When playwrights get company residencies, they learn a lot – how seasons are put together, what kinds of casts theatres are looking for, and how not to take it personally when their plays don’t get selected. But they have to choose carefully. Luis Alfaro: “You know how to see a play, how to read a play, how to understand a play. And that’s more beautiful than trying to help figure out the architecture of a new building.” – HowlRound
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Science Of Attraction Actually Does Make Two Hearts Beat As One
How can that be real? Chemistry, biology, physics … “The real measure of whether two people hit it off is how much they synchronise internal bodily functions, like heart rate and sweating.” – New Scientist
The Biggest Surprises, And Snubs, Of The Emmys
Well, let’s start with the snubbing of Veep and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but there were others. (Here’s the complete list of winners, too.) – Variety
Michelle Williams Wins An Emmy And Uses It To Stump For Equal Access And Pay For Women Of Color
Williams, who won for playing Gwen Verdon in Fosse/Verdon, said, “The next time a woman — and especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white, male counterpart — tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her. Believe her. Because one day she might stand in front of you and say thank you for allowing her to succeed because of her workplace environment and not in spite of it.” – The New York Times
New Museum Organizes A Festival In The Bronx, But Anti-Gentrification Activists Say No
The New Museum planned a whole festival about climate change. ” IdeasCity Bronx … was supposed to feature a series of discussion panels, artist talks, performances, and workshops,” but it ended an hour in after activists disrupted the very first panel. – Hyperallergic
Can Anyone Truly Explain Britain’s Strictly Come Dancing?
Not really, but let’s try: Strictly “is a lightheartedly competitive dance show that is still rigorously ruled by ancient stone tablets engraved with edicts and stored in a holy room at the back of the BBC archives; ones that producers are too scared to deviate from in case they bring down an ancient blood curse.” – The Guardian (UK)
How’s That Guardian List Of The Best Plays Of The 21st Century?
It’s “a deranged hodge-podge,” according to Andrzej Lukowski. The list of 50 shows “veers from resolutely mainstream to borderline obscure without a tremendous amount of sense or coherency. All the while, it, notionally, professes to be an authoritative overview of literally all the theatre in the world over the last almost 20 years.” Ouch. – The Stage (UK)
A Secret Shofar, Blown On High Holy Days In Auschwitz
Is the account of this shofar credible? Holocaust historians say it definitely could be. “The impossible was possible, both to the bad and the good.” – The New York Times
Zadie Smith On The Most Important Book Of The 21st Century
The author of White Teeth and Swing Time says we should all read a 700-page nonfiction book about technology and capitalism. “If a book’s importance is gauged by how effectively it describes the world we’re in, and how much potential it has to change said world, then in my view it’s easily the most important book to be published this century.” – The Guardian (UK)
Annette Kolodny, Ecofeminist Literary Critic And Scholar, Has Died At 78
Kolodny, who specialized in incisive and groundbreaking – or perhaps ground-mending, to be a bit more ecofeminist about it – essays, “was a prodigious author and scholar with many areas of interest, among them early American literature, Native American culture, women’s studies and feminist literary criticism.” – The New York Times