Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: July 2, 2023
By: Laura Deni
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FIRST NBA CON TO BE HELD JULY 7-9 AT MANDALAY BAY IN LAS VEGAS

Had no idea that music and fashion were intricate parts of basketball.

I always thought basketball involved a bunch of tall, sweaty men who ran around trying to control a ball while another bunch of tall, sweaty men tried to thwart the action.

Live and learn.

NBA Con is a first-of-its-kind event that blends the interests of NBA players and fans into a celebration of the best of hoops culture, and will feature exclusive performances from artists who have inspired the sport and sound-tracked its most important moments.

"More than any other sport, basketball has always gone hand-in-hand with music. From hyping up players before the game to sound=tracking highlight reels, music has always been the fuel for athletes’ ambitions," asserted Sean McMullan, director of artist product and services for Amazon Music. "The inaugural NBA Con will bring fans, artists, and athletes together under one roof to celebrate all facets of hoops culture, and Amazon Music has worked hard with the NBA to curate showstopping performances and exclusive merchandise for attendees."

"The first-ever NBA Con is all about bringing the league, its players and fans together through shared interests," said Joey Graziano, Senior Vice President of Global Event Strategy and Development, NBA. "Fashion and music are essential to the culture of the league, and we are thrilled to work with Amazon Music to help us bring the best of both to NBA Con."

NBA Con will bring together the fashion, music, food, art, and technology that make the NBA a cultural phenomenon into a three-day event, highlighted by the game’s brightest stars and biggest personalities. Appearances will include legends and current NBA stars like six-time NBA champion and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Mike Conley, the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, the New Orleans Pelicans’ CJ McCollum, the Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young, the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and the Portland Trail Blazers’ Scoot Henderson.

Also, Devin Vassell, Josh Childress, Jameer Nelson, Vin Vassell, Karl Anthony Towns, Cris Brinkley, Jerry West, Bruce Brown and Myles Turner.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, a six-time NBA champion and the league's only 6x MVP. Photo:Wikipedia.

Even I know the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

NBA Con tips off the opening weekend of NBA 2K24 Summer League, which begins 10 days of NBA action on Friday, July 7. The NBA 2K24 Summer League will showcase the league’s top young players, many of whom are taking the floor for the first time in an NBA uniform. The event features a footprint at Mandalay Bay’s Convention Center that is nearly 400,000 square feet and is twice the size of the NBA Crossover fan event held during NBA All-Star Weekend 2023 that welcomed more than 50,000 fans.

Amazon Music will curate three days of live music. The lineup of artists that will perform live at the event include Grammy-winning hip-hop icon 2 Chainz, rising hip-hop star BLXST, multiplatinum indie-pop trio AJR, California-based musica Mexicana group Eslabon Armado, rapper and songwriter Armani White, and Vegas’ own DJ E Rock.

Fans can transcend the boundaries of the court with unique, interactive experiences across art, music, fashion, tech and basketball. At the first-ever NBA Con, fans will experience an unforgettable lineup of 100+ talent appearances, 50+ brands and activations, 30+ hours of podcasts and panels, and 5+ chart-topping musical artists.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K Summer League, and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents.

NBA rosters at the start of the 2022-23 season featured 120 international players from 41 countries. NBA Digital’s assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App, and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 2.1 billion likes and followers globally across all league, team, and player platforms. Through NBA Cares, the league addresses important social issues by working with internationally recognized youth-serving organizations that support education, youth and family development, and health-related causes.

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

ART AND ABOUT

PUSSY POWER pays tribute to feminist pioneer Kirsten Justesen who, for six decades, has challenged boundaries with the body in front and the sculpture as a base. Justesen turns 80 this year, and the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aalborg Denmark is marking it with the exhibition Pussy Power. The exhibition presents reflections on six decades of work production, where Justesen has consistently challenged art history's traditional gender stereotypes and work categories.

The starting point for Kirsten Justesen throughout the years has been her own body, which has almost become her signature. This combined with a persistent challenge to the classical concept of sculpture.

From the early works of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a distinct feminist aesthetic and sheer savagery, to the more general explorations of the relationship between body, space, language and time in recent years.

One way to understand the defining aspect of Justesen's art is to start with the early major workSculpture II from the Art's collection: A white painted cardboard box, in which at the top is a photograph of a naked female body, Kirsten Justesen herself, huddled in the same box. A woman who hides in the plinth and actively hides herself from our gaze. A model that cannot be modeled.

With works like this, Justesen not only engages in dialogue and negotiation with the classic concept of sculpture, but also art history, where women have been shaped by and for a male gaze for centuries.

In Justesen's work, the body is included as a changeable sculpture that is open to new meanings and contexts. With equal parts criticism and humor, Justesen presents the woman as an acting individual in self-conscious dialogue with her surroundings.

It can be seen i.a. in the work series Circumstances, which stem from the artist's own experience of being pregnant. Through pregnancy, her understanding of the body as a sculpture in itself with inherent social and gender issues was sharpened.

This has contributed to the fact that Kirsten Justesen, even in an international context today, is considered a pioneer within the feminist avant-garde and contemporary art.

"Kirsten Justesen is an icon in Danish contemporary art and today constitutes an important cornerstone in the Art's collection. Justesen's works force us to reflect on how we see and not just what we see. We are proud to be able to show this exhibition, which, with its impact on six decades of work, emphasizes Justesen's artistic contribution as a feminist pioneer and sculptor above all", says Caroline Nymark Zachariassen, museum inspector and collection manager at Kunsten.

The exhibition is curated by Anna Holm, curator and project researcher.

Kirsten Justesen was born in 1943 and as a 16-year-old got an apprenticeship at an advertising agency in Odense, from which she was trained in 1964. She studied sculpture at the Jutland Art Academy in Aarhus from 1965-1967 and sat on the board of Ung Kunst in Aarhus in 1967. Since then, she has been educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen in 1975. At the academy, among other things, she was part of the experimental group of students who called themselves the "Cannon Club", and from 1970 she became an active part of the women's struggle in Denmark.

Since the 90s, Justesen's works have occupied a special place in the art collection, and her works are also found in collections such as Randers Art Museum, Horsens Art Museum, Statens Museum for Art, MAN Museum Anna Nordlander, Skellefteå, Sweden, Sammlung Verbund, Vienna, Austria and The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, US, while she has participated in exhibitions worldwide.

THE PAGEANT OF THE MASTERS this summer celebrates 90 years of tableaux vivants ("living pictures") with the production Art Colony: In the Company of Artists. Audiences can expect a diverse theatrical celebration of artists from around the world that have embraced communities where they could live and work, and take inspiration from one another. One of the art colonies featured in this year’s Pageant is New York’s Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement that celebrated art and African American culture in the 1920s and 30s.

"The Harlem Renaissance was painting and sculptures, but it was also poetry, politics, and literature. A time of freedom of expression for people of color previously unknown in America," said Diane Challis Davy, Pageant of the Masters Director. "African American art and art by women have been under-represented in the history of American Art. I’m pleased we can present the Harlem Renaissance along with other important art colonies of the USA, and the world."

The Harlem Renaissance is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance, and art. The era is widely known in pop-culture for its nightclubs and music: Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway of the Cotton Club, and Bessie Smith, to name a few. Lesser known to many are the painters and sculptors associated with the movement. The Pageant of the Masters hopes to shine a light on sculptors Meta Warrick Fuller and Augusta Savage, and painters Archibald Motley and Aaron Douglas.

