Identity is the hottest topic in American theater these days, just as immigration is the hottest topic in American politics. But Heather Raffo’s Noura, a drama about a family of Iraqi Catholics who have fled to America, is nothing like the issue-driven, stridently politicized plays about these subjects with which our stages are currently clogged. — Terry Teachout
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Paradox Of Thomas Merton
“Merton was a remarkable man by any measure, but perhaps the most remarkable of his traits was his hypersensitivity to social movements from which, by virtue of his monastic calling, he was supposed to be removed. Intrinsic to Merton’s nature was a propensity for being in the midst of things. If he had continued to live in the world, he might have died not by electrocution but by overstimulation.” — The New Yorker
Chamber Music Collective Brings Classical Music To Teenagers In State Custody
Reporter Cintia Lopez joins members of the Boston ensemble Sarasa for one of their performance/workshops at a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services facility. — WBUR (Boston)
The Writers Of Four Of Last Year’s Major Films Share Screenplay Secrets
Gillian Flynn (Widows) on how to write a thrilling heist, Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible — Fallout) on how to write high-stakes action, John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) on how to write family horror, and Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) on how to adapt James Baldwin. — New York Times
Five Projects That Are Diversifying And Strengthening Classical Music In And Outside The Concert Hall
Of the five that WQXR has chosen to cite and congratulate, one is well-established and well-known, one is newer but has made the news, one’s unglamorous but very useful, one’s an outreach idea we’d never thought of, and one’s not really a project at all (but it involves a lot of heros). — WQXR (New York City)
The UNESCO World Heritage Label May Be Prestigious And Coveted, But Is It Effective?
A Q&A with Lucas Lixinski, a scholar of international cultural heritage and human rights law, argues that the UN body’s project to designate important pieces of cultural heritage is very effective — except for the communities whose culture the label is meant to protect. — Hyperallergic
Indigenous Performing Artists From All Over North America And Australia Gather In New York (Just In Time For APAP)
“In drawing attention to the breadth of contemporary Indigenous performance — with works spanning dance, theater, performance art and genres in between — the [First Nations Dialogues New York/Lenapehoking] are something rare for New York, if not unprecedented. Describing what to expect is not easy and not intended to be.” — The New York Times
To Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, The Merchant-Ivory Screenplays Were A Hobby
Notwithstanding the fact that she won Oscars for two of her scripts (A Room with a View and Howards End) for the filmmaking couple, she considered herself primarily a prose writer. Historian Maya Jasanoff offers a survey of her work, which she characterizes as a blend of Jane Austen and V.S. Naipaul. — The New Yorker
Does The Injustice In America Make You Want To Scream? Head To Off-Off-Broadway
One piece that Peter Marks saw there let the audience do exactly that. “But the activity struck me as a vocalization of what I’ve been sensing in theaters all year: a potential for imminent explosion, wrought by the grappling with injustices that make many onlookers want to, well, scream.” — The Washington Post
Banksy-By-Proxy Slips Banana Into Cincinnati Show
An artist calling himself Frizk says that he snuck a Banksy painting of a half-peeled banana onto the wall of the Mamma Andersson: Memory Banks exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. (The Banksy was meant to fit in and not be noticed, but it was spotted quite promptly.) — Hyperallergic