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Can Hollywood’s Fresh New Love Affair With Microdramas Last?

Wow, do streamers have a show (or 450, all produced quickly) for you. "Though vertical dramas are the length of a movie, they are spliced up into small chapters and produced quickly. A 100-page script might be shot in just one week." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

How To Enjoy Horror Movies Without Suffering Through Gore And Jump Scares

If you love thinking about how horror reflects societal concerns, but you’d rather not hear the screaming or throw your popcorn all over your fellow cinemaphiles, do we have a deal for you: Horror documentaries. - Reactor

Is The Colosseum About To Host Raves And Rock Concerts?

Not really, but there will be “acoustic and jazz” concerts, poetry readings, dance performances and more — including possible “historical reenactments of gladiatorial battles.” - AP

In Britain, A Plan To Funnel Money To Small Music Venues Is Gaining Steam

But small venues “should not be valued solely for their role in nurturing future superstars. Live music has an intrinsic value and venues can be part of a town’s identity. A scheme to put them into community ownership has had striking success, with five secured so far.” - The Guardian (UK)

How A Hardline Evangelical Christian Childhood Can Lead To Mainlining Supernatural Horror As An Adult

“With his insistence on seeing only god’s will in the Catholic vs. Protestant religious wars of his Europe, Luther reminds me of nothing so much as the character Beverly Keane (played by Samantha Sloyan) in the 2021 Netflix horror series Midnight Mass.” - The Flytrap

Can Broadway Truly Be Captured On Film?

Good question, one that 1948’s biopic about Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart - Words and Music, starring Mickey Rooney as a heterosexual Hart - got very wrong. But: “That the ’40s biopics are so bad on the facts as well as the spirit doesn’t render them entirely worthless.” - The New York Times

Obama’s Presidential Library – And Basketball Court – Rises On Chicago’s South Side

"Only the museum will require a paid ticket. Nearly a dozen other spaces — meeting rooms, classrooms, parks, an N.B.A.-size basketball court, even a branch of the Chicago Public Library — will be reserved for visitors or the activities of the foundation.” - The New York Times

How Chicago’s Timeline Theatre Is Building A New Space Despite, Well, Everything

“‘To build a building like this, it required public investment, it required private investment, and it required a lot of belief through those dark days of the pandemic,’ said TimeLine’s charismatic artistic director, PJ Powers, during a recent tour of the still shell-like structure.” - WBEZ (Chicago)

What’s Going To Happen To The English National Opera In Manchester?

Tensions still exist between London and Manchester, and not everyone is pleased. The ENO's artistic director says, "“The way this happened was not something that anyone involved would want, and we were then forced to build the road as we drove the car.” - Manchester Evening News (UK)

Why Thousands Of People Are Converging On A Museum In Germany

Museum Wiesbaden is seeing an uptick - a rather large uptick - in visitors thanks to none other than Taylor Swift. - BBC

How To Watch The ‘Olympics Of The Piano World’ From Home

Participants in the International Chopin Piano Competition “train as if they were elite athletes, with superhuman focus and skill, preparing hours of music, even though many of them end up performing only a fraction of it.” - The New York Times

Broadway Actors Have A Tentative Deal, But Musicians Still May Strike

The musicians’ local president: “We are thankful that our brothers and sisters in labor at Actors’ Equity have reached an agreement. … Local 802 is still in negotiation for a fair contract, and everything remains on the table, including a strike.” - The New York Times

How Do You Convince Newcomers To Try Seeing An Opera? Ask The Dallas Opera’s Social-Media Star

“(Her) infectious creativity has made Amy O’Neil’s work for The Dallas Opera a must-watch. From her fun, punchy synopses of upcoming productions to her award-nominated series ‘Don’t Look Under the Wig,’ she says her work is aimed at making the opera feel (less intimidating and) more accessible.” - D Magazine (Dallas)

Foot Traffic In Downtown Chicago Is Back To Pre-COVID Levels, Thanks To Arts And Culture

“The new numbers validate efforts to make the Loop a social destination and combat high retail and office vacancy rates that have plagued the area since the pandemic … (and) it’s arts and culture programming that’s ‘driving the bus at the moment,’” said Chicago Loop Alliance CEO Michael Edwards. - WBEZ (Chicago)

What’s Next For The Book Industry?

The CEO of Simon & Schuster has some thoughts about what will be going on a decade from now: "I fearlessly predict that the average book will be shorter.” - Boston Globe (Archive Today)

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