“On College Bowl, two teams of four college students answered questions on science, history, philosophy, music, literature and other subjects. It combined elements of a team sport, high-speed oral examination and a football game. … Mr. Earle took over the show in 1962, when the original host, Allen Ludden, left to launch a new game show, Password, … and was the show’s host from 1962 until it left the air in 1970.” – The Washington Post
So Actors “Performed” The Mueller Report Last Week. Was This Theatre?
So if #MuellerLive was a cold read of a legal document without any attempt at acting value, was it theatre? It certainly was a performance: the airing of a document with the use of theatrical tools to illuminate a text for others. – The Stage
Why Have Book Festivals Become Such A Hot Ticket?
It’s hard not to see the increased popularity of all these events, alongside the rise in physical book sales and the modest resurgence of vinyl, as part of a new preference for the tangible over the virtual. – Irish Times
Debating The Shakespeare Authorship Issue
Last month The Atlantic published an essay by an Elizabethan scholar that suggested that “an Elizabethan writer named Emilia Bassano might have had a hand, or more, in the creation of William Shakespeare’s work.” Now the magazine has asked five Shakespeare experts to weigh in on the idea. – The Atlantic
One-Dimensional Diversity Isn’t Actually Very Equitable At All
“Over the history of our big and small screens, audiences have been treated to thousands of variations of whiteness. White people have stood in as the face of humanity’s fullness and complexity. We’ve watched white people traverse the boundaries of class, history, sexuality, gender, disease, fame and technology.” Now it’s time for everyone else to get that fullness, complexity, and – The New York Times
A Few Weeks On, Gauging How Very, Horribly Dark That ‘Game Of Thrones’ Ending Was
Oh, you thought it was cool, or even OK, that [SPOILER ALERT HIDDEN] is ruling Westeros? Let’s think of alllllll of the reasons why that person is a mass murderer who may rule for hundreds of years, and see if you still think it’s cool. – HuffPost
Television And The Stories Of Refugees
One of the writers of Jane the Virgin says, “What is Game of Thrones if not the story of Jon Snow, who saves a bunch of refugees, gets killed by his people for doing so, gets brought back from the dead, and survived the politics of his nation, then goes beyond the Wall to start his own chapter of Amnesty International?” – Variety
What If You’re A Fiction Writer, But You Need To Write About Science?
Well then, you become obsessed with theoretical physics, of course. Just ask Nell Freudenberger. Freudenberger “was, like so many other young women, encouraged to believe she didn’t ‘have the right kind of brain for it.’ After doing badly in a maths test in her teens, she was told by a teacher that she might as well quit.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Belorussian Nobel Laureate Whose Work Is The Uncredited Foundation Of The New Series ‘Chernobyl’
Svetlana Alexiévich published Voices from Chernobyl in 1997, 11 years after the catastrophe. Now, a new HBO miniseries is bringing the story to life for a new generation – “but for Alexiévich and the former citizens of the USSR who were living in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia at that time, it is still life.” – El País (Spain)
Why Is The U.S. So Far Behind Europe On Digital Privacy?
The U.S. permits shocking abuses of privacy online. Why? Well … “Congress’s earliest attempts to regulate computing in the 1980s and 1990s were embarrassing.” – The New York Times
Tchaikovsky And His Clever Auditory Illusions [AUDIO]
“Deep into the symphony, Symphony No. 6, there is a paradoxical passage that, when played, no one will be able to hear. This is because Tchaikovsky scored it to contain a musical illusion. We uncover the mystery of why he put it there.” – Slate
After Protests And Outcry, Children’s Theatre Withdraws Lawsuit Against Sexual Abuse Survivor
Laura Stearns, the survivor, says it’s a bit too late. “They should never have made the motion to begin with. … It was an insensitive choice and it’s grown bigger.” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Cindy Sherman Has A Complex Relationship To Making Art That People Can Understand, And Buy
In short: “Hers is an art of shape-shifting and disguise, artifice and camouflage. It draws on high and low culture: European and Hollywood films, 1950s television sitcoms, art history, high society, fashion, forensic science, drag, pinups and pornography; the esoteric and the everyday, the glamorous and the grotesque.” – The Observer (UK)
Interviewers Are Super Obsessed With The Kitchens And Dining Rooms In Movies Directed By Women
Nancy Meyers and Mindy Kaling agree that this is clearly related to gender. Look at Wes Anderson’s kitchens and dining rooms – or have you noticed articles about them? – Variety
Gaudi’s Unfinished ‘Sagrada Familia’ Finally Wins A Building Permit From Barcelona
It’s only been 137 years since the builders, who had no permit, apparently, broke ground for the massive, and massively complex, masterpiece cathedral. Will it be finished by the year the work permit runs out – 2026? Maybe! “Barcelona official Janet Sanz said the agreement between the city and the foundation had put an end to ‘a historical anomaly in our city.'” – The Guardian (UK) (Associated Press)