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New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why Women Are Leaving This Broadway Show in Tears
I cried the first time I saw the play 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' set in a high school in small-town Georgia during the height of the MeToo movement, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks. On social media, I saw other women reacting similarly, leaving performances in tears. This past weekend, I went a second time with a friend. As the houselights went up, she was crying, as was the woman in the row in front of us. They spontaneously hugged, which is something I've never seen before at a Broadway show. Outside the theater, two women were sobbing. At least since the time of Aristotle, catharsis has been understood as one of the chief purposes of theater, but it's been a while since I've experienced it so viscerally, and I kept wondering why this play is having such an intense effect on so many. (No other play has received more Tony nominations this year.) One reason for its power, I suspect, is that it transports the viewer back to a time when MeToo still felt alive with possibility, the moment before the backlash when it seemed we might be on the cusp of a more just and equal world. It's not an uplifting play — an innocent girl is punished, and a guilty man is not — but it is still shot through with a kind of hope that's now in short supply. 'John Proctor Is the Villain' takes place in 2018 and revolves around an honors English class studying Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible.' The girls in the class are smart and ambitious; they're also, like many teenagers everywhere, swoony and bursting with contradictory emotions. They're so excited about the MeToo movement that they want to start a feminism club at their school, which school officials do not, at first, want to allow. Tensions in the community, their guidance counselor tells them, are too high. Those tensions soon creep in to the high school and start to shake the girls' solidarity. The father of one of the girls is accused of sexual harassment by two women, which leads her to question MeToo. 'We can punish the men if they're proven guilty, but if we find out the girls are making it up they should get punished just as bad,' she says. Another girl, Shelby — played by the 'Stranger Things' star Sadie Sink — returns from a mysterious absence with her own destabilizing accusation. Their drama is refracted through their engagement with 'The Crucible.' In 'John Proctor Is the Villain' the increasingly common idea that MeToo was a witch hunt is turned inside out. The playwright, Kimberly Belflower, had been captivated by the MeToo movement when it revved up in 2017. 'It just felt like, 'Oh, my God, we're doing this. We're naming these things,'' she told me recently. It gave her a new lens on her own adolescence in rural Georgia. 'I didn't have the vocabulary for this then, but I do now,' she said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Annual Chop Around the Clock fundraiser set at Batavia barber shop
The 34th annual Chop Around the Clock fundraiser will be held from 4 p.m. Friday, June 6, to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at Foltos' Tonsorial Parlor at 7 E. Wilson St. in Batavia. All proceeds from haircuts during the event at the barber shop will go to Ronald McDonald's Children's Charities, organizers said. The 24-hour event will include music, dancing, a bake sale, raffles, poetry, hot dogs and more, according to organizers, who said the event has raised over $360,000 for charity over the past 33 years. The St. Charles Business Alliance has announced that the Unwind Wednesday event will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, at First Street Plaza in downtown St. Charles. The event invites individuals to enjoy live music and alcoholic beverages on the plaza, according to a press release about the event. Patrons 21 years old and older who wish to have an alcoholic beverage during Unwind Wednesday must purchase their drink from one of the five nearby businesses on First Street Plaza. The five local businesses are Alter Brewing + Kitchen, Gia Mia, La Mesa Modern Mexican, La Za'Za' Trattoria and McNally's Irish Pub. To participate, patrons must stop by one of the listed venues and present valid identification to receive a wristband. Once a wristband is received, individuals will then be able to purchase a beverage that they can enjoy on First Street Plaza while listening to Grant Milliren perform from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Outside alcoholic beverages are not permitted, according to the release. For more information about Unwind Wednesday, go to Individuals 18 years old and older are invited to participate in auditions for the summer production of Arthur Miller's 'A View From The Bridge' at Geneva Park District's community theatre Playhouse 38. No experience is necessary and all skill levels are welcome, according to a press release about the production. Auditions will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday, June 8, at Playhouse 38, 321 Stevens St., Suite P, in Geneva. There is no cost to register as a performer, and registration is available at by using activity code 5211704-67. Walk-ins will also be welcome on the day of auditions, according to the release. Individuals interested in auditioning are asked to prepare a one- to two-minute contemporary dramatic monologue and be ready to read from the script, the release stated. Performances of the play will be held at 7 p.m. on July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, and 2 p.m. on Aug. 3. Tickets for the play will go on sale July 1 for $15 in advance or $20 the day of the shows. Individuals are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance at or in person at Sunset Community Center or Stephen Persinger Recreation Center in Geneva. Information about group sales discounts is available by calling the park district at 630-232-4542. The St. Charles Public Library continues its Sunday Concert Series with a performance by Tempero Brasilerio at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, in the Carnegie Community Room at the library, 1 S. Sixth Ave. in St. Charles. Tempero Brasileiro is a Brazilian music flute and guitar duo performing choro, samba and other Brazilian popular music, according to library officials. The performance is funded through donations to the St. Charles Public Library Foundation, officials said. A free fishing derby for children 15 years old and younger will be held from 8 to 11 a.m. Sunday, June 8, at Silver Lake in the Blackwell Forest Preserve, near Butterfield and Winfield roads in Warrenville. The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County's 'Just for Kids Fishing Derby' will award prizes in four age groups to those who catch the largest fish. District staff and volunteers will be on hand to offer fishing tips at the annual event, a news release said. 'Kids light up when they catch a fish, but this event is about more than that,' Ranger Operations manager Marty Jandura said in the release. 'It's a chance to connect with nature, learn a new skill and just enjoy being outside with family.' A limited supply of gear and nightcrawlers will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, the release said. Participants are encouraged to bring their own fishing gear. Register at or by calling 630-933-7248. Registration will also be available onsite the day of the derby.
