“The 2000s have seen a significant return of Hollywood studio interest in Broadway as musicals that click have become cash cows in an ever-growing global environment.”
Tag: 10.07.14
Maya Lin Wins $300,000 Gish Prize
Said the selection committee chair, playwright David Henry Hwang, “With her design for the Vietnam Memorial, Maya Lin created arguably the most important piece of public art of our time. Since then, she has continued to achieve greatness, through a singular vision which has come to embrace her passionate concern for the environment – in America, China and throughout the planet.”
Here’s A Classical Music Organization That’s Staying Relevant (Despite Its Fusty Name)
“In 2009-10 the Chamber Music Society [of Lincoln Center] gave 35 concerts along with 31 tour dates; the 2014-15 season boasts 54 concerts at home and 68 on tour. … Over the past five years their endowment has risen to $37 million from $31 million; contributor income is up 88%, and subscription sales have increased by 31%.” Stuart Isacoff looks at how they do it.
A Broadway Play’s Long, Messy Journey To Cinema Screens
“Efforts to screen high-definition broadcasts of Broadway shows in movie theaters have been random, halting and frustrating. Yet, in little more than a month, a filmed-live version of the recent Broadway production of Of Mice and Men came together and, beginning in November, will be beamed into about 1,400 theaters around the world. It required an unlikely series of coincidences and a measure of sheer doggedness.”
When Critics Become Playwrights
“From George Bernard Shaw to Nicholas de Jongh, there is a tradition of reviewers penning their own scripts. So can you learn to write plays by watching them? And does being a playwright make you a better critic?”
Are Single-Artist Museums Limited? Not This One
The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver has exceeded every expectation in its first three years of operation, “quieting some who doubted that Still, a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism but never a household name, could carry a single-artist museum, let alone one constrained by a will dictating that no work by any other artist could be ever be shown there.”
What Will Daniele Gatti Bring To The Concertgebouw Orchestra?
“The orchestra’s recently released 2013 annual report warns that unless the orchestra receives immediate government support, [it] is in danger of folding by 2016. Now, whether that’s a substantive fear or Met-like, Peter Gelb-style brinkmanship remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Gatti is coming into an orchestra that’s artistically at the top of its game, yet financially threatened as never before.”
Facebook Or No Facebook, How Many Friends Can A Person Really Have?
Maria Konnikova explores “the Dunbar number” – really a series of numbers describing how many friendly acquaintances, good social friends and close confidantes the human brain can generally handle – and whether social media is making Dunbar’s concept irrelevant.
David Cronenberg Says Writing A Novel Is “Like Being Out Of A Straitjacket” (And That All His Movies Are Comedies)
“It’s very liberating to write in this medium because it’s not only more intimate, but it’s more freedom to just move around a lot. … A screenplay is a very limited and rigorous kind of form, … [and] if you’re making a movie that’s costing millions of dollars, you have a lot of restrictions that, even if you’re not conscious of them, you are mindful of them.”
There’s An Epidemic In America – Of Hypochondria (Blame Ebola)
In Dallas, some parents are keeping their kids home from school. Nearly 40% of Americans are evidently concerned that there will be an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. Certain TV pundits are energetically stoking the fear. A bioethicist explains where hypochondria comes from and why it isn’t entirely fair to callit irrational.