"More often than not, these books come across as props intended to be on camera — signifiers much like a Birkin bag or expensive watch. While those items can indicate a certain level of status and wealth, an artfully staged bookcase aims to convey something as well, although perhaps more subtly." - Literary Hub
"Long before witty digital comics found a home on your Instagram feed, depicting things from the struggle with Grindr to birth-control access, there were 'Gay Comix' and 'Dykes to Watch Out For.'" - MSN (Washington Post)
"Ardern (who kept the culture ministry herself) had a lot going on as Prime Minister — the Christchurch Mosque attacks, the eruption of White Island/Whakaari, COVID — so her other roles would rightly take a back seat. That said, Ardern hasn't been hugely active in her arts portfolio." - The Big Idea (New Zealand)
Kiyon Ross at Pacific Northwest Ballet: "The skills you learn as a choreographer are definitely transferable to being a leader. ... You have to have a certain kind of authority over the room—not an oppressive kind of authority, there just needs to be someone running the show." - Dance Magazine
"It was not well received, and I was devastated by the reaction. ... It was way too long in San Francisco and Amsterdam. The stories are still great, but it's considerably shorter now. I've made significant changes that I think focus on the fates of these characters." - San Francisco Classical Voice
"Cédric Klapisch’s Rise, about a ballet dancer (Marion Barbeau) who, after an injury, seeks a new future in contemporary dance, picked up 9 César nominations." - The Hollywood Reporter
Hayley Finn, 48, is a career-long specialist in new plays and has conducted workshops for nearly 1,000 scripts. She's currently associate artistic director of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. - MSN (The Washington Post)
Which is to say, not since George Balanchine's Jewels (1967). Premiering this week, Peck's Copland: Dance Episodes is also City Ballet's first use of Aaron Copland's three classic ballet scores: Rodeo, Billy the Kid, and Appalachian Spring. Joshua Barone looks in the creative team in rehearsal. - The New York Times
"Rupert Murdoch sent letters to the board of directors of News Corp. and Fox Corp. on Tuesday, informing both groups he had decided to withdraw his recent proposal to recombine the two companies, which his family, controlling shareholders of both, split apart in 2013." - Variety
The Modi Question examines the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat state in 2002 and the role in it played by Modi, who was then the state's premier and is now the nation's prime minister. After clips appeared on social media in India. Modi's government used emergency powers to block it. - Time
A seminal presence in both Off-Off-Broadway and queer theater, Ridiculous was founded by playwright/director/actor Charles Ludlam in the late 1960s. Quinton became Ludlam's partner and co-star in 1975; after Ludlam died of AIDS in 1987, Quinton took over all of Ludlam's roles and maintained the company for a decade. - TheaterMania
With the Academy's nod for his score for Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans, the 90-year-old composer has tallied 53 nominations (and counting), trailing only Walt Disney (with 59) for the most individual Oscar nominations in history. - The Hollywood Reporter
"After its last leader departed to head the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art has named a new director: Asma Naeem, who had been the institution's interim co-director alongside Christine Dietze. Naeem will be the first person of color to lead the Baltimore Museum." - ARTnews
"The solution ... is simple: Put new releases exclusively in theaters and give them a real chance to succeed with paying moviegoers. No more muddled hybrid releases, no slow and modest rollouts, and certainly nothing like Netflix’s baffling compromise with Glass Onion." - The Atlantic
"The idea that great novels disclose universal human truths, or contain a purely literary meaning that transcends national politics, wasn’t evenly distributed across the world. I had seen no signs of it in Kyiv." - The New Yorker
