Michael Kaiser — president of the Kennedy Center, rescuer of arts organizations from Alvin Ailey to the Royal Opera House, and developer of Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative, which provides planning assistance to troubled groups — tells the Wall Street Journal: “When there are economic challenges, the first things that staffs and boards [...]
DEALS ALL AROUND: If you’re looking for a bargain arts experience, there are plenty to be had. Just in the last few days I’ve received a slew of offers in the ol’ inbox. Some of the highlights: Circle Theatre announced its 2009 season on Wednesday. As part of the announcement, Circle says that anyone who [...]
Tania Rivas claims to write songs in an effort to understand the inner workings of the male mind. While lesser songstresses would have deserted this futile effort after about 10 minutes, Tania has graced the Wicked Wednesday night playbill of Jack’s Backyard for the full month of February and performs tonight. Sharing the stage with her pal [...]
By coincidence, critic Hugh Canning took in performances of North Texas’ two leading symphony directors for the Sunday Times of London — in productions of La Boheme and Die Meistersinger von Nuremburg. The Puccini opera was directed by Jonathan Miller for the English National Opera and was conducted by Fort Worth Symphony’s Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Canning [...]
George Strait will headline a country music mega concert that will serve as the opening for the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Jerry Jones announced today. Rumors that Strait would perform the venue’s inaugural concert have been swirrling for weeks now, but at a press conference Tuesday the remainder of the bill was announced. Joining [...]
Garland isn’t the only place to cancel a high school staging of the musical Rent because of its controversial topics: AIDS, homosexuality, drug use, etc. Now it’s happened in Newport Beach, California. This time, a drama instructor and a student have said the principal cancelled the production solely because of the gay characters. The principal [...]
As part of its 2009-1010 season, the Dallas Symphony will be travelling to Europe — for the first time in seven years — and will present two world premieres as well as eight DSO premieres. Its new season, which the DSO announced yesterday, will be the 20th in the Meyerson Symphony Center and the second [...]
The new $787 billion stimulus package does have some additional arts funding, although originally the $50 million had been included in the House version and specifically dropped from the Senate’s. The trick was trying to convince the House-Senate conference committee that the arts do mean jobs. Tens of thousands of art supporters wrote and e-mailed, [...]
Last week, architect Rem Koolhaas, co-designer of the Wyly Theater in the Arts District, suffered the loss of his major hotel in Beijing — one of the signature buildings of that city’s new skyline. It burned down. Now it’s Sir Norman Foster, the architect behind the Winspear Opera House, who got a major hotel design [...]
FILM BY THE NUMBERS: Austin-based writer Joe O’Connell has been covering the film incentives beat for The Dallas Morning News, and today he reports on a new wrinkle for the proposal: a flexible incentive. Currently Texas offers a 5 percent incentive for projects shot in the state, and the film community has hoped for a [...]
