Arts education in New York City schools is still a spotty thing. The system suffers from “a lack of such facilities as art or dance studios, an inadequate supply of basic material and equipment such as musical instruments, and a shortage of arts teachers. Some 150 public schools –- more than one in ten — still have no full-time arts teachers of any kind.”
Tag: 11.30.05
Giles Worsley: A Golden Age Of Children’s Theatre
“We are entering a golden age of children’s theatre. The impulse that has piled bookshops with brilliant novels for children, and packed cinemas with well-made, enticing movies, has swept across Britain’s stages, filling them with more varied and attractive shows for young people than I can ever remember seeing there before.”
Some Literary Product Placement That Backfired
A pharmaceutical group thought it would hype its products by commissioning a novel. “The plan was to commission a fictional thriller to hype the dangers of buying prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. But now the authors have rewritten their novel to make a drug company the villain, and PhRMA wishes it had never heard of the idea.”
Launch Of NPR Podcasts A Big Winner
“It took only six days after launch for NPR’s ‘Story of the Day’ podcast to reach the coveted No. 1 spot on iTunes for most downloaded podcast. On Nov. 21, NPR’s podcasts held down 11 spots on the iTunes Top 100, more than any other media outlet. But NPR has done much more than simply repurpose its own material for podcasts. The radio giant is hosting podcasts for member stations, and selling and splitting underwriting revenues with them.”
Salon magazine Turns Ten
“Although it still teeters on the edge of financial viability, the progressive online publication is very much alive, while other boom-era magazines, like the Industry Standard, Upside and Red Herring, are dead or reinvented as leaner versions of their former selves.”
Cleveland Public Looks To Alt-Theatre For Its New Chief
Cleveland Public Theatre has tapped experimental theatre artist Raymond Bobgan to be its next artistic director, beginning next April. Bobgan is only 38, but has been the No. 2 administrator at the city’s leading alternative theatre troupe for several years. He succeeds Randy Rollison, who resigned earlier this month.
Narnia Author Opposed Movie Of His Books
It turns out that “CS Lewis, the author of the Narnia stories, with which Disney hopes to establish a blockbuster movie franchise to rival Harry Potter, was ‘absolutely opposed’ to the idea of a live action version of the stories, it has emerged. The author made clear his distaste for the idea in a hitherto unpublished letter to a BBC producer…”
FCC Threatening Cable Crackdown
“Sexed-up, profanity-laced shows on cable and satellite TV should be for adult eyes only, and providers must do more to shield children or could find themselves facing indecency fines, the nation’s top communications regulator said yesterday.” The FCC’s decision to threaten cable and satellite broadcasters is bound to be controversial, since the agency has historically been charged with regulating the terrestrial airwaves, but not channels carried over cable lines. But Congress is considering a new package of legislation that would increase indecency fines and give the FCC authority over cable and satellite programming.
Wanna Rescue Your Broadway Show? Make A Lousy Movie.
The movie version of the long-running theatrical hit, Rent, is not pulling much business by Hollywood standards, but the opening appears to have given a boost to the staged original, which last week had its best sales week ever. “The same thing happened last year with The Phantom of the Opera. The movie, which cost about $100 million to make, grossed just $150 million worldwide. But it lifted the fortunes of the Broadway show… As more and more stage shows are being adapted for the silver screen, theater producers are discovering that even if the movie isn’t very good, the stage production benefits. The spike in ticket sales registers as soon as the trailer for the movie starts playing in theaters.”
Nothing Funny About It (Yet)
British comedians and satirists are struggling with the same problem that confronted American entertainers in the months after 9/11: how to acknowledge the terrorist elephant in the room without insulting anyone or bringing the mood down. For comedians, who frequently operate on the razor edge of good taste, anyway, the July train bombings in London are a delicate matter. If those comedians happen to be of Middle Eastern descent, well, then, the pressure is even more intense. Some comics are gingerly beginning to talk about the bombings, but “for all the effort at cheerful revenge, none of the dozens of acts addressing this year’s hot issue know quite what to say about it.”