Over the course of decades in America, the one thing that has brought a divided country together has been the arts.
Eric Schaeffer – File Photo by Todd Franson
The arts are a vessel that brings ideas to life, introducing each of us to different, and sometimes challenging, points of view. They help us begin conversations and understanding about different people, different ideas and different ways of thinking altogether. They provide a safe place where no one is judged while thoughts and ideas are exchanged. Songs can move us, words can change us and music notes can stir our soul.
I hope the next four years we can use art to heal, accept different points of view and grow as a country that continues to be a melting pot of immigrants founded with the principle of free speech.
As President Kennedy said, “I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
The opinions expressed in these letters are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations and this magazine, its staff and contributors.
Douglas Sills loves to laugh. It's a big laugh, hearty and life-affirming. And it -- along with a warm, impossibly broad smile -- blankets a conversation with him in warmth and comfort. The laugh bursts forth at unexpected moments, such as when the actor, known for stints on Broadway and as French chef (revealed to be a Kansas cook) Monsieur Baudin on HBO's The Gilded Age, is asked if he has ever been part of a play that's gone terribly wrong.
"I don't have a disaster in my head offhand," he grins. "Do I? I don't. Maybe it's because you go to work every day for months and you're pouring your heart and soul into it, you're there for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours, and you're giving up everything to do it, and it's not a high-paying thing. And so you drink the Kool-Aid -- you have to. And so maybe that's why it doesn't feel like a disaster to me." He pauses. "But I've seen some disasters."
Speaking at a House GOP retreat, President Donald Trump warned that Democrats would seek to impeach him if they regain control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
"f we don't win the midterms, it's just going to be -- I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me," Trump said. "I'll get impeached."
Trump was first impeached in 2019, after Democrats regained control of the House during his first term, over allegations that he withheld congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine to pressure its government into announcing investigations into his political rival, former President Joe Biden.
Not since Hedwig and the Angry Inch have I so enjoyed a one-person musical about an internationally ignored female artist overshadowed by her famous male partner as much as I enjoyed Rebecca Simmonds and Jack Miles' enchanting In Clay.
Making its American premiere at Signature Theatre, following sellout runs in London, the jazz-infused portrait of early-20th-century French ceramicist and painter Marie-Berthe Cazin doesn't have too much else in common with hard-rocking Hedwig. Except that both shows are powered by a knockout batch of songs, and the galvanizing force of a woman reclaiming her time, her art, and her story.
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