Can Audiences Enjoy New Dance Pieces More If They Know *Nothing* About Them In Advance?

“The idea goes against the grain in arts marketing, as venues increasingly provide preview trailers, rehearsal clips and artist interviews for audiences to watch in advance.” But London’s Dance Umbrella festival is giving it a try. “A lack of knowledge about the art form can stop audiences from coming to dance, so [festival director Emma] Gladstone wanted to free them from worrying about what they didn’t know.”

Is Michael Grandage About To Become The Next Julie Taymor?

“From 2002 to 2012, director Michael Grandage was the head of London’s Donmar Warehouse. The position he inherited from Sam Mendes was long on prestige, artistic achievement, and honors. But money? Not so much. But now the director, who long labored in the not-for-profit world, stands to enter the big money as the newly-tapped director of the forthcoming Broadway stage adaptation of the Disney film Frozen.”

Audience Member At Kansas City Library Lecture Arrested For Asking Follow-Up Question; Library Manager Arrested For Trying To Step In And Defuse

“On May 9, after a question-and-answer session following a public lecture by US diplomat Dennis Ross at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library, city police arrested and detained an attendee and the library’s director of programming and marketing. … In late September, the library decided to make the incident known to the media, because the city had pressed forward with the case.”

Fire Takes Out One Of Bay Area’s Favorite Classical Venues

“The four-alarm fire that rampaged through the roof of the historic First Congregational Church in Berkeley … is a disaster on several levels, not least for small arts organizations that have depended on the church as a performance venue. Groups such as Volti, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra all use the space, as well as Cal Performances.”

How Technology Is Blurring The Space Between Mind And Machine

“Some people worry that one day soon we might physically attach computer chips to our minds, but we don’t actually need to plug ourselves in: proximity is a red herring. The real issue is the seamless way in which we are already hybridising our cognitive space with our devices. In ways both quotidian and profound, they are becoming extensions of our minds.”