“The oldest Egyptian leather manuscript has been found in the shelves of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where it was stored and forgotten for more than 70 years. Dating from the late Old Kingdom to the early Middle Kingdom (2300-2000 B.C.), the roll measures about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) and is filled with texts and colorful drawings of the finest quality.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘War Horse’ To Close On West End After Seven-Year Run, Despite Ongoing Popularity
Said Rufus Norris, director of Britain’s National Theatre (which originated the production), “We could keep it going for longer, we could put a new cast in and drag it out, but our subsidy is to make work here and to reach out to audiences around the country.”
‘Brokeback Mountain’ To Be Made Into Stage Play
“It started as a short story, became an Oscar-winning film and then an opera, and now Brokeback Mountain is going to be adapted for the legitimate stage. Producer Tom O’Connell has acquired the rights to Annie Proulx’s short story … and the production is expected to premiere in London’s West End in 2016.”
More Personal, More Political, More Varied, More Viral – The Obituary Is Changing
From a family-placed obituary in Maine that dealt openly with the deceased’s heroin addiction and the closure of the state clinic that was treating her (it was noticed nationwide), to the news obituaries (now less strait-laced) that run in big-city papers, the genre is getting multiple makeovers.
The Tolstoy of the Zulus. The Citizen Kane of Video Games. Subsumptive Analogies Are the Hitler of Figurative Speech!
“If garden-variety similes serve to equate two things, these lopsided comparisons force one term to exert twice the gravitational pull of the other. Call them subsumptive analogies. Condescension is usually baked right in.”
Enough With the Queer and Trans Films That Are Actually About Straight People
Kyle Buchanan: “Nor am I saying that just because a movie features a gay or trans character that that character deserves to be the undisputed lead … But if these movies are being made because the queer and trans characters are so fascinating, let’s keep those characters at the center, where they belong.”
After ‘Being John Malkovich’ And ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’, Charlie Kaufman Makes An All-Puppet Movie (And Wins Prizes For It)
“The fact that they’re puppets being manipulated becomes an existential issue as well. You know someone’s manipulating them – they don’t know it.”
David Willcocks, Who Led Choir Of King’s College, Cambridge To Worldwide Fame, Dead At 95
With dozens of recordings, the globally beloved Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve, his decades directing London’s Bach Choir (Britain’s most prominent large amateur chorus), and innumerable descants for church hymns, Willcocks was one of the most influential choral conductors of the 20th century.
The Late Claudio Abbado Gets A Final Honor: Gramophone Record Of The Year
“Three years ago he was honoured with the lifetime achievement award, but this week conductor Claudio Abbado made a final posthumous appearance at the Gramophone Awards as his last recording – Bruckner’s symphony no 9, with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – was awarded the prestigious recording of the year prize.”
London’s Oldest Music Hall Reopens After £4M Restoration
The long-forgotten Wilton’s Music Hall first returned to our attention – still in a very derelict state – in 1997 with the celebrated Deborah Warner-Fiona Shaw staging of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Other stagings in the venue followed over the years – as did a capital campaign. Now Wilton’s is ready for full-time use – still looking worn, but with up-to-date theatre infrastructure.