Author: Matthew Westphal

‘Turn To The Pigs For Inspiration’: How I Became A Countryside Choreographer

Ben Duke: “I am currently working on a solo version of Paradise Lost. I am playing God. I haven’t seen him around here any more than I did in London, but such a self-obsessed bit of casting is easier down here where there are far fewer people to tell me it is a stupid idea. If it doesn’t work out, I will turn to the pigs for inspiration.”

Calls To Boycott ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ From Furious Men’s Rights Advocates (Wait, What?)

One anti-feminist blogger calls the action film starring Charlize Theron a “Trojan Horse [that] feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things. … If you were like me, the explosions, fire tornadoes, even the symphonic score surrounding Fury Road‘s first trailer made your attendance a foregone conclusion. It looked like a straight-up guy flick.”

New York’s New Pop-Up Theatre Built For An Audience Of One

“Many theater owners like to say they offer an intimate show but only one really means it. That would be Theatre for One – a 4-foot-by-8 foot portable theater that allows one audience member at a time to see one short play performed by a single actor. … This year, new plays were commissioned from Craig Lucas, Will Eno, Lynn Nottage, Jose Rivera, Thomas Bradshaw, Zayd Dohrn and Emily Schwend.”

Is This The Year Of The Very Long Novel? Or Does It Only Seem Like It?

“Maybe it was ever thus? ‘I don’t think the long novel ever went away,’ says Jennifer Brehl, who edited Neal Stephenson’s forthcoming 880-page sci-fi story Seveneves. … But the notable thing about these books isn’t that their heft is unprecedented; it’s that all the forces Hallberg alluded to in 2010″ – basically, culture-wide gadget-induced ADD – “are exponentially stronger today.”

Bestselling French Author’s Play Pulled From Festival Because Staging Anything By Him Is Too Dangerous

“The Elementary Particles, a new stage work adapted from [Michel] Houellebecq’s own 1998 novel, was set to play at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in July. … A spokeswoman for the festival confirmed by email that the play was canceled following a ‘risk analysis’ carried out by the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency.”

‘My Life As A Man’ – What One Mezzo Has Learned About Gender From A Career’s Worth Of Pants Roles

Alice Coote: “Having been stepping into male eyes for two decades now for around 70% of my working life I, by necessity, have had to dwell in a place where my mind feels increasingly separate from my sexual body. It has made it complex for me to return to daily life as a woman: I feel in sharp relief the way a … woman’s personal and public relationship power is utterly unlike that of a … male’s expectations and power relationship to the world. Cross-dressing on the stage reveals less to me about gender than it does power.”