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Arts

CANCELLED! Stages go dark: 2020 Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival cancelled

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Posted on the Fringe Edmonton site on Monday April 13, 2020.

Dear Fringe Family;   It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancellation of the 39th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. 

“Our priority is the health and safety of all Fringers, and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis demands we take extreme measures.”

The decision to cancel is difficult, emotional, but necessary.  As a public gathering place where creativity thrives all year long, we do not make this decision lightly. The realities of the pandemic are changing daily. Currently, there is no clear timeline on when public gathering restrictions, social distancing practices, and self-isolation measures will be lifted. Theatre is a collaborative and social art by nature – it’s incredibly hard for artists to prepare for shows, and for our team to plan for Festival when so much is still unknown. And so, in the interest of protecting the health and safety of our community, we made the decision to do our part and help provide frontline workers every possible chance to contain the pandemic. If we could, we’d give every frontline worker a standing ovation.

We must work together to prioritize public health. We care about our community, and we are committed to doing what is necessary to protect the health of that community so we may ensure it returns stronger than ever.  

We will fringe again, and we look forward to celebrating the 40th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival August 12 – 22, 2021. 

As a charitable organization stewarding an international event with far-reaching impacts, we know this decision will have a ripple effect. We are working with our board, staff, artists, volunteers, sponsors, vendors, and many partners to provide supports as we shift our priorities toward reopening the doors of the ATB Financial Arts Barns as soon as it is safe to do so and championing our creative community. 

Our hearts are with our creative community. Countless cultural sector careers have been put on hold because of the pandemic. Artists, you are at the heart of everything we do. To the performers, playwrights, directors, designerstechnicians, stage managers, producers, and many others who help make theatre magic happen: we stand with you. 

From a March 20, 2020 social media post; Staff meetings look a little different these days. Spreading love and laughter in what has been a difficult week. Especially thinking of our sibling Festivals @OrlandoFringe
& @Tampa_Fringe. We’re all in this together, Framily! With love, the #yegfringe Team. Photo Courtesy/Edmonton Fringe Festival

Our thanks to our volunteers. Your commitment and love of fringing keeps us going. We could not do what we do without you, and we look forward to bringing our Fringe Family together again soon. 

To our funders, sponsors, and donors: thank you for your support, generosity, and understanding as we navigate this truly extraordinary time. We’re all in this together.  

Our vendors, artisans, buskers, and partners help bring our site alive. We can’t wait to bring the bustling joy of Festival back to the heart of Old Strathcona in 2021. Thank you for being an integral part of the Fringe experience  

It’s hard to imagine a summer without our beloved audiences. Audiences make fringing possible. You keep storytelling alive. Thank you. Your seat will be waiting for you as soon as our theatres open again.

The KidsFringe brings in thousands every day during the annual Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, which is now cancelled for 2020

We exist because theatre exists. And theatre will play an important role in healing as we learn to process and understand the impacts of this pandemic.  

We will adapt. We will continue to be home to creativity, risk, craft, and community. And we will open our doors as soon as it is safe for us to gather again. 

Take care of yourselves and each other. 

With love,  

The Edmonton Fringe Team 

To try and help the travelling artists that will be hit very hard in 2020 the Edmonton Fringe has set-up a way to donate;

If you’re able and moved to give today, this week, or even in the future, please know your financial support will help us help artists as we grow through this difficult time. All donations will receive a charitable tax receipt (and our unending love and gratitude!) Click on the photo

Click on the photo to go to the Fringe performers donate page. Photo Courtesy/Marc J Chalifoux/Edmonton Fringe Festival

 

Arts

The Negation of Reality in Roald Dahl’s Literary Classic

Published on

From the Brownstone Institute

BY Thorsteinn SiglaugssonTHORSTEINN SIGLAUGSSON

Last weekend it was reported how books by the popular children’s book author, Roald Dahl, are now being republished after significant changes to the texts. According to The Guardian, the changes are only about removing “offensive language” from his books. The Roald Dahl Story Company says the changes are minor and only about making the text more accessible and “inclusive“ to modern readers.

Gerald Posner covered the issue on February 19th, citing a few examples of changes, which are certainly not minor; entire paragraphs are removed or altered beyond recognition. There are hundreds of changes, Posner says, agreeing with writer Salman Rushdie who has called these changes “absurd censorship.”

Nick Dixon has published a short piece on the matter in the Daily Skeptic, pointing out how some of the changes make Dahl’s text lifeless and flat and how all humour is carefully removed. Example from Matilda: “Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she’s learnt this term, has no hearing organs at all” becomes “Judging by what your daughter Vanessa has learnt this term, this fact alone is more interesting than anything I have taught in the classroom.”

In other cases, the meaning simply disappears: “It nearly killed Ashton as well. Half the skin came away from his scalp” becomes “It didn’t do Ashton much good.” Some of the changes are outright absurdly silly, considering when the original text was written. One example Dixon takes: “Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman” becomes “Even if she is working as a top scientist or running a business.”

