Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.
History.
The first Playback Theatre company was founded in 1975 by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Fox was a student of improvisational theatre, oral traditional storytelling, Jacob Moreno's psychodrama method and the work of educator Paulo Freire. Salas was a trained musician and activist. Both had served as volunteers in developing countries: Fox as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, Salas with New Zealand's Volunteer Service Abroad in Malaysia.
The original Playback Theatre Company made its home in Dutchess and Ulster Counties of New York State, just north of New York City. This group, while developing the basis of the Playback form, took it to schools, prisons, centers for the elderly, conferences, and festivals in an effort to encourage individuals from all walks of society to let their stories be heard. They also performed monthly for the public-at-large.
The Playback Theatre idea has inspired many people. As an immediate result of a teaching and performing tour by some of the members of the original Playback Theatre Company to Australasia in 1980, companies were founded in Sydney (1980), Melbourne (1981), Perth, and Wellington. All four companies still exist, and are now the oldest extant companies in the world.
Since that time the form has spread throughout North America and Europe, and Playback companies now exist on six continents. The International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN) was founded in 1990 to support Playback activity throughout the world. As of 2018, the IPTN has 192 group members and 320 practitioner and individual members from 40 countries.
A network was started in 2011 for people interested in Playback Theatre in North America. As of 2019, over 50 active companies perform, predominantly in their local communities. Playback North America hosts regular teleconferences, periodic gatherings, leadership coaching, and offers a 300-page training guide on artistic, business, and company development for Playback Theatre (see below).
To meet the demand for training which this level of growth has created, in 1993 Jonathan Fox founded the School of Playback Theatre to provide beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of training in Playback Theatre. The School was renamed the Centre for Playback Theatre in 2006, expanding its focus to worldwide development of Playback Theatre.
Other schools for training exist in Italy, Germany, Japan. and São Paulo, Brazil
United Kingdom, Israel, Hungary, Hong Kong, Australasia and Sweden. The Playback Centre keeps an online list of affiliated schools
Festivals and gatherings.
There are regular and semi-regular Playback mogatherings and festivals in different parts of the world, including in Finland, the UK, Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe, Israel, Hong Kong, Nepal and India. Playback North America, a network of playback companies in North America, has held several conferences. The International Playback Theatre Network (IPTN) holds a conference every four years in different parts of the world. IPTN conferences have taken place in Sydney, Australia (1992), in a village north of Helsinki, Finland (1993), Christchurch, New Zealand (1994), in Olympia, Washington, USA (1995), Perth, Australia (1997), York, England (1999), Shizuoka, Japan (2003), São Paulo, Brazil (2007), Frankfurt, Germany (2011), Montreal, Canada (2015). The next international conference will be held in Bangalore, India, in December 2019.
Theatrical form.
The Playback 'form' as developed by Fox and Salas utilises component theatrical forms or pieces, developed from its sources in improvisational theatre, storytelling, and psychodrama. These components include scenes (also called stories or vignettes) and narrative or non-narrative short forms, including "fluid sculptures", "pairs", and "chorus".
In a Playback event, someone in the audience tells a moment or story from their life, chooses the actors to play the different roles, and then all those present watch the enactment, as the story "comes to life" with artistic shape and nuance. Actors draw on non-naturalistic styles to convey meaning, such as metaphor or song.
Playback performers tend to specialise in one of several roles - conductor, actor, or musician. Some companies also have members who specialise in other roles, such as lighting. For audiences, the active performers can seem preternaturally gifted, as they create their performances without a script or score. Following the practice of the original company, most companies do not consult or "huddle" prior to beginning the story, trusting instead to a shared understanding of the story they have heard and a readiness to respond to each other's cues.
The role of conductor, by contrast, can seem relatively easy, involving as it does conversing with the audience as a group or individually, and generally involving no acting. However, it is recognised within the community of Playback performers as the most difficult role to fill successfully.
Applications.
Playback Theatre is used in a broad range of settings: theatres and community centres (where performances take place for the general public), in schools, private sector organizations, nonprofit organizations, prisons, hospice centers, day treatment centers, at conferences of all kinds, and colleges and universities.
Playback theatre has also been used in the following fields: transitional justice, human rights, civic dialogue, refugees and immigrants, disaster recovery, climate change, birthdays, weddings, and conferences.
Education.
Playback practitioners have used the method in schools on issues such as bullying (students tell stories about their experiences in relation to bullying, watch them played back, and then explore ways to create a respectful and safe school environment). Playback is used both by classroom teachers and by visiting performers/leaders.
Social change.
Playback Theatre is used to provide a forum for the exchange of diverse experiences in such contexts as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations examining on racial conflict and reconciliation; incarcerated men and women; immigrant and refugee organizations and their host communities; events honoring human rights.
Other examples include:
A project in Afghanistan trains victims of violence to enact each other's stories in the context of transitional justice.
A project in Melbourne, Australia trains youth to enact stories of refugee youths' experiences in the context of interactions with police; and to enact stories of police experiences in the context of interactions with refugee youth. The purpose of which is to bridge understanding between these two groups (2010, 2011).
Business.
Since the mid-1990s Playback Theatre and allied techniques have increasingly been used as an effective tool in workplace training of subjects such as management and communication skills and diversity awareness. In some cases, participants describe events which have taken place in the workplace, often events which gave rise to conflict or difficult feelings. Playback actors "replay" the events described and the facilitator orchestrates discussion about the replay, from which many participants describe valuable learning outcomes. A workplace performance can also invite any kind of stories, from out of the work environment.
Therapy.
Although Playback Theatre is not primarily a therapeutic technique, it is adaptable for use by therapists who are also trained in Playback Theatre. Clients can gain insight, catharsis, connection, and self-expression through telling their stories and participating in enacting stories of others.


Etoile (film)

Etoile () is a 1989 film starring Jennifer Connelly and Gary McCleery.
Plot.
The American ballerina Claire Hamilton travels to Hungary to join a prestigious ballet school. The school is haunted by the spirit of a ballerina who died in a carriage accident, that possesses Claire.
Production.
Following the release of the science fiction film "Julia and Julia", director Peter Del Monte followed up the film with another in the "fantastique" genre. The producer Achille Manzotti provided the director with a cast that included Jennifer Connelly, Gary McCleery and Charles Durning. Filming began in Budapest and Italy in 1988 under the working title of "Ballerina".
Release.
"Etoile" was distributed theatrically in Italy by Aristi Associati and released on 17 March 1989. The film was awarded the Critic's Award at the 1990 Fantasporto Film Festival in Portugal.
Reception.
According to Italian critic and historian Roberto Curti, "Etoile" was "ravaged" by Italian critics. Maurizio Porro of "Corriere della Sera" stated the film appeared to resemble a remake of Dario Argento's "Opera" "without suspense". Porro commented that the film was "confused and not at all fascinating" declaring it Del Monte's worst film.


Grounded video


Cardboard Citizens New Music Ensemble

The Cardboard Citizens New Music Ensemble is an experimental music group based in London, UK. Its members are all homeless, ex-homeless or at risk of becoming homeless people. Founder and director Reynaldo Young, is a composer and performer.


Death Ambient

Death Ambient is an American experimental and ambient music trio comprising Kato Hideki (bass guitar), Ikue Mori (drum machines), and Fred Frith (guitar). The group was formed by Hideki and Mori in 1995 and recorded three albums: "Death Ambient" (1995) "Synaesthesia" (1999), "Drunken Forest" (2007) with guest Jim Pugliese (percussion).
Background.
Kato Hideki, a Japanese bass guitarist and founding member of Ground Zero, moved to New York City in 1992. He began working with Christian Marclay, Marc Ribot, and John Zorn. In 1995, he began collaborating with Ikue Mori, who had been the drummer for DNA. After DNA disbanded, Mori experimented with drum machines to allow them to play samples of music. Mori and Hideki invited guitarist Fred Frith to the join the group. A founding member of Henry Cow, Frith had lived in New York City for fourteen years and collaborated with many experimental music musicians. According to Mori, the aim of Death Ambient was "to create sounds and texture extravaganza."
Death Ambient recorded their first album, "Death Ambient" at Green Point Studio in Brooklyn in 1995. The ambient music was a collection of improvised pieces that included Mori's drum machine generated sound samples. The album was released the same year in the New Japan series on John Zorn's Tzadik record label.
In 1997 American guitarist James Plotkin temporarily replaced Frith for a UK tour that included concerts in London and Stirling.
The London concert was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's show, "Mixing It". Frith rejoined Death Ambient in 1998 and the trio gave a concert in Halle, Germany. It was the first time the original trio had performed together as a group. In June 1999 they returned to New York City to record their second album, "Synaesthesia", using material from the concert in Germany. It was also released on Tzadik Records in 1999.
In May 2007, after six years in the making, "Drunken Forest" with guest percussionist Jim Pugliese was released, also in Tzadik's New Japan series. The trio (without Pugliese) performed the album live at John Zorn's not-for-profit experimental music performance space, The Stone, on May 4 and 5, 2007.


Margarita Froman

Margareta Petrovna Froman (8 November 1890 – 24 March 1970), known professionally as Margarita Froman, was a Russian ballet dancer, dance educator, and choreographer. (Sources vary on her birthdate; some give a year as late as 1896.)
Early life.
Margareta Petrovna Froman was born in Moscow, the daughter of a Swedish father and a Russian mother. She began her dance studies at the Imperial School of Ballet.
Career.
Froman was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as a young woman. She toured Europe and the United States with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She appeared in an early Russian silent film, dancing in "Aziade" (1918) with Mikhail Mordkin.
In 1917 she moved to Yugoslavia with her brothers Maximilian, Pavel, and Valentin, who all also worked in the dance profession. She was ballet mistress at the Croatian National Theatre, and choreographer at the Zagreb Opera Ballet, and the State Opera Ballet in Belgrade. In 1938 she choreographed and produced several shows in Milan, at La Scala. She retired from performing in 1947. She created choreography for the film "Zastava" (1949). In 1955 she choreographed the Yugoslav National Opera and Ballet's London productions of "Prince Igor", "Romeo and Juliet, The Devil in the Village", "Ero the Joker" and "The Gingerbread Heart".
Froman moved to the United States in 1957, and taught with her brother Maximilian at the Froman Professional School of Ballet in New London, Connecticut. She also taught at the Hartford Conservatory and the University of Connecticut.
One of her noted students was Mia Slavenska.
Personal life.
Margarita Froman lived in Willimantic, Connecticut for her last 13 years. She died in 1970, aged 80 years, in Boston. Her papers were donated to the University of Connecticut by her sister, Olga. Her grave is in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery in Willimantic.


