In recent years, American television has finally seemed to embrace at least a few prime time shows starring minority actors and reflecting the American experiences of non-whites. But the increased diversity is often restricted to the people in front of the camera. “It should come as no great surprise that Hollywood is, by and large, run by white people. But as the networks increasingly respond to pressure from advocacy groups to diversify the worlds they present on-screen, viewers are treated to more shows that purport to present a picture of life from a particular ethnic point of view, but were created and executive-produced by the same, overwhelmingly white crowd of usual suspects.”
Tag: 09.14.03
Chicago’s Art Institute Looks To The Future
The Art Institute of Chicago and its many supporters were taken quite by surprise last week when director James N. Wood announced his impending retirement from the post he has held since 1980. Wood is as much a Chicago institution as the institute itself, writes Alan Artner, and the AIC’s board has a difficult task ahead in finding a replacement who can take the organization in new and exciting directions, without upsetting the balance of power which Wood maintained over the years.
Cruz-ing To Respectability
“Like most unpublished plays, the manuscript version of Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz has the unmistakable stamp of the personal home computer: typographical errors, the playwright’s home address and telephone number, and a hurriedly scrawled ‘latest version’ annotation on its front cover. That normally gets lesser-known regional playwrights a spot on the dusty shelf of some literary manager in a struggling regional theater. It got Cruz a Pulitzer Prize.”
Frank’s Folly?
When architect Frank Gehry was hired to design and build MIT’s new Stata Center For Computer, Information, and Intelligence Sciences, the price tag was set at $100 million, gifts were rolling in, and the university was downright gleeful at having secured the services of arguably the hottest architect of the era. But “MIT brass now peg the budget at $300 million, although a June press release from a Stata Center supplier put the cost at $430 million. The completion date is spring 2004. And what once appeared futuristic now looks like a jumbly rehash of existing Gehry piles.”
Proms Wrap Up With Pomp And Passion
The traditional Last Night at the BBC Proms went off without a hitch this weekend, as 6,000 people gathered to hear the BBC Symphony pump their way through such traditional Last Night tunes as ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Rule, Britannia.’ In a slight departure from the norm, intended to placate critics who dislike the ‘classical lite’ atmosphere of the annual show, a new work by a young British composer was premiered as well. The concert was broadcast nationwide on television and internationally on radio, and the BBC’s various orchestras performed their own concerts throughout the UK in conjunction with the Last Night celebrations in London.