“Take a bunch of clever, ambitious people and tell them to get as many papers published as possible while still technically passing muster through peer review … and what do you think is going to happen? Of course the system gets gamed: The results from one experiment get sliced up into a dozen papers, statistics are massaged to produce more interesting results, and conclusions become exaggerated. The most prolific authors have found a way to publish more than one scientific paper a week. Those who can’t keep up might hire a paper mill to do (or fake) the work on their behalf.” – The Atlantic
Why American Remakes Of Foreign Films Don’t Always Go To Plan
Art house films in particular bear the marks of their specific directors and writers – and that often doesn’t translate (sorry, Another Round and Leo DeCaprio). “This may explain why so many international films optioned for remakes never get made. Paramount’s version of German Oscar nominee Toni Erdmann (2016), DreamWorks’ planned adaptation of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son (2013), or Tom Hanks’ U.S. take of A Man Called Ove, the Swedish sleeper from 2015, remain, as of this writing, in development hell.” And then there are international streaming services. – The Hollywood Reporter
Young Vic Says “Theatre Has Changed Forever” And Will Livestream Its Work
Kwame Kwei-Armah told the Guardian the pandemic had changed theatre forever, with the livestreaming of plays becoming “hard baked” into how the industry operates. – The Guardian
Discovered: When Tennessee Williams Wrote A Fan Letter To Eugene O’Neill
“An impassioned letter from Tennessee Williams to Eugene O’Neill is an astonishing find in the world of American drama studies. Just when it seems that the archival well has been drunk dry for these exhaustively studied artists, something truly wonderful appears and changes things. – UKNOW
NYC To Launch $25 Million Artist Corps Program To Hire 1,500 Artists
“We’re going to hire artists, musicians, performers, and they’re going to be out in communities doing public art, public performances, pop-up shows…creating murals, you name it,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We want to give artists opportunities, and we want this city to feel the power of our cultural community again.” – Gothamist
Matthew Bourne Starts New School To Prepare Minority Dancers For Professional-Level Work
Cygnet School, based in Canterbury, “is designed to bridge a gap that Bourne had noticed between young people who excel in dance at a grassroots level and those who are able to proceed with vocational training. ‘A lot of the young people who were coming to us for auditions were quite raw – the talent was there but they weren’t quite ready to go into a professional show. … [They] slip through the net’, said Bourne, particularly if they come from low-income backgrounds.” – The Guardian
What If An AI Bot Curated The Whitney Biennial?
“A new online art project based on data from the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Liverpool Biennial attempts to imagine 64 different curatorial statements and artist lists for future exhibitions, all ‘curated’ by a robot. … Each alternate universe is characterized by art speak that straddles the line between highbrow and utter incomprehensibility and is based on data drawn from actual Whitney and Liverpool Biennials past.” – Artnet
AMC Theatres Loses $567 Million
Revenues at the world’s largest exhibition chain topped out at $148.3 million, down 84.2 percent from the year-ago period, while the company logged a loss of $1.42 per share, an improvement on the loss of $20.88 per share that it reported in the year-ago period. – Variety
How, And Why, Barry Jenkins Went Through With Ten Episodes Of ‘The Underground Railroad’
“There was only one time when he seriously thought about quitting. The project … had just been announced, in the fall of 2016. Within hours of the news — BARRY JENKINS TO ADAPT HOT NOVEL ‘UNDERGROUND RAILROAD’ — the tweets had arrived. “THIS is what he’s doing after ‘Moonlight’? I HATE slave movies. Do we really need more images of Black people getting brutalized?” Jenkins almost pulled the plug right then.” – The New York Times
Short Opera Videos Are One Pandemic Innovation We Should Keep
Over the past months we’ve gotten “a range of short films that showcase top talents in American opera, highlight contemporary composers and recruit other artists (including costume designers and cinematographers) as well as tens of thousands of new viewers … [all because of the] overdue embrace of the dormant chemistry between cinema and opera, so rarely consummated.” – The Washington Post
Hollywood Is Hiring Rage Coaches To Teach Awful Execs Some Self-Control
“How to be a better boss is a question that has come under new scrutiny in Hollywood thanks to some high-profile examples of spectacularly bad ones. … In the trickiest coaching situations, a studio or agency’s human resources department hires a coach to work with a reluctant leader. … For those inclined to roll their eyes at the prospect, [a coach] reminds them of what they stand to lose.” – The Hollywood Reporter
New York Launches $25 Million City Artist Corps
“The program … will give money to artists, musicians and other performers to create works across the city, whether through public art, performances, pop-up shows, murals or other community arts projects. … [The effort] is expected to create jobs for more than 1,500 artists in New York City.” – The New York Times
La Scala Begins Construction On New Building
“The foundation stone has been laid for [the Milan opera house’s] new building, which will be constructed to the rear of the existing structure.” The project, designed by architect Mario Botta, “will expand the area for assembling sets, there will be new rehearsal rooms including a vast new space for the orchestra and a new ballet studio, and there will be office space for the departments that currently operate from outside the main building.” (second item) – Gramilano (Milan)
One Of London’s Leading Theatres Says It Will Keep Live-Streaming Productions Permanently
“[Young Vic artistic director] Kwame Kwei-Armah told The Guardian the pandemic had changed theatre forever, with the livestreaming of plays becoming ‘hard baked’ into how the industry operates. [He] said that during lockdown he had resolved to ‘innovate, not just replicate’ resulting in a project titled Best Seat in Your House which will use multiple cameras and allow online audiences to change what they are looking at.” – The Guardian
Investors Are Buying Up Vast Catalogues Of Music
Over the last year, dozens of music’s biggest artists have cashed in the rights to their entire catalogues of songs, netting tens or hundred of millions of dollars. This week, the Red Hot Chili Peppers became the latest, landing a reported $140 million US for the publishing rights to every song they’ve ever written. – CBC
Power Of The Press? From Op-Ed To Federal Writers Project Bill In Congress
Like his forebears under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, David Kipen rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He started writing letters to lawmakers calling for a revamped program for the COVID-19 era, and last May he wrote a piece for The Times examining that possibility. The article, headlined “85 years ago, FDR saved American writers. Could it ever happen again?,” piqued the attention of Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). Last summer, the congressman’s office began drafting a 21st century FWP — a grant program that would provide jobs for writers and other “cultural workers.” – Los Angeles Times
The Diversity of Performing Arts Audiences: Weighing Organizational Factors and Business Decisions
The pursuit of audiences and artists who come from, and speak for, various subgroups can enrich any shared arts experience aesthetically, emotionally, and socially. Longer term, it can translate to broader support and buy-in for arts organizations — in short, to more staying power. Still, it’s not always clear which business decisions can drive this objective. Re-enter SMU DataArts. – Sunil Iyengar
Cuomo: Broadway To Reopen Sept. 14
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that Broadway will reopen on Sept. 14, with some tickets going on sale beginning tomorrow. Theaters will be open at 100% capacity, the governor says. – Deadline