#but this is good. shakespeare should be accessible and affordable for all not just for patrons etc

[tennant-davids]

i went to have a look at the macbeth ticket situation earlier and ended up in a queue of 10k people, which is both hilarious and amazing because idk if 10k people even saw the first run

[dhaaruni]

What do you think about Kamala Harris saying she’s looking to ‘creatively solve’ the student debt crisis?

Caveat: When I’m talking about people with student loans, I’m not talking about college dropouts or victims of predatory lending or public defenders or otherwise sympathetic victims here, I’m talking about college graduates who don’t work in public service (since public service employees are already having their loans forgiven).

Kamala Harris is most likely going to do very little to “creatively solve” the student debt crisis and that’s not her fault. Quite bluntly, I think any student loan forgiveness that’s not means tested and/or in exchange for public service is electorally harmful and even if it’s means tested, it will still going to lose Democrats more votes than it’ll get us. The majority of college-educated voters already vote Democrat! If your argument is that Democrats should help their base that’s fine but student loan forgiveness is not going to be electorally beneficial to Democrats and people need to stop pretending it would be. If Biden forgave student loans, it could have an infinitesimal impact on Democratic turnout, but like I said yesterday, increased turnout of a group that already reliably votes Democrat doesn’t flip states and districts, we need to convince moderate/independent voters who lean Republican in swing areas to vote Democrat to actually maintain and flip seats/states. 

I personally don’t mind my taxes paying for rural broadband or expanded Medicaid access that I won’t benefit from but I sure as hell know that non-college white and Hispanic people who benefit from rural broadband will absolutely lose their shit if they found out that their taxes are going to paying off the student loans of college graduates. These people often couldn’t afford college, and they’re not wrong to be angry that people who were able to go college are having their educations subsidized by the government. An undergraduate degree increases earning potential a great deal in this country and that’s without even going into graduate degrees. And, non-college white people decide the electoral college and Senate map. The reason that Biden won and Hillary lost is that he improved on her numbers with white men even when doing worse with white women (and every non-white demographic). 

That magi-jay person on Twitter tried to convince us all that her husband who has a PhD in philosophy should have his loans forgiven and I just laughed out loud like go tell that to some swing voter in Wisconsin where 20% of the state even has a 4-year degree let alone a PhD. I would love to go get a PhD in Shakespeare but the return on investment for such a degree is very little, and I’m not taking out student loans to make very little money. I have the ability to google what the return on investment is, and given that her husband already had an undergraduate degree, he was very capable of googling how much money a philosophy PhD earns before taking out loans to get it.

Capping interest rates and ramping up the public service loan forgiveness program are much more electorally sensible than any point blank forgiveness but a lot of that stuff has to go through Congress (although the Biden admin is working on revamping the PSLF program which is good), and that means means legislators have to write a bill that gets 60 votes in the Senate so good luck with that.

In any case, the student loan pause has been extended until May so Harris has got time to do whatever she’s planning on doing.

[mnthpprt]

Chapter 49: Desperate Measures

[Sorry for the short chapter. My computer is broken and I can’t afford to get it fixed anytime soon, so I have been writing on my phone instead. In addition, life has gotten pretty busy lately and it will probably stay that way. I will still update whenever I can.]

Our laughter dies down when I hear a noise coming from the hallway. As usual, Arthur has managed to turn an awkward conversation into an opportunity to make my sides hurt. He truly has a talent for finding the humor in every situation.

“Was that a knock?” I pant. 

He simply shrugs, so I approach the door to open it. On the other side stands Sebastian, his fist up, ready to knock again. I immediately throw my arms around him, jumping on my toes to be able to reach his broad shoulders, but soon become overwhelmed by his scent.

“Nope, bad idea,” I say, pulling away. He tilts his head as he lets go. “Human,” I point at him, and then at myself, “hungry leech. You smell delicious, no offence.”

“None taken,” Sebastian smiles. “We can catch up later, le Comte wants to see you,” he informs me before moving out of the way. I nod and hurry out, followed by Arthur. “He’s in his study.”

We part ways in the hallway, the two men leaving together in the opposite direction. I arrive to find le Comte’s door wide open. I lean on the frame and knock to catch his attention.

“Bonjour” I playfully greet him, making him look up from a book.

“Welcome back, ma chérie,” he says, standing up. 

After we exchange two kisses on the cheek, he gestures toward the fireplace. I have been here enough times to know he wants me to sit, so make myself confortable on one of the armchairs as he does the same, across from me. 

“So... I know you lied about how the door works.” Le Comte looks worried for a second, but quickly regains composure. “Don’t worry, I get why you did it. I met a friend of yours,” I begin before extending my arm over my head. “About this much taller than me, red eyes, white hair?”

“Vlad is here? I had my suspicions, but I did not think he would have the nerve to show up in Paris,” he muses. “I take it you know about his plans, then.”

“Mhm. Did you know William is working for him?”

“No, I had no idea. I might have to have a word with him,” he adds sternly. “How did you find out?”

“The ball. He had introduced me to Salieri before, and seemed pretty amused by his misunderstanding,” I answer. “At the time I didn’t know who he was, but Antonio was convinced that Mozart and I were a couple. William just added wood to the fire.”

“I don’t understand, ma chérie. You still decided to go live with him?” he asks, confused.

“It started with me not wanting any of you to see me in that state... you know, practically feral, and all. And then I thought I could make something useful our of this little vacation,” I explain. “So I’ve been keeping an eye on him, seeing what I could find out. Which leads me to Vlad. I was introduced to him just a couple hours ago and found out about his plans to conquer the world or whatever. He was... charming,” I conclude sarcastically, rubbing my neck. Though the hand shaped marks have mostly faded, it is still sore from his strong grip.

In a manner completely uncharacteristic of him, le Comte pries my hand away, revealing the faint, finger shaped bruises on my neck. His face contorts into a mask of pure rage, his eyes growing darker, as he abruptly stands up and begins marching towards the door. Luckily, I manage to shoot up and catch the hem of his jacket as he walks past me.

“Sit the fuck down,” I order, pulling on his clothes. He glances at me, still looking furious, and I grab his arm and push him backwards onto his seat. “I am not done here.”

“Forgive me, Anaïs,” he mutters before taking a deep breath. That seems to calm him. “I could hardly contain myself when I saw you have been hurt.”

“It’s nothing, but thank you for caring,” I wave away his concern with a smile. “Anyway, he built his own door and traveled to the future, which horrified him so much he has now decided that humanity doesn’t stand a chance without vampire rule. But you probably already knew this.” le Comte nods slowly. “The point is, I figured out when exactly he traveled to. He ended up in the middle of World War Two. No wonder he’s traumatized,” I chuckle. 

“That explains a lot,” he says. “We have been friends for a very long time, Vlad and I. I’d say around a millennium, even. A couple centuries ago, he disappeared. When I met him again, he was... strange. He had changed,” he narrates. “He told me he had built his own door, and that it did not work properly. He also mentioned seeing the future. I believe that is when he started turning new vampires to achieve his goal.” The nostalgia in le Comte’s voice shifts to something akin to regret. “I tried to talk him out of it, to no avail, and we had a falling out. That was the last time I saw him.”

“We both know more about the future now, so maybe talking him out of it is still an option,” I chime in. “When he described his experience, I told him I was born long after that. I explained how much better things are in my time, and why his plan would never work, but he didn’t believe me. Comte, do you think he would keep his word, even after what he went through?” I suddenly ask.

“Vlad is many things, but he is not a liar,” he sombrely assures me. “I trust that aspect of him has not changed.”

“Good,” I smirk.

“What do you have in mind, ma chérie?” he inquires when I get up and make my way around his desk. On a loose leaf of paper, I quickly scribble a note, which I hand to le Comte. “I want to offer you a deal. Allow me to prove you wrong. Meet me Sunday at 9 in your shop to negotiate the terms,” he reads out loud. “Shop? What shop?”

“He sells flowers in town. I don’t have the address but William probably knows where it is.”

“Does he also know what he is helping Vlad do?” he asks. I shake my head.

“I don’t think so. You know how much of a shit stirrer he is, I’m willing to bet he’s just in it for the drama,” I state, rolling my eyes. “I have gotten to know him better over the past week, and I sincerely doubt he would be okay with what Vlad is planning. As far as I can tell, he just knows about the vampires he has recruited. Speaking of-” I remember, “he has two trusted minions. Faust the alchemist-slash-crazy scientist, and Charles. I have no idea who the latter is, just that he is French.”

“Interesting...” he mutters. “Tell me about this deal.”

“I was thinking of showing him the future. Grant him access to your door, and in exchange he has to stop his pursuit for power. What do you think?”

After a moment of thoughtful silence, le Comte shifts in his armchair. He leans forward, caressing his chin as if he had a beard.

“It is risky...” he quietly says. “Are you sure you can convince him?”

“I can and I will. Whatever it takes.”

Le Comte nods slowly, pondering my proposal. He stares at me, brows furrowed in concentration, as I suddenly feel as if his piercing golden eyes could read my mind. I return the gaze with as much confidence as I can reflect back to him. Unless he has a better idea, this is our only chance, and I intend to make it work no matter what.

“In that case...” he finally says, leaning back, “I shall aid you as best as I can and provide anything you need, ma chérie. However, I am not sure about letting him into the mansion. I need some time to think about how that would work.”

“Thank you Comte, I understand. Oh, one more thing,” I quickly add. “Do not tell anyone about this, especially William. If Vlad suspects anything he will kill me.”

“Then why did you tell me about his involvement?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. I shrug.

“You have a right to know,” I simply state, standing up. “Besides, you’re a good liar. Just keep that up and we’re all set, I’ll handle the- Rouge. I need rouge.”

Distracted by the sudden pang of hunger, I shuffle away, mumbling to myself as I count the time that has passed with my fingers. Roughly three and a half hours before I even felt anything, and I have not gone mad yet. That is a personal best.

I stroll into the kitchen sporting a proud grin. I reach over Sebastian’s shoulder for a bottle of rouge, leaning heavily on his back. He turns around, surprised, but I shush him before he can say anything and proceed to down the entire bottle in one go.

Once I am sure there is nothing left, I put it down on the counter with a deep breath before holding onto Sebastian’s shoulder once again. This time, I propel myself up to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Did you miss me?” I ask coyly.

“How could I not?” he laughs. “Although the flowers probably miss you a lot more, I’ve been too busy to take proper care of the garden.”

“Oh, Seb, I am so sorry about that...” My apology is genuine, accompanied by a  gentle squeeze on his arm. “Sorry I left so suddenly. Should have at least warned you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he smiles. “You’re here now. I saw you packing before, do you need help carrying all that?”

“I can ask someone else. I’m sure you’re busy enough without me helping out.”

“I am not too busy to listen. What is it like?” he suddenly asks, pulling a stool from under the kitchen isle. 

“What?”

“Living with Shakespeare! I want to know everything.”

“Oh,” I laugh. 

I sit on the counter, letting my legs dangle beside him as he looks up at me, his brown eyes impatient and full of wonder, almost like a child waiting for a bedtime story.

“Well, he wakes up super early, which as you know I am not very good at,” I humor him. “We spend most days in rehearsal with his troupe. They’re pretty cool. Uh... I’ve also been caring for his little vegetable patch that he keeps in the garden to feed the-”

“Puck, yes?” he interrupts me, making me look down.

“Seriously?” I snort. “You’re taking notes? Man, and I thought William was creepy.” I nudge Sebastian with my foot as I tease him. My voice drops to a whisper when a thought occurs to me. “Do you keep those on everyone? Oh my God, have you been taking notes about me?”

“No! Of course not,” he exclaims, unconvincingly shaking his head. I stare at him. “Okay, fine, don’t look at me like that! When I said I came here to study historical figures up close, I meant it.”

“Can I see?” I don’t wait for him to answer before I take the notebook from his hands. My eyebrows rise higher with every page of diligently detailed information I flip through. “Aw, you do have one about me. Adorable.”

“How do you think I’ve kept track of your schedule the past month?” he chuckles. “I only started writing that when it became clear you were planning to stay. Too bad I have no use for that cordon bleu recipe now...”

“Whoah, stop right there. You know full well I will travel from the Moon if I have to just to taste those ‘libritos’ again,” I state with as much seriousness as I can muster, which, frankly, isn’t much. A self sufficient smile grows on Sebastian’s lips.

“I know.” 

[maiassensibleblog]

Dear theatre people, this is what I mean when I say theatre is elitist...

(All views expressed are my opinion).

I’ve been considering whether now is the right time to post this but when theatre comes back (which it will, it must), it cannot look how it looked before. I love theatre with all my heart, it is the part of my life that heals the most. But the industry drives me crazy.

I want to address the questions: Why don’t people go to the theatre? And why don’t people care about theatre? My perspective is from a West End theatre goer who is working class, not white and not straight. I am not involved in making theatre and do not desire to be involved. 

To answer this huge question, I’d like to start with two definitions:

Elitist: Relating to or supporting the view that a society or system should be led by an elite.

Inaccessible: Unable to be reached.

I often see people asking “why don’t people go to the theatre?” with only responses related to accessibility. When we talk about accessibility, we need to consider barriers such as ticket prices, geographical location and ableism. An awful lot of people are not stopped by accessibility, but they do not go to the theatre. Why? Theatre is elitist.

Elitism is the feeling that you do not belong in a space because the people who are there are different from you and often appear to think they are better than you. In my opinion, this is the reason that the general public do not care about theatre. Elitism is built into the theatre world and this has only been highlighted recently through the BLM movement (I don’t need to go into this here, you’ve all seen it). 

From a personal perspective, I’m privileged to have been going to the theatre since I was tiny. We didn’t have a lot of money but my mum was really good at finding deals on tickets and I grew to love theatre more and more as I grew up.  I go around once a week and see a lot of off West-end stuff. I, a seasoned theatregoer, feel elitism every time I go to the theatre. I will elaborate on these in the sub-topics below but I wanted to point out that I am somebody who is relatively confident around the elitist feeling, imagine if you aren’t. You just wouldn’t bother and that is what we’re seeing. 

Tickets

The first thing I would like to discuss may seem to sit between accessibility and elitism but getting affordable tickets sits in with elitism in my opinion. I am often asked how I can afford to go to the theatre so often and my answer is always I know where to look. Why do theatres feel that it is acceptable to hide their cheap seats? The only thing that is achieved here is keeping theatre for those who know where to look. 

If you have not be brought up around theatre folk, you don’t know that day seats exist. Even when theatres advertise and say something like “£15 day seats available”, people who do not know anything about theatre will not have a clue what that means. They won’t know the difference between a digital lottery and a regular in-person day seat, they won’t know how to press buy now just at the right time on TodayTix to get a rush ticket. Having cheaper options does improve accessibility but the way it has been done doesn’t serve to reduce elitism.

Put yourself in the shoes of somebody who has never been to the theatre before. They see a poster for a musical that looks amazing, they google it, they see decent seats for £100+. They decide to go for the £30 option in the Gods. They feel ripped off and don’t bother again OR they know that those are crap seats and don’t bother at all. There is nowhere on that main booking page that mentions cheaper, good seats. That is telling people that they only deserve good seats if they’re rich. That is elitist. 

