“Dozens of pantomimes across the land have been cancelled or postponed due to uncertainty about easing lockdown restrictions for theatres. … Though it is only August, pantos take months to prepare and many venues and producers have been unable to commit to spending money on shows that might be scrapped.” Local theatres depend on these holiday shows every bit as much as American ballet companies depend on Nutcracker — and so do local communities. – The Guardian
Author: Matthew Westphal
The World’s New Favorite Refugee Writer Tries To Get Comfortable With Freedom And Fame
Far from his native Kurdish village, escaped from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, now released from the Australian internment camp in Papua New Guinea where he wrote his award-winning No Friend but the Mountains on a cell phone, Behrouz Boochani has received asylum in New Zealand and is settled in safe, pretty, tranquil Christchurch, where most Kiwis seem thrilled to have him. It’s driving him a little nuts. – The New York Times Magazine
Washington Post’s Theater Critic Ends Up With A Hairdressing Degree (What Twitter Hath Wrought, Part MMMDCLXII)
Peter Marks: “Some people warn that you enter the bilious environs of social media at your peril. But I say, power up your device and be Zen about whatever transpires. Because you just might innocently scroll down one morning and end up with an honorary doctorate in hairdressing from a large chain of salons in Ireland.” – The Washington Post
Everyone’s A Copy Editor In This New Card Game For Word Nerds
“The game involves some role playing. If you use only the Grammar cards, the dealer is called the Copy Chief, as in ‘The Copy Chief shuffles the fifty Grammar cards.’ If you mix in the Style cards, the dealer is the Author, the players are Copy Editors … and the deck is huge.” New Yorker Comma Queen Mary Norris writes about Stet!, a spinoff from Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer’s 2019 book Dreyer’s English. – The New Yorker
Pete Hamill, The Ultimate New York Newspaperman, Dead At 85
“[He] became a celebrated reporter, columnist and the top editor of The New York Post and The Daily News; a foreign correspondent for The Post and The Saturday Evening Post; and a writer for New York Newsday, The Village Voice, Esquire and other publications. He wrote a score of books, mostly novels but also biographies, collections of short stories and essays, and screenplays, some adapted from his books.” – The New York Times
The Forgotten Black Musician Who Helped Create Bossa Nova
João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim were just two of many Brazilian musicians who considered pianist-singer-composer Johnny Alf a genius and his “Rapaz de Bem” the first bossa nova song. So why isn’t he as famous as they are? Racism was certainly a factor, but not the only one. – The New York Times
Why ‘Norma Rae’ Is, After 41 Years, As Relevant As Ever
What remains powerful, writes Naomi Fry, is “the movie’s suggestion that no struggle can take place alone. Norma Rae is heroic, but she comes into her own, as a woman, because she is fighting for class solidarity — a struggle that, in turn, could not happen without a breaking down of long-standing ethnic and racial barriers.” – The New Yorker
Installation Art As Big Business Proposition (Think Of Kusama Infinity Rooms, But For Profit)
“Superblue, as [the venture] is called, will open a series of experiential art centers (EACs for short) that won’t sell precious objects, as conventional galleries do. They’ll present art experiences: deep dives into all-encompassing works by such artists as JR, the French photographer who focuses on issues like migration, displacement and imprisonment; and James Turrell, the celebrated Light and Space artist.” What are they selling? Tickets, of course. – The New York Times
Even The ‘Veep’ Showrunner Says Trump’s Axios Interview Outdid ‘Veep’
David Mandel: “At the end of the day, this is why we ended the show. … Sometimes I have the horrible thought of if we had filmed a show last fall that was supposed to be on right now, and between when we were done filming and began editing, the pandemic and all of this stuff happened. I think you’d have to throw the show in the garbage.” – The Washington Post
Trey McIntyre Project Is Back, But It’s Not A Dance Company Anymore
“Six years after shuttering his popular dance troupe …, its eponymous founder is relaunching the company as a conduit for digital dance films, with a project called FLTPK. … He sees his film work more of a continuation of his work as a photographer rather than as a choreographer. … ‘It’s not a company of dancers,’ McIntyre insists. ‘It’s a community of artists.'” – Dance Magazine