“Mother” becomes “parent,” “man” becomes “person,” and “men” become “people.” “We eat little boys and girls” becomes “We eat little children.” Boys and girls have no right to exist anymore, no more than mothers or fathers; biological sex is prohibited. But the censors, sarcastically called Inclusive Minds, don’t seem to be bothered by the practice of eating children.

References to authors currently banned for unfashionable beliefs are removed or changed. Joseph Conrad becomes Jane Austen. Rudyard Kipling becomes John Steinbeck.

Nothing is mild enough to escape the watchful eyes of the censors, Dixon says, noting how “Shut up, you nut!” becomes “Ssshhh!” and “turning white” becomes “turning quite pale.”  To the “inclusive,“ “white“ is a forbidden word of course.

Suzanne Nossel, president of the American branch of the PEN writers’ organization, expresses her dismay in an interview with the Washington Post“Literature is meant to be surprising and provocative,” Nossel says, explaining how attempts at purging texts of words that might offend someone “dilute the power of storytelling.”

Roald Dahl is by no means uncontroversial. But his stories are the actual stories he wrote. The watered down and sanitised texts of the censors are simply no longer the author’s stories.

Or, as Posner concludes: “Words matter. The problem is that the Dahl sensitivity censorship sets a template for other hugely successful author franchises. Readers should know that the words they read are no longer the words the author wrote.”

The destruction of Roald Dahl’s books is yet another sign of the all-pervasive negation of reality we now face. We see this negation all around us, in literature, history, politics, economics, even in the sciences. Objective reality gives way to subjective experience, emotions, or preferences in place of what is true.

It gives way, in fact, to radical subjectivism, which might just be the logical, yet contradictory conclusion of the victorious march of individualism in the West over the past few decades. It gives way, until all our common points of reference are gone, until our common sense has all but disappeared; until, atomised, lonely, incapable of meaningful communication, we no longer share a society. What takes its place will surely be no fairy tale.

And what better example of this negation of reality than the Guardian’s headline, whereby the total destruction of the work of a beloved author becomes “removing offensive language” in a few places?

Republished from the author’s Substack

Author

  • Thorsteinn Siglaugsson

    Thorsteinn Siglaugsson is an Icelandic consultant, entrepreneur and writer and contributes regularly to The Daily Sceptic as well as various Icelandic publications. He holds a BA degree in philosophy and an MBA from INSEAD. Thorsteinn is a certified expert in the Theory of Constraints and author of From Symptoms to Causes – Applying the Logical Thinking Process to an Everyday Problem.

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Arts

Visitors can see famed Florence baptistry’s mosaics up close

Published on

By Francesco Sportelli in Florence

FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Visitors to one of Florence’s most iconic monuments — the Baptistry of San Giovanni, opposite the city’s Duomo — are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see its ceiling mosaics up close thanks to an innovative approach to a planned restoration effort.

Rather than limit the public’s access during the six-year cleaning of the vault, officials built a scaffolding platform for the art restorers that will also allow small numbers of visitors to see the ceiling mosaics at eye level.

“We had to turn this occasion into an opportunity to make it even more accessible and usable by the public through special routes that would bring visitors into direct contact with the mosaics,” Samuele Caciagli, the architect in charge of the restoration site, said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Caciagli called the new scaffolding tour of the baptistry vault “a unique opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated in the coming decades.”

The scaffolding platform sprouts like a mushroom from the floor of the baptistry and reaches a height of 32 meters (105 feet) from the ground. Visits are set to start Feb. 24 and must be reserved in advance.

The octagonal-shaped baptistry is one of the most visible monuments of Florence. Its exterior features an alternating geometric pattern of white Carrara and green Prato marble and three great bronze doors depicting biblical scenes.

Inside, however, are spectacular mosaic scenes of The Last Judgment and John the Baptist dating from the 13th century and created using some 10 million pieces of stone and glass over 1,000 square meters of dome and wall.

The six-year restoration project is the first in over a century. It initially involves conducting studies on the current state of the mosaics to determine what needs to be done. The expected work includes addressing any water damage to the mortar , removing decades of grime and reaffixing the stones to prevent them from detaching.

“(This first phase) is a bit like the diagnosis of a patient: a whole series of diagnostic investigations are carried out to understand what pathologies of degradation are present on the mosaic material but also on the whole attachment package that holds this mosaic material to the structure behind it,” Beatrice Agostini, who is in charge of the restoration work, said.

The Baptistry of San Giovanni and its mosaics have undergone previous restorations over the centuries, many of them inefficient or even damaging to the structure. During one botched effort in 1819, an entire section of mosaics detached. Persistent water damage from roof leaks did not get resolved until 2014-2015.

Roberto Nardi, director of the Archaeological Conservation Center, the private company managing the restoration, said the planned work wouldn’t introduce any material that is foreign to the original types of stone and mortar used centuries ago.

“It is a mix of science, technology, experience and tradition,” he said.

The origins of the baptistry are something of a mystery. Some believe it was once a pagan temple, though the current structure dates from the 4th or 5th centuries.

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