“At a time when … it is assumed that we all care more for the bottom line than for the artistic mission of our organizations,” Ballet Hispanico’s departing executive director, Verdery Roosevelt, “knew that good art creates good financial health and she was truly and properly supportive of her artists.”
Tag: 07.12.10
Second Stage Taps Casey Reitz As Executive Director
“Mr. Reitz, who will start in early September, will succeed Ellen Richard, who left Second Stage in June 2009 and was just named executive director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.” The Public Theater’s director of development, he “has helped oversee the Public’s $35 million capital campaign.”
Jury Selection In Critic’s Suit Vs. Plain Dealer, Orchestra
“The critic, Donald Rosenberg, filed the suit after he was removed in September from reviewing the [Cleveland Orchestra]. He said orchestra management pressed the newspaper into sidelining him because it objected to a string of negative reviews he gave to the orchestra’s music director, Franz Welser-Most.”
How Authors Came To Cast Themselves In Their Fiction
“[H]ere we were, writing in an era obsessed with celebrity and reality shows, where the first question readers and journalists nearly always threw at us was, ‘How much of this novel was based on your own personal experiences?’ At which point we faced the contemporary writer’s dilemma–we could be only one of two possible things: a liar or a bore.”
Mystery Over Stieg Larsson’s Fourth Manuscript
“The question about the fourth manuscript is entirely hypothetical. We have never studied this manuscript and therefore don’t know if it exists, how much has been written and if so what shape the manuscript is in.”
When Los Angeles Tried To Build An Iconic Public Monument (And How It Went Wrong)
It was 1988. Times columnist Jack Smith wondered if it was a joke being played on L.A. “The architect is a New Yorker,” he pointed out. “Ten of the 15 jurors who chose him are foreigners. How can we be sure it isn’t a Trojan horse?”
Russian Curators Avoid Imprisonment
“The case of Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev has been closely watched by human rights activists. The decision by a Moscow court could sidestep the possibility of an international outcry over imprisoning the two respected art-world figures, but is unlikely to stem concerns about the growing influence of the church and the specter of Soviet-style censorship returning.”
Our Culture Is Changing. No Wonder We’re Disoriented
“I think our difficulty, as consumers and commentators, is that this is a period of astonishing, and disorienting, change. A cultural road map at least 100 years old has been torn up in the past decade, and we are still trying to navigate without it – or with the piece of it we happen to be clutching. Making sense of cultural change is hard to do at the best of times. With not even a functioning atlas, it’s doubly hard.”
Honolulu Symphony Musicians Reject Reorganization Contract
Musicians say contract would have cut pay 92 percent. The orchestra’s board: “We know the clock is ticking on this reorganization. Remaining in a prolonged state of limbo, without a collaborative, good faith effort to create a sustainable symphony organization, depletes our momentum and ability to move forward with a plan.”
San Francisco’s ACT Names Ellen Richard Exec. Director
“Richard comes to ACT after having led New York’s relatively small Roundabout Theatre Company from bankruptcy to Broadway. During her 22 years as general manager, the Roundabout grew to become one of the nation’s largest and most successful nonprofit theater companies, with three theaters – including Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre – and assets in excess of $67 million. She received six Tony Awards.”