In the wake of George Floyd's killing and the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country, Ballet West's Black dancers were asked by their artistic director what needed to change. They weren't shy about the list. "When performances resume after the coronavirus shutdown of live events, Ballet West will no longer use makeup to lighten dancers’ skin or make them...
You'd think the director of Precious, The Butler, and more could get funding. But ... "'Studios will give you about $10 to make a black movie. I’m exaggerating, but you get the point,' he says." - The Guardian (UK)
It's an honorary, spokesperson role during a year when Fringe Fest may be online or may be in-person, or both, depending. Fleabag got its start at Fringe in 2013. Waller-Bridge: "From leaking caves to cobbled streets to the glamour of the Traverse Theatre up to Arthur's Seat, this festival is a beating heart of an industry that has been...
The register of Jewish burials in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca between 1836 and 1899, is one of very few documents left after more than 18,000 Hungarian-speaking Jews were deported from the city and murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Their homes and synagogues were ransacked, leaving almost no record of their lives and existence; the presence of this book on the...
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has some issues, with members describing monthly meetings as battle zones. The HFPA includes zero Black members. It's "an embattled organization still struggling to shake its reputation as a group whose awards or nominations can be influenced with expensive junkets and publicity swag." And it may be running afoul of tax law. - Los...
A new emphasis has also changed how design firms feel about commissions. "For the new guard of playground design, the boundary between play equipment and public sculpture is blurring. ... Playgrounds are increasingly seen as 'some of the top projects to get' – public projects which are on full display and allow landscape architects and designers to test their...
Members of De La Soul were, suddenly, characters on Teen Titans Go!, where in one episode, "the plot revolves around a fraught real-life issue: the ownership and availability of the group’s back catalog." And honestly, that's wild (and could bring change). "A major network show tailored for kids can get away with including more didactic lessons and explanations than...
Davis "presided over the field during boon years in New York in the 1960s and ’70s, when performances were plentiful and tickets relatively cheap, and when the ups and downs of a performer’s career provided fodder for cocktail parties and after-concert dinners, not to mention the notebooks of writers like Mr. Davis, who often delivered five or more reviews...
In 1917, Warner Bros. had eight films directed by women. In 2017, it had ... one. What the heck? Well, for one thing: "Female-focused stories that perform well at the box office are repeatedly seen as flukes rather than proof that audiences want films about women. ... Every summer they would write these stories like these films were sleeper...
This is a twisty, turny saga that does not in any way make the original media empire - Bon Appetit, of course - look any better, but the public peeling of "problematic media property" layers may not be over anytime soon. To quote one former podcaster: "I’ve been telling you guys @Gimletmedia is toxic for a long time. I’m...
This sounds wildly exotic and dangerous to most theatregoers in the U.S. right now: "A few days ago, Kylie Estreich went to a theater in Sydney to see a Broadway show. In person. With hundreds of other people. She showed her ticket, went to her seat, and sat elbow-to-elbow with her masked mother on one side and a masked...
Issues: "Change will feel snail-like as long as white organizational leaders, tenured professors, board members, and funders control and dictate, the pace of inclusion and the adoption of anti-racist practices." So it's time, says one nonprofit leader, to change the game entirely. - Hyperallergic
Vertenstein, a Holocaust survivor, was 93 when she died earlier this month. She "began giving lessons at age 14 in war-torn Romania. She did not stop for nearly 80 years. Toward the end, adapting to the pandemic, Ms. Vertenstein gave lessons on FaceTime from her home in Denver." - The New York Times
True? Film has always had marketing, PR, and of course ratings: "It would be a mistake to present the old gatekeepers in romantic colours compared to new technology companies. In both cases, we are talking about powerful institutions that define, control and manage the boundaries of what is art and culture." - BBC
A Broadway stage manager who's now in graduate school for (logically) organizational leadership project management: "I initially thought, well, I'll get a class or two under my belt and then we'll be back. Well, now it appears that I will be graduated before." - NPR
