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    Ex-Artistic Director of Greece’s National Theater Held After Rape Arrest Warrant

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyEx-Artistic Director of Greece’s National Theater Held After Rape Arrest WarrantThe case of Dimitris Lignadis is the most high-profile among the numerous directors and actors to have been named in a torrent of accusations that have rocked the Greek arts world.Director Dimitris Lignadis reciting a poem on the balcony of National Theater in Athens on World Poetry Day in 2016. Mr. Lignadis has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment and charged with rape.Credit…Giorgos Georgiou/NurPhoto, via Getty ImagesFeb. 20, 2021, 2:59 p.m. ETATHENS — The Greek police on Saturday evening arrested the former artistic director of the country’s prestigious National Theater, who has been the target of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment that have buffeted the Greek arts world over the past weeks.Dimitris Lignadis turned himself in at the Athens police headquarters shortly after being informed that a warrant had been issued for his arrest on rape charges, his lawyer, Nikos Georgouleas, said in a text message. Speaking later outside police headquarters, where his client was being held, Mr. Georgouleas said his client denied the charges.“Everything that is being heard, he denies,” the lawyer said.Mr. Lignadis is the most high-profile among the numerous directors and actors to have been named in a torrent of accusations that have rocked the Greek arts world. And the charges against him are among the most serious. He resigned from his post at the National Theater earlier this month after reports emerged suggesting that he had sexually harassed young actors, which he furiously denied. After his resignation, more reports emerged, alleging more serious abuse.Mr. Lignadis in 2019.Credit…Efi Skaza/Eurokinissi, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe upheaval in Greece’s arts world has come after an Olympic sailor, Sofia Bekatorou, accused a top sailing official last month of sexually abusing her in 1998. Her charges represented the first high-profile accusation of sexual assault and abuse of power in Greece since the #MeToo movement swept the world, bringing down powerful figures in sports, the media and beyond.On Friday, Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said she had asked the country’s Supreme Court to investigate a barrage of accusations of sexual assault, primarily those involving the abuse of minors.In her remarks, Ms. Mendoni underlined the need for “catharsis” in Greece’s cultural sector and said that sexual abuse, particularly against minors, must not go unpunished.The unfolding scandal has fueled a vehement political fight in Greece. Ms. Mendoni’s detractors blame her for appointing Mr. Lignadis to the National Theater in 2019. Defending her ministry’s actions, Ms Mendoni said that neither she nor the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, had known Mr Lignadis “personally,” and knew him only as an actor.“Mr Lignadis is a dangerous man, but that has emerged now,” the minister said. She said she felt “deceived” by him.“With deep acting talent he tried to convince us that he had nothing to do with all this,” Ms Mendoni said, referring to the accusations of abuse.Mr. Mitsotakis, the prime minister, also referred to the mounting number of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment in the Greek performing arts during a televised meeting with President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Friday.“The sexual abuse of minors is the most abhorrent version of this phenomenon,” Mr. Mitsotakis said at the meeting. “In the public dialogue that has fortunately begun we must achieve the greatest possible political and social consensus if we are to tackle the problem,” he said.Greek prosecutors are expected to start summoning witnesses next week for their broader inquiry into allegations of abuse and harassment in the Greek arts world, starting with the head of the country’s actors’ union, Spyros Bibilas, who said the union has been deluged with complaints by actors reporting alleged abuse.In a statement issued after Mr Lignadis’ arrest on Saturday, Greece’s Justice Ministry said that judicial authorities “will do whatever is necessary in order to ensure everything comes to light on this very shady case and for justice to be done.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Shakespeare Troupe to Go Without an Artistic Director

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyShakespeare Troupe to Go Without an Artistic DirectorAmid severe budget cuts and complaints about his leadership, Ethan McSweeny, who had run the American Shakespeare Center since 2018, will not return.John Harrell and Jessika D. Williams in the American Shakespeare Center production of “Othello,” which was overseen by its former artistic director Ethan McSweeny.Credit…Lauren ParkerFeb. 19, 2021The American Shakespeare Center in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley claims to have the world’s only replica of the indoor venue where Shakespeare’s company performed. And now it’s going to attempt another Shakespearean structure: an actor-led company.The nonprofit announced Friday that its artistic director, Ethan McSweeny, had stepped down eight days earlier. The theater did not offer an explanation; McSweeny cited financial strain caused by the pandemic, but he was also facing complaints about the workplace climate from some employees.