“Thanks to smartphones and laptops, people are now spending one-half of their waking days interacting with media, and have increased their media consumption by an hour per day over the last two years. That’s more time than they spend working or sleeping.”
Tag: 09.20.10
New York Mag’s New Theater Critic: Scott Brown
“Brown has been a part-time reviewer for the magazine for the last two years, and previously worked at Entertainment Weekly and is concluding his tenure as a columnist for Wired.“
PhilOrch Has Audience Troubles? Not in the Summertime
“The Philadelphia Orchestra may struggle for listeners in its Verizon Hall subscription season, but crowd size rose this summer at two of its outdoor venues.” Audiences at the Mann Center in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park were up 10% from last year, while attendance at the orchestra’s concerts in Saratoga Springs, NY rose by 21%.
Orchestras Must Change. But How?
“It’s clearly time for a generational change if orchestras are to survive. But it’s a shift in the way an orchestra musician’s job has come, under the current union rules, to be defined.”
Christie’s Choice Of New CEO Surprises
“In a surprising and unlikely move, auctioneer Christie’s has hired, from outside, a former publishing, record company and Disney executive as its CEO. For the firm known for, literally, centuries (it was founded in 1766) of Eton-educated top managers and very little turnover, this is a huge cultural shift.”
UK Museum Funding Cuts Will Strike Core Of British Culture
“Cuts of between 25% and 40% are clearly going to have a dramatic effect everywhere in British society, but in the case of museums the nature of the pain will be shaped by the scale of their success. Hence, it will feel like an act of vandalism when these beautiful institutions are knocked about, trashed and uglified.”
Covent Garden Demands Copyright to All Creative Work Done There, Forever
“The ROH is demanding that its entire stable of creative talent – directors, set and costume designers, lighting and special effects designers, even composers, choreographers and librettists – sign over to the Royal Opera House all their copyright in their work there – in perpetuity.”
L.A. Opera Keeps Domingo On
“Tenor Plácido Domingo has renewed his contract with Los Angeles Opera and will stay on as the company’s general director through 2013,” despite criticism that he is too busy with performing and his other opera company (in D.C.) to provide the day-to-day leadership L.A. Opera needs.
Lynn Nottage Wins Theater’s Richest Prize
“The $200,000 Steinberg award for playwriting, the most lucrative prize in theater, will go to Lynn Nottage for her body of work that most recently includes the 2009 Pulitzer Prize recipient, Ruined.”
Nottage’s Ruined Coming to Television, Thanks to Oprah
“Ruined, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that recently opened at the Geffen Playhouse after runs in New York, Chicago and Seattle, is getting ready to come to a television screen near you.”