Artists on the Verge Ema Katrovas

Host of Artists on the Verge, Ema Katrovas, shares her next-day impressions after a live show she created which was two years in the making - and, more importantly, how her experiences around the budget, the technical aspects of the show, the reactions of the public, and the show's prospects for the future may hint at a new focus for the podcast.

Here are links to the YouTube and Instagram accounts where you can find some of the shorts/reels about the show which Ema published in the month leading up to the show:


YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSFIN5ke8euZ18W2hUWGKNnd0MGCdSjVB
Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/artists_on_the_verge/

(During this episode, Ema mentions Jerzy Grotowski's Poor Theatre without much explanation - you can actually learn more about that in the shorts/reels linked above.)


💋👁👂🏼 Artists on the Verge website: https://artists-on-the-verge.com/
👀 Instagram: @artists_on_the_verge


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Welcome to another conversation from the high/low art divide between opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer Ema Katrovas and comedian-and-TV-writer-turned-novelist Nicholas Anthony. 

I was going to put the film the Sudbury Devil (whose creator I interviewed on this podcast) to rest - but then I stumbled across Susan Sontag’s essay “Notes on Camp” and I realised “camp” kind of explains EVERYTHING about how Nick and I (i.e. a comedian and an opera singer) had very different reactions to this film - namely why Nick HATED it and I didn't.

So what does “camp” have to do with certain corners of YouTube, the piece of outsider cinema called the Sudbury Devil, and how might it explain why two people might have different reactions to a particular work of art?

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:00:02 Conversation about why Nick didn’t like the Sudbury Devil 

00:34:44 Interlude and disclaimer to the creators of the film (“the opposite of love isn’t hatred, it’s indifference”) 

00:35:66 Understanding Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” 

00:53:58 Why camp MIGHT explain Nick’s dislike of the Sudbury Devil (disclaimer: this features Ema’s hot take on camp which she may revise) 

01:08:40 So what is camp? (and final thoughts on Sudbury Devil) 

01:12:59 Outro 

My interview with Andrew Rakich on the Sudbury Devil: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artistsontheverge/episodes/52-A-Friendly-Debate-With-Andrew-Rakich-On-His-Epic-Micro-budget-Film---The-Sudbury-Devil-e2euolq

Links:


💋👁👂🏼 Artists on the Verge website: ⁠⁠⁠https://artists-on-the-verge.com/⁠⁠⁠
👀 Instagram: @artists_on_the_verge


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Welcome to another conversation from the high/low art divide between opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer Ema Katrovas and comedian-and-TV-writer-turned-novelist Nicholas Anthony. 
This episode is the second half of a two-part series recorded in New York City - this time, fresh off of our experience of Sleep No More at the the McKittrick Hotel, an immersive theatre experience created by the British theatre company Punchdrunk.
So what is Sleep No More? Is it a theatrical experience based on Shakespeare’s MacBeth, Alfred Hitchcock’s film noir Rebecca, and a real witch trial that took place in 1697 in Scotland, which is how it’s advertised? Or is it an aesthetic haunted house? Or is it just an elaborate method of selling cocktails? Let's find out...
Sleep No More website: https://mckittrickhotel.com/events/sleep-no-more/
Music:

The bar did not end up getting back to me about who was playing live music that night. If I ever find out, will credit the musician/singer here. (If you or someone you know played Scallywags Irish Pub on 9th Ave Between 38th and 39th street late on January 10th, please let me know!)
As background for my description of the experience, I used a recording someone uploaded to YouTube after smuggling a recording device into Sleep No More (!) - given that it's been up for a while, it seems the creators don't mind much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYg0thPEPVw&t=2602s
Peggy Lee's rendition of "Is That All There Is?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sWTnsemkIs

Links:

💋👁👂🏼 Artists on the Verge website: ⁠⁠⁠https://artists-on-the-verge.com/⁠⁠⁠
👀 Instagram: @artists_on_the_verge


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artistsontheverge/message

Welcome to another conversation from the high/low art divide between opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer Ema Katrovas and comedian-and-TV-writer-turned-novelist Nicholas Anthony. 



This episode is the first half of a two-part series recorded in New York - in this case, directly at the Metropolitan Opera.



We recorded this episode sitting in our seats in the Family Circle, during both intermissions and right after the end of a performance of Zefirelli’s classic production of Puccini’s La Boheme, one of the most popular, if not the most popular, operas of the last century and, even better, one that tells the story of aspiring artists.



