Los Angeles Times - 05.03.2020

E4 THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

As the Writers Guild of
America readies itself for ne-
gotiations with major
studios, the union is making
a significant tweak to its list
of demands.
The WGA will no longer
push to require studios to ex-
clusively work with talent
agencies that have agreed to
its terms, the union told
members last week.
Guild leaders, including
Shawn Ryan, the co-chair of
the union’s negotiating com-
mittee, discussed the change
in strategy at a meeting on
Friday with dozens of
showrunners at the W Hotel
in Hollywood as part of the
union’s outreach, according
to three people familiar with
the meeting who were not
authorized to comment.
The change comes after
some guild members voiced
concerns about inserting the
agency issue into potentially
contentious negotiations
with the major studios that
are expected to be domi-
nated by streaming and
other issues.
The fight with agencies
erupted in April when the
guild ordered its members to
fire their agents in protest
over packaging and other in-
dustry practices deemed
harmful to writers.
The standoff has put
showrunners in a tricky posi-
tion. As writers who are also
producers, they need large
agencies to help staff their
shows. Many doubted the
studios would ever agree to
the union’s demand that
they only work with ap-

proved agencies, and have

been frustrated by the lack of

progress in talks with agen-

cies.

“It’s a different ballgame if

you are trying to develop” a

drama, said one working

writer who declined to be

named for fear of retribution.

“Writers don’t walk into a

studio and get a green light,

or at least most don’t. You

need other elements atta-

ched to the project, and big

agencies can do that for you.”

But the union has told

members they must not

work with non-franchised

agencies, which include Cre-

ative Artists Agency, William

Morris Endeavor, United

Talent Agency, ICM Part-

ners and Paradigm Talent

Agency, and that those who

violated the union’s rules

would be investigated.

WGA West President

David Goodman renewed

that message during Fri-

day’s meeting, telling

showrunners they could

anonymously report writers

whom they suspect may be

going back to work with non-

WGA franchised agencies,

according to one member

who attended the meeting.

“I understand that it’s

frustrating for those of us

who are abiding by the rules

when other people are not,

but I think this is despicable

to ask us to inform on one an-

other,” said a showrunner

who attended the meeting

and who asked not to be

identified for fear of re-

prisals. “This is not some-

thing that is a good look for

the WGA.”

A representative of the

WGA was not immediately

available for comment. Rep-

resentatives of the ATA and

the Alliance of Motion Pic-

ture and Television Produc-

ers declined to comment.

The WGA has allowed

showrunners to continue to

work with major agencies in

their capacity as producers

and directors, but not writ-

ers. These major agencies

have not signed deals with

the WGA and several have

sued the WGA in federal

court. The trial could begin

March 2021. The guild has

also sued major agencies

over the dispute.

WGA members may work

only with the union’s more

than 80 franchised smaller or

mid-tier agencies, which

may not have as many A-list

actors and actresses as ma-

jor agencies do.

It has been an open secret

in Hollywood that some

WGA members have defied

the union’s rules and have

gone back to their agents. No

one knows how many have

done so; estimates vary

widely from a from a few doz-

en to several hundred.

In a recent message to its

members, the WGA touted

that the campaign against

the agencies has made the

union stronger and that it

has had “substantive discus-

sions” with four of the five

major agencies. Representa-

tives of CAA, UTA, WME and

ICM have said they are not in

discussions with WGA.

“We continue to place

pressure on them, by pursu-

ing the lawsuit, by negotiat-

ing with the smaller agen-

cies, and by withholding

their ability to represent

writers,” Goodman wrote in

the note to members. “The

goal remains in sight: to re-

align all our representatives’

financial interests with their

writer clients by ending

packaging fees and curtail-

ing agency ownership of pro-

duction.”

On Friday, the guild said

in an email to members it has

provided guidance on more

than 100 deals involving its

writer members, helping

them get more money. In one

example, a writer received a

pilot fee that was $125,000

more than the company’s

first offer, the guild said.

WGA eases certain

demands for studios

The union plans on

no longer insisting

studios work only

with guild-approved

talent agencies.

By Wendy Lee

market is becoming increas-

ingly crowded with Disney+

and Apple TV+ entering the

market last year and other

streaming services like

NBC’s Peacock coming later

this year. But BritBox and

other smaller streamers say

they have a significant ad-

vantage by focusing on a

specialized and loyal

audience.

