Playbill – The world premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation, Annie Baker’s new play about New Englanders enrolled in a drama class – and how it changes them – opens Off-Broadway Oct. 13 after previews from Sept. 24.By us.rd.yahoo.com

Volkswagen’s idea (fleshed out at thefuntheory.com) is that if you make something that’s good for people - like taking the stairs instead of the escalator - fun, people will actually do it. Their latest demonstration project is turning the stairs in a Stockholm subway station into a giant piano keyboard; step on a key and get a [...]

PARIS.- With this major retrospective, the Centre Pompidou celebrates the work of Pierre Soulages, indisputably the greatest living French painter. Soon to be ninety, Soulages, the “painter of black and light,” is recognized as one of the major abstract artists of the post-War period. The Centre Pompidou staged its first major exhibition of Soulages’s work [...]

Reuters – Known as the Wolfman after living with packs of wolves, Shaun Ellis is the first to admit his controversial research is shunned by academic circles, but he remains undeterred from his message of conservation.By us.rd.yahoo.com

“Turmoil at Escondido’s struggling performing arts center was partly alleviated this week when city officials agreed to tell arts center trustees how their performance would be judged and what might prompt the city to reduce their power. The move comes one week after city officials threatened to withhold operating cash from the center.”…By artsjournal.com

LONDON (REUTERS).- British artist Damien Hirst has made a reputation, and sizeable fortune, from suspending animals in formaldehyde and filling medicine cabinets with pills. Now one of the world’s most successful living artists has returned to more traditional territory of painting, and this time, unlike his mass-produced canvases covered in colored spots, the 44-year-old actually [...]

Playbill – “Short People,” anyone? The work of songwriter Randy Newman will echo in a new musical, Harps and Angels, in fall 2010, at Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Variety reported.By us.rd.yahoo.com

“Two days before the opening of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s 20th anniversary season, the company and its embattled executive director, Jon Ulsh, are parting ways.” Last month, “a letter calling for Ulsh to resign was signed by a large percentage of Oregon Ballet Theatre staffers and delivered to the board of directors.”…By artsjournal.com

LONDON.- This autumn Helly Nahmad Gallery presents a retrospective exhibition by the acknowledged principal of the French Impressionist school, Claude Monet. Taking in his diverse styles from the 1870s as he explored a wide range of subjects in all seasons and all types of weather in his commitment to painting in front of his motif, [...]

Playbill – Michigan playwright Kitty Dubin’s latest play, The Blank Page, about a frustrated writer, gets its world premiere Oct. 13-Nov. 8 by the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in suburban Detroit.By us.rd.yahoo.com

“Disputes over the German conductor Christian Thielemann’s role with the Munich Philharmonic finally ended Friday when he accepted the position of music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden,” beginning in 2012. “He is to replace the chief conductor, Fabio Luisi, who is leaving to join the Zurich Opera.”…By artsjournal.com

TUBINGEN.- Under the scintillating title “Acid Mother’s Temple”, the Kunsthalle Tübingen presents a comprehensive exhibition of the internationally successful artist Anselm Reyle. Reyle, who was born in Tübingen in 1970 and now lives in Berlin, has transformed the halls of the Museum on the Philosophenweg into a psychedelic meta-artwork. In this exhibition, visitors can experience [...]

Playbill – The New York Musical Theatre Festival production of the new musical Street Lights begins performances at the American Theatre for Actors (Chernuchin) Oct. 13.By us.rd.yahoo.com

The orchestra has terminated maestro Oleg Caetani’s five-year contract one year early - and just 3 weeks after releasing a 2010 season brochure with Caetani’s name on it. His relations with management “are reported to have soured. … Audiences had tired of Caetani’s championing of the 20th-century Russian conductor [sic] Dmitri Shostakovich.”…By artsjournal.com

BASEL.- A year after the death of Robert Rauschenberg, on May 12, 2008, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, celebrated the memory of this great artist with the exhibition Robert Rauschenberg: Gluts. Comprised of approximately forty works. The Museum Tinguely is presenting from October 13, 2009 to January 17, 2010 a little known body of Rauschenberg’s [...]

Playbill – The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s season-opening production of Ben Jonson’s 1610 comedy, The Alchemist, opening Oct. 13 after previews from Oct. 6 in Washington, DC, marks the 150th production in artistic director Michael Kahn’s directing career.By us.rd.yahoo.com

“Dominique Mercy and Robert Sturm have been named as the pair tapped to take over [Tanztheater Wuppertal,] the German dance company once led by the iconic choreographer Pina Bausch, who died in June.” Both men are longtime company members….By artsjournal.com

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- From November 21, 2009 through April 4, 2010, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will host the U.S. premiere of two sound installations, Days and Giorni (both 2009), by the celebrated American artist Bruce Nauman. Days will be presented in the main Museum building’s Gisela and Dennis Alter Gallery (176) and Giorni in the [...]

Playbill – PS Classics announced a release date and track listing for its original Off-Broadway cast recording of Gutenberg! The Musical!, the two-man spoof about desperate musical comedy writers. It’ll be in stores Nov. 3.By us.rd.yahoo.com

“UCLA’s Clark Library is to receive a collection of 72 books related to Shakespeare that includes a 1685 fourth folio of his works, two histories that formed the basis of his plays and a 1603 book by Montaigne that introduced the playwright to the words ‘adulterous,’ ‘miraculous,’ ‘depraved’ and ’scandalous’.”…By artsjournal.com