I <3 Berlin

I’ve visited Berlin twice this year… Have really fallen for the place. (The company helped though.)

And so, I was really wishing I worked in a ’smaller’ medium when I came across this: http://www.ardbiaberlin.com/

There is also a blog called Traces.

the story continues

Wexford Man Eoin Colfer has been given the task to write the sixth installment of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy…

The Guardian

ακουστός

Wexford Opera House have launched their new website: www.wexfordoperahouse.ie

The Wexford Opera House was officially opened last Friday 5th September by the Taoiseach Brian Cowen. I was lucky to be given a private tour of the facility last month, and I have to say, it is stunning. I am so excited by the potential of this kind of venue and the facilities it provides. The attention to detail is phenomenal. The main venue provides a large but surprisingly intimate performance space. The studio theatre is a nice size for smaller productions…ideal for small touring dance companies.

Although the artistic and programming policies are not yet fully formed, I have high hopes that this venue will attract some interesting companies to Wexford, from Ireland and abroad.

Apart from the Wexford Festival Opera in October, forthcoming productions include:

“Parallel Horizons – Under the Roof” from Dance Theatre of Ireland (early December)

“Porgy and Bess” from Cape Town Opera Company

and of course the SONRAIGH Youth Dance Festival 2008!

The Irish Times ran an article on the opening.

appropriate?

There has been quite a response to the work of Gottfried Helnwein as displayed around Waterford for the Waterford Fringe Festival. Questions surrounding the appropriateness of the setting of the large scale images around the town have been voiced in the media. Many people have complained that they have found them disturbing, or that their children have been upset by them. There does not seem to be much information available to put these images into context. Waterford Fringe Festival say this on the website:

He was an obvious choice to exhibit at the Waterford Fringe Festival as firstly he is seen as a local and secondly, by exhibiting his work here, it puts Waterford on a platform with the great art capitals of the world such as New York, Munich and Beijing

I guess my questions are, did they think this through? Are they doing this as a publicity stunt, to gain some sort of reputation? Did they know what they were getting?

nyc theatre fest

Apparently there’s a new irish theatre festival about to occur in New York this month. It is called ‘1st Irish 2008′.

Given so many Irish voices on New York stages, “why have a party?” Ciaran O’Reilly, the producing director of the 20-year-old Irish Repertory Theater, asked with a chuckle.

Gwen Orel considers this in the nyt.

apparently, dance is popular…

They said the popularity of dance events contributed greatly to a rise of 7% on 2007 ticket sales – up to more than £2.6m.

Edinburgh Festival reveals record takings – BBC

ballet10

Tony McGee - ballet10

via The Telegraph

critical decisions

‘Endure the theatre without alcohol? Locate things in the wider discourse? No. we have no aspirations in that direction.’

West End Whingers* state their position on the possibility of taking up jobs in print media to Jay Raynor in The Observer today. Yet more discussion about the bloggers vs. critics debate.

it’s what’s inside…

Andrew Taylor, aka The Artful Manager, has posted a concept for marketing the arts that actually does appear to cover most angles. It has a lot of scope for various interpretations (and implementations) and really could work. It certainly offers a different perspective to the ‘excellence’ approach.

So, what would the professional artist’s tagline in this video be? Answers on a postcard…

Weblogs and Dance Praxis

Reclaiming the \’art\’ in arts research: Weblogs and dance praxis

(PDF) By Sheila Creevey

As presented at the Dance Research Forum Ireland 2nd international conference, 28th June 2008.