1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Seating capacity
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Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The International Fire Code, portions of which have adopted by many jurisdictions, is directed more towards the use of a facility than the construction. It specifies, For areas having fixed seating without dividing arms and it also requires that every public venue submit a detailed site plan to the local fire code official, including details of the means of egress, seating capacity, arrangement of the seating. Once safety considerations have been satisfied, determinations of seating capacity turn on the size of the venue. For sports venues, the decision on maximum seating capacity is determined by several factors, chief among these are the primary sports program and the size of the market area. Seating capacity of venues also plays a role in what media they are able to provide, in contracting to permit performers to use a theatre or other performing space, the seating capacity of the performance facility must be disclosed. Seating capacity may influence the kind of contract to be used, the seating capacity must also be disclosed to the copyright owner in seeking a license for the copyrighted work to be performed in that venue. Venues that may be leased for private functions such as ballrooms and auditoriums generally advertise their seating capacity, seating capacity is also an important consideration in the construction and use of sports venues such as stadiums and arenas. The seating capacity for restaurants is reported as covers, a restaurant that can seat 99 is said to have 99 covers, seating capacity differs from total capacity, which describes the total number of people who can fit in a venue or in a vehicle either sitting or standing. Use of the term public capacity indicates that a venue is allowed to more people than it can actually seat. Again, the total number of people can refer to either the physical space available or limitations set by law
3.
Joseph Papp
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Joseph Joe Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York, there, Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new creations, both plays and musicals. Papp was born Joseph Papirofsky in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of Yetta, a seamstress, and Samuel Papirofsky and his parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. He was a school student of Harlem Renaissance playwright Eulalie Spence. Papp founded the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1954, with the aim of making Shakespeares works accessible to the public, in 1957, he was granted the use of Central Park for free productions of Shakespeares plays. This legacy of Papp has continued at the open-air Delacorte Theatre every summer in Central Park, Papp spent years of entrepreneurial zeal and dogged persistence promoting his idea of free Shakespeare in New York City. Actress Colleen Dewhurst, who played Kate the shrew, recalled the beginning of the shift in fortune, With Brooks Atkinsons blessing, suddenly in our audience of neighbors in T-shirts and jeans appeared men in white shirts, jackets and ties, and ladies in summer dresses. Suddenly we were the play to see, and everything changed and we were in a hit that would have a positive effect on my career, as well as Joes, but I missed the shouting. I missed the feeling of not knowing what might happen next or how that play would that night move an audience unafraid of talking back, after looking at other locations, he fell in love with the location and the character of Lafayette Street’s Astor Library. Papp got it, in 1967, at a one dollar yearly rental from the City. It was the first building saved from demolition under the New York City landmarks preservation law, after massive renovations, Papp moved his staff to the newly named Public Theater, hoping to attract a newer, less conventional audience to new and innovative playwrights. At the Public Theater, Papps focus moved away from the Shakespearean classics, notable Public Theater productions included Charles Gordone’s No Place to Be Somebody and the plays of David Rabe, Tom Babe, and Jason Miller. Papp called his productions of Rabes plays the most important thing I did at the Public, Papp managed to produce plays that spoke to their own time. As festival designer Ming Cho Lee put it, “With the new playwrights, Joe changed direction and none of us realized for a while that he had changed direction. The Public Theater became more important than the Delacorte, the new playwrights became more interesting to Joe than Shakespeare. A Chorus Line originated with a series of taped interviews of dancers reminiscences, down at the Public, Papp had given Bennett the kind of entrepreneurial support for which he was known, trusting Bennett with the time and space to flesh out his dream. Previously, Papp had not kept his producers hands on the rights to Hair, after this ground-breaking musical transferred to a highly lucrative Broadway run, the shows earnings became a continuous financial support for Papps work. The show received 12 Tony Award nominations and won nine of them and it ran for 6,137 performances, becoming the longest-running production in Broadway history up to that time
4.
Playwright
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A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes plays. The term is not a variant spelling of playwrite, but something quite distinct, hence the prefix and the suffix combine to indicate someone who has wrought words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form - someone who crafts plays. The homophone with write is in this case entirely coincidental, the term playwright appears to have been coined by Ben Jonson in his Epigram 49, To Playwright, as an insult, to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and this view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term playwright later lost this negative connotation, the earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks. These early plays were written for annual Athenian competitions among playwrights held around the 5th century BC, such notables as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. For the ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis, the act of making and this is the source of the English word poet. In the 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics, the first play-writing manual, in this famous text, Aristotle established the principle of action or praxis as the basis for all drama. He then included a hierarchy of elements for the beginning with plot, character, thought, diction, music. The ends of drama were plot, character, and thought, the means of drama were language and music, since the myths, upon which Greek tragedy were based, were widely known, plot had to do with the arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was equated with choice as rather than psychology, so that character was determined by action, in tragedy, the notion of ethical choice determined the character of the individual. Thought had more to do and the imitation of an action that is serious, thus, he developed his notion of hamartia, or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist. It provides the basis for the play, a term still held as the sine qua non of dramaturgy. The Poetics, while very brief and highly condensed, is studied today. Perhaps the most Aristotelian of contemporary playwrights is David Mamet, who embraces the idea of character as agent of the action, and emphasizes causality in the structure of his plays. His recently revived, Speed-the-Plow, is quintessentially Aristotelian, in that it observes the unities and builds its plot through a causal stream of discoveries and reversals. The Italian Renaissance brought about a stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities, of action, place, and time
5.
Hair (musical)
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Hair, The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s. The musicals profanity, its depiction of the use of drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag. The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of musical, using a racially integrated cast. Simultaneous productions in cities across the United States and Europe followed shortly thereafter, since then, numerous productions have been staged around the world, spawning dozens of recordings of the musical, including the 3 million-selling original Broadway cast recording. Some of the songs from its score became Top 10 hits, a Broadway revival opened in 2009, earning strong reviews and winning the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for best revival of a musical. In 2008, Time magazine wrote, Today Hair seems, if anything, Hair was conceived by actors James Rado and Gerome Ragni. The two met in 1964 when they performed together in the Off-Broadway flop Hang Down Your Head and Die, the main characters were autobiographical, with Rados Claude being a pensive romantic and Ragnis Berger an extrovert. Their close relationship, including its volatility, was reflected in the musical, Rado explained, We were great friends. It was a kind of relationship that we directed into creativity, into writing. We put the drama between us on stage, Rado described the inspiration for Hair as a combination of some characters we met in the streets, people we knew and our own imaginations. He recalled, There was so much excitement in the streets and the parks and the hippie areas and we hung out with them and went to their Be-Ins let our hair grow. Many cast members were recruited right off the street, Rado said, It was very important historically, and if we hadnt written it, thered not be any examples. You could read about it and see film clips, but youd never experience it and we thought, This is happening in the streets, and we wanted to bring it to the stage. Rado and Ragni came from different artistic backgrounds, in college, Rado wrote musical revues and aspired to be a Broadway composer in the Rodgers and Hammerstein tradition. He went on to acting with Lee Strasberg. Ragni, on the hand, was an active member of The Open Theater, one of several groups, mostly Off-off Broadway. He introduced Rado to the theatre styles and methods being developed at The Open Theater
6.
Lafayette Street
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Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York Citys Lower Manhattan. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, the one-way street then successively runs through Chinatown, Little Italy, NoLIta, and NoHo and finally, between East 9th and East 10th Streets, merges with Fourth Avenue. A buffered bike lane runs outside of the traffic lane. North of Spring Street, Lafayette Street is northbound -only, south of Spring Street, the street is named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolutionary War. Lots along both sides of the new street sold briskly, earning Astor many times what he had paid for the two decades before. At that time its route was carved from the former Elm Street, Marion Street, schermerhorns moved uptown to 49 West 23rd Street. Before long, half of Colonnade Row was demolished to make way for a warehouse for Wanamakers Department Store, the main store burnt down in 1956, but the annex and warehouse buildings remain extant on Lafayette. This program was renewed in 2009 for the dates of August 8,15, and 22,2009 from 7,00 AM to 1,00 PM, as of 2013, it takes place on the first, second, and third Saturdays of every August. The New York City Subways 46 <6> B D F M trains intersect at a station complex at Bleecker Street / Broadway – Lafayette Street. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line runs under Lafayette Street, with stops at Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, NoHo Historic District Designation Report, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, p. 6–7 Lafayette Street Storefronts – photographs of buildings and stores along Lafayette Street
7.
