#playwright AI

[gunaworks]

[volimfritule]

ATTENTION YAEKLORE FANS!

What are some songs, artists, bands that you listen to beside yaeklore.

I've been listening to the same ten songs since I left Spotify and I want to get some music recs that aren't from a AI algorithm.

[rahulacademy]

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[gowns]

the economy in los angeles rn is kinda um.... unprecedented levels of what da hell...

i initially wanted to be a filmmaker, playwright, actor, writer. i was just fascinated by film and theatre and knew that people made a living doing art -- i mean, my dad's a musician, so i personally knew people making a living doing art. but i was particularly drawn to storytelling and performance mediums.

so, i'm going to focus on film here: it's always been difficult to find work in hollywood, but there was still kind of a method of getting work. there are tons of studios and production companies. let's say out of 100 hopefuls, like 60-70 of them could find consistent work in one way or another. a lot of people end up in post production, smaller crew work, whatever, but they're grateful to be working in film in any way that they can while they (usually) nurse their secret dreams of funding and screening their own projects. and let's say like, 10 out of 100 of these people end up making short films for festivals (that are usually bids to make larger features), and 1 out of 100 could make a whole feature (i'm just pulling out random vibe-based statistics, i'm just typing up something quick here and don't want to look up / don't know if it's possible to see stats based on "dreams")

well the thing is, that hollywood is imploding. i know a lot of people who work in production and post-production. you live gig-to-gig. usually it's like, several weeks or maybe months of intense work on a project, then you're done, and floating free in a kind of nerve-wracking way, and then you get another gig, and then you're booked again. very feast or famine.

but lately it's just.... famine??? i keep seeing EXPERIENCED film industry people posting that they're looking for a job, any kind of job, and they have so much skills, but there's nothing.

like what i'm trying to say is... nothing is being greenlit. there are very very few new projects being made, in film or tv. it's going all the way back. some people say it's because of covid and production halting, other people say it's because of strikes, other people say it's all AI, other people say it's because of tiktok and how "anyone can make a video." and it's all of the above, combined with increasing costs of living -- it's not enough to just make a few thousand from a film gig and coast on that for the rest of the year, because your entire MONTHLY RENT is a few thousand dollars.

--

back in february 2020, i made a joke to a group of film production people, gesturing at posters for movies that looked terrible to me -- "god, they just keep making movies, and they all suck. i think what hollywood needs is a sabbatical. like, everyone should just stop making movies. there are already so many movies. we don't need anymore!" and there was a laugh then a sort of awkward silence, and i could sense a monkey paw curling just out of sight. and i quickly added "oh right, but like, there should still be movies of course, ha ha. like, you guys should still have work."

--

i think about this a lot.

like, film as a medium, film as a place in our culture, hollywood as the nexus of storytelling with a budget and many skilled hands.

it feels so present and eternal to me. but it's so new as a medium, and also predicated on so many factors. and a lot of those factors are like a crumbling cliff!

was it ever sustainable?

--

i sometimes envision my life with all these possible paths, and how i somehow picked this one random path (freelance photography), thinking that the other paths would still be open to me. "of course, anyone can do anything at any point in their life! :)" <- ever the sunny optimist.

but as i get older, and the economy gets worse, and the industry continues to implode -- and boy, if you think film is suffering, let's not even get into theatre or publishing -- i'm like wow. actually, all those other paths have gnarled dead trees and tumbleweeds. no matter how much i "dream" about XYZ, we're at a point in history where those things might not be viable anymore.

and then, outside of film as a medium, there's also the empire that we live in, the basis of all this material wealth that has been able to fund big-budget movies. and i love the things that can be done with hundreds of people and expensive cameras. but is that kind of storytelling going to continue to be feasible...?

and i get kinda freaked out because there's THOUSANDS of people here in california working in the film industry. and if they all lose their jobs....?

and if everyone i know loses their jobs...?

ummmmmmmm

like i said every day i wake up and see another "please for the love of god i need a job i have 4000 skills and no one is hiring" post and i just start sweating and going .... "what is happening..."

[velvetjune]

replayed The Lake House dlc, so more of my thoughts under spoilers! (This is long)

I cannot believe how many things I missed during the first run of this game:

1. The whiteboard of the AI Alan Wake manuscript pages produced with evaluations. One repeating the word “scream” for half of a page gets praise for its wording and tone. “Pistol looked at flashlight in shock.” It must’ve been so much fun for the writers to make up all of these.

2. Jules Marmont has extra footage directly after the Dr. Darling video on the second floor if you go back. I don’t know what exactly triggers this video, but it was when I was doubling back to get the black rock weapon.

3. The research archives appear normally from above, then shift multiple times, before returning to normal (… as normal as the shelves infinitely repeating is). This happened in the first playthrough, but I was stressed over my survival and never noticed.

