Latest news with #Amato
The Citizen
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Amato's ‘Doll's House 2' asks tough questions
Rubin called the play a gloves-off debate, both personal and political. Imagine walking out on your husband, three children and a society that thinks it knows better than you do, only to return 15 years later and find the door still open but nothing else quite the same. Theatre on The Square puts this notion forward in a new production A Doll's House 2 A Doll's House 2 picks up the story where the first play left off. The first instalment, A Doll's House, looked at the fate of main character Nora Helmer as a married woman. There were no real opportunities for her to gain any kind of self-fulfilment in a male dominated world. In short, it was probably the world's first feminist play, written by Norwegian playwright Hendik Ibsen and first performed in 1879. Back then, the idea of a woman abandoning her family to find herself was unthinkable. The final moment of that play, a single door closing behind Nora, echoed far beyond the theatre. It was not just scandalous; it caused quite a stir and has been doing so for well over a century and a half. In fact, in 2006 it was one of the world's most performed plays. Everyone wanted to know what happened next And yet, while Ibsen never wrote a sequel. Everyone wanted to know what happened next. This second episode, now on stage at Theatre On The Square in Sandton, completes the circle. It was penned by American playwright Lucas Hnath. The show stars veteran actor Zane Meas and led by highly-pedigreed South African performer Bianca Amato. 'You really do not need to have seen part one to get into this,' Amato said. 'It is a completely fresh take, with its own bite. The premise is simple. Nora returns because she discovers she is still legally married. She needs a divorce to finish what she started. But of course, nothing is simple.' ALSO READ: TV's 'The Four Seasons' makes you think Nora is no longer a housewife. She has made a name for herself in her worn right, openly criticising the institution of marriage. But her return sets off a chain of uncomfortable and often hilarious confrontations, said Amato. The play throws four characters into a single room and lets the sparks fly. No one is let off the hook. 'It's feisty, funny, moving and thought provoking' 'It is a really feisty, funny, moving and thought-provoking piece,' said Amato. 'You will probably change your mind several times during the show. That is what makes it exciting. No one has all the answers. Everyone is flawed. And the arguments are compelling on all sides.' The dialogue is modern, despite the period setting. The questions it raises are very much for today. Is marriage outdated? Can people change? Is it selfish to put your own growth before your obligations to others? 'It is incredibly relevant,' said director Barbara Rubin. 'When I was preparing for this production, Kamala Harris was running for president in the United States. The backlash she faced as a qualified female candidate was brutal. It reminded me just how far we still must go. 'Spending time with Nora, who has become wiser and stronger, was a kind of comfort during that time.' A gloves-off debate Rubin called the play a gloves-off debate, both personal and political. 'It is about how much has changed, and how much has not,' she said. 'It is smart, but also very funny. That is what makes it work.' Amato is loving the show. 'We are all bringing our best to this,' said Amato. 'The production design is meticulous. The performances are sharp. The story is gripping. It is not some dusty drama. It is a lively, entertaining night out.' NOW READ: Partner habits that drive you crazy
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump administration denies critically ill 4-year-old is being deported and says humanitarian request under consideration
The Department of Homeland Security has denied that a critically ill 4-year-old girl is being actively deported to Mexico after the family launched a campaign about their case. Lawyers acting on behalf of Deysi Vargas and her daughter Sofia said that the family's humanitarian parole, granted in July 2023, was prematurely revoked by the Trump administration on April 11. 'They received a subsequent notice weeks later, and a third notice in May verifying that they are no longer in lawful status and are now vulnerable to deportation,' Gina Amato, directing attorney of the Immigrants Rights Project at Public Counsel, said at a press conference Wednesday. 'The notices also ordered the family to leave the United States immediately.' The family and her doctor said Sofia 'could die within days' if treatment for a rare condition is paused. But the department said that the family's application for humanitarian parole was 'still being considered' in a statement to The Independent. 'Any reporting that Vargas and her family are actively being deported are FALSE,' the official said. 'This family applied with USCIS for humanitarian parole on May 14, 2025, and the application is still being considered.' Amato said that lawyers wrote to immigration officials soon after they received the case, but heard nothing from the Trump administration. Lawyers filed a new application for humanitarian parole in May and still had not heard back, Amato said. 'We did our best to give them the benefit of the doubt and let them know that we think they made an error, that we have a 4-year-old child whose life is in danger and we asked them to reconsider their decision to terminate humanitarian parole,' Amato said. 