Image

My next two points spill into each other, but they are not the same thing. What do you think of when you think of somebody who goes to the theatre. We all just thought of the same old, white couple. They tut at young people who talk at interval? Yeah we all know the type. It’s amazing that these people, who usually have disposable income, go to the theatre and spend money there but they are coming anyway. Why are you therefore using them to advertise? 

Some theatres do this amazingly (Bush, Soho, Young Vic, loves) but most don’t. Some shows have gone too far (looking at you Heathers West End transfer) but think: What is the demographic that you think would want to come, but isn’t? If you’re trying to attract non-theatre goers, they have to see themselves in those who are recommending it. 

Obviously, some known reviewers have to be included to keep the regulars in but theatres must start including a wider range of reviewers, they must be open to criticism from young people, queer people, Black people... Then, they must show the faces of these reviewers in their advertising, they must include their views using their vocabulary. And once you get these voices (and start respecting them), theatres must start taking these views into account. A mainstream producer actually listening (and properly listening) to the views of not the mainstream critics? That is revolutionary. That’s showing you’re willing to change.

Etiquette

This is the big one. Theatre etiquette is elitist. I’m sure many people know what I mean by this: Hushed tones even when the show isn’t on and you’re in the bar, FOH using theatre-y vocabulary to usher people places (even things like “the house is open” mean nothing to people who aren’t in theatre), expected restraint to reactions towards what’s happening on stage. I’ve never been to a theatre that doesn’t use vocabulary that would be alienating to non-theatregoers. Only a few theatres don’t have that feeling of “we’re better than you” hanging in the air. 

I have been told that I do not match up to people’s ideas of expected theatre etiquette twice outside of fandom things. I remember them both. Once, I was laughing at funny moments during a funny play. The second time I was talking to my friends excitedly at interval and had some older theatre-goers tut and ask us to be quiet (hun, it’s the interval). As I mentioned, I go to the theatre all the time, I generally conform (even when I hate it). Imagine how you’d feel if you didn’t know the nonsense rules.

The solution? Dismantle the rules. 

People dismiss panto because is does this and it’s the least elitist theatre out there. Stop getting on your high horse about people openly enjoying themselves. And to those panicking, very few people are actually going to chat their way through a whole show they’ve paid money for.

We need more relaxed performances. We need more for disabled people but we also need more for young people, where they can react to what’s going on during the show and whisper to each other about it. 

We need more sing-a-longs. Musicals can create an amazing fandom this way. Six is doing an amazing job because they’ve fostered this environment. Imagine a Hamilton sing-a-long. Just sit in that for a moment. Imagine a person who had never been to the theatre before and has heard a few songs of the soundtrack getting the feeling of a gig from the theatre. It’s powerful and it needs to happen. 

Shakespeare

Nothing exhibits the elitism of theatre more than Shakespeare. The sheer prevalence of it. And, I’m going to say it: Nobody fully understands what’s going on. 

Why, as an industry, are you all so obsessed with a sexist, racist, homophobe who died in the 1600′s? People alive today are writing plays about stories that people want to hear, in a language that people can understand. Commission them.

That is all on that. 

Secrecy 

There’s certainly something to be said about keeping the magic of theatre alive by keeping tricks a secret. I totally appreciate and love that about this art medium. You watch things happening in real time that look like magic and it’s beautiful. 

However, the secrecy around productions has gone too far. Why are full on HQ recordings of shows being filmed for them never to see the light of day? I have seen the argument that people will not feel the need to watch the show if they have seen a recording but I have only seen that argument from people who work in theatre. Listen to the people who just go to the theatre. I don’t know what I can actually say to convince the industry of this, but theatre people will still come because there’s nothing like live theatre. 

What you will do by releasing a good recording is open the show to the masses (and make money from it). You will essentially be building a fandom. People can watch football on TV but choose to pay for a ticket to go watch live because it is a different experience. People can listen to a band but choose to pay for a ticket to go to a concert because it is a different experience. It is the same thing. You honestly need to get over this because I think this is a massive reason why this elitism still exists. 

Also why not release HQ footage even as a trailer? Stick it on YouTube for free, get ad revenue and advertise.

These are just a few things that need to be taken into consideration when theatres re-open. Theatre must come back better and stronger than it was before and it must get more people in the room. The people will need art. 

This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. - Toni Morrison

[adhdtoomanycommas]

ADHD, Gifted Programs, and Accidental Accommodations

So one big thing has been on my mind pretty consistently since I got diagnosed last year at the age of 30—why did it take so long to figure this out?  At no point in my K-12 education or my 4 year bachelor’s degree schooling did any teacher or counselor question or suggest I may have ADHD, despite the fact that I check nearly every single box on every diagnostic criteria (both inattentive and hyperactive!)

One obvious reason is sexism.  Pretty early in my reading on the subject, I learned that ADHD is dramatically under-diagnosed in girls and women. Partly this is because of different presentations, but a lot of it is just that the stereotype people have in their heads of what an ADHD kid looks like is always a boy.  

But the other big reason, and the one I want to talk about today, is the fact that one of the few ADHD diagnostic boxes that I didn’t check was “bad grades.”  So really, the question is, why weren’t my grades bad?

That’s not to say I was especially good at school work. My backpacks, desks, and binders were always a complete mess, and I NEVER did the homework.  I would do the big projects (at the last possible second, of course) but daily homework just straight up didn’t happen.   If there was time left at the end of class I would sometimes quickly do the homework for the next day, and occasionally jot down some approximation of it in the minute or two before class started, but when I was actually at home, I never touched it.

But here’s the thing with ADHD brains:  We can focus on things with no problem, as long as we find them interesting.  And I’ve always read quickly enough that doing the reading for class was usually interesting. And for the most part, the class content itself usually seemed interesting enough.    But probably most importantly, I consider tests interesting. There’s always been enough of a challenge racing-the-clock game-like aspect to them to me that I would stay engaged on the tests, and even if didn’t completely know the material, I was good at using logic to get a pretty good guess (like using all those tricks they teach for standardized tests—narrowing down the options on a multiple choice question, looking for answers in the other questions, etc.)

So even in the classes where turning in the daily homework counted for part of the grade (math and language classes mostly) I was usually able to scrape a B with only the occasional C thrown in,  and everything else was A’s.  

But part of my saving grace was the “gifted” classes.  I was very lucky that, despite not knowing about her own (probable) ADHD,  my mom knew enough about how she worked as a student to know that me (and my brother) really needed to be engaged and challenged in order to thrive.  Because of this, she advocated for us hard—she insisted we be allowed in my elementary school’s “gifted” program in kindergarten (based on our test scores of course)  even though the “gifted” program officially wasn’t even available until first grade.  And when we moved to a different state, she advocated for us again and got us included even though the “gifted” class was “full.”   She knew that nothing would make us fail faster than being bored in class, so she made sure that there was at least one day a week when we would be challenged and actually get to engage with material we found interesting.  

Aside,  despite how essential they were for me to thrive in school,  the entire concept of “gifted” programs and “gifted” kids is problematic as hell.  Half of the screening is basically just looking for class signifiers and seeing whose parents had enough free time to give them a head start (or whose parents have the time to advocate for their kids the way my mom did for me).  Not to mention there’s likely a massive racial bias. So in all this discussion of why I did ok despite my ADHD, it’s important to note that there’s a lot of privilege at play here determining who gets access to these types of programs.  

This is also why I keep putting “gifted” in quotes--  I don’t think there is anything inherent about academic ability. Also, academic ability, reading ability, testing aptitude, etc. are definitely not indicative of intelligence. Plus the entire concept of the measurability of intelligence is based on eugenics ideas, so clearly one should take the whole thing with a huge grain of salt.

Nowadays the term all the parenting blogs like to use for kids like me, with ADHD (or dyslexia, or autism, or whatever else) who also test well enough to be flagged as “gifted,”  is “Twice Exceptional”  which is a term that makes me immediately want to punch whoever uses it. Seriously,  it makes me gag.  Like, it doubles down on the “special” euphemism and seems entirely designed to make parents feel better about their kid without any consideration to how the kid feels.  No kid wants to be singled out, especially one who’s already probably pretty socially isolated (which I could digress about but that’ll be another essay for another day), and being Twice singled out certainly doesn’t help anything.  

But ultimately the teaching in the “gifted” class itself wound up being really good accommodations for ADHD. I wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if they were better than the accommodations in the separate classes actually intended for kids with ADHD and other learning issues, though since I wasn’t diagnosed as I kid I can’t actually speak to that as I don’t have any experience there.  But in the gifted classes, firstly, we were given more specific subjects as opposed to the overviews we got in regular classes.  And it’s way easier to be engaged on specific subjects like ice age mammals, or the wreck of the Titanic, than it is to be engaged with a broad list of dates or categories.  We did logic problems that were presented as games, but that were indirectly teaching us the basics for higher level math. In 6th grade, we did research projects and got to pick our own subjects completely, so we could write about whatever we were hyperfixating on at the moment (mine was on medieval warfare as depicted in the Bayeux tapestry).   And if we happened to get excited and blurt out an interesting fact vaguely related to whatever was being discussed, that was likely encouraged instead of reprimanded like it would be in the normal classroom. This continued into high school, as honors and AP level classes tended to be a lot more discussion based rather than the top-down approach at other levels, as well as affording more opportunity to choose one’s own subjects.

The story you’ll hear from (or about) a lot of ADHD kids (especially undiagnosed) flagged as “gifted” is of hitting a wall at some point, academically speaking.  That did happen to me briefly, in middle school. We started being assigned a lot more long-term projects, and there was a bit of a learning curve while I figured out how to put things off Until the last minute and not Past the last minute.  But thanks to some patient teachers who believed in me (which I might not have had outside of honors classes), I managed to pull out of it and improve my grades (with the exception of the only report-card F of my entire academic career, from a sadistic gym teacher who seemed to think that enough berating would cure asthma).

Even more stories I’ve read and heard from people who were diagnosed with ADHD as an adult say they hit that wall academically when they started college—the first time they were really self-guided in their studies.  But again, there, I was saved by an honors program.  In this case,  it was the Honors Tutorial College,  a truly strange program at Ohio University.  I was tracked into HTC by one particular professor who very much wanted HTC to expand into the art program and decided that because I had both strong test scores and a strong art portfolio (and probably, lets be real, because I was the daughter of one of the other professors) that I was the perfect person to be the first student in the new program.

OU’s website describes HTC as “flexible curriculum and one-on-one tutorials with renowned faculty that allow your curiosity to take the lead in your education.” It’s rigorous, but comes with a lot of perks, like waiving certain gen-ed classes,  being able to take classes without first taking the required prerequisites,  and designing one’s own independent study classes individually with instructors.  And those perks are (as far as I know entirely accidentally) the perfect accommodations for an ADHD student (and probably pretty good for Autistic ones as well, based on some of my peers in the program).

A lot of the gen-ed classes I waived were ones I probably would have been bored in and thusly not done well.  Being able to skip pre-reqs meant that, for instance, for my English requirements I was able to take far more interesting classes like Shakespeare’s Comedies,  YA Lit,  and Playwriting instead of English 101, 102 etc.  If I wanted to learn about something in particular, I had help finding a professor willing to help me in an independent study/tutorial class.  Being the pilot of the program meant I was able to shape it so that I could get an art degree without ever having to choose one medium (which as far as I know is still an option for anyone pursuing an HTC Studio Art degree).  And at the end of the program, when we were required to complete a massive thesis project and paper (at basically graduate level), not only could I choose my subject to meet my hyperfixations, but I had individual help from a professor keeping me on task on the less-fun parts at every step of the way.  

HTC students are required to keep their GPAs above a high threshold. At one point one of my grades (in Latin class) was low enough to hurt my average, and I was called into HTC headquarters for a check-in meeting.  I was asked why my grade had fallen, and I explained that the class wasn’t that interesting (at that level it was mostly grammar) but that it was getting better as we were moving up into translating more actual historical material. That explanation was entirely accepted.  Imagine if “it’s not interesting enough” was considered a valid excuse for grades slipping for everyone, how much less stressful school would be for ADHD kids!

So ultimately it’s pretty much been having the luck and privilege to get myself flagged for “gifted” classes that kept my grades up throughout my school years.  Accidental accommodations have continued into my adult life as well. At my most recent office job, for instance (which I lost due to covid layoffs), I had a pretty hands-off boss who just didn’t care if I doodled, got up to stretch my legs every once in a while, and listened to audiobooks at my desk all day as long as the work got done.  

I didn’t need a diagnosis to get these accommodations, because they were given freely, which meant I was able to succeed even without knowing about my own ADHD.  If I had been diagnosed, and had had to ask for accommodations, I wonder if I would have done as well as bias against people with ADHD means people wouldn’t have expected as much from me.  

So if you’ve made it this far, I’ll ask for the same for others that I got for myself.  If you are a teacher (or a manager in an office setting),  I strongly encourage you to consider how to make your classroom, office, etc. more accessible in general, without someone having to disclose a diagnosis or be singled out for accommodations.  The biggest easiest one you can do is to allow (or even encourage) doodling in lecture settings. Even for neurotypicals,  there have been plenty of studies proving people retain information better when doodling, so everyone should know by now that someone doodling doesn’t mean they’re not listening.   If at all possible, encourage discussion and contribution.  Give everyone breaks to stretch and move around.  And give as much freedom as possible on what to learn about.  You might be surprised what people are capable of when these reasonable steps are taken to give everyone room to thrive.  

That’s all for now,  hopefully you got something out of this unwieldy ramble.   I’d be curious to hear if you’ve run into any accidental accommodations in your life and how they’ve helped.  Until next time!

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, CAS! You’ve been accepted for the role of TYBALT. Admin Minnie: I HAVE WAITED A MILLION YEARS FOR EXACTLY YOU, CAS. Please do not think that I am, for one second, exaggerating. You expect every Tiberius application to have a force of will and dynamic quality behind it, but you gave us nuance. You gave us depth. Reading your application left me feeling like I was walking on a tightrope, in the very best way possible, with danger and urgency and FUN. I have no doubt that you will keep all of us on the edge of our seats with our heart in our throats with your Tiberius! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias |  Cas.

Age |  Twenty-two.

Preferred Pronouns |  She/her.

Activity Level |  I’m finishing up my MLit, but I tend to work in the day and then write in the night, so I don’t think it would affect my activity much. Lockdown means that I’m pretty much always around, always have access to a laptop and, therefore, will probably alwaysbe writing. To give it a numerical scale, I’d give it 8/9.

Timezone | GMT.

How did you find the rp? |  Honestly? I’ve been following this roleplay since it opened, more or less. I kinda forgot about it for a while, but I was writing a paper on Shakespeare and that reminded me I should take another look.

IN CHARACTER

Character |  Tybalt, Tiberius Capulet.