4. The research archives actually go through areas with different mediums/classifications. There’s tagged artifacts/photos, tapes, film, books, and it ends with paintings. It’s nothing mind bending, but the detail was nice to see.

5. Diana’s tape on the tortured artist and human experimentation. This, with Jules’ video, only added to their monstrosity.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Black Rock Launcher is used in a similar way in FBC Firebreak. It wouldn’t be the same, but this felt so much like a set up for the kind of strange and innovative tools that FBC employees experiment with, especially when trapped in a lockdown at the Oldest House with access to Black Rock Quarry. Maybe Emily can finally make her black rock knives!

It’s hard to not think of Alan and Alice when it comes to any other creative characters in relationships in this game and the hardships with balancing that sorta life. There’s the Bookers with Tammy, a successful true crime writer and attempted poet (!!!), and Ed, a playwright trying to get recognition and feel inspired. It feels right that he would end up taking Wake’s work to write the Marmonts (also with shades of Alan and Alice) into their own supernatural lakeside cabin, fit with a marriage that’s falling apart.

The actors for both Marmonts are incredible. They both perfectly portray their outrage, jealously, and stubbornness that’s consuming their relationship and work. This mad scientist drama could easily end up too cheesy, but they sell it. Love that these negative emotions and their attempt to enforce it on artists for their suffering lead to the crack in the lake house through them. There’s so many things to pick at in this dlc, whether for the relationships, work environments, ai, artists, etc.

Only for this bullet point, but Final Draft Spoilers: Diana thinking of Jules’ smile as her last moment before being taken, while Jules’ last moment (‘Breakthrough in the Lake House’ page) is feeling pride over his work…………

I want more office drama for horrible mad scientists for Control 2. Honestly I want anything Control 2

After briefly checking online, I’m proud of myself for quickly solving the calendar problems. I actually really liked this kind of simple task to find little clues and, by doing so, getting to know the people through their passwords. I’m terrible anything with puzzles, so very grateful to have this over something elaborate or. math.

The Dylan scene is also skippable, which is unthinkable (one of the best parts of the dlc!). There’s all this disgust and horror from Estevez towards the Marmonts’ control of the Lake House, only for it to reveal that Dylan was also trapped there and experimented on by Dr. Darling and the researchers there (all approved by Trench!). Estevez isn’t aware of this, but it was a cold reminder of how truly awful it was for Dylan and how fucked up Trench and Darling are for kidnapping a child…. And then abandoning him in a small prison cell.

The horror elements in this DLC were nice, although not extreme. Tbh I don’t consider any of Remedy’s games to be scary, even if they’re still horror, but this had good moments! The distortion of the environment and constant looping made me doubt myself. Jules’ death as a taken was violent (albeit obscured), to the level of Nightingale’s cult attack, if not worse. Loved the emotion from the Marmonts seeping into their taken personalities. Aw1 had more of this and it made the Taken far more upsetting and real.

Sometimes Alan is creepy and I enjoy seeing him through other characters’ eyes. Alan/the Dark Place manifesting manuscript pages that would perfectly dig under the Marmonts’ skins and infect them was unnerving and a little funny. shows they never had a chance. While it’s not physically like that, the words describing the Lake House slowly being sunken into Cauldron Lake and the water dripping in—Chef’s kiss

AWAN had a conversation between the scientist where she discussed fate and agency (…Alan’s indignation at her being remotely critical over her 😭 he’s such an asshole). It reminded me of Diana’s notes on whether Alan wrote and controlled her life. There’s some agency that Alan takes away just by guiding these events and trying to influence people through a story. How much is him actually controlling or changing things is another question, but having that kind of power is scary, especially from another’s POV (Saga, now Estevez and the Marmonts)

Estevez seeing Alan typing the later event of her meeting Saga and THIS being what led the FBC straight to her was a great scene of wrapping everything up. I liked the weird dark goo in the Dark Place. Fun stuff!

Poe <3 Loved this promo of her new song. 6 deep breaths coinciding with Estevez’ reassurance to herself, although the lyrics also could apply to others. Dylan trapped in his cage, yet able to connect to these worlds; Alan (+Alice) in the dark place, then post-game, ‘finding roads everywhere’. I’m playing the first Alan Wake, so the breathing made me immediately think of the deep breaths taken by Tom the Diver throughout that (+ the addition of another voice breathing near the end)

Clay Murphy wrote the screenplay to this and to Number One Fan (Night Springs), which means he might be the funniest person ever

[shinysparklesapphires]

showtime precure!

chapter 24: catastrophe pretty cure?!

cw: more graphic ig

🎀: @baileypie-writes @xryptik @lowcallyfruity @kirans-wonderland @harufallinwonderland

"P-Pretty Cure??" Lucia backed away, almost stumbling over.

"Well, we're going to be Pretty Cure," the short one remarked.

"All we gotta do is get rid of you!" The tall one giggled.

The girls huddled together, but a vortex opened beneath them.

