THEATRE + PERFORMANCE
’8,’ YouTube, and the Future of Theatre
by Adam Leipzig
Watching a play on YouTube isn’t the same as seeing it in a theatre. On the one hand, you have to fight the urge to fast-forward, even if you’re engaged in the performances; the next scene is just a click away. Your screen is filled with icons and temptations, and the play’s dialogue can be interrupted by email chimes.
On the other hand, y More...
Dear Cultural Weekly Readers, Help Us Save the Oak Room
by Andrea Marcovicci
Every few minutes a signature is added to a petition to save a New York treasure – the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room, iconic venue for song and the lovers of song. Some people think it's already gone, nothing but dust and memories like Penn Station and so many other lost landmarks. But it isn't gone as yet! And there is something well worth figh More...
In the Arts, Repeating Our Actions and Expecting a Different Result Defines Insanity
by Diane Ragsdale | Jumper
About a month ago I read an article in the Atlantic on the phenomenal success of Finland’s primary and secondary education public school system—a success which, the article suggests, the US has failed to understand.
There are some notable differences between the US system and Finland’s:
1. Teachers in Finland are given prestige, decent More...
Sports Expendables
by Jerry Kavanagh
In The Mikado, the Lord High Executioner Ko-Ko compiles his little list of “society offenders” who, if executed, “would not be missed.” Among other expendables, he notes, “There’s the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs [and] all people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs.” I once asked several notable sports figur More...
The Value of “No”
by Garner Simmons
In March of 1982, Warren Beatty, along with his co-writer Trevor Griffths, won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Reds. In accepting the award, Beatty did a remarkable thing. He began by thanking all those who had had the courage to tell him “no.” While the line got a laugh, Beatty was serious. More...
Donor Dollar Do’s and Don’ts
by Diane Ragsdale | Jumper
The other day I received an email alert from the Philanthropy News Digest, which mentioned that a theater company had announced a $7 million endowment challenge grant. When matched, the 3:1 challenge grant (which requires the theater to raise $2.5 million) will boost its endowment from $500,000 to $10 million. Putting aside for a moment debates ove More...
Ready for Risks? London’s Subsidized Theatre Promises More
by Tim Sullivan
The London theatre scene has continued to be as vibrant and diverse as it was when I first arrived in 2005. Much of the country’s artistic success can be attributed to one major difference between the UK and the US: arts funding. While America’s National Endowment for the Arts has an annual budget of $150 million, Arts Council England has an an More...
A Theatre Isn’t a Building, But It Needs One
by Adam Leipzig
In Los Angeles, we have a downtown four-theatre performing arts complex called the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Last week the City Council sent an eviction notice to the Latino Theatre Company, which has operated LATC for the past six years. The company has a short window to work things out with the City.
Let’s be clear: I’m a partisa More...
The View from London
by Tim Sullivan
London was never the plan. I was going to be a big Hollywood star, or perhaps star in my own sitcom, and I knew I was destined to live a glamorous lifestyle in sunny southern California. So after being born and raised in Boston, I packed up all my belongings in two huge duffel bags and flew 3000 miles to Los Angeles to study at USC, where I was sur More...
Was It An Earthquake?
by Mame Hunt
I first saw Rinde Eckert in Slow Fire at the Mark Taper Forum sometime in the mid-1980’s. Having gone to graduate school in theatre and having spent the six years since then working in Los Angeles and Chicago, I thought I had a solid foundation in the world of theatre. I’d read SO many plays from the Western canon. I’d learned how to analyze More...