Audiences will see the work of these artists come to life onstage including the signature 16-foot sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing by Harlem Renaissance artist, activist, and educator Augusta Savage; as well as, Song of the Towers, which is part of a four-mural collection series by Aaron Douglas. Douglas felt that jazz was a great contribution of African American culture to the world. Meta V.W. Fuller’s bronze statue Emancipation and Archibald Motley’s extraordinary painting Holy Rollers, will also be highlighted during the Harlem Renaissance art colony portion of the show.

“All four of these works of art are new to our stage. I especially admire Aaron Douglas’ style; his colorful silhouette paintings and murals depicting Black history," added Challis Davy. "I have selected uplifting musical pieces to complement the four tableaux. Jazz, spirituals, gospel will be represented, along with a song that’s considered an anthem -Lift Every Voice and Sing! There will be singers!”

“We’re excited about the theme, "Art Colony"’ because Laguna Beach was really put on the map as such more than 100 years ago," continued Challis Davy. “We don’t acknowledge our own art colony status until the finale of the show – we have a sculpture by Julia Bracken Wendt, who Pageant-goers will be familiar with, we’re saluting the art of the late artist Roger Kuntz, and of course, we’ll end with Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, which also put the Pageant itself on the map starting in 1936.

Arguably one of the most unique productions in the entire world. Each evening during the summer season, classic and contemporary works of art are faithfully re-created with theatrical illusion and real people posing as living pictures. All of the participants are volunteers. They come in all ages and sizes needed, and theater experience isn't necessary to join in this remarkable experience.

"It’s great to see all the new people interested in volunteering,” said Pageant of the Masters Technical Director Richard "Butch" Hill.

Ranging in age from 5-years-old to 80-plus, volunteers from near and far have participated in past productions, all sharing the same love for art and the Laguna Beach community.

To celebrate 90 years of production, the Pageant is producing a unique digital exhibit, a special end-of-July event to honor the Pageant’s history, October’s presentation of The Pageant of the Monsters, in addition to many other 90th-themed anniversary events.

Presented under Laguna Beach’s starry-summer night sky, the 2023 Pageant of the Masters will also feature live, original music and narration, breathtaking theatrical illusions, and some surprises, all presented in the 2,600-seat amphitheater of the Irvine Bowl. Performances nightly July 7 – September 1, 2023 in Laguna Beach, California.

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SWEET CHARITY

KING CHARLES AND QUEEN CAMILLA

King Charles and Queen Camilla (holding her elephant mask) surrounded by some of the 100 life-size Lantana elephant sculptures. Photo: The Royal Family.

have celebrated the 20th anniversary of wildlife conservation charity Elephant Family, which was established in 2003 by Her Majesty's late brother Mark Shand, who was deeply passionate about protecting and supporting elephants and Asian wildlife.

At Lancaster House, Their Majesties joined the Animal Ball to celebrate 20 years of remarkable work by the Elephant Family.

The wildlife conservation charity committed to building landscapes that support coexistence between humans and wildlife. Elephant Family supports a wide range of projects that find ways for humans and animals to live closer together - from securing a network of wildlife corridors which act as bridges between islands of forests, to relocating busy highways that slice through primary forest.

This year’s Animal Ball is a celebration of indigenous communities, hosted by the Elephant Family in partnership with the British Asian Trust. At the event, Their Majesties presented two Elephant Family awards - the Mark Shand Award and the Tara Award - to recognize contributions to protecting Asian wildlife.

Their Majesties met the night’s award winners, including members of the Adivasi tribal community from the Nilgiri Mountains in India, and Oscar-winning Indian documentary-maker, Kartiki Gonsalves. The Tara Award is named after Mark Shand’s elephant, who first inspired the establishment of the Elephant Family.

In 2020, Elephant Family joined forces with the British Asian Trust in a new philanthropic partnership dedicated to supporting Asia’s wildlife. The alliance brings together the best minds in conservation, management and philanthropy to respond urgently to the growing human-wildlife conflict crisis and the loss of habitat threatening Asia’s elephants, big cats and the rural communities who live alongside them. By combining expertise, the charities are accelerating their response and scale their impact on both.

As The Prince of Wales, His Majesty The King founded the British Asian Trust in 2007 alongside British Asian business leaders. The charity works to reduce poverty and disadvantage for communities in South Asia. This includes work in areas of anti-trafficking, education, livelihoods, mental health and conservation.

In 2021, more than 100 life-size Lantana elephant sculptures took over the Royal Parks in London as part of Elephant Family and British Asian Trust's CoExistence campaign. The campaign aimed to raise funds to invest in projects which reduce human wildlife conflict, promote more positive attitudes towards wildlife and support the communities living alongside them.

Some of the Lanterna Elephant sculptures that formed part of the exhibition now live permanently in the gardens at Highgrove and Raymill.

A SPACE SUSTAINABILITY EVENT

Sir Dr Brian May being greeted by King Charles. Photo: The Royal Family

took place at Buckingham Place hosted by King Charles.

His Majesty welcomed astronauts, business leaders, environmentalists and scientists including astronauts Major Tim Peake; Dr Meganne Christian; Rosemary Coogan; John McFall, a former GB paralympian; and astrophysicist (and Queen drummer) Sir Dr Brian May.

Ahead of the unveiling, Colonel Chris Hadfield, former astronaut and Commander of the International Space Station, addressed guests in the room.

To mark the launch of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Astra Carta framework, The King has unveiled the Astra Carta seal, designed by Sir Jony Ive.

In 2022, The King (as The Prince of Wales) announced an ambition for his Sustainable Markets Initiative to create an 'Astra Carta' to act as a framework to inspire sustainability across the space industry.

The Astra Carta aims to convene the private sector in creating and accelerating sustainable practices across the global space industry. It also recognizes the unique role that space can play in creating a more sustainable future on Earth and the need for the space industry to consider environmental and sustainability impacts beyond our planet. Its ambition encourages a focus on placing sustainability at the core of space activity.

The event was preceded by a Space Sustainability Symposium at the Royal Society, hosted by the Minister of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman.

Since he was a young man, then the Prince of Wales, has championed action for a sustainable future. His Majesty believes that everyone has a role to play in tackling even the most complex sustainability challenges facing our world. From Heads of State to young people, and from chief executives to local community projects, his unique ability to bring people together has proved a powerful way to find solutions and inspire people and organizations at all levels and all around the world.

For decades critics ridiculed and insulted him and argued against him. Even though he was proved to have been correct all along, the stings from slurs and insults never really go away.

"In 2020, the King admitted that people thought he was 'dotty' when he began speaking about the importance of protecting the environment to the Countryside Steering Committee for Wales.

At the age of 21, Charles delivered his first impassioned speech about his personal concern over oil pollution and single-use plastic.

He also told how, as a teenager in the 1960s, he was concerned about the destruction of trees, wetlands and habitats as well as 'the white heat of progress and technology to the exclusion of nature and our surroundings'.

In his 1970 address, Charles highlighted a problem that has become an illustration of humanity's threat to nature.

Then he had said: 'When you think that each person produces roughly 2lb of rubbish per day and there are 55 million of us on this island using non-returnable bottles and indestructible plastic containers, it is not difficult to imagine the mountains of refuse that we shall have to deal with somehow.'

SPREADING THE WORD

TOM CRUISE last week arrived on the first flight into the new Midfield Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport to celebrate the released of Cruise's seventh installment of the >Mission: Impossible franchise.

In one of the biggest product placements, Cruise unveiled custom Mission: Impossible livery on an Etihad Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Etihad Airways, the official airline of the movie, will now feature movie branding on this aircraft as it flies to destinations worldwide.,br>
Midfield Terminal’s iconic structure was also decorated with a similar theme to recognize its role in the movie, with one of the film’s most thrilling and technically complex action scenes having been shot on the building’s 315 metre roof.

