Julie Taymor gives some great talks. And TED hosts some great talks (check out the YouTube channel). And now, TED hosts one of Taymor's great talks, and puts it on the internet.

She makes some really beautiful statements about what's so great about theatre and says a few stunning things about watching media on screens. Even if you didn't cry at The Lion King, this one's definitely for you.

Okay, okay, here's a bit from his bio ...

In 2007 the Village Voice, Time Out, and The New York Press named Taylor Mac one of New York's best.

... and his artistic statement ...

I consider myself a theatre artist working in the genre of pastiche (but isn't all theatre the genre of pastiche). This is a fancy way of saying I do a lot of different things. I'm a playwright, an actor, songwriter, director, visual artist, and activist. I create work for others that I don't perform in, perform in other artist's work, create performance art parties and huge theatrical extravaganzas (with at least a dozen performers, puppets, and musicians), perform solo, and sometimes squish all of these hats together and come up with what most people in academic circles would call a postmodern theatric.

Okay ... here's a video. (And you may need to have been in a NYC subway since 9/11 to get this, but hopefully that's enough of a clue to help out.)

Wasn't that great? See more here.

Also, that video is part of the HERE Arts Center's YouTube channel, which has lots more great stuff, and is here.

Click here for more Monsterpiece Theatre.

Mark Ruffalo talks about the glory and the pain of trying to make it as an actor in L.A.

Does this recent development indicate that America's most prestigious film schools are becoming more relevant, or more obsolete?

Guy Debord was a French philosopher with some far-out ideas about the alienation of capitalism, commodity fetishism, and the banality of modern culture, summed up in his most influential work, Society of the Spectacle. In 1957 Debord was a founding member of the Situationist International, a group which sought to upend conventional society through a kind of creative disruption, using politically charged art and writing to reclaim individuality and self-determination outside of the Spectacle's pervasive influence.

The Situationists were also known for practicing derive, essentially a drug-addled wandering through Paris, during which Debord and his friends would use urban space in unexpected or unintended ways. After all, why not take a nap in the middle of the boulevard? Why not relieve yourself at a bus stop?

Debord's influence is still present in creative works such as Fight Club, Adbusters, or with our friends at Improv Everywhere. Witness their latest stunt, where 111 shirtless men go shopping in a Manhattan Abercrombie & Fitch store.

Frankly, the New Albany-based corporation has had it coming for a long time. But are Charlie Todd and his wily band of IE Agents subverting the Spectacle, or merely perpetuating it in a different way?

From the SF Bay Area Theatre Blog.

OK, the first Sweeney trailer had but a smidge of singing (from "Epiphany".) this trailer has exactly NO singing. It's not that I think the trailers are bad. It's not that I think that people who might go to see a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration a la Sleepy Hollow have no chance of liking Sweeney. I'm just a tad concerned that completely obfuscating the fact that it's not only a musical, but a nearly sung-thru musical, might, well, set the wrong expectations. And you know unhappiness is all about unmet expectations. What do you think?

Here's a stand-alone showtune I wanted to post because... Well, because it's funny and catchy and it's Friday. So there.

Music courtesy of Drew Callendar, Eli Bolin, and friends.

I know Johnny Depp won't sing like Len Cariou or George Hearn, but this looks like a great movie version. It seems like Burton made it his own. Let's just hope he did so without ruining it for those of us who already liked the show.

Hat-tip: ElisaC.

Who gets to unleash the greatest number of obscenities in the film adaptation of Glengarry Glen Ross?

a) Alec Baldwin
b) Kevin Spacey
c) Ed Harris
d) Jack Lemmon
e) Al Pacino

This is a trailer showing examples of realtime (interactive) technologies on stage (using infrared camera motion sensing, developped by Frieder Weiss).

A news story about a play which does not include a movie star. Awesome!

I hear the ratings tonight are so low, that Osama Bin Laden is going to be hiding onstage.

The Big Wall was a large, touch-sensitive, interactive screen taking you into the world behind the Coram Boy production at the National Theatre. Situated within the National Theatre and the first of its kind in the UK, The Big Wall was made possible by the NT's partnership with Accenture, sponsor of Innovation at the National Theatre.