Artistic Directors

The AIDS Memorial Quilt is covered with names. Now there are faces, stories and songs to go with those names. "Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens," now playing at the Attic Theatre in Hollywood, uses a series of monologues to give voice to 30 people whose names make up the AIDS quilt. The monologues are interspersed with songs by four characters representing a chorus of loved ones.

Classical music amid the alfresco beauty of coastal North County. This summer's Batiquitos Festival of the Arts was designed to put San Diego on the world music map almost overnight. As envisioned, the festival would include a top-notch training program for student musicians as well as a sophisticated series of public concerts. The Batiquitos advisory board boasts famed violinist-conductor Sir Yehudi Menuhin and operatic soprano Renata Scotto as chairman and vice president, respectively.

Andrew Barnicle, who takes over Monday as the new artistic director of the Laguna Playhouse, has a firm fix on what he wants for a 71-year-old theater organization that regularly fills 90% of its seats. "This playhouse is top of the line in terms of national community theaters," the actor, director, designer and teacher said. "Whoever's in my position ought to work very diligently to keep it that way." Barnicle, 40, won't have a great deal of time for reflection.

The new artistic director of American Ballet Theatre would rather be spending time with his dancers than giving interviews. "How else can I put my stamp on the company?," Kevin McKenzie asked during a recent phone conversation from New York, where the troupe is based. "Teaching class, being in rehearsals, coaching. That's the best use of my time."

The Palm Springs International Film Festival, which in just four years has emerged as a premier U.S. showcase for foreign-language movies, is losing what many consider its major asset. Artistic director Darryl Macdonald resigned last week to assume a like post at a new movie festival being launched Oct. 20-24 in East Hampton, Long Island--a favorite resort community of many Hollywood players.

The Music Center of Los Angeles County and the Washington-based Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz have entered into a partnership to establish a significant new jazz presence at the downtown arts complex. The institute will combine with the Music Center to present performances and establish educational programs for the community, beginning in September.

"I was never that interested in dancing," Kevin McKenzie was saying. "I was interested in portraying a role." OK, Mr. M., prince of ballet's cavaliers, try this one on for size: artistic director of American Ballet Theatre, one of the world's top troupes, now, after years of over-optimism, over-opulence and over-extension, $5.7 million in debt. Ride to the rescue and kiss that sleeping princess awake. Let a thousand swans bloom. Or something.

It's show time in West Hollywood, and half a dozen beefy, clean-cut guys soft-shoe their way across the stage with their pants around their ankles. They sing as they dance--cheek to cheek, so to speak--through "The Ballad of Little Mikey." On another evening, it's gals' night out in the "Girl Bar" as the regulars tell tales and angle to put the make on the new woman on the scene.

Was JoAnne Akalaitis an artistic director who never smiled and who alienated mainstream audiences with her grim play choices? Or was she the sort who brought ailing people chicken soup and made audience-building decisions, only to be done in by an impatient and unkind board of directors?

Honolulu's gain is Los Angeles' loss. Peter Brosius, the respected artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum's youth theater P.L.A.Y. (Performing for Los Angeles Youth) for 12 years, has announced that he is leaving the Taper to become the artistic director of the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, one of the nation's flagship children's theaters. Under Brosius, P.L.A.Y.