An ugly, months-long saga that saw renowned dancer-choreographer Johan Kobborg – engaged as artistic director in 2014 to bring the ballet company at the Bucharest National Opera up to top international standards – demoted without warning to corps de ballet member, a theatened exodus of foreign dancers (whose Romanian colleagues yelled “Foreigners out! at them), Kobborg first brought back and then barred from the building, and the resignations of two opera house general managers (one after one day) and Romania’s culture minister, is now over. The house’s current (third) interim director, Beatrice Rancea, says that, regardless of what position her predecessors may have offered Kobborg, Romanian law does not permit a foreigner to hold the title of artistic director at the company and that Kobborg refused to stay on with a lesser title. His successor, now “artistic coordinator,” is Italian choreographer Renato Zanella – whose pay, Rancea pointed out, will not be as high as Kobborg’s was. (That was another point of conflict with Romanians in the company.) Another Italian, Marcello Mottadelli, has been appointed music director at the opera house. (in Romanian; Google Translate version here)
Tag: 08.30.16
What Happens When Small Theaters Have To Start Paying People For Overtime?
“How are the soon-to-be-implemented rules” – requiring that any employee earning less than $47,476 per year be paid extra for working more than 40 per week – “affecting workers and theatres on the ground?” Diep Tran talks to the people in the proverbial trenches.
The Myth Of Millennials As Rebels
“The myth that underemployed, poorly housed young people are joyfully engaged in a project of creative destruction misrepresents our economic reality. But only if we can finally be said to have liberated ourselves from napkins, houses, and sex, will we have given the Boomers something to be proud of.”
Bitter Experience: Theatre Critic Finally Gets Why Regular Middle-Class Folks Don’t Go To Plays More Often
Andrzej Lukowski, theatre editor at Time Out London: “I [now] realise the essential reason theatres are so full of old people is that they don’t have to support their offspring. … There are no theatre access schemes to help out nice middle-class people who happen to be temporarily skint because of childcare, and quite right too. But … anybody who says theatre is for everyone is living in a fantasy land.”
The Pleasures Of Filming ‘Unfilmable’ Novels, By Someone Who’s Done It
Hossein Amini, who wrote the screenplays for The Wings of the Dove, and Drive: “The biggest advantage of adapting an impossible book is that no one expects you to be entirely slavish to the source material. They’re not expecting a filmic replica. … I flatter myself when I say they felt halfway between adaptations and original screenplays, but that’s really a testament to the greatness of the novels. They not only allow you to see something of yourself in them, they allow you to project.”
An Indie Revolution In Crossword Puzzles Gives The NYT Some Competition
A vibrant ecosystem of independent crosswords — “indies” — exists on the internet, its component puzzles multiplying and evolving, finding their niche and trying to find ways to survive. And some of them can outrate the gold standard over at the Times.
Robert Battle’s Been Taking Some Heat At The Ailey Company – And He’s Glad For It
He’s only the third artistic director that Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has ever had, and not everyone has been happy to see him add works like Hofesh Schechter’s bleak and aggressive Uprising to the repertoire of a company whose brand is so tied up with inspiration and uplift. Says Battle, “I can’t imagine living anywhere other than on the edge – that place where you’re understood and misunderstood with the same amount of passion.”
Edinburgh Festivals Boast Another Record Year For Ticket Sales
“The fringe issued 2,475,143 tickets for participating shows across Scotland’s capital, a 7.7% increase on 2015 despite the number of registered events and performances falling marginally on 2015 levels. The Edinburgh International Festival issued a record 169,300 tickets for paying events, posting £4.2 million in sales, marking the first time it has topped £4 million. The number of tickets issued is up from 163,500 in 2015, when the festival posted ticket sales of £3.9 million.”
No. 1 On The Music Charts? What Charts? Measuring Has Become A Mess!
“In recent years the task of tabulating a record’s success and popularity has grown more complicated. What used to be an album sale is now an “equivalent album sale.” Each component — that is a song — of a release — otherwise known as a project — is measured and weighted using industry-approved equations. Simple math? Far from it.”
That Crazy Woman Who Released Hundreds Of Crickets In A New York Subway Car? It Was Performance Art, And She’s Under Arrest
“In case you haven’t seen the viral video of the incident – which, it turns out, was filmed by [her] friends – it is 18 minutes of mayhem.” (And she had considered using cockroaches.) Now that she’s in trouble, she’s very, very sorry.