“After World War I, many of the film companies in Europe had taken a big hit, and the U.S. government supported the film industry by helping to send over films overseas.”
Archives for March 2014
How Is Child Star Martha Plimpton Dealing With Her Forties?
“There are just more interesting parts for women in the theater. There’s just more to do. I could play Hedda Gabler on stage, but no one will ever hire me to play Hedda Gabler in a movie. … I don’t have the face of a movie star. I have a face of a character actress.”
The Book Barge Was Sinking. Would Amazon Step In To Help?
“An experiment like this, I thought, could also be a useful corrective to the easy acceptance that value for money has just one currency. Consumers have come to expect discounts. In fact, most feel positively cheated if a price tag hasn’t been visibly slashed. By offering goods without any money at all exchanging hands, The Book Barge could become an attractive proposition to buyers.”
Portland’s Theatres Band Together To Present All Of Shakespeare In Two Years
“I think it’s going to be a fun experiment for the Portland arts community which is very diverse but often falls into the trap that everyone’s competing for the same dollars, the few art dollars out there that are still left,” says organizer Peter Platt. “Instead there’s strength in numbers. You can come together, collaborate, create festivals and programming that shares expertise, talent and overhead.”
If You Wonder Where All The Victorian Fairies Got To, Blame The Usual Suspect
“Fairies were abundant in print until 1926, whereupon they suffered what population ecology types would call an overshoot, followed by a die-off. In other words, we crested ‘peak fairy.'” Then we created cars.
How Old Hollywood Made New Beverly Hills
The city’s only a hundred years old – and the land it’s on was a ranch where coyote and bobcats used to roam. But everything changed when two investors decided to look for oil.
Now We’re Going To Print Our Own Houses
“With 3D-printing, there is zero waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled. This could revolutionise how we make our cities.”
Is It Time To End The Story Ballet?
“Let’s do a brand-new story that works well for dance, and commission new music, new sets. Have it be a big production. Hire someone to write the libretto. Put a lot of care into it. Even take the time to workshop a lot of it. I’d take an approach that plays or Broadway musicals take, where there can be many phases of development for it, so it’s not rushed.”
Canada Is No Longer Cool With Unpaid Interns, And Magazines Aren’t Happy About That
“Two of Canada’s highest profile magazines have been told by the Ontario Ministry of Labour to immediately end their internship programs after complaints about unfair labour practices.”
Felix Fibich, Dancer And Choreographer Who Brought Jewish Dance Traditions To The U.S., Dies At 96
“As a young actor in Poland’s Yiddish theater troupes, Mr. Fibich observed a wide range of expressive gestures and dances in Jewish communities. After moving to the United States in 1950, he and Judith Berg, his wife and first dance teacher, became known through concerts and workshops as experts in theatricalizing Jewish dance traditions.”
Book Editors Say Life’s Too Short To Read Bad Books
“There’s no set way to approach a manuscript. Nobody tells you, ‘This is how to edit. Follow these steps.’ Everyone comes to a manuscript with a different perspective, and you quickly learn that each editor has his or her own personal preferences — conventions they love (and maybe even overuse) and things that are huge pet peeves.”
Theatre Makes Good Citizens – Just Ask This High School Kid Who Got ‘Rent’ Un-Banned
“While our change might just be producing an art that can create social commentary and create a message for an audience, I think that is an idea of expression in general and of our First Amendment rights: We’re given the ability to produce material that can create change and be a part of our society.”
Want That Ebook? You’d Best Be Able To Travel To It
“Books that traveled around the world via interlibrary loan in the 20th century paper era are safeguarded locally in the Internet age. Indeed, it is the sheer ease with which electronic publications can be sent around the world that is now resulting in their being locked up behind digital bars. The book doesn’t go to the reader, the reader comes to the book — just like in the 19th century.”
Regional Theatre Balances On A Financial Knife-Edge – But Needs To Keep It Local
“How do you put on new work, in the main house, while also keeping your audience? Familiar stories, brands and characters reinvented for the stage can seem like a smart way forward.”
Is The Women’s History Museum Finally Going To Become A Reality?
“The latest version of the bill is designed to calm the complaints of Republicans, who blocked an earlier proposal in 2010 because they feared a new museum would cost taxpayers too much money.”
Gone With The Wind’s ‘Mammy’ To Get A Book Of Her Own
“It’s a book that respects and honors its source material, but it also provides a necessary correction to what is one of the more troubling aspects of the book, which is how the black characters are portrayed.”
Wait, Why Is A Book About Gone With The Wind’s ‘Mammy’ Being Written By A White Guy?
“One troubling feature of slave narratives is the process of a white person, typically male, having to authenticate the story. Never mind that the author lived to tell the tale. It still wasn’t real unless it was co-signed by a presumed credible source.”
Time For The Arts To Smarten Up About Smartphones
“Largely gone are the old apprehensions, the old tensions that marked the relationship between smartphones and the arts. Where those running organizations once wondered what to do about these new devices that could record audio and video and take pictures — practices that had sometimes been barred — now they know: Embrace them.”
The UK Doesn’t Want Prisoners Getting Books Anymore. Writers And Actors Lead The Protests
“I also believe that as a species, language is the greatest thing that we do, so I have to believe in the redemptive power of the written word.”
Cable Shows May Have The Prestige, But Networks Win On Diversity
“This broadcast trend flies in the face of conventional ‘wisdom,’ which has for years argued that shows featuring female, black, Latino, Asian or gay leads could only muster niche audiences. It has been taken as gospel that viewers in the heartland, i.e. Americans with conservative values, just aren’t ready for anything beyond the pale of ‘traditional’ programming.”
How’s Vanska’s Job ‘Audition’ At Minneapolis Going?
“Mr. Vanska is faced with 21 substitute musicians this week, mostly among the strings, along with 64 members of the orchestra, and once again, he is making them sound like a unified and refined whole.”
Eight Board Members Resigning From Minnesota Orchestra Board
The board members “resigned in protest over the impending departure of its president, Michael Henson. … All of this is further fallout from the management’s 16-month lockout of the players.”
Here’s How to Fix the Metropolitan Opera
Following up on an incisive analysis of what’s really wrong at the company, Dawn Fatale says the Met needs to be more exciting – and makes some intriguing and inventive suggestions for just how to do that.
Can You Really Prosecute Someone For Rap Lyrics? (It’s Being Done)
“The proliferation of cases has alarmed many scholars and defense lawyers, who say that independent of a defendant’s guilt or innocence, the lyrics are being unfairly used to prejudice judges and juries who have little understanding that, for all its glorification of violence, gangsta rappers are often people who have assumed over-the-top and fictional personas.”
Russian Oligarchs? Brazilian Millionaires? What’s The Detroit Institute Of Art To Do?
“OK, let’s clear up any misunderstanding: Russian oligarchs and Brazilian millionaires are not amassed in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts in the hopes of being first in line should the treasures inside go up for sale.”