Some States Aren’t Stopping With Censoring School Libraries
States like Kentucky, with conservative legislatures, are taking control over what books can be in public libraries as well. Doesn't sound fascist at all,...
Tony Award-Winner Myles Frost Got To MJ From YT
The star accidentally found his way into the musical. "As a high schooler at Thomas Wootton in Rockville, he sang and danced to Jackson’s...
Why It’s So Difficult To Pin Down Creativity
Magic and mystery are what make jokes funny and creativity so tantalizing. Revealing how a magic trick is done or giving away a punchline...
The Most Multi-Lingual Place On Earth (With Culture To Match)
The many languages spoken here, though mostly belonging to the Indo-European family, still more narrowly to the Dardic sub-family within the Indo-Aryan group, are...
Peter Schjeldahl’s Daughter Wrote A Memoir About Him. It Doesn’t Go Well
“Maybe writing this book would make my father’s … catastrophic personality, seem beautiful to me. … And … maybe … I would seem interesting...
We Don’t Boo At Theatre Anymore. Are We Missing Something?
It’s curious that booing is absent from modern theatre, because it’s as old as European drama. The earliest reports of audience booing were recorded...
British Columbia Premier Suspends $800 Million Plan To Rebuild Museum
Horgan explained that British Columbians were unwilling to accept an $800-million price tag for the project while the province faces a doctor shortage, an increasing...
Can We Cut Poor Old Polonius A Break?
"Polonius isn't a good father. Good fathers don't make good drama. But he's a good character, more complex than critics usually recognize. Polonius is...
How The Pandemic Has Warped UK Arts Prices
Looking at the data revealed in The Stage’s West End ticketing survey this week, it appears producers are trying to straddle both horses, with top prices...
How A Phantasmagorical Poem By Charles Darwin’s Grandfather First Set Down In Words The...
In 1789, Erasmus Darwin — physician, pathologist, abolitionist, and botanist as well as poet — published a strange set of cantos under the title...
Can Music Support Ukraine Without Being Propaganda?
Credible reports have been published about atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Ukrainian cities. But is music the same as weapons? Can musicians stand for...
Australia’s Busy Alt-Circus Scene Tries To Bounce Back (Ahem) From The Pandemic
It's an inventive — and animal-free — bunch of troupes with names like A Good Catch and Gravity and Other Myths. But they're not...
Is Elvis Finally Irrelevant?
"To be honest, no one I know under 30 cares or knows much about Elvis. The classic version of rock ’n’ roll just doesn't...
Want To See How Exactly Broadway Bares? Like This.
In 1992, in a Manhattan gay club, eight hunky dancers did stripteases on the bar to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Thus...
The Netrebko Problem
With a larger-than-life personality and a taste for extravagance, she built a loyal fan base and was sometimes called classical music’s answer to Beyoncé. Now...
How James Turrell Was Inspired By Quaker Meetinghouses
"The artist recalls asking his grandmother what they were meant to do inside the meetinghouse, to which she replied: 'We're going inside to greet...
City Of Philadelphia Increases Arts Funding To (Slightly) Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
"The Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the main vehicle for supporting arts organizations in the city..., saw its budget increase to $3.5 million for fiscal 2023,...
Maybe Alt-Weeklies Aren’t Dying Out After All
"(As) with the robust launch of online local newsrooms in the last two years, some alts are finding new ground in old traditions. Here...
In This Depressed Scottish Housing Project, El Sistema Is Working
"No-one is pretending there has been a miracle here, but 15 years ago, if the Raploch was known at all, it was known for...
“Metamorphosis”: How Musicians Are Trying To Build A Successor To The San Antonio Symphony
The group of musicians that organized public concerts this spring (before the board shut the orchestra down) is now working on the logistics of...
Netflix Lays Off Almost 3% Of Its Workforce
The streaming giant has let go of 300 employees, just a month after a previous round of 150 layoffs (plus many part-timers and contractors)....
Opera’s Diversity Problem Isn’t Only Onstage
The new study by Opera America found that, in North America, only about 20% of employees are people of color, compared with 39% of...
London West End Theatre Ticket Prices Rise 20 Percent Over Pre-Pandemic
In 2022, the average cost of the most expensive tickets available for West End productions is £140.85, up 21.3% on 2019. The increase has...
Eight Men Convicted In Paris Of Stealing Banksy’s Bataclan ArtWork
British street artist Banksy painted his “sad girl” work on the door of the Bataclan in memory of the 90 people killed in worst...
How To Convince Pseudo-Science Believers Of Real Science
We shouldn’t be dismissive of people who believe in pseudoscience. In many cases they’re victims who have fallen for disinformation that’s been put forward...
