“For British actors, ever-growing division is a fact of life. The erection of roadblocks for working-class actors now begins at state schools, where drama has been squeezed out by slashed teaching budgets and a narrowing curriculum. Then come rising fees at drama schools. Overcome those and you get to chase dwindling roles in soaps and bad gangster movies.”
Tag: 01.14.18
Everyone’s Talking About A Backlash Against Tech. It’s More Complicated Than That
“Our technological evolution is happening faster than most people ever imagined, and it is clearly happening faster than society is able to deal with it. How should we respond?”
The Modiglianis Were Fake. Now Visitors Sue Museum To Get Their Money Back
The suit will also seek compensation for the 100,000 attendees’ travel expenses, according to the Times of London. A hotline has even been set up for dissatisfied visitors, the Associated Press reports. Tickets to the show, titled simply “Modigliani,” were priced at €13 ($15.67).
How To Save Dying Indigenous Languages? Teach Them At University
“The last person who spoke fluent Quinault passed away in 1996. By using recordings of those who spoke the language in the 1960s, a handful of people in the Olympic Peninsula tribe are slowly and painstakingly piecing it back together — and teaching it to a new generation. Last year, Alyssa Johnston was the first person in recent memory to earn a world-language credit at the University of Washington by showing she had achieved “intermediate low-level proficiency” in that language.”
Why Sherlock, How You’ve Changed
TV, movies, books, stories … and balls with people in pink rabbit costumes. “Fans of Sherlock Holmes — Irregulars and other smaller Holmesian societies from across the country — have been convening in Manhattan every January to celebrate his presumed birthday: Jan. 6, 1854. They host lectures, cocktail parties, brunches, lunches, dinners, costume galas and presentations of scholarly papers.”
St. Louis’ Powell Symphony Hall Turns 50 (And Still Has Two Of The Musicians Who Were There On Opening Night)
The hall began its life as a vaudeville and movie theatre, but the remodel for the Symphony was a little different: “Unusually for an American hall in the 1960s, Powell Hall was done up in a traditionally European style, with its red, gold and cream decor modeled on the royal chapel at Versailles.”
What Should Theatre Criticism Do About Its Problematic So-Called ‘Genius’ Men?
The root of the problem? “We have formed the very basis of theatre criticism on white male supremacy, teaching decades of students that white male-centered criticism is the backbone of the field and that anything else is a specialization, an extra. We teach this to the students who grow up to run our industry, and then we wonder why they hire so few women and people of color to positions of power, then we wonder why granting orgs give most of their money to theatres headed by white men, then we wonder why major publications hire mostly white male theatre writers and editors, then we wonder why universities hire more men than women and more white people than people of color for tenure-track positions.”
The Google Selfie App That Compares Your Face To Fine Art
This was, perhaps, inevitable: On the Google Arts and Culture app, a new feature can take your selfies and compare them to Google’s database of fine art. (And if it’s taking over your Facebook feed, you’re not alone.)
Beirut Has A New Civil War Museum, But Many In Lebanon Are Not Interested
Differing opinions on Beit Beirut, the new museum in a building harmed by the 15-year civil war: “‘If the architects think that thing is meant to represent me, then they’re wrong,’ said Saad Youssef, looking up at the building last week. ‘It’s ugly. They should tear it down.’ His friend Mustafa Khattib disagreed. ‘It has to stay. The Lebanese need to see this every day, because they need to remember what they did.'”
San Francisco Suddenly Finds Itself Searching For Two New Major Music Directors
Both the Opera and the Symphony are on the hunt for new music directors. “There are some telling differences between the two searches, which can be traced back to the different roles filled by a music director in a symphony orchestra or an opera company. But the collective upshot remains the same — sometime around three years from now, the musical profile on either side of Grove Street is going to look and sound very different.”