Italo Calvino Remembers His Youthful Obsession With Hollywood Movies

“Italian spectators barbarously made entering after the film already started a widespread habit, and it still applies today. We can say that back then we already anticipated the most sophisticated of modern narrative techniques, interrupting the temporal thread of the story and transforming it into a puzzle to put back together piece by piece or to accept in the form of a fragmentary body.”

Royal Shakespeare’s Company’s New App Puts A Hip-Hop Spin On ‘Much Ado’

RSC education director Jacqui O’Hanlon says that the app, designed for students aged 11 to 16, “would act as a ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ to the original work. The app’s rap lyrics are derived from Shakespeare’s insults, and his characters’ amorous exchanges. It challenges users to spot the difference between the Shakespeare rap and those of modern hip-hop artists.”

How A Theatre Season Can Come Together To Support – Or Ignore – Diversity

“There are hundreds of priorities to balance in the process of planning a season. The decisions we make reveal the hierarchy of those priorities. It is the season, not the mission statement, that expresses what we believe in, what we fight for, what we privilege right now, in this moment. A season is an expression of our values, both personally (as leaders) and institutionally. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, this is the bottom line. A season does not ‘just come together.'”

Is British TV Dying?

“On the face of it seems to be in rude health. America has been buying up British production companies, British TV formats continue to spread around the world and the global market for quality drama is growing. However, there is also anxiety about the Government’s attitude towards the BBC and the questions it is asking about reducing its size and scope.”