Author: Matthew Westphal

Productions Of New Plays In London’s West End Have Tripled In Ten Years

“A snapshot survey of the West End in 2019, 2014, 2009 and 1999 has revealed the proportion of original plays is at its highest now, accounting for more than a fifth (21%) of all productions. Ten years ago, only three plays in the West End were not based on existing source material, such as a book or film, or were not revivals.” – The Stage

A Campaign In London For A New Museum Of Slavery

The proposal, which has the support of London mayor Sadiq Khan, comes from the Fabian Society, a socialist organization that dates back to 1884. The Fabians say that a slavery museum would educate the public about the “centuries-old tropes about racial inferiority” that feed racism to this day — and that both London’s financial industry and the UK government “have a moral obligation” to fund the project. – BBC

Eighty Years Ago, The Idea Of The Good Witch Entered Popular Culture

The Wizard of Oz‘s Glinda the Good Witch of the North was the first sorceress figure not to wear black, cackle, have a cartoonishly ugly face, or do evil — and so became the grandmother of Samantha Stevens (Bewitched), Sabrina, and Hermione Granger. Writer Pam Grossman makes the case that Glinda was much more than a “silly pain in the neck” (as Salman Rushdie had it) — and locates Glinda’s likely origin in L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law. – The Atlantic

Why Household Appliances Are Now Getting Their Own Little Melodies

“No longer do household machines merely bing or plink or blamp, as they might have in a previous era when such alerts simply indicated that the clothes were dry or the coffee was brewed. … You may be skeptical that an electronic jingle, however holistic, can make doing the dishes a life-affirming endeavor — or even one that might bind you, emotionally, to your dishwasher. But companies are betting otherwise, and not entirely without reason.” – The Atlantic

Creating Comic Books For The Blind

“Working in a highly visual art form, [Chad] Allen managed to create an auditory experience that closely mimics the sensation of reading a comic book. A whooshing sound occurs whenever a panel changes; the intentionally stilted delivery of lines, as well as narration that prompts mental images, conjure a feeling of being inside a high-stakes comic book world.” – Los Angeles Times

Using Science Fiction To Teach Computer Science Students Ethics

“There’s a long, tangled debate over how to teach engineers ethics — and whether it’s even worth doing. … But Team Ethics is making a comeback. With the morality of Big Tech again called into question, schools like MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford have launched new ethics courses with fanfare” — and with the quandaries posited in many science fiction narratives making them very useful texts. – Wired