"Nuh uh uh.." the pigtailed girl laughed, "we're doing this one on one."

Set woke up in a room that looked eerily similar to an escape room, rubbing her head in pain.

"Do you like it? It's my own personal room, where I control everything."

The short girl walked towards Set to help her get up, but not before shocking her with electricity, which caused her to yelp in pain, as she kicked her into the wall.

"My name is Machinery. I'm a state of the art artificial intelligence bot, I'm just as if not more intelligent than you," she grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall, "considering that all of your attacks only work for defense, your chances of defeating me are exactly 0%."

Set struggled to speak, "I-"

"And as the superior being, I'll replace you as a Pretty Cure and as an artist. After all, it's more logical to use an AI bot to make art for you. It's cheaper and doesn't take as much effort as making it yourself, sooner or later there won't be a need for artists at all." She smiled as she squeezed her hands around Set's neck harder.

"Ugh, what the hell?" Action shakily rose to her feet, but something tripped her and she felt something strike her from behind, knocking her over.

"Whoopsie!" The tall girl from before giggled, "you should be more careful!" She sent an energy ball at Action who moved out of the way just in time.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be?" Action looked around her, to see only mirrors surrounding her and the girl in front of her.

"I'm Counteract!" She curtsied, "I'm your replacement!"

Action looked at her confused, "Replacement?"

"Yep!" She attempted to strike Action from behind but she countered it and hit her back.

"When I'm Cure Action, I'll become an amazing dancer! And I'll elimate all of my competition so no one stands in my way!" She kept throwing punches at Action who held her arms in an X to cover herself.

"Sabotage your competition? But that's cheating!" She finally pushed the girl off, who nimbly landed on her feet.

"Yeah but, as long as I get to the top, who cares?" She scoffed.

"Where are you?" Wright yelled into the wheat field she had been thrown into. She felt claustrophobic in there, but she heard a voice call back to her.

"Where am I?" The voice laughed.

"This isn't funny! Just come out already!" She was starting to get annoyed.

"Whatever you say~" the voices could be heard from above and a creature jumped onto Wright before she could act, causing her to lose her balance.

Wright swung at the creature, but she dodged and swung back in the exact same way.

"You can't run now Cure Wright! I'm gonna kill you and be the greatest author ever known!"

"And what makes you think you can do that?" She dodged the attacks that were thrown at her.

"I'll just copy and paste something! Easy as that!" She threw her into the thick field of wheat.

"You can't just copy someone else's work!"

The creature stood there and laughed, "oh yeah? Who's gonna stop me?"

Showtime woke up to see a crystalline lake, but while she struggled to keep her head up she felt something push her back down.

"Wow, this is the leader of the legendary playwrights?? Damn they have super low standards," Showtime turned her head to see the pigtailed girl from earlier. She was standing over her with a smug expression as she laughed, "I'll be your replacement Cure Showtime! My name's Deciet!"

Showtime pushed her off of her, as Deciet dodged the flurry of kicks being sent at her.

"That all you got?" She kicked Showtime into the lake, causing her to crawl out coughing and struggling to breathe.

"Don't worry, this'll all be over soon..."

"Hi princey! And his friends too!" Reel woke up in what looked like a camera room with multiple monitors. He looked around to see Cinema and Constantine but his heart dropped when he saw what the monsters were showing.

"Girls!" Reel rushed over but the feed glitched out to show the twins laughing.

"It's no use! They can't hear you!" Catastrophe giggles.

"What have you done to them?!" Cinema slammed her hands on the desk.

"No need to get so aggressive!" Calamity faked a startled look, "Our little friends here were just dying to play with the Precure, and how could we refuse?"

Constantine shakily got up to her feet, "What do you mean friends?"

"We made our own Precure! I call them the Catastrophe Precure!"

"I thought we agreed on Calamity Precure?!"

"Yeah well it sounded stupid!"

The camera feed cut back to the girls fighting thier counterparts, but they all looked like they were close to defeat.

"Set! Action! Wright! Showtime!" Reel looked at the monitors with a desperate look on his face.

Set was lying on the cold hard ground, covered up in scratches and dust.

"As I thought. You never stood a chance against me," Machinery stood over her with a stoic look.

"I won't let you replace me!" Set reached for her pallette.

"You have no real attacks, at most all you can do is tie me up but even then I could just-" she felt something wrap around her and she fell to the ground.

"Don't you dare compare yourself to me."

Machinery struggled to free herself but the rope around her just tightened.

"Most I can do is tie you up huh?" Set breathed heavily as she tore the robot's leg from her body, causing the wires to break and electric sparks to fly out, "you think your trashy ai generated garbage could ever be considered art?! YOU CAN'T EVEN COMPARE TO THE HOURS OF EFFORT PUT IN TO MAKE AN ART PIECE! YOU THINK YOU'RE SMARTER THAN ME?" She tore her arm off, "I COULD THROW AN ENTIRE BUCKET OF PAINT AT A WALL, AND IT'D STILL HAVE MORE EMOTION THAN YOU EVER WILL!"