Keith Sawyer

Robert Keith Sawyer is an American Psychologist. He is the Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an expert on creativity, innovation and learning.


Gordon Dooley

Gordon Dooley (13 August 1898; 23 January 1930) was a vaudeville comedian and eccentric dancer.
He was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania to Robert Roger Dooley, a circus performer, and his wife, Mary, both emigrants from Scotland. His two brothers, William (1882-1921), and Johnny (1887-1928), and his sister, Ray, were all performers.
Gordon Dooley suffered a nervous breakdown in May 1929. He died of pneumonia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.


Sponk!

Sponk! is a children's television game show produced by Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon. It was Sesame Workshop's first original production for their joint venture with Nickelodeon, Noggin. It premiered on Noggin on September 10, 2001 and ended on March 4, 2002. The series reran on Nickelodeon on Sunday mornings, starting September 16.
The premise of "Sponk!" was improvisational comedy, similar to the show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Two teams of performers depicted suggestions in a variety of games. Viewers suggested their ideas by submitting them to the Noggin website. "SID" (Suggestion & Idea Distributor) was the name of the computer on the show that picked the ideas submitted by Noggin.com members. From 2002 onward, Noggin aired reruns of "Sponk!" as part of its nighttime programming block, The N.
Cast.
The cast included host Johnathan McClain, and announcer (as the voice of SID) Karen Fowler. The performers were all young actors. Among them were Julia Kay, Tim Dorsch, Scott Irby-Rainnar, Lori Wells, Miles Thompson (who later went on to star in the feature film "Me and You and Everyone We Know" and cameoed in "Return To Sleepaway Camp"), Allie Berdebes, Vanessa Lengies, and Louie Torrellas.
Gameplay.
It resembled a classic Nickelodeon game show, featuring young actors and a young studio audience. The performers were four boys and four girls but with two sitting out and six competing in a red team and blue team. The ideas for the improvisational and sketch contests were submitted by the home audience through Noggin.com. SID would then pick a submission and provide credit for the home audience (as their screen name). Later, SID announced the winner of a small electronic device.
The studio audience participated as judges for the sketches. They disqualified a contestant by yelling out, "SPONK!". When time ran out, the audience voted the winner by raising the side of their "Spaddle" to vote for the red team or blue team. The "prize" that the performers competed for was the Sponk Trophy, a golden rubber chicken. Occasionally an audience member would be the sketch participant while the original performers acted as a celebrity panel, and won a small prize for Participating.


Jean-Pierre Cherid

Jean-Pierre Cherid (November 20, 1940 in Algiers – March 19, 1984 in Biarritz, France ) was a far right French activist and later mercenary of Moroccan descent. A former French paratrooper, he first became a member of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS) during the Algerian War (1954–1962).
Afterwards, Cherid appeared in Spain in 1976. He was one of the far-right mercenaries hired by Spanish secret services, then part of SECED to take part in the 1976 Montejurra massacre against left-wing Carlist Party. After that, Cherid remained related to the members of the intelligence services belonging to the Spanish secret services and security forces that organized an illegal war against ETA in the French Basque Country, under different denominations (Antiterrorismo ETA, Batallón Vasco Español or AAA death squads) during Union of the Democratic Centre administrations. He took part in the 1978 assassination of Argala, a member of ETA who had participated to the 1973 assassination of Francisco Franco's Prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco. This time, however, no organization claimed responsibility for the killing. In 1979, he led a squad that attempted unsuccessfully to murder an ETA activist, Txomin, in Biarritz. Some months later, his squad murdered another ETA activist, Enrique Álvarez, "Korta", in Bayonne. On December 31, 1980, Cherid killed ETA member José Martín Sagardía in Biarritz. This time, the BVE claimed responsibility for the assassination.
The change of administration in Spain in 1982 did not affect his collaboration with underground dirty war efforts against ETA and therefore with the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL), the new denomination of the death squads that operated in France during the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party administration in Spain. Cherid died on March 19, 1984 in an explosion which happened during the manipulation of explosives destined to attempt to assassinate the ETA's executive committee. An authorization belonging to the Guardia Civil information services was found among his remains.
In 1996, during the Spanish Parliament special commission on the dirty war, it was revealed that Cherid's family applied for a pension from the Spanish Ministry of Interior. Álvaro Martínez Sevilla, Spanish United Left senator claimed that former Spanish Interior Minister José Barrionuevo (later condemned for his implication in a kidnapping carried out by the GAL) ordered that Cherid's widow receive a life pension. Minister official denied having done so.
In 2008, Cherid was accused of involvement in the 1976 disappearance of ETA activist Pertur, usually attributed to fellow members of the organization. According to the testimony of an Italian neofascist, Cherid managed a house outside Barcelona where death squads tortured kidnapped people on behalf of the Spanish intelligence services.


Tony Award for Best Sound Design

The Tony Awards for Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical recognize excellence in sound design for Broadway theatre. They were first given in the 2007–2008 season. In 2014, the Tony Awards Administration Committee announced that starting with the 2014-2015 season the Tony Awards for Best Sound Design of a Play and of a Musical would be eliminated. In 2017, the committee announced that the two Sound Design awards would again be presented starting in the 2017–2018 season.
Award records.
Historic nominations & wins.
2011: Acme Sound Partners and Cricket S. Myers – "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo"
2019: Nevin Steinberg and Jessica Paz – "Hadestown"
See also.
Tony Award


John Kriza

John Kriza (15 January 1919 - 18 August 1975) was an American ballet dancer and teacher whose long career as a principal with American Ballet Theatre made him one of the best known and most admired male dancers in the country.
Early life and training.
John Joseph Kriza Jr. was born in Berwyn, a suburban city west of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois. The son of Czech immigrants, he grew up in Bloomingdale on his parents' farm and attended J. Sterling Morton High School in Berwyn. He became well known in the community for his ballet achievements. At the urging of his mother, who waa concerned for the health of her underweight son, he had begun his dance studies at age seven, first with Mildred Prehal, a local teacher, and then with Bentley Stone and Walter Camryn in Chicago. Some years later, after relocating to New York, he studied with Pierre Vladimiroff at the School of American Ballet and with Anton Dolin and Valentina Pereyslavic at the Ballet Theatre School.
Professional career.
Kriza received his professional start from Ruth Page, the "grande dame" of ballet in Chicago, who hired him in 1938 for the Federal Dance Project, part of President Roosevelt's Second New Deal. In 1939 he toured South America with the Page-Stone Ballet, and in 1940 he settled in New York. After a brief stint on Broadway, where he appeared inn "Panama Hattie" (1941), with music by Cole Porter and dances by Robert Alston, he joined American Ballet Caravan, a company recently formed by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. With this troupe, he created his first role in Antony Tudor's "Time Table", as one of a group of soldiers in a train station saying goodbye to their girlfriends. He then joined Ballet Theatre, another new company, formed in 1939 by Richard Pleasant and Lucia Chase with a small group of dancers from the Mordkin Ballet. He remained with this company, renamed American Ballet Theatre in 1965, for twenty-five years, creating many important roles and participating in many historic events.
Other roles.
Over the years, Kriza accumulated a vast and diverse repertory of roles. His most celebrated part was the title character of Eugene Loring's "Billy the Kid", with music by Aaron Copland and a story based on episodes from the life of the notorious but peculiarly appealing desperado of the Old West. Kriza also danced leading roles in Agnes de Mille's "Rodeo, Tally-Ho," and "Rib of Eve"; Michel Fokine's "Les Sylphides, Petrouchka, Bluebeard," and "Helen of Troy"; and Antony Tudor's "Romeo and Juliet, Jardin aux Lilas, Dark Elegies," and "Offenbach in the Underworld". In the 1945 season, one critic noted that "Kriza, overworked as he was, was everywhere Ballet Theatre's brightest mainstay, and his verve in his final Romeo woke up Zlatkin [the conductor] and the orchestra to a fine musical performance and almost woke up Miss Markova out of her season's trance."
Kriza was sometimes called "Mr. Ballet Theatre" because of his wide range of roles, his frequent appearances, and his singular popularity with audiences. He was admired in roles both tragic and lighthearted. In "The Combat", an intensely dramatic work by William Dollar, set to music by Raffaello de Banfield, Kriza danced the Christian knight Tancredi opposite Melissa Hayden as Clorinda, a Saracen girl, to powerful effect, as he kills her in a duel, unaware of her identity. (Lupe Serrano was also a stunning partner/opponent in this piece.) In stark contrast, Kriza also appeared as the cheeky Boy in Green in Frederick Ashton's "Les Patineurs" and as the strutting Drummer in David Lichine's "Graduation Ball". In both these roles, he was praised for "his wonderful sense of tongue-in-cheek drollery," which made his performances "a delight." In the classical repertory, he danced the merry suitor Colin in a version of "La Fille Mal Gardée" as well as the princely roles of Albrecht in "Giselle". Siegfried in "Swan Lake", and Prince Désiré in "Aurora's Wedding".
Technique and style.
Particularly noted for his dramatic abilities, Kriza also embodied a distinctly American style of dancing. Although not a classical virtuoso, he was praised for his lyrical and poetic qualities. He had sufficient command of classical technique to dance a credible Blue Bird in "Aurora's Wedding" and a brilliant It Was Spring in "Dim Lustre", a dream sequence of "the memory of a boy who kissed her on a day in Spring when she was very young." Early in his career, in May 1945, Kriza was singled out for praise by Edwin Denby, a noted critic, who wrote "Kriza has now a straight, free sweep and clarity of movement, a fine posture, and a friendly modesty of manner that are all first-rate. . . . In Wednesday's "Fancy Free" he danced his solo with a sudden instinct for continuity of phrasing that showed very sharply his rich real gifts as a dancer." Of a 1956 revival of "Billy the Kid", "New York Times" critic John Martin wrote "John Kriza's ever the ingratiating personality, the expert partner, and the delightful actor-dancer when he has a role that will allow. His Billy the Kid this season was fresh once more and full of authority."
Later life and death.
After retiring from the stage in 1966, Kriza served for several years as assistant to American Ballet Theatre's directors. He continued to coach revivals of ballets for various companies and to teach. During the 1970s, he was on the dance faculty of the Indiana University at Bloomington. His last public appearance was at American Ballet Theatre's thirty-fifth-anniversary gala in January 1975, when he joined Jerome Robbins and Harold Lang on stage after a performance of "Fancy Free," bringing the three original Sailors together again.
While visiting his sister and her husband in Naples, Florida, Kriza drowned while swimming in the sea near their home. He was found dead on the morning of 18 August 1975, floating in the Gulf of Mexico. He was 56 years old.