“While the pandemic crisis metastasized this past fall, I increasingly found myself trying to conceive of an ASC that would enter 2021 tabula rasa, preparing to reshape itself for rebirth into a massively changed arts ecosystem and national economy,” McSweeny said in a statement on Facebook. “It turns out that part of what became necessary to give the company a truly blank slate was to erase myself as well.”He declined to comment on the complaints, which were voiced in a letter submitted to the theater last fall, other than to say “it is a factor, but not a cause.”The theater, in Staunton, Va., said its “actor-led theater model” would be in place at least for the immediate future, which is expected to include productions of “Macbeth,” “Henry V” and “All’s Well That Ends Well” this summer.The chairman of the theater’s board, G. Rodney Young II, said that he could not comment on the specifics of McSweeny’s departure, but that the theater is addressing its workplace culture and “moving away from a top-down, vertical approach to producing plays.”“We are committed to focusing on improving how we work with each other, how we communicate with each other, and how we respond to the challenges that many of those who work for us are experiencing — and by that I’m talking about people of color,” he said. “We’re aware that in the theater world there are challenges to a traditional, hierarchical structure, and we think that this new model we’re going to pursue will in some ways address those concerns.”The company, founded in 1988 and a destination for Shakespeare lovers, has, like many arts nonprofits, had a challenging year.The theater, in a rural area with a low number of Covid-19 cases, decided to continue presenting plays — indoors, outdoors and streaming — using a variety of safety measures, but without the blessing of Actors’ Equity, the national union of stage actors. Several actors left Equity in order to be able to continue working at the theater.The theater has nonetheless contracted financially, from about a $4.2 million organization before the pandemic to a $1.8 million organization now. The theater is currently dark and much of the staff is on furlough.McSweeny began at the theater in 2018 after a freelance directing career that took him to Broadway (“A Time to Kill” and “The Best Man”) and around the world. He oversaw the development of an ambitious strategic plan that was finished last March, just days before the pandemic prompted theaters around the country to close.“The catastrophic impact of the last eleven months of pandemic has resulted in a significantly changed trajectory for ASC,” McSweeny wrote. “As the new year dawned, the Board and I determined that within the financial constraints of the foreseeable future, ASC could still thrive without my leadership. Accordingly, I offered my resignation and will not be returning from the current companywide furlough.”The theater’s managing director, Amy Wratchford, announced her departure in October, but has continued to help balance the books as an interim controller. “They have a lot of figuring out to do, but they’ve got the financial stability to take the time to figure it out,” she said on Friday. “They’re not swimming in cash, but they’re not on death’s door, and I definitely think the company can and will survive.”She said the new leadership structure is an opportunity to try a new way of operating.“We’ve been saying for decades that the nonprofit theater model is broken,” she said. “They have an opportunity to create a truly new model. I’m excited to see where they go.”Jessika D. Williams, one of the actors who left Equity to continue performing at the theater this summer, said American Shakespeare Center had been working for some time on director-less shows. Its 2020 production of “A Christmas Carol,” for example, was developed and run by actors.“We had been starting to plan this actor-manager model, learning the ins and outs of administration and development and education, so we could have more agency and input moving forward,” she said.Williams, who was not among those who signed the letter about the workplace environment, has left the company to pursue a career in film and television.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Two Tales of Disconnection, With One Cicada Cameo

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeBake: Maximalist BrowniesListen: To Pink SweatsGrow: RosesUnwind: With Ambience VideosAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookTwo Tales of Disconnection, With One Cicada CameoRecorded on a Houston stage, “The Book of Magdalene” is theatrically intimate, while “Hotel Good Luck” gets caught up in digital trickery.From left: Jennifer Wang as Len and Mariam Albishah as Ru in “The Book of Magdalene.”Credit…via Main Street TheaterPublished More

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    Caitlin Stasey Stars in Ed Burns’s ‘Bridge and Tunnel’

