Tag: 10.31.18

The Pianist Who Plays Beethoven For Sick Elephants In Thailand

In videos posted to his Facebook and YouTube pages, Barton plays classical tunes to the elephants, who appear to be captivated by the sounds — and by Barton himself. Barton, according to CBS News, said in a video that he and his wife “liked the sound of the place being a retirement center for old, injured and handicapped former logging and trekking elephants.”

There Are Better Ways To Measure A Publisher’s Success Than Money

“How do we measure commercial success? There seem to me to be five measures, all important but all with shortcomings.” Richard Charkin, former head of Bloomsbury Publishing and former president of the International Publishers Association, argues that “building up cash reserves is not in itself an indication of success. What really matters, in my opinion, is the building up of publishing assets.”

How Steve Reich Came To Be Writing For Orchestra Again After Three Decades

“I was in L.A. because we go to L.A. every January or February … And I was looking at the orchestral setup here [at the L.A. Phil] and I thought, ‘Hmm, those first desk strings are really in a tight semicircle.’ They could hear each other very well. And the first two flutes and first two oboes and first two clarinets are ditto, also close in. If I were to add two vibraphones and two pianos, I’d have exactly the piece I was working on at the time, Runner … This is the ensemble that is [already] sitting there in most orchestras.”

María Irene Fornés, Pathbreaking Playwright , Dead At 88

“Arguably the most influential American dramatist whose work hasn’t become a staple of the mainstream repertoire, Fornés, a nine-time Obie winner, carved a special niche in the American theater. Although she was not as well-known as fellow theater maverick Sam Shepard, her playwriting exerted a similar magnetic pull on generations of theater artists inspired by her liberating example.”

How Theatremakers Get Their Work Done Under Egypt’s Dictatorship

“Playwright Rasha Abdel Monem describes the climate that has developed in recent years as ‘cold and fearful,’ given the censorship barriers and lack of funding. You’re either with the regime, she says, or you’re against it. As an artist, you’re afraid to be labeled as a ‘threat to the state,’ the same umbrella term applied to terrorists. Yet the repression has led to a competitive spirit among those artists still trying to produce work … [and] crafty theatre people are finding ways to work around the limitations of censorship.”