"An unusually large proportion of the 10 plays opening this fall are what one producer calls ‘formally inventive’ and others might label downtown, avant-garde, or (that dread word) challenging." Jesse Green considers three of them: Is This a Room?, Dana H., and Pass Over. - The New York Times
In a world dominated by Netflix, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Twitter, the idea of using theatre to drive change and inform our political life may seem naïve, even quaint. But theatre offers something none of these platforms can: space. - American Theatre
Miguel Gutierrez's Are You for Sale? explores "the ethical entanglements between art and money": the convoluted systems of philanthropy and grant applications, the good and bad points of state funding, "these horrible, infantilizing roles that the economic conditions of making work impose onto us." - The New York Times
Though a wide range of A.I. technologies have improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade, even the most impressive systems have ended up complementing human workers rather than replacing them. - The New York Times
The oldest surviving collection of riddles assembled in English is in the Exeter Book, copied around the turn of the first millennium CE. They were part of an extended English tradition of aenigmae and trick questions in both Anglo-Saxon and Latin. - The New York Times
Thorsten A. Integrity (né Shayne Bushfield) of the trivia site LearnedLeague explains what he has to consider: Is this too hard? Too easy? Is it interesting? Is it accurate? Are there other ways to answer this question? Which part should be the question and which the answer? - Slate
From his teens, he astonished the great musicians he met with his recall of details, and for five decades he shared that knowledge as a historian, educator, concert promoter, Grammy-winning record producer, and legendary radio host at New York's WKCR. - The Washington Post
One historical site was blown to bits, but most performance spaces came out with only some roof and water damage. Yet the performers themselves are reeling: the storm and the Delta variant coronavirus killed the first chances they've had to work in months. - The New York Times
Some museums, like the Whitney, learned the hard way (during construction, Superstorm Sandy dumped six million gallons of water into the basement); others (like the Pérez in Miami, right alongside Biscayne Bay) see the danger and build in flood defenses. - Artnet
He proudly (extremely proudly) donated millions to the Met, Covent Garden, Kennedy Center, and others, his name prominently displayed — until the tech stocks he invested in crashed, he reneged on widely publicized pledges, he was caught defrauding clients, and spent years in prison. - The New York Times
The June 4 Museum, as it's called, had been closed to the public (presumably on Beijing's orders) since June. This morning, police were seen entering the building and carting away display and exhibition materials. - The Guardian
"It's a bit of a hipster thing, the organ in its day was the technological marvel that the computer is today, and there's a fascination with old things." - CBC
"The bank informed me that it was terminating my account in Switzerland. They did this, they wrote, in accordance with a new policy of closing all accounts with people who have had criminal records. - BBC
Amid Taliban rule, shocking visuals have been reported from Kabul's National Music Institute as the Taliban has reportedly destroyed musical instruments including piano and drum set. - RepublicWorld (India)
Conventional wisdom has it that cultural divisions now matter most, and that plenty of people feel they have nothing in common with liberal, supposedly “globalist” elites. Yet that idea is far from the truth. - New Statesman