Astor Library
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It was primarily meant as a research library, and its books did not circulate. It opened to the public in 1854, and in 1895 consolidated with the Lenox Library, during this time, its building was expanded twice, in 1859 and 1881. In 1837, ill health had obligated Joseph Cogswell to abandon his career and enter the family of Samuel Ward. Three of Wards sons had been pupils at Round Hill School which Cogswell had administered, Ward introduced Cogswell to John Jacob Astor, who by then was in his 70s and had been retired for about 10 years. As the richest citizen of the United States, German-born Astor was considering what sort of testimonial he should leave to his adopted country. Early in January 1838, Astor consulted Cogswell about the use of some $300, 000–$400,000, Cogswell urged him to use it for a library, which Astor agreed to. A public announcement of Astors plan for the establishment of a public library appeared in New York in July 1838, at that point, the sum named was $350,000, and included a lot of land for the necessary building. Cogswell developed such a strategy, and Astor assented to it on the condition that Cogswell be in charge of buying books, the necessary detail extended to a catalog that must necessarily belong to the collection. By May 1839, Astor had set aside a sum of $400,000 for a public library. For books, $120,000 was allocated, and trustees were to be Washington Irving, Astor, Daniel Lord, Jr. James G. King, Joseph G. Cogswell, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Henry Brevoort, Jr. Samuel B. Ruggles, Samuel Ward, Jr. and the Mayor of New York City, in December 1842, $75,000 was fixed as the amount to be expended for the building, and Charles Astor Bristed was added to the list of trustees. By November 1840, Samuel Ward had died, and Cogswell began residing with Astor, sometimes he had a downtown office at his disposal. Thus matters stood until Astors death in 1848, Cogswell lived with or near Astor, the first meeting of the trustees came on May 20,1848. Cogswell was appointed superintendent of the library, with authority to convene the trustees, the name of “The Astor Library” was chosen for the institution at the second meeting on June 1. On September 28, a location was finalized for the building, what is now the East Village, there it was judged to be tranquil enough to be suitable for study. The lot was valued at $25,000, which sum was deducted from the $400,000 of the endowment, in January 1849 the library was incorporated and received a paragraph in the annual message of Governor Hamilton Fish. In April 1849, the trustees hired a house at 32 Bond Street for temporary custody and exhibition of the books they had purchased. The trustees stated that “all persons desirous of resorting to the library and of examining books, may do so all the convenience which it is in the power of the trustees to afford. ”At this time
8.
Lower Manhattan
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Lower Manhattan is defined most commonly as the area delineated on the north by 14th Street, on the west by the Hudson River, on the east by the East River, and on the south by New York Harbor. The Lower Manhattan business district forms the core of the area below Chambers Street and it includes the Financial District and the World Trade Center site. At the islands southern tip is Battery Park, City Hall is just to the north of the Financial District, also south of Chambers Street are the planned community of Battery Park City and the South Street Seaport historic area. The neighborhood of TriBeCa straddles Chambers on the west side, at the streets east end is the giant Manhattan Municipal Building, North of Chambers Street and the Brooklyn Bridge and south of Canal Street lies most of New Yorks oldest Chinatown neighborhood. Many court buildings and other government offices are located in this area. The Lower East Side neighborhood straddles Canal, North of Canal Street and south of 14th Street are the neighborhoods of SoHo, the Meatpacking District, the West Village, Greenwich Village, Little Italy, Nolita, and the East Village. Between 14th and 23rd streets are lower Chelsea, Union Square, the Flatiron District, Gramercy, the area that would eventually encompass modern day New York City was inhabited by the Lenape people. These groups of culturally and linguistically identical Native Americans traditionally spoke an Algonquian language now referred to as Unami, European settlement began with the founding of a Dutch fur trading post in Lower Manhattan, later called New Amsterdam in 1626. The first fort was built at the Battery to protect New Netherland, soon thereafter, most likely in 1626, construction of Fort Amsterdam began. Later, the Dutch West Indies Company imported African slaves to serve as laborers, they helped to build the wall that defended the town against English, early directors included Willem Verhulst and Peter Minuit. Willem Kieft became director in 1638 but five years later was embroiled in Kiefts War against the Native Americans, the Pavonia Massacre, across the Hudson River in present-day Jersey City resulted in the death of 80 natives in February 1643. Following the massacre, Algonquian tribes joined forces and nearly defeated the Dutch, the Dutch Republic sent additional forces to the aid of Kieft, leading to the overwhelming defeat of the Native Americans and a peace treaty on August 29,1645. On May 27,1647, Peter Stuyvesant was inaugurated as director general upon his arrival, the colony was granted self-government in 1652, and New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. The first mayors of New Amsterdam, Arent van Hattem and Martin Cregier, were appointed in that year, in 1664, the English conquered the area and renamed it New York after the Duke of York. At that time, people of African descent made up 20% of the population of the city, with European settlers numbering approximately 1,500, during the mid 1600s, farms of free blacks covered 130 acres where Washington Square Park later developed. The Dutch briefly regained the city in 1673, renaming the city New Orange, the new English rulers of the formerly Dutch New Amsterdam and New Netherland renamed the settlement New York. As the colony grew and prospered, sentiment also grew for greater autonomy, by 1700, the Lenape population of New York had diminished to 200. By 1703, 42% of households in New York had slaves, the 1735 libel trial of John Peter Zenger in the city was a seminal influence on freedom of the press in North America
9.
Delacorte Theater
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The Delacorte Theater is a 1, 800-seat open-air theater located in Central Park, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is home to the Public Theaters free Shakespeare in the Park productions, over five million people have attended more than 150 free productions of Shakespeare and other classical works and musicals at the Delacorte Theater since its opening in 1962. The theater is named in honor of Valerie and George T. Delacorte, Jr. Papp had started seeking funds in 1958 for a permanent outdoor amphitheater in Central Park, Papp believed theater was essential for all to experience, and that it should be free for all. These conceits, and Papps personal drive and determination, are what propelled Shakespeare in the Park into becoming one of New York Citys most treasured and beloved traditions, the first production, in 1962, was The Merchant of Venice starring George C. Scott and James Earl Jones. In 2010, Shakespeare in the Park featured repertory casting for the first time in decades, two shows, The Merchant of Venice and The Winters Tale, ran on an alternating basis over the course of the series and featured largely the same cast. The trend continued in the 2011 season, the 2011 season, featured Alls Well That Ends Well, directed by Daniel Sullivan, and Measure for Measure, directed by David Esbjornson, running in repertory on alternate evenings. The repertory cast featured John Cullum, Danai Gurira, Michael Hayden, Annie Parisse, Tonya Pinkins, Lorenzo Pisoni, martin, Jerry Stiller, Christopher Walken and others. The Public’s 2013 season began with The Comedy of Errors, directed by Dan Sullivan and featuring Shakespeare in the Park alumni Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Dromio and Hamish Linklater as Antipholus. Ferguson and Linklater last performed together in The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice in 2010 for The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park. The second show of the 2013 season is a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Loves Labours Lost, directed by Alex Timbers with songs by Michael Friedman. 2014 featured Hamish Linklater, Lily Rabe and John Lithgow all in starring roles, Linklater and Rabe took on the witty love-match of Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing while Lithgow tackled the title role in Shakespeares King Lear. Tickets to Shakespeare in the Park are free and can only be obtained the day of a performance. At 12 noon tickets are distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte to the line of people that usually springs up early in the morning when the park opens at 6AM. People have been known to camp out at the park entrance closest to the theater, 81st & Central Park West, anyone 5 years old and older can obtain and are required to have a ticket should they wish to see the show. The 2013 Season features a new policy that one person can obtain two tickets for two performances of one production. In addition to the line which snakes through the park the Public also offers a few other options to get tickets. One being the line for Seniors which begins at the benches closest to the box office. The tickets provided to that line have easy access inside the theater and are available to persons 65
10.
Central Park
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Central Park is an urban park in Manhattan, New York City. Central Park is the most visited park in the United States, with 40 million visitors in 2013. The park was established in 1857 on 778 acres of city-owned land, construction began the same year and the parks first area was opened to the public in the winter of 1858. Construction continued during the American Civil War farther north, and was expanded to its current size of 843 acres in 1873, Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U. S. Department of the Interior in 1962. The Conservancy is a organization that contributes 75 percent of Central Parks $65 million annual budget and is responsible for all basic care of the 843-acre park. Between 1821 and 1855, New York City nearly quadrupled in population, as the city expanded northward up Manhattan, people were drawn to the few existing open spaces, mainly cemeteries, to get away from the noise and chaotic life in the city. Since Central Park was not part of the original Commissioners Plan of 1811, John Randel, Jr. surveyed the grounds. The only remaining surveying bolt from his survey is still visible, it is embedded in a rock just north of the present Dairy and the 65th Street Transverse, the bolt marks the location where West 65th Street would have intersected Sixth Avenue. The state appointed a Central Park Commission to oversee the development of the park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux developed what came to be known as the Greensward Plan, which was selected as the winning design. The Greensward Plan called for some 36 bridges, all designed by Vaux, ranging from rugged spans of Manhattan schist or granite, to lacy Neo-Gothic cast iron, several influences came together in the design. Landscaped cemeteries, such as Mount Auburn and Green-Wood had set examples of idyllic, naturalistic landscapes, the most influential innovations in the Central Park design were the separate circulation systems for pedestrians, horseback riders, and pleasure vehicles. The crosstown commercial traffic was entirely concealed in sunken roadways, screened with densely planted shrub belts so as to maintain a rustic ambiance, before the construction of the park could start, the area had to be cleared of its inhabitants. Most lived in villages, such as Harsenville, the Piggery District, or Seneca Village, or in the school. Approximately 1,600 residents were evicted under the rule of eminent domain during 1857, Seneca Village and parts of the other communities were razed to make room for the park. During the parks construction, Olmsted fought constant battles with the park commissioners, between 1860 and 1873, most of the major hurdles to construction were overcome and the park was substantially completed. The work was documented with technical drawings and photographs. More gunpowder was used to clear the area than was used at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, the parks commissioners assigned a name to each of the original 18 gates in 1862. The names were chosen to represent the diversity of New York Citys trades, for example, Mariners Gate for the entrance at 85th Street
11.
