Matthew Westphal – Page 1949 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Turning An Audience Into Asylum-Seekers Trying To Sneak Across A Border

Bordergame, the latest site-specific production by National Theatre Wales, will have live audience members on a train trying to cross illegally from England into “the Autonomous Republic of Cymru” – as online audience members decide their fate in real time.

A Fourth Italian Opera House Loses Its Chief Conductor

With the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari having cancelled its fall productions after posting a €2 million deficit for 2013, the house’s young chief conductor, Daniele Rustioni, has said he won’t renew his contract when it expires next January. (in Italian)

How Our Sense Of Humor Changes As We Age

Researchers describe it as a progression from aggressive humor to affiliative humor – but it’s clearer and more understandable than those two terms may sound.

UK Stage Directors Form Their Own Union

“Increasing fees in the sector is one of Stage Directors UK’s first priorities. It will also represent directors on issues such as royalties, contracts, digital rights and copyright, as well as leading on training initiatives.”

U. Srinivas, South India’s Master Of The Mandolin, Dead At 45

“Bringing the mandolin into Carnatic music was still a new – and later, frequently criticized – endeavor when U. Srinivas picked it up at age 5. … He brought a liquid sound to his instrument that is arguably untouched by mandolinists working in any genre. Along the way, he became one of the most globally beloved South Indian musicians.” (includes video and audio)

Two Cinema Chains Refuse To Screen “Crouching Tiger” Sequel Because It’s Also Being Released On Netflix

Regal Cinemas and Cinemark declared that they won’t show Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, the first major release to appear on Imax and an online streaming service on the same date. Said one exec: “At Regal we will not participate in an experiment where you can see the same product on screens varying from three stories tall to 3 inches wide on a smartphone.”

Fighting Our Addiction To Being Connected At All Times

Michael Harris: “I think that we’ve gone through this very giddy ride of absorbing new communication technologies, and what we’re hitting now is a point where we have to start becoming intelligent about our media diets in the same way that we had to become intelligent about our food diets after we got a super abundance of sugar and fats at our disposal.”

The Attractions Of Slow TV

“A slow-TV program is like a great view you encounter on vacation: it’s always there, impervious, but it gains meaning and a story depending on what it conjures in your head. … As entertainment, it is backward: it appears to do its job by casting viewers into their own minds.”

The Daydreaming Disorder: Is “Sluggish Cognitive Tempo” The Next ADHD? (Is It Even Real?)

“The name of [this] ‘new attention disorder’ sounds like an Onion-style parody … It also sounds like a classic case of disease mongering: blurring normality with sickness to boost drug companies’ bottom lines. … Disease mongering is a tough concept to define – but if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. What we have here seems to be a duck egg.”

Author: Matthew Westphal