Scroll.in
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
It's a ‘golden age' for the Hindi news business – but not so much for Hindi journalism and democracy
Is this the golden age of Hindi journalism, which was born 200 years ago in Kolkata with the publication of the first Hindi newspaper, Udant Martand (Rising Sun) on May 30, 1826? Many editors and analysts assert that Hindi journalism today is richer in its coverage, makes more profits and is politically more influential than ever. This is due to the expansion of the Hindi news media industry, especially after the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s. They claim that it has become more professional. The number of pages in the average newspaper, its circulation and its reach have increased manyfold; printing has improved; and colour pages and supplements have become more frequent. The scope of its coverage and the variety of topics have expanded. There are more trained journalists in newsrooms, many of them experts in various subjects. Their salaries and service conditions have improved. Hindi journalism, they note, is not merely an extension of 'Big Brother' English media or a translation of English newswire services. They also argue that the popularity, expansion, and influence of Hindi news channels have made up for the remaining gap. Editors of major Hindi newspapers and anchors of Hindi news channels are stars in the media world. There is no doubt that many of these claims are correct. But they need to be seen in perspective. Many of these claims ring true when compared to Hindi journalism before the 1970s. While most of these claims relate to a golden age for Hindi news media companies, they do not necessarily address the state of Hindi journalism. Can colourful glossy paper, better printing and the glamour of Hindi news channels be considered evidence of improvement in the quality of Hindi journalism? In 1925, at the Hindi Editors' Conference in Vrindavan, renowned Hindi editor Baburao Vishnu Paradkar gave a long-remembered speech in which he declared, ' Aachhe din, pachhe gaye.' The good old days have gone. A century ago, he predicted that the newspapers of the future would be more colourful with better paper and printing but they would lack a soul. In this era that some are hailing as its golden age, does Hindi journalism have a soul? Writer Arthur Miller once noted that, 'a good newspaper…is a nation talking to itself'. In our multi-edition, colourful, profit-making mainstream Hindi newspapers and Hindi news channels, can we hear India having a conversation with itself? Is the nation and its concerns, struggles, anxieties and thoughts reflected in those pages? Do we find reporting on rural areas, farmers, agriculture and their challenges or on factories, labourers and labour-related matters? How many Hindi newspapers and channels allow their journalists to consistently report from the ground in Kashmir, North East India, Odisha, and other invisible parts of India? Do the coverage and newsrooms of mainstream Hindi news media reflect India's cultural, ethnic, linguistic, caste, class and religious diversity as well as its diversity of ideas and concerns? The poor representation in newsrooms of Dalits, Adivasis, backward classes, minorities and women has been noted by scholars like Robin Jeffrey, Chandra Bhan Prasad and Yogendra Yadav? Is it a swarn yug(golden age) or a savarn yug – an era of upper castes? Similarly, while a few senior editors and anchors receive indulgent compensation packages, the salaries and service conditions of journalists working in most Hindi newspapers and channels are still very poor. As for the thousands of stringers on whom the sector relies, their salaries are poor, their service conditions precarious and their working environments are often hostile. The brutal murder in January of stringer Mukesh Chandrakar in Chhattisgarh is a tragic example of the status of stringers. There is no doubt that the Hindi news media industry has expanded tremendously in the last 35 years. In the post-liberalisation era, the majority of family-owned, mid-sized and geographically restricted Hindi news media companies have transformed into organised, multi-lingual, multi-state and multi-edition large corporate entities with the entry of massive