Well, turns out there's a history of very bad things happening during productions of "the Scottish play" going all the way back to Shakespeare's own company in 1606. Actors getting injured or killed onstage. Theaters burning down. Massive audience brawls. The 1849 Shakespeare riots in New York? Yep, over Macbeth. - Mental Floss
When he’d auditioned for a British TV adaptation of David Copperfield, it was less out of great hope or ambition than because he’d been having a rough time at school and his parents (his father was a literary agent; his mother, a casting agent) thought that the experience of auditioning might boost his confidence. - The Atlantic
"Briony’s idea of being able to rewrite someone’s life for the better is, for any sensible brain, a ridiculous notion. Yet there's scientific evidence that we feel our experiences differently according to the stories we tell about them. … Whether we change the truth through stories we tell is a very relevant topic." - Pointe Magazine
More and more, science is allowing us to understand our attraction to music and what it does for us — and consequently, what makes us human. - San Francisco Classical Voice
"The 37-year old’s directorial debut is the result of a three-force collaboration: the dance is by Peck himself to Stevens’s introspective coming-of-age album with a narrative written by playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury. A group of singers perform the album’s songs while dancers express Sibblies Drury’s storyline without uttering any lines." - The Guardian
Unfortunately, it’s not only large-scale music festivals that are copping severe losses, as many other vital players within the performing arts are battling rising costs in a funding environment that is simply not keeping pace with the price hikes associated with presenting arts events. - ArtsHub
"Puccini is typically seen as representing the end of a tradition, but might he actually have sown the seeds of a variety of new traditions? We can hear nods to his style in works by Janáček, Korngold, Orff and Berio." - Bachtrack
When it comes to how you would ideally plan your days, the research suggests that people differ, with some more drawn to clock time and some more to event time. - Psyche
"After (a 2020) border skirmish, the Indian government banned the app. … As the app's 150 million US users swipe through videos in limbo, the story of India’s TikTok ban shows that users are quick to adapt, but also that when TikTok dies, much of its culture dies with it." - BBC
"According to the report (commissioned by HarperCollins), 74% of YA readers were adults, and 28% were over the age of 28. The research suggests this is due to behavioural changes described as 'emerging adulthood': young people growing up more slowly and delaying 'adult' life." - The Guardian
"Two people were arrested on Sunday morning at the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay for being suspected of attempting to damage classified property. … When they were arrested, they were 'in possession of a white liquid – glue and a viscous whitish mixture – and were wearing" t-shirts of an environmental activist group. - ARTnews
He loved cinema all his life and wrote some genuinely great film criticism. Yet, says one Baldwin scholar, he "craved an Oscar almost as much as he did a Pulitzer" and pitched a number of ideas to directors. Some filmmakers approached Baldwin themselves; Fassbinder suggested filming Giovanni's Room. - The Guardian
"On average, organizations retained their full-time staff through pandemic shutdowns. Average staff size has grown over the last two years (2022 to 2023) through the addition of permanent part-time positions. Payroll has also increased over the period analyzed, outpacing inflation by 11%." - SMU DataArts
"Called the 'dean of American post-modernists' and 'the most meta of American meta-fictional writers,' Auster blended history, politics, genre experiments, existential quests and self-conscious references to writers and writing. ... Starting in the 1970s, Auster completed more than 30 books, translated into dozens of languages." - AP