In America, nothing sucks the oxygen out of the room with more deadly force than financial success. Musicals are booming, so that is where all the attention and money is streaming, a sweet spot that magically unites commerce, branding, and universities. This is not to say there have not been terrific songfests over the past 25 years. Just that it explains why our most talented stage practitioners are not writing plays, but working hard at scoring with the latest lucrative singing/dancing sensation.
Tag: 06.13.18
I Was Almost Never Asked To Review Books By Women. Why?
“Besides embarrassment, I also feel curiosity. What could explain the strange fact that it took seven years for an editor to assign me a female writer? I’m a liberal critic writing for liberal publications. How did this go on for so long? I suspect there are at least two possible explanations here.”
A Los Angeles Pop Group Finds Out It’s Getting Paid One-Tenth Of An Equivalent – But Male – Group
The pay gap in music wages is all too real. One member of the group Haim: “It’s scary out there and [messed] up not even to be paid half the same amount. But to be paid a tenth of that amount of money? It was insane.”
Khipu, The Mysterious Knotted-Cord ‘Writing’ Of The Incas
“The khipus might seem bizarre to us, but the Inkas, who were the inheritors of a long tradition of weaving with cotton and camelid yarns, were unique and highly creative – not underdeveloped – in their approach to documenting language. Pencil and paper is not the only road to progress.”
Molissa Fenley On Dancing And Choreographing In Her 60s
“It’s an inevitability to keep dancing — a continuance of never questioning the passion and love for the art. What I do question is how to get the work out to others as the sharing of the work has become increasingly difficult.”
Automation Is Changing The Ways Our Public Spaces Are Designed
Automation has also changed how people shop, park, fly, and more. In the process, it has reshaped the architecture that contains those experiences—making them more efficient, often, but also putting machines above people.
Einstein’s Newly-Published Diaries Show Shocking Racism, Xenophobia
Ze’ev Rosenkranz, senior editor and assistant director of the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology, said: “I think a lot of comments strike us as pretty unpleasant – what he says about the Chinese in particular. They’re kind of in contrast to the public image of the great humanitarian icon. I think it’s quite a shock to read those and contrast them with his more public statements. They’re more off guard, he didn’t intend them for publication.”
Canada’s National Arts Centre Hires New CEO From Within
The appointment marks the first time in the NAC history that they have promoted as president and CEO from within, and the move is telling. Starting as a Tour Manager in 1987, Christopher Deacon worked his way up through the National Arts Centre Orchestra, eventually becoming Orchestra Manager in 1989, then becoming Managing Director in 1996.
It Looks Like London Is Getting More Theatres. But Can The City Support Them?
If we are to create more theatres in London, what business models are they going to operate on if no public money is available? There is an intrinsic problem. Property developers want to give over as little space as possible for cultural provision, but to make a theatre work commercially, you need a certain number of seats and – preferably – a food and drink operation to bring in a secondary income.
Dramatists Guild Scolds Tonys, CBS, For Excluding Writers
Every year, the Academy Awards faithfully includes screenwriters in not one but two categories. And it’s not just the Oscars; the Grammys, Emmys, and Golden Globes all award the writers in their respective industries on the air. And yet it’s the theater that most esteems writers; we are generally recognized as the principal artistic force behind new work, and we even retain ownership and control over the material we create. Yet on the very awards show intended to celebrate our craft, we are effectively negated.