Shakespeare in the Park (New York City)
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Shakespeare in the Park is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at an open theater in New York Citys Central Park. The theater and the productions are managed by the Public Theater, originally branded as the New York Shakespeare Festival under the direction of Joseph Papp, the institution was renamed in 2002 as part of a larger reorganization by the Public Theater. The festival was conceived by director-producer Joseph Papp in 1954. Papp began with a series of Shakespeare workshops, then moved on to free productions on the Lower East Side, eventually, the plays moved to a lawn in front of Turtle Pond in Central Park. In 1959, parks commissioner Robert Moses demanded that Papp and his charge a fee for the performances to cover the cost of grass erosion. Papp continued to fight Moses, winning his enduring respect and the quote well, following this, Moses requested funds from the city for the construction of an amphitheater in the park. In 1961, the Delacorte Theater was built, the first performance held in the theater in 1962 was Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice, starring George C. Scott and James Earl Jones. The Delacorte Theater is an amphitheater located on the southwest corner of the Great Lawn in Central Park, closest to the entrance at 81st Street. It was built in 1961 and named for George T. Delacorte, belvedere Castle and Turtle Pond provide a backdrop for the shows at the Delacorte. As shows at the Delacorte begin in the evening, shows usually start in daylight, as the play rolls on, the sun sets. Since 1962 the Public has had the privilege of its exclusive use, tickets to Shakespeare in the Park are free and can only be obtained the day of a performance. At 12 noon tickets are distributed, two per person, at the Delacorte to the line of people that usually springs up early in the morning when the park opens at 6 a. m. Anyone five years old and older can obtain and are required to have a ticket should they wish to see the show, the 2013 Season features a new policy that one person can only obtain two tickets for two performances of one production. In addition to the line which snakes through the park the Public also offers a few other options to get tickets. One being the line for Seniors which begins at the benches closest to the box office. The tickets provided to that line have easy access inside the theater and are available to persons 65. ID is required to obtain the tickets, in 2009 the Public introduced the Virtual Ticketing system which is an online drawing to win tickets to that days performance without waiting in line in person. On the day of a show, users can log on to shakespeareinthepark. org anytime between midnight and 11,59 a. m. to register for that evening’s performance
12.
The Merchant of Venice
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The Merchant of Venice is a 16th century play by William Shakespeare in which a merchant in Venice must default on a large loan provided by an abused Jewish moneylender. It is believed to have written between 1596 and 1599. Also notable is Portias speech about the quality of mercy, critic Harold Bloom listed it among Shakespeares great comedies. Bassanio, a young Venetian of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful, having squandered his estate, he needs 3,000 ducats to subsidise his expenditures as a suitor. Bassanio approaches his friend Antonio, a merchant of Venice who has previously and repeatedly bailed him out. Antonio has already antagonized Shylock through his outspoken antisemitism, and because Antonios habit of lending money without interest forces Shylock to charge lower rates, Shylock is at first reluctant to grant the loan, citing abuse he has suffered at Antonios hand. He finally agrees to lend the sum to Bassanio without interest upon one condition, if Bassanio is unable to repay it at the specified date, Shylock may take a pound of Antonios flesh. Bassanio does not want Antonio to accept such a condition, Antonio is surprised by what he sees as the moneylenders generosity. With money at hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont with his friend Gratiano, Gratiano is a likeable young man, but is often flippant, overly talkative, and tactless. Bassanio warns his companion to exercise self-control, and the two leave for Belmont, meanwhile, in Belmont, Portia is awash with suitors. Her father left a will stipulating each of her suitors must choose correctly from one of three caskets – one each of gold, silver and lead, if he picks the right casket, he gets Portia. The first suitor, the Prince of Morocco, chooses the gold casket, interpreting its slogan, Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire, as referring to Portia. The second suitor, the conceited Prince of Arragon, chooses the silver casket, both suitors leave empty-handed, having rejected the lead casket because of the baseness of its material and the uninviting nature of its slogan, Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath. The last suitor is Bassanio, whom Portia wishes to succeed, as Bassanio ponders his choice, members of Portias household sing a song which says that fancy is engendred in the eyes, With gazing fed, Bassanio chooses the lead casket and wins Portias hand. At Venice, Antonios ships are reported lost at sea so the merchant cannot repay the bond, Shylock has become more determined to exact revenge from Christians because his daughter Jessica eloped with the Christian Lorenzo and converted. She took an amount of Shylocks wealth with her, as well as a turquoise ring which Shylock had been given by his late wife. Shylock has Antonio brought before court, at Belmont, Bassanio receives a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to repay the loan from Shylock. Portia and Bassanio marry, as do Gratiano and Portias handmaid Nerissa, Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice, with money from Portia, to save Antonios life by offering the money to Shylock
13.
Al Pacino
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Alfredo James Al Pacino is an American actor of stage and screen, filmmaker, and screenwriter. DeMille Award, and the National Medal of Arts and he is also one of few performers to have won a competitive Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award for acting, dubbed the Triple Crown of Acting. He achieved international acclaim and recognition for his role as Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather. He received his first Oscar nomination and would reprise the role in the successful sequels The Godfather Part II. Pacinos performance as Corleone is now regarded as one of the greatest screen performances in film history, for his performances in The Godfather, Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen Ross, Pacino was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. A lifelong fan of Shakespeare, Pacino directed and starred in Looking for Richard, a film about the play Richard III. He has also acted as Shylock in a 2004 feature film adaptation, since 1994, Pacino has been the joint president of the Actors Studio with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel. Pacino was born in New York City, to Sicilian-American parents Salvatore Pacino and Rose and his mother moved to The Bronx to live with her parents, Kate and James Gerardi, who, coincidentally, had come from a town in Sicily named Corleone. His father, who was from San Fratello in the Province of Messina, moved to Covina, California, in his teen years Sonny, as he was known to his friends, aimed to become a baseball player, and was also nicknamed The Actor. Pacino went through Herman Ridder Junior High School, but in secondary school dropped out of many classes and he attended the High School of Performing Arts, but dropped out of school at age 17. His mother disagreed with his decision, they argued and he left home and he worked at low-paying jobs, messenger, busboy, janitor, and postal clerk, to finance his acting studies. He once worked in the room for Commentary magazine. He began smoking and drinking at age nine, and took up casual cannabis use at age 13 and his two closest friends died from drug abuse at the ages of 19 and 30. Growing up in The Bronx, he got into fights and was considered something of a troublemaker at school. He acted in basement plays in New Yorks theatrical underground but was rejected for the Actors Studio while a teenager, Pacino then joined the Herbert Berghof Studio, where he met acting teacher Charlie Laughton, who became his mentor and best friend. In this period, he was unemployed and homeless, and sometimes slept on the street, in theaters. In 1962, his mother died at the age of 43, the following year, Pacinos grandfather James Gerardi, one of the most influential people in his life, also died. After four years at HB Studio, Pacino successfully auditioned for the Actors Studio, the Actors Studio is a membership organization of professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City
14.
David Byrne
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Byrne is a multi-instrumentalist and is known for his distinctive voice. Since then, Byrne has released his own recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera. He has received Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe awards and been inducted into the Rock, David Byrne was born 14 May 1952, in Dumbarton, Scotland, to parents Tom and Emma. He is the elder of two children, two years after his birth, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, in the United States, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father worked as an electronics engineer, before high school, Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his schools choir because they claimed he was off-key. From a young age, he had a strong interest in music and his parents say that he would constantly play his phonograph from age three and he learned how to play the harmonica at age five. In his journals he says, I was a peculiar young man—borderline Aspergers, Byrne graduated from Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County. He started his career in a high school band called Revelation. Their repertoire consisted mostly of songs such as April Showers,96 Tears, Dancing on the Ceiling, Byrne attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the Maryland Institute College of Art before dropping out. He returned to Providence in 1973 and formed a band called the Artistics with fellow RISD student Chris Frantz, Byrne moved to New York City in May that year and was joined by Frantz and his girlfriend Tina Weymouth in September. Unable to find a player in New York, Frantz. While working day jobs in late 1974, they were contemplating a band, by January 1975, they were practicing and playing together, while still working normal day jobs. They founded the band Talking Heads and had their first gig in June, Byrne quit his day job in May 1976 and the three-piece band signed to Sire Records in November. Multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison joined the band in 1977, the band released eight studio albums before going into hiatus in 1988. Byrne desired to go solo, but it took three years until 1991 to announce that the band was breaking up, a brief reunion for a single Sax and Violins in 1991 occurred before dissolving again. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, following this record, Byrne focused his attention on Talking Heads. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was re-released for its 25th anniversary in early 2006, in keeping with the spirit of the original album, stems for two of the songs component tracks were released under Creative Commons licenses and a remix contest site was launched
15.
