— read write play

Nearly 200 arts organisations in England have been told that their Arts Council funding will end from next April:

The National Student Drama Festival, for example, founded in 1956 and with starry alumni that include Simon Russell Beale, Pete Postlethwaite and Meera Syal, has been told to expect to lose its £52,000 annual grant, which could jeopardise its annual festival in Scarborough, taking place in three months.

Holly Kendrick, the festival’s director, said: “We think that this decision is unreasonable, but it is particularly serious for us because of the timing. We have commitments three months ahead. We now have to find a third of our funding at impossibly short notice.” The group said it had recently been discussing plans with the council that carried up to 2010. [...]

The Exeter Northcott Theatre has been told to expect to lose its £547,000-a-year grant from April 2009. It received the news as it reopened after a £2.1m redevelopment programme that had seen it closed for nearly a year.Steve Gratton, chairman of the Northcott, said: “I simply cannot understand why the Arts Council would … allow public money to be spent on its redevelopment, and then pull the plug just as the theatre reopens.”

The BBC reports that the blasphemy case against Jerry Springer: The Opera has been dismissed:

[T]he two senior judges at the High Court said the 1968 Theatres Act prevented any prosecution for blasphemy in relation to public performances of plays – and the 1990 Broadcasting Act prevented any prosecution in relation to broadcasts.

They said it was reasonable to conclude Jerry Springer – The Opera “in context” could not be considered as blasphemous, as it was not aimed at Christianity, but was a parody of the chat show genre.

Those are two separate arguments: first, that the Theatres Act effectively prevents any prosecution for blasphemy for public performances, and secondly, that this particular instance was not in any case blasphemic.