Eliana Willis

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    A Trip Into the Otherworldly With Adrienne Kennedy as Guide

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookA Trip Into the Otherworldly With Adrienne Kennedy as GuideA digital four-play retrospective, capped by a world premiere, illuminates this writer’s fascination with doubling, violence and Black identity.Maya Jackson, left, and Michael Sweeney Hammond in Adrienne Kennedy’s “He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box,” a Round House Theater production in association with the McCarter Theater Center.Credit…via Round House TheaterPublished More

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    Hunter Schafer’s Week: A New York Whirlwind

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHunter Schafer’s Week: A New York WhirlwindVisiting town for an awards ceremony, the model and star of HBO’s “Euphoria” unwinds with “Ghost in the Shell” and screamo music.Hunter Schafer arrived in New York to attend the Gotham Independent Film Awards earlier this month.Credit…Sabrina Santiago for The New York TimesJan. 19, 2021, 4:25 p.m. ETHunter Schafer’s eyes were boring a hole through her gray hotel room wall, left hand cupping her cheek as though, by wishing hard enough, she could convince the events of the day she was trying to recall to surface.“Let’s see, I know I did the Gotham Awards … yesterday?” the 21-year-old transgender model and breakout star of HBO’s “Euphoria” said in a video call earlier this month.Not quite — the ceremony had been the day before.“My bad,” she said, grinning in a light blue hoodie and black Carhartt-style jacket after just returning from an outdoor photo shoot on a chilly New York afternoon. “Time is confusing right now.”The past year and a half has been a whirlwind for Schafer since she made her acting debut as Jules opposite Zendaya’s addiction-tormented Rue on “Euphoria,” the Emmy-winning drama series about teenagers navigating the temptations of drug use at a Southern California high school. Schafer turns in a sensitive, gut-wrenching performance as a 17-year-old transgender girl who struggles with depression, bullying and gender dysphoria and has a love interest who can’t seem to stay clean.And now she’s taking another leap — into writing. Schafer co-wrote the show’s second special episode, which premieres Sunday on HBO Max, with the “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson. “The writing process took months,” she said. “There was a week where we spent hours on the phone every day to get the episode fleshed out.”Schafer tracked her cultural diary while in New York for the 30th annual Gotham Independent Film Awards earlier this month, from her red-eye arrival on Jan. 10 to falling asleep to screamo music two days later. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.“I walked around Downtown while listening to this Aaron Cartier album that one of my L.A. friends put me onto, ‘Aaron Cartier Best Dog.’ It’s energetic and gets my New York endorphins going.”Credit…Sabrina Santiago for The New York TimesSunday MorningI got some sleep on my red-eye flight to New York, where I’d be presenting at the Gotham Independent Film Awards on Monday night. I listened to the “Kajillionaire” soundtrack in the car on my way to my hotel in SoHo. I’m in awe of how beautiful Emile Mosseri’s songs are — I’ve been listening to them constantly.Sunday AfternoonI walked around Downtown while listening to this Aaron Cartier album that one of my L.A. friends put me onto, “Aaron Cartier Best Dog.” It’s energetic and gets my New York endorphins going. Then I sat in bed and watched the series finale of “Veneno,” which is my favorite show that I’ve been watching recently. It made me super emo, but it has some of the best portrayals of trans femmes I’ve seen on TV in a very long time — maybe ever.Sunday EveningI went to dinner with some friends in my pod at KazuNori, which is this sushi place with amazing hand rolls. They wrap them right there and bring them out fresh, so the seaweed is still crunchy and the rice is so soft. Definite upgrade from the packaged microwave meals I was living off of before. Then my friend and I popped into this lingerie store across the street, WANT Apothecary, and