Broadway Composer Michael Friedman Dead at Age 41.

New Yorker Staff Writer Sarah Larson reminisces about her friend Michael Friedman in an article originally published in The New Yorker on Monday, September 11, 2017 under the title “Remembering Michael Friedman.”

Summary:
Michael Friedman, composer and lyricist of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and many other inventive works of musical theater, died on Saturday at age 41 of complications from HIV/AIDS. The theater world is reeling over the loss of this young composer whom Sarah Larson describes as “artistically ambitious and personally humble, exuberant, frantic, and funny.”

“To have him shine his light on you, even briefly, always felt exciting.” – Sarah Larson on Michael Friedman

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a collaboration with book writer Alex Timbers, transferred to Broadway in 2010 after a successful run at New York’s off-Broadway Public Theater. In addition, Friedman was a founding member of the theater company the Civilians, a group known for interviewing people and setting the text of their interviews verbatim to song, in a style known as investigative theater. With the Civilians, Michael composed songs based on ordinary and extraordinary Americans. Shows such as Gone Missing, which explores the lives of ordinary New Yorkers through items they have lost and The Great Immensity, about climate change and the environment.

Michael’s songs were often rooted in his deep understanding of American history. In 2015 he began a series of songs based on interviews he conducted across the country with voters of diverse political backgrounds during the US presidential primary. This project came to be known as “The State of the Union Songbook” when it debuted on The New Yorker Radio Hour.

In the past year, Michael served as artistic director of the City Center summer program Encores! Off-Center and director of the Public Forum series, at the Public Theater.

Sarah Larson includes several personal anecdotes, personalizing her friendship with Friedman, including the memorable “Election Night Hootenanny” during which she spent election night 2016 with him at Joe’s Pub where he rallied a dejected audience by playing and singing the official song of each state in the union as the election results came in.

Three Takeaways from Amy Webb’s ONA Conference Lecture

Former journalist and founder of the Future Today Institute Amy Webb gave a lecture entitled “Ten Tech Trends in Journalism: 10th Anniversary Edition!” at the Online News Association’s 2017 Conference on Saturday, October 7th, 2017.

Here are three takeaways from her lecture:

1. According to Webb’s data-driven methodology, in 2017, we are at the dawn of a new era in digital journalism that will bring advances unrecognizable by today’s standards. Computers and handheld devices will be replaced by wearable computers, keyboards will be replaced by voice recognition software, and functional artificial intelligence will allow for the dissemination of fake news to a degree hitherto unseen.
2. A small number of companies, including Alibaba, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and IBM, are investing heavily in artificial intelligence and are poised to control the distribution of news and information in an era when trust in the media is at an all-time low. The future of artificial intelligence will allow for “fake news” to be extremely difficult to detect as faces and voices can be manipulated on video and voice recordings.
3. Journalists are not paying sufficient attention to these trends and are at risk of being unprepared for the future. Webb conducted a survey of newsrooms which found that 69% of newsrooms are not actively tracking emerging technology trends. She outlined a variety of scenarios from positive to dire based on the degree to which journalists prepare for and react to these advances.

Alternate Headlines:

Future Today Institute Founder Amy Webb Shares Tech Trends at ONA Conference

Three Takeaways from Amy Webb’s ONA Conference

Why Amy Webb is Nervous About the Future of Digital Journalism

User Generated Content Assignment

For my user-generated-content assignment, I chose to cover the opening press night of the new musical Mean Girls, which is currently making its world premiere at Washington DC’s National Theatre before transferring to Broadway in the spring of 2018.

I searched for user-generated content on Instagram and Twitter using several variants of the #meangirls hashtag.

