More stories

  • in

    When an Actor Calls With a Poem to Share

    #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 NotebookWhen an Actor Calls With a Poem to ShareA Paris playhouse has developed a program of one-on-one “consultations,” delivered by its artists while the theater is closed.The singer Dimitra Kontou performing this week for an elderly patient at the Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris.Credit…Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesFeb. 25, 2021, 3:31 a.m. ETPARIS — “I am calling you for a poetic consultation,” said a warm voice on the telephone. “It all starts with a very simple question: How are you?”Since March, almost 15,000 people around the world have received a call like this. These conversations with actors, who offer a one-on-one chat before reading a poem selected for the recipient, started as a lockdown initiative by a prominent Paris playhouse, the Théâtre de la Ville, in order to keep its artists working while stages remained dark.It’s free: Anyone can sign up for a time slot, or make a gift of a call to someone. The exchange generally starts with simple questions about the recipient’s life, then ranges in any direction; after 20 to 25 minutes, the actor introduces the poem.As coronavirus restrictions in France stretch on, the program has become such a hit that the Théâtre de la Ville now offers consultations in 23 languages, including Farsi, its latest addition. It has also been expanded to encompass different subjects and formats: Since December, the actors have held consultations at a hospital and at emergency shelters run by the city of Paris.When Johanna White, the comedian who called me, asked how I was doing, I answered honestly. We may tell white lies to reassure loved ones, but there is no reason to skirt the truth with a kind stranger. White and I shared our pandemic coping strategies and talked about the ways in which theater has adapted in the past year.And then White picked my poem: “Incantation,” by the Polish-American poet Czeslaw Milosz. “Human reason is beautiful and invincible,” she began after a pause.A year into the pandemic, I’ll admit I had my doubts about the healing power of yet another replacement for live performance. Yet when I hung up the phone, I felt a little lighter. White, who has a rich, deep voice, was adept at putting an audience of one at ease, and Milosz’s words held hope.“Through the phone it can be intimate, because generally you’re isolated,” White, a trilingual voice actor, said in an interview the next day.The comedian Johanna White, who estimates that in the past year, she has talked to between 400 and 500 people around the world.Credit…via Théâtre de la Ville She estimates that in the past year, she has talked to between 400 and 500 people, from places including Wisconsin, Los Angeles, Chile and Niger. A man based in Beirut told her about local riots in which he had lost half of a hand; from Mexico, an 85-year-old woman shared her grief about being separated from her 92-year-old lover by pandemic-mandated rules.Consultations involve a great deal of improvisation, White said, including choosing a poem for a person you’ve only just met. “Each of us has our own method,” she added. “I file them by emotions, by feelings.”For the director of the Théâtre de la Ville, Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, the idea of individual consultations with actors didn’t come out of the blue. In 2002, when he was at the helm of the northern French theater La Comédie, in Reims, he initiated in-person sessions at a local bar. Passers-by could meet an artist and leave with a poetic “prescription” — a printed version of the poem that was read to them.Last February, he revived the concept at a Paris shopping mall, Italie Deux, where visitors could drop in for a chat between errands — and then the pandemic struck. The Théâtre de la Ville immediately pivoted to phone consultations. “We were ready,” Demarcy-Mota said in a phone interview this month.Other institutions have taken an interest in the program’s popularity. The Théâtre de la Ville has partnered with a handful of European playhouses, including the Teatro della Pergola in Florence and the Orkeny Theater in Budapest, to expand its roster of actors. Additionally, Demarcy-Mota and his team are in the process of holding phone training sessions with around 100 actors from nine African countries, including Benin and Mali, so theaters there can replicate the program.Demarcy-Mota acknowledged that the consultation format didn’t suit all stage actors. “Some were scared. You’re no longer performing while someone else watches: Instead, you’re in the position of listening to someone.” It involves a degree of psychology, White said, but “we’re not psychologists,” she added. “People need to feel that they’ve got a real person with them, that we’re in the same situation.”The Théâtre de la Ville now employs a total of 108 “consultants.” While most are actors, they also include singers, dancers and a handful of scientists, who share their knowledge via “scientific consultations” as part of a program started in December. (These are being offered only in French for now.)Most of the scientific consultations are also individual and take place over the phone, but the Théâtre de la Ville is testing group sessions over Zoom. Last week, I joined one with the astrophysicist Jean Audouze.To explain the relativity of time, Audouze suggested that when we talk via videoconference — that is, over electromagnetic waves — there is an infinitesimal delay between the moment someone speaks and the moment the other hears. “We’re all on our own time,” he said, something to bear in mind, perhaps, the next time a Zoom meeting descends into chaos.While remote sessions are the most virus-averse format, the Théâtre de la Ville also brought back in-person consultations this winter in partnership with public institutions. The Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb, was the first to allow performers to come for conversations with staff members and patients. (Several other hospitals are scheduled to follow in the coming months.)Dimitra Kontou entertaining patients at the Charles-Foix hospital.Credit…Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesThe actor Hugo Jasienski interacting with the patient Éliane Le Bras.Credit…Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesDimitra Kontou, at the piano, with Simone Gouffe.Credit…Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesOn a recent afternoon, the actor Hugo Jasienski and the singer and musician Dimitra Kontou went from room to room in a residential care building at the Charles-Foix for elderly patients, known as L’Orbe. As on the phone, each encounter led to a poem or, in Kontou’s case, a song.For some residents, especially those with dementia, the performances were adapted: Instead of asking questions, Kontou sang to them directly, in a transparent mask so they could see her mouth. Still, the music inspired interaction. At one point, a 97-year-old woman, Simone Gouffe, almost rose from her wheelchair and started singing, her voice powerful despite her slight frame.With other patients, the kind of conversations that flow so smoothly on the phone proved tricky to navigate. “What do you enjoy in life?” Jasienski asked one resident, Éliane Le Bras, 88. “Walking,” she said dryly. “But I can’t walk anymore.”Still, Le Bras lit up when the conversation turned to her great-grandchildren, and listened closely to a poem by the early 20th-century writer Anna de Noailles. “It’s nice,” she concluded. “A woman wrote this?”After the visit, Jasienski said that working on the consultations had been a unique experience for him as an actor. “The verdict lands immediately,” he said. “When you go back to the stage, you’ve learned a lot.”And while in some ways the consultations are more impromptu therapy than theater, now has been the right time for artists to embrace social responsibility, Demarcy-Mota said.“We need a new alliance between health care, theater, culture and education,” he said. “It’s time to take care of one another.”Dimitra Kontou’s uniform includes the logo of the Théâtre de la Ville.Credit…Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York TimesAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • in

