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Playing Tetris With Patron Seating And Whack-A-Mole With Problems: How Front-Of-House Staff Reopened UK Theatres Under COVID

Before the latest lockdown, “it was all looking so hopeful. Reopening theatres after seven months was never going to be easy, but big and small teams across the country had been rising to the challenge and welcoming audiences back with gusto.” Here’s a look at how the ways they went about it. – The Stage

Research: How Coronavirus Changed TV Viewing Habits

Coronavirus fundamentally changed people’s reasons for watching TV. Whereas before it was often associated with distraction and unwinding, the people we spoke to were rife with anxiety and turned to TV to relieve the stress of COVID-19. Television provided a sanctuary during lockdown for those seeking familiar and “safe” content which offered an escape from the worrying realities of the pandemic. – The Conversation

What Is The Great Art That Will Come Out Of This Pandemic?

“What, I wonder, is the fate of so many of these projects and events, some of them topical and inordinately perishable? With arts groups across the country deprived of ticket revenue and focused myopically on survival, where goes the impetus for the sorts of ambitious dramas, operas and other productions that put a stamp on an era?” – Washington Post

With Hollywood Idled By The Virus, East Asia’s Film Industries Are Stepping Up

China has now overtaken the U.S. as the world’s largest movie market. South Koreans watch more films per capita than any other nation (and they made Parasite). Vietnam has more than 100 million people, a growing industry, and (with COVID-19 largely contained) open theaters. Japan, of course, has had a vibrant cinema for decades and is a world leader in animation. Says one well-placed observer, “I don’t think [these] countries … even need to think about America now. They’re like the Bollywood film industry in India, in that they want to reach their own first. Any other success elsewhere is just gravy to them.” – BBC

Young Opera Singers Are Paying To Audition Via Video. Does Anyone At Companies Actually Watch? We Can Find Out.

Zach Finkelstein, a professional data analyst as well as a lyric tenor, spoke with 15 applicants to young artists’ programs and looked at YouTube Analytics figures for their privately uploaded videos. “The data suggests that some companies rejected those singers without viewing any of their video auditions. YouTube reports also indicate that the average company isn’t considering more than a short section of those singers’ arias — the views registered by the platform last, for most, roughly a minute, less than half of one aria.” – The Middleclass Artist

Strand Bookstore’s Owner And Remaining Staff Aren’t At Each Other’s Throats, Exactly, But …

“Why, they wonder, are their fellow employees still out of jobs while the owner gets a government payroll loan and has the money to invest elsewhere?” (Owner Nancy Bass Wyden spent more than $100K on stock in Amazon this year.) “Bass Wyden … says she needs to spend money to make more money while the Strand isn’t performing, a means to keep it afloat in the long term. The workers … see her putting her personal wealth before the institution. The truth, it seems, lies somewhere in the middle, with both sides wanting the store to live forever and, in true 2020 fashion, having their nerves frayed to the limits.” – InsideHook

Long-Awaited Statue Honoring ‘Mother Of Feminism’ Unveiled In London, And Feminists Are Livid

Sculptor Maggi Hambling argues that her statue is for Mary Wollstonecraft — who published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792 — not of Mary Wollstonecraft. The latter it is certainly not: it is a small, silvered figure of a generic naked woman arising out of an abstract mass incorporating vague images of breasts. As writer Caitlin Moran put it, “Imagine if there was a statue of a hot young naked guy ‘in tribute’ to eg Churchill. It would look mad. This, also, looks mad.” – The Guardian