“Twelve years after Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese rule, … political writings censored in the mainland circulate widely here, and they are hot souvenirs among the nearly 17 million mainland tourists who visit here every year.”
Tag: 09.30.09
Pasadena Playhouse Starts $1M Emergency Campaign
“[The theater’s] new executive director, Stephen Eich, said that it needs a ‘cash infusion’ of more than $1 million by year’s end to begin the coming 2010 season confident that it can improve the ‘hand to mouth’ existence it has fallen into since the economy soured.”
Ballet BC’s New Artistic Director Sees Herself As More Than Just Interim
Emily Molnar: “I had to completely build a season, build the rep, hire the dancers … and look at what our next steps are going to be, in that there has to be someone who has the desire to look at what the future of the company is. So to me, that’s not interim.”
How Teens Build An Identity Around Their Favorite Music
“Because different kinds of music can on some level be construed as props in different (sub-)cultural tableaux with costumes, affected social postures, and so on, young people can define their dress, behavior, and language outward from the kind of music they listen to.”
How L.A.’s ‘WTF?! Festival’ Got Its Name
“Last June, Actors’ Gang artistic director Tim Robbins and his colleagues at the Culver City theater company received some paradoxical advice.” Due to the global recession, the troupe’s best bet “would be to save money by not putting on plays. A theater company that doesn’t make theater? Robbins’ none-too-subtle response gave birth to the festival title.”
American Gothic Knockoff Sculpture Is A Public-Art Hit
“[S]ince being put up in Pioneer Plaza for display last December, God Bless America has become, by most estimates, one of the top public-art attractions in a city that believes, even with a tight budget, in buying and displaying art and boasts several superstars of the genre.” What does that say about public art?
In Wake Of Baltimore Opera, A Wave Of Operatic Activity
“One-off performances and shoestring productions may not replace what a permanent opera company has to offer.” And yet: “One wonders if so many people would have realized they cared so much had the Baltimore Opera Company managed to stay above water.”
Britain’s Latest Foothold: American TV
“British actors seem to have invaded American television. … Depending on who you ask, it’s either a monstrous conspiracy to reclaim some shred of George III’s lost colonial empire, or the tanking entertainment economies in Britain and Hollywood, or it’s simply all Hugh Laurie’s fault.”
From An Outreach Program, Boston Ballet Gets A Dancer
Twenty-year-old Isaac Akiba, who was “promoted to Boston Ballet’s company last month,” is “the first Boston kid to rise to its ranks through Citydance, a program that has introduced dance to more than 85,000 children in the Boston public schools since its inception in 1991.”
Harvard Dorm Puts Books Behind Bars
“The students who have long cherished the small library inside Dunster House, Harvard’s oldest dormitory, discovered a new feature there this week: two brass bars stretching across nearly every shelf, making the books impossible to peruse,” and “in effect making the library into a kind of museum of hardbacks.”