The Pandemic Has Leveled The Playing Field For Smaller Theatres

How did a theatre in West Yorkshire get Derek Jacobi, Stephen Fry, Alfred Enoch, Rebecca Front, Celia Imrie and Griff Rhys Jones? Well, streaming makes some things a little easier. It even snagged a review in The New York Times. And it’s not alone: “With live performances either difficult or impossible since March, many other agile theatre-makers have also been experimenting with recorded audio and video works that blur the traditional boundaries.” – BBC

How One Theatre Tried To Make Waiting In A Georgia Voting Line A Little More Fun

The theatre chosen as a polling place wanted to make sure first-time voters had a good time just the way they tried in non-Covid times to make sure first-time theatregoers enjoyed their time. So: Snacks, apolitical music, “line-warming” activities, a slideshow, and more. “One of the women working with me day of said, ‘More theaters should run voting. This is what the voting experience should be.'” – Slate

Social Media’s Promise Was All About Connection

Instead, it’s turned us into separate – and sometimes extremely hostile – factions. “Particularly when we’re scared, we regress further into tribalism and tend to trust the information relayed to us by our tribe and not by others. Normally, that’s an evolutionary advantage. Trust leads to group cohesion, and it helps us survive.” Not so on social media. – Fast Company

Life Might Just Find A Way

That is, biological organisms may be making choices with goals in mind. This is a big change in the mindset of biology researchers. “The latest research suggests that it’s wrong to regard agency as just a curious byproduct of blind evolutionary forces. Nor should we believe that it’s an illusion produced by our tendency to project human attributes onto the world. Rather, agency appears to be an occasional, remarkable property of matter, and one we should feel comfortable invoking.” – Aeon Magazine