“If you think about it, ev-

eryone else has to be every-

thing to everybody,” said

Soumya Sriraman, Brit-

Box’s CEO and president in

an interview, referring to

services like Hulu, Netflix

and YouTube TV. “They

have to be all things to all

people —so who then are

they for?”

Executives familiar with

BritBox and Acorn TV,

which also caters to fans of

British programs, have said

both streaming services

have low churn rates. AMC

Networks, the parent com-

pany of Acorn TV, said last

month in a call with in-

vestors that Acorn TV has

more than 1 million sub-

scribers.

SAN FRANCISCO —

The British streaming wars

have taken America by

storm.

BritBox, the New York

streaming service catering

to older women who love

British TV, says it now has

1 million subscribers in

North America — doubling

its base of customers in just

14 months.

Unlike Netflix or Amazon

Prime Video, which cater to

general audiences, BritBox

fills a niche for licensed and

original British programs,

including crime drama se-

ries “Vera,” “RHS Chelsea

Flower Show” and the come-

dy “Hold the Sunset.”

BritBox, which is owned

by British TV network ITV

and BBC Studios, attrib-

uted the surge in subscribers

to the popularity of such

shows as “Father Brown” as

well as series like “Death in

Paradise” acquired from

Netflix and other streamers.

The company’s growth

comes as the streaming

BritBox launched in 2017

and caters to women ages 45

or older who enjoy British

programs. The company has

rolled out day and date pre-

mieres in the U.K. and U.S.

for programs including “The

Gavin and Stacey Christ-

mas Special” and “Good

Morning Britain.”

BritBox has been ex-

panding, offering its service

in the United Kingdom in

November 2019 as more con-

sumers sign up for stream-

ing services and cut the cord

on cable.

The company charges

$6.99 a month in the U.S.

Executives declined to say

how many subscribers it has

in Britain, or disclose fi-

nances, but said the busi-

ness was profitable.

“Subscribers really value

and love the unique and un-

rivaled British TV content

we offer,” said Carolyn Mc-

Call, chief executive of ITV,

in a statement. “To achieve

profitability in less than

three years is also a fantastic

achievement and is a boost

to our international expan-

sion plan.”

“VERA,”with Brenda Blethyn, and more British crime dramas are on the service.

Justin SleeBritBox

BritBox cracks 1 million

cases in North America

By Wendy Lee

concert in Walt Disney Con-
cert Hall. Ives can be seen as
a composer who helped set
the stage for what became
the 1960s protest move-
ments, which had a great in-
fluence on Hancock. Du-
damel is living through the
political horror of his native
Venezuela, where he cannot
return after expressing his
support for peaceful protest.
Perhaps that played into
the extraordinary convic-
tion he brought to the Ives
symphonies. His perform-
ances were joyous, spiritual,
powerful, adventurousness,
wrenchingly emotional and
inspirational. He made the
symphonies represent divi-
sive current issues in a far
greater complexity than we
get in our normal public dis-
course. And in so doing, Du-
damel couldn’t help but
make Ives more meaning-
fully mystifying.
The first great American
composer, Ives was in the
early years of the 20th cen-
tury the most avant-garde
composer on the planet, and
he remains startlingly chal-
lenging a century later.
There is perhaps no greater
exercise in thinking about
America than in trying to
come to terms with Ives —
his music, who he was and
what he represented.

Paradoxical figure

Ives could have been a
professional baseball player,
so great was his talent in col-
lege. He might have become
the greatest organist of his
time, so great was that tal-
ent. He made a fortune as
one of the founders of the in-
surance business in New
York, yet he undoubtedly
would be a Bernie man to-
day, supporting Medicare
for all and breaking up Wall
Street.
Full of paradoxes, Ives
was also MAGA all the way, a
stubborn Connecticut Yan-
kee who strove to sustain the
sweet all-American inno-
cence of his small-town
youth in Danbury. He cre-
ated the most outrageous
music full of daring disso-
nances, music in which con-
flicting rhythms were all
heard at the same time, mu-
sic that gave regular har-
monic raspberries to tradi-
tion. But all of that was in
service of reminding us of
what had once made Ameri-
ca great.
That greatness for Ives

was independence of

thought and being. He was

an authentic populist who fi-

nanced a campaign in 1920

for a constitutional amend-

ment to get rid of the elector-

al college. In his feisty popu-

lism and uncompromising

high-mindedness, he was, as

the musicologist Judith Tick

has called him, a transcen-

dental majoritarian.