What drew you to this character? |  While I was reading the open bios, I was pulled between a few different characters. I actually started writing up an application for Hero, but honestly, when I read Tiberius’ bio? I was totally enthralled. I’m used to playing sharp, wily, morally ambiguous characters, so Tiberius is new ground for me. He’s a gun with a mouth, a bomb always teetering on the edge of explosion, he’s a blade, he’s a weapon, and he builds a shrine to himself. He is unapologetically the villain of his own story, and nobody can take that away from him. He’s the sort of person who makes you utter his name out in full: Tiberius Capulet. He likes the sound of that. It’s harsh and guttural; it sticks to the roof of your mouth and chokes you. You don’t forget a name like that — and anyway, he doesn’t let you. Tiberius is a god made flesh, and he makes sure you know it. But he’s hungry, ravenous, really, and nothing sates that appetite. There’s a quote by Ruth Awad which I think puts what I’m trying to say quite nicely: ‘God who ate everything, did this world feed you?’ What really draws me towards Tiberius is the fact that he seems to vacillate between two extremes: he is at once cavernous and filled with every damask feeling in the world. He feels nothing and he feels everything; he looks at the world with two brutal, voracious eyes and decides he’ll devour it someday, he’ll eat it raw. That much is owed to him. If the god Ares lives among them, he lives in Tiberius: he is an ancient storm bated beneath skin. If he is given a choice between love and fear, he chooses fear, every time, until he burns so bright the world ends.

And yet, that’s only a slice of him. After all, how do you burn without a fire? Tiberius casts himself as the antagonist, but layered beneath that surface are chapters upon chapters of unfinished stories, untold tales, a whole mythology just sitting there, boiling under the skin. He’s brutal, but he’s not without feeling; quite the opposite, he feels things more deeply than most. Sure, he’s not a man of many attachments, but those he has, he holds onto for dear life. He is at once the beast and the man; the villain and the anti-villain. I think what drew me to Tiberius more than anything is the opportunity to unfurl all this rage, all this villainy in him, and to really determine where it comes from. He covets the crown of Verona, but he is first and last a Capulet — that is something that both propels him into greatness and holds him back. He will set this city ablaze and simultaneously shield his cousins from the fires of his own making. They’re a name, they’re a dynasty, and, sure, he wants the crown, but he’ll stop at nothing to preserve that. He loves them, in his own savage, infernal way. Their strategies will never be the same—Juliet is the Heart, Rafaella the Brain, Tiberius the Brute Force—but they forge a formidable trifecta. So, I suppose what makes Tiberius most interesting as a character is this oscillation between morality and amorality: he wants to feel the weight of the world in his hands and have them bruised by it, but what is he willing to sacrifice to achieve that? He is a mere prince, not a king, and while he knows that power is wielded by those who carve it out in stone and not those who are simply born into it, at night he dreams of sitting on a throne, ruling high above them all.

Anyway, sorry, I rambled — but! Essentially, I’m drawn to Tiberius not merely because he’s a wildfire as much as he is flesh and blood, but also because he has this impossible task of navigating and determining his own loyalties. He has one goal, plain and simple: Tiberius wants to rule. He has felt a strange magnetic pull to the throne ever since he was born; it has been calling his name for as long as he can remember. And he doesn’t care for much, but for those who make the cut, he’ll do anything, stop at nothing; he would pulverise this city into dust if it meant the Capulets emerged from the rubble on top. If feeling deeply makes you a monster, well, then, is the man a monster?

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character?

‘I, too, wanted to set Rome on fire, but never became an emperor due to unforeseen circumstances.’  Anonymous.

He’s a non-playable character, I know, but I’d love to explore Tiberius’ relationship with Cosimo a little more. I can’t help but feel that from the moment the boy know what power was, felt the weight of it in his bones, Tiberius has made himself accessible, always, to the man he hopes to replace. He was raised in the boss’ household, at all times hemmed in with wealth and warfare but always tempered by that culture of respect Cosimo has cultivated, and all he has ever known is bloodshed, scheming and the ruthless folklore of the Montague/Capulet feud. It’s not really a war anymore. More a lifestyle; simply how things are. Every single thing he knows about the world has been callously seized from the pages of history this mighty house has rewritten, and everything he can see, everything the dark touches, has Cosimo at the helm of it all. For two years, it was him, only him, before Juliana came along. That’s something I’d like to explore down the line: the scorn of his parentage which he finds so unfortunate, coalesced with his rearing, those years gleaning from Cosimo’s words lessons of war and honour, and the way in which Juliana’s birth cut through that blissful acrimony. Like a fine blade cutting through cardinal silk. What were those first two years like for him? Tiberius wears irascible warfare like a second skin — Juliana does not. And that is what makes one a worthy General, no? I’d love to delve a little deeper into the upbringing of the two—Cosimo’s subtly different dealings with them both—and how they have each flourished as a consequence of that. After all, it all goes hand-in-hand with his status as a Captain. Juliana the Heiress, Rafaella the Advisor — but him? Tiberius is a Capulet, but he is severed from the same power, prestige and influence afforded to his cousins; he is relegated and forced to run with the wolves, avid and hungry, with no history or name to bolster them. He may not be Cosimo’s son, but he is Capulet by name and by nature — ought he not dwell amongst other Capulets? It’s an insult, plain and true, and I’d love to explore how that affects Tiberius’ relationship with the other Captains. He views himself above them, their superior in all but status; but how do they view him?

‘Hades is relentless and untamed; so mortals hate him most of all the gods.’  Homer, from The Iliad.

Every action is purposeful, every swing of the blade with a goal in mind. He is no haphazard architect of chaos; the chaos is marked, always deliberate. More than anything, I would love to see Tiberius achieve everything he’s ever dreamed of. To become, once and for all, emperor; the General. But for that to happen, he has to cast Juliana and Rafaella aside. Juliana should be easy enough, he thinks, she has too much heart and too much soul to resort to artillery, blood, firepower—complacency is cowardice—but Rafaella is a more arduous obstacle. She smart enough for the crown, Tiberius is certain of it. Rafaella is not a Capulet by blood, but she is a Capulet by nature, and her wit is a force to be reckoned with. She is Tiberius’ real competition, primogeniture be damned, and, one day, he will have to fight her for the crown. The Capulets are a powerful little triad, to be sure: what with the empathy of Juliana, the sharp gumption of Rafaella, and the brute strength of Tiberius, they are unstoppable, impregnable. They yield to no-one, and that is the beauty of it all. But Tiberius is a dangerous sort of beast; he is blinded by rage and, for as long as he can remember, he has seen all things in red. I’d love to see a plot where Tiberius is at last granted everything he’s ever wanted—the heiress is cast aside as well as the polymath—and Verona suffers for it. After all, history has had its say on bloody men: Herod, Caligula, where are they now? They are dead. Their hands are marred with executions, with the blood of innocents. War is easy, isn’t it? But ruling is harder. Tiberius would not be a good ruler. Not now, not without identifying the seat of all that anger in him; not without Juliana and Rafaella at his side. There’s too much rage in him, too much cruelty. He lacks the heart and wit of his cousins. He is a man of war, a harbinger of violence and blood; what man like that knows the first thing about politics? He was born savage and he will die savage, plain and simple. Tiberius’ rule is not one, I don’t think, that Verona would take to easily. It’s this strange cesspool of moral degradation which thrives in duplicity: Verona is much too familiar with that thin, gauzy film it casts over people’s eyes. And when the body politic suffers, people tend to do something about it.

+  Equally, he might come to terms with the idea that Juliana, Rafaella and Tiberius need each other to rule. Not merely does Tiberius need them, but they need him. He’s prepared to get his hands dirty — in fact, he revels in it. As I mentioned, there is something in each of them which is necessary for ruling. Tiberius may groan at the softness of Juliana’s heart and he might resent the wit which permits Rafaella to rule over him, but he needs them both. If the Capulets want to rule, they must learn to do it together. They are a coin with three faces, and together, they engender a divinity for the modern age.

‘I’ve exhausted all my cruelty. I’ve arrived at myself again.’  Jenny George, from The Dream of Reason.

For most people, cruelty is a fickle thing: it comes and goes when necessity demands of it. Tiberius is not like most people. Through his eyes, the world crumbles to dust, and he stands, menacing and cruel, high above the wreckage. He has always expected that of himself and, as a result, so have those around him. He’s no Machiavelli, but the harshness of his heart strikes fear into his soldiers, his enemies, his underlings. But what happens when that brutality is exhausted? What happens when you take and take and take from that pot of callousness, of inhumanity, and the next time you reach your hand down into it, it comes up empty? A body can only contain so much: it is only a vessel. I would love to see Tiberius come to the end of his thread, to exhaust all the cruelty in him, and for the first time be forced to confront who he really is beneath all that anger. Identify where it all comes from. There’s a line in Tiberius’ bio I love: ‘He would never be satisfied—not until he drew his last breath, and probably not even then.’ He is relentless, utterly relentless, but every man has a breaking point. Nothing is enough for him, nothing sates him, and that is enough to break him. Tiberius is always being pulled between family pride and power; the Capulet name and the Capulet crown. He has always been decisive but, here, he falters. It bends him out of shape. I want to see him question absolutely everything he has ever known: his ambition, his hubris, his selfhood. Who is he, beyond the anger? Beyond the rage? There’s a quote from Antony and Cleopatra just before Antony’s death which I love: ‘Here I am Antony, / Yet I cannot hold this visible shape.’ I want to see that happen to Tiberius. I want to see him question absolutely everything he knows himself, everything he thinks he wants, and completely re-evaluate it. Maybe it makes him vulnerable — or maybe it makes him weak.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? |  Oh, for sure.

IN DEPTH

In-Character Para Sample: (Full disclaimer, this had a whole story but I ran out of time, so I had to end it randomly! Whoops.)

The man is a gun with a mouth. He is silent until the trigger is pulled, and then he revels in the onslaught.

He smooths his fingers over the dark wood of the pew, splicing them between the ridges as if they were born to them. But that’s blasphemy, no? He’s an unholy, godless thing, and as leather touches to stone, Tiberius swears that his feet are warmed by the flames beneath them. He has always found there to be something quite provoking about the Cathedral of Verona: the ostensible aspect of it, anyway, the guise it projects beyond itself. He watches the way that the crucified martyr glowers down at him from the cross, made definite by golds and rubies and gaudy display. As if he owes him something. Tiberius exhales, inaudible, and leans backwards. A tiger ensconced in wait. He rolls up his sleeve as if he’s wearing a watch. There’s no watch. But he knows Cassian is late.

He catches the words of the believers, pilgrims circling the effigy at the alter, caught up in an aerial whisper: I’ve never found a language to talk about the things that haunt me most, one of them purrs at the idol. He scoffs at that.

The Cathedral is just a history written over another history, Cosimo tells him once. History is always being written—written and unwritten—so, really, history is not history but hearsay, rumour, accepted gospel. Veronans have a short memory, don’t they? They simply accept the image before them without question, without hesitation: they look, but they do not see. They’ve always been like that, he thinks. Why? Why pant after history, he thinks, when we’re rewriting it every day, running rogues through with their own fucking swords and putting words to paper with their blood? But it is no use to justify yourself; no use in explaining. It is weak to be anecdotal. He remembers his Sunday mornings here, dressed up in the right garb, Juliana tugging at his sleeves. Devouts scurry each and every day to grovel at the feet of their God, as if the idol walks among them. He’s a believer, sure, but a profane one. What good Christian boy marches reverently from Sunday morning service straight into the footways of destruction and annihilation, slinging his cleaver over his shoulder? Him, apparently.

Gods walk among them, alright. New, shiny, pestilent gods, with bullets for mouths and their hearts in bronze fetters. God exists, but there are a thousand more to join him, and they’re all made in his image. They’re new stories, new divinities forged out of his own flesh and blood. History is so distracted by the endurances of the past, the days of beggary and hunger. But the Capulets build. Their power coasts along the half-light, savage moments seen in fragments. Tiberius works in the dark, in half-seen expressions and deeds. Light swathes itself around him only when it is too late to escape him. And then he cuts you down. The unknown is a frightening thing, people have decided, and so he opens up that gap and pours fear into it; always fear. Fear and blood, red as their crest.

Some of the rumours about him are true, some of them lies. Still, they are good stories to tell.

Tiberius is growing impatient. His soldiers know not to keep him waiting: when a forest fire burns it smoulders on, indiscriminate. He feels the air shift behind him, chilled, and he knows that Cassian has—at long fucking last—decided to grace him with his presence. He curls his neck over his shoulder, still perched on the pew as if in prayer, and watches Cassian approach him, the sloe of his eyes still and immovable. He doesn’t wait. He rises from the pew and makes towards the sacristy, the movement itself a beckoning to follow. He passes a group of worshippers and nods glassily at them — not worshippers, really, but eyes. Capulet eyes, which are always open.

Tiberius crosses the hall with his shadow lingering a few feet behind him, and when they climb the staircase he runs his fingers across the bannister’s veins of gold. He reaches the second floor and he shoulders himself through a door, slinging himself onto the leather of a sofa. He reposes himself low, all languorous, and a pulls a cigarette from his pockets, lighting it in the cup of his fingers. He does it effortlessly, with ease, like he’s done it a thousand times before — which, of course, he has. He pulls the cigarette to his mouth, inhales, exhales in smoke, resting his elbow on the arm of the sofa. ‘Well?’ he says, impatient.

Cassian is a man of words. Too fucking many words, Tiberius thinks. He prefers action. Still, he gets the job done, he supposes; there’s nothing squeamish about the man and he’s unscrupulous, damn it, and while he wouldn’t trust the man to catch him if he falls, he serves a purpose. He’s a steady little war-dog, always ready to do his bidding.

    ‘No show, apparently,’ he says, his eyes wandering. Buyers of the product who can’t pay up. Won’t, Tiberius had corrected him in their last discussion of the whole affair — won’t pay up. And there’s a price for that, isn’t there? Nobody makes a beggar out of the Capulets; nobody makes a beggar out of him, and lives to tell the tale. Fear’s a funny little thing, isn’t it? It lines one’s pockets with gold, somehow. Gives them the means to pay up, at last. Well, Tiberius is nothing if not efficient. ‘I’ll take care of it, boss.’

Tiberius says nothing. Merely inhales another puff of the cigarette, in, out, brings his elbow back down to the arm of leather and glowers. Same as fucking usual, he thinks. If it weren’t for the money, he’d simply fire his pistol, lodge the bullet squarely between the wastrel’s eyes. How’s that for efficiency? He watches the cogs turn behind Cassian’s eyes, marked, purposeful, full of intent — a thousand courses of actions slowly forging a path to escape him. But will Tiberius bite? Tonight, he decides, he’ll play nice. He flicks the cigarette carelessly into the ash tray and rises from the leather, his face still hard — but not heartless.

   ‘Bene,’ he decides upon, his expression still inflexible but apparently in the mood of charity tonight. Fine. ‘Get me a whiskey, then, won’t you? I’m parched.’

Extras: Just a Pinterest board I made for inspiration, which you can find here.I’ll direct you straight to this pin here because, well, is this Juliana talking about Tiberius? Yes. Yes it is.

