Here's how to be good at it: Plan ahead. "What’s really important when you’re listening is to be able to know who’s talking. One of the hardest things is when you have a group of, like, five men and they’re all 40, and they’re all having a beer together. How you make those voices sound different?" - Slate
Basically, the pandemic has changed the performing arts audience. "Fans have had access to virtual theater from all over the world. Some venues have expanded their audiences far beyond what’s possible in their physical spaces. Around 160,000 viewers watched a streamed performance of Carmen last year by the Berlin State Opera, whose auditorium seats 1,300. The shift has raised...
And The Crown's season four, which concerns Princess Diana's difficulties with the Royal Family, won Best Drama Series even as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah became a trending topic on Twitter. (You will find the complete list of winners at this link.) - Variety
Sherald, who painted the portrait for a Ta-Nehisi Coates-edited edition of Vanity Fair, decided that she wanted to sell the painting where Taylor lived and was killed by police. Stephen Reily, the director of the city's Speed Museum: "The killing of Breonna Taylor and a year of protests have really changed the course of Louisville, and we’re struggling. ......
Viet Thanh Nguyen says it wasn't as easy as writing The Sympathizer, his 2016 Pulitzer-winning novel: "I would write in 50-page chunks – I wrote 50 pages before the Pulitzer. Then my life got really messy for a couple of years while I wrote the middle of the book. Towards the end, I finally figured out how to balance...
Or was the entire series - spoilers abound throughout this article, by the way - yet another Marvel tease? "It was intentionally meta and experimental, an 'in-between' work that, with its weekly rollout, operated as neither traditional TV nor a bingeable streaming series." - The Atlantic
He wouldn't be the first actor to have been nominated for an award after death, but if he were nominated both for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for actor in a leading role and for Da 5 Bloods for supporting actor, that would be a first. Voting began March 5 and runs for six days; nominations will be announced March...
Some of it might seem tasteless as the pandemic rages on, but as one artist points out, there aren't exhibitions now - and artists make art. "One online art gallery, Singulart, is featuring collections of Covid-inspired art, with 300 pieces by artists from all over the world priced at up to £21,190. Co-founder Véra Kempf says they originally received...
The poet, who is 22, "wrote on Twitter that a security guard 'tailed' her while she was walking home Friday night. 'He demanded if I lived there because ‘you look suspicious.’ I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building,' Gorman wrote. 'He left, no apology. This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon,...
Ask Melville House. Or perhaps don't: "We did what you would tell your children to never do. Not just having a business, but funding it the way we did: with our own money, with credit cards, we emptied out our bank accounts. I had a very small retirement fund from my life as a college professor and I emptied...
Studios are fighting with movie theatre chains; not enough people have been vaccinated yet to feel comfortable going to theatres; and, well, there's streaming. To be obvious: "'It’s going to take some time for things to settle out,' said David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research, a movie consultancy." - The New York Times
The director of a play in tech rehearsal says of the theatre building, abandoned a year ago as the pandemic swept the world, "I walked in, it was very quiet and I found myself touching everything, it was hard to believe it was actually real and it was happening." - The Age (Melbourne)
The occupation began Thursday; on Saturday, Culture Minister Roselyne Bachot went to visit the out-of-work culture and tourism workers, who want to know when theatre can start up again. "Among their demands is another year of special government aid for seasonal theater workers, who often struggle to make ends meet but have been particularly crippled since the virus hit....
Does anyone believe them? Hm. The Time's Up Organization tweeted a reaction: "On behalf of the many artists who look to us to hold the HFPA’s feet to the fire on the racism, disrespect, misogyny and alleged corrupt financial dealings of the Golden Globes, we need to see specific details, timetables for change, and firm commitments. The right words...