Dudamel captured that

brilliantly last Friday. The

audience laughed when Du-

damel began by conducting

Ives’ “The Unanswered

Question” on a stage with no

orchestra. A solo trumpet

posed its unanswerable

question of existence in a

short melodic figure far off in

the distance, while some-

where in the wings chirping

winds pondered that and

string murmured mystically.

The ethereal nature of exist-

ence was made necessarily

ethereal.

Then the stage filled up

massively for the Fourth

Symphony, arguably Ives’

most important work. It was

begun in 1910, two years after

“The Unanswered Ques-

tion.” It begins with a hymn.

It has a revolutionary col-

lage movement full of Ameri-

can tunes, hymn tunes, Bee-

thoven and whatnot, jum-

bled together as no music

had ever been jumbled to-

gether before. There is then

a big orchestral fugue and fi-

nally a transcendental dis-

sonant finale.

The orchestra is gigantic

and includes keyboards of

all sorts (with pianos tuned

a quarter tone apart), a sub-

stantial percussion section

and a chorus (the Los Ange-

les Master Chorale). Two

conductors are needed, and

Dudamel Fellow Marta Gar-

dolinska conducted a “dis-

tant” ensemble, beating me-

ters and tempos different

from Dudamel’s. Usually the

second conductor in this

piece stands apart, barely

noticed. Dudamel placed

Gardolinska right next to

him, and she was noticed.

Already beginning to make a

splash in Europe, she is

ready for more.

In a performance of ex-

treme clarity and authority,

Dudamel offered a vision of

an America vast and sure

and true and just and prog-

ressive and trusting, a land

of the free and the caring in

what sounded convincingly

to be the Great American

Symphony.

Empowering

It took a decade after

Ives’ death in 1954 for his mu-

sic to be widely heard, and

that revival helped empower

the music of the 1960s power-

to-the-people movements in

many ways. An ensemble,

Tone Roads, named after an

Ives score, promoted the

early minimalists and the

latest American experimen-

talist. Hippies dressed in

American flags embraced

Ives’ Americana, a return to

American ideals.

But Ives’ world had not

been this world. He was a

progressive artistically but

not socially. He exhibited ho-

mophobia when he said

tame institutional music

was sissy effeminate. As a

boy in late 19th century Dan-

bury, he had been called a

sissy because he was a clas-

sical musician, and he never

got over it.

This led to at least a par-

tial rejection of Ives. At a fes-

tival in Berlin on the 50th an-

niversary of the composer’s

death, Ives was mostly her-

alded as a still-inspiring ec-

centric revolutionary, but

the left-wing American com-

poser and pianist Frederic

Rzewski did not agree. He

preferred Shostakovich.

It is now the 45th anniver-

sary of Rzewski’s most fa-

mous work, the hour-long

set of variations on the Chi-

lean protest song, “The Peo-

ple United Will Never Be De-

feated!” which Conrad Tao

will play next week as part of

Power to the People!

Tuesday night, however,

for his Piano Spheres debut

at Zipper Hall in L.A., Thom-

as Kotcheff gave a dazzling

performance of Rzewski’s

recent “Songs of Insurrec-

tion.”

The 70-minute cycle of

seven pieces is based on pro-

test songs of the oppressed

from America, Russia, Ger-

many and elsewhere. Unlike

tightly knit “People United,”

this is a fantastically sponta-

neous-sounding eruption of

ever-changing keyboard in-

vention. Rzewski puts in

places for improvisation, but

all of it sounds improvisa-

tional and, in its banging,

creativity and insistence, a

lot like the few improvisa-

tions that Ives recorded at

the piano.

We can’t escape Ives.

He was not of our time,

and he was full of contradic-

tions. I think Ives would

agree with the sentiment of

Power to the People! and yet

he would like none of it (and

practically nothing about

our America).

You can just see him up-

dating “Names! Names!

Names!” for Sanders, Biden

and Trump.

But for all his blind spots

and all our blind spots, Ives

bravely believed in us. You

don’t see that very much

anymore in our divisive soci-

ety, which is why we need

him more than ever.

The Ives of March at Disney Hall

[L.A. Phil,from E1]

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL conducts the L.A. Philharmonic on Feb. 28 in a program that features works from composers Ives and Dvorak.

Mel MelconLos Angeles Times