The movie marks the first time that the terminal’s interior will be seen by the public when it releases in cinemas on July 13, 2023.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One also features purpose-built sets at the airport, including an Etihad First Class Lounge, as well as scenes set in the stunning Liwa Desert.

Elena Sorlini, Acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “We are delighted to welcome Tom Cruise, the cast and crew of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One back to Abu Dhabi. We are proud of our role in the film and our contribution to Abu Dhabi as a destination that attracts global talent. The scenes showcased in the movie are a testament to the architecture, scale and design of the iconic Midfield Terminal, which is inspired by the cultural elements of Abu Dhabi."

The scenes filmed at the Midfield Terminal required 21 days of preparation, seven days of filming production, and involved 762 cast, crew and suppliers.

This is the second Mission: Impossible movie to be filmed in Abu Dhabi. In 2018, a HALO sky-diving scene was shot in the emirate with help from the UAE military, Abu Dhabi Film Commission and twofour54.

Followng his stay in the UAE Cruise flew to Korea where he continued to promote the film.

ATTENTION ALL BOOKING AGENTS THE LAODICEA THEATRE HAS REOPENED after a thousand years. For the first time in over a thousand years, the 2,200-year-old theatre hosted a sold out audience of 15,000 people for a breath-taking concert featuring The Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkiye performing well-known Turkish and foreign classical music pieces.

The night started with the national anthem and moment of silence for victims of earthquake that devastated Turkiye and Syria in February.

The restoration of the ancient theatre took two years and a team of 10 academics, a specialist architect, 12 archaeologists, four restoration experts and 20 laborers took part in the ambitious project.

Laodicea on the Lycus was an ancient city in Asia Minor during the Hellenistic period. Today, its location is near the modern city of Denizli in Turkiye. The Western Theatre of the city, situated on the south side of the Lycus River, is on UNESCO's Tentative List of potential protected sites. Once a popular theatre through the Greek and Roman era, the arena fell out of use after a spate of earthquakes shook the region.

Denizli is an industrial city in the southwestern part of Turkey and the eastern end of the alluvial valley formed by the river Büyük Menderes, where the plain reaches an elevation of about three hundred and fifty metres. Denizli is located in the country's Aegean Region. The city has a population of about 646,278.

EMMY AWARD WINNING ACTRESS JEAN SMART will join fellow original cast members Lee Garlington, Nancy Linari and Sandra Marshall at the Saturday, July 15 performance of the Fountain Theatre’s current, 40th anniversary production of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. The groundbreaking play by Jane Chambers previously ran at the Los Angeles venue for two years, from 1983-85, and Smart’s breakout role in that production has been credited with establishing her later career in television.

In the play, a group of women spend their summers together in a remote town on the Long Island Sound. Their lesbian enclave is disrupted when Eva, a naïve straight woman recently separated from her husband, stumbles unaware into their circle and falls for the charming, tough-talking Lil. The iconic play bursts with heartfelt friendship, laughter, and love.

The 1983 production was a turning point for the lesbian community in Los Angeles at the time, a benchmark achievement in L.A. theater, and a milestone in the history of the Fountain Theatre. Smart was seen in the Fountain production by the casting director for Designing Women, leading to her starring role on that popular TV series.

"That play got me my first agent, my first Broadway show, it started everything for me," Smart said in a 2021 New Yorker interview. "And when I moved to LA three years later I did it again in LA for a year, I got an HBO series out of it. That play started my entire career."

The current production is mounted on the Fountain’s spacious outdoor stage, installed during the pandemic. The area surrounding the set has been transformed into Bluefish Cove — creating a true beachfront experience for the audience.

Performances continue at the Fountain through August 27. Smart, Garlington, Linari and Marshall will participate in a Q&A discussion with the audience following the performance on July 15.

THE PACIFIC CONSERVATORY THEATRE (PCPA) Theaterfest kicked off its 2023 summer season last week at the Solvang Festival Theater with the West Coast premiere of Joseph Hanreddy’s latest adaptation of a beloved Jane Austen novel, Emma, directed by Polly Firestone Walker.

The tale of romantic misadventures, misplaced confidence and matchmaking in the small town of Highbury has inspired innumerable adaptations on stage and screen for decades, which Firestone Walker attributes to Austen’s “almost Shakespearean ability to capture human nature.” Following Emma is Brght Star the Tony-nominated musical co-created by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the mid-1900s the gentle-spirited musical employs bluegrass and Americana music and Southern sugar in following Alice, both as a wild young thing growing up barefoot, and carefree in backwoods North Carolina; and 20 years later when she is a well-to-do magazine editor in Asheville. Bright Star runs July 7-23, with Keenon Hooks directing.

Two weeks later, the music makes a left turn in Solvang as an all-girl mariachi band in the 1970s when women weren’t supposed to be able to do that forms the basis for American Mariachi, José Cruz González’s uplifting musical comedy about family and the freedom to go after your dreams. The charmer features an all-Latino cast directed by Robert Ramirez, with all of the music played live on stage, for the August 4-27 run.

Then it’s back to England four days later for Solvang’s only Shakespearean-centered show of the season with The Book of Will, which plays August 31-September 10, Lauren Gunderson’s witty and good-hearted comedy that imagines the rocky rush to publication of the First Folio, which rescued Shakespeare’s plays for posterity and ensured the Bard’s legacy. Emily Trask directs the all-PCPA veteran cast.

The 700 seat, outdoor, Solvang Festival Theatre operates primarily from June through October providing a space for PCPA productions.Solvang is located in the Santa Ynez Valley of California.

For over 58 years PCPA has been presenting exemplary theatre and providing excellent training with a resident company of theatre professionals. From its beginnings in the fall of 1964 and first summer season in 1965, founder Donovan Marley laid the ground work for a year-round professional theatre company, following the insightful impulse of Allan Hancock College President Walter Conrad. Currently, Jennifer Schwartz is the Managing Director and Mark Booher is Artistic Director/Associate Dean.

AWARD-WINNING CABARET PERFORMER and member of the 92NY School of Music Faculty Michael Kirk Lane curates a series of conversations about the art form of cabaret in New York City. Welcoming performers, directors, and journalists, these conversations will delve into the history and current state of this unique performance style. Each conversation will also include a Q&A session for the participants.

On Monday, July 10, Michael Kirk Lane welcomes Ben Rimalower to the virtual stage. Rimalower serves as Director of Programming for The Green Room 42 cabaret club in midtown Manhattan. Ben directed Snoopy! (starring Tony winners Sutton Foster and Christian Borle), the Off-Broadway plays Joy and The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (starring Gillian Jacobs and Anna Chlumsky). He is recognizable around the world for his four seasons on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City.

WOLF TRAP in Vienna, Virginia Wolf Trap is proud to be the summer home of the National Symphony Orchestra. Patrons can gaze in wonder at NASA images and footage as the NSO performs Holst’s awe-inspiring masterpiece, The Planets on Friday, July 7! NSO’s summer series also includes cool collaborations with Wolf Trap favorites DISPATCH and Lyle Lovett plus renowned violinist Hilary Hahn makes her Wolf Trap debut.

COPENHAGEN JAZZ FESTIVAL began June 30 and continues through July 9, 2023. The music festival that celebrates jazz in all possible and impossible guises transforms the entire town.

The music plays everywhere: on the square and in the city’s parks, in the jazz clubs and new temporary stages, in theatres and in museums and – not least – in the city’s largest and most beautiful concert halls.

THE LATIN RECORDING ACADEMY presented its second Best New Artist Showcase featuring Latin Grammy winners and previous nominees in the Best New Artist category, Matisse. The Best New Artist Showcase took place at Priceless with Estoril restaurant, which is also launching its second season inspired by music.