got these little stripper dresses — just for fun, because it’s important to dress up and put on a show for yourself in quarantine.Back at my hotel, I watched the anime movie “Ghost in the Shell” to go to sleep, which was spooky and gave me simulation vibes. Being in that existential head space influenced my dreams in a weird way.Credit…Sabrina Santiago for The New York TimesMonday MorningI’m really bad about hitting the snooze button in the morning, so I need something pretty jarring to wake me up — I just use the regular annoying iPhone alarm. But I’ve also been sleeping to the Kajillionaire soundtrack, so I get nice little bits of that in my five minutes before my alarm goes off again.One thing that’s changed since the start of the pandemic is my shower routine. When I’m filming, I’ve been obsessed with this thing my friend told me you can do where, at the end of your shower, you turn the nozzle all the way cold and let yourself sit in the freezing water for 30 seconds. Its brings you to life.I used to pick out my outfits the night before in high school, but, now that I’m living out of a suitcase, I’ve edited my wardrobe so everything kind of goes with each other, so I’m never too stressed out about whether my outfit makes sense. One of my favorite T-shirts is from the L.A. brand Come Tees, which has beautiful prints of animated characters hat are super bright and colorful.Monday AfternoonHair and makeup came in to get me ready for the Gotham Awards. I wore a bondage-y dress from Matthew Williams’s Givenchy collection with a belt full of gold padlocks and a necklace from my friend Darius Khonsary’s new jewelry collection, Darius Jewels. She’s made this incredible collection of gold, antique-looking pieces that are also modern and mythical.Monday EveningI sat at my own table, socially distanced from the other presenters, at the Gotham Awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street. I gave out the short form Breakthrough Series award, which I was so happy to see “I May Destroy You” win. That show took me out when it came out last year — it was [expletive] incredible. I’m a huge Michaela Coel fan.I got back to my hotel around 10 p.m., where I ordered some vegetable fried rice and stripped down to my underwear. Then I scrolled through my friends’ Instagram stories. Gogo Graham, who’s a fashion designer, has an amazing feed — I’m floored every time she releases new garments. And Dara Allen, a stylist and model I used to work with, is a dream — I’m entranced by the amazing looks she creates out of her wild collection of clothes.“I used to pick out my outfits the night before in high school, but, now that I’m living out of a suitcase, I’ve edited my wardrobe so everything kind of goes with each other.”Credit…Sabrina Santiago for The New York TimesI’ve been listening to pretty varied music lately: “Dawning,” Davia Spain’s jazzy debut album, and the rapper Quay Dash’s EP “Transphobic.” And my friend Tweaks just came out with a new EP, “Older Now,” which is this futuristic, experimental thing.Tuesday AfternoonI came across this album, “Hunter Schafer’s Boyfriend,” by an artist named CHASE after someone tagged me in it on Twitter. I was like, “What is this?” Then I listened to it, and it’s actually sick. I genuinely enjoyed it — there’s something electronic and poppy about it, but also elements of rap and maybe a little screamo, too.Tuesday EveningI walked to a Japanese restaurant, AOI Kitchen, with three themed mini houses — there were flowers on the wall, and it felt like a little fairy house. It didn’t feel like I was in New York at all. They had really good tofu, mushrooms and sake. Then I walked back to my hotel and listened to some screamo music before relaxing into something a bit more restful — some songs by Colleen, which sound like something plants would dance to.On Her Wish ListI love drawing by the window in my hotel in New York, coffee in hand — that’s my dream of a day. I love Basquiat, Egon Schiele and Sage Adams. I go through waves where I get really into drawing for a couple of weeks, then I set it aside for a bit because I don’t feel that creative. Hopefully I’m going to go through another one soon.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ Hit No. 1 in a Week. Here’s How.

