Here are a few stories from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:
The Art of Self-Immersion
Stage Directions: Cynthia von Buhler turns even casual artistic whims into bold new adventures. Throughout her career she has been an illustrator, children’s book author, painter, sculptor, band manager and performance artist. Her latest endeavor, Speakeasy Dollhouse, is an immersive theatre experience that takes attendees back to the 1920s and the mystery of her grandfather Frank Spano’s murder. While it emerged initially as a one-off show inspired by book research, the production has evolved into an elaborate, weekly, multi-room production that plays inside gangster Meyer Lansky’s former hangout in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It’s a time-travel adventure for audiences that allows them to immerse themselves as deeply as they like and come back for more.
Ballet Competitions Turn Art into Sport
New Republic: The International Olympic Committee recently voted to restore wrestling to the Olympic Games in 2016. One activity that’s never been put before the committee: ballet. Despite its physical similarities to gymnastics, ice-skating and ballroom dance, most ballet dancers would bristle at the suggestion that it's a sport—and yet, many ballet teachers and directors have embraced Olympic-style competitions in which aspiring dancers compete for gold, silver and bronze medals, scholarships, contracts and even cash.
A Litany of Multiple Voices: Notes on Political Theater
HowlRound: To begin this particular musing it is important to say something up front: I am the sort of person who believes that the things I read are written just for me, that they are speaking to me in specific moments of my life. Most recently, I’ve become fixated on a poem by a man named Richard Siken entitled A Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out. I like its disjointed storytelling and its strong voice, but I also love it for the moment that it entered my life.
In Defense of 'Homeland's Pedophile Dr. Graham And Portraying Unpleasant Characters
ThinkProgress: In last week’s episode of Homeland, I thought the real standout of an episode that otherwise was a retread of the show’s Carrie-Brody obsession was Erik Todd Dellums’ performance as Dr. Graham, the surgeon who runs a crude hospital in the Tower of David, and who lives and works for a criminal gang there in part because he’s a pedophile. As he puts it to Brody, “We’re here because the world outside can be judgmental and cruel. We’re here because this is the place that accepts us. We’re here because we belong here.” As I wrote in my Vulture review of the episode, “He’s such an upsetting, specific creation that I was almost tempted to up my rating of this episode by a star.”
The disvalue of the arts…when did it occur?
Audience Development Specialists Blog!: Yes, it might be strange to hear from me over the weekend. I had something on my mind I wanted to share. I have come to the conclusion that we in the arts are attempting to solve a puzzle without the actual background knowledge needed to solve it. We are fighting an uphill battle to have people value the arts again. We have our talking points that have been proven over and over again, yet the majority doesn’t seem to be listening, or they have come to not care about the arts the way we do.
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