"The Best New Artist category is fundamental for us because it gives us the opportunity to recognize artists who are just beginning their careers," said Manuel Abud, CEO of the Latin Recording Academy. "Today we celebrate the Latin Grammy journey with Matisse—who were nominated in this category in 2015 and winners last year—providing inspiration to the next generation of music creators."

The Best New Artist Showcase tour of Latin America kicked off last November during Latin Grammy Week in Las Vegas, and the series is the centerpiece of the partnership between Mastercard and The Latin Recording Academy.

The next Best New Artist Showcase will take place in São Paulo later this month.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY Members of the British Royal Family carried out 2,700 engagements across the UK and abroad during the year. More than 95,000 guests attended 330 events at royal residences, including receptions, award investitures and garden parties. Buckingham Palace received more than 183,000 items of correspondence.

SPYING IS EVERYWHERE Like many communities Las Vegas is constantly touting water conservation. In fact, there are major fines if you fail to conserve. Now, on the flip side, last Thursday the Vegas Valley Water District actually sent a person to my home to question me as to why I use so little water. The person also checked to see if the water meter was broken. It wasn't. I said I thought we were all suppose to conserve water. The person said; there are days when you don't use any water at all.

My reply: If I'm not here, then no water is used.

Their reply. Oh.

The water company keeps detailed read outs on water usage by each household. When a faucet is turned on, for how long and how much water was used. They have definitions as to how that water was used. X gallons = toilet flush; X gallons= shower; x gallons= bath; x gallons=dish washer, etc. The water police know what you did, when and why.

ROLEX - YOU KNOW THE WATCH BUT DO YOU KNOW THE FESTIVAL

Grammy-winner Dianne Reeves is a new mentor. Photo: Grammy Awards

Rolex is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and its commitment to the arts worldwide. Recently, for the first time, the company brought this program and dozens of the world’s most talented artists who excel in their art to Athens, Greece in a celebration of the legacy of 20 years of mentoring.

The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative holds a special place within the Perpetual Arts Initiative. It encompasses a distinctive and unique vision of mentoring – generous and global – that plays a tangible role in promoting excellence and the future of the arts.

The mentoring program, provides new artists with the opportunity to be supported by masters in their fields and the confidence they need to recognize and reveal their full creative potential. Additionally, the program helps safeguard the world’s artistic heritage.

Over two decades, a remarkable artistic community has been built, encouraging an international dialogue across cultures and disciplines that helps the Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative realize its main objective: the transmission of knowledge to new generations of artists on a global scale.

The Festival included multidisciplinary performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, installations and discussions sharing the achievements and ongoing creative relationships of more than 60 Rolex protégés and mentors.

Stages, galleries and public spaces at nine venues in Athens – the cradle of arts and learning – were filled for a full week with more than 30 performances and events.

A special pre-festival program, dedicated to the people of Athens and organized to engage Greek artists, arts professionals and young people, took place the week prior.

The pre-festival program features the participation of dozens of Greek artists in 14 free public and professional events. A distinguished eight-member Greek Advisory Committee has provided counsel and assistance in organizing all aspects of the Rolex Arts Festival, which is being curated by independent arts advisor and programmer Emma Gladstone OBE, former Artistic Programmer at Sadler’s Wells in London and former Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Dance Umbrella.

“To bring the public just some of the wealth of multidisciplinary achievements that have been fostered by the Rolex mentoring program, we issued an open call to all Rolex fellows to participate by presenting works,” said Rebecca Irvin, head of the mentoring programme at Rolex. "The response was overwhelming and unanimous. We at Rolex are moved and excited by the outpouring of creative energy and the spirit of communal engagement."

Activities included:

• A group exhibition at EMST (National Museum of Contemporary Art) by the eight Rolex visual arts fellows – Sammy Baloji, Alejandro Cesarco, Masanori Handa, Nicholas Hlobo, Mateo López, Thao Nguyen Phan, Camila Rodríguez Triana and Matthias Weischer – with an introductory talk moderated by mentor Carrie Mae Weems.

• A group exhibition at Benaki Pireos 138 of work by all Rolex architecture fellows – Sahel Alhiyari, Gloria Cabral, Mariam Issoufou Kamara, Simon Kretz and Yang Zhao – with an introductory talk moderated by mentor Sir David Chipperfield.

• A screening in the courtyard of Benaki Pireos 138 of short films by Rolex arts fellows Aditya Assarat, Kyle Bell, Sara Fgaier, Annemarie Jacir, Josué Méndez, Celina Murga, Agustina San Martín, Tom Shoval and Chaitanya Tamhane.

• Two theatrical presentations: The Case of the Stranger by Rolex arts fellow Whitney White at the Athens Conservatoire, with a post-show talk featuring Rolex mentor Phyllida Lloyd, and [÷] v.0.8: Boléro, a solo performance at O2 Complex, by arts fellow Sebastián Solórzano Rodríguez.

• Two dance events at the Athens Conservatoire: a performance by Rolex arts fellow Khoudia Touré with an ensemble of Greek and international dancers, and a double bill featuring arts fellow Eduardo Fukushima in a solo performance and a duet choreographed by fellow Myles Thatcher.

• Two music events: a sound installation performance at Megaron’s Trianti Hall Side Stage by Rolex music fellow Ben Frost, and a closing concert at Megaron Gardens featuring ensembles from Egypt, Honduras and the United States led by fellows Dina Elwedidi, Marcus Gilmore and Aurelio Martínez, with a guest appearance by mentor Gilberto Gil.

• Four installation works at the Athens Conservatoire by Rolex fellows Selina Cartmell (theatre), Matías Umpierrez (theatre), Federico León (theatre) and Jason Akira Somma (dance).

• A music commission and performance, Artemis: Fountain, created for the Dancing Fountains at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, by Rolex music fellow Pauchi Sasaki.

• A Word in Your Ear: writings by all Rolex literature fellows – Naomi Alderman, Antonio García Ángel, Edem Awumey, Colin Barrett, Julían Fuks, Julia Leigh, Miroslav Penkov and Tracy K. Smith – read in English and Greek by noted actors, introduced at a presentation in the Athens Conservatoire Amphitheatre.

Two special "Sideways Mentoring" events demonstrated how Rolex fellows are now inspiring each other and working in collaboration across disciplines. At O2 Complex, film fellow Annemarie Jacir and literature fellow Colin Barrett presented a film script they are developing, with selected scenes interpreted by actors. At New Stage, Maya Zbib (theatre), Lee Serle (dance), and Mateo López (visual arts) presented Listening to the Walls Wear Off Their Colour, a dance theatre performance they created.

Public discussions presented throughout the Rolex Arts Festival included: • New Legacies: Four fellows in a conversation about the social, cultural and ecological impact of their creative work.

• Creative Alchemy: Three fellows and three mentors in a conversation about the elusive yet essential qualities that spark a creative relationship, moderated by Orestis Andreadakis, Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

• Lifelong Learning: Three established artists who have guided and inspired fellow artists, sharing reflections and memories about the people that influenced them in their own lives.

The Rolex Arts Festival also includde a Gala evening at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, where the 20th anniversary ceremony featured performances by music fellows David Aaron Carpenter, Vasco Mendonça and Susan Platts, with music fellow Josep Caballé Domenech conducting the El Sistema Greece Youth Orchestra, and the participation of the Greek women’s a capella ensemble Chores.

The majority of the festival was in English with Greek translation available (where appropriate). Film and video works contained Greek and English subtitles.