"This wasn't supposed to happen- my calculations-" before she could finish, Set stomped on her neck and ripped her head from her body, causing her to malfunction and shut off.

"Fuck your calculations." She glared at the robot's head and kicked it at the wall.

"You're way to slow! Can't believe you're supposed to be a Precure!" Counteract held Action down.

"Coward."

Her expression changed from smug to annoyed, "what did you call me?"

Action pushed her off of her body and kicked her into the mirror, causing it to shatter, "only a Coward would stoop so low as to sabotaging those who are better just to reach the top." She kicked her in the head, causing it to bleed, "I got to where I am through my own hard work. Really if you were as good as you say, you wouldn't need to resort to cheating."

Action pulled out her ribbon, "I'll show you what real power is! Precure, Action Grande Jete Pirrouette!" The ribbon wrapped around Counteract causing both her and the mirrors around the room to shatter into pieces.

"Cure Wright, you'll meet your end soon!" Copycat lunged at Wright who kept countering her attacks.

"Catastrophe Bullet!" she sent a barrage of thorns at Wright, knocking her over.

Copycat grinned as she walked over to grab Wright's ribbon from her neck, but she was stopped when a hand grabbed her wrist.

"You think you can win by copying my every move, but in the end, you won't be able to think of anything original yourself," Wright pushed her off and kicked her in the stomach.

"You think that I didn't take inspiration from my favorite writers? Everything we do as humans is something we pick up from others behaviors. But straight up stealing someone's hard work and acting like it's yours? Unforgivable!" She held her arm in pain and raised it up, "Precure! Wright Blitz....Bullet!" A barrage of quills stabbed into Copycat tearing her apart and leaving nothing behind.

Amber felt the ground open up beneath her, and she fell through the earth.

"Oof!" Amber felt herself fall on something.

"Ow...Amber get off," Violet groaned.

Amber quickly got off and apologized.

"Lyna! Amber! Violet!" Reel hugged the three of them tightly, "Wait shouldn't Lucia be with you?"

They looked around, and then looked at the camera feed, which now had sound.

"Cure Showtime...I'd say it was a pleasure meeting you but.." Deciet giggled as Lucia lay on the ground unresponsive.

"That would be a lie wouldn't it?" She raised her leg as if she were about to stomp on something, right before the camera cut out.

[sensational-blue]

I've been hitting all of the big AUs recently.

Here is Carnival! Peri, The Acrobat!

Imma definitely do smaller things with Peri in this au later but for now, enjoy this and the relationship chart of her and the other AIs

Text on the relationship charts under the cut (in case my handwriting sucks)

Non-Sentient:

Pomni: "Circus Buddy!"

Ragatha: "Best friend to talk to"

Zooble: "Chillest person around. I like that"

Queenie: "So sweet! love to be around her!"

Kinger: "goofy old guy"

Kaufmo: "Fun guy."

Jax: "Pack it up bunny boy, you're getting on my nerves"

Gangle: "A good playwright! content is kinda... Unique..."

Able: "Very pleasant to be around"

Bubble: "Funny lil' guy"

Caine: "A player that tries his best"

Sentient:

Pomni: "Still friends, Just sad... Also, why help him?!

Ragatha: "Gets pretty bitchy since she lost her mind. still, hang out tho

Zooble: "Still chill, just distant

Queenie: "had good memories, but she was losing it at the end

Kinger: "He's losing it..."

Kaufmo: "You had a good run bud"

Jax: "I'll knock that smile off your face, Rabbit."

Gangle: "You get weirder every time we meet..."

Able: "Is tolerating him, don't trust him"

Bubble: "still funny"

Caine: "SHUT UP ALREADY!!!"

[schmergo]

Reading headlines about professional theatre these past few years is an absolute wild ride. Maybe all this stuff was happening before the pandemic, but I never heard about it. Now every two seconds, it's something like this:

"Inspiring! 'Retired' Broadway actress stars as Elphaba in Broadway with no rehearsal after 8 years away from the theatre working as a biologist in Antarctica... and she's never even SEEN Wicked before!"

"The Show Must Go On! Tony-winning actor announces that he performed at the Tony awards on a broken leg, will be taking two days off to have it treated"

"The Zodiac Killer to join the cast of Chicago as Roxie Hart! He will be wearing a bag over his head at all performances to hide his identity, but we are training AI to recognize his voice patterns"

"Audience wowed by all-understudy performance of Sweeney Todd with the role of the Beadle eliminated entirely and Johanna played by the French horn player from the pit"

"Previously announced production of NAPOLEON! THE MUSICAL to be canceled two days before scheduled opening after playwright pulled rights due to 'unauthorized changes' and 'offensive casting.' Director defends choice to have a chimpanzee play the title role."

