At the Spoleto Festival USA annual spring board meeting on Monday, the news was not so bright, the festival will end in a nearly $300,000 deficit. This was due to factors beyond the festival’s control, like: the poor economy, the fact the dollar is horribly weak and the plethora of foreign actors (coming from every continent except Australia and Antarctica) have to be paid up front, and the cost of plane tickets has skyrocketed.
Nigel Redden defended his selection of “Monkey: Journey to the West” which cost $1.2 million to stage as opposed to its 2007 counterpart, “The Constant Wife” staged by Ireland’s Gate Theatre, which cost around $300,000. In fact, The Gate Theatre was supposed to do “Sweeney Todd” but backed out after the deal had been made.
Covering the meeting for the first time was New York Times reporter Dan Wakin, who was the only other reporter in the room besides moi. After the meeting, Wakin could be heard grilling Nigel about the amount of money spent on “Monkey…”
Entries (RSS)
dottie, great stuff! don’tcha just love spoleto board meetings?