Actors are increasingly being asked how many Instagram or Twitter followers they have when attending auditions for West End shows, films and adverts, even for non-speaking roles. An online poll on The Stage revealed 87% of 402 respondents did not think this practice is fair. – The Stage
Tag: 02.25.19
Oscar Ratings Up From Last Year’s Record Low
That initial rating means that Sunday’s show rose 14 percent from 2018, per the earliest-available numbers. This year’s Oscars ran 3 hours and 21 minutes. These metered market ratings cut off at 15-minute increments, meaning the 21.6 covers 8 p.m. ET to 11:15 p.m. ET. So they do not include the Best Picture presentation, in this case. – The Wrap
After 40 Years, Seattle Weekly Is No More
“A series of ownership changes — including Village Voice Media and Voice Media Group — left Seattle Weekly on shaky financial footing by the time Sound Publishing acquired it in 2013.” – Crosscut
Propwatch: the feather boa in ‘Follies’
Solange LaFitte is mooching backstage at the dilapidated New York theatre. Everyone has arrived at the Weismann follies reunion party. And something sticks out of an old props basket – a shabby feather boa. Solange fishes it out, sizes it up. It’s grey – soft-toned down or just deeply-embedded grime? – David Jays
New York Review of Books Chooses New Top Co-Editors
Rea Hederman, the publisher of the intellectual journal, announced Monday that Emily Greenhouse, 32, and Gabriel Winslow-Yost, 33, have been named co-editors, and that Daniel Mendelsohn, a longtime contributor to the Review, will assume the newly created role of editor at large. – The New York Times
The Murky World Of Literary Plagiarism
With new accusations of plagiarism for novelist AJ Flinn and Danny Boyle’s film Yesterday, it’s time to revisit what can – and cannot – be proven in literary theft. True, “it has long been claimed that there are somewhere between three and 36 basic plots in all forms of storytelling,” but that can’t account for specific details. Still … “legal action is very tricky in cases which don’t concern actual language copying but rely on copying of themes, plots or structure.” – The Guardian (UK)
The Newest ‘Complete’ Schubert Symphony No. 8, This One Finished By Artificial Intelligence
Not that the AI could do it alone: It “analysed the timbre, pitch and meter of the first and second movements, using this data to generate melodies replicating Schubert’s style. Huawei then employed Emmy-winning composer Lucas Cantor to arrange those melodies into a hypothetical completed Symphony No 8.” – Irish Examiner
Kids, Atlanta Symphony Make A “Cultural Symphony”
A collaboration between students, dancers, choreographer and musicians in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.