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    For Aja Naomi King, an Emmy Nomination Is a Seismic Event

    The earth shook as she talked about receiving her first Emmy nod, for her role as Harriet in the Apple TV+ show “Lessons in Chemistry.” Literally.A few minutes into a conversation with Aja Naomi King, a first time Emmy nominee for her graceful, purposeful supporting turn in the Apple TV+ limited series “Lessons in Chemistry,” the earth began to move. “Oh my God. Earthquake! Earthquake!” King said. Once the ground quieted, she collected herself.“Sorry,” she said. “I just really got the fullness of that shake.”An Emmy nomination? That has been earthshaking, too. King’s Instagram post about the news is an outpouring of exuberant run-on sentences punctuated by a heart emoji. “If you made it to the bottom of this post you deserve an award,” she wrote.King, 39, graduated from the School of Drama at Yale in 2010. She had been working professionally for over a decade, most notably in the tangy ABC procedural “How to Get Away With Murder,” when she was cast in “Lessons in Chemistry.” Based on the best seller by Bonnie Garmus, the show tells the story of Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), a onetime chemist who becomes the host of a 1960s cooking show.King plays Elizabeth’s close friend Harriet. Described in the novel as a middle-aged white woman, Harriet was reimagined as a young Black mother and an aspiring lawyer who fights to save Los Angeles’s Sugar Hill neighborhood from the incursions of the freeway system.When Elizabeth, concerned for her career, declines to participate in the fight, King’s Harriet confronts her. “You’re always talking about the things that keep women down, but who does that include?” Harriet says.While King was initially concerned that Harriet would be a mere foil for Elizabeth, she was gratified by what she described as “the fullness of Harriet’s Black womanhood” that the show allowed for.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    7 Days in the Cultural Life of an Artistic Director

    Violaine Huisman, who leads programming for the Crossing the Line festival, takes in dance on Little Island, a world premiere at Asia Society and “invigorating” translation projects.Bastille Day felt a little bit different this year than others, said Violaine Huisman, the artistic director of New York’s annual Crossing the Line festival. L’Alliance, the French cultural center in Midtown, throws a party every July 14, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution. This year, the celebration took place just one week after a surprising snap election left President Emmanuel Macron — and France — in a state of flux.“I overheard onlookers wondering out loud whether it was a French tradition to demonstrate with blank signs on that day,” recalled Huisman, who had just been in the country to witness the upset in the streets. (Many participants in this year’s festival opted to carry blank placards in homage to a demonstration created by the choreographer Anna Halprin during the civil rights and antiwar protests of the 1960s.)During these times of uncertainty, many look to art for clarity and guidance. Huisman, 45, is certainly one of those people, as she has been hard at work curating programming for the next Crossing the Line, which kicks off several weeks of art, dance and theater on Sept. 5.Ahead of the festival, Huisman tracked a few days of her cultural life, noting some of the performances, books and music, mostly from her native France, that inspired her. Here are edited excerpts from phone and email interviews.“I overheard onlookers wondering out loud whether it was a French tradition to demonstrate with blank signs on that day,” Huisman said.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesSunday: Placards for PeaceWe celebrated Bastille Day at L’Alliance with a street fair and an amazing piece of performance art, in which two dozen volunteers carrying blank placards engaged in a procession through Midtown, trailed by a marching band. It was a re-enactment by Anne Collod of Anna Halprin’s “Blank Placard Dance.” Volunteers asked audience members what they would march for. “Peace” was the overwhelming response.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Late Night Suspects Convention Is a ‘Bitter Pill’ for Biden

    “All night, Democrats were chanting ‘We love you, Joe!’ while Biden must have been thinking, ‘Um, apparently not as much as others,” Jimmy Fallon said.Welcome 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. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.No RegretsPresident Biden closed out the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, taking the stage for 45 minutes at about 11:30 p.m. Eastern.Jimmy Fallon said that appearing at the convention after dropping out of the race had to be a bitter pill for Biden to swallow — “although, at 81, it blends in with all the other pills.”“Yeah, all night, Democrats were chanting ‘We love you, Joe!’ while Biden must have been thinking, ‘Um, apparently not as much as others.’” — JIMMY FALLON“I mean, even Nancy Pelosi was chanting ‘We love Joe!’ and she’s the one who pushed him out of the race. It’s like the iceberg waving goodbye to the Titanic.” — DESI LYDICThe Punchiest Punchlines (Late Night Edition)“In an odd twist, Biden was awake at midnight while the rest of the country was asleep.” — JIMMY FALLON“He gave a rousing speech that lasted for 45 minutes, and I’ve got to say, it was a little like running into someone a month after you broke up with them, and they look good and they’re funny and they’re fiery, and you think to yourself, ‘Eh, still glad we broke up, but good for you.’” — SETH MEYERS“But hey, just because something’s on late at night, that doesn’t mean it’s not important, you know? I mean, people will stay up if they really want to see something, right? Or, you know, at least watch it on YouTube the next day?” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingAdam Sandler discussed his long-awaited “Happy Gilmore” sequel with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightChance the Rapper will perform on Wednesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutMax Keller, a cellist turned music critic, started taking voice lessons two years ago. About a year into the lessons they started taking testosterone.Lindsay Perryman for The New York TimesThe transgender music critic Max Keller examines the change in their singing voice after a year of taking testosterone. More