    Jimmy Kimmel Tackles ‘Weirdest Super Bowl’ Ever

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Super Bowl 2021N.F.L.’s Most Challenging YearGame HighlightsThe CommercialsHalftime ShowWhat We LearnedAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBest of Late NightJimmy Kimmel Tackles ‘Weirdest Super Bowl’ Ever“This was the first Super Bowl ever where I had to yell, ‘Be quiet — I’m trying to hear the poem!’” Kimmel said.Jimmy Kimmel joked that it seemed unfair for Tom Brady to win his seventh Super Bowl ring when there were still Americans who hadn’t yet gotten their first.Credit…ABCFeb. 9, 2021, 1:55 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.The Brady BunchLate-night hosts weighed in Monday night on Super Bowl LV, noting how the big game was palpably different this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Jimmy Kimmel referred to it as “the weirdest Super Bowl” ever.“This was the first Super Bowl ever where I had to yell, ‘Be quiet — I’m trying to hear the poem!’” Kimmel said.“One thing that was not normal, but was beautiful, was the pregame performance from the breakout star of Joe Biden’s inauguration, poet Amanda Gorman, who recited an original poem. It was the most exciting pregame poetry recital since Robert Frost kicked off the action at Super Bowl I.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Why aren’t we off today? The one thing I was hoping Donald Trump would accomplish is getting us Super Bowl Monday off. He had four years — nothing!” — JIMMY KIMMEL“That’s right, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in last night’s Super Bowl, and look, I know it’s hard to win back-to-back Super Bowls, but honestly, J. Lo should have gotten the chance to try.” — SETH MEYERS“Yep, today in Boston, fans are happy for Brady but sad that he left the Patriots, which probably explains Sam Adams’s new beer, Sam Adams’s Bittahsweet Teahs.” — JIMMY FALLON“Seriously, the game was such a dud. I watched it from home and I still left early to beat traffic.” — JIMMY FALLON“At a certain point, even Buccaneers fans were like, ‘Just end the game so we can get to Queen Latifah.’” — JIMMY FALLON“And how about Tom Brady winning his seventh Super Bowl ring? At this rate, he’s gonna be the first player with a Super Bowl toe ring, people.” — TREVOR NOAH“I don’t know if they mentioned this, but Tom Brady won his seventh ring at a time when there are a lot of people in this country who don’t even have one Super Bowl ring.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I mean, at this point Tom Brady has led the kind of life that 8-year-olds narrate to themselves in their backyard: ‘The crowd goes wild! Tommy wins his seventh Super Bowl! And now he’s rich and he’s married to a supermodel! And now he’s riding a dinosaur — rawr!’” — TREVOR NOAH“Yeah, Brady has cemented his place on the sports Mount Rushmore, alongside Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and that fan who took a home run ball to the chest to save his beers.” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Tampa Fans Edition)“What a weekend for the people of Tampa. Forty-eight hours of nonstop drinking and partying in the streets — and then the Super Bowl.” — JIMMY FALLON“Tampa Bay fans were not taking precautions. Last night, they had a huge, mostly maskless celebration while I was eating nachos through my N95.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“While the teams did their best to make the game itself safe-ish, the after-party on the streets of Tampa was a different story. Because following the Bucs’ blowout victory, hordes of maskless fans partied hearty, in a foolhardy display that can only be described as ‘Florida.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Yeah, they partied hard in Tampa. One girl was so drunk, she made out with the Vince Lombardi hologram.” — JIMMY FALLON“You know, health officials are frustrated because they’ve spent the whole last year trying to educate people about the importance of masks and social distance. Unfortunately, explaining science to people from Florida is like explaining Zoom to your turtle.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingSeth Meyers’s “A Closer Look” on Monday Night delved into the G.O.P.’s continual dismissal of Trump’s second impeachment.What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightWanda Sykes will pop by Tuesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This OutJessica FloresCredit…via Jessica FloresThe Comedian and improv performer Jessica Flores uses humor to demystify hearing loss and dispel myths about deaf people.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

