Nathaniel Rich: “To describe The Original of Laura as a novel would be like mistaking a construction site for a cathedral. Yes, the blueprints might call for flying buttresses and oriel windows, but for now it is only a mess of wheelbarrows, uncut limestone, and piles of sand.”
Tag: 11.22.09
Bank Accuses Bucks County Playhouse Owner Of Fraud
Ralph Miller, owner of the Bucks County Playhouse and of the recently charred Pocono Playhouse, “was facing a sheriff’s sale” of the Bucks County theatre until he declared bankruptcy. “But last week Skippack-based Stonebridge Bank called on the court to block the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying Miller ‘knowingly and fraudulently’ misrepresented his financial picture….”
Are The Holidays Bad For Theatre?
“So are the holidays ruining theater? Or saving it? Companies that thrive during December say giving people what they want is both consumer-friendly and good business during a challenging economic period that, it has been estimated, will kill off 10 percent of all nonprofit arts organizations in the country.”
Strasberg And The Method: The Next Generation
Lee Strasberg’s son David Lee is maintaining his late father’s acting schools in Manhattan and West Hollywood and even opening a new branch in Mumbai next year. He argues that the Method “is less reliant on psychobabble than most people believe. … [More] interesting is the way developments in neuroscience keep cropping up in his conversation.”
Jerking: Break-Dancing For The Internet Age
“Goofy, gentle, nimbly amateurish, jerking was little known outside certain precincts of this sprawling city [L.A.] until a year ago. But in the last nine months or so, jerking began an unexpected run as an Internet phenomenon.” The movement has a “rebellious disregard for the conventions of urban style and music (old school hip-hop artists are referred to as ‘baggy daddies’).”
Simon Rattle And The Berlin Phil, In Love Once More
“It’s been an interesting journey. Slowly and surely we have come together through honeymoons and the opposite. I remember Karajan said that with an orchestra like this the first five or 10 years are tradition. I didn’t quite believe him. But after what has sometimes felt like moving at the speed of tectonic plates, … we now have a tradition to build on.”
Raymond Carver: Brilliant, Destructive, Destroyed And Recovered
Stephen King looks at the short story master, the appalling treatment he gave the wife who made his career possible, the appalling treatment axe-wielding editor Gordon Lish gave his prose, and the alcoholism underlying it all.
Robert Cameron, Bard Of The Aerial Photograph, Dead At 98
“His 19 ‘Above‘ books, each with about 150 photographs, include neighborhood-by-neighborhood overviews of Paris, London, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, San Diego and Seattle.” (He covered his hometown with four volumes of Above San Francisco.) “Then there are the volumes showing the natural wonders of places like Yosemite, Big Sur and Hawaii.”
Inside School Of American Ballet’s Choreography Workshop
18-year-old participant Lauren Lovette: “[Peter Martins] was looking at me as I was sitting there, and I was like: Are you expecting me to say something? Are you reading my mind right now? Stop staring at me. O.K., fine! I really wanted six [dancers to work with]. I’m so happy he gave that to me.”
Elisabeth Söderström, 82, One Of Opera’s Great Actors
Admired for her radiant voice, keen dramatic instincts and cheerful disposition, the Swedish soprano was, among her many accomplishments, a key figure in the ongoing revival of Leos Janácek’s operas.