Liquid and digits

Liquid and digits is a type of gestural, interpretive, rave and urban street dance that sometimes involve aspects of pantomime. The term invokes the word "liquid" to describe the fluid-like motion of the dancer's body and appendages and "digits" to refer to illusions constructed with the dancer's fingers. Liquid dancing has many moves in common with popping and waving. The exact origins of the dances are uncertain, although they came out of either popping, raves, or both sometime from the 1970s to 1990s. The dance is typically done to a variety of electronic dance music genres from trance to drum and bass to glitch hop, depending on the dancer's musical taste.


The Improv (TV series)

The Improv is an improvisational comedy show which was started in May 2012 in Bangalore, India. The show has no script and is totally improvised, as its name suggests. The audiences give suggestions, situations and scenarios to the host and taking the cue, the actors create on-the-spot hilarious scenes on stage. It is hosted and directed by Saad Khan, an Indian filmmaker. The show is conceptualized by Saad Khan. The show’s performers are Sal Yusuf, Darius Sunawala, Abel Mathews and Tim Schultz. The team has performed over 100 shows in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sweden.
Background.
The show was created in May 2012 by Saad Khan. College mates, Khan and Sundar spent hours in their campus canteen performing improvisational scenes together. Such impromptu performances in college earned them an early audience, who cheered and motivated them. After college, they pursued their respective media careers and Khan left for the US for further studies. On Khan’s return to India he started Centerstage in 2011. On May 6, 2012, Centerstage launched "The Improv" in Bangalore which had actors on stage performing many scenes without any rehearsal or script and from situations given by the audience. Since then they have performed over 100 shows in Indian cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and their first overseas performance was in the UAE in April 2014. In 2016, THE IMPROV was selected and invited to the Sweden International Improv Festival that takes place at the Regina Theatre in Uppsala every year. Saad's team was the only Indian outfit performing at SWIMP and the audiences couldn't stop raving about the show's format and energy of the improvisers. They have had shows for varied audiences like in the general public, corporate houses, college fests, and communities. The show was featured on NDTV prime for its uniqueness, production value and organic reach.
Format.
Every show of The Improv has four to five rounds. Each round has a prefix ‘SHUT UP AND’. The first round is a general improvisation round called ‘SHUT UP AND IMPROV’ where a general situation, topic or location is given by the audience to the host who assigns roles and scenarios to the performers, who must improvise and perform a skit on the spot. The popular rounds of THE IMPROV are Freeze, Switch and Rotate.
Freeze: Where the actors are frozen during the scene and a type of film genre or emotion is taken from the audience and the scene continues. Switch: Where 2 actors are given characters that don't get along with each other. One actor starts aggressive and the other submissive. The host calls out 'Switch' and the actors switch between these emotions. Rotate: It is an improv game for 4 actors. Each actor is assigned an occupation, type of sport, accent and place. Every time the host calls out 'Rotate' the actors shift from one position to the next.
Uniqueness.
"The Improv", though similar in its genre as the popular show ‘"Whose Line is it Anyway"', is quite unique indeed. The only common ground between "The Improv" and ‘"Whose Line is it Anyway"' is improvisation. "The Improv" amalgamates acting, spontaneity, interactive banter, entertainment, group dynamic, audience involvement and live reactions. The Improv and its followers have chosen the ring finger, also known as the ‘Other Finger’ or the ‘Finger of Happiness’, as their symbol. It is a tongue in cheek contrast to the middle finger and its inappropriateness. Another highlight of the show is the interactions of the host with the audience. Known for his sarcastic sense of humour, Saad Khan brings out quirky suggestions from audience members.
The team.
The show is hosted and directed by Saad Khan and produced by Maaz Khan. The on-stage improvisational actors on the show are:


Farmhouse (album)

Farmhouse is the ninth studio album by the American rock band Phish. The album was released on May 16, 2000, by Elektra Records. "Farmhouse" was the last Phish studio album before their two-year hiatus between October 2000 and December 2002.
The album's first single, "Heavy Things", was one of Phish's most successful radio hits; it was the band's only song to appear on a mainstream pop radio format, reaching #29 on "Billboard"'s Adult Top 40 chart that July. The song also became the band's biggest hit to date on the Adult Alternative Songs chart, reaching #2 there. The song had previously been performed for live broadcast during the overnight set of Phish's New Year's Eve 2000 show at Big Cypress (reportedly then the largest concert in the world) as part of ABC's coverage of New Year's festivities around the globe.
Owing in part to the mainstream exposure of "Heavy Things", "Farmhouse" had the highest-ever first week sales for a Phish record. The album was certified gold by RIAA on January 30, 2006.
Production.
Songwriting for "Farmhouse" was a joint effort between Trey Anastasio and Phish lyricist Tom Marshall, with contributions from Tony Markellis, Russ Lawton and Scott Herman. All of the songs were already part of Phish's live concert song rotation before being recorded for the album, some dating back to 1997. The tracks were recorded at The Barn, frontman Trey Anastasio's studio in Chittenden County, Vermont. The introduction to "Piper" is an extract from the band's live performance of the song on July 18, 1999 at their Camp Oswego Festival in Volney, New York. There is also a Japanese version of the album available as an import which include two bonus studio out-take tracks from the Farmhouse recording sessions which are "Driver" and "Mist." These two songs are currently not available in any format online by Phish although as of December 2018 it can be purchased in its original CD format on Amazon.com and possibly elsewhere for about twice the price of the standard version of the album.
Early incarnations of several tracks from the album can be heard on the 2000 release "Trampled by Lambs and Pecked by the Dove", a collection of song sketches and demos recorded by Anastasio and Marshall.
The song "First Tube" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
In February 2009, the album was made available as a download in FLAC and MP3 formats at LivePhish.com.
Critical reception.
"Farmhouse" received mainly positive reviews. Jason Ankeny of AllMusic praised the album as Phish's "rootsiest and most organic effort to date... [and] also their most fully developed – these are complete, concise songs and not simply outlines for extended jams, boasting a beauty and intimacy which expands the group's scope even as it serves notice of a newfound pop accessibility."
"Rolling Stone"s Jon Pareles, however, gave "Farmhouse" a mediocre rating of only 2.5 stars. The review states that on the album the band walks "a thin line between mellow and torpid" with songs that "are going to need a lot of live (concert) resuscitation".
Track listing.
All songs written and composed by Trey Anastasio, Tom Marshall, except where noted.
Personnel.
Phish
Additional musicians


Steel Rose (novel)

Steel Rose is a fantasy novel by the American writer Kara Dalkey.
Set in 1990s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it tells the story of T.J. Kaminski, a performance artist who is desperate to jumpstart her career. In a secret corner of Schenley Park, she conjures up elves with the power to grant her wish. But when Kaminski picks up the strange rose one of them tosses on stage, she unwittingly steps into a battle between immortal foes.


Seven Sisters (law firms)

The Seven Sisters refers to a historical collection of seven law firms with offices in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
History.
The term "Seven Sisters" was originally coined by John Alexander Black, founder of Lexpert magazine (now owned by Thomson Reuters). At the time, the Seven Sisters dominated the Canadian M&A legal advisory rankings. However, by 2006, Black stated "the moniker may have run its course and that some people argue the Seven have shrunk to two or possibly three." Later that year, The Globe and Mail reported the Seven Sisters term was no longer valid, explaining that "as the Canadian pool of major companies boils down to a thin concentrate, the upper legal tier has also shrunk." It noted that "most observers agree the reigning top players are McCarthy Tetrault LLP, Stikeman Elliott LLP, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP." As of 2017, only five of the original seven have become national law firms in Canada – the aforementioned four plus Torys LLP.
In 2015, The Globe and Mail reported that the market had changed markedly from the early 2000s: "Elite U.S. legal shops blanket the top 25 firms for M&A, taking 13 of the top spots on the chart." According to Bloomberg (FY 2015), the top 10 legal advisors by M&A transactions with any Canadian involvement were Simpson Thacher (NY), Sullivan & Cromwell (NY), Osler (TO), Skadden (NY), Torys (TO), Bennett Jones (TO), Shearman (NY), Davis Polk (NY), McCarthy (TO), and Morrison & Foerster (SF), signalling the integration of Canada into the larger North American market.
The 'club of nine' was a similar term used in the UK until it was replaced by the Magic Circle.
Membership.
In alphabetical order the Seven Sisters included: Blakes, Davies, Goodmans, McCarthy, Osler, Stikeman, and Torys.
Largest Law Firms in Canada.
The American Lawyer Global 200, first published in 2018, included a total of six Canadian law firms, excluding Gowling WLG which operates as two separate partnerships across the Atlantic. The Bank of Canada reported the 2017 CAD/USD exchange rate at 0.770.
Separately, The Toronto Star reported that Torys had estimated revenues of CAD 275 million in 2006, prior to the opening of its Montreal and Calgary offices. In 2007, Lexpert also reported that since Torys' merger with New York-based Haythe & Curley, Torys "has consistently ranked among the four most profitable large law firms in the Toronto market, during which time it has made up more than half the gap between itself and the top-ranked firm. This is significant because, accordingly, the four most profitable firms have for the last few years been in a group by themselves: there is a considerable drop-off in profitability between the fourth-ranked firm and the fifth-ranked firm, and between the fifth-ranked firm and the sixth-ranked firm."


