Now Playing at the Canyon Theatre Guild is a show that makes all the kids scream. And some grown-ups, too. Disney’s popular “High School Musical” movie has found it’s way to the stage in Downtown Newhall’s Arts and Theatre District in the making, and the guild has shared some great photos of the production. Click through to enjoy a few stills by Neil Harris. Read the rest of this entry »
That was really very confusing. I’m talking about the Santa Clarita City Council meeting tonight, not the headline of this post which is also somewhat confusing if you haven’t been paying attention to what has been going on between the City and Colllege of the Canyons regarding the Performing Arts Center Memorandum of Understanding. What the dickens went wrong? The City Manager and the folks at COC had a little talk a while back, and even though Ken Pulskamp had already basically changed the city’s relationship status to ’single,’ apparently the COC Board of Trustees does not feel like breaking up just yet. So for now, lets just say ‘it’s complicated.’
The City Council decided to delay the decision to end the MOU so that the City Manager and COC can resume negotiations and come to an agreement. Stay tuned.
On the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting is an item that is worrying many of the performing arts groups in the valley. The council will consider ending the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the City of Santa Clarita (COSC) has with College of the Canyons (COC) regarding the Performing Arts Center (PAC). The current MOU guarantees the City and community arts groups 32% of weekend days, which is great for local performing artists who pay a lower use rate, but does not allow the college to book as many acts at the higher market rate. COC would naturally like to be able to earn more money to support the facility, and is having trouble under the current arrangement. The City spent 2.4 million in the year 2000 to bring the number of seats in the space from 450 to 950, and while the current percentage of community use is laid out in the MOU, there is nothing to legally bind COC to those terms. The question is – would the community benefit more from continued exposure to local performing arts groups, or from exposure to small outside acts like those in the PAC’s current lineup. If you have something to say about the issue, show up on Tuesday and speak your mind. You can find the agenda item here, along with the MOU.
The CalArts School of Theater hosted its fourth “Arts in the One World” international conference concentrating on the theme of ”Motherhood and Revolution: How women, and mothers in particular, are innovating in conflict and post conflict circumstances, and expanding the models for ways in which one is an artist in the world.” Big theme. The five-day event dealt to a large extent with esthetic diversity, and each full day was dedicated to one region of the world facing hardship: Rwanda, Palestine and Kurdistan. The conference was full of lectures and performances – click through to view some great photos of the event, and check their site for more information.
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