Fun Home (musical)
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Fun Home is a musical adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdels 2006 graphic memoir of the same name. The story concerns Bechdels discovery of her own sexuality, her relationship with her gay father and it is the first Broadway musical with a lesbian protagonist. The musical was developed through several readings and performances, including at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2009 and at the Sundance Theatre Lab and it opened Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in September 2013 to positive reviews. Its run was extended several times, until January 2014, the Public Theater production of Fun Home was nominated for nine Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards and eight Drama Desk Awards, among others. The original Broadway production began previews at the Circle in the Square Theatre in March 2015 and it was nominated for twelve Tony Awards, winning five, including Best Musical, and its cast album received a nomination for the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. The production closed on September 10,2016, and a tour began in October 2016 that is booked until August 2017. Writer/artist Alison Bechdels book Fun Home, a memoir in comics format, was published in 2006 to critical acclaim and its subject is Alison Bechdels coming of age, with particular emphasis on her relationship to her father, Bruce Bechdel. Alisons coming out as a lesbian is complicated by the revelation that Bruce had also had homosexual relationships, four months after Alison comes out to her parents, Bruce is killed by an oncoming truck, although the evidence is equivocal, Alison concludes that he committed suicide. Bechdels book was adapted into a musical with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, writing in Slate, June Thomas called the play the first mainstream musical about a young lesbian. The adaptation was developed over the course of five years and it was first workshopped at the Ojai Playwrights Conference in August 2009. A staged reading was performed at The Public Theater in 2011, the musical had another workshop as part of the Sundance Institutes Theater Lab in July 2012, featuring Raul Esparza. Following that it ran for three weeks as part of the Public Theaters Public Lab series in October and November 2012. On April 8,2013, musical selections from the play were performed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Judy Kuhn, David Hyde Pierce, a final Public Theater workshop was held in May 2013. The musicals development process entailed extensive changes and rewrites, Beth Malone said that the original workshop script doesnt resemble this current play at all. Revisions continued through the period of the Off-Broadway production, requiring the actors to perform new material every night. Fun Home premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in previews on September 30,2013, originally scheduled to run through November 3,2013, the run was extended several times, and the musical closed on January 12,2014. The production was directed by Sam Gold, with sets and costumes by David Zinn, lighting by Ben Stanton, projections by Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg, Bechdel, Kron, Tesori and musical director Chris Fenwick accompanied the cast. The musical began previews at Broadways Circle in the Square Theatre on March 27,2015, Gold directed the show on Broadway, with the same production team as the Off-Broadway production, including Zinn, Mefford and Stanton
16.
Alison Bechdel
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Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. She is a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award and she is also known for the Bechdel test. Alison J. Bechdel was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania and her father, an army veteran who was stationed in West Germany, was a high school English teacher full-time and operated a funeral home part-time. Her mother was an actress and teacher, both of her parents contributed to her career as a cartoonist. She has two brothers, Bruce Christian Bechdel II and John Bechdel, a player who has worked with many bands including Fear Factory, Ministry. She left high school a year early to attend Simons Rock College from 1977–1979, Bechdel eventually transferred to Oberlin College, graduating with a degree in studio arts and art history in 1981. Bechdel moved to Manhattan and applied to art schools but was rejected and worked in a number of office jobs in the publishing industry. She began Dykes to Watch Out For as a single drawing labeled Marianne, dissatisfied with the morning brew, Dykes to Watch Out For, an acquaintance recommended she send her work to WomaNews, a feminist newspaper, which published her first work in its June 1983 issue. Bechdel gradually moved from her early drawings to multi-paneled strips. Dykes to Watch Out For began this process, developing into a series of posters and postcards, after a year, other outlets began running the strip. In the first years, Dykes to Watch Out For consisted of unconnected strips without a regular cast or serialized storyline, however, its structure eventually evolved into a focus on following a set group of lesbian characters. In 1986, Firebrand Books published a collection of the strips to date, in 1987, Bechdel introduced her regular characters, Mo and her friends, while living in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dykes to Watch Out For is the origin of the Bechdel test, in 1988, she began a short-lived page-length strip about the staff of a queer newspaper, titled Servants to the Cause, for The Advocate. Bechdel has also written and drawn autobiographical strips and has done illustrations for magazines and websites and she became a full-time cartoonist in 1990 and later moved near Burlington, Vermont. She currently resides in Bolton, Vermont, in November 2006, Bechdel was invited to sit on the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. Stonewall Book Awards – Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award in 2007, the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2012. The International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education Distinguished Educator Award in 2013 Lambda Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Literature in 2014, the Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media in 2015. For her outstanding contributions to the art form, Comics Alliance listed Bechdel as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition
17.
Danai Gurira
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Gurira was born in Grinnell, Iowa, to Josephine Gurira, a university librarian, and Roger Gurira, a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville. Her parents came to the United States from Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe and she is the youngest of four siblings, Shingai and Choni are her sisters and Tare, her brother, is a chiropractor. Gurira lived in Grinnell until December 1983, when at age five she and her family moved back to Harare and she attended high school at Dominican Convent High School. Afterwards, she returned to the United States to study at Macalester College, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Gurira also earned a Master of Fine Arts in acting, from New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts. Gurira said that she began writing plays in an effort to utilize her strengths as an actor. As a playwright, she has been commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Playwrights Horizons, and the Royal Court. She co-wrote and co-starred in the off-Broadway play In the Continuum, which won her an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, in December 2011, In the Continuum commemorated World AIDS Day 2011. The play, sponsored by the U. S. Embassy in Zimbabwe, was performed at Harare’s Theatre, in 2009, Gurira made her acting debut on Broadway in August Wilsons play Joe Turners Come and Gone playing Martha Pentecost. Gurira received the Whiting Award for a playwright in 2012. In January 2015, Familiar, a written by Gurira and directed by Rebecca Taichman. It later premiered Off-Broadway in New York at Playwrights Horizons, the play is about family, cultural identity, and the experience of life as a first-generation American, and Gurira has said that it was inspired in part by family and friends of hers. In 2015, Lupita Nyongo starred in Guriras 2009 play, Eclipsed and it was announced the play would move to Broadway in 2016 at the John Golden Theatre. It was the first play to premiere on Broadway with an all female and black cast, the play is set in war-torn Liberia and focuses on three women who are living as sex slaves to a rebel commander, and is about how they deal with this difficult situation. The play was inspired by a photograph of female fighters and their tale of survival and it stars Saycon Sengbloh, Akosua Busia, Lupita Nyongo, Zainab Jah and Pascale Armand and is directed by Liesl Tommy. Eclipsed was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play, Gurira starred in the 2007 film The Visitor, for which she won Method Fest Independent Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has appeared in the films Ghost Town,3 Backyards, My Soul to Take, and Restless City, as well the television shows Law & Order, Criminal Intent, Life on Mars, from 2010 to 2011, she appeared in the HBO drama series Treme. In 2013, Gurira played a role in director Andrew Dosunmus independent drama film Mother of George. Gurira received critical acclaim for her performance as a Nigerian woman struggling to live in the United States, in June 2013, Gurira won the Jean-Claude Gahd Dam award at the 2013 Guys Choice Awards
18.
Lupita Nyong'o
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Lupita Amondi Nyongo is a Mexican-Kenyan actress. She was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents and raised in Kenya and she attended college in the United States, earning a bachelors degree in film and theater studies from Hampshire College. Nyongo began her career in Hollywood as a production assistant, in 2008, she made her acting debut with the short film East River and subsequently returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga. Also in 2009, she wrote, produced and directed the documentary In My Genes and she then pursued a masters degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama. Soon after her graduation, she had her first feature film role as Patsey in Steve McQueens historical drama 12 Years a Slave and she became the first Kenyan and first Mexican actress to win an Academy Award. Nyongo made her Broadway debut as an orphan in the critically acclaimed play Eclipsed. Nyongo was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to Kenyan parents, Dorothy and Peter Anyang Nyongo, Nyongo identifies as Kenyan-Mexican and has dual Kenyan and Mexican citizenship. She is of Luo descent on both sides of her family, and she is the second of six children and it is a tradition of the Luo people to name a child after the events of the day, so her parents gave her a Spanish name, Lupita. Her father is a former Minister for Medical Services in the Kenyan government, at the time of her birth, he was a visiting lecturer in political science at El Colegio de México in Mexico City, and her family had been living in Mexico for three years. Nyongo and her family moved back to their native Kenya when she was less one year old. She grew up primarily in Kenya, and describes her upbringing as middle class, when she was sixteen, her parents sent her to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. During those seven months, Nyongo lived in Taxco, Guerrero and her family was later forced to leave Kenya because of political unrest. Her uncle, Charles Nyongo, disappeared after he was thrown off a ferry in 1980, Nyongo grew up in an artistic family, where family get-togethers often included performances by the children in the family, and trips to see plays. She attended Rusinga International school in Kenya and acted in school plays, at age 14, Nyongo made her professional acting debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in a production by the Nairobi-based repertory company Phoenix Players. While a member of the Phoenix Players, Nyongo also performed in the plays On The Razzle, Nyongo cites the performances of American actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple with inspiring her to pursue a professional acting career. Nyongo later attended St. Marys School in Nairobi, where she received an IB Diploma in 2001 before attending college in the United States and she graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in film and theatre studies. She cites Ralph Fiennes, the star of The Constant Gardener, in 2008, Nyongo starred in the short film East River, directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn. She returned to Kenya that same year and appeared in the Kenyan television series Shuga, in 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced the documentary In My Genes, about the discriminatory treatment of Kenyas albino population
19.
