Books As Apps – Is This The Future?

“Perhaps the most wildly divergent book app I’ve encountered so far is Chopsticks, which is another Penguin book, but one that’s vastly different than their amplified editions. It’s described as a novel, but it’s vastly different than a traditional novel. As you turn the pages, you aren’t confronted with a traditional narrative, but rather interact with different pieces of the lives of Glory, a teen piano player, and the boy who moves in next door. The story’s told through newspaper clippings, pictures, songs, and more. It’s a rather fascinating way to tell a story.”

Looking For New Ways To Remind The Audience To Turn Off Their Damned Cell Phones

“Once upon a time, stage actors worried about tomatoes. Now, they worry about T-Mobile. Thus, the ubiquitous reminder to listen up and power down. While some preshow messages are direct and unadorned, many directors and producers view the recording as an occasion for a bit of creativity, an opportunity both to set cellphones on silent and to set the tone for a production.”

Rage Against The Machine: Peter Gelb On Robert Lepage’s Ring Cycle At The Met

“This backstage drama should not matter to the public,” but Gelb, “the Met’s general manager since 2006, has been living it, attending every stage rehearsal and ‘complaining bitterly,’ he said, about the persistent clankiness of the so-called machine, the 45-ton set of movable planks that dominate the production.”