“The Brontës are well known authors with no apparent association with science fiction but their tiny manuscript books, held at the British Library, are one of the first examples of fan fiction, using favoritism characters and settings in the same way as science fiction and fantasy fans now play in the detailed imaginary ‘universes’ of Star Trek or Harry Potter,” explains Andy Sawyer, guest curator of the British Library’s Out of this World: Science Fiction exhibition. “While the sense of fantasy is strong, there are teasing examples of what might be called the beginnings of science fiction.” Click through to see some of the literary artifacts currently on display.

Gondal Poems by Emily Brontë. Photo credit: British Library Board

The Foundling by Charlotte Brontë. Photo credit: British Library Board

The map by Branwell Brontë of Glass Town, Angria from his and Charlotte’s notebooks. Photo credit: British Library Board

[via I Heart Classics]

AT&T – Saul Bass (1983) vs Interbrand (2005)

When the government forced AT&T to break up in the ’80s, Bass was asked to work the same logo magic that he had for Bell back in 1969; the globe was meant to signal the company’s new global focus, while the white shading emphasized its North American roots. The 2005 redesign isn’t incredibly different from the original, other than the fact that it is new, but as Design Observer’s Michael Bierut wrote at the time, “Bass’s AT&T mark has one advantage over anything that will replace it: It already exists… Anything new will surrender all that equity, return to square one, and compete for attention with all those other telecom marks out there.”

CONTINENTAL – Saul Bass (1968) vs Onoma Design (1991)

Bass’s “jetstream” logo helped Continental become one of the most recognizable airlines of the ’70s — he wanted to project an image that was “high tech,” “friendly,” and “large.” While we get what Onoma Design was going for with the “global” update, the end result is both more generic and less memorable.

DIXIE – Saul Bass (1969) vs Unknown (2000s)

Bass’s graphic Dixie logo manages to be playful and classic at the same time — kind of like a Marimekko print. Add some color, italicize the text, and turn the whole thing on its head (literally), and the end result is a lot less mod, and a lot more cheesy.

QUAKER – Saul Bass (1971) vs Wallace Church (2010)

While we prefer Bass’s stylized, monochromatic version of Mr. Quaker, the latest version of the ever-evolving logo (complete with trendy Archer typeface) isn’t half bad; we’re just not sure what he’s doing hanging out inside of the ‘Q.’

YWCA – Saul Bass (1988) vs Landor SF (2004)

The YWCA came to Landor because they felt that the Bass’s logo was “outdated and did not reflect the current YWCA’s spirit and purpose.” What they wanted was “a new identity that would more effectively communicate the organization’s mission.” Apparently all it took was some bold, lowercase letters and the color orange.

As with previous works What Ever and A Tale of 2Cities, ATGW is written live on stage in real time, with plenty of audience advice and online chronicling. The new, expanded production picks up with Episode 25, but the vaguely circus-like energy and freshly baked character-driven nature of her narrative collages make it easy to dive right in.

Learn more about Woodbury’s projects at her website, peruse the complete video archive of As the Globe Warms, follow the serial’s progress on Facebook, and see it live at LA’s Bootleg Theater through April 5.

Click through below for a gallery of images and videos of Woodbury’s work.

Heather Woodbury. Photo: Phil Norwich

Public Opinion, 1971 – 1972

Featuring curated web exhibitions, PBS Arts covers the realms of visual art, dance, theater, film, and music. Current exhibitions include a look at contemporary artists responding to themes in the news, a tour of New Orleans five years after Katrina with artist Thomas Mann, and an overview of the sounds of Brazilian Samba singer Seu Jorge.

Explore the PBS Arts website, watch full performances of Shakespeare plays, meet avant-garde filmmakers on Thirteen’s SundayArts, view slideshows of the best in visual arts from Art:21, and contribute your own creativity to the PBS mix.

Click through below for a gallery of images and videos from the site.

Cindy Sherman’s Untitled (#305) is a signature image – one of nine – in the “Gender and Sexuality” exhibition of “Read All About It: Art from the Headlines” on PBS Arts, in which contemporary artists respond to themes in the news. Cindy Sherman; Untitled (#305), 1994; © Cindy Sherman. Photo: Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York

The Vancouver-based artist has shown all over the world, in galleries from Chicago to Mexico City, and in blockbuster exhibitions at MOCA and the Whitney Biennial. He’s also known for the occasional intimate club performance. But it’s not just genres Graham splices together; a master of lush production values, he’s capable of communicating compelling, comedic, and politically salient messages with a single charismatic gesture.

Check out Graham’s current exhibition at NYC’s 303 gallery, learn about a film-based retrospective at the MACBA Barcelona, and keep up with the artist at his brand-new Facebook page.

Click through below for images and video of the artist’s work.

Three Musicians

No. Everyone needs to calm down.