"After 147 years, beloved local theatre company announces closure due to ongoing poison-resistant ant infestation. Site to become a research lab about these spectacular ants!"

"5 billion dollar new AI-written Broadway musical BABY SHARK to close after 2 performances, both of which took place on a partial set because it wasn't finished yet"

"After 109 years, beloved local theatre company canceling their 2023-2024 season because they only got 2 sales and that was from the artistic director's mom and her next-door neighbor Debra (who drives)."

"Shocking! Artistic director of beloved local theatre exposed! Actors report seeing multiple interns and swings sacrificed to a minotaur living in the boiler room during his time at the theatre.'

"Beloved local theatre company announces new membership structure! Top membership tier (names engraved on lobby wall, premium seats for whole season, free admission to exclusive parties and events) will consist of donors who gave full or partial organs to our uninsured non-union actors!"

"Onward and upward! Phantom of the Opera now spotted living under Shake Shack!"

[clover-wasnt-here]

~a little intro~

🖤my name is Clover

🖤genderfae

🖤therian/otherkin

🖤she/they/fae

🖤emo/alternative

🖤lover of music and the small beauties of earth

🖤in the process of converting to Judaism (yes I am currently a Gentile)

🖤queer

🖤neurodivergent-level 2/medium support needs autism, ADHD, MDD, GAD, BPD, chronic pain

🖤poet, playwright, author

🖤I live for the mystery of the paranormal~

🖤Free Palestine 🇵🇸

DNI

-Bigots (racist, homophobic, transphobic, any type of queerphobic, sexist, ableist, etc.)

-ANTI SEMITES IN PARTICULAR FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Exclusionists: anti-self dx, anti xenogender, anti contradictory labels, transmed, etc.

-The only exception to the above is radqueers. fuck off.

-Anti alterhumans

-Aspie supremacists-I am a level 2 autistic person and this blog is not for you.

-Zionists/pro-israel

-If you make insensitive jokes about tragic events (e.g., the Holocaust, 9/11, world hunger, climate change, etc.)

-Holocaust deniers and anti-semites fuck off

-far/alt right

-generative AI apologists

credits for userboxes: @sweetpeauserboxes

[cursedmoon-doll13]

Based off conversations I’ve had in the server about the wizarding world and my thoughts/speculations as well as some headcanons regarding it.

Tl;dr overthinking world-building details

First of all: the living paintings. I have sooo many questions, like are there magical brushes that need to be used or do you simply enchant them with magic? What is the limit to this? If I doodle a stick man on a page and I enchant it does that mean it comes to life somehow? Also, there’s a lot of darker potential when it comes to this. Is there a black market dedicated to selling certain paintings? What about someone who will paint your deceased loved one for grieving purposes? Has someone ever fallen in love with a painting like we do AI? Are they fully sentient or are they similarly limited as an AI? And this isn’t even getting into photographs taken with a camera.

Speaking of black markets, while of course you have knockturn alley and your borgin and burkes, the real itching question in my mind isn’t on cursed or strange magical objects. It’s on drugs. Or specifically potions. Considering that basically mind-controlling love potions aren’t illegal, what sort of potions actually are? Or - I’ll do you even better - is there a muggle trade for the usual stuff (like say coke) which is made easier with owl post? Is there any sort of policing on non-Hogwarts owls? There must be a ministry force that cracks down on illicit trade with owls. Do they monitor the air for broom flyers as well? There must be some fine you have to pay if you reveal yourself on a broom to random muggles.

Yes we have the ‘are you a witch or not?’ Scene, but I also think for a lot of people who use magic, it would be interesting if they forget they can’t function without it. Someone who has been using magic their entire lives to do house chores suddenly not knowing what they’re doing if their wand snaps. Not even out of ignorance but just because it’s never how they’ve done things, like it’s their natural inclination towards magic. Since there seems to be a bit of anti-muggle bias in the books, I think it would be interesting to see how wizards struggle in comparison.

Also, while this is really more of a book thing, it seems that wizards don’t really know how to ‘dress like muggles.’ In the movies, Ron dresses exactly the same as Harry and Hermoine, but if we were following the books I wonder if he would dress very differently. Of course most of the time they would be wearing the uniform, but if you lined up a bunch of different kids from both pureblood and muggle backgrounds, I imagine they would have quite differing tastes in fashion.

Speaking of fashion. Are there wizarding fashion magazines? Specific trends exclusive only to wizards really? Like, obviously nothing is stopping a non-magical muggle from wearing a pointy hat, but given the history of it I would imagine all sorts of different styles of robes and hats emerged over the years. Even if it was simply minute details, we know from our own fashion history that it isn’t uncommon for wild trends to pop up. Maybe a craze for feathers or flowers or encrusted gemstones, or certain materials and fabrics that became popular.