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    In Chicago, Biden and Harris Enact a Cast Change Onstage

    The first night of the convention introduced the party’s new protagonist, and gave the old one a curtain call.Notice anything different?The organizers of the Democratic National Convention hope you did. Less than a month ago, the party upended the election when President Biden withdrew from the campaign, and Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee. Suddenly, the previously scheduled rerun of the 2020 election, tuned out by many weary voters, was new programming, with a new cast.The first night of the convention wasted little time unveiling its new star — even as it also had to finish off the last one’s story arc.Early in the evening, Ms. Harris made a surprise appearance onstage in Chicago to her campaign anthem, Beyoncé’s “Freedom.” The crowd of delegates exploded with cheers.This was an energy that the party had been missing for a while, and the prime-time production was designed to flaunt it. Ms. Harris’s kickoff remarks were brief — “We are moving forward!” — but there was a showmanship to the moment that suggested that the candidate plans to take the fight to Donald Trump where he lives, in the TV lights.If Ms. Harris’s unexpected cameo had a measure of Mr. Trump’s theatricality, however, it had a different energy: expansive and effusive rather than brassy and bold. Beaming and waving to the crowd in a camel-colored suit, she reflected the room’s energy back to it rather than basking in it and soaking it up.This was a big change from the convention Democrats anticipated having just weeks ago, under the tentative, 81-year-old Mr. Biden. The slogans onstage — “For the People, For the Future” — emphasized the message of newness.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Love Island USA’ Reunion: 5 Biggest Takeaways

    After a chaotic and fun season, even more drama unfolded on social media in the weeks that followed. This Peacock special broke everything down.This summer’s season of “Love Island U.S.A.” has been the most popular of the franchise so far. And, if it feels like everyone is talking about it, it’s because they probably are — during the second week of July, this show was the most watched streaming original series in the U.S., according to Luminate, an entertainment data tracking service. That means it outranked “The Bear.”Because of the season’s popularity, it made sense for the show to have its first ever reunion special. Hosted by Ariana Madix, whose training included being grilled by Andy Cohen during her many “Vanderpump Rules” reunions, the show featured 25 Islanders — both OGs and Casa Amor — discussing not only what went on during the season but also all the messy drama that has unfolded on social media in the weeks after the show aired.Here are the five biggest takeaways from the reunion.Full footage of the firepit vote between Serena Page, Olivia Walker, Leah Kateb and Kaylor Martin is revealed.One of the biggest and longest running dramas in the villa this season had to do with the dumping of Andrea Carmona. At the time, Carmona was coupled up with Rob Rausch, who had just gotten out of a couple with Leah Kateb.A handful of the women in the villa had to decide whom to dump between Carmona, Nicole Jacky or JaNa Craig.The decision to send Carmona home caused many fights, including one during which Martin and Walker told Rausch that Kateb had been the one pushing to send Carmona home — and this information discouraged Rausch from recoupling with Kateb. Kateb maintained that she “tried to take a back seat” in the decision making.Throughout and following the season, viewers asked on social media why the show didn’t just air the entire unedited footage of the four women making the decision, instead of allowing a seemingly endless “he-said-she-said.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    He Wants People Restarting Their Lives to See Themselves Onstage