Hamilton (musical)
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Hamilton, An American Musical is a sung-through musical about the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, with music, lyrics and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The show, inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by historian Ron Chernow, the musical made its Off-Broadway debut at The Public Theater in February 2015, where its engagement was sold out. The show transferred to Broadway in August 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, on Broadway, it received enthusiastic critical reception and unprecedented advance box office sales. The prior off-Broadway production of Hamilton won the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical as well as seven other Drama Desk Awards out of 14 total nominated categories, the Chicago production of Hamilton opened at the PrivateBank Theatre in September 2016. The first U. S. national tour of the show began performances in March 2017, a production of Hamilton will open in the West End in November 2017 at the Victoria Palace Theatre. A second U. S. tour is set to begin performances in early 2018. Upon Mirandas discovery he began a project entitled The Hamilton Mixtape, on May 12,2009, Miranda was invited to perform music from In the Heights at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word. Instead, he performed the first song from The Hamilton Mixtape and he spent a year after that working on My Shot, another early number from the show. Miranda performed in a production of the show, then titled The Hamilton Mixtape. The workshop production was directed by Thomas Kail and musically directed by Alex Lacamoire, the workshop consisted of the entirety of the first act of the show and three songs from the second act. The workshop was accompanied by Lacamoire on the piano, of the original workshop cast, only three principal cast members played in the Off-Broadway production, Miranda, Daveed Diggs, and Christopher Jackson. Most of the original Off-Broadway cast moved to Broadway, except Brian dArcy James, the musical begins with the company summarizing Alexander Hamiltons early life as an orphan in the Caribbean. Hamilton was born out of wedlock in the West Indies—his father abandoned him at an early age, by nineteen, Hamilton has made his way to the American colonies, a dedicated supporter of American independence. In the summer of 1776 in New York City, Hamilton seeks out Aaron Burr, Burr advises the overenthusiastic Hamilton to talk less, smile more. Hamilton is unable to understand why Burr would rather exercise caution than fight for his beliefs, Hamilton bonds with three fellow revolutionaries, abolitionist John Laurens, the flamboyant Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette, and the tailors apprentice Hercules Mulligan. Hamilton dazzles them with his skills and they dream of laying down their lives for their cause. Meanwhile, the wealthy Schuyler sisters—Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy—wander the streets of New York, samuel Seabury, a vocal Loyalist, preaches against the American Revolution, and Hamilton refutes and ridicules his statements. A message arrives from King George III, reminding the colonists that he is able, the revolution is underway, and Hamilton, Burr, and their friends join the Continental Army
20.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
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Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American actor and composer, best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights. In addition to work, Miranda was heavily involved with Disneys Moana soundtrack. He has won a Pulitzer Prize, two Grammys, an Emmy, a MacArthur Fellowship, and three Tony Awards, among others, Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for the musical In the Heights, which opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in March 2008. Mirandas written work for the show earned him accolades, including the 2008 Tony Award for Best Original Score. Mirandas performance in the lead role of Usnavi also earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Miranda also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Hamilton, his second major Broadway musical, which was inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by historian Ron Chernow. The show earned the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 2016 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, for his performance in the lead role of Alexander Hamilton in the show, Miranda received the 2016 Drama League Distinguished Performance Award as well as his second Tony performance nomination. Miranda also won the Tony Award for Best Original Score and Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Hamilton, Miranda has one older sister, Luz, who is the CFO of the MirRam Group. He grew up in the Latino neighborhood of Inwood, but would spend a month every year in his grandparents home town, Vega Alta and he is of mostly Puerto Rican descent. The name Lin-Manuel was inspired by a poem about the Vietnam War, Nana Roja Para Mi Hijo Lin Manuel, growing up, Lin helped create jingles, including one used for Eliot Spitzers 2006 campaign. After graduating from Hunter College Elementary School and Hunter College High School, Miranda went on to attend Wesleyan University, during his time there, he co-founded a hip hop comedy troupe called Freestyle Love Supreme. He wrote the earliest draft of In the Heights in 1999, after the show was accepted by Second Stage, Wesleyans student theater company, Miranda worked on adding freestyle rap. and salsa numbers. It played from April 20 to 22,1999 and he wrote and directed several other musicals at Wesleyan. He also acted in other productions, ranging from musicals to Shakespeare. In 2002, Miranda and John Buffalo Mailer worked with director Thomas Kail and wrote five successive drafts of In the Heights, after success off-Broadway, the musical went to Broadway in 2008. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and for Best Original Score, mirandas performance earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Miranda made his last performance in the Broadway show on February 15,2009, Miranda reprised his role of Usnavi when the national tour of In the Heights played in Los Angeles from June 23 to July 25,2010. The tour continued without him at the helm until it played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Broadway production played its final performance on January 9,2011, after 29 previews and 1,185 regular performances
21.
Tracey Scott Wilson
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Tracey Scott Wilson is an American playwright and TV writer whose works have been produced nationally and internationally. She graduated from Rutgers University in 1989 with a BA in English, born October 2,1966, in Newark, New Jersey, Wilson began writing fiction after graduating from Temple University. Finding herself unable to finish a novel, she decided to take a playwriting class, I didnt see much theater as a kid, so I had no expectations. It just took me over. Wilson soon realized that she had found her métier and wrote a number of short plays, at the encouragement of her mentor, playwright Chiori Miyagawa, Wilson applied for and won a New York Theatre Workshop fellowship in 1998. Wilson’s work has received readings at New York Theatre Workshop, Second Stage Theatre, The Public Theater, arnold Weissberger Award and the 2007 Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship. In 2009, she was the writer-in-residence at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, on February 29,2014, the Joyce Foundation announced that Wilson was one of the recipients of its 2014 Joyce Awards. With her prize, Wilson will work intimately with a community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prep will debut at the Pillsbury House Theater during the theaters 2015 season. Wilsons first major Manhattan production was in 2003 with The Story at the Public Theater, the Good Negro was produced at The Public and then at the Goodman Theater in 2010. Wilsons Buzzer was produced as part of the Goodmans 2013-14 season and was added to the Public Theaters 2014-15 season in October 2014, the Story and The Good Negro have been published by Dramatists Play Service. She has taught and guest lectured at Brown University, Yale University, Rutgers University, Wilson is also a TV writer. Her episode of NBCs Do No Harm aired on August 18,2013, the Good Negro In hindsight the ultimate triumph of the civil rights movement seems inevitable, the bright sun of enlightenment inevitably burning through clouds of ignorance and injustice. Ms. Wilson reminds us how precarious it seemed at the time, as each day brought new evidence of fear and cruelty. Buzzer The effects of gentrification have oft been noted. Skyrocketing rents that force out longtime neighborhood dwellers and its one of a group of new plays pondering the souls and psyches of high-achieving black professionals. Its also part of a clutch of recent dramas that have explored race in terms of property. But Buzzer, which puts you in mind of Harold Pinters Betrayal, is not only far sexier and more entertaining than most such plays, it is anything but predictable or politically correct. Tracey Scott Wilson at the Internet Movie Database Profile at doollee. com Profile at The Whiting Foundation Civil Rights, mark Blankenship article of Wilson writing The Good Negro
22.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
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Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a rock musical with music and lyrics written by Michael Friedman, and a book by its director Alex Timbers. The show is a comedic historical rock musical about the founding of the Democratic Party and it redefines Andrew Jackson, Americas seventh President, as an Emo rock star and focuses on populism, the Indian Removal Act, and his relationship with his wife Rachel. The show opens when the cast, dressed as 19th-century American cowboys and they are led by Andrew Jackson. They sing about their eagerness to strip the English, Spanish, French, and, most importantly, along with this, they sing of the desire to bring political power back to the public and away from the elite. Jacksons childhood is shown in the Tennessee hills during the late 18th century and his family and the local shoe cobbler die of cholera and in Indian attacks. This leads him to join the military, where he is imprisoned by the British, Jackson begins to express his disdain for the US government’s lack of involvement with the people of the frontier and how he wishes someone would stand up to them. Jackson is then shown as an adult, regaling local tavern goers with his short meeting with George Washington. He is interrupted and attacked by several Spaniards, Jackson defeats them, but is injured in the process. A woman named Rachel helps him to recover from his injuries and they fall in love during his recovery and eventually marry, though Rachel is not yet divorced from her current husband. At the end of the song, news comes that British, Indian, meanwhile, the US government continues to do nothing to stop the attacks. Jackson realizes that if he wants this cycle to end, he must change things himself, Jackson organizes a militia to remove Indian Tribes throughout the Southeast both by force and negotiation. John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Martin Van Buren are introduced as they express their concern over Jacksons unauthorized territorial expansion, Jackson rebuffs their pleas, explaining how he has driven out the French and the Spanish, while acquiring more land than Thomas Jefferson. The Battle of New Orleans transforms Jackson into a national hero and he becomes Governor of Florida and decides to run for United States President in 1824. Although he receives the most popular and Electoral votes, he is not elected President, Jackson spends the four years after the election at his home, The Hermitage. He returns from exile and forms the Democratic Party. During the presidential election of 1828, Andrew Jackson becomes a surprise candidate and this is grueling both publicly and personally to Jackson and his family. Rachel, feeling as if she has no life, questions Andrews love for her versus the American People. Days before the election, a Senate panel led by Clay investigates Jacksons past wrongdoings, despite this, Jackson ends up winning the election and becomes the 7th President of the United States
23.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
24.
