The Rolling World Premiere project, operated by the National New Play Network, “helps underwrite new plays to make sure they get at least three separate productions in three totally separate markets, all within 12 months – and all billed as world premieres as the play ‘rolls’ cross-country to various theaters, casts, and settings.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Steven Soderbergh, David Lynch, Hayao Miyazaki – Why Are All These Retired Directors Unretiring?
“Miyazaki has nothing left to prove. But for the other directors it’s hard not to suspect that the old retirement hokey-cokey – in, out, in, out – is at least partly driven by PR reasoning. … If that’s what’s going on, then these vacillating retirees have been forced into it by the tumultuous state of cinema. They’re taking action on a commonly voiced complaint: that the studios’ franchise addiction has sucked financing out of mid-range-budget films.”
How Jeff Koons’s ‘Banality’ Established Current Copyright Law For Artists
“The Banality shows spurred five lawsuits, some decades after the original exhibit. One is pending today, almost 30 years after the show, while another settled out of court. Koons lost the remaining three, with courts finding him liable for copyright infringement and rejecting his fair use defense: that he was parodying the source material. But importantly for the art world, … [those judgments] have helped to define when artists can and cannot use the work of others for their own pieces, making a lasting impact on copyright law.” Jessica Meiselman recounts the history.
Can Designers And Artists Re-Brand The South Bronx?
Yes, there are gentrification worries, but “these businesses and others are ambassadors of Bronx culture at large, said Jerome LaMaar, [boutique] 9J’s dapper owner. ‘And what’s a brand without the right ambassador to push it?’ Here, a look at some of those South Bronx ambassadors and their pioneering efforts in this new frontier.”
The First Black Movie Star In Britain Is Still Here At Age 100 (And He Says He’s Not Retired)
“He’s appeared in Ealing dramas, a James Bond movie and played a wily dictator in Sidney Pollack’s The Interpreter. But if [Earl] Cameron never quite achieved leading-man status, that was hardly his fault – there were other factors at play. … In hindsight, perhaps, he peaked too early. He broke the mould on his very first film. Shot in 1951, Basil Dearden’s thriller Pool of London cast him as Johnny, a young sailor who battles racists at the docks and romances a white girl beside Greenwich Observatory.”
This Black New York Actor Became The Toast Of 19th-Century Europe
“[Ira] Aldridge’s career as an actor was exceptional, and not just for a black actor at that time. He traveled farther, was seen by audiences in more countries, and won more medals, decorations, and awards than any other actor of his century.”
Art Cannot Solve America’s Race Problems, Says One Of America’s Leading Black Female Artists
Kara Walker, in the artist’s statement for her newest show: “I am tired, tired of standing up, being counted, tired of ‘having a voice,’ or worse, ‘being a role model,’ Tired, true, of being a featured member of my racial group and/or my gender niche.”
What Confederate Monuments Really Mean, And Why They Must Come Down: Philip Kennicott
“Our statuary is largely derived from and better suited to authoritarian societies than democratic ones because monuments require assent to a common proposition: This man was great. They are meant to put historical truths into final form, beyond debate, literally etched in stone.”
Hard Truths Or Easy Targets? New York Times Theater Critics Assess The Summer Of Trump
Alexis Soloski, Ben Brantley, and Jesse Green survey the scene – and the damage. As Brantley puts it, “I don’t experience catharsis unless I’m startled into feeling more deeply than I do just reading the headlines on my phone.”
American Boychoir And Its School To Shut Down
“Throughout its 80-year history, the choir has performed for presidents, on television and radio, and at places like Carnegie Hall and the Academy Awards. The choir toured the country and world and performed as many as 100 concerts each year.” But in recent years the school has been plagued by declining enrollment, cash shortages, and a sexual abuse scandal.