“Over fruit salad and cool drinks, the pair discussed the childhood difficulties that drew them to acting; their shared commitment to young people at risk and L.G.B.T. issues; and the emotional dividends of that work, as well as becoming role models to younger women of color and gay men.”
Tag: 07.10.16
After Orlando: Nine LGBTQ Writers Reflect On Finding ‘Home’
“In an effort to create more space for healing and solidarity, to help articulate a more peaceful and just world, CF has invited a number of LGBTQ-identified writers to respond to this question: Can you tell us about a time that you felt at home in your identity? Home is a complicated notion, as several of our contributors note, and it’s ultimately inadequate to the task of realizing justice – but it is a powerful idea.”
Inside Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Final ‘Hamilton’
“In the ticketholders line were the people who had gone to extremes or paid thousands of dollars just to see the production that night. One attendee said she’d paid $3,500 for the chance to catch the show a second time before the original cast left, while others in the line had camped out overnight for cancellations. Here and there were the lucky winners of the day’s ticket lottery. “I’m the unicorn!” one of them declared happily.”
There Is Badness In The World. We’re Closer To It Than Ever. How To Deal With It?
“Social media makes the joy, suffering and anger of millions of people feel like our own. That is empowering and overwhelming. Social media also gives us the illusion that we can be effective merely by talking or feeling. The technology of this new form of mass communion has probably developed faster than our emotional capacity to process it. We do, however, have a tried and true method of communion with other people, the past and things that are foreign or unsettling to us: These include art and literature and honest colloquy, in which people speak not for victory but for truth and understanding.”
A Fiery Consideration Of Alexei Ratmansky’s Choices For Misty Copeland
“Watching Copeland dance ‘Firebird’ at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, we saw a wonderful ballerina come to terms with a not-so-wonderful role. To begin with, you, Mr. Ratmansky, assigned to other American Ballet Theatre dancers much of the music that Igor Stravinsky composed for her character.”
Who Gets Garcia Lorca’s Papers?
“The legacy of Federico García Lorca’s hostilities with government lives on these days through his family, whose members are tangling with officials over control of a new $25 million center built to honor García Lorca, the playwright and poet who was executed by firing squad during the Spanish Civil War.”
When Your Drawing Class Model Is A Sex Worker
“Squeezing in between a young female art student and a hairy guy, I picked up my pencil and waited for the sex to begin. It didn’t.”
Carrying A Lot More Than Her Crown As The Newest Disney Princess
“Few matters in entertainment are as fraught as the Disney princesses, a dozen or so characters led by Cinderella and Snow White that mint money for the Walt Disney Company but also are cultural lightning rods. People who love the princesses (they’re pretty and live happily ever after!) and those who despise them (they promote negative female stereotypes and unrealistic body images!) square off endlessly.”
The Small-Picture Problems That Add Up To Existential Crises
“Cheryl Strayed is really interesting. She’s very sure of herself, confident, a very healthy enlightened person. I am much more of a wreck that she is. I think both have a lot of wisdom to share, but her style is different because I think she’s had her shit together for much longer than I have, frankly. For example, I wouldn’t dream of camping alone under any circumstances. I’m a chickenshit. Our biology is different. I would not walk that far. Without Cheetos.”
What’s It Like To Take Over From Theatre’s Current Super Famous Guy? Ask #Javilton
“Already, he has a reputation and a fan base. He’s been described as the sexy Hamilton because of the swagger he brings to the role, and Mr. Miranda bestowed on him a hashtag-nickname, Javilton, that has stuck.”