'We have not heard anything back. We subsequently filed new applications for humanitarian parole, and similarly, have not received a response.' The family was granted temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. from her home country of Mexico in 2023 after Sofia urgently needed treatment for short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that stops her from absorbing nutrients in food. The treatment she required was not available in Mexico and she was quickly deteriorating, her lawyers said. Sofia's treatment, which requires being hooked to an intravenous feeding system for 14 hours at night, can only be administered and overseen by a specialist team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. 'This is a textbook example of medical need,' the family's attorney Rebecca Brown said Tuesday. 'This child will die and there's no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.' The family is currently living in Bakersfield, California, just over 100 miles north of Los Angeles and came to the U.S. legally in 2023 after signing up to the Biden administration's CBP One app. They received an appointment with border agents in Tijuana to receive two-year protection from deportation and were swiftly taken to a hospital in San Diego for urgent treatment. A year later, Sofia was referred to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which has one of the highest-ranked programs for gastroenterology in the U.S. Under their care, by September 2024, Sofia was discharged and could receive treatment in the comfort of her home. Meanwhile, her parents were working hard to hold down odd jobs in Bakersfield. Sofia's care is still gruelling. In addition to the 14 hours a night hooked up to the IV, Vargas has to administer medication that goes into her daughter's stomach through a gastric tube four times a day. At preschool, a school nurse has to administer nutrition daily.
Indian Express
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
You talk to your pets. They help your pets answer.
Siena Filippi really wanted to know what her cat was saying. Filippi, a 26-year-old content creator and vintage store owner, had recently come across a slew of videos on TikTok showing pet owners talking to animal communicators. The thousands of videos — which usually consist of owners showing their reactions to the readings — had started appearing consistently on her For You Page. She wondered, Why not get a reading for her childhood cat? 'I have dabbled in an Etsy psychic, so I've had experience that way,' Filippi, who lives in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said in a recent phone interview. 'And I was like, 'Oh, I didn't know they could even do it for animals.' So then I went and I found one myself.' A friend of hers recommended Daniela Amato, a New Jersey-based 'animal intuitive' with her own robust social media presence. As part of her business, Heart Communications, Amato speaks to animals, dead and living, and performs reiki on pets. She's not a psychic, per se, as her messages aren't predictive; instead, according to her Instagram, 'My goal is simply to relay messages and be the conduit for you and your animal companion.' Before their phone reading, Filippi sent Amato a photo of her cat and said he was named Bitty. What Amato told her surprised her. 'The first message that came through is that she wanted me to know from my cat that he knows that he's so handsome,' Filippi said. In a video of the phone call that Filippi posted on TikTok — which has been viewed more than 450,000 times — Amato confirms she has a pressing message from Bitty. 'So he thinks he's very handsome,' she said. 'Beautiful, actually, and he says he is a gentleman as well.' She also mentions his 'sweet breath' — a side effect of medication he takes, Filippi said — and says he prefers spending time at Filippi's family beach house. And though his name is Bitty, he actually calls himself Leo. 'I really felt like the phrases she was saying and the information she was giving me reflected, kind of, the personality of my cat,' Filippi said. Amato takes her communication with animals very seriously. 'I always heard animals as a child, but it was dismissed as being imaginative or creative,' Amato said in a phone interview. 'As I got older, I had moments where I felt I was understood by the animals. When I had my dog, Little Bear, I felt he trained me to hear him as well as be heard by him.' Since Filippi's video was posted to TikTok, Amato has seen a sharp increase in interest in her own social media accounts, which she called 'great tools' for finding clients, with her services now booked several months out. 'It felt heartwarming to know that I impacted her business positively,' Filippi said. Amato is one of a host of animal communicators on TikTok who have seen their businesses boom since creators began posting videos of their conversations. Shirley Hyatt, a longtime animal communicator living in Southern California, has amassed more than 220,000 followers on TikTok since her daughter Holly started the account for her. 'My daughter was sick one time and she decided she was going to make me a TikTok page,' Hyatt said. 'The only thing I ever heard about TikTok was it was something kids got on. I knew nothing. And I'm not a computer person. But the very next day, my website went down, and I had three or four hundred emails about it.' Now, Hyatt said, the majority of her new business comes from TikTok, where she frequently posts videos of live readings. She's gotten so popular that she has impersonators. Though animal communication has its skeptics, believing in the work is almost irrelevant to the trend. Some people hire professional communicators in an attempt to get real answers out of animals — especially those who have died — but many of the creators on TikTok are doing it for the sheer entertainment value. Either way, it's been an unexpected hit online. 'I don't think someone can believe it unless they experience it themselves,' Filippi said. For her part, she's already planning to get another reading from Amato for her other cat, Pierre, whom she shares with an ex. Perhaps he has insights on the breakup? 'That would be funny, even his perception of it all,' she said. 'I might have to do that.'