[scouthearted]

How To See Theatre Cheap!!

What’s the number one complaint I see about theatre from people both into it and who want to get into it but haven’t yet? It’s the price. I get a lot of friends who don’t understand how I can afford to see so much theatre, or who just assume I’m personally rich. Really, being a third year theatre student has just granted me a lot of knowledge about the tips and tricks on how to engage with this art form for cheap... and sometimes even free.

Bootlegs are the obvious choice that I know most people know about as far as cheap and accessible theatre goes. However, even if you wanna say “fuck you” to rich producers, know that bootlegs put the theater itself at risk, and can impose huge fines on them, which can bankrupt smaller theaters... just because they didn’t catch someone filming! Because of this, it’s not the most ethical choice and it’s especially bad if you want more theatre to be accessible. I’m choosing to keep this masterlist bootleg-free for that reason, and while I encourage people to add on their own tips and tricks, I ask that they also follow that rule!

Note for the super broke: tips and tricks that are 100% free are in bold for quick reference! Bolded but starred are those that may be free, or are free with caveats.

SEE THEATRE IN PERSON:

Usher. Contact your local community and small professional theatres and see if they are looking for volunteers. Many times, those that need volunteer ushers allow them to see the show for free! Ushering is easy and a good opportunity to get to know other theatre fans. Keep in mind: there may be a dress code or physical requirement for the job.

Shakespeare in the Park. TONS of cities across the world do this... if you don’t see your city on here, that’s not a dealbreaker either, as my city is going into its 26th year of SitP and still isn’t on the list. It’s a great chance to see Shakespeare performed, an absolutely different experience than reading Shakespeare in high school English.

High school productions. Often, these are a lot better than you might expect, especially if you are near a performing arts high school or just a school with a good theatre department. High schools often do big-name shows, usually for $10 or less per ticket!

College productions. They operate similarly to high schools, but with (usually) a larger budget and better talent pool. They may also be more experimental or obscure in their season selection. I recommend attending shows at schools that have a theatre major, as those productions often are classified as “pre-professional...” think professional theatre with lower prices, often under $15 a ticket.

Hamilton lottery. If you live in or relatively near NYC, London, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, or San Francisco, you can and should enter the lottery to win two $10 tickets. You can enter every single day, and I’ve personally known people who have won, so the chances may not be as small as you think!

Pay What You Want Theatre Nights*. Often, community and smaller professional theaters will have nights where you can contribute as much or as little as you choose (some theatres have lower limits, but not all). These nights are often ones that aren’t as popular for audiences, such as Wednesday or Thursday, but they’re a great way to see things cheap.

Improv class graduation performances. Improv classes are becoming a huge thing among people who want to socialize without drinking. Often, these classes will conclude with a performance that’s open to the public and super cheap (my local improv school has $6 shows). Check local improv theatres or acting schools for more details.

Local festivals. Some local festivals are home to children’s performances (such as are orchestrated by Missoula Children’s Theatre), local improv, free musicals, etcetera. They’re a great place to scope out a little bit of the scene.

Discounts! If you’re a student, a senior, active military, or a veteran, you are almost guaranteed to get a discount. Other discounts may be available... see the next point.

Call and ask! If you can’t find any ways to see cheap theatre on your local theater’s marketing or website, don’t be afraid to call and ask for deals, promotions, or opportunities not listed. Theatre professionals want butts in the seats, and we want people to be engaging in this art form! We’ll do our best to help.

Playwrights Welcome*. On the off-chance you’re a member of the Dramatists Guild, you can see shows at certain theaters for free. A full list of the participating theaters is at the link, as well as further details on the program. You do have to pay Dramatists Guild dues, so not very free... but if you’re already a member, take advantage of this!

LEGAL RECORDINGS

Movie musicals. Yes, I know, we hate them, but they’re readily available and easy to get for cheap on DVD, or streaming online legally. Check out The Phantom of the Opera, Hairspray, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, and many more. Many are available on Netflix!

BroadwayHD. This streaming site is exclusively for high quality professional theatre. If you have $8.99 a month, you can watch SO MUCH theatre. They also do individual rentals, but it’s more expensive to do an individual rental than to just pay for the month. The selection used to be small, but is growing quickly, and showing your support might convince other productions to put legal recordings up!

National Theatre Live. Performances from an absolutely fantastic theatre, broadcast to movie theaters around the world. Tickets run a little more than a movie ticket, but less than a live theatre performance, and they’re INCREDIBLE. 

DVD and Blu-ray selections. Often, shows are in fact recorded and available for purchase, usually older or closed shows. While the article is a little bit old, the linked article makes some suggestions, but more can be found with a little bit of looking (or check out this wikipedia article).

PBS Great Performances. Opera, musicals, concerts, plays, dance, and more... the complete theatrical experience, for free on PBS. You can watch some of them free no-strings-attached online, too, but others require a subscription service.

Starkid. This theatre company does parody and original comedic musicals (with surprising depth!), and they’re posted on Youtube for free. There’s a ton to choose from, and they’re a really good time and a great gateway if you’re intimidated by the PBS stuff.

AUDIO RECORDINGS

LA Theatre Works. Performing plays in the style of radio plays, you can stream some very good stuff if you’re interested in just listening. It’s a lot like a podcast! I also recommend poking around on their website to find more shows than on this page (and if you ever get a chance and have a little more money than this, they tour and you can see them live. It’s really cool!). 

Off Book: The Improvised Musical. Think Starkid, but audio only, smaller casts, and also, completely improvised. Every week, the podcast weaves a brand new improvised musical, along with a guest or two (including people like Travis McElroy and Felicia Day). 

Audio plays* (like what LA Theatre Works are doing) are a little tricky to find sometimes, but a little research can get you a long way. Here’s some that I found just in trying to dig more up, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and the famous production of War of the Worlds. Audible is known to have a growing selection of audio plays, if you’re okay with using and paying for Amazon services.

THEATRE EDUCATION

Podcasts. Continuing on the audio theme, there’s a ton of amazing theatre podcasts that can teach a lot about the business and the art form alike. Here’s a list of twenty podcasts ranging from the explicitly educational to the news-oriented. Note, it’s about five years old. 

Theatre classes*. These are often astronomically too expensive for this list, but there is a little trick (though your ethical mileage may vary). Many theatre schools offer a free first class, like a trial offer. This is meant to help the student and teachers alike determine if the class is a good fit, but it’s also a great chance to go and learn something for a couple hours. You may then decide not to pay for further lessons at that theater, or you may decide you like it so much you want to splurge!

Guest workshops and masterclasses. If you don’t want to do the above, or if you have exhausted your local theater options, be aware of guest workshops and masterclass opportunities near you. While proper classes often run in the hundreds of dollars for a six to eight week course, these one-off classes can be as cheap as $10 sometimes, with the majority I’ve seen where I live being around $25 or so (the upper limit I I placed on things that make this list). You may be surprised at who is leading your class, too (plenty of Broadway actors run classes), and if you want to pursue theatre as a career, a masterclass or workshop looks nice on a resume.

Playing Shakespeare. The entire series can be found on Youtube, and it’s a series one of my professors personally recommended for those who want to learn how to do Shakespearean roles better.

Youtube in general. Honestly, just looking up “theatre masterclass” brings up a ton of credible and amazing stuff.

Volunteer. Learning by experiencing is truly something you can do, and there’s plenty of community theatres that would die for a good volunteer. Even if you don’t want to be on stage, there’s plenty of technical positions that cater to any and all skill sets.

[pinkchaosart]

In response to Mr. Prager

If you haven’t seen it, this is the video that this essay is in response to

So, obviously I disagree with this video. Let’s go through it: welcome to my ted talk.

1. Universities - First of all, let’s get this out of the way: just because one professor has an opinion about his school becoming a “laughing stock,” doesn’t mean that all education is going down the tubes. In reality, more people of colour and women are being educated than ever before. Kids are graduating high school more than ever, and education is more accessible than ever, at least according to the National Centre for Education Statistics. I don’t know if Mr. Prager has ever been to a modern, public university, but the only people that shut down vs debate are people who are not open to new ideas, who feel overwhelmed and persecuted because their opinion isn’t the only one in the school. Also, Christopher Columbus (pictured in the video as a pillar of education) was a genocidal lunatic. He murdered the Tainos people, didn’t discover America, and didn’t prove the earth was round. Go read about that.

2. The Arts - “The primary purpose of art was to elevate people.” I don’t know if there is a single time in human history when this stands true. This is a topic I’ve personally studied and so I’m going to tell you that, for most of human history, the primary purpose of art was for the rich to show off their money. Portraits were paid for by wealthy people to immortalize themselves. Selfie culture who? I also want to point out that, in the animation in the video, an example of “classic art” given is a painting by Monet, a modern artist who’s work was seen as shocking at the time due to it’s non-photorealism. The only reason we see it as beautiful now is because of time and the art prestige classifying it as such. I would also like to point out that the urinal in the next bit of the video was actually “made” around the same point in time. By no means is it something anyone would consider a current piece of art. I would also like to point out that Mr. Prager is being a hypocrite here, employing the imagery of “urine and feces” for shock value, the very thing he had just criticized. Pablo Picasso said, “What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.” Art isn’t for beauty, it’s all politics, war, sex and money.

3. Literature - “The English department of the university of Pennsylvania replaced the portrait of the greatest English writer who ever lived, William Shakespeare, with a picture of a black lesbian poet.” Yes they did, and that poet’s name is Audre Lorde. First, William Shakespeare’s work is not prestigious. His work was not considered refined when it was produced. It’s full of lewd and ridiculous jokes. “Much ado about nothing” roughly translates to “everyone wants the pussy”. “Nothing” was slang back then for vagina. But let’s go back to Lorde. Mr. Prager said that they replaced Shakespeare with her because they value diversity over excellence. What he’s implying is that Lorde is not worth revering, despite being a very important writer of her time, five thousand times more serious than Shakespeare ever was, and her writings are much deeper than Prager gives her credit for. In fact, he gave her no credit, didn’t even say her name.

4. Late-night television - “In America, late-night shows were completely apolitical” This is completely wrong. Late night TV started in the 1940-50’s, and often they were based on politically charged comedy, just like they are now.

5. Religion - “In many churches and synagogues, one is more likely to hear the clergy talk about political issues than about any other subject, including the Bible.” First of all, I would like to point out that political issues were what Jesus mostly talked about. “Love your neighbour” was a direct comment at the racism Jews experienced and held towards others. “Turn the other cheek” was about how to make your aggressor look like a total jerk. What is the point of church if not to give people usable tools in our modern world? That’s what Jesus did. I would also like to point out that, again, this is Prager’s opinion, and it’s clear what kind of content he thinks should be taught.

6. Freedom of Speech: “Yet the whole point of free speech is that it allows people to express any political or social position, including what any one of us considers hate speech.” Except that it doesn’t. Freedom of speech is described: “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference” by the International Human Rights Law, but it also states that the rights carry “special duties and responsibilities” and are “therefore ....subject to certain restrictions ... for respect of the rights or reputation of others ....or the protection of national security of public order or of public health or morals.” Freedom of speech is not absolute, and common boundaries are hate speech, food labeling, pornography, obscenity, slander, copyrights, etc. I would also like to point out that him arguing to be allowed to use hateful words is pointing out the obvious: that he hates us, ie: people that he describes in or agrees with this video.

7. Race - “America has become the least racist multiracial society in world history” ding dong, this is so unbelievably wrong. Let’s talk about “systemic racism” for a minute. This isn’t some “angry diatribe,” but a legitimate and historically accurate concern. It is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions, reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power, and education, among others. It is a reality that millions of North Americans (yes, Canada’s not clean on this issue) experience daily. For example, Caucasian people and black people consume the same amount of pot on a national scale. Black people are way more likely to be arrested and receive convictions for it. In America, once you receive a criminal conviction, you are no longer able to vote. So even though equal amounts of white and black people use marijuana, black people are arrested and convicted (and therefore cannot vote) because of a system designed to take away their voice. Let’s also touch on the “red lining” from a half-century ago which allowed banks to not lend money to people of colour which created ghettos, which is now home to an overwhelmingly poor and coloured population. That’s systemic oppression and it has been going on for decades. Mr. Prager is the epitome of White Privilege. I’m as white as he is and even I can see that this man hasn’t had to question his good fortune a day in his life and instead chooses to blame others for not “working hard enough” even though they’ve worked harder than he ever has.

8. The Boy Scouts - “They’re not even the Boy Scouts anymore, they’re just the Scouts. The left forced them to admit girls” - So? “The Boy Scouts have helped shape tens of millions of boys into independent and strong good men.” Okay, so wouldn’t you want your girls to grow up strong and independent? How is adding MORE PARTICIPANTS destroying the Scouts exactly?

9. Male-Female - “In New York City, parents do not have to select male or female on a newborn’s birth certificate.” Again, so what? How is that going to affect anyone other than that family. Also, designations of gender at birth on a certificate aren’t set in stone, they can be changed later. It’s not a big deal. Allowing a child to grow up unrestricted in gender norms, won’t create confused people. Letting your boys play with dolls isn’t going to make them want to be a girl, and letting your daughter roll around in the dirt won’t make her a lesbian. Mass confusion doesn’t just happen because of an “x” on a birth certificate.

“America is only bad compared to Utopia.” No, America is bad in comparison to most other first-world countries. The only thing that America excels in is making war. It spends billions of dollars occupying other countries while its people can’t afford health care, food, education, and other basic human rights.

What i find really interesting about this video is that it is completely his opinion. There’s no facts or sources given, he’s chosen his quotes very carefully (even taken them out of context), and I have to conclude that a video like this is only meant to drive the “us vs them” mentality. At it’s best this philosophy is unhealthy, at it’s worst it can kill millions of people and has started countless wars. Mr. Prager isn’t well-educated on most of what he’s talked about. He has an undergraduate in Middle Eastern Studies. Everything else he’s studied appears to be related to orthodox religions. He hasn’t done his research, got some of the most basic ideas completely wrong, and nobody should be listening to a word he has to say on any of the topics he’s talked about in this video.

As someone who used to go to a radical church and was part of the “us vs them” mentality for a number of years, I know that my words aren’t going to change many people’s minds. But what I will say is that we have more in common than we have differences. He said he wants us to debate, so here’s a rebuttal. You can have your opinion but only if you can defend it (not using religious texts). Videos like this are just dividing our culture even more than it already is. My uncle referred to “leftists” as vultures. How awful is that? To dehumanize people so extremely is a great first step to calling for their destruction.

Just ask your German Jewish friends, Mr. Prager.

[moonfirebrides]

‘In this country in 15 or 20 years’ time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.” ― Enoch Powell, River’s of Blood’ Speech, Birmingham 1968

I don’t normally like explaining my art process, as it can differ according to my mood and the topic of my work. I prefer to leave it open to interpretation but I’ll attempt to just this once. I was asked by Nottingham based magazine Leftlion to create a front cover and middle page poster for their June 2018 Issue. For a while I was wondering what imagery should I create for this cover? I needed to embark on a journey in search of fresh inspiration.

