Stories

NFTs — Not Just For Art Anymore

"What we are primarily focusing on at Time is how NFTs relate to subscriptions, memberships, and access to unique experiences, which would allow us to drive recurring revenue streams, rather than one-time payments. A larger, longer-term opportunity is using blockchain technology alongside these tokens.” - Vanity Fair

Lesson: Streaming Theatre Works When It’s Designed For It

The problem that companies like ACT had been having, said Randy Taradash, was that they weren’t just having to juggle new technology, but also new tech partners whose business models didn’t necessarily fit the way nonprofit regional theatres function. The difference with the National Theatre Network, he noted, is that it’s not a tech company or ticket seller coming...

As The Pandemic Eases, Netflix Forecasts Much Lower Growth

This year Netflix is forecasting 6 million new subscribers, the lowest first-quarter increase since 2017, well down on the almost 16 million sign-ups in the first quarter last year, as lockdown restrictions ease. - The Guardian

The Walkie-Talkie, Big Underpants, And The Bathtub: What Modernist Architecture’s Abhorrence of Imitation Has Wrought

For centuries, great architecture involved innovation and invention within the context of established, tried-and-true styles, materials and techniques — and the result was buildings that were inspiring and durable. Then, argues scholar and critic Witold Rybczynski, came the 20th century, Le Corbusier and all that followed: the architecture profession became so insistent on invention and originality that, all too...

Study: The Psychological Benefits Of Attending Live Theatre

We found that attending these plays increased empathy for people depicted in them and changed people’s political attitudes about a variety of issues related to the show, such as income inequality. Additionally, seeing theatre changed behavior. After attending these plays, people donated more to charity — whether or not these charities were related to the show. - Psychology Today

Literary Scholar And Critic Denis Donoghue Dead At 92

"First at University College Dublin and later at New York University, Professor Donoghue carved out a middle ground in the contested landscape of late-20th-century literary studies, standing opposed to both the politicized theories of the left and the traditionalist pieties of the right. He was an ardent opponent of deconstruction, and … fierce aversion to the impositions of...

Dudamel Isn’t Known For Conducting Opera. Will That Be A Problem As Music Director At Paris Opera?

Almost all his renown has come from his exhilarating performances with symphony orchestras. Does lacking operatic experience matter in landing an important opera post? - The New York Times

Here’s A Landmark For A Growing Company: Indianapolis Ballet Hires Its First Executive Director

"More than three years after its 2018 debut, the professional company … announced April 6 that longtime Indianapolis arts leader Don Steffy will take the helm and manage the administrative, funding, facility and human resource functions." - Indianapolis Star

Make Room For Theatre Visionaries

Lacking in visionary leaders? Absolutely not. They're just blocked from the table by their status as a young person, or as a queer person, or as an artist of color. - Theatre Mania

Anthropology Museums Start Reckoning: What To Do With Bones Of Enslaved Africans In Their Collections?

It started last summer with the Morton Cranial Collection at Penn, spread to Harvard's Peabody and Warren Museums, and, in recent weeks, has come to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Samuel Redman, a historian who's made a serious study of the history of museums' collecting of human bones, says the moves by those three institutions could be...

Preparing To Resume

"I think part of the answer is going to be for arts organizations to look in the mirror and ask themselves, “What really was working before the pandemic? And what was not?” There may be fundamental changes in the way that they did business. I’m not sure that everything that we did was truly sustainable even before the pandemic...

The Rise And Fall Of ‘Florida Man’, Once The Internet’s Favorite Laughingstock

Tyler Gillespie, author of The Thing About Florida: Exploring a Misunderstood State and Florida Man: Poems, traces the course of this icon of the weird from the old website Fark.com ("We Don't Make the News. We Mock It"), looks at the long history of Florida Man/Woman-type stories (e.g., "Edna May's recipe for being a successful wife to the ultra-rich"...

Why Did Scott Rudin Step Back From Broadway? Maybe Not Just Because He’d Seen The Error Of His Ways

The key seems to have been Rudin's high-profile, high-stakes production of The Music Man, set to start previews in December. While some of the key people involved in the revival reportedly showed "apathy" about the allegations of Rudin's appalling office behavior, the two stars did not: Hugh Jackman told others he was "very concerned" but did not give an...

At The RSC, ‘The Winter’s Tale’ Is Finally Coming Together After Two False Starts

The COVID lockdown hit Britain just days before this production was to open and put the company's entire operations on hold; the show was set to start again last autumn when a second lockdown had to be imposed. Now, by heaven, they're doing it, at least for broadcast on BBC Four. "What's curious is that, if you were looking...

Has NPR Recovered From COVID Cutbacks? ‘Not Completely’, Says CEO

"NPR cut spending in areas including staff and executive pay to offset a decline in revenue spurred by the pandemic, particularly in corporate sponsorship. The network's revenue is 'slightly above' its 2019 income but hasn't reached 2020 levels, Cowan said. Next year, NPR will aim to completely roll back the budget cuts that staffers agreed to last year...

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