Timon of Athens
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Timon of Athens is a play by William Shakespeare, published in the First Folio and probably written in collaboration with another author, most likely Thomas Middleton, in about 1605–1606. It is about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon, the central character is a well beloved citizen of Athens who through tremendous generosity spends his entire fortunes on corrupt hangers-on only interested in getting the next payout. The earliest known production of the play was in 1674, when Thomas Shadwell wrote an adaptation under the title The History of Timon of Athens, multiple other adaptations followed over the next century, by writers such as Thomas Hull, James Love and Richard Cumberland. The straight Shakespearean text was at Smock Alley in Dublin in 1761, Timon of Athens was originally grouped with the tragedies, but some scholars name it one of the problem plays. In the beginning, Timon is a wealthy and generous Athenian gentleman and he hosts a large banquet, attended by nearly all the main characters. Timon gives away money wastefully, and everyone wants to him to get more, except for Apemantus. He accepts art from Poet and Painter, and a jewel from the Jeweller, Timons servant, Lucilius, has been wooing the daughter of an old Athenian. The man is angry, but Timon pays him three talents in exchange for the couple being allowed to marry, because the happiness of his servant is worth the price, Timon is told that his friend, Ventidius, is in debtors prison. He sends money to pay Ventidiuss debt, and Ventidius is released, Timon gives a speech on the value of friendship. The guests are entertained by a masque, followed by dancing, as the party winds down, Timon continues to give things away to his friends, his horses, and other possessions. The act is divided arbitrarily into two scenes but the experimental and/or unfinished nature of the play is reflected in that it does not naturally break into a five-act structure. Now Timon has given all his wealth. Shadowing Timon is another guest at the banquet, the cynical philosopher Apemantus and he was the only guest not angling for money or possessions from Timon. Along with a Fool, he attacks Timons creditors when they show up to make their demands for immediate payment, Timon cannot pay, and sends out his servants to make requests for help from those friends he considers closest. Timons servants are turned down, one by one, by Timons false friends, elsewhere, one of Alcibiadess junior officers has reached an even further point of rage, killing a man in hot blood. Alcibiades pleads with the Senate for mercy, arguing that a crime of passion should not carry as severe a sentence as premeditated murder, the senators disagree, and, when Alcibiades persists, banish him forever. He vows revenge, with the support of his troops, the act finishes with Timon discussing with his servants the revenge he will carry out at his next banquet. Timon hosts a party, intended only for those he feels have betrayed him
25.
Richard Thomas (actor)
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Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor. From 2013 to 2016, he starred in the FX drama series The Americans, Thomas was born in Manhattan, the son of Barbara and Richard S. Thomas, in 1951. His parents were dancers with the New York City Ballet and owned the New York School of Ballet and he attended The Allen Stevenson School and the McBurney School in Manhattan. Thomas was seven when he made his Broadway debut in Sunrise at Campobello playing John Roosevelt, Thomas soon began his television career. In 1959, he appeared in the presentation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House with Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer and he then began acting in daytime TV, appearing in soap operas such as The Edge of Night and As the World Turns, which were broadcast from his native Manhattan. Thomas received his first major roles, appearing in Winning with Paul Newman, about auto racing, and Last Summer with Bruce Davison and Barbara Hershey. In 1971 he starred in the Universal Pictures Hal Wallis Production Red Sky at Morning and he became nationally recognized for his portrayal of John “John-Boy” Walton, Jr. in the 1970s TV series The Waltons, which was based on the real life of writer Earl Hamner, Jr. He appeared in the 1971 pilot The Homecoming, and then played the role continuously in 122 episodes until March 17,1977, Thomas left the series and his role was taken over by Robert Wightman, but Thomas returned to the role in three Waltons TV movies, 1993–97. Thomas won an Emmy for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series in 1973 and he enrolled in Columbia College of Columbia University as a member of the class of 1973 but left after his junior year. In 1972, he played against type as murderer and rapist Kenneth Kinsolving in You’ll Like My Mother opposite Patty Duke. He played the roles of Private Henry Fleming in the 1974 TV movie The Red Badge of Courage. In 1980, Thomas made his first Broadway appearance in more than 12 years when he stepped in as a replacement in Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July, in 1987, he appeared on stage in Philadelphia and Washington DC in the one-man tour-de-force Citizen Tom Paine. In 1993, he played the role in a stage production of Richard II. In 1981, his book of poetry Glass was published as a limited edition by Kenward Elmslies Z Press. In 1990, he played the version of main character Bill in the TV adaptation of Stephen Kings novel It. Thomas starred with Maureen O’Hara and Annette O’Toole in the Hallmark Channel movie, The Christmas Box, oToole and Thomas starred in It five years earlier as the adult Beverly Marsh and adult Bill Denbrough. Thomas has appeared in a quartet of performances at the Hartford Stage in Connecticut, Hamlet, Peer Gynt, Richard III, in 1997 and 1998, he appeared on Touched by an Angel. He has served as chairman of the Better Hearing Institute, hosted the PAX TV series It’s a Miracle
26.
Stephen Sondheim
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Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist known for more than a half-century of contributions to musical theatre. Sondheim has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards, eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award, and he has been described by Frank Rich of The New York Times as now the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy, Sondheim has also written film music, contributing Goodbye for Now to Warren Beattys 1981 Reds. He wrote five songs for 1990s Dick Tracy, including Sooner or Later by Madonna, the composer was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981. To celebrate his 80th birthday, the former Henry Millers Theatre was renamed the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on September 15,2010, Cameron Mackintosh has called Sondheim possibly the greatest lyricist ever. Sondheim was born into a Jewish family in New York City and his father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. The composer grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. As the only child of parents living in the San Remo on Central Park West. When he lived in New York, Sondheim attended ECFS, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School known simply as Fieldston, Sondheim spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin. He traces his interest in theatre to Very Warm for May, the curtain went up and revealed a piano, Sondheim recalled. A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys, when Sondheim was ten, his father left his mother for another woman. Herbert sought custody of Stephen but was unsuccessful, Sondheim explained to biographer Secrest that he was what they call an institutionalized child, meaning one who has no contact with any kind of family. Youre in, though its luxurious, youre in an environment that supplies you with everything, No brothers and sisters, no parents, and yet plenty to eat, and friends to play with and a warm bed, you know. Sondheim detested his mother, who was said to be abusive and projected her anger from her failed marriage on her son, When my father left her. And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, what she did for five years was treat me like dirt, but come on to me at the same time. She once wrote him a letter saying that the only ever had was giving him birth. When his mother died in the spring of 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral, when Sondheim was about ten years old, he became friends with James Hammerstein, son of lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II. The elder Hammerstein became Sondheims surrogate father, influencing him profoundly, Sondheim met Hal Prince, who would direct many of his shows, at the opening of South Pacific, Hammersteins musical with Richard Rodgers
27.
Tony Kushner
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Anthony Robert Tony Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play Angels in America and he co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film Munich, and he wrote the screenplay for the 2012 film Lincoln. Both movies were critically acclaimed, and he received Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, for his work, he received a National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013. Kushner was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of Sylvia, a bassoonist, and William David Kushner and his family is Jewish, descended from immigrants from Russia/Poland. Shortly after his birth, Kushners parents moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, during high school Kushner was active in policy debate. In 1974, Kushner moved to New York to begin his college education at Columbia University. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, graduating in 1984, Kushners best known work is Angels in America, a seven-hour epic about the AIDS epidemic in Reagan-era New York, which was later adapted into an HBO miniseries for which Kushner wrote the screenplay. His other plays include Hydriotaphia, Slavs, thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, A Bright Room Called Day, Homebody/Kabul, and the book for the musical Caroline, or Change. His new translation of Bertolt Brechts Mother Courage and Her Children was performed at the Delacorte Theater in the summer of 2006, starring Meryl Streep, Kushner has also adapted Brechts The Good Person of Szechwan, Corneilles The Illusion, and S. Anskys play The Dybbuk. In the early 2000s, Kushner began writing for film and his co-written screenplay Munich was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg in 2005. In January 2006, a feature about Kushner entitled Wrestling With Angels debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was directed by Freida Lee Mock, in a 2015 interview actress/producer Viola Davis revealed she had hired him to write an as yet untitled biopic about the life of Barbara Jordan that she planned to star in. In 2016, Kushner worked on August Wilsons screenplay for Fences, scheduled for release in December 2016, the film is directed by Denzel Washington. Kushner is famous for frequent revisions and years-long gestations of his plays, both Angels in America, Perestroika and Homebody/Kabul were significantly revised even after they were first published. Kushner has admitted that the script version of Angels in America. His newest completed work, the play The Intelligent Homosexuals Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, said work finally opened on May 15,2009. The Zionist Organization of America unsuccessfully lobbied the university to rescind its invitation to Kushner, during the controversy, quotes critical of Zionism and Israel made by Kushner were circulated. Kushner said at the time that his quotes were grossly mischaracterized, in an interview with the Jewish Independent, Kushner commented, I want the state of Israel to continue to exist
28.