Leftlion Editor, Bridie Squires, sent over a list of some of the featured articles, notably black British poetry legend and activist Benjamin Zephaniah, an article on Female Genital Mutilation featuring Valentine Nkoyo, a feature on artist Jasmin Issaka, Human Rights Lawyer Usha Sood, activist and Jamaican WW2 veteran Oswald George Powe and a play by a local Nottingham playwright Mufaro Makubika called ‘Shebeen‘ about the 1958 race-riots in Nottingham. All of which made for a very culturally important edition of Leftlion. Now, I see myself as being relatively deep, I knew that I wanted to say something colossal and powerful with my art… but what?

Then the news of the Windrush Scandal hit, basically the UK government have been steadily kicking out Caribbean’s who immigrated to the UK in 1948-1971 (of whom were deemed them British Citizens according to the Nationality act of 1948). For more info on the Windrush see link What is the Windrush scandal? How the Windrush generation got their name and why many fear deportation by Ann Stenhouse

My blood boiled after seeing Prime Minister Theresa May and Former MP Amber Rudd’s faces in Parliament drowning over facts, figures, tepid apologies, and pathetic last minute attempts to save political careers. David Lammy MP delivered a brilliantly emotive, soulful, parliament shaking speech and after hearing a tsunami of stories of deportation being reported in the national press and not only in black newspapers such as The Voice, Gleaner or as merely word of mouth amongst PoC communities. I decided that I was going to channel the nauseous concoction of pride and disgust I was feeling into creating a collection of pieces of illustration inspired by the Windrush Scandal.

  This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Windrush Generation, Navigating Britain, How to Convey Them Visually

Excited fearfulness, queasy vulnerability, disappointedly chilly, a seasick loneliness, a war torn run down realisation, relieved to be safely on dry land, eyes searching for familiar faces. I have gathered info from the Windrush generation, those that I know personally and have researched in interviews. Above are a few of the emotions that would have been running through the youthful minds of people first stepping foot off the ship Empire Windrush in England, ‘fresh off the boat’.

I decided to base my illustration on a freeze frame taken from footage shot by the BBC of the literal moment that a young black Jamaican man had first laid eyes on England (see slideshow above). He’s a young dark skinned black man, smartly dressed in a trilby, pinstripe suit and bowtie. Though in slight wonderment you can see that he is hopeful.

My parents are a part of the Windrush generation, they came from middle class backgrounds in Jamaica, my dad arrived in 1958, as a detective in Jamaica he was only able to be a Traffic Warden and Bus Driver in the uk. Likewise my mother arrived in 1962 as a teacher and had to start off working in a factory, but why?

Which brings me to what has to be one of the single most cruel plot twists for Caribbean British citizen’s in post WW2 British legislation. My parents had always drilled into me that ‘Education is key’ and that I have to work at least twice as hard as my white counterparts. I later learned why they were so adamant. The British government ran Jamaica’s education system but even so; Britain disallowed by law all the qualifications of Caribbean British citizens (down to age 11). The effect was that it acted to ghettoize; you cannot have access to higher paid jobs, which would afford you better places to live. Even though on average middle-class and many working class Caribbean’s knew a lot more about stuff like… ‘the Queen, Buckingham palace, William the Conqueror, Shakespeare, Sheffield Steel, Clive of India, The Brontës, David Livingstone and how he ‘civilised the savage’ in Africa, industrial revolution’ etc more than your average white working class Brit. To convey this element in my art, I created conflict within each image in terms of their mood. The imagery I created is deliberately jam-packed with contradictory information that my parents and other Caribbean’s had to navigate and survive under.

  “White privilege is an absence of the consequences of racism. An absence of structural discrimination, an absence of your race being viewed as a problem first and foremost.” 
― Reni Eddo-Lodge, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

  Channelling The Caribbean Perception of Post War Working Class White Britain & My Feelings on The Windrush Scandal

  ‘We were taught that the streets were paved with gold and that most white people were rich ’. Caribbean’s were generally taught whitewashed version of history, religion and a blind allegiance to British nationalism. All of this was a effective tool to insure that many Caribbean’s would

well behaved

subscribe to conservatism, meritocracy, respectability politics

aspire to be like white people

Be non-critical thinking servants at Britain’s beck and call, that would be compelled to come running just like the ‘good old days of Empire and slavery’. Then could be disposed off as the Britain Government and white ruling class saw fit. Though many did not adhere to all of the above and fought against the indoctrination by re-educating, decolonising and rebelling in a myriad of ways. I conveyed the clashing views of the Black British Caribbean self under the narcissistic paternal rule of Britain by using dissonant imagery, such as religious iconography, 19th century etchings of the torture of slaves calling for abolition, photography of Caribbean’s toiling in plantations, Caribbean war veterans both men and women, BlackLivesMatter protests of Nottingham, Nottingham Riots of 1958, interracial couples, the permanent influence of Jamaican culture on popular British culture and the English language, Caribbean nurses, Brexit scaremongering and racist signs.  

I incorporated the beauty of paradise, sunsets, palm trees, houses with red tin roofs into my art. I wanted it to represent rose tinted memories of belonging, innocence, the memory of being a part of an ethnic majority and the confidence in ones stride that brings. A saturated use of colour was used to convey paradise and to appear diametrically opposite to the overcast aesthetics of Britain. I tried to convey that Caribbean people comment that they were shocked to find that in reality they found Britain to be smoky grey, old, dirty, dank, shoddy, ignorant, unhygienic, depressing and hostile. Caribbean’s and notably Jamaicans were instantly deemed as troublemakers, criminal, smelly, ugly, noisy and inferior in every way. ‘No, Blacks’ was a regular sign that would be seen in most accommodation available for rent and in places of employment. Most white churches would ask Caribbean’s not to return in a most polite and very British fashion. Many Caribbean people would have to defend themselves from attackers, which helped fuel riots and protests for basic human rights in Britain. I chose to represent these elements by incorporating real newspaper headlines and riot photography slashed into the imagery.

  Black British Caribbean women have arguably been the anchor of the Black British families and community, a much needed ‘big up’, acknowledgement and appreciation of the beauty and strength of those women. Hence my depiction of the black caribbean woman as queen, plus I wanted to convey the 2 figures as ‘the Adam & Eve’ of the biggest influx of Black people in Britain since its creation.

  Scandal is the word for this malicious act of the British government effectively wanting to get rid of the Windrush Generation now they 50+ and their children and in some cases grandchildren, after all of our great sacrifice, great contributions to Britain I wanted this art to be a visual smack in the face, machete chops and cuss words in visual patois, a beautiful explosion of consciousness.

‘If you are the a big tree, we are the small axe, sharpened to cut you down, ready to cut you down’ – Bob Marley & The Wailers

  As big black women of Jamaican descent taking up room in the uk in any sense can be treacherous, often greeted with backlash; be it via my art on the cover of a magazine, singing self penned songs, navigating unemployment, voicing my opinion or merely walking down the street. I have personally have never felt a part of Britain and the recent scandal comes as no surprise to me, is it any wonder why? Most black Caribbean’s seldom talk about the moment they encountered England for the first time. I hope my art can act as a mouthpiece for their feelings, mine and for those no longer with us

The beautiful struggle continues…

If you are interested in buying any of my work please click on this link https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/THEHONEYEFFECT . Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think and thank you for reading my blog.

Middle page poster of the June 2018 Issue of Leftlion Magazine

Middle page poster of the June 2018 Issue of Leftlion Magazine

Front cover of the June 2018 Issue of Leftlion Magazine

  What To Do When ‘The Mother Country’ Wants To Send You Back On The Windrush: Navigating The Hostile Environment of Brexit Britain ‘In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man." …

[theatredirectors]

Catie Davis

Hometown?

Peekskill, NY – about an hour north of NYC.

Where are you now?

NYC! I live in Sunnyside with my boyfriend, Jake, and our rescue dog, Edison.

What's your current project?

I am currently the associate director of Beetlejuice which is going out of town to the National Theatre in D.C. this fall. I’ve been involved with the show for almost a year and a half now and am really excited to be approaching a full production and to get to share it with the outside world.

I’m also developing two new musicals: Medusa, by Wes Braver and Rachel Dean, and Forget Me Not, with book & lyrics by Kate Thomas and music by Joey Contreras. Medusa is an adaptation of the Greek myth that unpacks the emotional and psychological experience of a young foreign woman who sought to make change in the world, but thanks to the broken system in which she found herself, went down in history as a gorgon. It’s been really interesting developing this show during the #MeToo movement, where the playing field is constantly changing. Forget Me Not tells the story of a remote costal town where a whale washes ashore and brings a burst of attention back to a struggling community. Inspired by the 1970 Oregon exploding whale and the Long Island serial killer, this musical is a fascinating mashup of scenarios that examine what we would do to keep from being forgotten.

Why and how did you get into theatre?

I joined the Peekskill High School Drama Club when I was a sophomore because my best friend was in it. I had just seen Spring Awakening on Broadway which opened my eyes and heart to how relatable musicals could be. The drama club was led by a retired dancer who gave the students a lot of control, and I immediately threw myself all in. I had always been a natural leader, and so when I was elected president of the club as a junior I decided to give student-directing a go. We did a production of The Crucible that fall, and I was hooked. I remember wishing at times that my club had better resources like many of the surrounding Westchester school districts, some of whom would go so far as to rent Broadway set pieces for their productions, but in retrospect I wouldn’t change a thing. I was given leadership opportunities that few sixteen-year-olds get and discovered my passion.

What is your directing dream project?

I would absolutely love to direct a musical at Shakespeare in the Park. Seeing Hair there back in 2008 completely changed my idea of what an audience and performer relationship could be. There’s something so magical about 1,800 people coming together to see a show not because they have all this money to spend on theater, but because they spent the time waiting in line for the opportunity. The untamable element of nature at the Delacorte Theater makes the whole thing even more magical and unpredictable.

What kind of theatre excites you?

I am excited by timely stories that are created and performed by a diverse group of people; stories that remind me of the value of embarking on an emotional journey in a room together. I belief we will be in deep trouble when we lose our ability to relate to one another, and theater gives us that necessary lesson in empathy. A score is typically the first thing I respond to, and I’m excited when I hear something new and original that really hooks me emotionally. I’m also excited when I see something or read something that completely changes how I view a character or historical event. I remember the first time I read Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, in which an architype like Creon makes a compelling, complex, and emotional argument for why Antigone should give up trying to bury her second brother, I suddenly felt like Greek tragedy was humanized and within reach.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

I’d love to see theater be more inclusionary of all types of people and stories. As a young woman, I am tired of going to see shows (especially stories about women) that were created entirely by teams of established white men. I am motivated to change that demographic with my presence and with the production teams I assemble. I don’t think enough value is placed on the lived experience an artist brings to a project, instead value is given to Broadway credits, and we end up with the same group of people making shows over and over. I just don’t think that’s very interesting or that it gives unique value to different shows. I’d also like to see more new works getting produced on a large scale. Arpita Mukherjee, who previously wrote for this blog, suggested a scenario where only new works get produced for a year, and that sounds awesome to me. I’m not opposed to adaptations, or revivals, that put a new lens or spin on a story we know, but think we need to hear from writers who are responding directly to the world we live in now.

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

When I graduated from undergrad I was eager to get some work experience under my belt, and had a lot of student loan debt, so I figured an MFA was at least a few years down the line. Since then, working as an assistant and associate has felt like grad school; I’ve been able to observe really smart, passionate theater artists and learned a lot from them. I may still some day decide to go for my MFA, but I think I’ll know that time has arrived if I feel like I’m hitting a wall and no longer growing as a director, and fortunately there have been lots of other ways I’ve been able to challenge myself thus far.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

I have a deep appreciation for good stage managers; I wouldn’t make it through a single day of rehearsal without them and think they deserve to be acknowledged more publicly and regularly by our industry.

I owe so much to the actors who say yes to 29-hour readings or little development steps. Who, even though you can’t afford to give them anything more than a metro card, give you all their positive energy and bring so much clarity to the thing you’re developing.

I really admire the Public Theater for its initiatives to make theater inclusive and accessible, as well as for their leadership’s willingness to take risks with the work they produce and people they employ.

And personally, I am so grateful to Alex Timbers who has mentored and trusted me to be his associate over the past few years. I hear horror stories about experiences people have assisting, and he has been nothing but kind and supportive of me. I hope to pass that along as I grow and mentor younger directors.

Any advice for directors just starting out?

1. Trust your instincts. I directed my first real show outside of high school when I was seventeen. I had a cast from around New York and New Jersey, most of whom were older than me, and about one eighth of a production team. When I think back on that process, I remember feeling like I knew exactly what I was doing, and the crazy thing was – people trusted me. With the conviction and passion to tell the right story, my ragtag group managed to make something special. So, if you’re feeling compelled to direct, follow that instinct and find a way to make it happen. 

2. Say Yes! The biggest regret I have from the past five years was turning one specific project down. I didn’t feel like I totally jived with the creative team, I didn’t trust that they were going to make script changes without a fight, and so it just didn’t seem worth it. Now that same project has had a really cool production and is continuing to move forward. It took watching that train pull out of the station without me on board to realize there was no real reason to say no to it, and that I would have grown from the challenges it brought. I’m not suggesting you should say yes to everything – there are projects that will be in poor taste or with bad people that you should say no to (trust your instincts!), but until you have a really strong reason to say no, I suggest giving it a shot.

Plugs!

Tickets for Beetlejuice are on sale now! And D.C. is just a quick train ride or cheap bus ride away. Visit www.beetlejuicebroadway.com

I am helping my good friend and brilliant actress Tara Halpern develop her solo cabaret which will be performed at The Duplex on September 10. Tara’s hilarious piece, titled The Boys I Loved in Catholic School, takes us on an early 2000s teen-pop journey through her first twelve crushes, and considers the impact of pop media on young women’s self-worth. Keep an eye on catie-davis.com/news for ticket info, as well as updates on other projects!

[musicaltheatrethoughts]

Bootlegs

Recently, there has been much controversy around bootlegs and recording live theatre. One idea may be to weigh up the pros and cons of bootlegs, and suggest solutions as to how to overcome these issues.

Negatives

Illegality - Obviously, most bootlegs are in many ways against the law. Copyright laws seem to be the most relevant here. As a Law student, I think Laws should be respected and adhered to (in most cases), so as to hold society together. The law here may seem a bit weak in this regard, but I will explain its importance below.

Creators Need Money/an Industry Like Any Other - People in shows do need money. From actors to lighting technicians, stage-managers to ushers, theatre is (at its core) an industry like any other - it is working to make a profit. Without this profit, there may be fewer ways for productions to be funded in the future- and those in theatre now may not be able to continue due to low wages. This is assuming that bootlegs mean shows generate less income, which I will come on to later…

Getting the Best Experience - When watching a likely pixelated, blurry film on your device, undoubtedly you are not getting the full experience that you would in the theatre, or at least in a professional recording. Perhaps it may be the only way the material can be accessed for some (not being able to go to Broadway, for example), but some may argue that it is worth the wait when/if you finally get to see the show live.