Leading up to the Rolex Arts Festival, the four-day pre-festival program included day-long workshops, masterclasses, public talks, musical performances and rehearsals, and more, involving dozens of Greek artists, Rolex fellows and mentors including Anne Lacaton, Phyllida Lloyd, Robert Lepage, Walter Murch and Colm Tóibín.

The Advisory Committee for both the festival and pre-festival programs consisted of: Eleftheria Deko (cross-disciplinary artist working in lighting design for performance, architecture and art), Katerina Evangelatos (Artistic Director of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival), Sofia Exarchou (writer-director of the 2016 award-winning film Park), Katerina Gregos (Artistic Director of EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens), Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis (drummer, composer and orchestrator), Euripides Laskaridis (choreographer/performer, founder of the Osmosis company), Ilias Papageorgiou (architect, founder and principal of the PILA studio) and Kostas Spatharakis (editor, translator and founder of Antipodes Publications).

During the Festival Egyptian singer-songwriter, Dina El Wedidi was one of the individuals who had used Rolex mentioning as a springboard. Selected as a protégé in 2012 under the mentorship of the legendary Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil, "Dina exemplifies the profound influence the initiative has had on artists' careers." Today, El Wedidi is an international star and a passionate advocate for the preservation of traditional Egyptian music.

For several protégés, the collaboration with their mentors left an indelible mark on their creative journeys. Australian composer and performer Ben Frost, a Rolex Music Fellow, received tutelage from the legendary musician and producer Brian Eno. That memtorship resulted in Frost's The Predatory Chord. Many protégés have gone on to become mentors themselves, embodying the concept of knowledge transmission integral to the program. American violist David Aaron Carpenter and Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts are notable examples. Both have given masterclasses at the festival, passing the torch to the next generation of artists.

Grammy-winner Dianne Reeves, a new mentor in the program, has begun mentoring Song Yi Jeon, a South Korean modern jazz singer and composer.

Protégés Khoudia Touré (left) and Pauchi Sasaki (right) in Athens for the Rolex Arts FestivalEuronews The Power of Mentorship . Senegalese hip hop dancer and choreographer Khoudia Touré was mentored by Crystal Pite. Touré's presentation was the performance of Óró, a riveting dance piece bringing together young adults from different walks of life. For Peruvian Japanese artist Pauchi Sasaki, her creation ARTEMIS: Fountain was made possible through her mentorship with iconic composer Philip Glass. Sasaki partnered with 30 members of the acclaimed Greek choir CHÓRES. ARTEMIS: Fountain, an opera was inspired by NASA's Artemis program, a space mission slated to take the first woman to the moon's surface this decade, "the opera resonates with a cosmic theme."

Celebrating 20 years of mentoring:

63 great artists mentors from 29 countries
63 prote´ge´s were selected from 41 countries
1,350 young artists were nominated from 120 countries
154 architectural constructions, renovations and studies
79 translations of literary works
198 films directed, produced or acted in
195 music performances, albums. film scores and compositions
45 orchestras conducted
60 artistic fellowships
145 major artists and creative leaders have served as advisors
206 theatre plays, operas and other live performances
300 arts experts nominating and selecting protégé finalists from 120 countries
96 choreographers
18 multi-disciplinary performance and installations
244 participants in various festivals and biennials.

Since its inception, this remarkable mentoring initiative has cultivated an extensive community of artists, cutting across generations, cultures, and disciplines worldwide.

The mentors who have participated: Sir David Adjaye, Margaret Atwood, (the late) John Baldessari, Tahar Ben Jelloun, (the late) Trisha Brown, (the late) Patrice Chéreau, Sir David Chipperfield, Mia Couto, Alfonso Cuarón, (the late) Sir Colin Davis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Olafur Eliasson, Brian Eno, (the late) Hans Magnus Enzensberger, William Forsythe, Stephen Frears, Gilberto Gil, Philip Glass, Alejandro G. Inárritu, (the late) Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Rebecca Horn, Zakir Hussain, Joan Jonas, Sir Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Jirí Kylián, Robert Lepage, Lin Hwai-min, Phyllida Lloyd, Spike Lee, Lin-Manuel Miranda, (the late) Toni Morrison, Walter Murch, Ohad Naharin, Mira Nair, Youssou N’Dour, (the late) Jessye Norman, Michael Ondaatje, Crystal Pite, Alexei Ratmansky, Kaija Saariaho, Martin Scorsese, Kazuyo Sejima, Peter Sellars, Álvaro Siza, Wole Soyinka, Julie Taymor, Saburo Teshigawara, Jennifer Tipton, Colm Tóibín, Kate Valk, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carrie Mae Weems, Robert Wilson, Zhang Yimou, Pinchas Zukerman and Peter Zumthor.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

THE FAMED BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC a multi-venue performing arts center which has been around fo since 1861 has laid off 13 percent of its staff and is paring down its New Wave Festival from 13 programs to seven, as first reported by The New York Times.

BAM moved to eliminate 26 positions, according to a letter sent to staff members by the organization's president, Gina Duncan. In the letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times, Duncan said that the changes were necessary in part to help BAM to “weather the downturn in charitable giving for the arts, and address an outdated business model that heavily relies on a shrinking donor base.” She said that the organization faced a “sizable structural deficit” each year. “This is us putting on our oxygen mask so that we can continue to fulfill our promise to be a home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas,” she wrote in the email. “These difficult decisions were made after a rigorous organizational review process,” Ms. Duncan wrote in the memo. “We cannot spend our way out of a deficit, and we cannot present programming beyond what we can afford,” she added. The year before the pandemic, in April 2019, BAM obtained a $2.8 million loan from Bank of America, according to its financial papers. The papers said that the balance, more than $2.4 million, would come due next June. David Binder, the institution’s artistic director, is expected to step down next month. He announced earlier this year that he was leaving after four years on the job.

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SARA PUTT founder and MD of the UK's leading independent below-the-line talent agency, Sara Putt Associates, has been announced as BAFTA's newly elected Chair, succeeding Krishnendu Majumdar.

For over a decade, Sara has been actively involved with BAFTA, serving on the Board of Trustees since 2011 and as BAFTA's Deputy Chair since 2021. She has volunteered in various BAFTA committee roles, most recently as chair of the Television Committee and previously as chair of the Learning, Inclusion and Talent Committee. Sara also sits on the advisory board of the British Film Commission, The Film & TV Charity board, and previously on the board of Women in Film and TV.

PAT KAUFMAN has been appointed by Mayor Eric Adams as the new Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME). She took over the position on July 1, 2023. Pat joined MOME last October as First Deputy of Creative Sector Programs and "brings a wealth of experience in economic development and fostering growth in the entertainment industry from her role as Executive Director of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development and Deputy Commissioner of Empire State Development."

She takes over from Anne del Castillo who stepped down on June 30, 2023 to take on a new role as Senior Policy Advisor for Creative Sector Strategy at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA).

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC in London will stage their 2023 graduation ceremony on July 11, 2023 in the presence of The Duchess of Gloucester who is President, Royal Academy of Music.

The Graduation Ceremony will take place at Freemasons' Hall, London.

The event will also celebrate a range of artists who move music forward, including Academy alumni and associates who continue to shape the musical landscape.

Legendary composer and Visiting Professor of Composition James Newton Howard will receive an Honorary Degree (Hon DMus). James is one of the most versatile composers in the industry, who has over 100 film and TV credits. With a career spanning over 30 years, he is a nine-time Oscar nominee, and Emmy and Grammy winner. His film scores include Pretty Woman; The Fugitive; Space Jam; Peter Pan; King Kong; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Dark Knight which he composed with Hans Zimmer.

