It’s Curtains for the International Theatre Festival
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The decision to end the theater festival appears to have resulted from a growing realization that repaying existing debts while trying to raise funds for future festivals would be nearly impossible. Foundations and corporate sponsors had generously supported the festival to the tune of more than $1 million per fest. At one point prior to last year’s event, festival cofounder and executive director Jane Nicholl Sahlins characterized organizations such as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as the Medicis of our time because of their generous financial underwriting. But such groups tend not to lend their backing to losing propositions, and after the festival’s disastrous 1994 showing it had taken on that aura. Right up until the plug was formally pulled last week, Sahlins insisted she was completely baffled by the public’s indifference, especially after critics had showered lavish praise on almost every production. But ticket buyers are no fools, and while Sahlins may have wished otherwise, they simply didn’t go for what the festival had to offer last year, including a half-baked new play by Alan Ayckbourn and a showy but rather hollow performance piece by the Dutch group Dogtroep.
School of the Art Institute Loses a President . . .
