“Five years after the NAACP blasted the `virtual whitewash’ of prime-time TV, little has changed in Hollywood. Of the 23 new scripted shows premiering on the six broadcast networks in the coming weeks, only nine feature minority actors in lead or supporting roles. The award for whitest network goes to WB.”
Tag: 09.08.04
Kansas City Symphony Hires Music Director
The Kansas City Symphony has hired 44-year-old Michael Stern as its new music director. “Until recently, he was chief conductor of the Saarbruecken Radio Symphony in Germany.”
Christiansen: Scottish Opera’s “Insane Ambition”
Rupert Christiansen is unsympathetic to the plight of Scottish Opera. “Despite a decidedly dodgy balance sheet and the failure to secure a future for its chorus, the management continues to programme at an almost insanely ambitious level. Over the coming year, Scottish Opera must take a new route, under new artistic leadership. The company has been ill served by the Scottish Arts Council, but it should also take responsibility for its own arrogance and misjudgments.”
Montreal Film Fest Chief On His Way Out?
Is the longtime director of the Montreal Film Festival on his way out? “Commentators have been complaining for years about Serge Losique’s festival, founded in the mid-1970s, around the same time the Toronto International Film Festival began. For years, the competition was fierce and the two festivals were considered arch-rivals. But for more than a decade, it has been glaringly obvious that Montreal’s festival is not in the same class as TIFF, which has become the pre-eminent festival in North America.”
Lloyd Webber On the Comeback?
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s last two shows didn’t do well. Now he’s got another show opening and a chance o get back on track. “Whether something is actually any good is quite different from whether it is commercial. This time I have gone out as far along the operatic route as I have ever done, if not further. It’s what I wanted to write at this particular point.”
Off-Broadway’s New Palace
Dodger Stages is “a gleaming new theater complex” on the edge of the Broadway theater district. It is “one of the most expensive Off Broadway theater projects ever – $23 million – and includes five theaters and a range of amenities not always found in the regions Off Broadway, including ample air-conditioning, big dressing rooms, three bars and – its owners proudly point out – “more women’s bathrooms than you’ll find in any space like this.” The company hopes “the new complex would provide the company with an opportunity not only to produce theater without breaking the bank but also to regain some of the youthful energy of the company’s early days.”
The Abbey’s Black Cloud
Dublin’s powerhouse Abbey Theatre is having a dreadful year. “Last week the incredulous staff were told that one third would have to go, the axe falling hardest on those engaged in bringing on new writers, which they felt was particularly unfortunate in an institution known worldwide as a “writers’ theatre”. The theatre’s studio space, the Peacock, may be closed and its director sacked. To top it all there was an organisational foul-up about the dates for an ambitious run of “18 plays in 14 days” during the Dublin theatre festival later this month.”
In Search Of A Hot Pre-Fab
Shelter Magazine runs a competition to design and build a pre-fab house that really works. “The results are in, and they are decidedly mixed.”