Tag: 08.20.20

Kenneth Bernard, Playwright Of The Ridiculous, Dead At 90

“By day Dr. Bernard was an English professor at Long Island University, a job he took in 1959 and held for more than 40 years. By night he was a central figure in the experimental theater movement that began bubbling up in the small performance spaces of Midtown and Downtown Manhattan in the 1960s. His works were a favorite of John Vaccaro, the director behind the Playhouse of the Ridiculous, whose assaultive, anarchic productions were part of the stew that gave rise to punk, queer theater and more.” – The New York Times

COVID Has Squashed In-Person Teaching. Some Performing Arts Students Question Whether It’s Still Worth It

“With the virus still on a rampage, many of the age-old, hands-on ways of training musicians, dancers and actors have had to be tossed out the window or, at the very least, drastically reshaped. How much this will affect the industry down the line — and what audiences may see and hear in years to come — is difficult to gauge. But to varying degrees, depending on the art form, professional groups and future performances rely on a pipeline of well-trained graduates of higher education. Which means there’s a lot of tension surrounding music, dance and theater programs.” – The Washington Post

Singers Can Reduce COVID Danger By Singing More Softly, Says Study (But There’s A Big Caveat)

Researchers at the University of Bristol used 25 professional singers of various genres as subjects, having them speak and sing at various levels, and found that singing at a conversational level produces only slightly more aerosols than speaking normally does — more volume of sound equals more volume of potentially virus-carrying droplets on the breath, basically. The caveat? The researchers are chemists, not virologists, and the study has not yet been peer-reviewed. – BBC

MGM Remakes One Of Its Divisions As Studio Run By And For BIPOC Moviemakers

As one of the authors of UCLA’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report put it, “There are almost no people of color in the film industry who have the power to say, ‘This movie is getting made and by this person.” Now MGM is taking a concrete step to address that: it’s turning its Orion Pictures division over to 36-year-old Alana Mayo (“a person who is a woman and Black and queer,” as she puts it) to produce films by, and about, underrepresented people and groups. – The New York Times

New Guide To Shooting COVID-Safe Sex Scenes Says To Go Back To Hays Code

Directors UK (the Brit equivalent of the Directors Guild) has published Intimacy in the Time of COVID-19, a new set of guidelines for the planning, staging and recording of sex scenes, starts with suggesting that “the director, writer and producer review the scenes together and decide if the intimate act needs to be shown.” And yes, the guide explicitly suggests looking to the Hays Code as a model. – Variety

In Iran, Female Dancers (And Their Male Accompanists) Face Relentless Pressure And Danger

It’s not news that the Khomeinite doctrines that drive the Islamic Republic’s authorities are dead set against dance, music, and any other way that women might display themselves to the public. That applies not only to cultural imports from the West, but even to classical Persian art forms. What’s more, disapproval of public dance performance has a very long history in Iran. Reporter Rachel Spence talks to a classical dancer and a musician about the arrest, exile, and imprisonment they and their colleagues face for practicing and preserving their art. – Financial Times