Matthew Amendt on How the New Off-Broadway Dracula Is More Ghostbusters Than Twilight
Matthew Amendt (Photos by Emilio Madrid for Broadway.com) Matthew Amendt made his stage debut when he was a baby. His mom was a high school drama teacher in Indiana, Pennsylvania (which is also Jimmy Stewart’s hometown). “I was the prop baby in all the local high school productions,” he told Beth Stevens in a recent #LiveAtFive interview. Now Amendt is eating babies and biting necks in a new off-Broadway adaptation of Dracula, written by Kate Hamill and directed by Sarna Lapine. Jessica Frances Dukes and Matthew Amendt in Dracula.(Photo: Joan Marcus) Don’t expect a sexy vampire, says Amendt. “The original story, that’s really a creepy misogynist story of [Dracula] getting these young women, and they misbehave with me which kills them,” he explained. “Kate’s put her twist on that and changed all that.” In this new version, instead of Jonathan Harker as the main character, it’s actually his wife Mina who helps solve the Dracula mystery. Another twist: a majority of the cast is women.Since Dracula uses his vampirism as mind control, he becomes another tool of the patriarchy to control women. The question the play leaves audiences with is: Can you ever defeat Dracula and what he represents? “Are we gonna be able to solve these problems that we have with misogyny and gender and the patriarchy?” posits Amendt. “Are we gonna be able to figure these things out, or is it just something that we all inherited, a kind of plague, that’s gonna be a problem forever? My Dracula is kind of representing that. So, it’s a little more American Psycho than Monster.” Star Files Dracula Matthew Amendt
Show Closed This production ended its run on March 8, 2020 Related Shows View Comments Dracula is currently running in repertory with a new version of Frankenstein at Classic Stage Company, a kind of “double creature feature,” until March 8. It may sound like a dark program, but Amendt promises that it’s also a fun time, since the Dracula team was also inspired by Ghostbusters. As he put it, the goal is: “Let’s have a good amount of fun, let’s bite some people, let’s hiss at them, and let’s try to leave you with your partner in the Uber on the way home wondering if one of you is a vampire.”Watch the rest of Amendt’s #LiveAtFive interview below, where he also talks about why he loves doing Shakespeare. Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time 0:00/Duration 19:47Loaded: 0%Stream Type LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time -19:47 Playback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions settings, opens captions settings dialogcaptions off, selectedEnglishAudio Tracken (Main), selectedFullscreenThis is a modal window.Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window.Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.
South Korean researchers find H3N2v in pigsSouth Korean researchers reported today that they have isolated variant H3N2 influenza (H3N2v) viruses in pigs outside of North America for the first time, and they also isolated novel reassortant swine H3N1 viruses that have 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1)–derived genes.Writing in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, the investigators said they analyzed lung tissue collected from commercially slaughtered pigs. They identified H3N2v and H3N1 viruses containing pH1N1-like segments “that are genetically closely related to strains recently detected in pigs and humans in North America,” they wrote.The team found that the H3N1 viruses replicated more readily in human cells and transmitted better via respiratory droplets and contact in ferrets compared with the H3N2v viruses. Neither strain showed strong antigenicity to current H3N2 vaccine strains.Aug 30 Influenza Other Respi Viruses abstractReport: Targeting mosquito larvae could boost malaria controlTargeting immature mosquitoes in standing water could provide an important boost in the battle to control malaria, according to a review yesterday of 13 studies from several countries where the approach has been tried.The study, published as a Cochrane review, is billed as the first systematic review of the use of larval source management (LSM) as a weapon against malaria, according to a press release from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The school collaborated on the report with other academic institutions and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.LSM involves targeting mosquito larvae and pupae in water by draining or filling land, killing the mosquitoes with chemical or biological larvicides, and other steps.The release says that insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying of homes are in wide use and making a major dent in the malaria burden, but this success is threatened by factors such as mosquito resistance to insecticides. Some malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa are already implementing LSM programs, but there is a lack of consensus on the effectiveness of the method and where to use it.The authors’ analysis of data from nine countries suggested that where larval habitats are not too extensive and enough of them can be targeted, LSM may reduce malaria by up to 75% and the proportion of people infected with the malaria parasite up to 90%, the release states.The interventions included adding larvicide to abandoned mine pits, streams, irrigation ditches, and