Wote for Comment of the Week

Lets only do 24 hours for summer voting...

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "7 Musicals We Can’t Wait to See at NYMF":

The seven new productions coming out at NYMF cover a wide variety of topics, some that focus on more serious topics than others. The first show listed, “Der Gelbe Stern,” is a more serious piece that exposes the different ways that political, social, economic, and cultural shifts can change the art of an entire era. In this case, the art of Erika Stern is oppressed during the rise of the Nazi regime. Other productions that are coming out regarding political topics include “Clinton: The Musical” and “Propaganda! The Musical,” both describing the life of a president, one real, one fictional. Other productions that veer towards more serious topics are “As We Lie Still,” a story of a disgraced magician attempting to regain his fame, and “Mr. Confidential,” a production that exposes the darker secrets of show business. “Rescue Rue” is a production with a young target audience that caters to a new demographic by being an “autism-friendly” show. In this show, the lobby will be staffed with autism specialists, the house is guaranteed to be silent, and all flashing lights have been removed from the show. With changes like these, musical theater not only displays it’s public awareness, but also takes a step towards a new future where productions may one day be completely accessible for people with these disabilities. Lastly, “Zombie Strippers” is the black sheep in the lineup for being a campy (not to mention raunchy) comedy designed to be a good laugh for an audience. All seven of the productions are bound to be entertaining, no matter what the topic may be, and NYMF displays a positive diversity of ideas this July.

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "Yale Offers A Course That's Cross-Listed Between P...":

As someone who is both scientifically minded and artistic, I often felt like people have viewed those two traits as contradictions. There is this idea that some people are left brained and some people are right brained, but this class shows that there is not an uncrossable line.

I love how a class like this could help many different students. It would be a dream class for dancers who are also math nerds, but there are so many more people who could benefit. Dance students who need to take a math class but don’t like math can use this class to put mathematics into a context they love. Mathematically minded students who want to learn dance would be able to learn it more easily if it is explained in the way they like to think. This class would even help students who aren’t passionate about math or dance, but want a break from a standard classroom setting and a chance to be a bit more active. I hope intersubject classes become more common, after all, this class works for many students because it is integrated.

@Jasmine Lesane: I like what you said about different departments having preconceived notions about other fields. It isn’t unheard of for departments to have skewed views of each other, even though overlap students exist. Classes like this could help decrease barriers between departments and, in turn, increase overall respect for difference.

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Release Your Inner Genius With These 5 Tips":

Romans defining the word Genius as inner spirit guiding us to our calling seems strangely fitting. Genius is what permits us to do what we love, and yet it lives in the eye of the beholder, truly making it an inner spirit. This article, by outlining the 5 steps to releasing your inner genius, gives us a way to discover this Roman phenomenon. To start, we are told to be mindful. Seems simple enough. The second step, conscious openness, is where the article begins to get interesting. The insinuation is that we must not follow any set guidelines for doing things, we must do what feels natural, not what rules or recipes tell us to. Omnivorousness is also recommended in this article, but not in the eat meat AND veggies sense. We must take in all information of all kinds to truly open up our mind to the full extent of our world. Practicing positive affirmation might be the hardest thing on this list, if only because we as a species are inherently negative, so forcing yourself to look on the bright side constantly might prove to be more than a little challenging. Finally, we must never stop learning. We must even relearn. By forgetting old, we can let the new in, and then let other people and experiences bring us back to the old. This five-stop roadmap just might make a genius out of anyone.

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Antipermanence: An Argument for Increased Infrastr...":

Very relevant and engaging article. I'm intrigued by the dichotomy of the large commercial-oriented theaters of Broadway and the more independent regional theaters, and Feinberg presented the information in a compelling and well-organized manner. I especially liked her relating theatre to an ever-changing organism; theatre can become whatever we want it to be. In addition, I appreciated her taking into account the next generation of theatre-consumers (that's me!) and how adjustments should be made for them. It's not very often that I walk into a theatre and see a crowd of other people around my age, and I fervently hope that someday theatre can touch a more diverse audience.

Altogether, I'm inspired by this Feinberg and her dedication to using her research to further develop the theatre world. I'm definitely going to see if I can dig up anything else by Feinberg, hopefully to further grasp the state of art and how it relates to the world. She certainly doesn't shy away from calling out theatre establishments and their apparent hypocrisy. Is every establishment doomed to commercialism? Is that a bad thing? Probably. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Broadway? Bigscreen? ‘Blue Highway’ Preps for Both...":

“Blue Highway” is an out-of-the-ordinary production with ambitious goals in crowdfunding, casting, and publicity. Turning a screenplay for an indie film into a full-fledged Broadway production isn’t something that happens every day, especially not when making an attempt to overlap casting between the two fabrications. Expecting to raise half a million dollars through crowdfunding alone may be a stretch, though it is not unheard of, and the marketing team will have to be extremely effective in their ability to raise awareness for the show. Even creating a documentary on top of it all to narrate the privations of going from set to stage may make everything too busy and hectic, and though it could be used as another form of media to raise awareness about this expensive endeavor, there might be too many things happening all at once for the show to stay organized and on-track. It seems like a valid strategy to express this story through various forms of media, as although it was originally a screenplay, the failure of one production does not necessarily mean the failure of the others, ensuring a probable increased rate of success for the independent film/show/documentary combination.