Almost everyone mentioned that debut fiction has become harder to launch. For writers, the stakes are do or die: A debut sets the bar for each of their subsequent books, so their debut advance and sales performance can follow them for the rest of their career. - Esquire
Leaders in all industries, terrified of missing out on the next big thing, are signing checks and inking deals, perhaps not knowing what precisely it is they’re getting into or if they are unwittingly helping the companies who will ultimately destroy them. - The Atlantic
No matter if it's a local stage show or a major Broadway production — or if it's a comedy, musical, or drama — these long-held theater traditions and superstitions are still going strong. - Interesting Facts
Who else can’t read cursive? I asked the class. The answer: about two-thirds. And who can’t write it? Even more. What did they do about signatures? They had invented them by combining vestiges of whatever cursive instruction they may have had with creative squiggles and flourishes. - The Atlantic
The ramifications of this contracted environment have varied. Teams are making do with less by reducing the number of episodes they produce or by employing a smaller team. Companies laid staff off over the past 18 months (or shut down entirely). - Bloomberg
I think that we have adjusted some of our programmatic models. You know, some of the data had been showing us that post-pandemic audiences have been really attracted to going to shows that are recognizable, that they know, that are the classics. - Oregon Public Broadcasting
Susan Jaffe has some ideas, some plans, and some hopes. But “the challenges facing Ballet Theater, which begins its summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House this month, are daunting. Costs are rising, donations have declined and audience habits are rapidly shifting." - The New York Times
And for worse. “The world of the McKittrick, we believed (or let ourselves pretend to believe), was an enchanted one; not just by the witches who herald Macbeth’s downfall, but by a stranger and more widely suffused magic.” - Slate
“The suit claims that UArts failed to follow the 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to give them at least a 60-day notice of a planned closure or mass layoff.” - Hyperallergic
Donoghue doesn’t know why one story “about a risk-loving boy thief and the scary/seductive witch whose island he repeatedly sneaks on to” gripper her. But she remembers “the implicit lesson I learned from my mother: give those you love what they crave.” - The Guardian (UK)
Bing Chen’s Gold House “operates behind the scenes of a dizzying array of projects. The team’s consulting work for film and TV includes cultural research, script and casting review, facilitating product partnerships and helping with marketing and public relations” on everything from Turning Red to The Sympathizer. - Los Angeles Times
The true game-changer was 2020’s The Last of Us, Part 2. The makers "decided to do a lot of experimenting and consulting with gamers with disabilities. They eventually added more than 60 different accessibility options to the game.” - NPR