rice paddies where mosquitoes breed, and building dams, flushing streams, and removing water containers around people’s homes.Aug 28 London School of Hygiene press release Aug 29 Cochrane summary of the findings Report highlights private sector’s role in providing water, sanitationA report released yesterday by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and the International Finance Corporation found that tapping the private sector needs to be a key step in bringing drinking water and sanitation service to those who don’t have them.Such an approach will not only improve the livelihood of those without sanitation (some 2.5 billion people) and without safe drinking water (at least 780 million) but also represents a huge potential market, the World Bank said in a news release. The organization said that economic losses from the lack of access to water and sanitation are estimated at $260 billion a year.”The public sector alone cannot meet this massive challenge; if we want to end extreme poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity for the bottom 40%, we will have to scale up water and sanitation access,” said WSP Manager Jae So. “And to do that, both the public and private sector will need to work together.”The report, “Tapping the Markets: Opportunities for Domestic Investments in Water and Sanitation for the Poor,” offers solutions to prevent the thousands of daily child deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in annual economic losses caused by lack of access to water and adequate sanitation. It also explores challenges faced in tapping the business opportunities in developing countries, the World Bank said.The report will be presented at World Water Week in Stockholm on Sep 3, but conference editions are available at the link below.Aug 29 World Bank news release
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BIRNS, Inc., an ISO 9001:2008 certified global leader in the design and manufacturing of high performance connectors, custom cable assemblies and lighting systems, has announced a range of new keying options for its popular BIRNS Millennium™ connector series.The BIRNS Millennium series is a 6Km rated, high density metal shell connector line trusted worldwide for demanding subsea applications, from manned and unmanned submersibles to sensors and towed arrays. The series is specifically engineered for challenging power and signal applications and systems requiring electro-opto-mechanical solutions.The new BIRNS Millennium series keys are fully machined, as opposed to commercially available press fit versions, and feature a new squared silhouette, providing greatly increased strength and making the keying process more seamless, secure and user-friendly. BIRNS has also launched the position of an optional third key, providing purposeful incompatibility of different positions between the same connector with different circuits. This will obviate potential confusion in the field when more than one of the same connector—with the same pin configurations but different circuits, for example—are being used in a subsea system. The new third key option can be specified in one of four positions, which are designated by part number nomenclature.Another additional enhancement added to the connector series is its new hard phosphor bronze engaging nut, providing even more strength and robustness to replace the brass formerly used.Press Release, February 06, 2014; Image: BIRNS
The 270 ft (82.3 m) tall crane arrived at the port on BigLift Shipping’s vessel Happy Dover. According to the port, it is the largest mobile harbour crane in the USA and it will come online in the second quarter of 2019.Canaveral Port Authority said the crane will be use to handle the port’s growing portfolio of heavy and oversized cargo, including commercial spacecraft components.While the crane will initially be based at North Cargo Berth 5, it will also be used at North Cargo Berths 6 and 8, the latter of which is currently under construction and scheduled for completion later this year.The LHM 600 mobile harbour crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 154 tons (139.7 tonnes) and a jib length of 190 ft (57.9 m).www.portcanaveral.comwww.liebherr.com
Ninety-five years after the profession admitted Carrie Morrison, women have overtaken men as a majority of practising solicitors. That is the stand-out finding of the Law Society Annual Statistics Report, which continues to track a trend of long-term and bullish growth.There were 139,624 solicitors with practising certificates (PC) in 2017, a 2.5% increase on the previous year and broadly in line with annual growth over the past 10 years. That is a rise of 29% in the last decade alone, highlighting just how well the profession rode out the financial crisis, and compares with a figure of just 48,937 in 1987.Women now make up 50.1% of PC holders and 48% of the 93,155 solicitors working in private practice. Some 62% of new admissions in 2016/17 were women.Nearly 17% of PC holders with known ethnicity are from black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) groups. Asian solicitors remain the best represented of BAME groups, making up 8.2% of all PC holders.Law Society president Joe Egan said: ‘With more women than men and a steadily growing proportion of solicitors from a [BAME] background, it is more important than ever the profession recognises and rewards talent equally.‘Every step towards greater equality will benefit businesses, clients and solicitors alike. ’
