Tag: 09.13.04

Blame Game – Abbey Director Apologizes

Ben Barnes, artistic director of Dublin’s troubled Abbey Theatre, has found himself in yet another emergency meeting, this time over an e-mail he sent to international colleagues, distancing himself from his theater’s difficulties. But, having apologized for and retracted the criticisms he made of the theater’s board in the e-mail, he remains in his job.

The Vanishing Intellectual

“We inherit the idea of the intellectual from the 18th-century Enlightenment, which valued truth, universality and objectivity – all highly suspect notions in a postmodern age. As Furedi points out, these ideas used to be savaged by the political right, as they undercut appeals to prejudice, hierarchy and custom. Nowadays, in a choice historical irony, they are under assault from the cultural left.”

All Ears (Each One Different)

Think you hear things differently from other people? Well, you may. “All ears are not created equal, a new report suggests, even two on the same head. Results published in the current issue of the journal Science indicate that infants process sounds differently through their left ears than they do through their right ones.”

Ballet Company Takes A Big Step Up

Two years ago, Cleveland’s tiny Verb Ballet was on the rocks – broke and artistically adrift. Today, the company has “changed its name, achieved national recognition and expanded its personnel to 15 dancers who perform mainstream modern-dance classics, original choreography and chamber ballets for growing audiences of enthusiastic patrons. The company continues its education and outreach activities, but also takes its concert programs on tour. The budget has mushroomed to $340,000. The deficit has diminished to $5,000. How did it happen?”

Fans Pack Times Square For Free Broadway Preview

Fifty thousand fans pack Times Square for a free preview of the new theatre season. “The 13th annual “Broadway on Broadway” concert featured musical performances from 16 shows, including “Mamma Mia!,” “Avenue Q” and the new musical “Little Women.” The outdoor show prompted some to line up as early as 8 a.m. for the chance to catch a glimpse of their favorite performers.”

Rattle Attacks Berlin Arts Funding Cuts

The city of Berlin has a huge budget deficit and proposes to slash arts funding. Berlin Philharmonic music director Simon Rattle protests, describing the situation as “catastrophic” and “cultural dismantling” in an interview with the weekly Der Spiegel magazine. Sir Simon, who took over the orchestra two years ago, told the magazine: “I can see the hopeless situation of the city, but on the other hand, this cultural dismantling is an incredible shame for Berlin.”

Italian Protest Over Venice FF Awards

Italy’s press is complaining that Italian films were shut out of the awards at this year’s Venice Film Festival. “Mike Leigh’s film Vera Drake took the Golden Lion for best film and Briton Imelda Staunton won best actress. But Italy’s newspapers voiced their disappointment that Le Chiavi di Casa (The House Keys) by Gianni Amelio was missing from the award winners.”

The Impossibility That is The Toronto Film Festival

“By the time this year’s Toronto International Film Festival ends on Saturday, 328 films will have been screened. Spread over the 10 days of the festival, which began on Thursday, that comes to more than 30 movies a day, which means, according to my bleary-eyed calculations, that to see one movie is to miss about seven others, and that the statistical accuracy of any single critic’s impressions of the festival as a whole will be roughly 12.5 percent. What this suggests is that the Toronto festival, which has become, during the last decade or so, the most important such event in North America, is really 8 or 12 or 35 festivals gathered under one roof.”