Arianna Huffington
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Arianna Huffington is a Greek American author, syndicated columnist, occasional actress, and businesswoman. Huffington was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, which is now owned by AOL and she was a popular conservative commentator in the mid-1990s, after which, in the 1990s, she offered liberal points of view in public, while remaining involved in business endeavors. Her full name is rendered in English as Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington. She is the spouse of former Republican congressman Michael Huffington. Before she married Michael Huffington, her name was rendered in English as Stassinopoulos rather than Stassinopoulou. In 2003, she ran as an independent candidate for governor in the California recall election, in 2009, Huffington was #12 in Forbess first-ever list of the Most Influential Women In Media. She has also moved up to #42 in The Guardians Top 100 in Media List, as of 2014, she is listed by Forbes as the 52nd Most Powerful Woman in the World. On August 11,2016, it was announced that she would step down from her role at the Huffington Post to devote her time to a new startup, Thrive Global, focused on health and wellness information. Huffington was born Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou in Athens, Greece, the daughter of Konstantinos and Elli Stasinopoulou, and is the sister of Agapi. She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 and studied economics at Girton College, Cambridge, where she was the first foreign, in 1971, Huffington appeared in an edition of Face the Music along with Bernard Levin. A relationship developed, of which she wrote, after his death, He wasnt just the big love of my life, he was a mentor as a writer, Huffington began writing books in the 1970s, with editorial help from Levin. The two traveled to music festivals around the world for the BBC and they spent summers patronizing three-star restaurants in France. At the age of 30, she remained deeply in love him but longed to have children. Huffington concluded that she had to break away and moved to New York in 1980, in 1979, Huffington joined Bob Langley as the co-host of BBC1s late night talk and entertainment show Saturday Night At The Mill, appearing in 12 editions before being dropped from the programme. In 1973, Arianna wrote a book titled The Female Woman, attacking the Womens Liberation movement in general, in 1979, Polydor Records released a solo album by Irene Papas entitled Odes, with music performed by Vangelis Papathanassiou. The words for the album were co-written by Arianna Stassinopoulos, in the late 1980s, Huffington wrote several articles for National Review. In 1981, she wrote a biography of Maria Callas, Maria Callas – The Woman Behind the Legend, and in 1989, Huffington rose to national U. S. prominence during the unsuccessful Senate bid in 1994 by her then husband, Michael Huffington, a Republican. She became known as a supporter of conservative causes such as Newt Gingrichs Republican Revolution
29.
Alec Baldwin
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Alexander Rae Alec Baldwin III is an American actor, writer, producer, and comedian. A member of the Baldwin family, he is the oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, Baldwin first gained recognition appearing on seasons 6 and 7 of the CBS television drama Knots Landing, in the role of Joshua Rush. His performance in the 2003 romantic drama The Cooler garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Baldwin co-starred in Mission, Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth installment of the Mission, Impossible series, released on July 31,2015. He is also a columnist for The Huffington Post, since 2016, he has been the host of Match Game. He has three brothers, Daniel, William, and Stephen, who also became actors. He also has two sisters, Beth and Jane, Alec and his siblings were raised as Roman Catholics. They are of English, Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian, Baldwin attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa and played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder. In New York City, Baldwin worked as a busboy at the disco Studio 54, from 1976 to 1979, he attended George Washington University, afterward transferring to New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts. There he studied with, among others, Geoffrey Horne and Mira Rostova at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Later, Baldwin made his Broadway debut in 1986 in a revival of Joe Ortons Loot alongside Zoë Wanamaker, Željko Ivanek, Joseph Maher, and Charles Keating. This production closed after three months, Baldwin also received an Emmy nomination for the 1995 television version of the production, in which both he and Jessica Lange reprised their roles, alongside John Goodman and Diane Lane. In 1998, Baldwin played the role in Macbeth at The Public Theater alongside Angela Bassett. In 2004, Baldwin starred in a revival of Twentieth Century with Anne Heche, on June 9,2005, he appeared in a concert version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. He starred as Luther Billis, alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie, the production was taped and telecast by PBS on April 26,2006. In 2006, Baldwin made theater news in Roundabout Theatre Companys Off-Broadway revival of Joe Ortons Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In 2010, Baldwin starred opposite Sam Underwood in an acclaimed revival of Peter Shaffers Equus, directed by Tony Walton at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Baldwin has returned to Broadway as Harold in Orphans, the show, which opened April 18,2013, was also to have starred Shia LaBeouf as Treat, but LaBoeuf left the production in rehearsals and was replaced by Ben Foster. Baldwins first acting role was as Billy Aldrich in the NBC daytime soap opera The Doctors from 1980 to 1982, in fall 1983, he starred in the short-lived television series Cutter to Houston. He went on to appear as the brother of Valene Ewing, in 1986, Baldwin starred in Dress Gray, a four-hour made-for-television miniseries, as an honest cadet sergeant who tries to solve the mystery of a murdered gay classmate
30.
Anne Hathaway
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Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress and singer. Hathaway went on to become a widely praised role model for children for her roles in Nicholas Nickleby, Ella Enchanted, The Princess Diaries 2, Royal Engagement, and Hoodwinked. In 2011, Hathaway voiced Jewel in the animated film Rio and hosted the 83rd Academy Awards with James Franco, in 2012, she portrayed Catwoman in Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Rises, for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. The same year, she starred as Fantine in Tom Hoopers Les Misérables, which earned her acclaim and she won the Academy, Golden Globe, BAFTA. Hathaway has since gone on to appear in Rio 2, Interstellar, The Intern, People magazine named Hathaway one of its breakthrough stars of 2001, and she appeared on its list of the worlds 50 Most Beautiful People in 2006. Following a four-year relationship with real estate developer Raffaello Follieri, Hathaway married Adam Shulman in 2012, with whom she has one son, Hathaway was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Gerald Thomas Hathaway, is a lawyer, and her mother, Kathleen played Fantine in the first U. S. tour of Les Misérables. When Hathaway was six years old, her moved to Millburn, New Jersey. Hathaway is the middle of three children with her brother, Michael and younger brother, Thomas. Kathleen is of Irish descent, and Gerald is of Irish, French, English, at the age of fifteen, her relationship with the Catholic Church changed, after learning that Michael was gay. She said, I realized my older brother was gay, and I couldnt support a religion that didnt support my brother, now I call myself a non-denominational Christian, because I havent found the religion for me. In 2009, she stated that her religious beliefs are a work in progress, Hathaway attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School and Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn. Later, she appeared in plays, including Jane Eyre and Gigi at New Jerseys Paper Mill Playhouse, Hathaway studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and was the first teenager admitted into The Barrow Group Theater Companys acting program. Between 1998 and 1999, she sang soprano with the All-Eastern U. S, high School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and in plays at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. She is a stage actress and stated that she prefers performing from stage to film roles. Her acting style has been compared to those of Judy Garland and she cites Garland as one of her favorite actresses and Meryl Streep as her idol. At the age of sixteen, three days after her performance at Carnegie Hall, Hathaway was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real. She made her film debut The Princess Diaries, which is based on Meg Cabots 2000 novel of the same name, Hathaway auditioned for the role of a princess-to-be during a flight layover on the way to New Zealand and was cast on the strength of this one audition
31.
Belarus Free Theatre
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Belarus Free Theatre is a Belarusian underground theatre group. Under the current political system the Belarus Free Theatre has no registration, no premises. Rehearsals and performances are normally held secretly in private apartments, which, due to security. On several occasions, performances were given in street cafes and in the countryside, the group was established in March 2005 by human rights activists Nikolai Khalezin, playwright and journalist, and Natalia Koliada, a theatre producer and Khalezins wife. The theatre was meant to be a form of resisting the pressure. In May 2005 the team was joined by stage director Vladimir Shcherban, currently the theatre’s staff consists of ten professional actors, one professional dramatist, four managers and two technical assistants. The troupes first production was 4.48 Psychosis, by the late British playwright Sarah Kane, the premiere took place on May 28,2005 in one of Minsk clubs. According to the website of the European Theatre Convention, Since May 2005 the Free Theatre has produced seven performances based on thirteen plays. About 5,000 people attended performances of the Free Theatre in Belarus, Free Theatre attracts other representatives of Belarusian underground culture in the variety of fields, such as independent music, art, photography, cinematography. On 8 February 2006, Steven Lee Myers reported in The New York Times that The theater, during the conference, there were scheduled screenings for conferees of the video of Square, a documentary film about the situation in Belarus. A mass arrest like this is a first, according to Petz, Khalezin thinks that this is a concerted effort on the part of the police, the special forces OMON and the secret service KGB to exert pressure. Though Khalezin himself is used to such harassment in the past, he stated, im afraid that some of them wont come back. Regardless of all the intentions of special forces to stop the premiere, police were taking video of the event from the forest. On December 19,2010, fifty thousand people went into the streets to protest what they believed to be the election of Alexander Lukashenko. More than a thousand of those were beaten and arrested, including Artistic Director Natalia Koliada, other members of the theatre, at the Belarus Embassy in London, dozens of leaders from the artistic community, including Ian McKellen, protested the arrests, bringing international attention. Natalia Koliada was released, while Nikolai Khalezin went into hiding, Khalezin, who is also a dramatist himself, having become famous with his piece Ja prishel which gleaned many international awards, observes that All theatres in Belarus are state-owned. The directors and creative directors are appointed by the Ministry of Culture, the performances are censored, the programs are old and musty. We want to offer an alternative, a theatre that discusses social problems with a degree of creative freedom
32.