domestic and foreign capital into the sector. Traditional Hindi media houses have raised capital from the share markets, formed alliances with foreign firms and diversified into sectors such as real estate, power, mining, retail business and education. Their ownership and management are deeply interlinked with big capital and corporate interests. Today, many large Hindi media companies are publicly listed. As in the rest of the corporate sector, large houses are acquiring smaller ones. Many once-thriving Hindi newspapers have shut down or been bought by bigger players. In 10 Hindi-speaking states, five major newspaper companies now dominate the print media space – Jagran Prakashan, Divya Bhaskar Corp, Hindustan Media (all listed companies), Amar Ujala, and Rajasthan Patrika. As concentration grows, small and medium newspapers struggle to survive. Digital transformation, falling print circulations (especially during Covid) and the shift of advertising to online platforms have worsened the crisis. Increasingly, Hindi news media companies are relying heavily on government support for survival, jeopardising editorial independence. As a consequence, public relations and propaganda is replacing public interest journalism. As small and medium-sized voices fade out, media pluralism shrinks. With fewer owners and outlets, the public receives narrower perspectives. Originality, investigative journalism, and ideological-political diversity are vanishing. In the last decade or so, Hindi news media has become the loyal mouthpiece of the ruling establishment. Neo-liberal economic ideas and communal politics dominate editorial agendas. In this corporatised public sphere, the Hindi media speaks for the affluent few and only through their lens. Hindi journalism, once a voice of the people, now chases elite interests and imitates India's English media. This is fuelling another crisis in Hindi journalism today: professional dissatisfaction among its journalists. Many feel they no longer have the freedom or space to do honest, independent, critical, and socially concerned journalism. The golden age is marked not by vitality but by suffocation. Corporate pressure is mounting. Paid news is rising. Institutional corruption is becoming normalised. Hundreds of journalists have either been thrown out or have quit big Hindi news media outlets in recent years. That, too, is a reality of this so-called golden age. None of this is good news for Indian democracy. May 30 is Hindi Journalism Day.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Everyone should see the Globe's brilliant new production of The Crucible
Sanity returns to the Globe. Recent modern-dress productions have failed to make use of the theatre's virtues as a historical backdrop. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is set in the 1690s (about a century after Shakespeare's heyday) and the script works beautifully on this spare, wooden stage. To make the groundlings feel involved, the playing area has been extended into the pit with two separate platforms for the judges and the witnesses. James Groom, as Willard the demented jailer, terrifies the crowd by striding around the arena, barking madly at anyone who gets in his way. It grabs your attention. The dashing Gavin Drea (John Proctor) looks terrific in the lead role alongside Phoebe Pryce as his mistrustful, nervy wife, Elizabeth. Both play their parts with strong Irish accents. Which is a puzzle. How did this nice couple from Ireland settle in a hard-line Protestant community where everyone has Anglo-Saxon roots (apart from Tituba who comes from Barbados)? Their diction is not always a perfect match for Miller's language. Among the younger cast, Bethany Wooding stands out as the frivolous, scheming turncoat, Mary Warren. Steve Furst, who used to play the spoof nightclub crooner, Lennie Beige, has transformed himself into Reverend Parris. And he's excellent as the two-faced, priggish control freak. There are no dud performances in Ola Ince's brilliant production. Howard Ward brings a canny warmth to the role of Giles Corey. The wonderful Jo Stone-Ewings (Reverend Hale) starts as a prickly despot and ends up as a penitent hero who admits his mistakes. The website calls the show a 'must-see thriller' but that only tells half the story.