We really don’t get a lot of information on clubs at Hogwarts from what I can see. Of course we have duelling club and quidditch and such, and I can imagine behind the scenes there must be wizard chess and gobstones clubs. What about music and drama clubs? Are there instruments only exclusive to the wizarding world? Can you enchant musical instruments to play themselves? Are there plays that are only known to the wizarding community or do they also do Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet sort of affairs? I imagine that certain Purebloods would look down on muggle playwrights, or really any sort of muggle artist in general. But still, you can’t tell me that the Malfoys or some other prestigious wizarding family don’t make visits to some magical opera house.

Also. Is quidditch the only big wizarding sport? We had duelling before yes, and again gobstones etc., but what about more physical sports? Aside from the more strenuous spells and flying (which tbh doesn’t seem that physically taxing anyway if you’re just going slow on a Cleansweep) I can’t help but wonder if many wizards are horribly unfit. I mean, given that they tend to live much longer on average compared to non-magical muggles, is it just the magic or is it also special wizarding yoga or pilates or something lol.

Quidditch itself is also an extremely dangerous pastime/sport I mean holy shit. While they do seem to have charms for cushioning, you’re often many, many feet up off the ground and if you fall off without one you could literally go splat and die. Just break your neck, snap and you’re dead.

We hear about certain bands that seem exclusive (or at least known) to the wizarding world e.g The Weird Sisters. There’s also Celestina Warbeck. Since the British wizarding community seems quite small compared to the wider population, it’s possible that there aren’t as many music groups around in it. There still seems to be radio frequencies though, in regards to the aforementioned Celestina scene and the rebel broadcast in Deathly Hallows.

Could there ever be an overlap? Like wizards who decided to break into the muggle musical industry and who are also enjoyed by the wizarding community? On the topic as well, since Arthur Weasley had his obsession with muggle technology, there must be others who are similar to him right? you can’t tell me there isn’t a wizard Ariel or something who tried to leave and integrate with muggle society. Not even a squib, but a wizard who just rejects it all. That’s a story that needs to be told.

All this just begs the question of how advanced is the technology in the wizarding world? Since apparently the modern stuff doesn’t do well in Hogwarts, where is the cutoff point? Maybe you can’t bring your gameboy into school, but what about a record player and vinyls? You just know muggle students in the past have tried to sneak all kinds of weird shit into Hogwarts with them.

Since we know that there are stories and tales exclusive to the wizarding community (Ron’s childhood stories in Deathly Hallows and Tales of Beedle the Bard I believe?) are there also popular wizard fiction authors outside of those who were penning school textbooks or autobiographies i.e good ol’ Gilderoy Lockhart?

I feel like there definitely must be. It makes me wonder how much genres such as sci-fi, (would it be a thing?) horror, romance & erotica etc. would differ in contrast to muggle novels. Especially historical fiction actually, since many of the notable figures may be different.

Getting into darker territory now. For an extremely skilled wizard, I think transfiguring someone in order to kidnap or kill them would be a likely move right? Or at least trying it. I mean if you turn someone into a bug you can squash them, or even into a small animal you can stuff them in a bag or something. Hell, transfigure a person into furniture if you’re feeling really nasty. I know this is fucked up but that’s the point lol.

I also wonder exactly how severe your crime has to be for you to get shut away in Azkaban? Like for petty theft and other minor charges. Of course if you commit a homicide then you get thrown in the slammer, that makes sense, and unfortunately so does Hagrid’s sentence to an extent since the Chamber was pretty dangerous. But do you just get a fine? Are there other holding cells in the ministry you get put in? Somewhere that isn’t Azkaban;;;

Also what about wizard serial killers? Not to be gruesome, but I imagine there are all sorts of options available to magical opportunists. Yes, you have the killing curse, but also you could literally just light someone on fire or leviosa them 50 feet off a tall building. It’s not that hard lol

Also are… Are there collectible cards for them…? I mean tell me there isn’t a true crime community in the wizarding world as well jekfkfktn

To reiterate my point with wizards all using magic for stuff, I wonder if any of them have considered like idk. Using a gun instead? Guns are most certainly not super advanced technology and they can’t be blocked really so… There’s a solution Tom and it’s called a glock

Basically all I’m saying is that there’s a missed opportunity to explore wizard crime bosses.

If any of this is explained in later books or spin-offs, I apologise. I’m only using the original books as reference, and even then it’s been a wee while lol.

[rahulacademy]

The Role of AI in Modern Software Testing Practices

AI is reshaping the way software testing is done. With AI automated testing, businesses can achieve higher efficiency, better accuracy, and faster software releases. Whether it’s AI software testing, AI generator testers, or AI-driven automation, the future of software testing is AI-powered.

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

The Singularity Play

March 3, 2025 | Second Stage | Evening | Play | Reading | 1H 40M

An open letter to playwrights thinking about tackling AI in their next piece:

Don't.