A legal trade union has said it will help students sue the Bar Standards Board for discrimination, as the row over next month’s online examinations escalates.Legal Sector Workers United said it was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the regulator’s treatment of students on the Bar Professional Training Course, adding ‘we commit to supporting these students in any legal claim for discrimination they may bring against the regulator as far as we can in accordance with our ethical duties’.A row between students and the Bar Standards Board broke out when candidates requiring reasonable adjustments struggled to enrol in centralised examinations, the majority of which have been moved online because of the pandemic.Disabled students reported spending hours on the phone trying to book assessment slots, only to be hung up on, and the Gazette understands some still do not know how and where they will sit the tests, which are due to take place in less than three weeks’ time.Students can request to sit the assessments at a physical exam centre. However, there have been reports of limited test centre availability, and some candidates have allegedly been asked to accept inadequate adjustments.Legal Sector Workers United said: ‘Let us be clear: this is discrimination. If left unresolved, it will make a mockery of the notion of diversity and social mobility at the bar – a profession in which disabled people are already vastly underrepresented.’The Young Legal Aid Lawyers group called on the BSB to properly accommodate students and to ensure mitigating circumstances provisions are in place for those requiring adjustment. It also asked chambers to take the issue into account when recruiting pupils.A spokesperson for the BSB said: ‘The BSB has taken great care to ensure that the arrangements for sitting centralised assessments in August take account of our duties under the Equality Act and we do not believe that the arrangements we are making or the technology we have chosen – a system which has been successfully used by Pearson VUE, who deliver more than 16 million exams around the world every year – are in any way discriminatory. Human invigilators are also involved throughout the online proctoring process.’
FIRE FIGHTING: UK defence technology company QinetiQ has been awarded a contract to provide remotely-operated vehicles able to enter unsafe environments to search for acetylene gas cylinders at fire sites near rail routes in London. The initiative aims to reduce the disruption to services caused by the imposition of 200 m exclusion zones when there is a risk of exploding gas cylinders. In April 2007 a warehouse fire prompted the suspension of rail services into a number of London termini, causing massive disruption. This led to trials with the fire-fighting robots in 2008, during which QinetiQ responded to 17 incidents and reduced the average duration of exclusion zones being imposed from 19 h to less than 3 h. As a result, Transport for London, the Highways Agency and UK infrastructure manager Network Rail are funding an initial two-year contract for QinetiQ to operate the ROVs for the London Fire Brigade. ‘Anything we can do to reduce travel delays for passengers is high on our list of priorities and so is overall safety’, said Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s Director of Operations & Customer Services. ‘The deployment of the ROVs will give us more options for faster resolution of incidents and hopefully lead to less disruption to train servicesRemotely-operated vehicles Talon: Small, highly-manoeuvrable tracked vehicle used for bomb disposal. Equipped with a video and thermal image cameras.Black Max: Equipped with a video camera and able to use a water hose to cool cylinders.Brokk 90: digger vehicle designed to remove debris.
We’ve got some fantastic news for Cold Feet fans as ITV have just confirmed that the BAFTA winning comedy drama has been recommissioned for a ninth series. Cold Feet stars James Nesbitt, Hermione Norris, Robert Bathurst, Fay Ripley and John Thomson. The new series will again come from acclaimed creator and writer Mike Bullen and award winning producers Big Talk Productions.At the end of series eight Jenny (Fay Ripley) was dealing with her cancer treatment and with husband Pete (John Thomson) by her side, preparing herself for the long road ahead; David (Robert Bathurst) was putting his life back together with the support of his friends; while Karen (Hermione Norris) and Adam (James Nesbitt) were figuring out the boundaries of their burgeoning relationship and the impact it had on the close knit group.Watch the Cold Feet season 8 trailer below:Executive Producers for the ninth series will be Kathryn O’Connor for Big Talk North alongside Big Talk CEO Kenton Allen and Managing Director Matthew Justice and writer Mike Bullen. The Producer is Jim Poyser. Mike Bullen said: “I think we were all overwhelmed by the amazing response to the latest series. Jenny’s cancer in particular seemed to touch a nerve with viewers. There are still stories to tell for these characters but I’m conscious that we’ve raised the bar. The delight at being recommissioned has already been replaced by trepidation at the weight of expectation.”The six episode series will shoot later this year in Manchester to air on ITV in 2020. EF Television will bring you the latest Cold Feet news as it is announced.