The union’s latest offer “made no progress on any of the issues we have identified as crucial to these negotiations,” Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the League of American Theaters and Producers, said in a statement. “In fact, the union’s offer has made the situation worse for all productions, particularly dramatic productions.”
Tag: 10.10.07
Why Care About Arts Awards?
“At their best, awards provide recognition to those who are deserving but overlooked. But in most cases, awards go to those candidates with the strongest PR support. At their worst…. Well, consider the National Book Awards. Some 280,000 books are now published in this country every year. A judge would have to read 800 books a day to render a fair decision. How many judges do you suppose have read even a hundred, or even a dozen?”
Kennedy – A Classic Comeback
“Nigel Kennedy is an old-fashioned softie who loves nothing better than to bring a glisten to an audience’s eyes. He is, by a margin of millions, the biggest selling classical artist on EMI and the only living violinist with global street cred.”
Nureyev Book – Too Much Sex (Or Not Enough?)
“I have a dance colleague who complains that there’s too much about sex in this book, and another who says that there isn’t enough, soon enough. Sex, surely, is central, because the body is central, onstage and off-. It isn’t, after all, Nureyev’s mind that interests us so much, or even, possibly, his mind that interested him so much. For Nureyev was one of those rare equal-opportunity crushes, up close and in the theater, where he was galvanic.”
French Assembly Approves Abu Dhabi Louvre
The French National Assembly has approved the building of the Louvre Abu Dhabi under a 30-year cultural agreement between the UAE and France. The 24,000-square-metre branch will be designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, and is expected to open in 2012.
The New Radio Ratings
“Radio advertisers who for years complained about the low-tech way of tracking listeners are getting what they asked for and more: Electronic ratings are delivering accurate counts, but are also upending basic assumptions about the industry.”
DVRs, Downloads Forcing Change In Ad Rates
“Right now, the biggest drama on TV isn’t a cop show or a medical show. It’s the attempt by you to dodge the commercials.” As a direct result of new digital technologies, “by the end of this TV season, the system could go haywire. Advertisers and the TV networks have agreed on a new system. Instead of ad prices being based on the number of overall viewers, the key component will be the number of people viewing during a commercial break.”
Giller Shortlist Released
Canada’s most prestigious literary award for fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, named its five finalists Tuesday. “All the nominated books are novels – three by men, two by women – and of the five, three are by Ontario authors who have either won the Giller or been named to previous short lists. These include Toronto’s Michael Ondaatje… and M.G. Vassanji, a Torontonian and the only two-time Giller winner.”
MSG Buying Chicago Theatre
“In a development that will inject a powerful new East Coast player into Chicago’s burgeoning downtown entertainment scene, Madison Square Garden Entertainment said Tuesday that it will purchase the iconic Chicago Theatre.”
Bringing Disabled Artists Into The Mainstream
Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center has spent the past fifteen years using art as a means of engaging disabled individuals. But more recently, the center’s “decades of activism and tireless promotion of its artists have helped push the work of disabled artists into the mainstream. While in the past the work of Miller and others might have appeared in shows and exhibits dedicated to artists with disabilities, it’s now more likely to hang alongside that of other contemporary artists.”