“…those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them, and, in fact, they make money.” Watch Cate Blanchett’s Academy Award acceptance…
Tag: audience
A story, to be a story, must have some sort of tension, conflict, and ultimately fear. Beauty fears the Beast. We fear Cinderella will live out her life in servitude. Juliet and Romeo fear their families’ reactions, but also fear being torn apart. In The…
I have a confession to make: If I had to pick one favorite modern author, it would be Terry Pratchett – and not just in an “oh, he’s so funny and clever” sort of way. No, it’s much more in a “Granny Weatherwax is my…
The Gift starts with an anthropological overview of giftgiving, and proceeds to argue that works of art – which are treated as commodities in modern western culture – ought to be seen, first and foremost, as gifts. This book is a call to suspend concern…
The NEA’s recent report To Read or Not to Read, reported that Americans are reading less. More surprisingly, it also showed that readers are more likely to volunteer, participate in and patronize the arts, vote, and even exercise than non-readers. Why is that? The study…
This quote, written by William Nicholson for his screenplay Shadowlands, seems to have struck a cord: it returns 15,800 hits on google. Interestingly, this statement is most often attributed to Shadowlands‘ main character C.S. Lewis. I’d venture to say that the same statement could be…
…Our best playwrights continue to present us with unsettlingly truthful versions of ourselves. The irony is that these versions must be coated in the taste and color of our delusion. They must tell us what we need to know while allowing us the option of…
Last night I attended a taiko drumming performance at a theatre downtown. It was gorgeous. As an introduction, two members of the troupe danced on stage in lion masks. The little girl behind me, with more fantastic creatures on her mind, asked, “Is that a…