“Theatre is ephemeral, we explain endlessly. Every time we raise five thousand dollars to put up a show in some under-lit black box, we find ourselves trying to justify the existence of a work of art that will vanish after one or sixteen performances. So we say that the product is the memory, not the show.” Howlround
Tag: 08.29.19
The New U.S. Poet Laureate And Native American Memory
“[Joy] Harjo interrogates both one’s responsibility toward one’s culture and the fear of being buried under its weight. … This ‘trade language,’ as she later calls English, is weak, insufficient. It’s the language of the American story, and it comes freighted with all of that story’s history, atrocity, and false hope. How, she asks, can we escape its past?” – The New Yorker
Choreographer Stanley Love Dead At 49
With his Stanley Love Performance Group, “[he] helped shape New York’s downtown performance scene since the mid-1990s with large-scale, vibrant performances that he set to pop music.” – ARTnews
White Filmmakers Addressing (Or Avoiding) Whiteness Onscreen
Jenna Wortham writes about a set of recent films that “points a finger directly at the greed of empire, and at the deliberate and elaborate social construction of whiteness to oppress, to ravage, to raze, to devastate, to occupy and to conquer.” – The New York Times
Why Are There So Few Women Running Classical Music Organizations, And What’s Happening To Change That
“In general, [new Seattle Opera general director Christina Schippelmann] and others say, the absence of women in top positions results more from systemic factors than intentional discrimination. Rising to the highest levels in the arts means pushing through a series of lower-status, lower-paid jobs, often bouncing all over the planet. Arts managers work long hours but may not earn enough to afford a nanny or to have the other parent stay at home.” – The Seattle Times
Finally: Streaming Music That Cares About Classical
“The bottom line is that classical streaming is here, and, despite the kinks and quirks, it works. The problem of access has been solved. Although classical music is a very small piece of the recording pie, said to be somewhere around 5%, the streamers also claim to have data that suggests that 25% (and maybe more) of all subscribers to streaming services sample classical music at least once.” – Los Angeles Times
Study: Audience For Visual Arts In UK Dominated By Millennials
The report says that 41% of visual arts audiences are aged between 16 and 34, whereas for other artforms this demographic comprises 13% of visitors. In contrast, 41% of museum audiences are over 65, according to the report. – Arts Professional
Did the New York Festival of Song make it ‘back to the U.S.S.R.?’
NYFOS’s annual August concert at the tip of Long Island’s North Fork is always adventurous, even by its standards. This year’s program set conventional art song (Bizet, Ned Rorem) alongside the likes of Cole Porter, Bob Telson, and (yes) Lennon and McCartney. – David Patrick Stearns
US Senators Ask For Investigation Into Ticketing Services
In a letter to Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust, the senators, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — both Democrats — called the ticket industry “broken” and complained of “exorbitant fees and inadequate disclosures” in the ticket buying process. – The New York Times
The Compelling, Complex Characters Of Charlie Brown
Charles Schulz did not create Charlie Brown and Linus and Lucy to talk—or act—like normal children. He created them to be funny, and to act out what became a deeply personal theater of cruelty. But it is kids, real or unreal, that he put front and center, and it is kids who have been among his most avid readers. – The Atlantic