Leigh Goldenberg: “Theatre Philadelphia now recognizes a change like this one is more than just about nomenclature, and is certainly more than a question about language or even about a shiny statue handed to a select few. It’s about who we lift up and who we leave out in the process.”
Tag: 06.26.18
What It’s Like To Play Violin In Simon Rattle’s Amateur Orchestra
“Simon Rattle is looking straight at me, eyes flaring, fist shaking. I am straining with every fibre of my being to give him what he wants. I would die for this man right now. I’m desperate to shape the phrase just as he’s showing, sustaining the long note and getting louder over the arpeggio. But I over-push the sound, my notes crack, I lose my focus and have to break eye contact to look at the music, ashamed of myself. I’m reminded why I decided not to become a professional musician.”
David Goldblatt, 87, Penetrating Photojournalist Of South African Apartheid
“[He] spent his entire career in his native South Africa, portraying black and white citizens in some of their most intimate and vulnerable moments. He ventured underground to photograph workers in the country’s gold mines, entered dusty black shantytowns and the segregated white churches and towns of Afrikaner hardliners.”
‘Beast Jesus’ Redux: Second Spanish Church Suffers Art Restoration Fail
“Five hundred years in an alcove of a Spanish church is likely to leave any statue looking a bit cracked and faded, and the 16th-century wooden figure of St. George at St. Michael’s Church in Estella, a town in northern Spain, was no exception. But after the church asked a local workshop to give the statue a makeover, the results horrified the town’s authorities, scandalized professional restorers and set social media alight with indignation.”
How I Directed ‘Macbeth’ In Kyrgyz, Which I Don’t Speak (And The Actors Didn’t Speak English)
Sarah Berger, who directed the first-ever Kyrgyz translation of “the Scottish play” at Kyrgyzstan’s national theatre: “I worked with 30 Kyrgyz actors who spoke no English. I don’t speak Russian or Kyrgyz. To add to the mix, I took two British actors with me, Claire Cartwright and Steve Hay, who performed in English with the rest of the cast speaking Kyrgyz. … There was also a fully Kyrgyz performance that was filmed and screened on state TV. So I had to deliver three different versions of the production in just over three weeks, as we performed four premieres with the cast variations.”
Could Research Prove That Theatre Is Necessary?
If empirical data can prove the arts positively impact biomechanical function, perhaps connections can be drawn to the indispensability of theatre as an art form. But is there another level of inquiry that can be engaged simultaneously, and in complement, with this scientific, top-down approach? If one has a tree whose branches are in ill health and whose leaves are withering, one’s first impulse might be to treat the leaves and branches. Another might be to look at its roots.
Leonard Bernstein Wrote A ‘Peter Pan’ Musical (Who Knew?)
“[The original] production — which starred the unlikely combo of Jean Arthur as Peter and Boris Karloff as Captain Hook — closed in 1951 after a respectable 321 performances, but then essentially disappeared. … According to most sources, Bernstein was originally commissioned to compose only instrumentals, but became so enamored with the play he volunteered songs, for which he also penned the lyrics. Unfortunately, there was a hitch: Jean Arthur wasn’t much of a singer. This is likely the reason only Wendy and Hook have solos.”
Against ‘Cripping Up’: A Disabled Actor Explains Why Able-Bodied Actors Should Not Be Taking Disabled Roles
Jamie Beddard, who’s playing Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man at Bristol Old Vic: “‘Blacking up’ has been consigned to history, while ‘cripping up’ remains de rigueur, and is often a shortcut to industry [awards]. The list of excuses for such lazy and offensive casting is pitiful. … I have expended far too much time and energy debating the problem with ‘cripping up’. But it is particularly pertinent to The Elephant Man, with its themes of the fear of difference, the gaze of others, medical and spiritual intervention, the interplay of pity and empathy, and how we reflect ourselves in others.”