Khaleej Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Scarlett Johansson on directing debut, old Hollywood glamour, and ‘Eleanor the Great'
Few movie stars today win over critics and convey Old Hollywood glamour as effortlessly as Scarlett Johansson does, all while seemingly impervious to the industry's convulsions. Now 40, she has been famous most of her life. She turned 10 the year her first movie, 'North,' opened in 1994; four years later, she was upstaging Robert Redford in 'The Horse Whisperer.' In the decades since, she starred in cult films and blockbusters, made a record with Pete Yorn and earned a couple of Oscar nominations. Between hits and misses, she also married three times (most recently to Colin Jost) and had two children. The kind of diverse professional portfolio that Johansson has cultivated can make life more interesting, of course, but it's also evidence of shrewd, career-sustaining choices. In 2010, she made her critically celebrated Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's tragedy 'A View From the Bridge.' (She went on to win a Tony.) That same year, she slipped on a bodysuit to play lethal Russian superspy Black Widow in Marvel's 'Iron Man 2,' a role that propelled her into global celebrity. On Tuesday, Johansson publicly took on another role when she presented her feature directing debut, 'Eleanor the Great,' at the Cannes Film Festival. Playing outside the main lineup, it is the kind of intimately scaled, performance-driven movie that's ideal for a novice director. June Squibb stars as 94-year-old Eleanor, who, soon after the story opens, moves into her daughter's New York apartment. Life gets complicated when Eleanor inadvertently ends up in a support group for Holocaust survivors. It gets even trickier when a journalism student insists on writing about Eleanor. A friendship is born, salted with laughter and tears. I met with Johansson the day after the premiere of 'Eleanor the Great.' She first walked the festival red carpet in 2005 for 'Match Point,' returning last year with 'Asteroid City.' (She's also in 'The Phoenician Scheme,' which is here, too.) It had rained hard the day of her premiere, but the sky was blue when she stepped onto a hotel terrace overlooking the Mediterranean. Seated in a quiet corner shaded by a large umbrella, Johansson was friendly, pleasant and a touch reserved. Wearing the largest diamond that I've seen outside of a Tiffany window, she kept her sunglasses on as we talked, the consummate picture of movie stardom. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation. Tell me about the genesis of the project. I have a production company called These Pictures, and we get all kinds of submissions. I wasn't looking for something to direct at that moment. I read it because I was fascinated to see what June Squibb was starring in because I love her, and I was so surprised by the story. It had a lot of elements of films that I love, independent films from the '90s and early aughts. It was New York-based, very character driven. And the plot device was so surprising. It made me cry. I immediately called my producing partner and was, like, I can direct this. I know how to make it. Not everyone just thinks they can direct... When I was much younger, I thought I would end up doing that eventually. In my early 20s, I became focused on understanding my job as an actor better. I was creatively engaged with the directors I was working with, taking on different roles that were challenging, and I veered off that path. The timing was right when the script found me. It felt like an extension of the work that I've been doing as opposed to this big unknown. And June was ready to make the film. She had energy and was committed to doing it. Did this story speak specifically to you because of your family experience? I could identify with the character's story, and, of course, I identify as Jewish. I had a very formidable grandmother who I was incredibly close with. She lives inside me and I think of her very often. She was, you know, a character and not unlike Eleanor. She could be kind of impossible. [ Laughs. ] How did it start to come together for you as a movie? I look at New York in a cinematic way. I've spent so much time strolling around as one does and just spending time observing. I'm a people watcher; it's one of my great pleasures. And when I read a script, I can see it as a film in my mind. I already had ideas, so it was more about having a dialogue with the cinematographer where we could have a conversation and get to the same conclusion. I knew I wanted beautiful portraits of June, to show her in this very pure way. The actors were so committed and had such dramatic stamina. I just needed to photograph them in a way that was uncomplicated. When you were younger, at one point did you realise, 'Oh, women make movies too'? It was fortunately a given because I worked with so many female directors when I was a kid. So, I guess I just never really thought about it as this gendered thing. Maybe I'm spoiled in a way or I take it for granted because I did work with so many female directors and continue to. Actually, the other day, I was reading an interview with Natalie Portman, and she grew up in film working with female directors. It was kind of the same thing for her. Maybe we both got lucky that when we started working, there was more opportunity for female directors. It's kind of balanced out in that way. Um, I don't know if it's totally balanced. [ Laughs. ] Do you want to keep directing? I do. It felt very fulfilling. We had such an amazing shooting experience. The feeling on set was so familial and creative and positive. It was really, really joyful. You don't always have a joyful experience on every movie that you make, but as I've gotten older, I have a lesser tolerance for the unpleasant experience. [ Laughs. ] As an industry veteran, do you feel optimistic about American movies? I think it'll balance itself out, and some of the players will change. It's just going to take a lot of time. The strike was really damaging, I think, more damaging than Covid; that has proved very, very challenging. There'll be a lot of big movies this summer, and I think even smaller movies like this film, when you see it in the theatre, it's amazing because everybody's crying and together. When you can see something moving with an audience, you're kind of buzzing afterward. I think it's about offering variety and studios that are committed to the theatrical experience. I think that we can climb our way back up — I think so.
