The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle, published without a byline, was serialized in the New York Sunday Dispatch 165 years ago. Jennifer Schuessler tells how a graduate student at the University of Houston found the novel and figured out its authorship.
Author: Matthew Westphal
How A Grass-Roots Movement Convinced Equity To Get Major Raises For Off-Broadway Actors
Diep Tran tells the story of #FairWageOnstage.
‘Moonlight’ And ‘Arrival’ Win Writers Guild’s Best Screenplay Prizes
At the last of the big awards ceremonies before the Oscars on Sunday, “Moonlight won for best screenplay, and Arrival for best adapted screenplay; it was based on the Ted Chiang novella Story of Your Life.”
How Herbert Blomstedt Keeps Up His Busy Conducting Schedule At 90
“Some journalists want me, of course, to say it’s because I never smoked, or because I’m a vegetarian, or because I keep the Sabbath.” [Blomstedt is a Seventh-Day Adventist.] “But that’s not the reason. …. Churchill drank lots of whiskey and smoked enormous big cigars, and he lived to be 90 or so.”
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Africa’s Largest, Forced To Close Due To Leaky Roof
The roof has leaked since 1989, but heavy rains last month did so much damage that the museum – whose collection includes works by Picasso, Monet, and Rodin – has been forced to close for several months. And, as Lynsey Chutel reports, that’s by no means JAG’s only problem.
There Were Nobel-Winning Writers At The Munich Security Conference (Who Knew?)
“In a series of public talks entitled ‘The Cassandra Phenomenon,’ world class writers Herta Müller, David Grossman, and Wole Soyinka [added] their voices to the debate about international security challenges.”
A ‘Rescue Mission’ To See If Anything Can Be Rescued After ISIS’s Destruction Of Nimrud
“An Iraqi archaeologist who was recently given emergency training by the British Museum is leading a rescue operation in Nimrud, the Assyrian site which was almost totally destroyed by [ISIS] extremists. The archaeologist has been appointed by Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage to investigate the damage and stablise what can be saved.”
Street Theatre In Beirut: Palestinian Refugees Act For Syrian Refugees (And Lebanese City Folks)
Milia Ayache writes about adapting, staging and performing Derek Walcott and Biljana Srbljanović in Arabic with her Masrah Ensemble.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.20.17
On Entrepreneurialism and Publicness (or Whose Theatre Is It, Really?)
I was disquieted when I encountered [Richard Swedberg’s] discussion of cultural entrepreneurship a few years ago; however, it took completing a case study on the Margo Jones Theatre last year for me to identify the source of my unease. … read more
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2017-02-20
The president who hated Marcel Duchamp
A historian friend of mine reminded me the other day that Theodore Roosevelt attended and wrote about the 1913 Armory Show, the first major exhibition of modern art to be held in America. What’s more, … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2017-02-20
PDX Jazz Festival: Heath Bros, Jackson, Ulmer
Jimmy Heath is 90 years old. His kid brother Albert (Tootie) is 80. They don’t act or sound their ages. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-02-20
Larry Coryell Is Gone
Guitarist Larry Coryell died over the weekend in New York City. He was 73. A pioneer of jazz-rock and fusion, throughout his career Coryell was capable of delicacy and softness in guitar … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2017-02-20
Buy A Discounted Ticket To Leave For A Stranger, Says Venue In Rome
“The initiative will run for just over two weeks at the Teatro delle Muse, where people buying tickets for a variety show will be able to purchase an extra seat at a reduced price to leave at the box office for someone else.” It’s based on the old Naples tradition of “caffe sospeso.”