@mildlybitter / mildlybitter.tumblr.com
I interviewed Lee Pace and I did not die. Have a read about his work on Angels in America, his life in theater, and a recent show he was positively giddy about. http://www.americantheatre.org/2018/02/20/lee-pace-not-your-regular-joe/
Yes I’ve been absent from Tumblr for a while...but I thought I would share this handsome news with you all.
I bumped into Matt Berninger this weekend at the play All the Fine Boys. I don’t know why he was there. He was on his own. Sitting in a seat that conveniently let his long legs drift out into the aisle.
I have returned to Tumblr briefly to share this important news. Matt Berninger sometimes goes to the theater.
It’s that time again! My favorite shows I’ve seen this year, listed chronologically, along with comments about each and a dash of shameless self-promotion. Full list of everything I saw this year at the end.
I was having Tumblr app problems so I dropped it from my phone and basically have been Tumblr MIA. So I’m only seeing this now. Glad my Twitter shilling paid off for YOUARENOWHERE for @learningtoricochet.
:)
I went to sleep during The Crucible—it was so boring!! Why did everyone love this production?
Ivo van Hove is a celebrated but divisive director. He’s always experimenting, which I can admire even if I don’t care for what he does. And I can see how his direction can be a little sleepy (though Nicole would kill me for saying that!)
I’ve been yanked out of Tumblr semi-retirement to address this statement. I have loved many Ivo van Hove productions and have been baffled by others. I found this production of The Crucible to be a turgid lump of poop. I don’t think his directorial vision worked at all. It made the play itself feel slight. But that’s what you get when you put Tavi Gevinson in nice things.
“I’ve seen people destroy their plays, their beautiful and mysterious plays, because they’re worried the audience isn’t going to get something, so then they make it really explicit and obnoxious. I really respect my audiences and I don’t feel like they need to have things explained to them. It might not be their taste and they might walk out. It’s not because they’re stupid. It’s not because I’m stupid. It’s not because the play’s stupid and it’s not because the play’s super smart.”
Someone tries to hit on Annie Baker by giving her a Bubble Tea stamp card
I'm still kind of stunned that because of her Catholicism Elaine Stritch didn't go out with Marlon Brando. How do you say no to this?
#cue listening to my eyes adored you every time daniel and peggy look at each other.
#FreeKesha
And all she was asking for is to be freed from her contract. This is such bullshit
Wait what happened?
So apparently, there is a bit of confusion I guess (because different media outlets say different things) But whiteteethteens explained it as follows:
Once again the worlds education system has failed a lot of you…Kesha did NOT lose her case against Dr. Luke. That case will be handled at a later time. She lost her request for a preliminary breach of her contract that would allow her to release music not made by Luke but still have Sony promote it. The judge said she is allowed to release new music but Sony contractually does not have to promote it unless he produces it. Please please PLEASE stop buying into articles with clickbait headlines meant to make you think that more extreme things are happening when this is just another level in a complex legal battle.
Meanwhile, the New York Daily explains:
She claims he (Dr Luke) holds her exclusive contract, and even though Sony has offered to let her work with another producer, Kesha said she feared the company wouldn’t promote her music if she’s paired with a different partner.
[…]
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich said she thought Sony would suffer irreparable harm if Kesha was not compelled to abide by a contract that requires her to make six more albums with the company.Kesha had asked the judge to issue a preliminary injunction that would bar Sony from forcing her to work with Dr. Luke and to cancel her contracts. […] She also noted that Sony had offered to let Kesha work with another producer.Kesha’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, argued that Sony’s promise was “illusory” because even if the recordings were made, the record company wouldn’t promote them. He contended that Sony had more invested in Dr. Luke than in Kesha and it would do everything to protect him because he makes them more money.
The judge was critical of those claims as well, saying she didn’t think the information provided by Kesha’s lawyers was detailed enough to keep her civil rights, sexual harassment and discrimination claims alive. However, the judge postponed making a decision on the dismissal motions.
This is a classic case of the law not working for victims.
A preliminary injunction requires a high burden so unless things are crystal clear from that POV and the party can show they are likely to succeed in winning the case a judge probably won't grant it. It's an extreme remedy. So just to frame the legal posture because I think that does inform the court's reasoning more than is being reported.
I'm not sure if the parties have had any discovery on the issues (where each side has to turn over documents, emails, evidence asked for by the other party). Usually that happens more robustly later so the later case may shape up to be more persuasive to the court.
Ovary explOooooooooosion
Ok, so I need advice from New Yorkers.
I need to look into an apartment for a mid may move in, but I’m not sure when I should get serious because I know getting in too early can be an issue. Should I start 1 month out, 1.5 months out, or 2 months out?
you can start casually looking about 2 months out but chances are you aren’t going to find anything decent until maybe 4-6 weeks before a move-in date. I did all my paperwork for my current apartment maybe 2-3 weeks before moving in. Sometimes you can find something decent further out but a month or so is generally when you’ll find the best places for your money.
I agree with Dara ^
Also the main rule of NY real estate is not what you want or like but what can you tolerate.
oh my heart arranges oh those magic changes
The real surprise was as much as Aaron Tveit needs to touch his own butt all of the time he never did it once on Grease.
I'll just have to rely on my memories of him doing it inches away from me.
They would have beautiful babies. I mean babies to take over the world.
Last Week Tonight s03e01
Looks like some people didn’t get the memo about Hamilton having a mostly nonwhite cast — and that being the entire point. But that’s OK, because all those people wondering why Ham isn’t white are wrong anyway.
Mindy Kaling ; Why Not Me? (via elizabethactual)
“My sister used to dress me up as a girl and called me Raisin. I think it started my theatrical career.” x
thoughts on Thatswhatshesaid?
I thought this was coming! I hadn’t posted about it because frankly I was still forming my opinion.
For those who haven’t seen, a woman named Erin Pike just ended a brief run of her show that’swhatshesaid, where she examined the roles (and lack thereof) of women in the 11 plays listed by American Theatre as the most-produced plays of the 2014-2015 season by lifting dialogue and stage directions from them and forming them into her own show. She received a cease and desist from Sam French specifically for her use of text from Bad Jews, which she then removed from the production but retained the rest of the text and read the cease and desist letter onstage. More publishers and playwrights have come forward to dispute her plagarism and/or fair use of the text.
@mildlybitter wrote a great article really examining the legal repercussions and fair use with regard to this production, and as she actually is a lawyer and a feminist and a theatergoer, I trust her take on the whole thing.
I think the statement Pike is trying to make is valuable, pointing out that even shows we think of as having strong female leads (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Venus in Fur are included in her list) still may be lacking in the way they portray women. And I don’t think she’s trying to perform Bad Jews or Vanya Sonia verbatim (where in my mind the copyright issue would come in), just to comment on them as part of a larger conversation. I’m also looking at how David Adjimi’s 3C was eventually cleared of charges for copyright infringement because it was “transformational use,” which seems to apply here too. Because of that, I think it would fall under fair use.
All that said, publishers have licensing on how text can be cut and reproduced, and odds are good she’s violating those rules, so I can see why this happened.
The complicated situation of art and law crashing into each other.
