Just what we need: More joyless, foolish bureaucrats quashing theatrical productions. "The interactive show is set at an Italian-American wedding, with a three-course meal, live music and dancing." - BBC
Why did this take so long? Blame the GOP. "In 1997 Michigan Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra derided The Watermelon Woman as 'possibly pornographic.' ... He decried that the film had been funded by taxpayers." - NPR
"The crisis is a perfect storm of bad economic and demographic trends, exacerbated by a change in cultural habits during the pandemic. … The confluence has theater business professionals issuing dire warnings. 'By this time next year, I think the industry will shrink by half,'" said one consultant. - MSN (The Washington Post)
"By the spring of 2023, the promise of the Cultural Plan" — equity — "had gotten shoved to the side, as the so-called 'Big 7' ... struggled just to keep the doors open." Now the pandemic seems to be past, but audiences have been slow to return, and the city is recalibrating. - KERA (Dallas)
This phenomenon is because, well, the podcasts about The Bachelor are better than The Bachelor (and other shows), basically. Or in host language, "The recap podcasts are kind of the spice on an otherwise not very well-seasoned fish, which is the franchise." - Time
Remember when it was a sign of, like, total rebellion to blow a huge bubble on screen? Well, that time is long gone - and the pandemic has helped kill off what was left. - The Atlantic
"Theaters must think more expansively of themselves as communal spaces, not merely entertainment venues for stage presentations to ticket buyers; what does it mean to be a civic space, a public space, a 'third place'? No, really." - Culturebot
Can anything - musicals, serious plays, popular actors, dramatic cuts to staff, or great bundles of tickets - fix this issue? Who knows? "Audiences haven’t fundamentally changed since they started gathering at dramatic festivals in ancient Greece." - Los Angeles Times
"By tapping into TikTok’s ability to drive attention to books and its vast trove of user data, ByteDance could boost its own authors at the expense of others and make BookTok less organic and user-driven, a prospect that worries many TikTok users and authors." - The New York Times
"(Executive director Zenetta) Drew said the theatre's (online) programming has continued to net six figures each year and has also brought in new audiences from across the world. Since 2020, DBDT has reached 38 states and 35 countries outside the U.S. with paid virtual content." - KERA (Dallas)
"Some 68.6 million tickets have been sold from the booth during its 50 years, with more than $2.6 billion going back to the shows. Despite the rise of ... apps hawking discounted theater tickets, lining up at the booth is as fundamental as cooing over the Statue of Liberty." - AP
Being able to control how long programmes are available to stream appears to give video-on-demand platforms significant power over what audiences watch. The longer fruit is dangled in front of a viewer, the likelier they are to grab it. - The Conversation
In the 1960s and 1970s, Denver's Chicana/o community painted murals partly because the city knew they were cheaper than removing graffiti. Now they're disappearing. "The National Trust named the Chicano/a/x Community Murals of Colorado to its 2022 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places." - Hyperallergic
But museums are trying their damnedest to pick it up. "This surely is the route through the coming AI storm: the digital age demands more, not less creativity in schools and families. It is through play and imagination that we can rise above the robots." - The Observer (UK)
To the average consumer, streaming companies have maneuvered with what appears to be only rapid growth and blind excess in mind. Sure, we reap the fruits of that near-impossible ethic, but is it what we want—or even need? - Wired