Respecting Those Around You/On Stage - I’ve never recorded a bootleg myself, but I have seen someone else doing so as both a performer, and as a fellow audience member. I won’t deny it, it was highly distracting in both cases, and seemed very disrespectful considering the time the cast and crew put in to making this live experience so great, and how much tickets cost.

The Cast-Recording/Clips/Free Performances- I’ve heard it said that people come in to our lives *cough* I’ve heard it said that many think cast recordings and (legal) clips online are much more accessible than in previous years, and this should be appreciated more. Also, things like ‘West-End live’ (which I assume is free? Please correct me if wrong) allow many more people to access the theatre.

Lotteries - Lotteries are available for some shows (BOM/Hamilton), for those who can’t afford tickets. I’ll come back to this.

Positives

For Many, It’s the Only Way - As I briefly mentioned above, in some situations there is no way of seeing a show in real life- be it for financial, health, temporal or geographical reasons- and the chances of it touring, being picked up by smaller theatres or being published may be slim. Bootlegs create a way for these people to see the show, when they may not be able to. Building on this for a second, how on earth can some prices for tickets be justified? I know years of effort, training and literal blood, sweat and tears from many people go into most shows, but some prices still seem ridiculous. 

It Wouldn’t Stop Me Seeing it Live - I’ve heard many people say it wouldn’t stop them seeing the show live, if the opportunity arose. For example, a close friend of mine has seen Shrek the Musical (legally) in presumably much higher quality than in an average bootleg, and yet then payed to see the show in real-life as well. This would mean the show would still get the same amount of profit in many cases.

Theatre is For All (an Industry UNLIKE Any Other) - Back in Shakespeare’s day, shows were often so cheap they were accessible to all. Arguably, being a display whose purpose is to bring people together, it should be accessible to all socio-economic classes/all locations. It may be argued (as above) that theatre is just like any other business, and you can’t argue this in other industries- but I feel theatre is different, and really is to bring people together. I think this point is especially important with the messages in many modern musicals - messages which need to be heard (e.g. ’You are not alone’ DEH).

Lotteries - Lotteries seem like a fun way to allow some people to come to the theatre who may not be able to normally (helping lessen the harshness of the above point), but who are we kidding? It’s not going to affect most people, and as it is now, many people will still be unable to see shows.

Solutions?

Cheaper Tickets - One idea may be to have cheaper tickets. How though? All I can think to answer this is that one of the best performances I’ve seen was a £8 show of Le Mis (and I’ve seen the West-End Version, and preferred this one). A big budget/stage doesn’t necessarily make a good show. This may help the price issue, but not the accessibility, sooo…

Lower Budget Tours? - Perhaps building on this idea above, a smaller set/no official building may mean cheaper tickets, and having this production tour may allow more people to see the show in different areas.

Official Recordings - Official recordings like those by Newsies, Falsettos, Miss Saigon and Shrek have been great. They solve almost all issues above- almost all can access them. Financially, the shows can get a good income from sales being so high - as the prices are often lower than of normal tickets (and so accessible). However, some say filming takes away the element of live theatre which makes it so great. To this, I would say that filming is the only opportunity for many people to see shows. Sometimes, we have to take what we’re given. Yes, I’m sure we’d all love to see live theatre, but it’s just not possible for many. One more point to this is that many shows do professionally record their performances, but won’t publish them until the show is long over. To this, I would say that many who would watch the legal recording will likely watch a bootleg if they get the opportunity first. I doubt the wait makes much difference to sales.

Lower Licencing Fees for Amateur Productions - I don’t really know the economics behind these fees, but gosh they’re high sometimes. Lower fees would make shows more accessible (I’ve used that word so much, sorry). Though, this may not help for shows still showing On-Broadway/the West End/off-Broadway. 

Do you agree/disagree with these points? Do you have any other suggestions? Let me know! :)

[felicia-cat-hardy]

Gwyneth Paltrow Isn't Relatable & That's Perfect

About once a month or so, a Gwyneth Paltrow headline makes its rounds on Twitter. The story is something different every time. To my memory, the last few Gwynethisms have been (1) she ate bread during quarantine!, (2) there’s going to be a Goop cruise!, and (3) she’s selling an orgasm-scented candle. The subtext is always the same when these stories surface, namely: Can you believe just how Gwyneth Paltrow she is?

What does it mean to be Gwyneth Paltrow? Like pornography or being cheugy, it’s easier to identify than it is to describe. The idea of Gwyneth Paltrow is an amalgam of $13 turmeric juices and restrictive low-carb portion. The Goop Gift Guide is a late-capitalist night terror. It’s wellness as wealth, a designer accessory divorced from actual science, in which the only arbiter of success is how you feel. It’s good sex, unapologetic fake tanning, and obscenely expensive travel plans. Gwyneth Paltrow is a the human manifestation of white women saying “namaste” after a yoga class, well-meaning and all smiles. It’s no longer really that fresh or original to make fun of women who like crystals or eat kale, but Gwyneth Paltrow is so wealthy, so larger-than-life, so celebrity, so Goop, that jokes about her remain, like death and taxes, perennial. A constant quarterly Twitter punchline.

I love her.

What is with our obsession with making celebrities relatable? Celebrities are not relatable.

Truly and almost without irony (a-squirt-of-lemon-juice-in-a-quart-of-alkalized-water amount of irony), I adore Gwyneth Paltrow as a celebrity and an idea. To get the obvious out of the way, I am not a follower of any Goop ideology, nor could I even afford it if I wanted to be. I use Maybelline concealer and drink Keurig coffee. I’m sure Gwyneth would clutch a well-moisturized hand to her heart if she saw how inflexible my hamstrings are and discovered how often I forget to use sunscreen altogether. Gwyneth’s lifestyle is so wildly out of touch with the average American woman that even I, a coastal elite in the entertainment industry, find it laughably prohibitive. To that I say, “Good!”

What is with our obsession with making celebrities relatable? Celebrities are not relatable. They are people with incredibly symmetrical faces and more charisma than should fit in a human body who become accustomed to private jets and crowds of people shouting their name. They get free spa treatments and clothes and full squads of people designed to make them look like they were born without pores or cellulite. Us Weekly may have shown us that A-list celebrities are “just like us” because they also sometimes go to the grocery store, but then they bring those groceries back to multimillion dollar homes in Santa Barbara where a small army of agents and assistants are waiting to help them decide whether a franchise or prestige mini-series is the better move for their career in the long term.

Social media has lowered the gates between the Celebrities and the Normals, allowing us full access to their daily lives in a way we had previously only been able to see in tiny glimpses via late-night talk show anecdotes. “Likability” is a nebulous moving target. The line between relatable and pandering becomes very thin.

She is demonstrably not relatable, and I find it delightful that she doesn’t pretend to be.

The thing I think I like best about Gwyneth Paltrow is I’m fairly certain that her public persona is actually just who she is. She is out of touch, well-meaning, slightly obsessed with a nebulous idea of wellness that’s more about spending money and patting yourself on the back than following genuine medical advice. And why shouldn’t she be?!

Gwyneth Paltrow is the daughter of a famous movie star and a successful producer who spent her childhood flitting between continents and private schools. (A favorite sentence from her Wikipedia: “She is also conversant in French, as her family frequently traveled to the South of France throughout her childhood.”) She’s been a movie star since she was 19, and one of the most genetically blessed people this side of Santa Monica. She is demonstrably not relatable, and I find it delightful that she doesn’t pretend to be.

Gwyneth Paltrow probably does use candlesticks that cost as much as my rent! She probably eats salads that contain more foods I haven’t heard of than foods I have. That’s just who she is! We can’t ask her to be anything else; we could as easily ask the sea to remain on the shore.

Be out of touch! Be ridiculous! Be obscene. How much better than being boring.

My Goop fandom isn’t about Gwyneth being a great actor, which — I’m sorry, I know it’s annoying when the kids of famous people are actually good at things — she is. Just objectively, she’s a good actor! I don’t know what to tell you. Yes, I know Shakespeare in Love shouldn’t have won Best Picture, blah blah blah, but she’s really compelling in it! Go back and watch The Talented Mr. Ripley and try to convince me she’s not charm incarnate. Emma? A Delight. The Royal Tenenbaums? Instantly iconic. You don’t have to like it, but you know it’s true.

I love Gwyneth Paltrow because she never pretends to be anything other than incredibly wealthy, incredibly privileged, and completely out of touch. Celebrity is a mutually beneficial relationship: We give you the attention and validation you need and a route to extreme wealth, and in return you give us a window into the sun-kissed and the glamorous. Be out of touch! Be ridiculous! Be obscene. How much better than being boring.

Get Relationship Advice Here

[hoynovoy]

Gwyneth Paltrow Isn't Relatable & That's Perfect

About once a month or so, a Gwyneth Paltrow headline makes its rounds on Twitter. The story is something different every time. To my memory, the last few Gwynethisms have been (1) she ate bread during quarantine!, (2) there’s going to be a Goop cruise!, and (3) she’s selling an orgasm-scented candle. The subtext is always the same when these stories surface, namely: Can you believe just how Gwyneth Paltrow she is?

What does it mean to be Gwyneth Paltrow? Like pornography or being cheugy, it’s easier to identify than it is to describe. The idea of Gwyneth Paltrow is an amalgam of $13 turmeric juices and restrictive low-carb portion. The Goop Gift Guide is a late-capitalist night terror. It’s wellness as wealth, a designer accessory divorced from actual science, in which the only arbiter of success is how you feel. It’s good sex, unapologetic fake tanning, and obscenely expensive travel plans. Gwyneth Paltrow is a the human manifestation of white women saying “namaste” after a yoga class, well-meaning and all smiles. It’s no longer really that fresh or original to make fun of women who like crystals or eat kale, but Gwyneth Paltrow is so wealthy, so larger-than-life, so celebrity, so Goop, that jokes about her remain, like death and taxes, perennial. A constant quarterly Twitter punchline.

I love her.

What is with our obsession with making celebrities relatable? Celebrities are not relatable.

Truly and almost without irony (a-squirt-of-lemon-juice-in-a-quart-of-alkalized-water amount of irony), I adore Gwyneth Paltrow as a celebrity and an idea. To get the obvious out of the way, I am not a follower of any Goop ideology, nor could I even afford it if I wanted to be. I use Maybelline concealer and drink Keurig coffee. I’m sure Gwyneth would clutch a well-moisturized hand to her heart if she saw how inflexible my hamstrings are and discovered how often I forget to use sunscreen altogether. Gwyneth’s lifestyle is so wildly out of touch with the average American woman that even I, a coastal elite in the entertainment industry, find it laughably prohibitive. To that I say, “Good!”

What is with our obsession with making celebrities relatable? Celebrities are not relatable. They are people with incredibly symmetrical faces and more charisma than should fit in a human body who become accustomed to private jets and crowds of people shouting their name. They get free spa treatments and clothes and full squads of people designed to make them look like they were born without pores or cellulite. Us Weekly may have shown us that A-list celebrities are “just like us” because they also sometimes go to the grocery store, but then they bring those groceries back to multimillion dollar homes in Santa Barbara where a small army of agents and assistants are waiting to help them decide whether a franchise or prestige mini-series is the better move for their career in the long term.

Social media has lowered the gates between the Celebrities and the Normals, allowing us full access to their daily lives in a way we had previously only been able to see in tiny glimpses via late-night talk show anecdotes. “Likability” is a nebulous moving target. The line between relatable and pandering becomes very thin.

She is demonstrably not relatable, and I find it delightful that she doesn’t pretend to be.

The thing I think I like best about Gwyneth Paltrow is I’m fairly certain that her public persona is actually just who she is. She is out of touch, well-meaning, slightly obsessed with a nebulous idea of wellness that’s more about spending money and patting yourself on the back than following genuine medical advice. And why shouldn’t she be?!

Gwyneth Paltrow is the daughter of a famous movie star and a successful producer who spent her childhood flitting between continents and private schools. (A favorite sentence from her Wikipedia: “She is also conversant in French, as her family frequently traveled to the South of France throughout her childhood.”) She’s been a movie star since she was 19, and one of the most genetically blessed people this side of Santa Monica. She is demonstrably not relatable, and I find it delightful that she doesn’t pretend to be.

Gwyneth Paltrow probably does use candlesticks that cost as much as my rent! She probably eats salads that contain more foods I haven’t heard of than foods I have. That’s just who she is! We can’t ask her to be anything else; we could as easily ask the sea to remain on the shore.

Be out of touch! Be ridiculous! Be obscene. How much better than being boring.

My Goop fandom isn’t about Gwyneth being a great actor, which — I’m sorry, I know it’s annoying when the kids of famous people are actually good at things — she is. Just objectively, she’s a good actor! I don’t know what to tell you. Yes, I know Shakespeare in Love shouldn’t have won Best Picture, blah blah blah, but she’s really compelling in it! Go back and watch The Talented Mr. Ripley and try to convince me she’s not charm incarnate. Emma? A Delight. The Royal Tenenbaums? Instantly iconic. You don’t have to like it, but you know it’s true.

I love Gwyneth Paltrow because she never pretends to be anything other than incredibly wealthy, incredibly privileged, and completely out of touch. Celebrity is a mutually beneficial relationship: We give you the attention and validation you need and a route to extreme wealth, and in return you give us a window into the sun-kissed and the glamorous. Be out of touch! Be ridiculous! Be obscene. How much better than being boring.

Get More Dating Advice Here

[justanotherwannabeclassic]

Finding Neverland (2/?)

Summary: History has a funny way of repeating itself. Juliet Jones learns this the hard way as she finds herself thrown decades into the past, and tasked with ensuring that her parents fall in love. (CS movie redux) 

Read on AO3! Previous Chapters: [1] Tagging: @poetic-justice-96​ (if you want to be tagged in updates let me know!

Chapter 2

“I can’t believe Romeo and Juliet are in Neverland.”

“Are they particularly notorious in your realm?”

“They’re like the most famous love story from my world,” Emma explains in a whisper to Hook as they head back to camp, Romeo and Juliet behind them. The couple has their wrists bound in vines, a concession they had made as an agreement to let them follow. They hadn’t intended to come to Neverland, and seemed quite eager to find a way off. “We’ll do anything,” Romeo had pleaded as Hook held a blade to his throat. And that was when Emma had suggested bringing them along. 

“So their fame leads you to believe we can trust them?” Hook inquires as he leads her through the flora of Neverland. It’s a testament to Hook’s resourcefulness that Emma so easily forgets his unfamiliarity with her world. To her, Romeo and Juliet’s story is common knowledge. It appears to not be so much in the Enchanted Forest or Neverland.

“In the stories, they weren’t villains,” she answers with a shrug. “It’s more that I feel bad for them. They both die in the end.” “Ah, and you think by helping them, you might be able to prevent it from happening.” 