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Former NSW Liberal MP facing child sex charges pours beers at Leichhardt Oval
Beckett attended the Pope's funeral along with Mostyn, who represented Australia at an event thrumming with world leaders and swiftly overshadowed, in geopolitical terms, by a brief meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, their first since their heated exchange in the White House this year. Party poopers Three years ago, former Liberal state executive member Matt Camenzuli was working hard toward the party's re-election effort by taking then-prime minister Scott Morrison to the High Court over preselection delays. Camenzuli lost, was subsequently expelled from the party, and is now running as an independent in the south-west Sydney seat of McMahon where, if you believe some dodgy push-polling, he has a shot at taking down Energy Minister Chris Bowen in the deep red electorate. Despite his exile, Camenzuli has maintained a degree of (steadily waning) influence over the Liberal Party's grumpy hard-right flank, with his ally Ben Britton preselected in the seat of Whitlam before being dumped once his icky views on women in the military resurfaced. On the weekend, our spies spotted former NSW upper house MP Lou Amato campaigning in a Camenzuli T-shirt. Amato is still a Liberal member, for now, and the party has its own candidate, former Labor councillor Carmen Lazar contesting the seat. Loading Emphasis is on the 'for now'. Amato told us he strongly supports Camenzuli. 'He has always stood up for what he believes in – democracy and Australian values. There is a reason why people are disillusioned and sick of politicians,' the former politician said. 'We need strong advocates in parliament who will stand up in the best interests of our nation and its people'. Amato isn't the only Liberal defector backing Camenzuli. Last week, CBD reported that NSW Liberal Vice-President Geoff Pearson had torn up his party membership and started campaigning for Britton. Now we can reveal he's also out campaigning for Camenzuli. Infinite jest Following the Anzac Day Welcome to Country neo-Nazi booing controversy, there was consensus the issue was not the place for glib remarks. But Zoe McKenzie, the federal Liberal MP for Flinders, has gone her own way. As detailed in CBD, McKenzie, the first-term MP for Flinders in the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, attended the private invite-only sunset garden talk hosted by Josephine and James Baillieu, of the prominent Melbourne family, in their clifftop garden on Saturday night. An unofficial breakaway event from the Sorrento Writers Festival run, speakers at the gabfest included former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Qantas tormentor Joe Aston, fresh from their official sessions. In a marked difference to many writers' festivals, there was no Welcome to Country. Instead, soprano Rebecca Gulinello sang Advance Australia Fair as attendees munched on chicken and cucumber sandwiches and scones with cream and jam. McKenzie gave an impromptu vote of thanks to all speakers and praised Gulinello's singing of the national anthem. 'Rebecca, thank you for the best Welcome to Country that I am sure has been delivered,' McKenzie said, to laughter. But while the aside landed successfully on the night, such gags won't travel well beyond Portsea. Loading McKenzie, a former industrial lawyer and Australia Council for the Arts board member, is facing a stiff challenge from local teal independent Ben Smith, who is swamping the area with volunteers and corflutes. One McKenzie supporter at the garden event told CBD: 'I think Zoe has a fight on her hands.'
