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Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Tuesday, September 15, 2020 Photo shows visitors drinking coffee in the economy class seats in a retired Airbus 330 air-plane turned into a coffee Photo shows visitors enjoying coffee in a retired Airbus 330 air-plane turned into a coffee shop. shop. roadway stars who once lit up old said. With every postponement-New BNew York’s most bankable stages York actors are now hoping for a sum- now face a reckoning over the mer 2021 reopening-he pondered a future of the performing arts, in an return to an earlier career in real estate. industry that has bled money since the “I can’t sit and survive on hope,” Davis pandemic began. Like essentially all said. “Many of my friends have gotten other cultural institutions, New York’s on planes and gone home... saying that famed musical theater district shut they may never come back.” For now, down as the city became the US epi- Davis is holding on, taking virtual univer- center of the Covid-19 outbreak in the sity teaching gigs and honing his craft. spring. When the crisis took hold, per- “There’s still that fire inside,” he said. former Derrick Davis was set to play “I’ve worked my life to get to this level.” Martin Luther King Jr in “I Dream,” to be “I can’t throw in the towel just yet.” staged in North Carolina. Suddenly, Davis-who has played major parts in Pressure in isolation “The Lion King,” and was the first black In its 2018-2019 season, Broadway person in the title role on a national tour grossed $1.83 billion, according to the Performers Derrick Davis (left) and Chondra Profit speak during an Artists Taharqa Patterson (left) and Angela Birchett perform during of “The Phantom Of The Opera”-was Broadway League, a trade organization interview with AFP. an interview with AFP. unemployed. that says in normal times the industry As the weeks dragged on, “depres- supports nearly 97,000 local jobs. The leaders say they would lose money darity with fellow performers they have live shows would evolve post-coron- sion started to set in; the money started pandemic financial hit absorbed by the operating at a limited capacity-unlike collaborated with for “Lights Out On avirus, Patterson was positive of one to fall through the sieve,” the 41-year- theater district is severe, and industry museums, which have started opening Broadway,” an open-mic event which thing: “There is no going back to busi- in New York-meaning live theater will has been kept up online. The show ness as usual.” likely be among the last sectors to started as an avenue for actors to let “There will be a new normal, because return. Chondra Profit, a leading “Lion loose on nights when they were not per- we’re rocking with a different conscious- King” actor for a decade, said that while forming in regular shows. They, along ness, a different awareness and differ- she feared burning through savings with the show’s hosts Angela Birchett ent skills that have been sharpened and waiting to get back onstage, over the and Taharqa Patterson, have taken this honed while we’ve been home,” he said. past few months she has gone into “full time to reflect how theater’s return might Davis said he was “motivated” to keep mother mode,” caring for her energetic evolve post-pandemic-in terms of health pushing boundaries and find new ways two-year-old. But even using the time for precautions, but also given the sharp to create, but cautioned that the pan- her family felt like a risk, the 36-year-old rise of the Black Lives Matter movement demic had taken its toll on artists just said, as pressure grew to use the period in recent months. like everyone else. At times, the depres- of isolation as fuel for new work. “Our culture and our people are sion runs deep. He recalled a moment “You have to create the next best going through a metamorphosis... our when “I didn’t even have the energy to play, and you have to create all this responsibility is going to be different in call somebody and say hello... because music... artists are putting out videos terms of our output,” Birchett, 41, said. of the uncertainty and because of the every other day,” Profit said. “It was “Art and music are going to be a vehi- lack of ability to just be around people starting to suffocate me.” Taking a step cle that will continue to move things that you’re normally around in a normal back, Profit began reading new forward.” “We have to make that a part way.” “It’s a challenge,” Davis said. “But scripts, and considering how she of our absolute obligation.” Patterson, as performers, we rise to that challenge, could feel out new pathways, such as 38, agreed, saying the performing arts and we persevere.” “Hopefully we will directing or casting. would be key to “healing” for both get to the other side.”— AFP audiences and performers, who have ‘Different consciousness’ been deprived of creative release for In this file photo Signage of the Broadway play “The Phantom of the Opera” seen at Time Their professional creative outlets sti- many stressful months. Though none Square in New York City.—AFP photos fled, Profit and Davis have found soli- of the performers could predict how he Busan International Film which we won’t be able to host the TFestival, Asia’s biggest gathering event,” he said. Originally set for early of its kind, will be reduced to a October, organizers said it will be fraction of its usual scale with several pushed back to October 21-30 and sections moved online because of the gave details of the cutbacks in a state- ts biggest star is British, and its direc- coronavirus pandemic, organizers said ment. “All outdoor events are cancelled, Itor is white. But “Concrete Cowboy,” yesterday. The event normally sees a including the opening and closing cere- a critically acclaimed new film about host of stars and industry figures from monies,” they said, “in order to prevent at-risk black youths and horse owners across Asia and further afield, including crowds from gathering”. in urban Philadelphia, offers a poignant some from Hollywood, descend on the “There will be no international invita- message at a time of mass anti-racism South Korean port city for 10 days of tions, nor will there be any receptions or protests in the United States, Idris Elba critical consideration and financial deal- parties hosted to provide networking said Sunday. The film follows a young making. But South Korea-which largely opportunities for film industry profession- black man (Caleb McLaughlin of overcame an early coronavirus surge als.” A total of 192 films from 68 coun- “Stranger Things”) who returns to an with extensive tracing and testing-has tries will still be shown, but each movie impoverished Philadelphia ghetto. He seen several clusters in recent weeks, will only be screened once, compared must choose between a life of crime raising concerns of a second wave and with two or three times last year. All and the close-knit horse-rearing com- prompting authorities to tighten social judging for the festival’s prestigious munity of his estranged father (Elba.) distancing measures last month. awards will take place online, as will its “It was incredibly important to us... that In this file photo English actor Idris Elba In this file photo English actor Idris Elba Those curbs are being temporarily film and project markets, and discussion we tell this story of the fork in the road attends the world premiere of “Fast & Furious attends the world premiere of “Fast & Furious eased in the greater Seoul area, officials forum. The multi-director anthology that you can take as a young man in presents Hobbs & Shaw,” at the Dolby Theatre presents Hobbs & Shaw,” at the Dolby Theatre announced at the weekend, but Busan “Septet: The Story of Hong Kong”, which this country,” Elba told the Toronto film in Hollywood California. in Hollywood California. — AFP photos organizers said they had no choice but pays tribute to the territory ranging from festival, when asked about US anti- to cut back on the festival-which will also the 1950s to the present day, will open black police violence in an online talk. Reportedly shot for less than $10 opposite Academy Award winner Kate be delayed by two weeks. “We agonized the festival. The closing film will be “America didn’t change overnight. million, the movie premiered in Toronto Winslet. over whether we should go ahead with Japanese director Kotaro Tamura’s ani- These are issues that have been going on Sunday. Reviews praised an “aston- The film was inspired by the real life hosting the event,” festival chairman Lee mated movie “Josee, the Tiger and the on for a long time-even where I’m from ishing street-level debut” for shining a of British fossil-gathering paleontologist Yong-kwan told reporters. And he hinted Fish”, centered on a reclusive, disabled in England where there’s a huge knife- light on a unique but fading subculture Mary Anning (Winslet) and depicts a that it could still be cancelled altogether young woman. — AFP crime problem,” added the London- by using real-life “urban cowboys” as lesbian relationship with a grieving if Korea’s traditional Chuseok harvest born star. actors. Elba himself had to overcome a mother (Ronan) in 19th-century festival triggers a new surge in infec- Director Ricky Staub stumbled upon severe horse allergy to film the movie.

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