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyUp NextCaitlin Stasey Stars in Ed Burns’s ‘Bridge and Tunnel’The Australian actress is also directing pornographic films for a female-owned production company.Caitlin Stasey, who starred in Australian teenage TV comedies, at her home in Los Angeles.Credit…Pavielle Garcia for The New York TimesFeb. 19, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETName: Caitlin StaseyAge: 30Hometown: Melbourne, AustraliaNow lives: In a two-bedroom, 1950s ranch-style house on the east side of Los Angeles.Claim to fame: Ms. Stasey is an actress, writer and director who stars in the new Epix series “Bridge and Tunnel,” a dramedy set on Long Island in the 1980s. She plays a recent college graduate caught between her big-city fashion dreams and a high school sweetheart. Like most of her roles, the character is “incredibly strong willed,” she said. “I’ve never played a character who’s been second in command. Even if she had power taken from her, she’s always managed to get it back.”Big break: “I’ve always been a show-off,” Ms. Stasey said of her childhood, which was filled with choir and drama clubs. At 12, she auditioned for “The Sleepover Club,” an Australian TV comedy series in which five young girls bond over weekly sleepovers. “When I got the call, I had no idea which character I would play,” she said.The offer was for Frankie, the lead. The show ran for one season, but a year later, in 2015, she landed a part in “Neighbours” a popular Australian soap opera that turned her into a fan favorite. “Honestly that job is what changed my life,” she said.Credit…Pavielle Garcia for The New York TimesLatest project: Edward Burns, who created “Bridge and Tunnel” wrote Ms. Stasey’s role with her in mind after she appeared in his film “Summertime,” which was also set on Long Island in the 1980s. Because of the pandemic, the “Bridge and Tunnel” cast spent a week in Zoom rehearsals before shooting the six episodes over five weeks last summer and fall. “Ed gives you a great outline of the character and expects you to fill it in with any kind of texture,” she said. “And we really did define for ourselves the way things would sound.”Next thing: This month, Ms. Stasey will direct a new series for Afterglow, a female-owned pornography company and sexual health website based in Austin, Texas, where she is a resident writer-director. “Porn sets tend to be a hell of a lot more inclusive than traditional film sets,” she said. “There’s also a lot more conversations surrounding consent, respect and on-set conduct.”Hampton dreams: During the filming of “Bridge and Tunnel,” the cast stayed at the Hampton Inn in Rockville Centre, N.Y. At night, the cast members transformed their rooms into nightclubs.Sam Vartholomeos, who plays Ms. Stasey’s on-screen boyfriend Jimmy, was the resident D.J. “I think it will be a thing I think about when I’m dying,” she said. “I remember being young and cool and living in that hotel.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Jimmy Kimmel: Texas in Crisis, Ted Cruz Says, ‘Adios, Amigos’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Winter StormsliveLatest UpdatesMapping the ImpactTexans DesperateConnection to Global WarmingHow to HelpAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightJimmy Kimmel: Texas in Crisis, Ted Cruz Says, ‘Adios, Amigos’“Snake on a plane, right there!” Kimmel joked. “Headed, ironically, to the very place he tried to build the wall around.”“And on a day when the most newsworthy landing should have been the NASA Rover successfully touching down on Mars, instead, it was a senator from Texas touching down on Cancún,” Jimmy Kimmel said on Thursday.Credit…ABCFeb. 19, 2021, 1:04 a.m. ETWelcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. We’re all stuck at home at the moment, so here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Feeling the HeatLate-night hosts couldn’t resist coming down on Senator Ted Cruz for taking a trip to Mexico after a winter storm left millions without power and water in his home state, Texas.“Snake on a plane, right there!” Jimmy Kimmel joked on Thursday. “Headed, ironically, to the very place he tried to build the wall around.”“Hundreds of thousands of Texans are still without power. And on a day when the most newsworthy landing should have been the NASA Rover successfully touching down on Mars, instead, it was a senator from Texas touching down on Cancún.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“While his fellow Texans are freezing with the power out, Ted Cruz did what any great leader would do when his state needs leadership most — he booked a flight to Mexico and said, ‘Adios, amigos!’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Ted Cruz! No, man, you got to be [expletive] me, dude! Your people are literally eating snow right now, and you’re jetting off to Cancún? I’m not even mad that you were selfish — I’m mad that you were so stupid. How can you be in politics for 10 years and still have no idea how bad this would make you look. What were you thinking?” — TREVOR NOAH“I mean, seeing Ted Cruz skip town for the beach has been very frustrating for the people in Texas. But on the other hand, it has been really exciting for the people in Cancún who got to meet him on the street: ‘Wow, bro, I didn’t know that Señor Frog was a real guy. That was awesome.’” — TREVOR NOAH“I mean, look, I get that Ted Cruz is tired. The man deserves a break after trying so hard to overthrow the government, but this is not the time, Ted!” — TREVOR NOAH“When your constituents said they need clean water, they didn’t mean go find a wet T-shirt contest in Cancún.” — TREVOR NOAHThe Punchiest Punchlines (Total Ted Cruz Edition)“And what is