Leading names from a range of musical disciplines will be awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music, including recording artist, musical theatre star and recent Olivier award-winner Beverley Knight, celebrated jazz musician Jamie Cullum, and conductor and Music Director Designate of The Royal Opera Jakub Hruša. Violinist Hilary Hahn, pianist Maria João Pires and the Academy’s Head of Vocal Studies Kate Paterson have also been elected Honorary Members.

Musicians to be recognized as Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music, an honor reserved for Academy alumni, are pioneering singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier, and prominent opera singers David Butt Philip and Freddie De Tommaso. Musician, music educator and academic Professor Susan Hallam, collaborative pianist Simon Lepper and conductor Jonathon Heyward, who was recently appointed Music Director of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, complete the list of alumni being celebrated this year.

Her Grace The Duchess of Wellington, Chairman of the Bicentenary Development Board, and Chief Executive of Britten Pears Arts Roger Wright will become Honorary Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music.

The Academy’s Principal, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood CBE, said: "As we look ahead to our third century, I’m delighted to celebrate this outstanding list of honorands who are shaping the future of music. They represent a breadth of musical genres and areas of the profession in which we are very proud to see Academy students excel across the globe."



FELA! Music and lyrics by Fela Kuti. Book by Bill T. Jones and Jim Lewis. Additional music by Aaron Johnson and Jordan McLean.

Directed by Lili-Anne Brown.

Music Direction by S. Renee Clark.

Choreographed by Breon Arzell.

Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center combine forces for an epic co-production of the award-winning musical Fela!, the first professional production anywhere in the world since its national tour more than ten years ago.

It’s 1978, and we meet musician, activist, and global superstar Fela Anikulapo Kuti at his farewell show at the Afrika Shrine nightclub in Lagos, Nigeria. After losing his own mother in a dictator’s violent attack, Fela’s final act in Nigeria is to use his iconic music—a spirited blend of traditional African drumming, jazz, and funk—to tell his story of survival and global revolution through Afrobeat and floor-shaking dance.

The Tony Award-winning and Grammy-nominated musical is the inspiring true story of one man’s fight against corruption and oppression.

Starring Duain Richmond as Fela. Shantel Cribbs as Sandra and Nova Y. Payton as Funmilayo.

The ensemble: Malachi Alexander, Bryan Archibald, Terrance J. Bennett, Simone Brown, Patrick Leonard Casimir, Jyreika Guest, Bryan Jeffrey, Raquel Jennings, Emmanuel Kikoni, Amadou Kouyate, Raven Lorraine, Vaughn Ryan Midder, Yewande Odetoyinbo, Jantanie Thomas, Galen J. Williams, Jalisa Williams, Kanysha Wiliams, and Shawna Williams.

July 7 - August 13 2023 Roberts Mainstage on the Olney Theatre in Olney, Maryland.

NATASHA, PIERRE THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 written by composer/lyricist Dave Malloy and based on a scandalous slice of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Directed by Dean Drieberg.

Musical direction by Claire Healy.

Choreography by Brendan Yeates.

Set in 1812, this astronomic musical follows the young and spontaneous Natasha who awaits the return of Andrey - her beloved fiancé on the front lines. One dizzying night at the Opera, in a city exploding with hedonism and opulent excess, Natasha falls passionately in love with the dashing, roguish, (and already married) Anatole. To solve her love conundrum, she turns to her lonely friend Pierre (in the middle of an existential crisis) who makes it his mission to extricate her from risk of ruin and in doing so, renew his own soul.

The lead characters will be played by Grace Driscoll and Zoy Frangos.

They will be joined by Kala Gare as Sonya, Marissa Saroca as Helene, Jillian O’Dowd as Marya, Lillian Hearne as Mary, P Tucker Worley as Andrey / Bolkonsky, Anton Berezin as Balaga and Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward as Dolokohv, with Tom New and Skye Beker engaged as swings.

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 draws on an eclectic mix of musical styles including folk, indie-rock, electro-pop and techno, making it one of the most unique and form-defying musicals ever seen on Broadway.

The reimagined musical will also be the first production under Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s newly appointed Executive Director Suzanne Pereira with Artistic Director Amylia Harris working alongside. She is Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s first Sri Lankan Australian woman in her position.

Darlinghurst Theatre Company stage the Australian premiere of Broadway's smash-hit electro-pop opera with performances Wednesday, July 5 at the Eternity Playhouse with the season running until Sunday August, 20, 2023. Darlinghurst NSW Australia.

CHESS book by Richard Nelson. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.

Directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes.

Musical director and conductor Jason Debord.

Before Mamma Mia!, members of the pop group ABBA teamed up with Tim Rice to create a dynamic drama centered around the world chess championship; mirroring the 1980s Cold War tensions of USA vs. Soviet Russia. The dazzling and beautiful pop rock score became a worldwide smash, including the hit single One Night in Bangkok.

The creatives are: Lee Wilkins associate director/choreographer. Michael Horsley associate musical director.

Chess makes its move to St. Louis (home of the first world championship) and onto the Muny stage for the first time, as the game’s long history continues to rise in popularity. In partnership with the Saint Louis Chess Club and World Chess Hall of Fame.

July 5 - 11 The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri.

SUMMER STOCK featuring a book by Cheri Steinkellner. It is adapted from the 1950 MGM/Warner Bros. film Summer Stock by George Wells and Sy Gromberg.

Directed by Goodspeed’s Resident Music Director Adam Souza.

Choreographed and directed by Donna Feore.

Joe Ross will be played by Corbin Bleu. Jane Falbury will be played by Danielle Wade.

Featuring Arianna Rosario (Gloria Falbury); Gilbert L. Bailey II (Phil Filmore); Stephen Lee Anderson (Lt. Henry (Pop) Falbury); Veanne Cox (Margaret Wingate); Will Roland (Orville Wingate); and J. Anthony Crane (Montgomery Leach).

Ensemble: Erika Amato, Hannah Balagot, DeShawn Travis Bowens, Ronnie S. Bowman Jr., Emily Kelly, Francesca M. Mancuso, Tommy Martinez, Corinne Munsch, Gregory North, Kaylee Olson, Jack Sippel, and Cayel Tregeagle.

Swings: Nicholas Cunha and Kennedy Perez.

The creatives are: Scenic Designer: Wilson Chin. Costume Designer: Tina McCartney. Lighting Designer: Jeff Croiter. Sound Designer: Jay Hilton. Hair, Wig & Make-up Designer: Liz Printz. Production Stage Manager: Bradley G. Spachman. Casting: Peter Van Dam / Tara Rubin Casting.

Forget your troubles—come on, get happy! The tradition of turning a barn into a theater finds fertile new ground in a joyous world premiere inspired by the classic Judy Garland-Gene Kelly movie. When theatrical Gloria invites fellow troupers to the family farm with the idea of putting on a show, her practical sister Jane is stubborn as a mule but relents because the farm needs work—and workers. Sisterhood, budding romance and a Broadway-bound musical are all at risk. But there’s nothing like the sunshine of hits from the American songbook to chase all your cares away.

Summer Stock will run July 7 – August 27 at The Goodspeed in East Haddam, Conn.

GARDEN OF ALLA: THE ALLA NAZIMOVA STORY written and performed by Romy Nordlinger.

Directed by Lorca Peress.

The 1920s was the time of flappers, flamboyance, and the face of Alla Nazimova. This summer, Nazimova — Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Russia, Broadway and silent film superstar, visionary Hollywood director and producer, and LGBTQIA trailblazer — makes her triumphant return to Hollywood when Theatre West presents playwright and performer Romy Nordlinger in the West Coast premiere of Garden of Alla: The Alla Nazimova Story.

Using immersive video and original music to invoke the Roaring Twenties and create a panoramic, live silent film, Nordlinger brings the life and times of this groundbreaking pioneer to vivid life.