West End theatre producer

A West End theatre producer (or West End producer) is a theatre producer who causes theatrical productions to be presented in one or more of the 40 West End theatres of London, as defined by the governing body of West End producers, The Society of London Theatre.
Not to be confused with a Regional (or Provincial) theatre producer who has never, or does not choose, to produce in the theatres of the West End of London. Their governing body is the Theatrical Management Association.


The Mad Genius

The Mad Genius (1931) is an American pre-Code drama film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and directed by Michael Curtiz. The film stars John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Donald Cook, Charles Butterworth, and in small roles, Boris Karloff and Frankie Darro. The film is based on the play "The Idol" (1929) by Martin Brown, which opened in Great Neck, Long Island but never opened on Broadway.
Plot.
A crippled puppeteer, Ivan Tsarakov (Barrymore), is frustrated that he will never dance ballet. He adopts a protégé, Fedor Ivanoff (Darro as a child, Cook as an adult), whom he makes into the greatest dancer in the world. Fedor falls in love with a dancer, Nana Carlova (Marsh), but Tsarakov fears that she will ruin Fedor as a dancer. He tries to separate them and ultimately fires Nana from the ballet troupe. Fedor runs away with Nana to Paris, but Tsarakov has blacklisted him, and he cannot get ballet jobs and is reduced to working in a cabaret. Nana begs Tsarakov to give Fedor his job back. Tsarakov agrees, if Nana will leave Fedor and marry another man; she agrees. Fedor returns embittered; he sees Nana on opening night and realizes that she still loves him; he refuses to dance. Tsarakov threatens to kill him, but the ballet master, under the influence of drugs that Tsarakov has given him, kills Tsarakov. Fedor is reunited with Nana.
In the film "Svengali", released earlier the same year, Barrymore played the title character who similarly manipulated the life of a female singer, also played by Marsh.
Production.
Warner Bros. was so pleased by the box office returns for "Svengali" (1931), also starring Barrymore and Marsh, and their first talking feature "The Terror" (1928), that they rushed "The Mad Genius" into production, and released it on November 7, 1931.
Box Office.
According to Warner Bros the film earned $278,000 domestically and $122,000 foreign.
Preservation.
The film survives complete. It is preserved in the Library of Congress collection.


Lin Mei-hong

Lin Mei-hong (born 1959) is a Taiwanese choreographer. Lin began dancing with the Lanyang Dance Troupe in Taiwan, then moved to Italy and Germany for further training. She has spent the majority of her career in Europe, with the Ballet in Plauen, Theater Dortmund, and Staatstheater Darmstadt. In 2013, Lin became artistic director for the ballet of the Austrian Landestheater Linz.
Lin has produced adaptions of "The House of Bernarda Alba", "Macbeth", and "Carmina Burana", among others. She has also choreographed "Die Brautschminkerin", which was nominated for a Der Faust award in 2011.
Life and career.
Lin was born in Luodong, Yilan County, Taiwan, in 1959. As children, the four Lin sisters took ballet and piano classes. Lin Mei-hong then participated in the first classes held by Gian Carlo Michelini's Lanyang Dance Troupe, founded in 1966, and joined the troupe itself around the age of 10. Aged 16, she pursued further study at the , where she was trained in ballet. Near the end of her time in Italy, Lin attended a performance by the Tanztheater Wuppertal, led by Pina Bausch. Lin subsequently enrolled at the Folkwang Hochschule, where she graduated in 1989. That year, Lin returned to the Lanyang Dance Troupe as choreographer. Lin began as director in 1991 of the . Between 1997 and 2002, Lin served as artistic director of the ballet at Theater Dortmund. She joined Staatstheater Darmstadt as artistic director in 2004. While affiliated with Staatstheater Darmstadt, Lin was also director of Lanyang Dance Troupe. In 2006, Lin received the German Artist of the Year Award. In 2013, Lin began work as artistic director of TANZLIN.Z, of the Landestheater Linz in Austria. While at the Landestheater Linz, she has worked with Taiwan-based artists, such as the Romanian choreographer Constantin Georgescu.
Works.
In 2003, Lin produced an adaption of "The Beautiful Game". In her tenure with Staatstheater Darmstadt, Lin has produced adaptions of several widely known works, such as "Jesus Christ Superstar" (2005), "The House of Bernarda Alba" (2005), "Macbeth" (2005), "The Juliet Letters" (2006), "Ainadamar" (2007), "Carmina Burana" (2008), and "Hôtel du Nord" (2008). Lin's original works, such as "Violett, Lila, PurPur", have also been performed by Staatstheater Darmstadt. The 2010 performance of a second original work "Schwanengesang" ("Swan Song") during the Taiwan International Festival, was the first time Lin had staged a dance in Taiwan since starting her career in Europe. In 2011, Lin premiered "Die Brautschminkerin" ("Bridal Makeup"), based on Li Ang's "Rouged Sacrifice", in turn inspired by Taiwan's February 28 incident. "Die Brautschminkerin" was nominated for the German Theatre Association's Der Faust award. Her second performance in Taiwan took place in 2018. "The Little Mermaid" linked the Hans Christian Andersen story of the same name with Oscar Wilde's "The Birthday of the Infanta". Lin returned to Taiwan in 2019 to perform "Die Brautschminkerin". Writing for the "Taipei Times" in 2019, Diane Baker observed that full-length contemporary ballet performances were rarely staged in Taiwan, naming Taiwan natives Allen Yu and Lin, as well as Ballet Preljocaj, Hong Kong Ballet, and Ballet am Rhein in the full list of performers.


A Dirty Carnival

A Dirty Carnival (; lit: "The Mean Street") is a South Korean neo-noir action film directed by Yoo Ha. It is Yoo Ha's fourth feature film, his previous work being the 2004 drama, "Once Upon a Time in High School".
Plot.
"A Dirty Carnival" is the story of Kim Byung-doo, a small-time gangster in his late 20s. Unable to acquire the money necessary to save his family from eviction, Byung-doo subverts his boss, Sang-chul, and takes a job directly from President Hwang, Sang-chul's boss, to eliminate Attorney Park, a public prosecutor who has been bothersome to President Hwang. On this job's completion, Byung-doo receives the money he was hoping for in addition to President Hwang's respect and a spot at his side. Byung-doo and President Hwang swear never to speak of the hit to anyone so that they, and the organization, will not be implicated.
While these events unfold, Byung-doo is reunited with his elementary school friend, Min-ho, who has become a movie director. Min-ho's current project is a gangster film, although prospective scripts are continuously shot down by his higher-ups for being too fake. In an attempt to improve the film's authenticity, Min-ho sets out to interview Byung-doo who he sees as "a real gangster". Meanwhile, Min-ho manages to reunite Byung-doo with his high school love interest, Hyun-joo. Byung-doo finds that he still has an interest in her and attempts to rekindle their relationship.
Sang-chul becomes aware of the Attorney Park murder and feels threatened by Byung-doo's subversion of his authority and lack of consideration for the organization. He sets up a hit to take out Byung-doo, but Byung-doo learns of this before it occurs and stabs Sang-chul to death, guaranteeing his safety in the short term.
These murders don't leave Byung-doo without heavy emotional baggage, however. When Byung-doo's gangster tendencies frighten Hyun-joo away, Min-ho attempts to console Byung-doo who reveals to Min-ho his darkest secrets, including the hits on both Attorney Park and his former boss, Sang-chul.
Missing Hyun-joo deeply, Byung-doo tries to hide his gangster tendencies to revive their relationship. However, despite his words to Hyun-joo otherwise, Byung-doo is unable to truly escape the gangster occupation. In fact, as his rank within the gang escalates, his actions become more violent and cruel, juxtaposing his ever-growing affection for Hyun-joo.
Soon Byung-doo discovers that Min-ho's gangster film reenacts many of the events from Byung-doo's past, including the hit on Attorney Park. Realizing the dangers of the organization being implicated, Byung-doo confronts Min-ho and threatens him never to tell anyone, choosing to spare his life despite pleas from his underlings that he do otherwise. These underlings later decide to take matters into their own hands and threaten Min-ho more seriously than Byung-doo was willing to do, but still sparing his life. It is then that Min-ho, deeply disturbed, goes to the police and informs them of the potential threats on his life. The police attempt to arrest Byung-doo but fail. It is then that Byung-doo believes that the proper solution is to eliminate Min-ho once and for all. As Min-ho (and his film) have become quite popular, it will not be an easy job - Byung-doo intends to perform the hit and fly out of the country, escaping the consequences of his actions.
Byung-doo moves to assassinate Min-ho at an after-party for his film. Min-ho manages to escape outside where he is captured by Byung-doo's underlings who are supposed to take Min-ho to a planned location for Byung-doo to meet them at. Upon arrival, Byung-doo is attacked by a group of thugs. Despite being outnumbered, Byung-doo manages to stumble away from his attackers, heavily wounded. He appears to be saved as his underlings arrive on the scene, however, they betray Byung-doo and kill him. Notably, Jong-soo, Byung-doo's former right-hand man and his lone accomplice in the Attorney Park murder, is present and appears to be leading the betrayal.
The scene shifts to a meeting with President Hwang and Min-ho, who appears to be alive and well despite being captured by Byung-doo's men. President Hwang discusses potential movie ideas with Min-ho, saying he can draw inspiration from the stories of his past, though they shouldn't be too close to the truth for as he says, "a fiction should remain a fiction", referencing Min-ho's first movie and its connection to Byung-doo's untimely fate. Soon Jong-soo joins the meeting, taking Byung-doo's position at President Hwang's side, showcasing his subversion much in the same way that Byung-doo subverted his own boss, Sang-chul.
The final scene is a repetition from earlier in the film, where Byung-doo visits Min-ho on his movie set to give him advice. Byung-doo encourages Min-ho with the friendly words, "Make something with a real gangster spirit," reinforcing the strength of the friendship and gangster themes running throughout the film.


