Vicky Featherstone has been named the first director of the Scottish National Theatre. “The appointment of an Englishwoman will raise some eyebrows, but it was welcomed by many in the arts community as a sign that the new theatre would be as ground-breaking as they had hoped. The 37-year-old beat other more established names with stronger Scottish links, including Kenny Ireland, who ran the Royal Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh for more than 10 years.”
Tag: 07.30.04
The National’s Bold Choice
Choosing Vicky Featherstone as the Scottish National Theatre’s first director is “about as bold and challenging an appointment” as could have made. “Young, brilliant and not remotely Scottish, Ms Featherstone, at just 37, represents a young generation of British theatre talent that has completely recast the old pattern of relationships between London, where her current company, Paines Plough, is based, and the rest of the UK; and which tends to regard Scotland as being in the forefront of new developments in British theatre.”
From Screen To Stage (A Threat?)
More and more movies are being turned into stage productions. “The trend has some critics concerned about the commercialization of theater, where public appeal is a key to recouping costs. But it also suggests a gradual shift in the flow of American storytelling. It used to be that Broadway supplied fodder for films. Today, the flow is the other direction, thanks in part to the popularity of movies.”
Real Names Up The Amazon
“After mounting concern about abuse of its open door policy regarding feedback, Amazon has begun a new system, Real Names, which requires reviewers to provide their credit card details before posting a comment.”
A Parsifal That Doesn’t Shock
“The audience was prepared for the worst. A highly controversial German director whithout any experience in opera had been charged with putting on a new version of “Parsifal“ to open the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. But after months of suspense, the audience left the theater on Sunday rather calmed.” Maybe it was the weak singing?
How To Define Art From Arab Region?
There’s been increasing attention on contemporary art from the Arab region in recent years. “But with this spike in recognition, a young generation is now struggling to assert a singular identity that doesn’t conform to Western stereotypes of art from the region. As the channels of globalization open commercial opportunities abroad, it’s increasingly difficult for Arab artists not to conform to the expectations of those flocking to the gallery shows, biennales, websites, and organizations dedicated to art from the region.”
Art On The Range
“Las Vegas’s Bellagio, it seems, is not Nevada’s only art attraction: Reno is home to the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction, the nation’s biggest and most successful auction of Western art. Every July, hundreds of well-heeled collectors from Maine to Hawaii flock here and spend millions of dollars on important works by Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and other celebrated painters of the Old West. Any one of them will be glad to tell you why these works are here instead of at some fancy-pants auction house in Manhattan.”