even worse is that when he got caught, instead of owning up to it and apologizing, he acted like a total Ted Cruz.” — TREVOR NOAH“Seriously, Ted Cruz blaming his daughters for this is just gross. Being a good father means putting them on a bus, not throwing them under one.” — TREVOR NOAH“Oh, I see — we all got this thing wrong. Ted Cruz wasn’t going on vacation, people; he was just chaperoning his girls on the flight to Cancún. So, in some way, this was like a reverse ‘Taken’: [imitating Ted Cruz as Liam Neeson] ‘I want you to know that I am a man with absolutely no skills whatsoever, and I’m going to safely accompany my daughters on this trip.’” — TREVOR NOAH“He booked his return ticket at 6 a.m. this morning, after he got busted. But I guess we were supposed to believe he was just chaperoning his wife and kids to Mexico and was planning to come back the next day all along, with a carry-on bag stuffed like a piñata.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingDesus and Mero weighed in on “The Bachelor” host Chris Harrison stepping away from the show after recent controversy.Also, Check This OutCredit…The New York TimesThere’s something for everyone in the essential works of Toni Morrison in celebration of what would have been her 90th birthday.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Second City Is Sold to Private Equity Group

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeBake: Maximalist BrowniesListen: To Pink SweatsGrow: RosesUnwind: With Ambience VideosAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySecond City Is Sold to Private Equity GroupThe comedy company has faced intense criticism over race and had committed to restructuring. The new owner, ZMC, said it would not abandon this plan.Second City, in Chicago, also has outposts in Hollywood and Toronto. “We are very excited to partner with management and the incredible talent at The Second City to grow the brand and build a diverse organization,” ZMC said in a statement.Credit…Danielle Scruggs for The New York TimesFeb. 18, 2021Updated 4:02 p.m. ETSecond City, the storied comedy theater, which for more than half a century has helped define American humor, was sold to a private equity group on Thursday, the company said in a statement. The group, ZMC, run by Strauss Zelnick, invests in media entities; Zelnick is also the chief executive of Take-Two Interactive Software, the video game conglomerate behind Grand Theft Auto.It is the first time Second City, which is based in Chicago and has outposts in Hollywood and Toronto, has changed ownership since the 1980s, when Andrew Alexander, a producer and former head of the Toronto location, took over as co-owner and chief executive. Since it opened in 1959, Second City has helped ignite the careers of Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert and Keegan Michael-Key. Pre-pandemic, it was almost certainly the largest live comedy business in the nation, with more than 700 full- and part-time employees, and an Actors Equity stage contract. The sale price was not disclosed but was estimated at around $50 million, according to The Financial Times.In the statement, Steve Johnston, the president of Second City (also known as The Second City), said, “We are thrilled to work with ZMC as we continue to transform the company into an equitable and thriving environment while delivering world-class comedy to our audiences.”The move comes as Second City is grappling with a business drop-off caused by pandemic shutdowns. It curtailed its in-person shows, tours, classes and corporate workshops — a big part of its business — though the theater aimed to rebound with online comedy and digital content. When Alexander announced that he was looking for buyers last October, he said it was “time for a new generation with fresh ideas to take the company to the next level.”Second City also has been trying to restructure itself after intense criticism over its handling of race. Alexander, who had been involved with the theater for nearly 50 years, stepped down abruptly last summer after Black performers publicly detailed their experiences of being stereotyped and demeaned. A series of open letters from artists and staff members of color then outlined complicated and expensive steps for the theater to combat institutional racism, and Second City leadership agreed to make wholesale changes.“We are prepared to tear it all down and begin again,” the theater’s leaders wrote in an open letter. They appointed a new interim executive director, Anthony LeBlanc, the first Black leader in the company’s history, and took many other measures, even as its performance spaces remained closed.The announcement of the sale suggested that ZMC would not abandon this plan. “We are very excited to partner with management and the incredible talent at The Second City to grow the brand and build a diverse organization that elevates all voices,” Jordan Turkewitz, co-chief investment officer and managing partner at ZMC, said in the statement.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Review: The Internet and Real Life Blur in ‘Sin Eaters’

