“New York is once again in a cycle of producing the most distinctive and enthralling contemporary dance in the world. Making a dance a conceptual event by creating a specific atmosphere that overcomes a conventional space, or by making the site itself the starting point, is the overriding theme.”
Tag: 07.27.03
Animated Culture Clash As Cartoons Go 3D
As Hollywood animation studios retire their traditional paper-and-ink projects in favor of 3D computer animation, the culture of animators is changing. “The shifting landscape inside Hollywood’s animation studios has created an unexpected culture clash between artists who were raised in the tradition of Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and those who came of age with Toy Story.”
Critical Memories
Frank Rizzo remembers two theatre critics. “The theater world this month lost two distinguished critics who enlightened their readers as well as decades of theater artists. Boston’s Elliot Norton, dean of American drama critics, died July 20 at the age of 100. Closer to home, Markland Taylor, who wrote for the New Haven Register and Variety, died in his home in Southbury on July 6. He was 67. Both were great influences, especially to this theater lover.”
Are Prado Goyas Fakes?
Goya’s 14 “Black paintings” have delighted viewers for years and are a much prized part of the museum’s collection. But new evidence arises that the paintings may not have been created by the master…
Towards A New Cultural Manifesto
Max Wyman spent 35 years as a critic at the Vancouver Sun before retiring. Now he’s working on a manifesto intended to suggest a new relationship between government and the arts. “Intended as a tool kit of public debate, the manifesto calls for a new cultural contract between government and the governed. Its central thrust is the belief that culture, like health and education, is not only an unassailable human right but essential to the social and ethical well-being of society — and should be fostered and funded appropriately.”
Is Minnesota Fringe America’s Largest?
“In 1994, the Minnesota Fringe Festival was a scruffy amalgam of 50-some shows spread over a week at a half-dozen venues on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota. This year, the Fringe boasts individuals and groups from throughout the state, across the country and around the world staging 162 shows — a total of 783 performances — over 10 days on 20 stages flung across Minneapolis. For the last couple of years, the Minnesota Fringe has claimed the title of The Largest Fringe Festival in the Country, a figure few -dispute.”
Day-Oh… Opera Company Presents Pop Concerts To Raise Money
With a deficit of $1.3 million and a $6.5 million budget to feed, Atlanta Opera needs to raise serious cash. How? “When the Atlanta Opera recently announced plans to present pops concerts – concurrent with its main opera season – it seemed to highlight the staggering difficulties ahead.”
A.S.K. Not What The Theatre Can Do For You…
Organizations like Los Angeles’s A.S.K. Theatre Projects, which has suddenly and somewhat mysteriously shut its doors in Southern California, are quite rare in the theatre world. A.S.K. was half theatre lab and half theatrical foundation, the type of organization dedicated to giving talented young writers, directors, and actors a shot at making something special. The results weren’t always good, but that wasn’t the point. A.S.K.’s founders believed strongly that raw talent must be nurtured for it to become art, and with the organization having been apparently folded into a New York-based foundation, L.A.’s theatre scene is feeling the loss.
Legendary Critic Schonberg Dies
“Harold C. Schonberg, the ubiquitous and authoritative chief music critic of The New York Times from 1960 to 1980, whose reviews and essays influenced and chronicled vast changes in the world of opera and classical music, died yesterday… He was 87 and lived in Manhattan. Writing daily reviews and more contemplative Sunday pieces, Mr. Schonberg set the standard for critical evaluation and journalistic thoroughness. He wrote his reviews in a crisp, often staccato style that gave his evaluations unequivocal clarity and directness, attributes that earned him a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1971, the first for a music critic.”
The New Urban Darling Of Hollywood Shoots
Hollywood traditionally shoots its films in L.A., New York, and, when there are budget concerns, Canada. But in recent years, a revitalized and newly sexy Philadelphia has become increasingly popular with filmmakers looking to bring a distinctive look to their sets. “‘Philadelphia has a vibe — it doesn’t feel like Boston or New York,’ says actor/director Kevin Bacon, a Philly native. ‘There are a tremendous amount of looks you can get. You have a downtown that feels like an urban center, and you’re not gonna find as many diverse working-class neighborhoods elsewhere.'”