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Happidrome (film)

Happidrome is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Philip Brandon and starring Harry Korris, Robbie Vincent and Cecil Fredericks. It was a spin-off from the "Happidrome" BBC radio series which was popular at the time. The film was made at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, and produced by the musical star Jack Buchanan. The sets were designed by the art director William Hemsley.
Synopsis.
Mr Lovejoy, a struggling actor-manager returns to a small provincial town with plans to put on a show. Despite having debts there during the previous visit, he is cunningly able to keep his show on the road and gains free advertising in a newspaper by announcing that local talent will be cast. In the meantime he acquires two incompetent assistants, Enoch and Rambsbottom, and Bunty Meadows, an eager would-be star also wangles her way into the company. A statuesque but domineering Russian prima donna also joins the cast.
Bunty's determination to become a leading lady has a disastrous effect on the opening night which is supposed to be a serious play about Ancient Rome, but quickly descends into a total farce. With the audience extremely amused, the show is quickly rebilled as a comedy.


Chic-a-Go-Go

Chic-a-Go-Go is a public-access television cable television children's dance show that airs on Chicago Access Network Television (CAN-TV). The show bills itself as "Chicago's Dance Show for Kids of All Ages".
Show description.
The show invites members of the public to participate in tapings at CAN-TV studios. A typical episode features dancing to prerecorded music, as well as musical guests lip syncing to their own songs. Each show is hosted by Jake Austen, who portrays Ratso, a teenage puppet rat, and Mia Park as human sidekick Miss Mia.
Among the show's regular features are the "El Train Line" (based on "Soul Train"'s "Soul Train Line"), the "Fantasy Dance" (which features dancers in front of a green screen), and videotaped interviews with guests.
History and influences.
Austen got the idea for the show when he published a story in his magazine "Roctober" about "Kiddie-a-Go-Go", an all-kids dance show produced in Chicago between 1963 and 1970. Austen and Stewart met the show's creators, Jack and Elaine Mulqueen, and were inspired to complete a certification course that would allow them to use the facilities of Chicago Access Corporation. They shot the first episodes of the show in March 1996.
In addition to "Kiddie-a-Go-Go", the show is influenced by well-known dance shows such as "Soul Train", "American Bandstand", and "Solid Gold".
In the 2004 movie "The Big Bounce", Morgan Freeman's character is seen watching the show.


The Suggestibles

The Suggestibles is a British improv comedy group, based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Formed in 2003 at Live Theatre they went on to find a following at their home venue, The Cumberland Arms in the Ouseburn Valley, playing there every month and, since 2011, also monthly at The Stand Comedy Club. The group have also played regular residencies at The Hyena, Black Swan and The Mixer in Jesmond.
The group has a core team of players (in 2018 this is currently Bev Fox, Ian McLaughlin, Carl Kennedy, Tom Walton and Rachel Glover) and are usually accompanied by Alex Ross, an improvising musician, and often a special guest from other UK improv companies. Previous core members of the team have included Gary Kitching and Chris Price. Guest players have included Niall Ashdown, Victoria Elliott, Stephen Frost, Paula Penman, Lee Simpson, Andy Smart, Steve Steen, Richard Vranch, Stella Duffy, Suki Webster and Tony Slattery.
Their regular show usually consists of two 45 minute sets, with improv games and short forms in the first half, and "Aspects" - a long form (or narrative) improvised musical in the second.
The group's roots can be traced to 1992, when founder members Bev Fox and Ian McLaughlin created 'The Impro Panto' with a mini London tour (sponsored by Cadbury's) at the Arts Theatre, BAC, Gate and Banana. The group present their "Impro Pantso", an improvised pantomime, every Christmas at both Northern Stage and the Cumberland Arms. which now also tours additional venues including Gala Theatre in Durham, Seaton Deleval Arts Centre, Hexham Queens Hall, Washington Arts Centre and Alnwick Playhouse.
On 23 April 2005 The Suggestibles were the winning team at London's Globe Theatre in Ken Campbell's Shakespearean improv tournament: Shall We Shog? beating teams from London and Liverpool. They have also performed at Bristol Jam, an annual improv festival held at the Bristol Old Vic, since its inception in 2009.
Away from the stage, the Suggestibles have an online following for their videos and live improv clips. They won a Royal Television Society Award in 2008 for Pour Quoi (a skit on Parkour) which was an overnight YouTube hit with over 800,000 views there. The team also presented a live radio show on NE1FM for six months in 2008.
Two founder members of the group, Bev Fox and Ian McLaughlin, also teach improv skills for personal and business development, as Suggestibles' School of Improv.


Advanced Documentary Filmmaking

"Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the NBC sitcom "Community", which originally aired on March 14, 2013. The episode was written by Hunter Covington, and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. In this episode, Abed makes a documentary about Changnesia in order to receive a research grant, with Jeff attempting to prove Chang is faking his disease.
Plot.
Dean Craig Pelton (Jim Rash) has ordered Abed to make a documentary for Greendale about Chang in order to secure a $40,000 grant from the MacGuffin Neurological Institute to study Changnesia, though Abed wants to capture all sides of the issue.
Dr. Ken Kedan (Marc Jablon) is studying the rare disease, described as affecting the memory, but not the ability to make forced puns. The Dean recounts his history with Chang, from his hiring as a Spanish teacher up to the overthrow in season three. Britta posits that the current Kevin Chang is the real Chang and the power-crazy Benjamin Chang was the alter-ego, and a hit on the head reverted Chang back to Kevin. She is quickly refuted by Dr. Kedan, who asserts that only a hit on the head can cure Chang if a hit on the head is what led to the initial ailment.
Jeff, believing Chang is lying, asks Shirley to help him debunk Changnesia, but finds out that Chang has been hired by Shirley's Sandwiches. After being chided by Shirley about second chances, Jeff outwardly complies with the group in order to continue to secretly undermine the documentary. Britta interviews Shirley - it's revealed that Shirley was dead for three minutes at some point in her life.
Troy and Annie team up and call themselves Partner & Hoolihan, respectively. They, along with their cameraman, Garrett Lambert (Erik Charles Nielsen), interrogate a trout fisherman, Sully Sullivan (Mike Hagerty) who confesses to using Chang as unpaid labour for three months after seeing Chang emerge out of a trout tank, and named him Kevin after his dog.
Jeff is reviewing Britta's footage, which Abed says goes on for 12 hours and is mostly garbage. As they fast-forward through the footage they see Chang repeatedly dialing a number and hanging up.
At the presentation in front of the institute, Annie believes Jeff will reveal the human trafficking, but to everyone's surprise, he presents Alessandra Chang (Andrea De Oliveira), Chang's ex-wife. She is the owner of the phone number Chang had been filmed calling and hanging up on. Chang explains that he found the number in the vents but kept on chickening out of calling, provoking Jeff to kiss Alessandra in order to elicit a confession. After seeing the opposition displayed by Jeff, Lorraine (Lisa Long) of the MacGuffin Neurological Institute grants the funds to the college.
Jeff ends up ostracized from the group, but is welcomed back by Chang, who reminds Jeff of his former life and starting anew. The study group, along with the Dean and Chang, watch the completed documentary and after his apology, forgive Jeff.
In the tag, Chang calls someone to report that they bought it, "hook, line and Winger." Chang then throws his phone into a trash can, only to realize that was an idiotic move; he retrieves it before laughing villainously.
Production.
During the filming of the episode, Chevy Chase became angry at the racist and bigoted direction his character was heading. While venting his frustrations, he used the slur "nigger"; episode director Jay Chandrasekhar argued that Chase's use of the word was "political," and an attempt to point out how racist his character had become. Regardless, the slur upset cast members, and Chase walked off of the set. He later returned to film some additional scenes, but later announced on November 21, 2012 that he had left the show.
The episode was written by new series writer and co-producer Hunter Covington, his first writing credit for the series. It was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed four episodes previously for the series. Although aired as episode six, it was the eighth episode produced. An early scene in the episode shows the "Archie" banner, which isn't actually produced until the following episode.
This is the third "Documentary Filmmaking" episode of the series, following season two's "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking" and season three's "".
Reception.
The episode was initially seen by approximately 2.58 million viewers.
It was met with mixed reviews with Emily VanDerWerff of "The A.V. Club" rating the episode a B, saying, "[...] at every turn, it reminds me that it doesn’t particularly care to [make a fresh start], and that the past makes a warm, if smothering, blanket." Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an 8.8, praising Ken Jeong's performance as Chang and that "It was the first episode this season that felt 100% "natural," if that’s the right word."


Ariana Grande at the BBC

Ariana Grande at the BBC is a BBC television special featuring Ariana Grande. Grande performed thirteen songs during the hour-long special, and was interviewed by Davina McCall. The program was announced on 31 August 2018, recorded on 6 September, and aired on 1 November.
Program.
Grande performed the following songs, backed by an all-female orchestra:
Grande also performed "Better Off", "Pete Davidson", "Get Well Soon", and a cover of "Them Changes" by Thundercat during the recording, however these performances weren't shown on the special. However, an edited version of the special where the removed songs were shown while the interviews were cut out was shown on international TV broadcasts and platforms.
During the interview, Grande and McCall discussed a variety of topics, including the May 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, her new album "Sweetener", as well as the singer's mental health.
Broadcast and reception.
The special was broadcast on BBC One on 1 November 2018. According to the BBC, at least 1.4 million viewed the program. Adam White of "The Telegraph" rated the special four out of five stars.
The special, which was known as "Ariana Grande Live in London" outside of the United Kingdom, was also aired in France on 19 December 2018 on NRJ Hits, a musical cable channel owned by NRJ Group. It also aired in Ireland on 31 December 2018 on RTÉ2, in Norway on New Year's Day, 1 January 2019 on NRK1, and in Germany on 31 December 2019 on 3sat.
Credits and personnel.
The special was produced by Livewire Pictures, with Anouk Fontaine and Guy Freeman serving as executive producer and Colin Farquhar as producer. It was directed by Richard Valentine. The program was commissioned by Jan Younghusband and Charlotte Moore.