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyReview: The Internet and Real Life Blur in ‘Sin Eaters’Anna Moench’s play, about a woman working in social media content moderation, begins with dark humor but slides into psychological horror.Bi Jean Ngo in Anna Moench’s “Sin Eaters,” which is being streamed by Theater Exile in Philadelphia.Credit…via Theater ExileFeb. 18, 2021Sin EatersIf you think social media is a cesspool, Mary Lee knows that it’s even worse than that.Her story, recounted in Anna Moench’s play “Sin Eaters,” starts like the internet did: with the promise of a brighter, improved future. Mary (Bi Jean Ngo) and her partner, Derek (David M. Raine), are celebrating; she has finally landed a new job, and in tech at that. So what if she found the gig on Craigslist, it’s temporary, it pays $20 an hour, and she doesn’t know exactly what her duties will entail? It’s money, which the couple need to move out of their Staten Island hovel.“Sin Eaters,” presented on-demand by Theater Exile in Philadelphia, kicks off as a standard domestic dramedy. Derek, who has artistic aspirations, sulks a bit when Mary Lee points out that it would be easier for them to find a new place if they had two incomes, and suggests he should go back to catering.Darker waters, however, are churning underneath the banter. Noises from the neighbors bleed into the couple’s apartment, alternately gross and ominous. The petulant Derek has an unwelcome passive-aggressive streak. At one point, he adjusts a home surveillance camera on the ceiling, and it’s unclear whether Mary knows it’s there.Ngo, left, stars in the production with her real-life partner, David M. Raine, who plays all of the supporting characters.Credit…via Theater ExileThe unease grows more sharply defined when Mary turns up at her new cubicle (Matt Pfeiffer’s deft, inventive staging for this virtual production makes the most of the two main sets). She has been hired by a new social media platform, Between Us, to review anonymous posts that have been flagged for guideline violations. As anybody who has ever taken a wrong turn on the internet can attest, it does not always bring out the best in people.Mary’s days are a parade of gore, racism, child abuse and animal torture — a list of no-no’s helpfully hangs on a whiteboard, a constant reminder of the horrors people are capable of. “It’s a hard job,” her supervisor, Steve (voiced by Raine), tells her. “You eat the weirdos’ sins so normal people don’t have to.”Moench, whose play “Mothers” also displayed a penchant for dark humor, has set up a great premise. And the first half of “Sin Eaters” moves with assurance, layering paranoid, unsettling vibes and satirical barbs targeting contemporary corporate environments; the winner of a productivity challenge gets to choose between a $50 Starbucks gift card and a Skype interview with the company’s content managers.The play is on less solid ground when Mary’s job inevitably gets in her head. In theory, what happens on Between Us stays on Between Us; but the web has a nasty habit of spilling into real life, and vice versa. Just when Mary is getting used to — or rather, desensitized by — her daily parade of depravities, she thinks she recognizes somebody in one of the videos under review. She is not 100 percent sure, though, especially since everybody around her starts looking familiar. (Raine, who is Ngo’s real-life partner, plays all the supporting characters.)The turn into psychological horror — shades of Tracy Letts’s “Bug” or the Roman Polanski film “Repulsion” — feels a little tentative, in both the writing and direction. Still, it’s refreshing to see a play embrace genre instead of snobbing it as if it were the equivalent of a catering job.Sin EatersThrough Feb. 28; theatreexile.org.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    What Frustrated Workers Heard in That Dolly Parton Ad

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyScreenlandWhat Frustrated Workers Heard in That Dolly Parton AdA protest song about degrading work becomes a rousing call to do even more work after that.Credit…Photo illustration by Najeebah Al-GhadbanFeb. 18, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETWe open to shades of gray and beige and what must be the world’s dullest office. In case you didn’t notice the overwhelming tedium, though, there’s help: One actor’s heavy eyelids are dragging his whole body downward, and another, slumped onto one elbow, seems to be collapsing so thoroughly into his desk that he might merge with it. By the time we see papers thudding into the inbox of a young woman — the camera loses focus as she contemplates the files, as if it shares her despair — we’ve gotten the message: Work is where joy goes to die.Then a flicker of hope crosses the woman’s face. She has looked up at the clock, which is moments away from striking 5. She opens her laptop, where we see our first glimpse of real color, in the website for a dance-fitness business she’s starting. After one last edit, she hits publish, then closes the laptop to an office transformed. Her gray sweater is now a red tank top, and she dances past her officemates, all now in bright outfits, converting their cubicles into creative small businesses: an art studio, a bakery, a woodworking shop, a landscaping business that seems to specialize in topiary sculptures, something involving scuba. Their life force is restored, because their jobs and their dreams are now one.The message is familiar, and classically American: bootstraps and businesses, Horatio Alger for the Instagram generation. If this ad — aired by Squarespace, a service for building and hosting websites, during this year’s Super Bowl — had only had a different