Monday, February 20, 2006

life imitates art, yet again

Arts and Letters Daily hardly ever fails to interest. Here are three reasons to check in periodically:

We had a Neflix of the 2004 film, Heights, which has Glenn Close play a woman named Diana who is a (somewhat congenial) sexual predator, and now I read that Dede Harris, "one of the most famous producers in New York," is "sexually obsessive and compulsive and is unable to refrain from sexually harassing cast members of productions with which she is affiliated." That's Dede on the right.

Half the cast of her latest Off-Broadway play walked out and filed a multi-million dollar law suit alleging she "asked one female cast member to 'feel her up', groped another's breast in a bar and made sexual advances on several other men and women. It describes a game of 'truth of dare' played with the cast in which Harris asked some of the male actors to touch her." The production still on the right shows Glenn Close as Diana.

The play is Dog Sees God. Here are links to a production announcement in Variety, an unflattering review in the NYT, and the Dog Sees God home page.





Strangely, the piece in the Guardian to which ALD links, gets the name of the play wrong: Dog Meets God. And this reminds me of a favorite book, Rats Saw God since both make play with God and Dog, but neither is a palindrome.

Here's the ALD squib:
Broadway's Twist On The Casting Couch Scandal "Like any great headlining play, the newest sex scandal to hit America's acting profession has a fresh twist: the top producer accused of sexually harassing the cast of a Broadway play is a woman.
Her alleged victims are also far from being wide-eyed starlets. Instead they are some of the top names on Broadway, including Irish actor Gabriel Byrne." The Observer 02/19/06
Posted: 02/19/2006 9:56 am
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,,1713043,00.html


Also from ALD today:
London's Skyrocketing Ticket Prices Theatre ticket prices have gone "mad" in London's West End. It's £127 for some seats? "These prices weed out the poor, the young and the would-be first-time theatregoer and ensure that the gilded auditorium retains its Victorian smugness and rows of white hair and glinting jewellery." The Observer 02/19/06
Posted: 02/19/2006 9:58 am
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,,1713131,00.html

Of Dramaturgs And How Theatre Is Made "I teach dramaturgy, and I spend a good two or three weeks with my students talking about what different dramaturgs think dramaturgy is. The problem is that the term is used to encompass so many things." One of her favorite short definitions, she adds, is "information designer, [which tells people that] the dramaturg is part of the design staff. ... I'm in charge of the text and context of the play." Chicago Tribune 02/19/06
Posted: 02/19/2006 10:43 am

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