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOlivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ Hit No. 1 in a Week. Here’s How.The debut single from the 17-year-old Disney actress became a TikTok smash, broke Spotify records and topped the Billboard chart thanks to a “perfect storm” of quality, gossip and marketing.“Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart following a record-breaking first week across streaming services.Credit…Erica HernandezJan. 19, 2021Updated 3:14 p.m. ETThe music industry’s first runaway hit single of the year is at once a time-tested model — a Disney actress pivoting to pop with a catchy and confessional breakup ballad — and also an unprecedented TikTok-era smash by a teenager.“Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo, 17, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on Tuesday, following a record-breaking first week across streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music. Along the way, the autobiographical song kicked up tabloid and social media speculation as listeners tried to piece together its real-life parallels as if it were a track by Rodrigo’s hero, Taylor Swift. TikTok videos led to blog posts, which led to streams, which led to news articles, and back around again. The feedback loop made it unbeatable.“It’s been the absolute craziest week of my life,” Rodrigo, who really did get her driver’s license last year, said in an interview. “My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant.”At a shaky and uncertain time for the music business, amid the pandemic and civil unrest, “Drivers License” was released across platforms and with a broody music video on Jan. 8 by Geffen Records. The song was then streamed more than 76.1 million times in the United States for the week, according to Billboard, the highest total since “WAP,” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, in August (93 million). On Spotify, “Drivers License” set a daily record for global streams for a non-holiday song on Jan. 11, and then beat its own number the next day, eventually setting the service’s record for most streams in a week worldwide.The track reached No. 1 in 48 countries on Apple Music, 31 countries on Spotify and 14 countries on YouTube, Rodrigo’s label said. It also sold 38,000 downloads in the United States, the most for the week, and earned 8.1 million radio airplay audience impressions, Billboard reported.“We definitely had no idea how big it was going to be,” said Jeremy Erlich, the co-head of music at Spotify. “It just ballooned into this monster, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And I think unlike anything anyone’s seen before.”The company, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the song’s global streams in its first week, responded to initial interest by increasing its promotion of the track, which now sits on 150 official Spotify playlists. “It’s definitely not slowing down,” Erlich said. “It’s the topic around the company and around the industry.”The song, written by Rodrigo and produced by Dan Nigro, starts straightforward enough: “I got my driver’s license last week,” Rodrigo sings over a basic piano part, “just like we always talked about.” But by the end of the first verse, she’s “crying in the suburbs,” and the music swells until a cathartic bridge that hits with a type-breaking curse word. The song “successfully balances dark yet crisp melodrama with bold tunefulness, softly pointed singing with sharp imagery,” the critic Jon Caramanica wrote. “It is, in every way, a modern and successful pop song.”“Drivers License” may represent Rodrigo’s proper debut as a solo artist, but she came with a built-in audience thanks to her Disney roles. Born and raised in Southern California, she became a belting talent-show regular by the age of 8 and was cast first on “Bizaardvark,” which ran for three seasons on the Disney Channel between 2016 and 2019. Rodrigo, who learned to play guitar for the role, starred as Paige Olvera, a teenager who makes songs and videos for an online content studio.She currently stars as Nini Salazar-Roberts on the Disney+ series “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” Last year, a song written by Rodrigo, “All I Want,” became the show’s most successful track so far.But like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato before her — and Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera before them — Rodrigo took her experiences within the Disney machine and attempted to translate them for a broader, more adult audience. Fans have speculated that “Drivers License” is about Rodigro’s “High School Musical” co-star Joshua Bassett, who released his own single — and car-centric video — on Friday.Erlich, the Spotify executive, said that there was “a ton of X-factor that made this the perfect storm” for Rodrigo, including the gossip, the quality of her song, the marketing plan prepared in advance by her label and support from celebrities like Swift. “It did align perfectly and quicker than anything we’ve ever seen,” he said. “We’ve seen alignment like that, but typically it’s spread over three to six months — this happened in a day and a half.”Rodrigo called the song “a little time capsule” of a monumental six months she experienced last year. Acknowledging the “archetype” of the Disney star-turned-pop star, she said that she had been nervous about the collision of reactions from “people who have never heard my name before and people who have kind of grown up with me on TV.” But she was thrilled to find both groups interested.“The cool thing about ‘Drivers License’ is I’ve seen so many videos of people being like, ‘I have no idea who this girl is, but I really love this song,’ which has been really interesting for me, because for so long I’ve really just been attached to projects and to characters, and that’s how people know me,” she said. “It’s really cool to be introduced to people for the first time through a song that I feel really passionate about.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More