Parris Goebel

Parris Renee Goebel (), also known professionally as Parris, is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer, singer, director and actress. She is the founder and main choreographer of the dance school "The Palace Dance Studio", in which groups such as: ReQuest, Sorority, Bubblegum and The Royal Family stand out, the latter has won the World Hip Hop Dance Championship three times in a row, becoming the first group in history to achieve it.
Early life.
Goebel is of Samoan, Chinese, and Scottish descent. She was interested in dance from a young age and started hip-hop dance lessons when she was 10. When she was 15, she started the dance group ReQuest with four friends. Initially they practiced in Goebel's aunt's garage and later at her father's warehouse. After a year working together, they went to the Monsters of Hip Hop Dance Convention in the United States and Goebel was selected to dance in the finale performance of the convention.
Following the convention, Goebel left Auckland Girls' Grammar School to concentrate on her dancing.
Career.
Goebel has worked with artists including Ciara, Ariana Grande, Little Mix, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Big Bang, 2NE1, CL, Taeyang. Her work has included choreographing routines and starring in music videos and movies. One of her notable successes was her work choreographing the music video for Justin Bieber's 2015 song "Sorry", which as of January 2020 is the 8th most viewed video on YouTube with more than 3 billion views. The video later won the "Video of the Year" award at the 2016 American Music Awards. Goebel went on to choreograph and direct all thirteen of Justin Bieber's Purpose: The Movement videos. These videos have totaled over 5.3 billion views combined as of January 2020.
Goebel and her father, who is also her manager, run The Palace Dance Studio in Auckland.
In 2012, Goebel starred on both "America's Best Dance Crew" and "Dancing With the Stars Australia". She then worked on Jennifer Lopez's 2012 world tour and performed with her on the "American Idol" season 11 finale. Goebel went on to choreograph and take on a role in the American 3D dance film "," released on 8 August 2014.
In 2015, her choreography for DeeWunn's "Mek It Bunx Up" went viral and, as of January 2020, has received over 15 million views on YouTube.
In 2015, Goebel was the leading choreographer for New Zealand's first hip-hop feature film, "Born to Dance".
In 2019, she also choreographed Rihanna’s "Savage X Fenty Show" promoting her lingerie line, which was featured in a documentary regarding the making of the show on Amazon Prime Video.
In 2020, Goebel choreographed Jennifer Lopez's Super Bowl halftime show.
Music.
On 8 August 2016 Goebel released her first music video to the song "Friday", which was then featured on her EP "Vicious". Later in August 2016, she released a music video for "Nasty", which is also featured on the EP.
In December 2016 she eventually released "Vicious," which featured artists including Jamaican Dancehall star, DeeWunn.
Style.
Goebel is known for her particular style, known as Polyswagg. As she describes it, her style is based on hearing, breathing and living the music, being passionate while dancing and transmitting feelings. She also draws on music inspirations from the DanceHall style. Large amounts of her routines include this element, most notably in the Royal Family's World Hip Hop Dance Championship performances.
Honours and awards.
In 2009, Goebel was awarded the Street Dance New Zealand Choreographer of the Year and Dancer of the Year awards. In 2014, she was named Female Choreographer of the Year at the World Of Dance Awards in Los Angeles.
In 2006 she was awarded the Special Recognition Award at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards.
In 2015 she was presented with the Top Variety Artist Award from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand Inc and the Young Leader category of the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.
In 2016 she won Female Choreographer of the Year and Live Performance of the Year at the World Of Dance Awards. In the same year, the advertisement that she choreographed for New Zealand Post won Worst Ad 2016 in the TVNZ Fair Go Ad Awards
In the 2020 New Year Honours, Goebel was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to dance.
Publication.
In March 2018 Goebel published her autobiography "Young Queen."
World Hip-Hop Dance Championships.
Palace Dance Studios crews and their records in the annual competition.


Method (2004 film)

Method is a 2004 thriller film directed by Duncan Roy. The international co-production is a film within a film about a cast and crew who are in Romania to make a film about serial killer, Belle Gunness.
Plot.
During filming the lead actress (Elizabeth Hurley), tries to get deeply into character since the film is very important to her career. She may go too far when incidents on the set begin to pattern themselves after the real-life story.
Production.
The film later generated headlines over the public falling out between leading lady, Hurley and the director, Roy. Roy claimed Hurley was difficult to work with. Hurley's spokesman denied the claims and cited that Hurley had earlier even recommended Roy as director of the project. Oliver Tobias, a co-star on the production, rebuffed Roy's claims, remarking that he had a pleasant working experience with Hurley, who was “a lady” and a “consummate professional”.


Hey Skinny! Yer ribs are showing!


Peter W. Marx

Peter W. Marx (born 1973 in Limburg an der Lahn) is a German Theatre and Performance studies Scholar. He holds the Chair of Theatre and Media Studies at the University of Cologne where he functions also the director of its Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung.
Marx is recognized for his research on metropolitan culture at the beginning of the 20th century as well as on Max Reinhardt with an emphasis on Cultural Studies. In addition, his work focuses on contemporary theatre and Shakespeare in performance, particularly on "Hamlet" as a figure of cultural mobility.
Curriculum Vitae.
At the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Marx received his PhD with a dissertation entitled "Theater And Cultural Memory" discussing works of George Tabori, Tadeusz Kantor and Rina Yerushalmi. The study was awarded with the Research-Funding-Award 2002 of the Friends of the University of Mainz.
In the year 2003 Marx was appointed Junior-Professor for Theater Studies with a focus on Cultural Studies at the University of Mainz. With the completion of a research project for the Feodor-Lynen-Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he became a visiting scholar at the Columbia University in New York City for three expanded research stays between 2004 and 2006. He held various visiting professorships at the universities of Hildesheim, Vienna and the Free University of Berlin between 2007-2009. (References) From 2009 to 2012 Marx was an associate professor at the University of Bern. In February 2012 he was appointed Professor of Theater and Media Studies at the University of Cologne and director of the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung. Since April 2012 he is also head of the Department of Media Culture and Theatre.
Marx is a member of the executive committee of International Federation for Theatre Research (FIRT/IFTR).
In 2018, his monograph "Hamlets Reise nach Deutschland" ("Hamlet's Voyage to Germany") appeared.


Pearl White (organist)

Pearl White was a respected silent-era theatre organist and piano player who worked in the Chicago area.
She was born Pearl Eleanor Weiss on October 26, 1910 and at age three, was recognized as a child prodigy on the keyboard. At age four, she sang, danced and played concert grand at Chicago's Majestic (Shubert) Theatre. As a child, she studied piano with Rudolph Gantz and Florence LeClare.
At age eleven she studied with Robert Bing at Glen Dillard Gunn School in Chicago's Fine Arts Building and Jessica Wiley at the Bush Conservatory of Music on the North Side. Her early studies on organ were with Edward Benedict in the Kimball building and Dean Fossler at the Gunn School.
Miss White first played organ professionally at age 13 at the Virginia Theatre and later at the Echo Theater in Des Plaines. Al Carny, organist for station WCFL, recommended her for her next position—cutting master piano rolls in Chicago for the Capitol Music Roll Company. From 1925-32, White cut more than 100 rolls () which appeared on labels such as Capitol, Imperial, Supertone, American and Columbia. As the Capitol company also made rolls for many coin-operated nickelodeon and orchestrion type instruments, many of her performance also survive in this format, with added orchestration from instruments built into these coin-operated instruments (such as drums, pipes, etc.) She also worked as substitute organist at the Uptown, Tivoli, Granada, Belmont and Embassy Theatres around this time.
White played the North Center Theatre from 1928 to 1932 and also had a six-week run at the Chicago Theatre.
As the need for organists in theaters diminished with the arrival of sound pictures, Pearl White began to perform on radio, first appearing on WBBM in 1929. In 1944 she joined the full-time staff of WIND providing background music and was also heard on WCFL. She was also considered to be an accomplished musical arranger and provided arrangements to the Phil Harris orchestra among others. The hallmark of her hard-driving jazz style is interlocking chords alternating between the right and left hands which she dubbed "double stuff".
White enjoyed a renaissance late in her career when theatre organs were removed from failing, aged theatres and installed in alternate venues. She performed with Al Melgard at Chicago Stadium on the giant Barton organ in 1962 and was featured artist at the in Shea's Theatre in Buffalo. She also played for the Chicago Area Organ Enthusiasts' conventions of 1965 and 1969 and provided organ accompaniment at silent film revival showings and made guest appearances at the Elm Skating Rink.
Despite a long and successful musical career, Pearl White made only one commercial recording showcasing the blazingly fast jazz technique for which she earned the nickname, "The Fireball". Entitled "Pearl White in Nostalgia and Flame", it was made at the Patio Theatre in Chicago in 1968 on her own label.
Pearl White died on May 11, 1978. She was inducted into the American Theatre Organ Society Hall of Fame in 1991.
Additional sources.
September, 1971 personal interview of Pearl White by Rodney Elliot published as supplement #6 to the Chicago Area Theatre Organ Enthusiast's newsletter, VOX. Jacket notes from LP "Pearl White in Nostalgia and Flame" released 1968 on Pearl White Recordings Label. Theatre Organ Magazine June/July 1978 pp49


Will you please take off your hat!


