The Minneapolis-based Guthrie Theater has scored a world premiere by Tony-winning playwright Tony Kushner. Kushner’s newest play, tentatively titled “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures,” will bow on the Guthrie stage in spring 2009.
Tag: 10.25.07
Norton Simon Museum Wins; Gets To Keep Art
“A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena demanding the return of two life-size paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder to Marei von Saher, heir of Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker.”
The New Theatre Revolution
“Theatre is undergoing its most radical growth phase since the fringe explosion of the seventies, or the new writing boom of the nineties. In the past couple of years, the one-off, short-play evening has gone from being an exciting novelty to a de facto rite-of-passage for young writers.”
Iran Cracks Down On Bookstore Cafes
“The trend of opening coffee shops inside bookstores has fallen foul of the authorities amid a general clampdown on social and intellectual freedoms. Four bookshops in Tehran this week closed their coffee shops after receiving a 72-hour ultimatum from Amaken-e Omoomi, a state body governing the retail trade.”
Is Acting A “Lesser” Art?
“The downgrading of acting is a modern phenomenon, and in part may be due to the rise of celebrity, and the idea that acting isn’t hard and anyone can do it without any training at all. Those who sat through Madonna in Up for Grabs or some of the recent casts of Chicago know that this is a lie.”
Potter First Edition Sells Big
“A copy of J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel sold at auction Thursday for almost $41,000. The copy of the hardback first edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” published in 1997 and signed “Joanne Rowling” on the back of the title page.”
Britain’s Black-Actor Drain
Why are black British actors leaving the UK for work? “The overwhelming majority of black actors of my generation have found that their only hope of a career lies in America (an old maxim states that ‘in Britain, white actors have careers and black actors have jobs’).
Reasons For Optimism
Researchers have discovered the part of the brain that controls optimism. “When participants imagined positive future events relative to negative ones, enhanced activation was detected in the rostral anterior cingulate and amygdala, which are the same brain areas that seem to malfunction in depression.”
Fisk Trial Put Off Until February
“A trial to determine whether Fisk University can sell a 50 percent stake in an art collection donated by artist Georgia O’Keeffe won’t begin until February despite the school’s precarious financial situation, a judge ruled Wednesday. Fisk’s lawyers had argued that the trial should be set before the end of the year because the historically black college is projected to run out of cash by Dec. 15.”
Congress Chides Its Library
A Congressional panel suggested yesterday that the Library of Congress should look to private companies with proven cataloging systems to improve its own storage and retrieval systems. “In the past year, spot-checks have shown the library hasn’t been able to account for 10 to 17 percent of its books, monographs and bound periodicals.” But librarians say that their situation is different, and point out that the library is underfunded and doing its best with the resources available.