INSTAGRAM

• A short video shot of the theater prior to the performance posted by Instagram user @knead_it. I was reasonably confident that it was real because it was posted on the evening of the performance, the time of day appears correct due to the setting sun, the poster tagged the theater in the post, and the sign on the building reads “world premiere before transferring to Broadway.” To look further into the authenticity of the video, I sent a message to the poster asking if it was shot on press night, November 19th, 2017.
• A photo collection of the Mean Girls opening night after party. I am confident that this is authentic user-generated content because it was posted by one of the performers in the cast using her authorized @erikahenningsen account. In addition, the post was commented on by several other cast members who discussed the opening press performance they had just come from. The photos were given a location tag indicating that they were taken at the Old Ebbitt Grill which is geographically very close to the National Theater. Finally, several cast members can be seen in the photos.
• To further confirm the authenticity of the after-party photos, I found another post that included a snapshot of the invitation to the after party and clearly showed it was taking place at the Old Ebbitt Grill. This snapshot of an invitation to the after-party at the Old Ebbitt Grill. was posted by user @mallorytucker who is affiliated with the production and followed by several other people in the production.

TWITTER

There were no videos of the Mean Girls opening night on Twitter. Most people posting to Twitter about the event were linking to their Instagram account. I did find a photograph on Twitter that I decided to use as an example because at first, I thought it was from opening night, but I used the tools learned in class to determine that although it is actual user-generated content, it was not taken on the date I was searching for.

Twitter user @ChristGrec posted a shot that shows the stage and proscenium behind the program. The photo claims to be from opening night, but the time and date stamped below the Tweet indicate that it was posted on November 7th, 2017, a performance two-weeks prior to the actual press opener of November 19th, 2017. This photo is not geo-tagged, but I was able to verify that the location is accurate by comparing the image of the stage and proscenium to other pictures taken inside the National Theatre and published on the National Theatre’s website. Although the location of this image is where it claims to be, this is an example of user-generated content that would not be useful in an article about the opening press night, because the time and date stamp prove that it was taken two weeks earlier.

Live Storytelling – Interviews with the Founders of Baltimore’s Charm City Fringe Festival at the Historic Lexington Market

For my live storytelling assignment, I wrote a script and interview questions and arranged to interview the founders of the Charm City Fringe Festival at Baltimore’s historic Lexington Market.

I first filmed this promo video which I shared on Instagram and on our Facebook page to alert viewers to the fact that a live video was coming soon:

(embed – I have no idea how to do this)

We then filmed a short live interview that was published on the DC Metro Theater Arts Facebook page:

(embed – I have no idea how to do this)

 

 

Kentlands Oktoberfest Thrills Crowds with Bavarian Dance Troupe

The Kentlands, Gaithersburg Oktoberfest, rated by Condé Nast magazine as one of the top ten Oktoberfest celebrations in the country, brought the Alt-Washingtonia Bavarian Dancers back for the seventh consecutive year to entertain revelers this Sunday, October 8th, 2017. I caught up with the dance troupe this year to learn what brings them together and how they keep it all in the family.

The dancers performed with live music provided by the Alte Kameraden Band.

The Alt-Washingtonia Bavarian Dancers are one of hundreds of Bavarian dance troupes that are active throughout the United States. Most groups are concentrated in the Mid-Atlanic region and the Midwest.

Waiting to go onstage.

A majority of the dancers in the Alt-Washingtonia Bavarian Dance Club became involved as children and have parents of German or Austrian descent. Some members merely have an affinity to German culture.

A little dancer tries to keep up.

The group rehearses year-round and performs at May Day festivals in the spring. Oktoberfest celebrations make up the bulk of their performances.

 

Courtship Dance – Von Meinen Bergen (From My Mountains).

The dances they perform are known as Schuhplattler dances, and most originated in the 1800s. They tell the stories of the daily lives of the inhabitants of the Bavarian and Tyrolian mountains.

Fearless leader of the chicken dance.

Each year the group arrives at the Kentlands Oktoberfest with several new babies. Future dance club members whose parents hope they will maintain the tradition that brought them all together.

Goofing off between sets. 

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