Bill Irwin finds Beckett’s remarkable use of language something of a balm at a time when the use of words has grown so imprecise. “Our culture runs away from words,” he bemoaned. “It seems to me one of the things this language can do is help us reconnect with human intelligence, as distinct from artificial intelligence. A lot of Beckett’s language is a portrait of consciousness — of how the mind works.” – Los Angeles Times
Tag: 09.18.19
Orchestras Struggling? These Regional Groups Are Doing Just Fine, Says Anne Midgette
“Are orchestras dying? These smaller groups are alive and well … The … orchestras presented below offer perhaps five programs a year, with freelance professional players, on a fraction of that budget. Yet their programming tends to be strikingly diverse in comparison with some of their larger brethren, and they all maintain strong education and outreach programs in local schools.” – The Washington Post
At 94, Director Peter Brook Still Keeps A Schedule That’s ‘Terrifying’
His career goes all the way back to 1946 at Stratford, through a 1970 Midsummer Night’s Dream and a nine-hour Mahabharata from the ’80s that arguably changed theatre history, to a new book this fall and a new stage piece, titled Why?, that he’s taking to three continents. Ben Brantley talks with the stage legend about his extraordinary career. – The New York Times
A New City-Wide Dance Festival Is Coming To Los Angeles
“Dance moguls Debbie Allen and Nigel Lythgoe are organizing a new two-week festival next spring” — titled, simply, the Los Angeles International Dance Festival — “featuring local and global companies including Ailey II, Bodytraffic, Syncopated Ladies and Heidi Duckler Dance, performing at venues across L.A. County.” – Los Angeles Times
The Ten (Actually 14) Most-Produced Plays In The U.S. For 2019-20
It’s a list packed with ties this season: A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time lead with a dozen productions each, there’s a two-way tie for third place, and nine plays with eight productions each complete the roster. – American Theatre
America’s 20 Most-Produced Playwrights In 2019-20
Lauren Gunderson leads the list for the second time, this year with 33 productions. Lauren Yee is runner-up with 18, while Lucas Hnath is tied with Tennessee Williams for the third slot (17 each). In a sign of progress, women outnumber men on the list 11 to 9. – American Theatre
Silent Discos Are A Scourge!
“Much like the bubonic plague of 1347, silent disco is a blood-curdling infection that spreads across the city, carried on the back of headphone-wearing fleas! Fleas! Its biggest problem is the performed transgression of the whole experience, for which you pay a princely sum of £15. I’m not mad at the individuals taking part, for they know not what they do. I’m incensed that we live in a society where stumbling through the streets of Edinburgh half-yowling the words to YMCA (because nobody knows all the words) is someone’s idea of a good time and a rebellion. Whatever happened to imagination?” – The Guardian
It’s Big: eSports Gets Its Own TV Network
“You have this $150 billion-a-year industry that has no TV network. We are a universal network — that means we will be distributed and consumed anywhere our audience is consuming gaming content.” – CBC
Amazon Bets There’s A Market For HD Streaming Music
A Crisis In Leadership At LA’s Top Music Organizations
Mark Swed: “None of this looks good on the surface. But poke a level deeper and what you find are two companies with exceptionally strong No. 2s, trailblazers in their own right who have already proved themselves indispensable in making the L.A. Phil and L.A. Opera what they are today.” – Los Angeles Times