Richard Nelson's New Play Restores Some Of Theater's Ephemerality
David Rubin
Has anyone checked on the Apples? Do they have enough groceries? Are they working remotely? And what do they think about all those Manhattanites fleeing upstate?
The playwright Richard Nelson introduced the clan — three middle-aged sisters and one brother living gently melancholic lives in and around Rhinebeck, N.Y. — in “That Hopey Changey Thing,” at the Public Theater on the evening of the midterm elections, in 2010. He brought them back for a new play in 2011, and again in 2012 and 2013.
Each play took place in the same living room at the same table, covered in the same cloth. Each was set on the night it opened — either an election night or a significant anniversary — offering a discrete time capsule of how members of one middle-class American family understood the world, its peculiar politics and one another, there and then.
UK's Zoom Parliament Shows Potential For Virtual Democracy
David Rubin
Britain’s extraordinary first “Parliament via Zoom” proceeded Wednesday in rather ordinary fashion, with the usual barbed questions and artful evasion by politicians, plus the addition of awkward views of oversize chins and bookshelves staged as backdrops.
Everything was the same, and everything was a little odd.
Breaking 700 years of tradition, the British Parliament has agreed to serve as a cradle of virtual democracy — to allow members to continue to debate, vote and legislate, but via video conferencing app, from the safety of their own homes, for the duration of Britain’s coronavirus lockdown.
Students Prank Teacher with "Reconnecting" Screens
David Rubin
@samuelgrubbsOur WHOLE class pranked our teacher Pt.12 😂😂 (Come back in 24 hours for Part 13) ##foryou ##foryoupage ##fyp ##viral ##funny ##comedy ##tiktok ##trend ##meme♬ original sound – samuelgrubbs
A Zoom Meeting Turned Into a Company Dance Party
David Rubin
@lottielamourWhen your conference call turns into a dance lesson… ##blindinglights ##blindinglightschallenge ##ukcomedy ##stayathome ##houseoftiktok♬ Blinding Lights – The Weeknd
Make Your Next Group Activity a Zoom-Based Escape Room
David Rubin
The coronavirus pandemic has caused people to rely on digital entertainment like never before and companies are transforming their offerings to reach people staying indoors. That’s why US-based Puzzle Break created a virtual escape room that challenges you and your friends or coworkers to solve your way out of it via a Zoom call.
Escape rooms, a booming industry that’s increased in popularity over the last decade, centers around a game typically played in-person with a group of people locked in a room with various clues they have to solve in order to “escape” the room within a set time limit.
Puzzle Break modified its approach to keep business going through the pandemic by providing customers with a guided, virtual experience of their escape room, The Grimm Escape.
“It was simultaneously necessary and heartbreaking to close our in-person experiences,” Nate Martin, CEO and founder of Puzzle Break, said. “As we’ve turned to the virtual experience, we’ve been inspired by how the magic of escape rooms can be translated online for this new normal. In our trial runs, it’s clear that the unique mix of creativity, fun, adrenaline, and bonding is just as powerful in the online world.”
Ed Sheeran Gives Zoom Guitar Lessons To School Kids
David Rubin
ED Sheeran has given music lessons to locked-down schoolchildren.
The chart-topper, 29, answered questions as well as teaching them to play some of his hits, such as Perfect, on guitar.
Timothy Spoerer, music director at Ecclesbourne Primary School, Thornton Heath, South London, surprised kids in a Zoom call with his pal.
Ed told them: “I basically wasn’t very smart at school I thought I was an idiot for a very long time.
“I loved playing music, that’s what made me happiest. My dad always said to me, ‘If you want to be a musician work really hard at it’.