Greater Boston

Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, as well as its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern arc of the US northeast megalopolis and as such, Greater Boston can be described either as a metropolitan statistical area (MSA), or as a broader combined statistical area (CSA). The MSA consists of most of the eastern third of Massachusetts, excluding the South Coast region and Cape Cod; while the CSA additionally includes the municipalities of Providence, Rhode Island, Manchester (the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire), Worcester, Massachusetts (the second largest city in New England), as well as the South Coast region and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. While the small footprint of the city of Boston itself only contains an estimated 685,094, the urbanization has extended well into surrounding areas and the CSA has a population of over 8 million people, making it one of the most populous such regions in the U.S. The CSA is one of two in Massachusetts, the only other being Greater Springfield. Greater Boston is the only CSA-form statistical area in New England which crosses into three states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island).
Some of Greater Boston's most well-known contributions involve the region's higher education and medical institutions. Greater Boston has been influential upon American history and industry. The region and the state of Massachusetts are global leaders in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade.
Over 80% of Massachusetts' population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan region. Greater Boston is ranked tenth in population among US metropolitan statistical areas, home to 4,875,390 people as of the 2018 US Census estimate, and sixth among combined statistical areas, with a population of 8,285,407. The area has hosted many people and sites significant to American culture and history, particularly American literature, politics, and the American Revolution.
Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, passengers of the "Mayflower". In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the "Cradle of Liberty" for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution.
The Greater Boston region has played a powerful scientific, commercial, and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, the region was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, and transcendentalist movements. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legally recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Boston. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the Boston region, including the Adams and Kennedy families.
Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university, and whose Law School has spawned a contemporaneous majority of United States Supreme Court Justices. Kendall Square in Cambridge has been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet", in reference to the high concentration of entrepreneurial start-ups and quality of innovation which have emerged in the vicinity of the square since 2010. Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world.
Definitions.
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).
The most restrictive definition of the Greater Boston area is the region administered by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The MAPC is a regional planning organization created by the Massachusetts legislature to oversee transportation infrastructure and economic development concerns in the Boston area. The MAPC includes 101 cities and towns that are grouped into eight subregions. These include most of the area within the region's outer circumferential highway, I-495. In 2013, the population of the MAPC district was 3.2 million, which was 48% of the total population of Massachusetts, in an area of , of which 39% is forested and an additional 11% is water, wetland, or other open space.
The eight subregions and their principal towns are: Inner Core (Boston), Minuteman (Route 2 corridor), MetroWest (Framingham), North Shore (Lynn), North Suburban (Woburn), South Shore (Route 3 corridor), SouthWest (Franklin), and Three Rivers (Norwood).
Notably excluded from the MAPC and its partner planning body, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, are the Merrimack Valley cities of Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, much of Plymouth County, and all of Bristol County; these areas have their own regional planning bodies. Bristol County is part of the Greater Boston CSA, as part of the Providence MSA.
New England City and Town Area (NECTA).
Because New England's local governance model is organized around the smaller New England town unit, and has weak or non-existent county governments, the US Census Bureau organizes its urban regions in the New England around clusters of towns known as New England city and town areas (NECTAs) rather than around county borders as it does in the rest of the country. The set of towns containing the core urbanized area, along with surrounding towns with strong social and economic ties to the core area, is defined as the Boston–Cambridge–Nashua, MA–NH Metropolitan NECTA. The Boston NECTA region is further subdivided into several NECTA divisions, which are listed below. The Boston, Framingham, and Peabody NECTA divisions together correspond roughly to the MAPC area. The total population of the Boston NECTA was 4,540,941 ().
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
An alternative definition defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, using counties as building blocks instead of towns, is the Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is further subdivided into three metropolitan divisions. The metropolitan statistical area had a total population of approximately 4,875,390 and is the tenth-largest in the United States. The components of the metropolitan area with their estimated 2018 populations are listed below.
Combined Statistical Area (CSA).
A wider functional metropolitan area based on commuting patterns is also defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the Boston–Worcester–Providence combined statistical area. This area consists of the metropolitan areas of Manchester, Worcester, Providence, as well as Cape Cod, in addition to greater Boston. The total population for the extended region was estimated at 8,285,417. The following areas, along with the above MSA, are included in the combined statistical area, with their estimated 2018 populations:
Principal cities and towns.
Boston metropolitan area.
The Census Bureau defines the following as principal cities in the Boston NECTA using criteria developed for what the Office of Management and Budget calls a Core Based Statistical Area:
Largest cities and towns.
Cities and towns in the Boston CSA with at least 50,000 residents:
Demographics.
Population density.
The most densely populated census tracts in the Boston CSA (2010):
Race and ethnicity.
The 40 most diverse Census tracts in the Boston CSA:
The 40 census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Black American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Asian American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Irish American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Italian American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Portuguese American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with French or French Canadian listed as first ancestry:
Other.
Greater Boston has a sizable Jewish community, estimated at between 210,000 people, and 261,000 or 5–6% of the Greater Boston metro population, compared with about 2% for the nation as a whole. Contrary to national trends, the number of Jews in Greater Boston has been growing, fueled by the fact that 60% of children in Jewish mixed-faith families are raised Jewish, compared with roughly one in three nationally.
The City of Boston also has one of the largest LGBT populations per capita. It ranks fifth of all major cities in the country (behind San Francisco, and slightly behind Seattle, Atlanta, and Minneapolis respectively), with 12.3% of the city identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.
Higher education.
A long established center of higher education, the area includes many community colleges, two-year schools, and internationally prominent undergraduate and graduate institutions. The graduate schools include highly regarded schools of law, medicine, business, technology, international relations, public health, education, and religion. Greater Boston contains seven R1 Research Institutions as per the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. This is, by far, the highest number of such institutions in a single Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States.
Selected statistics.
Changes in house prices for the Greater Boston area are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 10-city composite index of the value of the residential real estate market.
Major companies.
References:
Sports.
Annual sporting events include:
Transportation.
Rail and bus.
The first railway line in the United States was in Quincy. See Neponset River.
The following Regional Transit Authorities have bus service that connects with MBTA commuter rail stations:


Only Nixon could go to China


Georg C. Klaren

Georg C. Klaren (1900–1962) was an Austrian screenwriter and film director. He worked on a number of screenplays with Herbert Juttke during the silent and early sound eras including Alfred Hitchcock's 1931 film "Mary". After the Second World War, Klaren became the head dramaturge at the East German state-owned studio DEFA.
Bibliography.
McGilligan, Patrick. "Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light". HarperCollins, 2004.


The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera Arena Show

The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera Arena Show is a 1981 live-action/animated variety television special produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions which premiered on NBC on June 25, 1981.
Overview.
The special, hosted by guest Michael Landon and his family, was broadcast from Perth Entertainment Centre in Perth, Australia and featured costumed Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo and Top Cat on roller stakes.
The show tells the story of the search for Dino, The Flintstones's pet dinosaur; in between segments, highlights include a huge volcano spewing red-hot disco dancers, life-size dancing billiard balls and dominoes, a 32-foot-long dancing skeleton, a phantom ghost ship and a spectacular three-ring circus.


Fred Frith Trio

The Fred Frith Trio is a San Francisco Bay Area based experimental music and free improvising group featuring Fred Frith, Jason Hoopes and Jordan Glenn. They were formed in Oakland, California in 2013, released two studio albums on Intakt Records in 2016 and 2018, and toured Europe in 2015 and 2017, and Brazil in 2018.
Canadian music critic Raul da Gama described the Fred Frith Trio as "[t]hree extravagantly creative musicians employed in making music like we’ve never heard before". "DownBeat" magazine critic Peter Margasak said they are "a scrappy improvising trio" who "deftly" revisit many of Frith's musical endeavors in "a gritty, unified attack". Andy Robson wrote in the British monthly, "Jazzwise" that they "conjure improvised soundscapes that defy definition". Comparisons have been made to Massacre, but Robson said the Fred Frith Trio have a sound that is "beguilingly, more delicately sharing, more teasing and 'thinner than that of the New York City trio. Musician and educator Kevin Coultas wrote that the trio is one of Frith's "most superlative" bands since Henry Cow.
Biography.
The Fred Frith Trio comprises English guitarist Fred Frith, American bassist Jason Hoopes, and American drummer/percussionist Jordan Glenn. Frith was a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and from 1999 has been teaching musical improvisation at Mills College in Oakland, California. Hoopes and Glenn are members of the Oakland experimental song group Jack O' The Clock.
The Fred Frith Trio was formed in Oakland in 2013 and began playing at several local live venues. The naming of the trio was "an accident", and had been suggested "as a joke" by guitarist Ava Mendoza, who had shared the bill with them at one of their early concerts. While Frith was not happy about being headlined, the promoters liked it and the name stuck. In February 2015 the trio toured Europe, performing in Croatia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. They toured Europe again in February 2017, performing in Norway, Austria, Turkey, France, Poland, Italy and Germany. In August 2018 the trio played in Brazil with jazz trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and performance artist Heike Liss.
Frith said "When I proposed this trio I had nothing in mind beyond getting together with a couple of formidable musicians who I love and respect and seeing what would happen". It was not until after their first European tour that "some themes ... start[ed] emerging". Frith explained that he found himself drawing on his "earliest rock and roll experiences", and with Hoopes' "stunning ability to wring every-thing there is to be wrung out of an electric bass" and Glenn's "playful, irreverent, and absolute authority ... [a]nything can happen. Really. It's a bloody great feeling."
In January 2016 the trio recorded their debut album, "Another Day in Fucking Paradise", which was released in June 2016. The album was generally well received by critics: Glenn Astarita described the album in "All About Jazz" as a "hardcore off-centered delicacy", while Chris Baber, writing in "Jazz Views", called it "an exhilarating and explosive kicking against the doors of improvised music". The trio recorded their second studio album, "Closer to the Ground" in January 2018, which was released in September 2018. It was also generally well received, with Karl Lippegaus for the German radio station WDR 3 describing it as a tangle of "complex soundscapes", and "DownBeat" magazine music critic Peter Margasak writing that melodies surface occasionally, but the trio focuses on "exploring the nexus of groove and mood" without remaining in one place for too long.


Crash box (stagecraft)

A crash box is a device which reproduces a crash or collision sound effect. Commonly used in theatre, they consist of a large metal or wood crate in which glassware, china crockery, wood blocks or other delicate objects are placed. The items may or may not be broken. Crash boxes can usually be used multiple times, until the objects inside of them become so broken that they no longer give the desired effect. They can then be reloaded with more breakable objects and reused. Crash boxes are used to recreate the sounds of a crash, collision or glass breakage in theatre. To recreate the sound effects, crash boxes are dropped from a height backstage. They can also be shaken to create a gentler sound effect. A crash box is generally preferred to a recorded sound effect because it is perceived as more realistic.


