Nike Wagner, Wieland’s daughter, pretty much knew that she’d never lead the Bayreuth Festival once her uncle Wolfgang took over. (The job went to his daughters, Eva and Katharina; Eva is now retiring.) So she’s made her own way as a writer (including a predictably dirt-filled family tell-all) and dramaturg, and now she’s directing the world’s top Beethoven festival.
Author: Matthew Westphal
North Carolina Ends Tax Breaks For Movie Production
“North Carolina has been offering producers a 25% refundable tax credit, which meant, state legislators note, that taxpayers offset about 25 cents of each dollar spent. Refundable credits reimburse a company for its investments, even if it doesn’t owe state taxes.”
Why Isn’t The Edinburgh Int’l Festival Pulling In Any Of The Huge Fringe Audience? Asks Incoming Head
Fergus Linehan “pointed out that the EIF has the biggest theatre audience in the world on its doorstep, but struggles to exploit it. … ‘Why do we struggle to deliver an audience that looks like even a cross section of the people in this room, or even more, a cross section of people walking down the street?'”
Clobberation: How Four Unwary Grad Students Created A Touring Show For Teens Without (Quite) Ripping Each Other’s Throats Out
“We set out to create and establish roles to try and mitigate power conflicts. This worked for a short while, but we found that although we had divided ourselves into the traditional roles of Playwright, Set Designer, Sound Designer, Teaching Artist, Director, Stage Manager, and Education Director, those titles meant different things to each of us. Our roles became accusations.”
Why Some People Really Grieve Over Celebrity Deaths
“They’ve been a part of our lives. We see them on TV, they’re in our living rooms, we feel we know them, and we incorporate them almost as though they’re part of our families, though most of us recognize that they’re not. [But] there are some people whose reactions to celebrity deaths are so obsessional and extreme that it can literally make them sick.”
Why People Fall For Fake News Stories (It’s Not Just Irony Impairment)
“‘This isn’t about shortened attention spans. This is about an overabundance of decontextualized snippets of info.’ Facebook headlines and Tweets simply don’t consistently provide the cues one would need to distinguish weird news from fake news, ‘unless the [source] is consistently ironic’.”
Fluttering Passion: Vladimir Nabokov, Lifelong Lepidopterist
“The pleasures and rewards of literary inspiration are nothing beside the rapture of discovering a new organ under the microscope or an undescribed species on a mountainside in Iran or Peru. It is not improbable that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all.”
Emperor Augustus’s Stables To Be Reburied Because There’s No Money To Restore Them
“The reinterring of the stables, which once hosted horses raced at the Circus Maximus, is another blow to anniversary plans after Rome failed to find funds in time to restore Augustus’ mausoleum, a city block-sized monument which has been used as a toilet by tramps since falling into disrepair, and now stands mouldering behind fences in the centre of Rome.”
“Excellent Sheep”: What’s Become Of Students at Elite Colleges Today
William Deresiewicz: “They’re ‘excellent’ because they have fulfilled all the requirements for getting into an elite college, but it’s very narrow excellence. These are kids who will perform to the specifications you define, and they will do that without particularly thinking about why they’re doing it. They just know that they will jump the next hoop.”
Joffrey To Live-Stream Rehearsal Of New Wheeldon “Swan Lake” Thursday
The YouTube stream – 11:30 am to 3:00 pm U.S. Central Time – will feature artistic director Ashley Wheater as moderator and will include interviews with Christopher Wheeldon and (after they’ve caught their breath) company members.