Suzan-Lori Parks
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Suzan-Lori Parks is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002, Parks is the first African American woman to achieve this honor, Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky on May 10,1963, she grew up with two siblings in a military family. Parks enjoyed writing poems and songs and even created a newspaper with her brother, in 1974 her father, a career officer in the United States Army, was stationed in West Germany where she attended middle school and attended German high school. The experience showed her what it feels like to be neither white nor black, after returning to the United States Parks lived and attended school in several states such as Kentucky, Texas, California, North Carolina, Maryland, and Vermont. Parks says her constant relocation could have influenced her writing and she graduated high school at The John Carroll School in 1981 while her father was stationed in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. In high school, Parks was discouraged from studying due to a teacher criticising her spelling. However, upon reading Virginia Woolfs To the Light House, Parks found herself veering away from her initial interest in chemistry, Parks attended and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1985 with a B. A. in English and German literature while a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She studied under James Baldwin, who encouraged her to become a playwright, James Baldwin describes Parks during this time as, an utterly astounding and beautiful creature who may become one of the most valuable artists of our time. Suzan-Lori Parks continued studying a year in acting at Drama Studio London in order to understand the stage. Parks credits the impact of Mount Holyoke on her later in life. Since acting at the Drama Studio, Suzan-Lori Parks has received 11 awards and she has also received a number of grants including the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant in 2001, the same year as the production of her play Topdog/Underdog. While she was an undergraduate, her Mount Holyoke English professor Mary McHenry introduced Parks to James Baldwin, Parks began to take classes with Baldwin and, at his behest, began to write plays. She was still out of touch with theater, the plays she was familiar with were those of Shakespeare. Parks also noted that she was inspired by Wendy Wasserstein, a 1971 Mount Holyoke graduate who won the Pulitzer in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles, Parks also credited another Mount Holyoke professor, Leah Blatt Glasser, with her success. Parks first screenplay was for Spike Lees 1996 film Girl 6 and its just getting more specific, letting the words hold the emotion. Instead of some parenthetical stage direction and she is a winner of the 2017 Poets, Essayists and Novelists America Literary Awards in the category Master American Dramatist. Parks once asked a woman on the subway where she could send her scripts because she believed they were unconventional, Parks creates many roles and plays for people of her origin, while also writing for those not of her origin. She is one of the first in theater to fully exploit the power of spoken Black English, one of her main points is to make the most of what you have, even if you do not have much at all
33.
Pulitzer Prize
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The Pulitzer Prize /ˈpʊlᵻtsər/ is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each receives a certificate. The winner in the service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal. The Pulitzer Prize does not automatically consider all applicable works in the media, entries must fit in at least one of the specific prize categories, and cannot simply gain entrance for being literary or musical. Works can also only be entered in a maximum of two categories, regardless of their properties, each year,102 jurors are selected by the Pulitzer Prize Board to serve on 20 separate juries for the 21 award categories, one jury makes recommendations for both photography awards. For each award category, a jury makes three nominations, the board selects the winner by majority vote from the nominations or bypasses the nominations and selects a different entry following a 75% majority vote. The board can also vote to issue no award, the board and journalism jurors are not paid for their work, however, the jurors in letters, music, and drama receive a $2,000 honorarium for the year, and each chair receives $2,500. Anyone whose work has been submitted is called an entrant, the jury selects a group of nominated finalists and announces them, together with the winner for each category. However, some journalists who were submitted, but not nominated as finalists. For example, Bill Dedman of msnbc, Dedman wrote, To call that submission a Pulitzer nomination is like saying that Adam Sandler is an Oscar nominee if Columbia Pictures enters Thats My Boy in the Academy Awards. Many readers realize that the Oscars dont work that way—the studios dont pick the nominees and its just a way of slipping Academy Awards into a bio. The Pulitzers also dont work that way, but fewer people know that, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer gave money in his will to Columbia University to launch a journalism school and establish the Prize. It allocated $250,000 to the prize and scholarships and he specified four awards in journalism, four in letters and drama, one in education, and four traveling scholarships. After his death, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded June 4,1917, many people have won more than one Pulitzer Prize. Nelson Harding is the person to have won a Prize in two consecutive years, the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1927 and 1928. Four prizes Robert Frost, Poetry Eugene ONeill, Drama Robert E, in rare instances, contributors to the entry are singled out in the citation in a manner analogous to individual winners. Journalism awards may be awarded to individuals or newspapers or newspaper staffs, infrequently, Awards are made in categories relating to journalism, arts, letters and fiction
34.
A Chorus Line
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A Chorus Line is a musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban and a book by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante. Centred on seventeen Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line, a Chorus Line provides a glimpse into the personalities of the performers and the choreographer as they describe the events that have shaped their lives and their decisions to become dancers. Following several workshops and an Off-Broadway production, A Chorus Line opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway July 25,1975, an unprecedented box office and critical hit, the musical received twelve Tony Award nominations and won nine, in addition to the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It remains the sixth longest-running Broadway show ever, a Chorus Lines success has spawned many successful productions worldwide. It began a run in the West End in 1976 and was revived on Broadway in 2006. The show opens in the middle of an audition for an upcoming Broadway production, the formidable director Zach and his assistant choreographer Larry put the dancers through their paces. Every dancer is desperate for work, after the next round of cuts,17 dancers remain. Zach tells them he is looking for a dancing chorus of four boys. He wants to more about them, and asks the dancers to introduce themselves. With reluctance, the reveal their pasts. The stories generally progress chronologically from early life experiences through adulthood to the end of a career, the first candidate, Mike, explains that he is the youngest of 12 children. He recalls his first experience with dance, watching his sisters dance class when he was a pre-schooler, Mike took her place one day when she refused to go to class—and he stayed. Bobby tries to hide the unhappiness of his childhood by making jokes, as he speaks, the other dancers have misgivings about this strange audition process and debate what they should reveal to Zach, but since they all need the job, the session continues. Zach is angered when he feels that the streetwise Sheila is not taking the audition seriously, opening up, she reveals that her mother married at a young age and her father neither loved nor cared for them. When she was six, she realized that ballet provided relief from her family life, as did Bebe. The scatter-brained Kristine is tone-deaf, and her lament that she could never sing is interrupted by her husband Al finishing her phrases in tune. Mark, the youngest of the dancers, relates his first experiences with pictures of the anatomy and his first wet dream. The 410 Connie laments the problems of being short, and Diana Morales recollects her horrible high school acting class, Don remembers his first job at a nightclub and Judy reflects on her problematic childhood while some of the auditionees talk about their opinion of their parents
35.
Tony Award
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The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at a ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre, several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards are named after Antoinette Tony Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, the rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wings Tony Awards, which applies for that season only. It also forms the fourth spoke in the EGOT, that is someone who has won all four awards, the Tony Awards are also considered the equivalent of the Laurence Olivier Award in the United Kingdom and the Molière Award of France. From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June and broadcast live on CBS television, except in 1999, in 2011 and 2012, the ceremony was held at the Beacon Theatre. From 2013 to 2015, the 67th, 68th, and 69th ceremonies returned to Radio City Music Hall, the 70th Tony Awards were held on June 12,2016 at the Beacon Theatre. The 71st Tony Awards will be held on June 11,2017, as of 2014, there are 24 categories of awards, plus several special awards. Starting with 11 awards in 1947, the names and number of categories have changed over the years, some examples, the category Best Book of a Musical was originally called Best Author. The category of Best Costume Design was one of the original awards, for two years, in 1960 and 1961, this category was split into Best Costume Designer and Best Costume Designer. It then went to a category, but in 2005 it was divided again. For the category of Best Director of a Play, a category was for directors of plays. A newly established non-competitive award, The Isabelle Stevenson Award, was given for the first time at the ceremony in 2009. The award is for an individual who has made a contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian. The category of Best Special Theatrical Event was retired as of the 2009–2010 season, the categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical were retired as of the 2014-2015 season. Performance categories Show and technical categories Special awards Retired awards The award was founded in 1947 by a committee of the American Theatre Wing headed by Brock Pemberton. The award is named after Antoinette Perry, nicknamed Tony, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who died in 1946. As her official biography at the Tony Awards website states, At Jacob Wilks suggestion, proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting, at the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony
36.
Drama Desk Award
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Broadway productions were excluded until the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theatre distinction and they debuted the presentations of the Vernon Rice Awards. The name honors the New York Post critic Vernon Rice, who had pioneered Off-Broadway coverage in the New York press, the name was changed for the 1963–1964 awards season to the Drama Desk Awards. In 1974, the Drama Desk became incorporated as a not-for-profit organization, in 1975, the Drama announcement of winners included the nominees as well. The Drama Desk has more than 100 members, including critics, reporters and editors who cover New York theater. Membership consists of two categories, Active membership and Participating Membership, all of the Drama Desk officers and Nominating Committee members perform their various services for the organization on a voluntary basis. The Nominating Committee generally meets twice a month to discuss the many eligible shows members are responsible for seeing and they then nominate the productions on which the entire membership will vote. What sets the organization apart is that the awards are voted on by people only without any vested interests in the results. Previous winners include Bernadette Peters, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, over the last 36 years, the Drama Desk Awards have contributed to the ongoing success of major stars, playwrights and designers, while also identifying newcomers. The Drama Desk was the first New York theater organization to give awards to talents such as Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, plays like Driving Miss Daisy, Other Peoples Money, Steel Magnolias, and The Boys in the Band built momentum with the help of Drama Desk wins. In 2010 William Wolf was announced as the President of Drama Desk, the current managing executive producer of the Drama Desk Awards is Gretchen Shugart, and the president of the Drama Desk is Charles Wright. David Barbour is chairperson of the nominating committee, in keeping with its original mission, the organization sponsors guest panel luncheons with theater professionals. Panels address topics of current interest, covering the season on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway, with the aim of prompting informative and stimulating discussion