Signed, DroughtofApathy

I don't even want to waste my time writing about it because it's just the same old thing again and again. I was so deeply unmoved by everything and everyone. No speculative AI piece is ever interesting anymore. I don't care what you think might happen by 2085 or whatever. I'm bored of the age-old argument of where the line between human and robot is, and how cyborg future is upon us. So many of these plays get so close to actually depicting grief as the lens with which we can look at humanity, but they all get distracted by the shiny toy of technology and fail to commit. It wasn't necessarily a bad reading, but it wasn't anything remotely fresh.

Verdict: Enjoyable, But Left No Lasting Impression

A Note on Ratings

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

picture : AI art (AI Creative Adobe Express/ Adobe Firefly) not mine. via many pages on internet.

一個女人最重要的能力，不是你把自己打扮得多麽漂亮，也不是你掙錢有多厲害，而是無論發生任何事情，你都有快樂起來的能力。

The most important ability of a woman is not how beautifully you dress yourself or how much money you make, but your ability to be happy no matter what happens.

─ 楊絳 Yang Jiang (1911-2016) She was a Chinese playwright, author, and translator. She wrote several successful comedies, and was the first Chinese person to produce a complete Chinese version of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote.  

[shakespearenews]

Playwright Liz Duffy Adams, who conceived Born With Teeth (the title is borrowed from a line in Henry VI, Part 3), was inspired to write it several years ago, when scholars determined that Shakespeare and Marlowe had most likely collaborated on the Henry VI play cycle, back in the early 1590s. (One case where AI proved useful in research.) She and director Rob Melrose place us in an Elizabethan tavern back room where the two very different writers set out to, carefully, re-create some English history without stepping over any lines that would cause the censors, or Queen Elizabeth’s assassins, to get touchy.

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

BAR NONE

In theaters this weekend:

Sing Sing--A troupe of actors, all incarcerated, work to put up a show in the notorious maximum security state prison in New York. They're members of the institution's Rehabilitation Through the Arts program (RTA). At the center of the company is John "Divine G" Whitfield (Colman Domingo).

In prison for a crime he did not commit, Divine G not only throws his soul into his theatre work, playing Shakespearean leads like he should be onstage in Central Park, he also assists his fellow inmates with appeals and preparation for parole hearings.

His anger at the injustice of his circumstances is unmistakable, yet it's less scary than the intensity with which he works to control and channel it; he knows too well that giving vent to rage would be futile and harmful to his cause. Besides, he's a true believer. His positivity is an act of faith, sometimes a Herculean one.

Like its hero, the movie, directed by Greg Kwedar from a script he wrote with Clint Bentley, is taut and melodrama-free. Perhaps because so many of the actors were actually incarcerated people--many of them RTA veterans playing themselves--Sing Sing has almost a documentary feel at times. Yet it also has, with almost no violence or other prison-movie cliches, the charge of high drama. Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin and Sean San José are particularly memorable among the other company members. A word should also be said for Paul Raci, who plays Brent Buell, the diplomatic, unflappable director and playwright. 

But the core of the film is Colman Domingo. Rarely does an actor gives us so much heart to invest in with so little hamming or telegraphing. It's a classic performance, both for its emotional impact and for its discipline.

My Penguin Friend--It's hard to go wrong with penguins. They've been amusing us for a long time, not just in zoos but in movies. like George Miller's mad animated musical epic Happy Feet and its sequel, and Surf's Up, and the crack team of penguins in the Madagascar franchise, and Mr. Popper's Penguins, and the 2005 French documentary March of the Penguins, back though the exploding penguin and the giant penguin in Monty Python, not to mention Chilly Willy and Bugs Bunny's friend "Playboy Penguin," who wept tiny ice cubes when he was sad.

It's also hard to go wrong with Jean Reno. Best known as menacing killers in Luc Besson films like La Femme Nikita and The Professional, the rugged-looking French actor projects an air of effortless authority. So My Penguin Friend, which has both Jean Reno and a jaunty, spirited penguin in starring roles, starts out with certain advantages. And it ends up needing both of them.

This family film is, to use its opening titles, "Inspired by a True Story." In 2011, a man named Joao Pereira de Souza living on Ilha Grande, off the coast of Brazil, found a weakened, oil-slicked Magellanic penguin outside his house along the beach. He cleaned the poor flightless castaway up, fed him some sardines, and soon became friends with him. Dubbed "Dindim"--a grandchild's mispronunciation of the Portuguese word for penguin--the bird disappeared back into the Atlantic some months later. But he returned for many years thereafter, to hang out for the winter with Joao along his migratory route.

This fictionalized retelling of the story, directed by David Schurmann from a script by Kristen Lazarian and Paulina Lagudi Ulrich, starts off on the wrong foot with a tragic episode that seemed entirely gratuitous to me. And in its second half, it follows Dindim's encounters with researchers at his other home in Patagonia. These scenes feel very strained, with dialogue so stilted I began to wonder if it had been written by AI. And the movie's final stretch, which attempts to generate some danger and suspense, feels extremely half-hearted.