She casts a glance back to the star-crossed lovers, who seem to be having a whisper argument of their own. Distracted by their conversation, Juliet trips over the root, falling to the ground with a large thud that causes Emma to wince. Together, she and Hook watch as Romeo attempts to help his girlfriend stand, his efforts hindered by his bound wrists. Emma feels a surge of hope that Shakespeare had been wrong about these two, and wishes that they could find their happily ever after. Though she still isn’t comfortable with the whole Savior thing, but she doesn’t want to see anyone die. And even if they weren’t Romeo and Juliet, the possibility of them dying in Neverland is high. She feels the persistent knot in her stomach tighten as she thinks of Henry, and she wants nothing more than to save him. She knows if given the choice, she would choose saving him over Romeo and Juliet – no question – but she feels compelled to at least try.

“Well, if anyone can prevent their untimely deaths, I’m sure you can, Swan.”

Emma’s heart twists at Hook’s comment, and she is suddenly glad for the heat of the hike already making her skin flush, because she feels the heat of the blush across her skin. He says his statements with such conviction – as if it is the most obvious thing the world that she can play hero.

She doesn’t know how to handle Hook when he is being earnest. She can combat innuendos easily. A flirty wink here or there is manageable. But when he looks at her with such belief, she feels as if she was standing on uneven ground and could fall at any point. It is terrifying, and precisely why she left him on the beanstalk all those weeks ago. In an effort to break the tension, she looks back to Romeo and Juliet.

“Are you two alright?”

“Peachy keen, Miss Swan,” Romeo calls back as Juliet rolls her eyes and mutters something about hating “this bloody island.” Both Emma and Hook miss the fact they never told the couple her last name.

-/- 

She knows about Neverland. In school, her teacher had made her class read J.M. Barrie’s classic. Juliet had been the one to point out everything that had been wrong, resulting in her teacher requesting a parent-teacher conference. How the meeting went Juliet doesn’t know, though she’s wished ever since she could have been present to witness how Miss Stuart had attempted to explain to Captain Hook that his daughter was quite (obnoxiously) insistent on calling Peter Pan “bloody awful.” Even so, that meeting had resulted in both her parents sitting her down and reminding her that though stories can be factually wrong, they can still teach us lessons. (It didn’t stop her father, however, from treating her to her favorite ice cream.) Her parents never really enjoyed talking about their adventures in Neverland. Her father had always said it was a bad place, but where he first fell in love with her mother, but left it at that. Her mother had said it sucked. Juliet knows, however, more of the story. She’s read Henry’s books, after all, and listened to him weave the tale of his own experience. Everything she’s gleaned has matched her parents’ descriptions: Neverland is a bad place.

Now she is here in the bad place, her hands bound, knees aching from her earlier fall. And worst yet of all is that she’s been captured by the past versions of her parents. Time travel is also something Juliet knows a thing or two about.

That is a story her parents had never been shy about hiding – how they’d almost accidentally written her mother out of existence, ensured Snow White and Prince Charming fell in love, and in turn, fell a little bit deeper in love themselves along the way. Despite the romance of the whole thing, Juliet had also learned that time travel is also a very bad thing. In short, she’s screwed. 

“We’ll be fine,” Gideon tells her in a whisper as the follow her parents. “We’ll join in on the effort to rescue Henry, and then find a way home back once we get to Storybrooke. Besides, it will give you something else to lord over Henry.” His teasing isn’t appreciated, but his plan has merit. Though she isn’t too keen on sticking around her parents and potentially disrupting the timeline, she honestly has no idea how to even leave the island. They could stay for decades and hope that someone comes to find them – her father had been stuck here for centuries – but she’d much rather not. In Storybrooke, they’d have access to the pawn shop and library, except – 

“The curse,” she gasps a bit too loudly. Both she and Gideon whip their heads forward to the figures ahead of them. Neither Hook nor Emma seem to have noticed, and she sighs in relief. Juliet lowers her voice as she speaks, “Pan’s curse. In Storybrooke, we’d have an incredibly limited time to get home.”

In short, they’re screwed.

-/-

“You can’t be serious. They’re not stray dogs in need of a home. They’re potentially dangerous.”

As expected, Regina is furious, David is wary, and Mary Margaret just stares at the couple with a sad sort of expression that screams “you die in your story.”

“Are you sure we can trust them?” David asks, eyes flicking back to the still-bound couple that is sitting a few meters away. “You know, that they aren’t working for Pan as a spy?” “When they got here, we asked them if they were working for Pan, and they said it didn’t. It didn’t set of any alarms,” Emma explains, wincing at her answer. She know it sounds weak, and if anyone had been telling her the same thing, she wouldn’t believe it either.

She doesn’t know how to explain she has the same feelings about them as she did about Hook at the beanstalk. And though she can’t really afford for her instinct to be wrong with Henry’s life at stake, Hook’s presence on this mission strengthens her the resolve not to abandon the couple.

“You can’t honestly expect us to believe in that stupid lie detector of yours,” Regina snaps, rolling her eyes and raising her hands upwards as if questioning the gods. 

“Actually, yes, we should,” Hook cuts in, and Emma is both annoyed and grateful at his support.

“Please, we only know you’re sticking up for Emma because you think it’s the easiest way to convince her to fuck you.”

“Enough!” It is David who yells this, and Emma is thankful for his interjection. She glances over to her captives, both of whom are staring at the group with wide eyes. Juliet appears more confused than anything, and Romeo looks to be trying – and failing – to contain a laugh. They don’t look like killers, or minions of Pan. Then again, neither did Tamara and Greg, but Emma had been able to sense their untrustworthiness.

As if reading her mind, Mary Margaret says, “Look, Emma is good with these things. She had a bad feeling about Greg and Tamara, and was right. If she thinks we can trust Romeo and Juliet, then we trust them.”

Mary Margaret beams at Emma. Emma knows she should feel grateful for her support, but all she wants to do was curl inside and hide. She isn’t accustomed to this parental support, and doubts she ever would be. 

“Besides,” Hook adds in a low whisper, his expression dark, “when Pan does decide to stage attack, we have more bodies to throw his way. Your stories do say they die, maybe this is how.”

-/-

Juliet cannot sleep. She blames it partially on the conditions. The ground is hard and unyielding, she’s using Gideon’s sweater as a pillow, and her coat as a blanket. It’s not what she’s used to, and she longs for her bed back in New York with the large pillows and mountains of blankets. But as she listens to the crackle of the fire and Gideon’s soft snores, she knows that’s only a small part of it.

In the dark, she can make out her grandfather moving about the camp, keeping watch in case that Pan or the Lost Boys stage an attack. She has to remind herself to call him David. He’s just a stranger to her now, not yet the man who taught her how to ride a horse or would sneak her candy behind her grandmother’s back.

She’s not used to seeing them all so young. Her family’s dynamic is so different than what she’s used. Her mother keeps her distance from her father, and her grandparents don’t seem to like him very much. When they aren’t trying to connect with her mother, they’re making digs at his untrustworthiness and piracy. Juliet knows they didn’t always like him, but it still feels wrong to witness it. But seeing the way her family interacts is nowhere near as unsettling as the way they look at her – like she’s a stranger, like she shouldn’t be trusted. Even her mother, who had pled their case, still studies them with doubt, as if she’s reconsidering her position.

It hurts. 

She rolls away from the fire and her grandfather toward Gideon. She’s glad he’s here, that she isn’t alone in this mess. They haven’t had time alone to really talk, but she wants to thank him for not letting her go, for falling into this mess without question, and for grounding her.

He’s been that person for her for quite awhile now, ever since she stepped into New York City wide-eyed and a little too idealistic about life outside of Storybrooke might be. He’d been starting his third year at NYU, and though she was at Columbia, he’d taken the train uptown to visit her often. He had confessed to her that it was nice to have someone to talk to about things back home for once, someone nearby. And Juliet had quickly learned how difficult it could be to navigate life having to hide certain parts of her life from others. It’s gotten less difficult over time, she thinks, her family coming to mind.

But it had been years since the early days of their budding friendship. She had long since graduated from Columbia, a degree in Art History under her belt, and an ill-paying, but stable, job at a gallery to add to her resume. He has finished medical school, and is working on his residency. And maybe most important, they have each other, even in the past.

Juliet burrows herself against his chest, and takes comfort in his warmth and smell. Maybe Gideon is right. Maybe, just maybe, everything will be fine. She just has to have faith. This is, after all, Neverland.

[raulf-o]

People Hate Art...

This one is going to be a bit long, so what I want you to remember as you read this is the following… I’m trying to give you a perspective as an artist on what I’ve encountered. How people think, act and what they wouldn’t really tell anyone in a public manner. I’m not bitter about what I am doing or anything of the sorts, I’ve had my share of small successes and stories that many people read or loved. I just want to write something… Different. About something I truly and deeply care about.

I’ve been writing short stories for over 10 years now and also published four books. But through my years I also tried different styles, things to get people to read my stuff. I also went hard to learn some marketing, SEO, in order to think of ways of appealing to readers. Whether it’s using the right hashtags, trying to reach to as many people as possible, or simply posting in as many groups as possible. Yet, as the years passed, I have found people that like what I do, people that simply do not care and people that abhor me and everything I write and the fact that I have the audacity to even write and publish anything or even call myself an indie author or a short story writer, when I should be a copywriter or a “creative content writer” for some corporation like the rest of my peers that actually make money from writing. I can’t condemn them, there is no reason to. To each their own fantasy, dream or way of life. Yet, the actual things that I have learned are quite interesting, because we’re about to get into some bad double standards and hypocrisy.

So, here comes the trouble. The older I got, the more I noticed how many talented people I personally know or got to know over the internet, have a certain trouble about their careers. I met other writers, poets, painters, singers, musicians, comic book artists, designers of all kinds, photographers and whatever type of artist you can imagine, I met them all at one point in time. What do all of these talented wonderful people have in common? Correct, none of them are pursuing actively their passion even though they are talented bright minds. 99.99% of them are working at some corporation doing something they do not love, yet need, because without a job, you are not getting paid. Which is fine, but not really. We all have to compromise, I worked in places I did not really care to work at for many years too, just so I can eat and sleep without too many worries. And not every single one of those I mentioned actually want to do it as anything more than a hobby. But, we are going to focus on those that do want to become artists…

Firstly, we have to understand what it means to be an artist in the time we live in. Why? Because I did not talk about marketing, SEO and all that for nothing there. Don’t worry, I won’t get into too many details, I’m just going to brush gently the tip of it all. Whether you are a photographer, DJ, singer, musician, painter, writer, dancer, sculptor, entertainer or whatever else… Unless you are already successful and signed to a publishing house, music label or some talent agency, being an artist means being your own business. You have to think of the marketability of what you are making. The photo you are taking, is it going to appeal to the public? The song you are writing, is it tugging at the heartstrings of people or is it at least catchy? The story you are writing, is it accessible to everyone? How are you going to sell it? What hashtags are you going to use? At what time are you going to post it? Did you make a thumbnail for it? Did you think of a promo? A YouTube video? Did you use the right words in the description or tags? How are people going to find you on Google? Is the cover appealing? And I could go on with countless examples, but what I am trying to show you is that being an artist means business, literally.

Which is why 99.99% of those talented people that I spoke about work jobs that aren’t fulfilling or they are afraid to start their journey on this path of being a business owner and artist. Not only that, but you have to understand that you, as an artist ARE NOT ESSENTIAL. Rather yet, you are here to be either taken advantage of or taken for granted. Sounds like the same thing, the difference is that the record label, publishing house might rip you off in the first one and the second is people simply enjoying whatever you do and not showing their support in any way. And you might be reading this and thinking “That’s horseshit. That’s not true, that’s not how it works. Art isn’t a business. And even so, artists shouldn’t think about the public or what the public wants, but do what they want. That’s how we got all the genius works of Picasso, Shakespeare, Beethoven and many more.” Idealistically speaking, yes, sure. I thought the same way. In reality, that is not how it works. And I can prove it to you. Because you, like most people, actually hate art. I know, sorry for the long introduction.

I want to preface this, by saying that I am not talking about people that cannot afford to go to a concert, buy a painting, a book, a photo, I am talking about the rest. Think about it, statistically speaking most people do not read for pleasure, do not go to art galleries, don’t go to the theater, don’t buy music, books, photos, sculptures and barely even give a like or a share when it comes to small creators. Why? Because… The world of art is paradoxical, at least that’s how they like to call it. I call this a double standard or plain hypocrisy. Harsh words, I know, but, please continue to read. Whenever you are new to something or look for advice to start as an artist you are going to hear a few things:

1. Make whatever makes you happy: It’s straight up bs. Why? Whatever makes you happy doesn’t make others happy, nor is it interesting for others. That’s why you see indie bands do covers of popular artists, maybe they’ll get more views and someone will discover them. Or writers are writing whatever genre is popular now (dark fantasy btw, we’re past non-fiction).

2. Just start doing it: Of course it’s bs. The moment you start doing it and want to share it with a community to start to get feedback, people (both readers and writers, for example) are going to pummel you without any mercy by saying how shitty everything you do is, even though there is no way to get good at something before being bad at it. And that wouldn’t be bad, if it were constructive criticism, but, most of it isn’t. And don’t forget, if you didn’t want any criticism, you shouldn’t have made/posted that. Not just that, but we’re going into number 3, which is a spin-off of number 1.

3. Do something that makes you stand out, something that makes you special: In the same vein of the first one, if you do this, well tough luck. Because the people from number four will call you out by saying stuff like “Wtf is this bs?” and start pushing their own view of the art and how it should be onto yours, trying to mold you into their world-view. Examples from my personal life are: “Why have you written it like that? No one writes like that, you should have written in normally in a first or third person style, without all the script bs.” or “You shouldn’t use many swear words, it’s simply bad and shows how immature you are.” Btw, can we stop this and just take in consideration what the artist wanted to do there before going on the offense? And while we’re at it. Can we stop reviewing stuff after the first few seconds, minutes, pages or episodes? Thank you.

4. Well, of course no one reads/listens/sees what you are making. You have to find your niche: Bs again, and goes directly against the first advice. Why? Because you are more than just a niche or a 2D caricature, you’re a human being with many interests and your talent isn’t just in one genre, which is why you have the confidence to start your own business as an artist, you want to do many things and not get bored or do the same thing over and over again like some office worker. You’re a free spirit, damn it! A true artist. Well, tough luck, because you can’t do what you want. You have to find a niche and exploit the hell out of them, until you become somewhat successful that it reaches a bit out into the mainstream. Why? Easier to market at one niche then it is to market to everyone. See? Told you it’s all marketing in some way…

5. You don’t need an audience to do anything: You guessed it, bs. Any talent agency, LinkedIn profile that is an industry insider, worker or recruiter from a company, publishing house is looking at your social media before approaching you. Whether it’s likes, comments you made, connections you have in the industry, work you’ve done before and the number of people you have reached through streams, sales and views. Because you’re either a sure fire investment or just a risk. And of course, if you’re a risk, well then, good luck. Because unless you have a pitch that will sell them on your idea or talent, you are on your own. Unless you have an absurd amount of money. And doesn’t that simply sound amazing? Having sales pitches for people as an artist? Or buying your way into a career?

