“I’ve known for a long time that as a black person, some white people expect a performance from me, something that might confirm what they think they know about my identity. … What surprised me was that these questions took up so much imaginative space, and did it so quickly, and were in fact so large and puzzling that they stopped me from writing anything.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
Opera Montreal Is Going All-Out For Pink Floyd
Will this bring in new audiences? “Opera hasn’t been a profitable business for a long time, but Pierre Dufour is betting $3.2-million that he can make money from an opera version of the most ambitious and successful of narrative rock albums: Pink Floyd’s The Wall.”
A Movie Theatre In Alabama Can Handle A Woman/Beast Romance, But Not A Gay Character
That’s right, a drive-in movie theatre has banned Disney’s live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” because one character is (ahem, overtly) gay. One commenter wrote, “A drive-in theater is so perfectly apt for your prehistoric ideologies.”
AJBlog Posts From The Weekend Of 03.05.17
Funny or die
What makes a comedy? Perspective. Ask Shakespeare’s Malvolia, Titania, or Andrew Aguecheek if they’re living in a comedy and they’ll gaze at you with tear-stained incredulity. Publicly shamed, sexually humiliated, drugged and tricked into … read more
AJBlog: Performance MonkeyPublished 2017-03-05
SRJO With Carmen Bradford: Ella At 100
In Ella Fitzgerald’s centennial year, the great singer is being honored around the world. The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra began the celebration with a pair of tribute concerts ahead of The First … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-03-05
More on Met Directorship: My Takes on Puzzling Punditry by Cotter, Gibson, Dobrzynski, Oliver
I got an early jump on the culture pundits who are rushing to analyze Tom Campbell‘s planned departure from the directorship of the Metropolitan Museum. Commentary is now pouring in from people whose strong opinions … read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2017-03-03
Getting good in the nick of time
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review the Broadway transfer of Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Time was when all gay plays were Problem Plays. They couldn’t very well have … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-03-03
Replay: John Gielgud on Claude Rains
John Gielgud talks about the acting of Claude Rains in a TCM tribute: (This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) … read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2017-03-03
Making A Horror Comedy Out Of The Racial Tensions In The U.S.
It wasn’t exactly simple, says “Get Out” writer/director Jordan Peele. Known as a comedian, he saw his dream of being a director slipping away – but then he realized comedy and horror were close: “The reason they work, why they get primal, audible reactions from us is because they allow us to purge our own fears and discomforts in a safe environment.”
A Show Sounds Tone Deaf – Even Racist – But Learns From Its Mistakes
Maybe calling your group show, composed of almost all white artists, “Show Mein,” and having the promotional material look like Chinese take-out boxes with chopsticks, isn’t quite the right decision – as the Spring/Break Art Show quickly learned.
Theatre Locations Are Getting Weird, Some Might Say Gimmicky
A great space isn’t enough; the plays have to match setting and theme, as in this Orpheus and Eurydice under a bridge: “We pass into a damp, dark space, press a coin into the palm of Charon and bend almost double to walk four steps and emerge into a chamber under the Clifton suspension bridge. The walls are mottled with mould. Fronds grow from the roof. Water drips. It’s as cold as hell, and that’s exactly where we are supposed to be.”
The Academy Failed At Transparency, And Must Now Make Far-Reaching Changes
The Academy is notoriously secretive, but its decisions have major ramifications. “The Academy’s members are not part of a private club; they’re part of a global electorate, their elections scrutinized on an international stage. And because of that, those elections should be ruled by the principles we apply to all such plebiscites.”
What Do Memories Smell Like?
The role of smell in cultural preservation is getting its own attention – and the tool of the preservationists is “a sampling device that looks like a contraption out of Jules Verne: a crystalline dome with plastic tubing snaking from its side. The sampler is placed gently on objects — rare books, furniture, carpets — to capture the escaping molecules that create a distinct smell.”
What’s Happened Since Writer Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie Wrote About Being A Feminist
She hasn’t changed, but she’s getting nonstop invitations to what she calls “feminist things,” and she’s published a new book to help a friend raise a daughter. “Adichie recently came across her own kindergarten reports. ‘My father keeps them all. You know what the teacher wrote? ‘She is brilliant, but she refuses to do any work when she’s annoyed.’ I was five years old.'”