“Many American religious thinkers are more liberal than their churches. They wish that Christianity were more open – not a stone wall of doctrine. To these people, the Gospel of Judas was a gift. As with the other Gnostic gospels, its mere existence showed that there was no such thing as fixed doctrine, or that there wasn’t at the beginning.”
Tag: 08.03.09
Another Dance Company, This Time In Ottawa, Closes Its Doors
“Last year’s short season has turned out to be the last for Le Groupe Dance Lab. The dance company’s board of directors announced on Friday that the company would be shut down. … The final decision to close the company was the result of the loss of one third of its budget (a reduction due to the suspension [of operations in January]) which would make it difficult to attract a new artistic director or mount a performance season.”
Measha Brueggergosman Has ‘Butterflies’ About Return To Stage After Heart Surgery
This weekend the soprano with the big name, big hair and big voice gives her first performance since emergency open-heart surgery in June to repair a dissected aorta. “It’s horrible,” she says. “It’s not necessarily the singing that is stressful – it’s kind of everything that surrounds it, you know, like, the rehearsal process and the nerves and wanting to remember and wanting to be good.”
Jonathan Miller Explains Why He Doesn’t Quit Opera (Or Shut Up About Quitting Opera)
“I’m tired of traveling and tired of being underpaid. … And I want to spend more time with my family. But then I get asked [to direct] again, and it sounds interesting.”
Is England Only Just Now Discovering Outdoor Orchestra Concerts?
Conductor Charles Hazlewood writes that he’s “launching Play the Field, a new breed of orchestral festival … [n]ot in a cathedral or any august temple of the arts, but in a field on the Somerset Levels.” He says that outdoor concerts “have tended to be indifferent performances by under-rehearsed orchestras and third-rate conductors … Has anyone heard the Amsterdam Concertgebouw orchestra perform in a field? Or Simon Rattle conduct under the stars?” (Well, there’s Ravinia and Tanglewood, and the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl and the NY Phil in Central Park …)
CBS Takes The Box: Let’s Make A Deal To Return To Network TV
“Let’s Make A Deal, the 1960s and 1970s staple that featured audience members in wacky costumes taking a chance on what was behind door No. 3, will return to the CBS daytime schedule Oct. 5 with a new host but with many of the old games and structure.” The comedy/game show will replace the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light.
Safe Stolen From Garrison Keillor’s Bookstore Is Found
“The safe stolen from Common Goods Books, a St. Paul shop owned by Garrison Keillor, has been found, but the store’s manager still is curious about how the burglar got it out. Sue Zumberge said she is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and the safe ‘was at face height for me.'” She also recalled, “When we opened the store and we were talking about security, Garrison said, ‘Do you really think my neighbors would steal from me?'”
B of the Bang Sculpture Ends With A Whimper
“It was supposed to symbolise a new beginning, but the B of the Bang has met a sad end. The last of the 180 hollow spikes on the sculpture next to Manchester City’s Eastlands stadium have been cut off for recycling, leaving the 56m (184ft) sculpture a shadow of its former self. Only the steel core remains after councillors decided it had to come down earlier this year.”
For Dudamel Hopefuls, Standing In Line Was A Bad Call
More than 10,000 tickets to Gustavo Dudamel’s Hollywood Bowl debut as Los Angeles Philharmonic music director went on sale to the general public on Saturday. They were snapped up “at a pace more common for concerts by pop stars, not classical musicians,” and in the process, “about 550 of the estimated 800 patrons who showed up at the Bowl, some of whom arrived early in the morning and waited for hours in the heat, went home empty-handed.”
Mid-Career Playwrights Trampled In Rush Toward Youth
“[U]nless you are Keats or Kane or Dunbar or Büchner, most young playwrights and theatre-makers eventually go on to become mid-level artists. But what sort of career support do they go on to have? Or are they simply forgotten in the endless rush for the new? … Ultimately, theatres must start seeing that they have a responsibility to really help playwrights to develop their careers and not just look to the next great find.”