Shakespeare Wallah

Shakespeare Wallah is a 1965 Merchant Ivory Productions film. The story and screenplay are by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amidst a dwindling demand for their work and the rise of Bollywood. Madhur Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival for her performance. The music was composed by Satyajit Ray.
Plot.
Loosely based on the real-life actor-manager Geoffrey Kendal's family and his travelling "Shakespeareana Company", which earned him the Indian sobriquet "Shakespearewallah", the film follows the story of nomadic British actors as they perform Shakespeare plays in towns in post-colonial India. In this story, Tony Buckingham (Geoffrey Kendal) and his wife Carla (Laura Liddell) oversee the troupe. Their daughter, Lizzie Buckingham (Felicity Kendal), falls in love with Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), who is also romancing Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey), a Bollywood film star.
In real life, Shashi Kapoor fell in love with Felicity's elder sister Jennifer Kendal. Their marriage provided an important contribution to the Indian film industry until Kendal's death in 1984.
Production.
After the success of the first film, "The Householder" (1963), the team of Ivory and Merchant reunited with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and actor Shashi Kapoor for this film. Due to budget constraints, the film was shot in black and white, and the Kendal family play their own fictionalized counterparts, "the Buckinghams".
Reception.
The film holds a score of 89%, based on 9 critics, on Rotten Tomatoes.
Home media.
It was released on DVD from Odyssey, as well as in a boxset as part of the Merchant Ivory Collection of the Merchant Ivory Productions.


Fela Sowande

Chief Olufela Obafunmilayo "Fela" Sowande MBE (29 May 1905 – 13 March 1987) was a Nigerian musician and composer.
Considered the father of modern Nigerian art music, Sowande is perhaps the most internationally known African composer of works in the European "classical" idiom.
Early life.
Sowande (pronounced 'shoh-WAHN-daye') was born in Abeokuta, near Lagos, the son of Emmanuel Sowande, a priest and pioneer of Nigerian church music.
As a child he sang in the Choir of the Cathedral Church of Christ.
He studied at the C.M.S. Grammar School and at King's College, Lagos.
The influence of his father and Dr T. K. Ekundayo Phillips (composer, organist and choirmaster) was an important factor in his early years. At that time, Sowande was a chorister and was introduced to new Yoruba works being introduced into the churches. During that period, he studied organ under Phillips (including works by Bach and European classical masters), and earned the Fellowship Diploma (FRCO) from the Royal College of Organists. At that time, he was also a bandleader, playing jazz and popular highlife music. All of these had considerable influence on his work.
London.
In 1934, Sowande went to London to study European classical and popular music. In 1936, he was solo pianist in a performance of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". He also played as part of a pianist duo with Fats Waller, was theatre organist for the BBC, Choirmaster at Kingsway Hall and pianist in the 1936 production of "Blackbirds". In 1939, he played the organ on recordings by popular singers Adelaide Hall and Vera Lynn. Later, he studied organ privately under Edmund Rubbra, George Oldroyd, and George Cunningham and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1943, winning the Limpus, Harding and Read Prizes.
He also won several prizes and obtained a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of London and became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music. He also worked as musical advisor for the Colonial Film Unit of the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, providing background music for educational films.
From 1945, he was a renowned organist and choirmaster at the West London Mission of the Methodist Church until 1952, and a considerable amount of organ music dates from this period. These are based on Nigerian melodies that gave a special appeal to the Black members of his congregation in the early years of migration from the African continent and the Caribbean. During this time, he also became known as a dance pianist, bandleader, and Hammond organist, playing popular tunes of the day.
Western and African ideas prevail in his music, which included organ works such as "Yorùbá Lament", "Obangiji", "Kyrie", "Gloria", "Jesu Olugbala", and "Oba Aba Ke Pe". Most of these show a strong influence from Anglican Church music, combined with Yoruba pentatonic melodies.
His orchestral works include "Six Sketches for Full Orchestra", "A Folk Symphony", and "African Suite" for string orchestra, and show African rhythmic and harmonic characteristics. The final movement of "African Suite" became known to Canadian audiences as the theme of the popular CBC music programme "Gilmour's Albums", and is now a Canadian orchestral standard. He also wrote a significant amount of secular and sacred choral music, mainly a cappella. Some of these works were composed during his period with the BBC Africa Service. He went back to Nigeria to scholarly work with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and later the University of Ibadan. He was appointed MBE in the 1955 Queen's Birthday Honours for his work in the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. In 1968 he moved to Howard University in Washington, D.C., then the University of Pittsburgh.
Later life.
In the last years of his life Sowande taught in the Department of Pan-African Studies at Kent State University, and lived in nearby Ravenna, Ohio with his wife, Eleanor McKinney, who was one of the founders of Pacifica Radio. He died in Ravenna and is buried in Randolph Township, Ohio.
In addition to his position as a professor, Sowande also held the chieftaincy title of the Bariyo of Lagos. There is currently a move to set up a centre to research and promote his works, as many remain unpublished or are out of print.


Superkenosis


MIASU


This Sitcom Is...Not to Be Repeated

This Sitcom Is...Not to Be Repeated is a Canadian comedy television series, which aired on The Comedy Network in 2001. Created by and starring Ed Sahely, Kathy Greenwood and Jonathan Wilson based on their stage show "Not to Be Repeated", the series incorporated improvisational comedy techniques.
Each episode of the series was structured as a sitcom episode with a narrative framework, but at various points the actors would be called upon to draw lines submitted by viewers out of a hat, and incorporate them into the dialogue. Fifteen episodes of the show were produced.


Cedric

Cedric () is a masculine given name invented by Walter Scott in the 1819 novel "Ivanhoe".
The invented name is based on "Cerdic", the name of a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon king (itself from Brittonic "Coroticus").
The name was not popularly used until the children's book "Little Lord Fauntleroy" by Frances Hodgson Burnett was published in 1885 to 1886, the protagonist of which is called Cedric Errol. The book was highly successful, causing a fashion trend in children's formal dress in America and popularized the given name. People named Cedric born in the years following the novel's publication include British naval officer Cedric Holland (1889–1950), American war pilot Cedric Fauntleroy (1891–1973), Irish art director Austin Cedric Gibbons (1893–1960) and British actor Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964).
The name was also applied to Nissan's executive car between 1960 to 2004 (private use) and 2015 (taxi) as Nissan Cedric.


Jorma Uotinen

Jorma Leo Kalevi Uotinen (b. 28 June 1950 in Pori) is a Finnish dancer, singer and choreographer. As a dancer and choreographer, Uotinen has worked both in many dance groups, both in and outside of Finland, since 1970. He has received many Finnish and international awards and honours in his career.
He was a dancer with the Finnish National Ballet 1970–1976, and in 1976 he was invited by director Carolyn Carlson to join the Groupe de recherche Theatrales at l'Opera de Paris, where he worked until 1980. He has worked as artistic director in the Helsinki City Theatre dance group (1987–1990), at the Finnish National Ballet (1992–2001) and the Kuopio Dance Festival (2000–). He has successfully made use of his international connections in directing these institutions, e.g. by inviting Sylvie Guillem to stage her version of "Giselle" at the Finnish National Ballet in 1998.
After an active career as a dancer, Uotinen has moved to perform by singing.
Uotinen was a judge in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons of "Tanssii tähtien kanssa", the Finnish version of "Dancing With the Stars".
Uotinen is bisexual. He was in a relationship with Finnish singer Helena Lindgren whom he lived with for almost 20 years.
Uotinen is UNICEF ambassador of good will. In 2007, he was a voiceover actor in "Rottatouille", the Finnish version of "Ratatouille".


JTDC


Harold (improvisation)

Harold is a structure used in longform improvisational theatre that is performed by improv troupes and teams across the world. In the Harold structure, characters and themes are introduced and then recur in a series of connected scenes.
History.
The Committee, a San Francisco improv group, performed the first Harold in Concord, California, in 1967. They were invited to a high school and decided to do their improvisations on the war in Vietnam. On the way home in a Volkswagen bus, they were discussing the performance, when one of them asked what they should call it. Allaudin (Bill) Mathieu, (W.A. Mathieu) called out "Harold", which was a joking reference to a line from "A Hard Day's Night" where a reporter asks George Harrison what he calls his haircut and he answers "Arthur". The form was further developed by improv teachers Del Close and Charna Halpern, as well as the Upright Citizens Brigade.
When The Committee disbanded in 1972, improv company "Improvisation, Inc." was the only company in America continuing to perform the group's "original" Harold: a 45-minute free-form piece that would seamlessly move from one "Harold technique" to another. In 1974, in Los Angeles, former Committee member Gary Austin co-founded The Groundlings, using improv-as-a-tool. In 1976, two former "Improvisation, Inc." performers, Michael Bossier and John Elk, formed "Spaghetti Jam", performing in San Francisco's Old Spaghetti Factory through 1983. "Spaghetti Jam" performed Harolds while also turning Spolin games and Harold techniques into stand-alone performance pieces (i.e., shortform improv).
The 1994 book "Truth in Comedy" describes a "training wheels Harold" as three acts (or "beats"), each with three scenes and a group segment. With each beat, the three scenes return. By the end of the piece, the three scenes have converged.
Modified Harolds.
Some modern improv forms are Harolds with an added requirement. These include:


The Beatrice Arthur Special

The Beatrice Arthur Special is a 1980 American comedy-variety television special hosted by and starring Beatrice Arthur in her first and only prime time special. It was originally broadcast as a "CBS Special Presentation" on January 19, 1980 at 10:00 pm ET/PT.
Overview.
Arthur, along with guest stars Rock Hudson, Melba Moore, Wayland Flowers and his puppet character Madame, perform a series of skits and musical numbers, many of which have a distinct Broadway sensibility. The special was recorded using a single-camera setup without a studio audience, with a laugh track added in post-production.
Featured songs and skits.
The Paley Center for Media copy includes Moore singing "Miss Thing" as well; that song is not on bootleg copies of the over-the-air broadcast.
Reception.
A retrospective review by Phil Hall at "Film Threat's" "The Bootleg Files" cited Moore's performances as the highlight of the special, also noting that Flowers's segments provided some of the few moments of "genuine fun" in the show. Hall conceded he was not a fan of Arthur's voice or style and felt that Moore seemed out of place with Arthur, the openly gay Flowers and the closeted Hudson. In all, Hall concluded that the awkward mix of mostly unfunny comedy (citing the Martin sketch as a lowlight) with dramedy, poor choreography, and miscasting of camp icons like Hudson in straight roles made the special so bad, it's good.


Georges Baal

Georges Baal (born György Balassa; 17 May 1938 – 6 December 2013) was a Hungarian writer, theatrologist, actor, director and psychologist.
Georges Baal died of a heart attack on 6 December 2013, aged 75, in Saint-Mandé, Paris, France, where he had lived since 1956.