"I am so excited to bring this play to Theatre West, which is located only a few miles from Nazimova’s infamous Garden of Allah estate on Sunset Boulevard," says Nordlinger. "The razed estate — which inspired the Joni Mitchell lyric 'paved paradise and put up a parking lot' — still languishes today, much like Nazimova’s trailblazing legacy. She was an iconoclast who speaks to our time as no one else can. Homophobia, sexism, racism, antisemitism, ageism: Alla was fighting these contemporary struggles back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but alone and without a Twitter account."

An immigrant fleeing persecution, censorship and pogroms, Nazimova’s meteoric rise began as a performer in Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side. She soon went on to become a Broadway sensation, making her Broadway debut in New York City in 1906 to critical and popular success. Her English-language premiere in November 1906 was in the title role of Hedda Gabler. She quickly became extremely popular and remained a major Broadway star, often starring in works by Ibsen and Chekhov. Dorothy Parker described her as the finest Hedda Gabler she had ever seen.

On Broadway she played to sold-out houses and selling $4 million ($123 million in today’s dollars) in tickets — leading the Shuberts to build and name a theater after her - Nazimova's 39th Street Theatre.

A disciple of Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theatre, she helped introduce America to Strindberg, Ibsen and Chekhov, and was the muse to such great playwrights as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward.

In 1916 she left for Hollywood, where she starred in more than a dozen blockbuster films and became the industry’s highest paid actress, earning the unheard-of salary of $13,000 a week from Metro Pictures. One of the first women to become a powerful director and producer in Hollywood, she wrote and directed films under pseudonyms Peter M. Winters and Charles Bryant, which was also the name of her partner. Her film Salome (1922) is regarded as a cultural landmark. In 2000, the film was added to the National Film Registry.

Nazimova’s Garden of Allah mansion, dubbed the "Camelot of Hollywood," was a haven of sexual and intellectual freedom decades before its time, hosting a who’s who of Hollywood’s literati and glitterati including Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn, Rudolph Valentino, Cole Porter and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to name just a very few. Reputed to be ground zero for the industry’s lesbian and bisexual women’s community (which Nazimova referred to as her "sewing circle"), Nazimova earned a reputation as a "lady-killer" whose legendary conquests included actors Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Jean Acker and Anna May Wong; director Dorothy Arnzer; and writer Mercedes de Acosta.

The production features video design by Adam Jesse Burns, and the original score and sound design are by Nick T. Moore. Anne Leyden and Benjamin Scuglia produce in association with Theatre West and Georganne Aldrich Heller.

Garden of Alla: The Alla Nazimova Story runs week-ends from July 7 through July 23, at Theatre West in Los Angeles, CA.

GIRL ON AN ALTAR written by Marina Carr.

Directed by Annabelle Comyn.

"Did no one ever tell you the sweetest revenge is to forgive?"

A dramatically powerful portrait of a marriage ripped apart. An intimate portrait of a once unbreakable couple who can’t bring themselves to forgive the past, but can’t live without each other.

A royal couple bound together by love, desire, hate and resentment find themselves and their families caught in the consequences of a terrible act of sacrifice, and the inability of the heart to forgive.

Girl on an Altar was first co-produced in London with the Kiln Theatre in summer 2022, directed by Annabelle Comyn. July 2023 marks the Irish premiere of the critically acclaimed production of this new play by Marina Carr, which is inspired by Agamemnon from Aeschylus’ Oresteia.

Returning in their mesmerizing leading roles are Eileen Walsh (Clytemnestra) and David Walmsley (Agamemnon), with a powerful cast: Aegisthus: Daon Broni - Tyndareus: Jim Findley - Cassandra: Pattie Maguire - Cilissa: Aoibhéann McCann.

Set and Costume Designer: Tom Piper.

July 8–August 19 on the Abbey Stage in Dublin, Ireland.

THE SAVIOUR by Deirdre Kinahan.

Directed by Louise Lowe.

Starring Tony winner Marie Mullen and Jamie O’Neill.

There’s a new man in Máire’s life. But some people aren’t happy.

On the morning of her 67th birthday, Máire sits up in bed enjoying a cigarette. She has recently been swept off her feet by a stranger and hasn’t felt this alive in years, but a visit from her son with dark revelations challenges the euphoria. Billed as a "fiercely funny and utterly gripping new play charts an extraordinary shift in Ireland’s social, political, and religious life. It asks questions about responsibility, how we respond to trauma, and the tricky question of forgiveness."

This production will feature scenic and lighting design by Ciarán Bagnall, costume design by Joan O’Clery, sound design by Aoife Kavanagh and properties by Sadhbh Barrett Coakley. The Landmark Productions Stage Manager is Leanna Cuttle, and Assistant Stage Manager is Alannah O’Leary. The Irish Rep Production Stage Manager is Karen Evanouskas.

The Saviour was first broadcast online in 2021 and will make its world stage premiere at the Irish Rep.

Landmark Productions World Stage Premiere of Deirdre Kinahan's The Saviour on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage at Irish Rep in New York City has performances through August 13, 2023.

SHIPWRECKED! AN ENTERTAINMENT The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself) by Donald Margulies.

Directed by Doug West who is in his 22nd season with The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

This rollicking 95-minute voyage takes audiences from the streets of 19th-century London, to the high seas, to the wilds of Aboriginal Australia, and back, on a non-stop, exhilarating world tour. Its surprising denouement, is equally surprising in its relevance, as it raises the issue of fact versus fiction, and how far some are willing to go to stand out in the world – and how much they come to believe their own fabrications. Featuring a live Foley sound score and of course, the airplanes!

Leading the cast in the title role of Louis de Rougemont is Bruce Cromer. Jabari Carter, Paul Henry, and Aurea Tomeski round out the cast as The Players responsible for making a multitude of characters, scenarios, and sounds come to life on stage.

The creative team includes the combined talents of Steven Beckel, Bonnie J. Monte, and Doug West as the Scenic Designers, Costume Designer Patrice N. Trower, Lighting Designer Tony Galaska, and Steven Beckel on Sound Design. Jenna Gregson is the Production Stage Manager with Vivian Majkowski as the Dialect Consultant.

Since 2002, the company has staged its annual productions at this Greek-style amphitheater, located on the bucolic campus of Saint Elizabeth University. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (STNJ) will re-open its ever-popular Outdoor Stage venue on July 5th with Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself) which will stage a four week run.

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Seeking any information regarding attempts to sabotage the Broadway To Vegas website.

It is a criminal offense to interfere with another's website.

Broadway To Vegas is a solely owned website. Nobody has been given permission to access, distort or destroy any Broadway To Vegas column.

Examples:
In 1999 Broadway To Vegas ran a favorable review and commentary regarding the dramatic musical Parade. See Broadway To Vegas column of December 28, 1998. Week after week, month after month, year after year, that column could easily be called up on Google and other search engines. This Spring that column suddenly, without warning, disappeared. It is impossible to find it on Google and thus other search engines who traffic off of Google. "Parade" concerns an event involving a Jewish man.

Normally, Broadway To Vegas columns appear on Google search engines anywhere from minutes to a few hours after launch and then remain on the Google search engine.

Since June 4th, Broadway To Vegas columns go up as usual on Google are easily located for approximately 40 hours and then suddenly disappear, not to be found on a search engine, no matter how they are searched.

All columns can be located through the Broadway To Vegas website.

In those columns the subject matter concerned: 1) favorable reporting on a world renowned artist who happens to be black, (2) positive reporting on an event involving nationally known individuals participating in a major Juneteenth celebration in Las Vegas. Juneteenth concerns celebrating black people no longer enslaved, and (3) positive reporting on The Lost Story of Emmett Till.

