Performing Arts

Melissa Villaseñor's talent for impersonation has helped to earn her appearances on Saturday Night Live, like this sketch from April 2018. She joins the show as a full cast member this fall.

Arts

A Top Impressionist, Melissa Villaseñor Is Finding Her Own Voice On 'SNL'

7:27am September 29, 2018

by Elizabeth Blair

She's known for celebrity imitations: Hillary Clinton and Owen Wilson, Jennifer Lopez and Bjork, and so on. Now, as she joins Saturday Night Live's full cast, she's learning what else she can do.

New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Struggle To Find Their Way

9:19am September 24, 2018

by Jeff Lunden

The Philharmonic launches its season with a new music director and executive director. The Metropolitan Opera's season starts with a young music director.

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Arts

Remembering Dancer And Choreographer Arthur Mitchell

5:28am September 20, 2018

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Arthur Mitchell was the founding director of the Dance Theater of Harlem, the country's first black ballet company. He died Wednesday at the age of 84.

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Arts

A Minneapolis Theater 'Prop God' Retires

8:26am September 15, 2018

Linus Vlatkovich, longtime "Prop God" of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, has retired.

Arts

Remembering Broadway Star Marin Mazzie

5:25pm September 14, 2018

by Jeff Lunden

Actress Marin Mazzie has died of ovarian cancer at age 57. Mazzie had a three-decade career, with her breakout role playing Clara in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1994. She was in Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate and The King and I, among other plays.

In the current production of Be More Chill, an unpopular high school student named Jeremy (played by Will Roland, center) swallows a pill (which is actually a microcomputer) in order to be more, well, chill. The show moves to Broadway in early 2019.

Arts

Broadway Is About To 'Be More Chill'

9:28am September 11, 2018

by Jeff Lunden

The high-school sci-fi musical got middling reviews when it premiered in New Jersey. Then teenagers on social media got a hold of it.

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A performance at the Metropolitan Theatrical awards in Mexico City.

Foreign Actors On Mexico's Theater Stage Stir Resentment Behind The Scenes

11:54am September 08, 2018

by Emily Green

Mexico's immigration battle with the U.S. plays out in the news daily, but a more subtle tension over cultural identity took center stage this week: foreigners taking leading roles in Mexican theater.

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Arts

'Fresh Air' Remembers Choreographer Paul Taylor

1:45pm August 31, 2018

by Terry Gross

Taylor, who died Wednesday, began dancing when he was 22 and worked with some of the world's most renowned choreographers before establishing his own dance troupe. Originally broadcast in 1987.

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Paul Taylor, seen here directing the dance company that bears his name, left his major mark on the dance world as a choreographer.

Arts

Paul Taylor, Giant Of Modern Dance, Has Died

5:44pm August 30, 2018

by Andrew Limbong

Among the most prolific and influential choreographers of 20th century movement, his movements were often inspired by everyday people doing everyday things. He died Wednesday at age 88.

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Arts

Play Gives Woman At The Center Of Emmett Till's Murder Case A Voice

7:19am August 28, 2018

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Two friends, one black, one white, produced a short play about Carolyn Bryant, the white woman who accused Emmett Till of whistling at her. Since his murder, racial tensions exist six decades later.

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