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Executives are drowning. Blame the vanishing middle management layer
The vanishing glue Middle managers are more than a structural layer. They're the connective tissue in an organization, translating strategy into action, aligning teams, and serving as cultural anchors. When they disappear, clarity often vanishes with them. Korn Ferry's data reveals that 43% of employees believe their leaders aren't aligned, while 37% feel directionless. Talent development also suffers when cohesion tanks. 'The most effective leadership development is on the job,' says Amato. 'It's a combination of first designing jobs that are doable so people can be successful in them, not overwhelmed by them, and then finding those interesting career paths that help people to be more well-rounded.' But as senior leaders take on more work due to the absence of middle managers, other efforts like skills-building, mentorship, and career progression for more junior employees take a backseat. As a result, high performers, lacking guidance and growth, are more likely to exit. In fact, 80% of employees say they'd stay at a company because they trust their manager. Leaders who don't have the bandwidth to motivate and engage their direct reports also miss out on an opportunity to make a bottom-line impact. Korn Ferry found that highly engaged, motivated workforces generate twice the revenue growth of their least engaged peers. That engagement starts with managers who have the time and clarity to lead. The new leadership mandate To stay competitive, companies must rethink how leadership is structured and supported, says Amato. While cutting bureaucracy is commendable, eliminating those who turn vision into reality is a risky tradeoff. 'Before you jump to solutions, whether it's cutting or anything else, you have to diagnose your own organization,' Amato says. That means using data to evaluate workflows, spot pressure points, and understand where leadership is overstretched. For organizations that may have cut too deep, reintroducing layers isn't the fix. Instead, the focus should be on redesigning leadership roles to ensure that executives can maintain strategic altitude, redistributing workload, and creating career pathways to retain top talent. The message is clear, says Amato. Without the middle, the top can't lead—and the bottom won't follow. In the race to become leaner, faster, and more innovative, many companies have eliminated layers of middle management. But while flatter structures may look efficient on paper, a hidden cost is quickly surfacing right at the top of the org chart. According to Korn Ferry's 2025 Workforce Survey, 41% of employees say their organizations have trimmed management layers. In turn, senior executives are absorbing more direct reports, juggling operational tasks once handled by managers, and losing critical time for strategic focus. Nearly half now question their ability to fulfill their responsibilities—a figure that exceeds even the 40% of CEOs who report similar doubts. The logic behind flattening is often sound: reduce costs, accelerate decision-making, and eliminate red tape. And when excited with care, it can unlock real gains. But as Korn Ferry senior client partner Maria Amato warns, cutting middle management without proper scaffolding leaves executives overwhelmed and employees adrift. The vanishing glue Middle managers are more than a structural layer. They're the connective tissue in an organization, translating strategy into action, aligning teams, and serving as cultural anchors. When they disappear, clarity often vanishes with them. Korn Ferry's data reveals that 43% of employees believe their leaders aren't aligned, while 37% feel directionless. Talent development also suffers when cohesion tanks. 'The most effective leadership development is on the job,' says Amato. 'It's a combination of first designing jobs that are doable so people can be successful in them, not overwhelmed by them, and then finding those interesting career paths that help people to be more well-rounded.' But as senior leaders take on more work due to the absence of middle managers, other efforts like skills-building, mentorship, and career progression for more junior employees take a backseat. As a result, high performers, lacking guidance and growth, are more likely to exit. In fact, 80% of employees say they'd stay at a company because they trust their manager. Leaders who don't have the bandwidth to motivate and engage their direct reports also miss out on an opportunity to make a bottom-line impact. Korn Ferry found that highly engaged, motivated workforces generate twice the revenue growth of their least engaged peers. That engagement starts with managers who have the time and clarity to lead. The new leadership mandate To stay competitive, companies must rethink how leadership is structured and supported, says Amato. While cutting bureaucracy is commendable, eliminating those who turn vision into reality is a risky tradeoff. 'Before you jump to solutions, whether it's cutting or anything else, you have to diagnose your own organization,' Amato says. That means using data to evaluate workflows, spot pressure points, and understand where leadership is overstretched. For organizations that may have cut too deep, reintroducing layers isn't the fix. Instead, the focus should be on redesigning leadership roles to ensure that executives can maintain strategic altitude, redistributing workload, and creating career pathways to retain top talent. The message is clear, says Amato. Without the middle, the top can't lead—and the bottom won't follow. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
