Matthew Westphal – Page 1783 – ArtsJournal Wayback

‘Literary Geography’ – Literally: Mapping The Emotions Of 19th-Century London

“What lurks behind the literary landmarks of Victorian London? Fear? Joy? Ambiguity? In a new data mining project, a Stanford University research collective has sought to map the British capital’s ’emotional geography’ by categorizing what feelings or sensations common settings convey in the novels of Dickens, Thackeray, Austen and 738 [of their colleagues].”

Christopher Wheeldon In Wonderland: “An American in Paris” Is Ballet Choreographer’s Dream Come True

His staging (direction as well as dance) of the Gershwin show, just opened on Broadway after knockout success in Paris, “perfectly encapsulates the artistic character of the boyish-looking, 42-year-old Wheeldon: a sophisticated balletmaker who is a hopeless fan of razzle-dazzle.” Sarah Kaufman tells how he came to the project.

The Ballerina Who Earned Her Starring Broadway Role In The Shower

The star-to-be was the Royal Ballet’s Leanne Cope, the show was An American in Paris, the director was her old colleague Christopher Wheeldon. And – sorry! – neither nudity nor running water was involved.

Günter Grass Dead At 87

“With his novels, plays, articles and speeches, Mr. Grass became one of Germany’s foremost intellectuals and gadflies. The themes that consumed his literature – guilt, atonement and hypocrisy – were also central to his political commentary. He could be shrill and polarizing, a self-professed ‘troublemaker’ who cultivated what he described as a ‘tendency to bring out into the open what had too long been swept under the carpet.'”

Pianist Who Was To Replace Lisitsa With Toronto Symphony Says Her Fans Bullied Him Into Withdrawing

Stewart Goodyear: “Words of bile and hatred were hurled in my direction from all sides. Suddenly I was accused of supporting censorship, and bullied into declining this engagement. What started out as one of the happiest moments of my life turned into a shattering display of mob hysteria.”

There Is No Element Of Cinema That “Monty Python And The Holy Grail” Did Not Brilliantly Make Fun Of

“You barely notice the subtitles at first, beyond chuckling at their pointless inclusion, then realize what’s going on – that the edges of reality are being blurred; that there’s no premise, not even a simple credit sequence, that this film won’t seek to subvert.”

Moving “Fun Home”: Alison Bechdel Watches Her Life Unfold On Broadway

“I can’t even use the word surreal anymore, it’s so trite; it’s weird … I do understand that there’s a difference between the play and my life, but it is a very strange and permeable boundary. It’s some kind of hall-of-mirrors thing. There’s been this strange feedback effect.”

Chita Rivera, Back (And Upside-Down) On Broadway At 82

“Two hours before any preview performance of The Visit, the Kander and Ebb musical that opens this month at the Lyceum Theater, you can find its star, Chita Rivera, in her dressing room. Upside down.”

Here’s Our Kind Of Video Game: It Lets You Wander Through De Chirico Paintings

The Brazilian designer Carlos Monteiro has developed SURREALISTa, a free computer game tribute to the Italian artist that simulates it in three dimensions. The goal is to find the secret gateways from one level to the next (there are five), each just a bit more eerie than the one preceding it.”

Author: Matthew Westphal