Lincoln Center Festival International Line-Up

Lincoln Center Festival: Theatre
July 7 to 26, 2009

“Les Éphémères”; Le Théâtre du Soleil (Ariane Mnouchkine) - France
“Boris Godunov”; Chekhov International Theater Festival (Declan Donnellan) - USA
“Villeggiatura”; Piccolo Teatro di Milano and Teatri Uniti - Italy
“Life and Fate”; Maly Drama Theater - Russia
“Kalkwerk”; Narodowy Stary Teatr - Poland
“Ivanov”; Katona Jozsef Theater - Hungary
“Peasant Opera”; Bela Pinter and Company - Hungary

Non-Profit Theatre Execs Make Big Bucks

Just when you thought the only fat cats getting bonuses this year were on Wall Street, think again. The boards of certain NY theater companies feel that there are some bigwigs who deserve some perks in addition to their already extraordinary salaries. Case in point, Todd Haimes, AD of the Roundabout Theatre Company, was rewarded with a guaranteed $3.2 million bonus, on top of his $480,000 salary, if he stays on board until 2018. Lynne Meadow and Barry Grove at Manhattan Theatre Club each earn around $485,000 a year, up 84% since 1998. Andre Bishop and Bernard Gersten at Lincoln Center pull in around $430,000. Joe Dowling of the Guthrie earned $682,229, plus a one time bonus of $100K tied to their new complex. Oskar Eustis at the Public seems to be the only poor house boy, only making $277, 568, down 2% from last year. And here I am, losing my job in two weeks, wondering where the rent is coming from. Maybe one of these fortunate souls can spare a dime. See the full Bloomberg article here.

Scottish 'Bacchae' Arrives at Lincoln Center

Nice article in the NYTimes about the National Theater of Scotland’s production of Euripides’ Greek classic, The Bacchae, which opens the Lincoln Center Festival on Wednesday. I'm very pleased also that the journalist focused more on the establishment of the National Theater of Scotland, rather than star-fucking Alan Cumming. Instead she points out how the Scottish press finger-bang-banged Cumming when he returned to Scotland after a 16-year absence (not unlike our dear friend, Dionysus).

NY's International Seasonal Round-Up

With the Tonys coverage flooding the pages of the NYTimes, it’s nice to know someone is paying attention to what’s going on outside of midtown Manahttan. Once again, kudos of Jason Zinoman for shining a spotlight on international work. Here’s a little excerpt and link to the full article.

In the last year I have seen shows in Off Broadway theaters from, among other places, Argentina, Canada, England, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Poland, Russia and Scotland. New York is as much a global theater capital as ever, so why doesn’t it always seem that way?

In part it’s because the cultural world has been slowly shrinking for decades. It has been a long time since Howard Taubman in The New York Times wondered why American artists didn’t do more to welcome those from abroad. “Did they think they had nothing to learn from the visitors?” he asked in 1967 in an article about a New York meeting of the International Theater Institute, an organization designed to foster discussion within the industry.

Broadway sticks to a diet of prestige dramas from London while BAM, Lincoln Center Festival and LaMaMa E.T.C. are known for the strength of the adventurous foreign work they host. In the last couple of years a new generation of globetrotting producers, some of whom were born abroad (including Vallejo Gantner of Performance Space 122 and Peter Tear, who runs 59E59 Theaters with Elysabeth Kleinhans), has become more aggressive in pursuing international work…The result has been an excellent season for foreign shows.

Lincoln Center Festival 08

Once again Lincoln Center has put together an eclectic line-up for their annual summer festival from July 2-27. Actual performances are down to 57 this year compared to 93 last year. This is mostly due to the RuhrTriennale’s production of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s 1960 opera, Die Soldaten. Apparently, it is one of the most complex and expensive contemporary operas to mount (it’s got a 110-piece orchestra). It will take Lincoln Center over a month to load the production into the Park Avenue Armory.

As for theatrical offerings, the festival will open with the National Theater of Scotland’s production of The Bacchae starring Alan Cumming and directed by John Tiffany. The festival closes with the Gate Theater of Dublin’s triptych Gate/Beckett. The evening consists of three one-man shows of Beckett pieces not conceived for the theatre. Liam Neeson stars in Eh Joe (a TV piece), Barry McGovern stars in I’ll Go On (adapted from three novels) and Ralph Fiennes stars in First Love (a novella).

Other offerings include Laurie Anderson’s new piece, Homeland, William Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar performed by the Royal Ballet of Flanders and Sarajevo-born composer Goran Bregovic returns with his Wedding and Funeral Band, which was at the festival 2 years ago.