For its first five seasons, the Ubuntu Theater Project in Oakland sold tickets at $15 to $45 a seat, with some pay-what-you-wish seats available for low-income audience members at the door. “But all that wasn’t inclusive — or radical — enough for Ubuntu. So last summer, the theatre adopted a pay-as-you-can subscription model, guaranteeing tickets to its seven shows for a single amount named by the ticketholder.” Says marketing director Simone Finney, “This is what we’re about as a company, and if we were gonna fail, we should fail on things that are ideologically exciting.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Daniel Radcliffe Is Playing A Fact-Checker On Broadway, So He Spent A Day Being One At The New Yorker
The magazine’s chief of fact-checking, to Radcliffe: “You have to project confidence, so the person doesn’t start quarrelling with everything that you ask.”
Radcliffe: “I’m more nervous about this than I am about going onstage tonight.”
E-Tickets, Drinks At Your Seat, And Phone Booths Turned Into Listening Stations: What The Milwaukee Symphony’s New Hall Will Offer Its Audience
“Construction crews are working prestissimo on converting the former Warner Grand Theatre into a state-of-the-art performance venue for symphonic music [to open in September 2020]. … [And] management is using the fresh start to plan future user experiences. Experiences-plural is deliberate: They plan to appeal both to concertgoers who want to leave the outside world behind and immerse themselves in music, as well as folks who wants to stay wired and connected.”
Inside The Capital Of Toddler YouTube (Oh Yes, It’s A Thing)
“Sesame Street has more than 5 billion views on YouTube … but ChuChu has more than 19 billion. Sesame Street‘s main feed has 4 million subscribers; the original ChuChu TV channel has 19 million — placing it among the top 25 most watched YouTube channels in the world.” Alexis Madrigal travels to ChuChu headquarters in Chennai to find out how they do it — and talks to a scholar of children’s media about the pluses and pitfalls of their style of video.
A Dance Style From South Africa’s Townships Goes Mainstream — And Political
“Pantsula took its early influences predominantly from tap dance, with traces of jive, gumboot, tribal African dance and everyday gestures like dice-rolling. … Sixty years on, [it] still thrives in townships across South Africa, but its character and style have morphed in line with the lives of the people who cultivated it.”
Art For Art’s Sake, And For Social Justice’s Sake, Too: In Defense Of ‘The New Moralizers’
Inkoo Kang, responding to Wesley Morris’s essay “The Morality Wars”: “Whoever they are — lefty tweeters, emerging critics, the thinkpiece industry, or millennials and Gen Z at large — I’m probably a member. But I don’t recognize the collapse of nuanced debate that Morris presents. In part that’s because the generational shift Morris posits feels simplistic, given its lack of generosity toward these rabble-rousers.”
How A Director Under House Arrest In Moscow Directs An Opera In Zurich
Kirill Serebrennikov has been confined to his home for well over a year on embezzlement charges many say are trumped-up. Zurich Opera House had engaged Serebrennikov to direct Così fan tutte two years ago and decided to go ahead, figuring that he’d be released by now. No such luck — worse, he’s not allowed to use the internet or even a telephone. Shaun Walker reports on how Serebrennikov is managing to stage the production anyway.
For The First Time, Met Museum Exhibits Native American Art In American Wing
“The pieces, which represent the diverse cultural heritage of a wide range of indigenous peoples throughout the ages, have traditionally been displayed in the galleries of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, but a milestone show at the Met is now seeking to situate Native American works within the broader narrative of American art.” The objects come from the collection of Charles and Valerie Diker, who required that they “be presented as American art rather than tribal art.”
Fangoria Has Risen From The Dead
“The fabled horror magazine that has thrilled and terrified readers since 1979 looked dead and buried last year. But now, just in time for Halloween, Fangoria has crawled out of its own grave in the form of a new quarterly journal with photos so high-gloss that the blood looks wet.”
Two More Former Students Accuse Cleveland Orchestra Concertmaster Of Sexual Harassment
This is the third such accusation against William Preucil, who has been suspended by the orchestra while management investigates the initial claim. As with that first allegation, both of the women who have just come forward say that the incidents happened during private lessons with Preucil.