Oh yes, there is such a thing: it’s run by Science magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. And this year’s winner, Superconductivity: The Musical! by (and starring) University of Victoria physics researcher Pramodh Senarath Yapa, is about the formation of electron pairs in metals. (You can watch all four of this year’s category winners here.) – Forbes
Author: Matthew Westphal
Off-Broadway’s Best-Connected, Best-Loved Talent-Spotter
“For the past 15 years, [Jason Eagan] has been the remarkably well-connected, stealthily low-profile, principal creative force shaping the innovative Off-Broadway incubator Ars Nova. … He’s the guy who plucked an obscure Billy Eichner out of one Manhattan basement and an unknown Lin-Manuel Miranda out of another; who discovered the alt-cabaret comedian Bridget Everett at midnight at a karaoke bar; who looked upon the glorious excess of Dave Malloy’s nascent War and Peace musical, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, and said, in effect: ‘More.’ ‘Keep going.’ And ‘Yes.'” – The New York Times
‘A Cross Between Birgit Nilsson And Tina Fey’: How A Perfectly Good Mozart Soprano Became The World’s Leading Wagnerian Hero-Diva
Says Alexander Neef, general director of Canadian Opera Company, about Christine Goerke, “People can’t get over the sheer power of the voice — and I don’t mean only the volume. … It’s not only that she hits all the notes and she hits them powerfully. It’s that there’s always an element of storytelling that really allows her to connect with the audience.” – The New York Times
A Friend Asked This Baltimore Sun Reporter To Try Being A Private Eye. She Became A Bestselling Crime Novelist Instead
“In this extended interview, [Laura] Lippman discusses her transition from reporter to writer of such novels as What the Dead Know and Sunburn, how women over 60 make the best spies, and why she’s rooting for the decline of dead-girl fiction.” (watch animated version here) – Topic
Working To Diversify The Buncha-White-Guys World Of Improv
“Improv may still skew white, but things are changing. … The following folks are currently working to alter perceptions and expectations about improv. Some are longtime warriors, others are new to the scene. But all point toward a future in which the stage presents a more diverse mix of ages, nationalities, body types, skin tones, gender identities, sexual orientations, and, yes, even political affiliations.” – American Theatre
Nonwhite And Female TV Writers Take An Awful Lot Of Crap In The Workplace: Study
“[They] faced discrimination and harassment from their fellow staff members. They remained in the same lowly jobs as their counterparts were promoted. They watched their pitches get ignored or rejected, only to see the same ideas warmly embraced when another writer pitched them. … Now a new survey, ‘Behind the Scenes: The State of Inclusion and Equity in TV Writers Rooms,’ of nearly 300 women, people of color, members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, and people with disabilities writing for television has captured in numbers the bias they report.” – The New York Times
Afghanistan’s First All-Women Orchestra Is Now Touring Abroad
The ensemble Zohra, named for the ancient Persian goddess of music, was created five years ago for the female students at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, itself founded only in 2008. “The music performed is a combination of traditional Afghan music and western classical. For instance, their new arrangement of ‘Greensleeves'” — made for its tour of England — “contains attractive new instrumentation probably not envisaged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1934.” – BBC
Gene Pack, 86, Salt Lake City’s Classical Radio Host For 40 Years
“Pack was host of KUER’s classical-music programming from 1960, when the station went on the air, to March 2001, when the station’s midday format was changed from classical music to all news and talk.” – The Salt Lake Tribune
PBS Launches Subscription Streaming Service On Amazon Prime
“The new streamer, [called PBS Living and] costing $2.99 per month after a seven-day free trial, will offer classic PBS series like The French Chef, This Old House and Antiques Roadshow, along with more recent series like No Passport Required and Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. The new channel will offer subscribers hundreds of episodes of PBS series across the food and cooking, home, culture and travel genres, with new content to be added each month.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Gimlet Media Becomes First Podcast Company To Unionize
“The 83-person staff of Gimlet Media, a podcasting startup acquired by music streaming service Spotify for $230 million in February, is unionizing with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). Gimlet was founded in 2014 and produces popular podcasts including Reply All, StartUp, and Crimetown.” – BuzzFeed