Two big San Jose (California) theatres agree to merge their back end operations. “The fact that they’re just now forming partnerships shows how reluctant the groups have been to give up on their old business models. Merging set and costume shops and other operations is a no-brainer suggested by 1stACT, the downtown arts and business coalition, and other arts leaders going back several years.”
Tag: 09.07.06
Bilbao Effect – Profitable By 2010?
“A new study by the economist Beatriz Plaza of the University of the Basque Country suggests that the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao will not return a profit on the public funds paid to establish the institution until 2010 at the earliest, despite reports from the museum that this investment has already been paid off.”
Has Art Helped Make Sense Of 9/11?
Slate asks a group of writers and critics about what art has helpd them sort out the attacks of 9/11…
Drama Guild Prez Concedes To Critic
John Weidman, president of the Dramatists Guild of America has apologized to Chicago Sun-Times theatre critic Hedy Weiss over her negative reviews of a workshop. “It now turns out that what I was told was untrue. That Weiss believed that the managers of Stages 2006 would be neither surprised nor distressed if she reviewed the eight presentations in question is now clear. I asserted otherwise. For that I apologize.”
Austria’s Greatest Art Thief Jailed
The man who pulled off the biggest art theft in Austria has been sentenced to four years in jail. “Robert Mang stole the 16th century gold sculpture the ‘Saliera’ (Salt Cellar) from a glass showcase in Vienna’s Art History Museum.”
TIFF Looking To Shock?
This year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival won’t be short on controversy: films to be screened will include one about the assassination of George W. Bush; several about pedophilia, bestiality, and rape; and plenty of politics.
David Hockney At 70
“He seems sometimes nowadays to have changed unrecognisably. It is not just that he has grey hair and looks like the 69-year-old Yorkshireman he is. It is the polemics and debating fury that make him so different from the dreamy painter of men in swimming pools.”
A New Trio Of Concert Halls
Three new concert halls open this fall – in Nashville, Miami, and Costa Mesa, California. “Clearly, the live-performance hall game is a tricky one, especially when many companies struggle. From what can be seen in their near-complete state, the three new structures don’t grab the passerby by the collar. Yet in spite of their lack of drama, they still may have the capacity to play a larger-than-life role in their communities because of what happens inside.”
Fantasy Trumps Responsibility In Myanmar
The famously brutal military government of Myanmar (aka Burma) is rebuilding ancient temples in an effort to draw tourists, but archaeologists are concerned that the bricklayers doing the work “have no training in repairing aged monuments, and their work has nothing to do with actually restoring one of the world’s most important Buddhist sites. Instead, using modern red bricks and mortar, they are building a new temple on top of the old.”
Apparently, “Reality-Based” Is Quite Different From “True”
An ABC TV movie about the 9/11 attacks has stirred the national political pot, and the network has been making last-minute changes in an effort to address allegations of bias and inaccuracy from some on the left. “The movie dramatizes what it deems intelligence and operational failures of the Clinton and Bush administrations, relying heavily on public records… [But ABC] is tip-toeing away from the film’s version of events. In a statement, the network said the miniseries ‘is a dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources, including the 9/11 commission report, other published materials and from personal interviews.'”