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Eddie Redmayne: Playing “Danish Girl” Trans Character Was A Mistake

“No, I wouldn’t take it on now. I made that film with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake,” Redmayne told The Sunday Times. - Variety

Writer Robert Bly, 94

He "galvanized protests against the Vietnam War and started a controversial men’s movement with a best seller that called for a restoration of primal male audacity." - The New York Times

Opera As Mountains To Be Summited

Matthew Aucoin finds impossibility to be a constant in the history of opera. “The art form’s first practitioners, in seventeenth-century Italy strove to re-create the effect of ancient Greek drama, which of course they had never heard.” - The New Yorker

We’ve Made Progress. But The Thing About Progress Is It Has To Progress…

Those without the vision to produce art as means toward an end, rather than the end itself, have placated the wealthy donors who are also the users of the product. - Alan Harrison

What If We Stripped Humanities Education Back To First Principles?

The Catherine Project’s commitment, borne out beautifully by our seminars thus far, is that great books are supremely egalitarian: They move and challenge us all alike. Indeed, what proves great books great is that they’ve stood the test of time. - Hedgehog Review

Theatre Norms: Always Changing

The 19th century brought about the popularization of the proscenium arch: an architectural feature that effectively separates the audience from the actors on stage. Alongside this structural shift, a change in lighting also reinforced the separation between audience and performers. - The Conversation

Two Books Explore What It’s Really Like To Be A Ballerina

There are dancers, and there are ballerinas. Just like there are cooks, and then there are chefs. - Alastair Macaulay

Pianist Stephen Hough: Music Isn’t Icing On The Cake Of Life, It Is Life

Hough played the first live, streamed concert after shutdown to an empty hall in London. "It was a reminder of how important a cog music is in life. Don’t take it for granted. Tell our political leaders it’s not just entertainment." - The Observer (UK)

The Deep Emotional Appeal Of Nature Photos

Photos of animals bypass logic and get directly to the heart. One photographer makes sure her subjects are looking directly at the camera: "We don’t have a common language, and like eye contact between humans, it creates such a connection." - Hyperallergic

Lin-Manuel Miranda Turned Jonathan Larson’s Solo Show Into A Filmed Rock Opera

It's not a direct adaptation: "Miranda and his co-writer Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) have added music from Larson's other shows, tweaked some of the character arcs and even removed an entire subplot about Twinkies." - BBC

How Saturday Night Live Turned Itself Into The Internet

"Given the anxious state of the world today, watching the show has started to feel uncannily like doomscrolling through a social-media feed." That's mixed with daffy bits, of course - just like Twitter. - The Atlantic

San Antonio Symphony Musicians Strike To Prevent Personnel And Pay Cuts

Mary Ellen Goree, principal second violin: "I cannot sit on stage in my chair knowing that 26 of my colleagues lost their jobs just so I could hold onto two-thirds of mine. ... It’s a moral issue." - Spectrum News (San Antonio)

We Need To Puncture Our Knowledge Bubbles

"What we don’t know — about the lives of our neighbors and fellow citizens and why they think the way they do — is almost as important as what we do know." - The New York Times

An Ancient Book’s Journey From Irish Bog To Museum

It was a scary path. "Archaeologists placed the 'conglomeration' of squashed pages, leather and turf in a walk-in cold store in the museum at 4C. But there was no manual in the world to guide Gillis on how to go about the task." - The Guardian (UK)

An Appreciation Of Dave Hickey, Prolific Art Critic

Christopher Knight: "Lots of smart people write smart things about art but nobody was a better writer than Dave. ... Hickey, a brilliant and cantankerous wit, wrote for the ear. His work needed reading, not scanning, and rewarded effort with pleasure." - Los Angeles Times

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