The results of the annual study show that in 2017, just 16% of films were directed by women and only 10% came from film-makers of color, the latter statistic at the lowest it’s been since the DGA started reporting in 2013. The figures emerge in a year that saw notable successes for minority directors, including Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird.
Blog
How Opera Philadelphia Became The Most Forward-Thinking Company In America
Opera Philadelphia has steadily built its reputation over the last decade as one of the top-tier companies in the world for commissioning (and co-commissioning) new works. In 2017, the nonprofit company launched its new programming model, with an ambitious—and wildly successful—fall festival called O17.
How Music Gets Into Our Brain And Messes With It
Understanding the mechanisms of violated expectations in music elucidates some of the basic functions of learning, memory, and our perception of time. Along with enhancing our understanding of music, the study of how we process expectations, and learn to revel in ambiguity and uncertainty, is important in understanding how we appreciate many aspects of art and life that involve solving puzzles and deciphering codes, from poetry to painting, science to math.
Why Has American Theatre Declined In The Past 30 Years?
In America, nothing sucks the oxygen out of the room with more deadly force than financial success. Musicals are booming, so that is where all the attention and money is streaming, a sweet spot that magically unites commerce, branding, and universities. This is not to say there have not been terrific songfests over the past 25 years. Just that it explains why our most talented stage practitioners are not writing plays, but working hard at scoring with the latest lucrative singing/dancing sensation.
Martin Amis: Writers Have To Expect Something Different From Readers
“I think most writers are wedded to social realism, these days — social realism is the only genre left. And there’s been a contraction, as I was saying, of what you can expect from the reader. It’s not a conscious decision to cease to be as complex as you might once have been; it’s just going with the flow of things. It was Trilling, wasn’t it, who said we like complex books? The truth is, we may once have liked them, but we don’t anymore.”
Who And What Are The ‘Angel Shadows’ In Broadway’s ‘Angels In America’?
“The Angel Shadows — three dancers and two puppeteers — are one of the most remarkable elements about this Tony Award-winning production, directed by Marianne Elliott. Through intricate choreography and cues, the Shadows are responsible for propelling the Angel into the air and operating her heavy wings.” Gia Kourlas talks to the designers who came up with the idea and some of the performers who enact it.
The Indie Movies That Dealt With The AIDS Crisis Back Before Tom Hanks Won That Oscar
Benjamin Lee looks at the making of the mid-1980s titles Buddies (shot in nine days in 1985), the TV movie An Early Frost (on which NBC lost $500,000 after advertisers fled; it went on to win four Emmys), Parting Glances, and Longtime Companion.
Why Oprah Winfrey Has Mattered For 35 Years
Wesley Morris: “The more she empowered us to speak, the better she got at knowing how her emotional algorithm could supply us with books and feelings and tools for betterment. And she took real risks to better understand this country, too. … Oprah didn’t do this work alone. She helped us do it. She was a platform. She was Facebook. Forget the presidency. She was the facilitator in chief.”
‘I Accuse, Therefore I Am’ – John Cameron Mitchell On How Queer Culture Has Changed In The 20 Years Since He Created Hedwig
“In the US, people have turned their energies to each other because they can’t do much about who is on top of the power structure. … [There’s an] oppression olympics [in which] outrage becomes proof of existence. … [The] grievances are real and our intentions are good, [but we are] looking for flaws, instead of looking for things in common.”
Singing Classical Music While Black
Kira Thurman: “Over the course of my life I have learned that to be black and a classical musician is to be considered a contradiction. After hearing that I was a music major, a TSA agent asked me if I was studying jazz. One summer in Bayreuth, a white German businessman asked me what I was doing in his town. Upon hearing that I was researching the history of Wagner’s opera house, he remarked, “But you look like you’re from Africa.” After I gushed about Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, someone once told me that I wasn’t “really black.” All too often, black artistic activities can only be recognized in ‘black’ arts.”