From the Blogroll III

Edward David Miller's Adventures In and Out of the Mainstream Media has a report on Ned's trip to Nashville, including a porn shop and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Not that anyone would conflate those...

Chad M. Bauman's Arts Marketing is "Asking the Unpopular -- Is There Too Much Art? The first three graphs of this post, while disheartening, are certainly provocative and worthy of deeper discussion

The economic crisis is starting to trickle down to arts organizations all over the nation. Recent casualties of the crisis include Opera Pacific, Milwaukee Shakespeare Festival, and several Broadway shows. To adjust for the weakening economy, planned productions have been abandoned at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Washington National Opera, the New York City Opera and even at the seemingly untouchable Metropolitan Opera. Not to mention the St. Louis Museum of Art postponing its $125 million expansion or the Shakespeare Theatre missing its gala goal by $300,000.

The impact of the crisis will be felt in communities all around the country. Quite simply, the casualties listed above won’t be the last. Arts organizations will fail and close as contributed income dries up, and earned revenue weans. Although tragic for the artists connected to these organizations, the unpopular question that continues to emerge with my colleagues from around the nation is: are the closings of these organizations necessarily a bad thing?

Is there just too much art? Take for example an article written in the Washington Post on April 23, 2008 which cites a study by the Helen Hayes Organization that says in 2007, there were 402 more performances by theatre companies than the previous year but attendance was down by 36,000 patrons. From this report, it would seem that supply has significantly surpassed demand, and this isn’t surprising when you take into consideration the boom of new theaters in the Washington metropolitan area.

Americans for the Arts' Arts Blog reports that the U.S. Conference of Mayors Embraces the Arts in Their Ten-Point Plan.

Jonathan West's fiercely amusing Artsy Schmartsy takes a look at the nonprofit scene in Milwaukee through the lens of -- you guessed it -- the seriously tanking economy. And in another post, Jon sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and talks about the stupidity surrounding the Scott Eckern/Proposition 8 disaster as he admits he's hetero and white.

Robert Cashill's Between Productions reviews American Buffalo via Live Design magazine.

Butts in the Seats talks about a new residency opportunity for arts and culture managers in, of all places, Key West.

D.C. Theatre Scene has reviews with multiple bylines of multiple productions, including Grey Gardens, Dublin Carol, Frost/Nixon, All's Well That End's Well and Doubt.

Chris Caggino's Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals asks if Christine Ebersole is "Misinformed or Off Her Chump" for talking publicly about her belief in the eventuality of a one-world government and, to be more specific, the creation of a North American currency called the "amero." By the by, La Ebersole has been saying that 9/11 was a conspiracy for some time now. It's not new. But she is being a lot more public about it. I suppose that sells tickets, too.

Thomas Garvey's The Hub Review contains its customary suite of reviews, but his assessment-slash-think piece-slash-review of Lydia R. Diamond's Voyeurs de Venus is a must-read for anyone interested in theatre in Beantown.

Patrick Lee's Just Shows to Go You has four reviews: Streamers, Back Back Back, Catalpa and Vaudeville Man. All, somehow, for Theatermania.com. :-)

Ken Davenport's The Producer's Perspective waxes philosophical about the Broadway revival of American Buffalo, which is nifty for him as he's one of the producers of the Broadway revival of Speed-the-Plow. And then, in a strange turn, Davenport ponders roaches.

Michael Criscuolo's NYTheatreMike considers the non-existent stampede of American Buffalo ticket-buyers to the box office and does Leonard Jacobs a favor and plugs the living daylights out of his book.

Matt Freeman's On Theatre and Politics takes note of the recent podcast of the Leonard Jacobs Show that aired at nytheatrecast.com on real estate and theatre and whether the tax code and the nonprofit deductibility rules should be altered when it comes to landlords, rent, charitable giving and real estate. A great read.

Garrett Eisler's The Playgoer notes the creation of a new blog called the Critic-O-Meter created by my colleague and friend Rob Kendt and some other blogger who doesn't have the decency to acknowledge when he betrays people.

Lauren Yarger's Reflections in the Light reviews Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk.

Praxis Theatre's Theatre Is Territory asks whether there is enough content about theatre about content about theatre about content about theatre about content about theatre. I think.

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