soundtrack, it might well have been forgotten by Monday.But all this was set to Dolly Parton singing a reimagined version of her famous “9 to 5,” originally written for the hit 1980 comedy of the same name. In that movie, Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin play office workers who semiaccidentally kidnap their sexist boss and, in his absence, transform their office, offering flexible hours, on-site child care and equal pay for men and women. The movie, in turn, was inspired by real women: a group of Boston secretaries who banded together in 1973 to fight against degrading and unfair working conditions. They are the ones who named their cause after the eight daily hours of their lives they wanted to make better.The updated song moves work into the remaining hours: It’s called “5 to 9,” and it is, according to Squarespace, “a modern rallying cry for all the dreamers working to turn an after-hours passion or project into a career.” The two songs are bizarro images of each other: both feisty and plucky, the same tune with very different messages. In the original lyrics: “They let you dream just to watch them shatter,” and “It’s a rich man’s game no matter what they call it/And you spend your life putting money in his wallet.” Now Parton offers that you could “Change your life, do something that gives it meaning/With a website that is worthy of your dreaming.” By the end, she’s belting: “5 to 9, you keep working, working, working, working.” Where once was righteous outrage at a broken system, there is now self-help. And grinding.After the ad aired, as Squarespace tried to promote the hashtag #5to9, a counterversion appeared: #9to5ShouldBeEnough. The ad clearly felt, to many of its viewers, like yet another glorification of an economy in which people must work more jobs, for ever longer hours, just to survive to the next paycheck — often for gig-economy companies that classify them as “independent” contract laborers, instead of offering the sorts of protected, benefited, living-wage jobs for which the women of the original 9to5 group continue to fight. It didn’t help that the gig-economy mainstays DoorDash and UberEats aired their own Super Bowl ads branding themselves as genial supporters of small businesses. DoorDash used the “Sesame Street” song “People in Your Neighborhood”; UberEats resurrected the tongue-in-cheek anti-corporate message of “Wayne’s World.” Both companies have taken in billions during the pandemic, skimming hefty fees off the struggling local restaurants whose food they deliver.Squarespace’s ad was a little different: Starting your own business is not the same as working in the gig economy, no matter how much gig-economy companies like to frame working for them as “being your own boss.” Still, it’s striking that the jobs in the ad — the sorts of creatively fulfilling jobs that characters have in romantic comedies — are also the sorts that are ever rarer and more untenable in our increasingly corporatized economy. Rather than reflecting the work most people actually do in their second shifts, they offer a dream that papers over reality.‘5 to 9, you keep working, working, working, working.’This was a poor message, AdWeek chided, at a time when “hustle culture feels downright toxic.” Inevitably, though, debate about the ad landed not on Squarespace, but on the shoulders of Parton herself. Was she profiting off the fetishization of an exploitative economy, or was she just another hard-working American with her own side hustle? (There’s an ad within the ad, for Parton’s new fragrance line, which uses a Squarespace site). A Washington Post headline referred to the ad as “Dolly Parton’s betrayal,” while one in Newsweek argued that the ad “Shows We Live in a Dystopia” — but only after cautiously averring that “Dolly Parton Is Awesome.”Parton is beloved for her music, her savvy, her generosity — but also for being the rare celebrity who has managed to rise above the polarization of a country that seems to agree on little except its admiration of her. She is careful not to appear to choose sides in our culture wars, and that circumspection creates a space for us to project, ardently, our own politics onto her choices. Perhaps she was surprised to learn how many people found an ad about hustling after your dream job — the real story of her own hardscrabble-to-superstardom life — to be political. But viewers of the ad saw it in the context of their own experiences: endlessly working, working, working, working.What’s interesting about the two versions of the song isn’t what they tell us about Parton. It’s what they show us about how, four decades later, our economy is still broadly failing the people who toil inside it. The original lyrics offer frustration and disbelief — “What a way to make a living!” — and a clear diagnosis of the problem: companies that aren’t required to respect or take care of their workers. In Squarespace’s hands, the words become “a whole new way to make a living” — a dream of escape, of going out on your own because you’ve given up on an economy that refuses to look out for you.But listeners reacting online kept mishearing that new line. They detected something a lot closer to how they actually experience our economy. Endless hustling, they heard, now offers neither solution nor escape; it is, simply, “the only way to make a living.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More