    Tarell Alvin McCraney, the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, is focused on bringing marginalized people to the theater.At a time when nonprofit theaters are still recovering from the pandemic shutdown and are looking to connect with their communities, Tarell Alvin McCraney is looking in unorthodox places: prisons, homeless shelters and the foster care system.One year into his tenure as the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, McCraney, 43, doesn’t just want to expand his audience, he wants the theater to be a place where the marginalized and struggling see themselves onstage and feel welcome.“The first thing we do is make sure that they can see plays that reflect their lives,” McCraney said in a recent interview, “plays that deal with folks who are in the system, formerly incarcerated, trying to rebuild their lives.”It is with this priority in mind that McCraney decided to start this season with his own play, “The Brothers Size,” which began previews Aug. 14 and explores the complicated but loving relationship between Oshoosi, just out of prison, and his older brother Ogun. The Geffen has offered free tickets to “populations impacted by incarceration” through its Theater as a Lens for Justice initiative, which McCraney started shortly after his arrival.The Geffen, which has an annual operating budget of about $15 million and a staff of 45 full-time employees, will do the same with its upcoming productions of “Waiting for Godot,” which opens in November, and “Furlough’s Paradise,” which opens next April.These types of outreach efforts might not necessarily translate into ticket sales. But nonprofit theaters all over the country are eager to build their audiences at a time when subscriptions have declined; the Mark Taper theater in Los Angeles suspended productions last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    At Edinburgh Fringe, There Are 2 Plays About Gwyneth Paltrow

    Multiple shows at the Edinburgh Fringe make camp fun out of the 2023 civil action that spurred a thousand memes — and one of them is a triumph.Terry Sanderson, a retired optometrist, was unsuccessful when he sued the actress turned wellness entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow over a collision on a Utah ski slope. Though he claimed that she had crashed into him, a jury determined it was actually his fault. The live-streamed 2023 civil case was an unseemly but strangely fascinating spectacle featuring two equally dislikable archetypes: the vexatious litigant and the preening, out-of-touch celebrity.But in another sense, Sanderson won: His name is now forever etched into pop culture folklore, as not one but two new stage productions about the ski trial at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe attest.In “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,” Sanderson’s vibe is that of a spurned lover.Jonny RuffThe more rough and ready of the two, “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,” at the Pleasance Courtyard, is a camp burlesque in which both parties are mercilessly skewered. Linus Karp, in drag, plays Paltrow with the drawling malice of a pantomime witch. She’s an entitled girlboss whose altruistic affectations mask a sociopathic character, while Joseph Martin as Sanderson is dull mediocrity personified. The characters’ partners are played by plucky audience volunteers, aided by a teleprompter, and Kristin VanOrman, Sanderson’s lawyer, is represented as star-struck and hopelessly incompetent by a disheveled ventriloquist’s dummy, voiced by Martin.In this telling, both Sanderson and his lawyer are driven not so much by monetary greed as by a pathetic desire to connect with Paltrow. They are moths to the flame of celebrity, and Sanderson’s vibe is that of a spurned lover. There are snowball fights, some jousting with skis and snatches of music. When Paltrow utters the immortal line that spurred a thousand memes, “I lost half a day of skiing,” the stage lighting switches to a deep red to emphasize the severity of her plight. At the end of the show, the audience gets to be the jury, voting via QR code to decide who wins.Linus Karp as Paltrow, with Kristin VanOrman, Sanderson’s lawyer, played by a puppet.Jonny RuffWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Reservation Dogs’ Showed D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai What Is Possible

    The actor received his first Emmy nomination for his performance on the acclaimed Native comedy. In an interview, he talks about breaking down stereotypes, and possibly reviving his character.Much like his “Reservation Dogs” character, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai grew up wondering if he was a good guy.If his dedication to his craft and his community is any indication, the 22-year-old actor of Anishinaabe, Guyanese and German descent seems to be a pretty upstanding citizen. The day we chat about his Emmy nomination for lead actor in a comedy series, for example, he is visiting his parents in his native Toronto (from his adopted hometown, Los Angeles) and has spent most of the morning chauffeuring his auntie around on a several-hours-long excursion. After all, mothers, grandmothers and aunties are considered the bedrock of Indigenous communities.That’s a fact any “Reservation Dogs” fan would know. With the groundbreaking FX series, the creators Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo provided a rare look at everyday life on an Oklahoma Indian reservation through the eyes of four teens reeling in the aftermath of a friend’s suicide. Harjo, who also served as showrunner, has said there was only one way to do it: with an all-Indigenous team of writers, directors and regular actors who could authentically tell this story.Alongside his young co-stars, Woon-A-Tai made uncharted television territory feel warm, raw and utterly relatable, garnering “Rez Dogs” broad acclaim as well as four Emmy nominations this year, including a best comedy nod. His portrayal of Bear Smallhill also earned him an Emmy nomination, placing him alongside Lily Gladstone (“Under the Bridge”) and Kali Reis (“True Detective: Night Country”) as the first Indigenous actors to be nominated in 17 years.In an interview, he talked about breaking down stereotypes, possibly reviving his “Rez Dogs” character and being a good, healthy Indigenous man. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Despite critical acclaim, “Rez Dogs” was notably overlooked by the television academy for its first two seasons. What does it mean to you to break through with a best comedy nomination and one of the few Indigenous acting nominations in Emmys history?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More