  • in

    Biden Inauguration: Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez Will Perform

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Biden TransitionliveLatest UpdatesUnderstand the Trump ImpeachmentBiden Tries to Rise AboveBiden’s FocusCabinet PicksAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyLady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez to Sing at Biden’s InaugurationLady Gaga will sing the national anthem at Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony, which will feature a performance by Jennifer Lopez.Lady Gaga, who will sing the national anthem at Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony next week.Credit…Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJan. 14, 2021Updated 12:15 p.m. ETLady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will be among the A-list artists to take part next week in the inauguration ceremonies of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., his inaugural committee announced Thursday, adding their names to a lineup that includes Justin Timberlake and Jon Bon Jovi.In a news release, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said that Lady Gaga would sing the national anthem at the swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20 and that Lopez would offer a “musical performance” of some kind.❤️🤍💙 #Inauguration2021 pic.twitter.com/ay3C56wfue— jlo (@JLo) January 14, 2021
    Amanda Gorman, who in 2017 became the first National Youth Poet Laureate in the United States, will read poetry; a firefighter will lead the Pledge of Allegiance; and a priest and a pastor who are close friends of Mr. Biden will lead the invocation and benediction.“They represent one clear picture of the grand diversity of our great nation and will help honor and celebrate the time-honored traditions of the presidential inauguration as President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris take the oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol,” Tony Allen, the head of the head Presidential Inaugural Committee said in a statement.The performance announcements add new detail to the emerging portrait of Mr. Biden’s reimagined inauguration — one that will be taking place amid heightened health and safety concerns as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage and Washington grapples with the fallout of last week’s riot at the Capitol by a Trump-aligned mob.On Wednesday, Mr. Biden’s inaugural committee announced that it would hold a prime time television event to close out the festivities and that the event featuring Timberlake and Bon Jovi that would be hosted by the actor Tom Hanks.Art and music have long been leveraged by incoming presidents to help capture the mood of the moment, provide symbolism and help advance the broad themes the new administration is focused on. In Mr. Biden’s case, that theme is “America United” in a time of sharp partisanship and division — an inaugural theme that echoes a through line of Mr. Biden’s campaign, during which he repeatedly pledged to “restore the soul” of the nation.And although many aspects of the swearing-in ceremony will recall past inaugurations, the proceedings will generally be smaller and socially-distanced, and some events will take place virtually. Officials have indicated that there will be a televised “virtual parade across America” and a public art installation on the National Mall. With the virus raging, there have been no mentions of indoor, in-person inaugural balls or galas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More