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A&S in the News – October 7-13

Fresh take jazzes up venerable Shakespeare play
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 8
Performances of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” are always games of expectation: What fresh take on “To be or not to be” can possibly exist under the sun? Seth Panitch’s production of “Hamlet” at the University of Alabama this week does not disappoint on this score. Setting the play in the 1950s of Greenwich Village, Panitch pits Hamlet’s tortured soliloquies against the stylings of original songs by Tuscaloosa musician Nick Boyd, influenced by Miles Davis and John Coltrane. With the soliloquy as saxophone solo, we’re encouraged to hear Hamlet’s sufferings as improvisations rather than 400-year-old recitations, new thoughts flowing from a new character. Ian Anderson plays this dynamic wonderfully, giving his Hamlet a range from apathy to apoplexy, from fits of laughter to outbursts of violence. That dynamic would not be complete, of course, without the talents of saxophonist Boyd. Boyd composed and played the haunting melodies that provided a constant accompaniment to Anderson’s soliloquies, at the curtain call sharing the final bow with Anderson.

New dual exhibition showcases sculpture and interactive art
Crimson White – Oct. 10
A new exhibit at The University of Alabama allows viewers to choose the endings to six stories told through drawings. In another exhibit, students are confronted with sculptures that capture the unease of the modern urban environment. A new dual exhibition by Melissa Stern and Matt Ziemke opened on Oct. 6 and runs until Oct. 27 at Sella-Granata Gallery. The two separate shows, Stern’s “Loose Lips” and Ziemke’s “What it was, what it is and what it will be,” illustrate the differences in the artists’ methods and aesthetic goals.

UA astronomers say fireball was a meteor
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Oct. 12
A fireball lit up the sky early this morning and could be seen by several states. Astronomy professors from The University of Alabama say it was a meteor, and it came through at 5:58. Here’s a look at the folks who reported spotting that meteor. There were nearly 400 reports in all.

The Trump tape has transformed the 2016 election into a referendum on gender
Oct. 13 – London School of Economics
In less than a week, the release of a 2005 tape of Donald Trump making controversial comments about women has led to a number of Republicans withdrawing their support for the presidential nominee. But, writes Nichole Bauer, the release of the tape has wider implications than the nose-diving of Trump’s campaign. She argues that the views that Trump expressed about women have more definitively placed substantive women’s issues at the top of the agenda in this presidential election.

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