OSF declined to name any of the jobs or people that were let go, but issued a statement saying “This summer’s smoke and air quality issues (led) to significant financial losses … These events renewed and reinvigorated our continual efforts to analyze our systems and sustainability … We have committed ourselves to updating our processes and realigning our organization, ensuring we identify every way possible to place OSF on a stable path that will empower us to continue to serve the community.”
Tag: 10.03.18
The New York City Ballet Enters a New Era
The future of the company, as it casts around for new leadership, is just another mystery. Meanwhile, to judge from the choreography and performances on display at the season-opening gala, New York City Ballet is in extremely capable hands.
An Opera About Locusts (Yes, Really)
Rocky Mountain locusts, to be specific. In the late 19th century, trillions of them laid waste to gardens, farms, and fields in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. Then, by 1902, they vanished completely. Two University of Wyoming professors, an entomologist and a composer, wrote a chamber opera about the ravenous insects’ rise and fall; it premiered last week in Jackson Hole.
The Rise And Not-Quite-Fall Of London’s Pirate Radio Stations
Yes, they can interfere with police radio, ambulances, and air traffic control, but they “gave immigrant communities programming in their native languages, ran charity drives and created the first radio specifically for black Britons. Pirate radio was also the site of some of Britain’s most important musical innovations.” But the wildcat stations are starting to disappear. Why? Because they’re becoming legitimized.
What Experiencing ‘The Mile Long Opera’ Is Really Like
Josephine Livingston: “The effect is extraordinary. It’s polyphony, but you, the listener, control what you hear. Curious about how the music melds with the music further down the park? Just keep walking. Captivated by a particular passage? Stay where you are. Dynamics in sound become dimensions in space. You’re so close to the singers that it’s awkward. Look them in the eye or look at your feet: It’s your choice. … In The Mile Long Opera, there are as many operas as there are listeners, because it changes according to your position in space and your frame of mind. It exists to the extent that one is tuning in.”
Is This The World’s Most Controversial Stage Director?
For his current production — a present-day take on the van Eycks’ Ghent Altarpiece — Milo Rau, artistic director of NTGent in Belgium, placed a classified ad looking for jihadists. He got no takers, but he did get hate mail and an international media furor. Once the piece got onstage, though, the praise was warm and widespread — the usual pattern with Rau’s work. “I’ve had scandals before a premiere,” he says, “but never afterward.”
Wolf Hall — The Real One — Located By Archaeologists
The novel Wolf Hall, the first volume of Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell/Henry VIII trilogy, took its name from the country estate of Jane Seymour’s family. “Now original features of the 16th-century property have been uncovered by a team of archaeologists and historians, including a network of brick-built sewers and some of the foundations of two towers.” The remains were found on the grounds of (the much later) Wolf Hall Estate in Wiltshire, which still belongs to Seymour descendants.
‘West Side Story’ Production At Kent State Canceled After Students Criticize Casting Of Non-Latinxs
The criticism was led by theater major Bridgett Martinez, who had auditioned for Maria but was cast as understudy for the role. “If they didn’t have this diverse cast in mind, and they didn’t think that we as the Latino students could fulfill these lead roles, then why would they continue on with the show in the first place?” So they didn’t. Once Fox News and similar outlets picked up the story, discussion of the situation spread well beyond the university.
More Ugly Details Emerge In Case Of Fired New York City Ballet Principals
“There was also concern — even among some women — that two of the men might have been unfairly treated. … But as more details of the texting allegations emerged in a lawsuit, a number of women in the company made it clear to management that they would not feel comfortable dancing with those men again.” Among the details: what exactly Amar Ramasar texted that got him in hot water, more trouble caused (and disciplinary action received) by Chase Finlay, and a vicious anonymous note left at the stage door that said “stop believing the word of jilted whores” (and that’s just what was printable).
National Theatre In London Is Really **Royal** National Theatre, But They’d Rather You Forget About That
Why? Because “Royal” might make them seem elitist. Said (R)NT artistic director Rufus Norris, “This country is still very class divided and anything that adds to that perception, that this place is not open to everybody, could be a downfall. I fear that for some people that [the ‘Royal’ prefix] adds to that perception.”