Diep Tran: “We theatre journalists are a marginalized minority ourselves: overworked, underpaid, and constantly fighting to justify our existence. We’re not all that different from the artists we claim to love. And if we really love theatre, then we need to find a better way to talk about the diverse people who make it. Because right now, we—whose job it is to tell the truth—are failing at it.”
Tag: 07.16.17
Police Shut Down Modigliani Show Containing 21 Forgeries
“Earlier this week, the foundation sponsoring the Genoa show decided to shut down exhibit three days early in order to collaborate with latest investigation enveloping the Italian expressionist painter and sculptor, who is one of the world’s most famously faked artists.”
After Controversial Reforms, Attendance At Italy’s Museums Is Up
“Italy’s Culture Ministry says the number of visitors to Italian museums continues to rise two years after reforms that included opening top museum positions to foreigners for the first time.”
NPR, Unions Make Agreement On A New Contract
SAG-AFTRA and NPR had been approaching a standoff as the union balked at management’s proposals for lower minimum salaries for new hires and more flexibility in allowing union work to be contracted out to its 600 member stations, most of which use employees who are not covered by the bargaining unit.
The Maddening, Infuriating, Surreal Road For Syrian Actors Trying To Get To The US To Perform
“The play’s lead actor, Mohamad Alrefai, showed up for his first interview at the United States Embassy in Beirut eager to introduce himself and to show his supporting documents for a visa, only to be told by an American consular official to keep his mouth shut, he recalled, and his stack of papers to himself. Several members of the group were asked to furnish their social media handles so American officials could read what they had posted. The director, Omar Abusaada, said he was asked if he belonged to a terrorist organization. “Would an actual terrorist say yes?” he later wondered aloud.”
“Game Of Thrones” Is A Global Blockbuster Phenomenon. Here’s How That Happened
“We’d expect changes wrought by the internet to have played a key role. They did, but not in the way you’d expect. HBO didn’t use the internet to distribute “Game of Thrones” to subscribers around the world like Netflix and Amazon Video have done with their series. Instead, the internet was important to the series’ global growth because of the opportunities it gave fans to interact with one another.”
Confronting The Past Through Pop-Up Refugee Art
“Surprised that the tour guide was also a painter, Saskia Leefsma, one of the visitors in the group, asked, ‘Do you have a studio now?’ Mr. Mukasa admitted that no, this was the very first painting he’d made in a very long while because he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.”
Let’s Discuss The Sheer Genius Of Hamilton’s Music (No, Not The Lyrics – The Music)
Shut up, critics who can’t stop talking about how rap isn’t music. “Since rap’s natural language is the repeated loop, the critique of it can’t be that it uses inert repeated loops. We actually have to accept the loop as a given and to dig deeper to see if those loops are malleable enough for the artist to create thematic meaning. Miranda does not disappoint. Listening to the cast album reveals an entire world of sonic meaning.”
Martin Landau, Who Won An Oscar For Playing Bela Lugosi, Dies At 89
Of course, Landau also starred as Rollin Hand for several years in the original Mission: Impossible and the heroic villain of Crimes and Misdemeanors.
For Syrian Actors, An Intensely Lengthy, Challenging Road To The United States
For a play running at the Lincoln Center, actors and designers converged on New York from six different countris. “Under most circumstances, obtaining a United States visa is arduous. In the case of these visiting artists, the ordeal involved proving that they had a good reason to enter the United States, that they were not a security threat and that they had no intention of staying in the country. The Trump administration’s travel ban — and the legal turmoil around it — has made the whole process all the more bewildering.”