Best known for his work from the 1980s, Mr. Durang, 59, these days teaches playwriting at Juilliard, blogs for The Huffington Post and has a new play, “Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them,” which is to have its premiere at the Public Theater next spring. He lives in Bucks County, Pa., with John Augustine, also a writer. “My relationship with my partner has lasted 23 years, and my parents’ bumpy marriage lasted 15 years,” Mr. Durang said. “So I win.”
Tag: 07.06.07
A Historic Black Theatre Regains Shine
Cleveland’s Karamu Performing Arts Theatre is America’s oldest African-American theatre. In the late 90s it fell on hard times. “Audiences were dwindling, critics stopped attending, and actors were shunning auditions. The theatre that helped nurture the careers of such playwrights as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Lorraine Hansberry and actors like Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Robert Guillaume, and Anthony Chisholm was on the verge of closing its doors.” Enter Terrence Spivey, who in four years has brought life back to Karamu – on an annual budget of $300,000.
Seattle’s ACT Hunting For New GM
Seattle’s ACT Theatre is looking for a new managing director, only months after hiring one. “The March 2007 hiring of Jolanne Stanton, a nonprofit consultant who has served on ACT’s board of directors, was a surprise to many because she had not run a theater before. Stanton succeeded the widely respected Susan Trapnell, who ran ACT from 1982 to 2000, and was rehired as its manager in 2003 after a financial crisis nearly closed the theater.”
Actors Sue “Lord Of The Rings” Producers
“According to the complaint, the standard contract the actors signed stated, ‘The company has the right to merchandise the contractor’s character for payment of 5 percent of net merchandising revenue…. This includes but is not limited to the right to use the contractor’s likeness as portrayed in the film and video games.’ But after reportedly reaping $100 million in merchandising revenue, New Line has yet to pay the 15 actors a penny from that revenue.”
Culture Minister To Arts: Access Has Been Achieved
Britain’s new culture minister says the battle for access to the arts has been won. “When I was cultural adviser at No 10 a decade ago people talked about access and excellence. Some people thought that access was dumbing down, that the government wanted all orchestras to be playing symphonic versions of REM, and there was a genuine debate. Coming back 10 years on, people are saying to me we can take all that for granted now, it’s in the bloodstream of British arts. I think that’s true.”
MTV Releases Videos To The Wild
“MTV joins a growing cadre of video services that give users increased creative control over an artist’s vision, among them Eyespot, Gotuit and, soon, Sony Music Box. These are not to be confused with services that simply add background music to photo slide shows. Their goal is twofold: Provide labels and artists with a new promotional tool and increase revenue potential for ad-supported online music videos. The strategy for both relies on raising the value of videos online.”
Sex By The Word Count (Not Statistically Significant)
The idea that women use nearly three times as many words a day as men has taken on the status of an urban legend. An urban legend that isn’t true, say researchers. “The researchers placed microphones on 396 college students for periods ranging from two to 10 days, sampled their conversations and calculated how many words they used in the course of a day. The score: Women, 16,215. Men, 15,669. The difference: 546 words: Not statistically significant.”
Why YouTube Is Killing HipHop
“For most of rap’s history, one-upmanship has been hip-hop’s engine of change. Recently, however, beefs have lost some of their creative spark, as battles have migrated from albums and mix tapes to YouTube. Today, a rapper with wounded pride is more likely to cut a made-for-YouTube video than to bother penning a vicious rhyme. The result: videos with laughably bad production values showcasing sloppy dis tracks (or worse, no track at all). Why waste time writing music–the vocation of a musician, in theory–when you can upload a rant?”
Copyright Lobby Welcomes Belgian Ruling
“Copyright groups have hailed a Belgian court decision making an Internet service provider responsible for illegal file-sharing on its network as a European first that could help the music industry.”
The Truth Behind That Alumni Gift
“What’s altruistic about giving more money to a wealthy institution of higher education? Harvard’s endowment is nearly $30 billion. Yet alumni and others gave the institution $595 million in 2006, which amounts to a fifth of its annual budget. Why do alumni give? The cynics will like the answer provided by a new study by Jonathan Meer of Stanford and Harvey S. Rosen of Princeton. It offers persuasive evidence that some alumni give to their schools in the hope of raising the chance of admission for their children.”