In between all this, however, we get to see Jean Reno, looking scruffy and soulful and beaky-faced as Joao, tenderly interacting with a penguin. That can carry a movie a long way. Reno seems to enjoying playing a childlike sweetness here, as Joao proclaims that Dindim "comes and goes as he pleases" and is "not my pet...he's my friend." The other humans in the film, including Adriana Barraza as Joao's wife, are all attractive, even when the dialogue coming out of them seems canned.

The movie is visually impressive, too. Dindim was played by several different penguins, and presumably his adventures, particularly underwater, have been at least partly enhanced by CGI, but it's pretty effective and seamless; he comes across as a character. And the scenery, both in windswept Patagonia and idyllic-looking Ilha Grande, is breathtaking.

So it will be a matter of personal calculation for you to decide if a penguin, a bona fide international movie star and gorgeous settings overcome feeble kid-movie devices enough to make My Penguin Friend worth your time. For me, it was; the penguin tipped the scale the farthest.

Alien: Romulus--A band of young scavengers bust into a huge derelict spaceship in orbit around the cheerless, sunlight-free mining planet on which they live. They're hoping to filch equipment that will allow them to escape their indenture, and they repeatedly express confidence that they'll be in and out in half an hour, and nothing can go wrong.

So in they go, get the stuff they need, and sail off to a new world where they live happily ever after. The end.

Just kidding. The result, in this seventh entry in the Alien series, is of course another gory encounter with an infestation of the elegantly spindly, terrifying creatures in all of their various stages of development, from "facehugger" to "chestburster" to full-grown fang-bearer.

Though it's not close to the 1979 original, Romulus is on the more watchable end of the franchise, deliberate and creepy for the first half, and non-stop in the second. It's a little unvaried and dark, however, and until the climactic scenes it doesn't really give us much that's new. Toward the end, the shots of the ice ring around the planet that the ship is approaching have a certain magical beauty, but otherwise we're mostly stuck in the chiaroscuro space dungeon.

The star is Cailee Spaeny, who played the fresh-faced young journalist in Civil War earlier this year. She's sympathetic, but the movie is stolen by David Jonnson as her companion Andy, a sweet, dad-joke-dispensing android who gets a reboot that gives him an upsetting personality change. Andy may be the best robot with divided loyalties since Robby in Forbidden Planet.

One more note: I'm a little over the vogue for gynecological/obstetric body horror. We got a big dose of nasty surgical instruments and moaning, keening young women birthing unnatural spawn earlier this year in The Last Omen; we get more natal splatter here. The gifted director of Romulus, the Uruguayan Fede Alvarez, also showed unsavory interest in coercive pregnancy in his terrific 20I6 shocker Don't Breathe. Even the title Romulus refers to one species nursed at the teat of another.

Could all this be a reaction to post-Roe reproductive chaos? I'll leave that to graduate students with stronger stomachs than mine.

[nina-segal]

Nina Segal is a playwright.  Her productions include:

COW | DEER : Royal Court (upcoming 2025)

WE ARE THE LUCKY ONES : Dutch National Opera (2025) and Ruhrtriennale (upcoming 2025)

THE ODYSSEY (IT'S A REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG JOURNEY) : Unicorn Theatre (2024)

SHOOTING HEDDA GABLER : Rose Theatre (2023); Činoherní klub (2025)

WAR AND CULTURE : New Diorama (2023)

THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN : Sheffield Theatres and Lyric Hammersmith (2023)

O, ISLAND! : RSC (2022); Stadttheater Gießen (2024)

AI : Young Vic (2021)

ASSEMBLY : Donmar Warehouse (2021)

(THIS ISN’T) A TRUE STORY : Almeida Young Company (2019)

DISMANTLE THIS ROOM : Bush Theatre (2018); Royal Court (2019)

DANGER SIGNALS : New Ohio, NYC (2018)

BIG GUNS : Yard Theatre (2017); Theater Ingolstadt (2019); Theater Plauen Zwickau (2023)

IN THE NIGHT TIME (BEFORE THE SUN RISES) : Gate Theatre (2016); Teatro Belli, Rome (2017); Orange Tree Theatre (2018); Foro Bellescene, Mexico City (2019); Staatstheater, Mainz (2019); Know Theatre of Cincinnati (2020); Theater Bielefeld (2021); Schauspiel Frankfurt (2024)

Nina was the recipient of the 2022 Playwright's Scheme Award and was shortlisted for the 2020 George Devine Award. She won a Rose D'Or award for her short film CAPTURE, made with the Financial Times. She is under commission to the RSC, Donmar Warehouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, Soho Theatre and ETT.

Contact Nina at ninasegal@gmail.com.

Contact Nina’s agent Lily Williams at lily@curtisbrown.co.uk.

Photo: Christian Rubeck, Anna Andresen and Antonia Thomas / Shooting Hedda Gabler / Rose Theatre (2023). Credit: Andy Paradise.