That decision came with input from, to put it mildly, a lot of people: “The one-off award, voted for by the public, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Man Booker prize. The shortlist of five novels was selected by a panel of judges from the 51 previous winners of the Man Booker, which honors the best novels written in English and published in Britain or Ireland.”
Month: July 2018
How Should Theatres Respond To Casting Controversies?
It’s not a PR problem, y’all. And it’s not going to go away with a blog post from the artistic director blaming actors of color for not being available.
HBO Got Bought, And Now Changes May Be Coming
Things are going to change. HBO’s new executive, who was a longterm executive at AT&T, “described a future in which HBO would substantially increase its subscriber base and the number of hours that viewers spend watching its shows. To pull it off, the network will have to come up with more content, transforming itself from a boutique operation, with a focus on its signature Sunday night lineup, into something bigger and broader.”
A Proposed New Theatre In England Gets A High Court Legal Challenge
The local planning council gave permission for a 1200-seat theatre in a park in the city of Tunbridge Wells, but there’s a challenge: “Former conservative councillor Brian Ransley has submitted an application for judicial review to the high court, which means a judge will review the planning decision made by the council. The claim was based on an objection to the process that was used by the council to come to the decision, according to Ransley.”
Wait, Maybe We’re Not Actually Oblivious While We’re Concentrating
The problem doesn’t necessarily lie in the experiments (the gorilla suit in the middle of the basketball game, etc.), but in the conceptual ideas behind the experiments. “The assumption of human blindness or bias makes scientists themselves blind to the other, more positive aspects of human cognition and nature.”
Thandie Newton Says It’s Time For More Diversity In Sci-Fi
Newton, star of Westworld, lays it out: “Science fiction is a projection of a time that hasn’t even happened, so if you don’t populate that place with people of different skin tones, shame on you. What it actually is is the reflection of what those makers do in their daily lives, how little they hang out with people of different skin tones. These are the key people and it’s like, ‘Oops-a-daisy, I don’t have a lot of black friends,’ and that’s a reality.”
How Director Jean-Marc Vallee Evolved Between ‘Big Little Lies’ And ‘Sharp Objects’
You can see some similarities in particular scenes of Big Little Lies, but in Sharp Objects, the visual is heightened. “Its visual language makes it a more consistently daring work of television. Sharp Objects doesn’t feel like a scripted series so much as an intoxicant.”
The Challenging Patron Behind The Non-Publication Of Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Barracoon’
How was Barracoon funded? None of the PR has focused on this aspect of the book. And “like it or not, Barracoon bears Mason’s indelible mark. It was written on her schedule, under her pressure, and with her money. The 2018 edition of the text even opens with the bizarre dedication that Hurston, respecting her patron’s insistence on privacy, never included in her typed manuscript: ‘To Charlotte Mason, My Godmother, and the one Mother of all the primitives, who with the Gods in Space is concerned about the hearts of the untaught.'”
A Rich Photography Prize That Intends To Highlight The Environmental Crises In Our World
The Prix Pictet Award rewards realism with a message. “As photographers have become increasingly fascinated by conceptualism, the award champions the unfashionable notion that photography’s primary duty is to show the world as it is — and, if possible, to change it.”
What Audience Members Now Think When A Ballet Suddenly Stops
During a performance of Swan Lake, “The curtain came down. The orchestra stopped. The house lights came up. There was no announcement. Most people were on their feet, and many started heading for the doors. We debated what to do. We scanned the crowds below, trying to make sense of what we were seeing. In the balcony, we were acutely aware of how high up our seats were and how many people were in the building. Our hearts were pounding. We did not see a threat, but people were reacting as though something were very wrong.”