Author: Matthew Westphal

Two Actors Pursue Berkeley Rep And Their Union For Violating Contracts On Last Day Before COVID Shutdown

On the day in March when the Bay Area got lockdown orders, Berkeley Repertory Theatre called the cast of Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, which was still in rehearsal, to come in on their day off. When the actors arrived, they were told to get into costume and perform the play for video cameras before the company closed for the duration; Berkeley Rep then sold tickets to stream that video in lieu of the cancelled performances. Now two members of the School Girls cast argue that that day constituted a series of contract violations, and they’re pursuing action against both Berkeley Rep for doing what it did and Actors’ Equity for permitting it. – San Francisco Chronicle

COVID Has Squashed In-Person Teaching. Some Performing Arts Students Question Whether It’s Still Worth It

“With the virus still on a rampage, many of the age-old, hands-on ways of training musicians, dancers and actors have had to be tossed out the window or, at the very least, drastically reshaped. How much this will affect the industry down the line — and what audiences may see and hear in years to come — is difficult to gauge. But to varying degrees, depending on the art form, professional groups and future performances rely on a pipeline of well-trained graduates of higher education. Which means there’s a lot of tension surrounding music, dance and theater programs.” – The Washington Post

Singers Can Reduce COVID Danger By Singing More Softly, Says Study (But There’s A Big Caveat)

Researchers at the University of Bristol used 25 professional singers of various genres as subjects, having them speak and sing at various levels, and found that singing at a conversational level produces only slightly more aerosols than speaking normally does — more volume of sound equals more volume of potentially virus-carrying droplets on the breath, basically. The caveat? The researchers are chemists, not virologists, and the study has not yet been peer-reviewed. – BBC

MGM Remakes One Of Its Divisions As Studio Run By And For BIPOC Moviemakers

As one of the authors of UCLA’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report put it, “There are almost no people of color in the film industry who have the power to say, ‘This movie is getting made and by this person.” Now MGM is taking a concrete step to address that: it’s turning its Orion Pictures division over to 36-year-old Alana Mayo (“a person who is a woman and Black and queer,” as she puts it) to produce films by, and about, underrepresented people and groups. – The New York Times

New Guide To Shooting COVID-Safe Sex Scenes Says To Go Back To Hays Code

Directors UK (the Brit equivalent of the Directors Guild) has published Intimacy in the Time of COVID-19, a new set of guidelines for the planning, staging and recording of sex scenes, starts with suggesting that “the director, writer and producer review the scenes together and decide if the intimate act needs to be shown.” And yes, the guide explicitly suggests looking to the Hays Code as a model. – Variety

In Iran, Female Dancers (And Their Male Accompanists) Face Relentless Pressure And Danger

It’s not news that the Khomeinite doctrines that drive the Islamic Republic’s authorities are dead set against dance, music, and any other way that women might display themselves to the public. That applies not only to cultural imports from the West, but even to classical Persian art forms. What’s more, disapproval of public dance performance has a very long history in Iran. Reporter Rachel Spence talks to a classical dancer and a musician about the arrest, exile, and imprisonment they and their colleagues face for practicing and preserving their art. – Financial Times

Reissued Asterix Comics Have An Ugly-Racial-Stereotype Problem

A series of collected strips, in a new English translation, about the funny little Gaul and his fellows resisting the Romans is now being released in the U.S. That’s bringing new attention to an old problem: the way the original artist in the 1960s depicted African slaves. The U.S. publisher wanted to change the drawings, but the rights holder, Hachette France, refused to allow anything but minor cosmetic alterations. – Publishers Weekly

John Cage, Master Mycologist

Mycologist? That’s mushroom maven to you and me. The late composer was fascinated by the fungi throughout his life, often foraging for them and at one point making money selling his finds to New York restaurants. In 1959, he won the grand prize on an Italian quiz show with his expertise on the subject. He refused, however, to make any connection between mushrooms and music. – The Guardian

Now This Is Zoom Opera That Works — And It’s For Young Kids

“Admittedly, preschoolers, Zoom and opera don’t immediately sound like the makings of a successful project, but each installment I watched of Opera Starts With Oh! — helmed by director, choreographer and teaching artist Emma Jaster and Opera Lafayette community engagement manager Ersian François — kept its grid of budding opera buffs rapt with an action-packed half-hour of activities, performances and assorted operatic antics.” – The Washington Post