“A prolific actress who appeared in plays, television series and more than 80 films, … she was among Japan’s earliest on-screen sex symbols, known for playing elegant and assertive princesses, noblewomen, geishas and prostitutes. Her performances marked a striking departure from traditional roles for Japanese actresses.” – The Washington Post
Author: Matthew Westphal
Britain’s Equivalent Of ‘Jerry Springer Show’ Cancelled After Guest Found Dead
“Given the gravity of recent events,” said the CEO of the ITV network in a statement, “we have decided to end production of The Jeremy Kyle Show.” The grave recent event was the death of a 63-year-old man a week after he failed an on-camera lie detector test while claiming that he had not cheated on his girlfriend. – The New York Times
After Firing Two Museum Directors, Czech Culture Minister Gets Fired Himself
“A former mayor of Olomouc, [minister Antonín] Staněk made headlines several weeks back when he fired the director of the National Gallery in Prague, Jiří Fajt, and the head of Olomouc’s Museum of Art, Michal Soukup, accusing them of improper management. The domestic arts scene rose up almost in unison against the sackings.” (And then there was a disastrous interview last week.) – Radio Praha
How Theatre In Zimbabwe Has Been Dealing With Two Decades Of Upheaval And Poverty
Journalist and playwright Farai Mabeza gives a survey of the sector and the ways its artists have been opening windows on the society’s social and political problems despite a severe lack of financial resources. – HowlRound
Laura Dern’s 40-Year Acting Career Has Been As Flexible As Her (Extraordinary) Face Is
Among the many anecdotes in Christine Smallwood’s profile: “She never dabbled in the drugs and alcohol that were omnipresent on film sets. Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols once pulled her aside while they were shooting Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains and scared her straight. (Dern celebrated her 13th birthday on that set.) ‘I was saying to my mom, Who knew that the best thing to do would be to send your daughter to do a movie with the Sex Pistols for five months?'” – The New York Times Magazine
‘The Most Holistic Approach To Creating Belonging That I Have Witnessed In A Theatre’
Critic Alex Rosenfeld writes about A Fierce Kind of Love, a devised play about the intellectual disability rights movement, and how everything about the production, from the integration of performers with disabilities into the development of the script and the cast to the provisions made by the presenter (FringeArts in Philadelphia) for audience members of varying (dis)abilities, demonstrated the difference between inclusion and belonging. – HowlRound
A Vietnamese-American Theatre Critic Finally Sees Her Stories Onstage — And Feels What She Had Barely Known Was Missing
“There is a line in The Scarlet Letter: ‘She had not known the weight, until she felt the freedom.’ I hadn’t known the weight of transposing myself into other people’s bodies until I no longer had to do it.” Diep Tran writes about Vietgone and Poor Yella Rednecks, the first two parts of a planned five-play cycle by Qui Nguyen about his family’s journey from Vietnam and settlement in the U.S. – American Theatre
How Exactly Do You Define ‘Camp’? You Shouldn’t Even Try (Sorry, Susan Sontag)
“Camp, an agent of nonsense, resists this exercise. Or actually, like a child, kind of ignores it and wanders elsewhere.” J. Bryan Lowder takes it as a basic principle that camp is, or ought to be, fun — and whatever Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” is, fun it ain’t. “One can walk out of Sontag’s brain and into a less oppressive headspace. One can have a relationship with camp not marked by acrimony. But getting there requires recognizing how we got here.” So Lowder does some deep-diving — well, Slip ‘N Slide-ing, actually. – Slate
90-Year-Old Composer Disrupts Opera Opening With 50-Year-Old Grudge Against Company
Just as the lights were going down at the State Theatre in Melbourne for the start of Opera Australia’s Rigoletto, George Dreyfus stood up and started yelling through a megaphone about the fact that the company had never produced the opera it had commissioned from him in 1969 and he turned in the following year. He went on for more than ten minutes at which point the police arrived. – Limelight (Australia)
Stop Asking What It’s Like To Be A Female Director, Say Females On Cannes Jury
Filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher: “It’s sort of like asking someone who survived a shipwreck why he’s still alive. … Why are you asking us? Well, ask the person who built the boat, who sold the tickets, the schools. People have said there haven’t been enough women, but it’s not enough to talk about at the end [of the chain]. We have to look at the beginning of the chain.” – Vulture