And these are just some of the examples from the inside of the art that I am performing, which I noticed in other arts as well. But, you might be asking yourself “What does this have to do with anything when it comes to people hating art?” Well, people, in this case the consumers, since this is a business, are just as easily paradoxical. Especially in this confusing time where we struggle to find a balance between individuality and mob mentality. Where everyone wants to be special, yet no one is special, but that’s an insult, because everyone is special, yet when everyone is special no one is. Because it’s a risk, of some sort. For many reasons, small artists are seen as a risk to one’s personality and character. Since no one likes to hear a “Wtf is that?” or “Do you really like this stuff? What a weirdo.” Of course, exceptions apply here too. Then there is the reality of it, if we look at the statistics most people, as I said earlier, could afford to spend more on any type of art or artist, they don’t, not even when it comes to leaving a like. Why is it hard to even leave a like? Well, it might remind one of their inadequacy, failed dreams, or their fear to follow their own passion. And here you might ask “How so?” Well, because anyone can do it. And if anyone can do it, they (the consumers) could have done exactly what you did. Yet, they didn’t, thus the inadequacy or reflection of failure. Or they might just not care about you and your art and what you do. Which is fine.

There was one other idea someone mentioned, saying “It’s not the art, it’s the artist one might hate”. Really? After countless careers and comebacks from scumbags, whether it’s literal rapists, anti-Semites, racists, xenophobes, homophobes, killers, war criminals, that all had their careers in writing, painting, acting, directing, music that are still widely celebrated today. Can you really say that it might be the artist? The only people really hating them are those affected by those specific people, even tough we all should hate them. But we don’t, we still buy their stuff. Don’t believe me? Do a search on a few of your favorite or most popular artists. I bet you’ll find a few that are absolute garbage. Yet, as garbage as they might be, they are still popular or successful. And even those that “hate” certain artists, it’s because it goes against their own tastes. For example Nickleback, Coldplay, Shakespeare, [insert your hated artist here]. And they don’t just go against their own tastes, but what they think the art form or the artist should be. Which is just another way of hating art. Also no artist is simply hated and that’s why he is unsuccessful. The unsuccessful artists, is one that simply doesn’t know how to sell himself.

Now, do people really hate art? No. Most of them are indiferent or ignorant. Some are just trying to be polite, yet hurt your feelings without knowing that you know that they didn’t like any of your posts, didn’t buy your album when they said they would or didn’t even read the page you sent them to read it. But in turn they all tell you that they support you and cheer you on. Not knowing that you can’t exchange support and cheers for goods and services. Can’t condone them, just pointing out why marketing and knowing how to sell yourself is so important. Because no matter whether you are close friends, acquaintances or were coworkers at some point, people, even those you know, aren’t going to do more then tell you that they are supporting you. Which means your only hope is marketing, good luck and endless days and nights of working to get yourself seen by others. Seen, not selling. Because before I let you go, we’re going to talk about the weird paradox that is trying to sell something as an artist.

To put it in simple terms, DON’T! In any way, shape or form DO NOT try to SELL anything to anyone. Art is supposed to be pure, for the pleasure of it, you know what you got yourself into and no one is going to buy anything from you because you shouldn’t sell your art like that, especially when you are new into an industry. You should do things for exposure. And you shouldn’t act like a multi billion dollar business like Disney, you are just an amateur that wrote one song or one book or took one photo, you’re not a real artist. You’re a band? You better put that song from free on Spotify or YouTube, do not dare to ask for 99 cents. You’re a writer? You better sell that 500 book page you spent endless hours writing it, editing it, paying a proof-reader, an editor and an artist to design your cover for only 99 cents or give it for free, because no one will buy it. Photographer or painter? You better work for exposure and post your stuff free on Instagram to look at. Yet here we are, as people and as artists telling ourselves this bullshit that simply isn’t true. Sure, there are outliers, exceptions to these rules. But for any one exception there are ten thousand people that didn’t have the luck the successful ones that, another ten thousand that weren’t discovered by someone popular that boosted them into popularity, and another ten thousand that died poor and became famous posthumously and another ten thousand that didn’t have the money to buy themselves into a career. Sure, there were another ten thousand that weren’t good enough, but those are just ten thousand out of fifty thousand talented, unlucky, poor, undiscovered people.

Do people hate art? Probably, yes. Why? Ignorance, most likely. People do not understand how artists work, first and foremost. They think that like someone that works an normal 9 to 5, an artists wakes up, paints all day and goes to sleep. Yet, art isn’t that simple. You need to practice, you need to study, you need to think on “Is it good, interesting or new? How will I do this? Does this make sense? Can I afford the time and money to do it? Do I like the aesthetics? Will people like it enough on its on to buy it? How do I market it if they don’t?” and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as you probably know by now from everything I wrote until now. To make matters worse, it’s been 4 years since I published my first book, and I still have to explain to people that what I do isn’t quite normal and that it doesn’t work the same way as any other job. Then as you read, people do not think of art as a business, and those that think of art as a business, hate it.

Also, there’s the matter of art itself, which some believe art to be something of such emotional power that it shakes you to your core or even deconstructs you from within. That, is something that is hard to grasp for the general audience. But not only that, it is also something terrifying to experience. And let’s not forget, if you can’t understand art, well, that means that you are stupid and that makes you feel bad. No one wants to feel bad, right? In the same category, some art can remind you what a failure you are and what you could have done or become, because look at this person doing it and getting fame and money for it,as I wrote before. There are so many reasons for art not to be understood, misunderstood, hated, feared and much more, that it’s too much for me to incorporate in this post. Yet, I hope you understand it a bit better. And yes, hate is a strong word, yet people dislike or can’t be bothered by art isn’t as catchy of a title. Hope you learned something about how art “works” and how artists have to be more than simply artists to survive, because thriving involves too much luck. So, hopefully now you will support your local artists with more than just a like or a cheer. Also, I did not mention any crazy nut that has an extreme ideology that wants to censor art and have it not be obscene or whatever other things that fall in a any kind of religious, fascist, communist, any dictatorship mentality. Why? Because whether it’s the Christian, Islam, Jewish, Nazi, Communist ideology, they all censor art. So, I’m going to leave it at that when it comes to that, because those are hopefully well known by people and things.

I know, I’ve rambled for quite a bit. But I am a believer in giving a solution, instead of just complaining. The last time I complained about writers and authors, especially the indie breed, my solution was to price any ebook at a minimum price of 5$, instead of selling themselves short and dragging the industry down by giving away books to people that just store them in their kindle library, yet never read them. So, what’s the solution here? It’s simple.

Cut the toxicity out of any art form: How do you to do that? Anyone that is a gatekeeper of any sort, a snob or does not accept any and all forms of the art, must be humbled and made to remember that the more they do this, the less people will be willing to interact with the medium or even be willing to understand it. Also, for the gatekeepers, in this day and age, any information is widely available to anyone that searches even a little bit online. So, even if you wanted, you can’t stop it. More and more indie authors are becoming best-sellers and finding success. Same with bands, painters, photographers, dancers, and so on and so forth, because there are free platforms anyone can use. You might read this and think “Well then, aren’t you contradicting yourself here a bit?” No. Again, there are and always will be outliers. But, that doesn’t diminish or exclude anything I wrote above.

Stomp out the scammers and those that give out the art form a bad name: What do I mean by this? Writers that buy or exchange reviews to get better ratings on site and get quick sales to make a quick buck, should be made fun of and ridiculed, in such a way that those thinking of doing such things, will reconsider once they do a bit of research. This is just an example. Of course you have singers and bands buying bots to play their song on streaming services to get plays and get in some top. Which can be dealt the same way. And I could give you an example from each and every art form where things like this happen.

Be more welcoming: Now, I know the first two sound not so very welcoming, but the truth of the matter is that the market has literally never been as free or open as it is now. Want to publish a book? Done, in 5 minutes. Want to publish a podcast/song/spoken word poetry? Done in 2 minutes. Want to post your painting for sale? Boom, done in 2 minutes. You can do whatever you want and there is no one to stop you but your own knowledge of marketing and how to sell yourself and how to operate like a business. Not just that, but the cultural festivals that become more and more available everywhere are mixing arts. Giving people more chances to be exposed to something new and different. Also, by being more welcoming, you invite new voices to bring new innovation in the art.

Complain: I know I said I don’t like to complain a lot without giving a solution but, the more you bring forth the problems in a certain industry, the more people complain, the more likely the chance of a change. Examples? Every writer’s strike in Hollywood was a success in some way. Not just that, but you also educate people on the problems within. I know it sounds bad to complain and people don’t want to hear it. But people well, look at what is happening when people “don’t want to hear it”. You can’t see it, but I am gesturing broadly at everything regarding 2020.

Well, this has been weighing on my chest for some time. And if you honestly, read it until here, without jumping to conclusions in the comment section, I applaud you for your patience. I rarely write something this long that isn’t part of a book. And, if you have a genuine response that is constructive and makes a solid argument, I am always willing to discuss it. And if you enjoyed this, please do check out the rest of my short stories or maybe buy a book or four. And if you would like to donate to show your support, you can do so at: https://www.paypal.me/RaulFO

[myassignmenthelp-au]

English Assignment Help

MyAssignmenthelp Provides Flawless English Assignment Help

“Do the difficult thing while they are easy and do the great thing while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

Undoubtedly, English is a global language and an official language of 67 different countries. Schools worldwide use this medium to deliver lectures and conduct exams on it. Students who go to foreign countries struggle with writing assignments as it’s the second language that they have least considered on. At early level, the curriculum designed enhances students’ subject knowledge and writing skills but at undergraduate and graduate level it shifts from primitive literature to modern digital literature. Moreover, this covers all forms of English literature writing including dramas, poetry, novels, articles and many more with appropriate use of English grammar.  For some it’s easy to pen down a poem in few minutes. Just because they have had a good habit of reading books at young age? Or is the subject interest that speaks? Many of the rest find difficult to construct one original sentence. If you get an assignment on literature, it goes like “I’m no Shakespeare who would know how to create a perfect literary piece”. If you are assigned a work on grammar, then it goes like “I’m not an open dictionary to use appropriate vocabulary”. These are the few lines that students mind often talk about when given lengthy writing task. Here, nothing would work other than English assignment help from qualified subject matter experts of assignment help Australia. It could be useful in following ways:

The information will be supported by evidence.

In-depth analysis of literary work.

Use pertinent and precise key point on the topic.

Carries appropriate grammatical structure.

It is strongly recommended to take online assignment help from those who have a tight grip on the concerned discipline. Myassignmenthelp is a leading brand to introduce professional writers on platform where students are able to choose one for them using their sample work available. For every urgent assignment help, the writers conduct rigorous research and deliver the work in limited time frame at affordable rates.

Order Now

Score The Best Grades With Our English Assignment Help

To score desired grades is the ultimate goal of all students enrolled in different academic standards. Apart from proper examination procedure, professors have started assessing students’ performance through assignments. Working on different theoretical subjects is easy, but English doesn’t fit in this statement. It’s easy to find definitions or process cycle over specific topic, but giving critical analysis or writing original piece on literature with appropriate grammar is not everyone’s cup of tea.  Here comes the actual point, to score best grades use professional help if you fail at any stage. The concern of many students is, how does the writer manage to compose impeccable English assignments?  Give a look on each step mentioned by them.

“How to write a well-scored English assignment”?

1

Try to understand the topic:

Select the topic which holds readers interest and scope of research. In other case, if you are given a particular topic, figure out specific words and themes to understand the topic.

2

Make a thorough research using professional sources:

Conduct extensive research on the topic over the internet and mark important points from available learning material. Reading too much on the topic can give you ample of innovative ideas.

3

Gather relevant information:

Gather information using authentic and professional sources because it increases the chances of getting accurate as well us up-to-date data.

4

Use proper structure:

Providing proper structure will give the content a professional look and a continuing progression of the statements. Use the guidelines to come up with correct format.

5

Address each segment of the paper:

It is important to address each segment like introduction, body and conclusion with required key points. Keep the word count in control as too length work is hard to read and difficult to focus on. For every paper the segments varies, such as for research you have analysis, methodology, literature review and result. It is necessary to incorporate the desired information in each section.

6

Carefully use the language:

Use simple and comprehensible language as ornamental language is not preferred in writing assignments. Avoid using complex sentences and intricate vocabulary as it might confuse the professor.

7

Daft the final work:

After collecting all information, jot down in a way that each sentence makes connection to the other. Overall, the content should have a flow and make sense. Make it informative, descriptive, argumentative, analytical, persuading or other to what the question requires.

8

Proofread each and every line:

Before submission and after completion, it is advised to proofread each and every line.  A single spelling or grammatical error could deteriorate the quality.

9

Seek expert help if required:

If you lack the ability to write a good quality paper or get stuck any particular stage of writing, then consult experts of assignment help Australia. They enhance the quality with originally produced idea, non-plagiarized work and error free content.

10

Submit the assignment before deadline ends:

After getting error free paper, submit it to the professor prior the deadline. This will save you poor consequences of late submission and can affect your grade marking.

MyAssignmenthelp Has All The Answers To Your “Do My English Assignment”

You come to myassignmenthelp and type “Do my English Assignment”. Also you wonder what types of English academic writings the team is good at. Here is the list of few that is covered by us:

Analytical Essays

Critical analysis

Spelling, Morphology

Summary of books

General Linguistics

Reviews on movie

Old Analysis of a Book

Article writing

English research paper

Mathematical Linguistics

Thesis writing

Vowel Comparison

Semantics

General Language Theory

All aspects of English Literature

Phonology

Poem writing

Persuasive Essays

Argumentative Essays

Orthography

History

General Literature Theory

Figures of Speech etc.

Struggling with any of these? We’re right here to get you out of this troublesome situation.

Get Assignment Help Now

Worries, MyAssignmenthelp delivers stellar English assignment help

Myassignmenthelp has successful record of satisfying their customers by delivering the quality work they expect. Which element at academic writing service is solely responsible to cater client needs? Of course, it’s the team of experts. Not only looking at clients work requirements, they have set their best to outstand assignment help Australia reputation in the market.

How myassignmenthelp manages to deliver stellar English work in your hand?

Crafting assignments require conscious effort on writers’ part, who works tirelessly to make things better done your way. Look at how they ensure that you get the quality original work-every time.

One that holds world of knowledge- Researcher:

They pore over articles and books to find useful and relevant information for your assignments. Access to electronic data base, they are adept at carrying in-depth knowledge on the subject background that acts as a backbone of your assignment.

One that has artistic quality of moving with words- Writer:

Possess ability to put ideas into words and take directions to make meaningful sentences. They go over with every requirements and specifications carefully before drafting your work. Their unmatched style assures well-structured sentences and outstanding writing piece.

One that has a catchy eye for details and errors- Proofreader:

They are best at weeding out all errors when giving final touch of perfection to assignment. A single grammatical blunder or spelling error can affect overall marking. So considering this, they follow every rule to meet educational standards.

Get Help on WhatsApp

Hurry up! If you think that you lack the ability to work on detailed assignments, find our assistance in 3 easy steps.