MTC’s a non-profit theater. They can afford to take risks commercial producers can’t because they’re not in the first-thing’s-first business of making money. They have corporate and private endowments. They don’t have to worry about pulling in success so much as keeping subscribers. They can use this to compliment their “diversity” in choices or whatever. Commercial producers keep their eyes on the prize: cash. So they’d never take a risk putting a first-time, 23 year-old British playwright on Broadway. It’d never happen. MTC didn’t take that risk either, by putting her on one of their CityCenter stages. If anything, this just serves as great evidence of American Broadway producers’ skepticism of three things:

1. Wunderkinds.
2. British theater.
3. Hyperbole.

A bunch of commercial producers in town looked at the show and didn’t like it. Sure, there was the whole “wunderkind” press angle, which guys like [Dave Itzkoff] are already biting into, but the play needed work in the state it was in, which is why the biggest production it received in the UK was at Duke of York’s, a 640 max capacity venue. MTC Stage 1, where it’s going to be mounted? 299 seats. This isn’t a huge chance they’re taking; but they are testing it out for either commercial partnership and/or their larger stages. And dollars to donuts, this thing’s getting some serious director re-working for American audiences.

Billy Elliot opened in London in March, 2005. One critic called it “the greatest British musical I have ever seen.” American commercial producers still scoffed. It didn’t open in a Broadway theater until November, 2008, more than 3 1/2 years later.

August: Osage County opened in December, 2007. It was in a British theater by November, 2008. Less than a year later.

Maybe that’s not a fair comparison because plays are easier to mount, and Wicked also opened in Chicago and did a National Tour before it opened in London (around three years later), but Wicked didn’t win the Tony for Best Musical, while Billy Elliot won the British equivalent. And nobody called Wicked “THE BEST THING EVER, FOREVER,” because it’s not.

American producers are way more skeptical of British theater and British producers are of American shows. British shows need serious re-working by Americans to work here. Furthermore, producers want plays to have long lives, which — with tours, with regional theater licensing audiences, and with tourists — British plays (unless they’re grand-slam hits) don’t have.

Also, New Yorkers don’t buy into wunderkind hype with theater. It just doesn’t happen.

Images from the first staging of That Face, at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. Directed by Andy Arnold.

British theater simply doesn’t equate to commercial success in America as a rule. There are definitely great exceptions — God of Carnage, History Boys, etc. — but they do better critically than they do commercially, by and large. British theater critics are even more prone to hyperbole than American ones so there’s really no telling how Americans are going to react. People thought Journey’s End was going to stomp through Broadway, it ended up closing in 2008…on the day it won the Tony. Big “ouch” from everyone on Broadway. Then again, between Billy Elliot rocking box office wraps and War Horse — a big, technical production with giant puppet-horses — on its way over, British theater’s making some serious play for American dollars in US houses. The good money’s on the buck — or the pound — stopping with the boy ballerinos.

As the geek in us waits with bated breath for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we find ourselves in desperate need of a wizardly fix. (Seriously, did you see this post? We’re obsessed.) We remember hearing a while back about a University of Michigan group putting up a Harry Potter musical, but now you can watch the whole thing (complete with Lord Voldemort’s tap number!) online. If you’re a Potter purist who’s freaking out right now, don’t worry. It’s not a page-to-stage kind of thing; it’s more of a homage/parody with awesome results.

Watch the opening scenes above, or we’ll put a Cruciatus curse on you! [via Popsense]

First of all, we can only imagine that these drinks will be incredibly overpriced. If you’re paying an arm and a leg for the tickets, you’ll probably have to shill out another appendage for a seabreeze. Second, are you familiar with this show, Rock of Ages? We weren’t, but quickly found out why: It’s basically a two-hour karaoke fest of hits by Bon Jovi, White Snake, and Foreigner — starring American Idol-almost Constantine Maroulis. Dismissing for a moment why anyone would go to this when they can hear all of these tunes in any dive bar, alcohol, we have a feeling, would only encourage raucous audience sing-alongs. Which are almost always better left for dive bars. Karaoke bars, maybe.

Don’t get us wrong: we’re happy to incorporate alcohol into plenty of usually sober endeavors: Shamrock Shakes, for example. Or, we really appreciated the full bars we found in London cinemas. And, for other shows — Cabaret comes to mind — it might actually enhance the show to have table service during the production. But we kind of already want to kill the drunk kids slurring into the mic over a Journey song at our local’s Rock ‘n Roll karaoke night. Why would we pay good, hard-earned money — “in this economy,” especially — to be trapped in a theater with over 100 of them?

Our reaction? Well, that just doesn’t seem fair. There’s no way David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish — aka the three Billys — deliver the exact same performances, even if they are treated as equals by the producers and the creative team. Note: if they win all three will get their own statue.

According to the Times, there’s precedent:

“A spokeswoman for the Tony Awards Administration committee, which made the decision, said on Thursday evening that the ruling had some precedent: Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley, who played the Siamese twins in Side Show, received a joint nomination for lead actress in a musical in 1998, and all of the children in the 1960 production of The Sound of Music were nominated for featured actress in a play (even though some of the children were boys).”

OK, well neither of those examples seem very fair to us either. And important to note, none of these oddball nominations resulted in a win. Maybe someone was trying to make sure they didn’t have a fighting chance. Can you imagine this kind of thing happening with an Academy Award? Or even an Emmy?

On a random note, is there anyone else who loved the film version of this story but finds the idea of the musical completely annoying? Maybe we’ve just grown more jaded over the past nine years, but we can’t get psyched enough to pay 100 bones to see it.