caesar – There Are Other Shakespeare Characters Much More Like Trump
Michael Billington makes a brief (and not entirely convincing) nod toward Richard III before suggesting a character from All’s Well That Ends Well whom he finds to bear a more-than-passing resemblance to the 45th President. (The commenters have plenty of suggestions of their own, of course.)
Sydney’s Flagship Museum Stuck In The Doldrums – And Behind Its Australian Rivals
“Years after rival art museums in Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra completed their own expansions and reaped obvious benefits (including higher attendances), the acrimony surrounding the Sydney Modern Project, as the expansion [of the Art Gallery of New South Wales] has been called, reflects – and epitomizes – Sydney’s deep ambivalence toward culture.”
Uproar Over “Julius Caesar” Totally Misinterprets The Play
“What makes the ginned-up outrage over the play stupider is that Julius Caesar is hardly an endorsement of political violence. By its conclusion, it is a horror show in which political violence is the Big Bad. The play takes place during the twilight of the Roman Republic, as a representative government is being pulled apart by the twin stars of aristocratic ambition and public gullibility. Shakespeare depicts Caesar’s murder as a great crime that unleashes the very forces the conspirators, led by the manipulative Caius Cassius and the tortured, reluctant Marcus Brutus, were trying to prevent.”