Columns favorably regarding Jewish people and/or Blacks suddenly disappear. That begs the question if deleting those Broadway To Vegas columns is part of somebody committing a hate crime.

Columns are launched on a week-end; almost immediately appear on Google and, again, remain easily called up on that search engine for about 40 hours (until Monday afternoon or evening) thus suspicion arises that somebody has to go into an office to contact a colleague/friend/co-conspirator at Google. Google has the ability to deliberately hide columns. Google can't remove content from a person's website, but they can hide content so that nobody can find it. That is suppose to take place based upon proof of a wrongful act - such as a judge granting a removal order based upon copyright infringement or the webpage encouraging illegal activity.

Google's website indicates that this is manually done. A person goes into the site, reads it and determines if the page has violated any Google rules and can, at their discretion, block the page.

Broadway To Vegas has been on the web since 1998 and, until now, there has never been a problem with Google.

Broadway To Vegas is NOT implying that Google is involved in a hate crime or that Google has instructed any of their employees to help in sabotaging any website. Respectfully, we point out that Google has thousands of employees, some of whom are part time and also involved in the public relations business. PR firms, especially those based in NYC, represent entertainment websites, individuals and causes and an isolated few have made it known that they will commit illegal acts to boost their own clients, harming other sites, and will continue to do so until legally stopped.

It is a felony to attempt to enter, hijack, block, destroy, any website or contents thereof owned by anyone other than yourself. Preventing a website column to be seen is a crime unless there is a substantial reason, generally backed up by court order. You can't have a search engine block a web page simply because you don't like it. That's restraint of trade and censorship.

Also, hijacking (stealing) a column, posting it on a website that deliberately misleads the reader to think they have clicked into Broadway To Vegas when it is a different website with no Broadway To Vegas affiliation is a crime.,br>
In searching Google for Parade on Broadway To Vegas, a website comes up that misleads the reader into thinking it is Broadway To Vegas. When clicking on the link the ENTIRE column is seen, not just the "Parade" review and there is no link to Broadway To Vegas. It is a "fake" website which has stolen a Broadway To Vegas column which can only be located on this strange site; headlined with an incorrect spelling of Broadway To Vegas. In the real Broadway To Vegas the "T" is capitalized and I have never called myself "theatre chick".

Who Is reports that theatre_chick.tripod.com ownership is hidden and was first indexed by Google more than 10 years ago.

When looking up theatre_chick.tripod.com Google brings up a website headlined Broadway to Vegas - The Theatre Chick's Life, deliberating misleading people.

Going into that "chick" website, there are four purported links:
PARADE: This Is Not Over Yet
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN - Over The Wall
LARRY'S PARTY
BRENT CARVER - An Unofficial Fan Site
None of the links work.

Information is sought regarding any attempt to interfere with Broadway To Vegas from anyone, anywhere in any capacity. Confidentiality will be provided to the extent to which the law permits.

The Google press office was provided a copy of this in case they wished to comment. They have not replied.

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

FINAL OVATION

FREDERIC FORREST Ocscar nominated actor died June 23, 2023 at his home in Santa Monica, CA.

In 1966, Forrest began acting on stage in an off-Broadway production of Viet Rock. His film debut was in When the Legends Die which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. He went on to receive Academy and Golden Globe Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of Huston Dyer in musical drama The Rose opposite Bette Midler.

Forrest was known for his roles as Chef in Apocalypse Now, the neo-Nazi surplus store owner in Falling Down, and Dashiell Hammett in Hammett and Citizen Cohn. He had a role as the Native American bandit Blue Duck in the 1989 miniseries, Lonesome Dove.

He was divorced.

LEW PALTER stage, television, movie actor and teacher, best known to audiences as Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus in the 1997 classic Titanic, died May 21, 2023 at his home in Los Angeles from lung cancer. He was 94.

He appeared in New York productions such as The Madwoman of Chaillot and An Enemy of the People. He also directed Off-Broadway plays including Let Man Live; Overruled and The Trial of Lucullus. In 1965, Palter directed and produced with Robert L. Hobbs at the Millbrook Playhouse.

Palter acted and directed on summer stock theaters. He began to appear on screen in 1967 with an appearance in the television series Run for Your Life. He was a familiar face on TV, appearing on The Flying Nun; Columbo; The Brady Bunch; Hill Street Blues and LA Law, among other shows.

Palter played a Supreme Court Justice in the 1981 comedy-drama First Monday In October, starring Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh.

He was also a faculty member at CalArts School of Theater. His students included Cecily Strong, Ed Harris and Don Cheadle.

Palter is survived by his daughter Catherine and grandchildren Sam, Tessa and Miranda. His wife, Nancy Vawter, died in 2020.

JULIAN SANDS British actor who went missing while hiking in the Mount Baldy area of California has been recovered. He was 65.

On January 13, 2023, just over a week after his 65th birthday, Sands, a dedicated mountaineer, went missing while hiking in Mount Baldy, California, in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. The investigation was hindered by severe storms that occurred shortly after Sands went missing. His car was located on January 18. 2023. On January 19, it was reported that his three adult children had joined the ground search for their father, with his son Henry, along with an experienced climber, retracing the route his father is believed to have taken. According to reports, Sands' cell phone was last tracked from a ping on January 15, with no further pings, suggesting it had run out of power.

Around the time of his disappearance, Sands was believed to be traversing the Baldy Bowl Trail, "which climbs 3,900 feet (1,200 m) over 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the highest summit in the San Gabriel Mountains". Reports state there was "evidence of avalanches" in the region. A representative of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department confirmed: "The air search is being resumed, but we have not been able to resume a ground search yet due to icy conditions and a threat of avalanches." The Sands family put out a statement on the 11th day after Sands went missing, praising "the heroic search teams" and their efforts "on the ground and in the air to bring Julian home".

His career encompassed a lengthy and well respected television and movie career. The English actor is perhaps best known for his breakout role as George Emerson in A Room with a View.

In August 2011, he appeared onstage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in A Celebration of Harold Pinter, directed by John Malkovich at the Pleasance Courtyard. The play transferred to the Irish Repertory Theatre, in New York. His performance in the play was nominated for "Outstanding Solo Performance" for the 58th Annual Drama Desk Awards.

He is survived by his second wife Evgenia Citkowitz and children Henry Sands, Imogen Morley Sands, Natalya Morley Sands.

ALAN ARKIN actor, director, and screenwriter died June 29, 2023, at his home in Carlsbad, California. He had a history of heart problems. He was 89.

In a career spanning eight decades, he received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award.

Arkin began his career on the Broadway stage, starring in Enter Laughing in 1963 for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and the comedic play Luv (1964). For his work directing The Sunshine Boys, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 1973. He gained stardom with his roles in the films The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), Wait Until Dark (1967), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), Popi (1969), Catch-22 (1970), and The In-Laws (1979). He later took on supporting roles in Edward Scissorhands (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Grosse Point Blank (1997), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), Sunshine Cleaning (2007), Get Smart (2008), and Argo (2012). For his performance as a foul-mouthed grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Arkin was thrice married, with two marriages ending in divorce. He and Jeremy Yaffe (m. 1955–1961) had two sons: Adam Arkin, and Matthew Arkin. He was married to actress-screenwriter Barbara Dana from 1964 to 1994: they had a son, Anthony (Tony) Dana Arkin. In 1996, Arkin married psychotherapist Suzanne Newlander, whose surname he adopted for his character Norman Newlander in The Kominsky Method.

He is survived by his third wife and his three sons.

Next Column: July 9, 2023
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Laura Deni

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