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36 hours in Charleston, South Carolina
CHARLESTON, SC.- When most people think of Charleston, South Carolinas oldest city, they often picture its walkable downtown, with its cobblestones, Colonial architecture and horse-drawn carriages. But beyond the historic district, youll find small islands with coastal views and waterways, and neighborhoods with their own wealth of history. While the citys pivotal role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade continues to spark debate about how much to focus on that narrative for visitors, an answer has arrived in the International African American Museum, a $120 million project that opened in June after 20 years in the making. Charleston has been accused of being obsessed with history; in reality, its an evolving city amid a tourism boom that is striving to use the past to inform its future. Take in history on foot with Lost Stories of Black Charleston, ... More

The biggest name in Hollywood turns 100
LOS ANGELES, CA.- A garish advertisement for a real estate development went up in the Hollywood Hills in late 1923: an immense sign that read HOLLYWOODLAND. The billboard was supposed to be there for only 18 months, but that, of course, didnt turn out to be the case. In the century since it was erected, the Hollywood sign has become one of Californias most enduring tourist attractions, as synonymous with Los Angeles as the Golden Gate Bridge is with San Francisco. The sign lost the LAND part in 1949 after the city took ownership. Over the years, various stunts have altered its appearance for a time, including a few adjustments to make it spell HOLLYWeeD in 1976 when California relaxed its marijuana laws. The signs instantly recognizable letters seem to show up as a backdrop in every television show and movie ... More

Review: Andrew Scott plays every part in 'Vanya.' Why?
NEW YORK, NY.- Most of us will live unfulfilled lives: This brutal and eternal truth has accounted for the enduring appeal of Anton Chekhovs Uncle Vanya since it was first staged by Konstantin Stanislavski in Moscow in 1899. An ambitious new adaptation of this bleakly funny play looks to tease out its essence by stripping it down to its barest elements. Vanya, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Sam Yates, runs at the Duke of Yorks Theater, in London, through Oct. 21, and features Andrew Scott best known for playing the forbidden love interest in the hit TV series Fleabag in all eight roles. Scott gives an accomplished and engaging performance, but the one-man-show format throws up challenges, and ultimately doesnt quite do justice to the plays moral complexity and emotional resonance. Small details have ... More

Actors' Equity seeks to unionize Broadway production assistants
NEW YORK, NY.- Actors Equity, the labor union representing American stage performers and stage managers, is seeking to unionize Broadway production assistants, one of the few nonunion segments of the industry workforce. The campaign comes at a moment when labor unions in the United States have become increasingly restive; there are organizing efforts in many sectors of the economy, and Hollywoods writers and actors have been on strike for months. Broadway production assistants work with stage managers in entry-level positions that are usually filled only during rehearsal and preview periods. Equity described them as doing everything from preparing rehearsal materials to ensuring decisions made during rehearsals are recorded to being extra sets of hands and eyes during complicated technical rehearsals to efficiently ... More

Progress in writers' strike negotiations, but no deal
NEW YORK, NY.- A third straight day of marathon negotiations between Hollywood studios and striking screenwriters ended Friday night without a deal. But the sides made substantial progress, according to three people briefed on the talks. The sides reconvened Saturday. The Friday session started at 11 a.m. Pacific time at the suburban Los Angeles headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the major entertainment companies. For the third day in a row, several Hollywood moguls directly participated in the negotiations, which ended a little after 8 p.m. Robert Iger, Disneys CEO; Donna Langley, NBCUniversals chief content officer of Universal Pictures; Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix; and David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery had previously delegated bargaining with ... More

How Sam Rivers and Studio Rivbea supercharged '70s jazz in New York
NEW YORK, NY.- A handful of New York venues can be credited with generating era-defining scenes. In the 1970s, CBGB, perhaps the best known, was just a stones throw from Studio Rivbea, a dingy and miraculous little performance space and a key energy center for the decades revolutionary jazz. It was also the home of the saxophonist Sam Rivers, his wife, Bea, and their children. The family would greet you at the door, take your $4 and send you down a creaky wooden staircase to the basement, where the adventure would begin. It was a mecca, said bassist and downtown guru William Parker. It was a time of self-determination and musicians doing for themselves. Sam wasnt working the clubs, so he created his own space. Born Sept. 25, 1923 a century ago next week Rivers was both traditionalist and avant- ... More

With 'Young Love,' Matthew A. Cherry weaves a warm Chicago tale
NEW YORK, NY.- In 2006, Matthew A. Cherry was a wide receiver struggling to get playing time in the NFL, bouncing between teams and getting signed and cut again and again. After injuring his shoulder and being placed on reserve for the Baltimore Ravens, he was ready to move on. Using the Hollywood Creative Directory, he looked up three Black showrunners in Los Angeles and mailed letters to each of them asking for a job. Then, he packed his bags and drove to Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker. Sixteen years later, Cherry has worked his way from production assistant to successful writer-director. In 2020, he won an Oscar for Hair Love, an animated short about a Black father who struggles to style his daughters hair while her mother is hospitalized. Now, he has an animated sequel series ... More

'Dead Man Walking' makes its way to the Met Opera
NEW YORK, NY.- When composer Jake Heggie wrote his first opera, Dead Man Walking, in the late 1990s, he never thought it would appear onstage at the Metropolitan Opera. The Met was not doing new opera, particularly; it was not featuring or focusing them, he said. It just seemed a distant dream. But next week, 23 years after its premiere at the San Francisco Opera, Dead Man Walking, with a score by Heggie and a libretto by Terrence McNally, will finally come to the Met opening a season in which contemporary works are front and center as the company tries to attract new audiences. The Met, which is grappling with weak ticket revenues and other financial problems, is placing a big bet on modern opera: Works by living composers, which recently have outsold the classics, make up about one-third of the coming season. ... More

'Job' review: A stress test that feels like It's life or death
NEW YORK, NY.- Job, a tight, 80-minute play by Max Wolf Friedlich, is filled with so many ideas that it seems to expand beyond the walls of the tiny SoHo Playhouse where it opened this week. But claustrophobia sets in as, throughout one session, a young patient and an older hippie crisis therapist confront the turbulence of life in the belly of the cyberbeast. As the play opens, the therapist, Loyd (Peter Friedman), is trying to soothe the agitated Jane (Sydney Lemmon), who is pointing a gun at his head. Stress has gotten the better of her, culminating in a smartphone-era calamity: A video of her breakdown at work went viral. No longer feeling safe and still clearly unwell, Jane nevertheless has an industrial-grade resolve to return to her job at a San Francisco Bay Area tech behemoth. This psychological evaluation will determine ... More