The cast we heard on January 8th at the Metropolitan Opera: 

Conductor: Marco Armiliato 

Mimi: Elina Stikhina

Rodolfo: Stephen Costello

Musetta: Kristina Mkhitaryan

Marcello: Adam Plachetka 

Schaunard: Rodion Pogossov

Colline: Krzysztof Bączyk

Benoit/Alcindoro: Donald Maxwell

Met Opera Chorus 



Link to the recording I used as "illustration footage": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_1OtRt0_ho

Cast of the recording (though you don't get to hear most of them):

Mimì: Mirella Freni
Rodolfo: Luciano Pavarotti
Musetta: Annarita Taliento
Marcello: Lucio Gallo
Schaunard: Pietro Spagnoli
Colline: Nicolai Ghiaurov

Conductor: Daniel Oren



💋👁👂🏼 Artists on the Verge website: https://artists-on-the-verge.com/



👀 Instagram: @artists_on_the_verge


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A conversation with Adrew Rakich of  @AtunSheiFilms  on his micro-budget period horror movie The Sudbury Devil.
Watch on YouTube here:
https://youtu.be/FXYgbsub4gg
Rent or Buy the Sudbury Devil here: https://atunsheifilms.vhx.tv/products/the-sudbury-devil

00:00:00 - Intro - why I'm doing this interview
(TALKING ABOUT THE FILM'S CONTENT)
00:01:41 - What does it mean to shock with your work?
00:09:20 - Ema's feminist critique
00:25:27 - The historical basis of Puritan devil worship
(END OF SPOILERS - TALKING ABOUT INDIE CREATING)
00:31:17 - Are YouTubers Indie or Mainstream?
00:39:22 - The YouTube branch of arts funding and why Andrew chose it
00:44:11 - Andrew's update to his optimistic video about YouTubing
00:55:24 - Andrew's advice for dealing with a crowdfunded platform
01:01:00 - The critics are always right
01:03:57 - The Co-Op model of film funding

(I don't usually use title generators - but this AI-generated title was just hilarious)

💋👁👂🏼 Artists on the Verge website: https://artists-on-the-verge.com/

👀 Instagram: @artists_on_the_verge

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Comedian-and-TV-writer-turned-novelist Nicholas Anthony and opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer Ema Katrovas talk to William Deresiewicz, author of /Death of the Artist: How Creatives Struggle to Survive In the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech/. This book argues that artists have a harder time making a middle class living today than in previous generations - but is this true? And how does it effect the art and entertainment that’s made today?



Here is the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/p3YIytFgvAY



Timestamps might be off by about 30 seconds:

00:00:00 Intro: The Two Stories Told About Being an Artist
00:01:04 Why did /Death of the Artist/ need to be written now?
00:02:31 But hasn’t it ALWAYS been hard to be an artist?
00:05:03 How is all this unique to artists? Aren’t a lot of middle-class professions in danger?
00:06:08 What is Art with a capital “A” and why is it under threat?
00:09:06 The TV Renaissance is Over (Amending the section on TV in /Death of the Artist/)
00:11:06 Is interviewing 140 artists really representative of the arts industry?
00:15:56 Is it helpful for individual artists to look at the issues of the arts industry ?
00:17:58 Is art really “boring” now? And why does William Deresiewicz not watch movies in movie theatres?
00:21:16 Blockbusterisation and the loss of the creative middle class
00:25:15 But isn’t there actually a glut of good content now? (going back to the article “We’re all Bored of Culture Now”)
00:32:22 Isn’t journalism a form of art? And is it not subjective? (i.e. Nick pushes back)
00:34:04 Blaming wokeness for boring art
00:43:12 What if you’re depressed after reading /Death of the Artist/? Is there an actionable takeaway?
00:45:35 How do you reconcile pouring your youth and talent into an arts education that has no chance of leading to a satisfying career? How to repurpose creative skills?
00:52:06 What does the gamification of internet popularity say about the value of art? How does the internet lower the time and skill put into creative endeavours?
00:58:12 The 1000 true fans model - does it work?
00:59:07 “Everyone is an artist”: The Romantic myth that led to the Silicon Valley myth / David Graeber and Nicka Dubrovsky’s essay “Another Art World”
1:03:50 The lifecycle of an artist and how artists are discouraged as children
1:06:32 Saying goodbye (jazz clubs and experimental theatre shows we’re going to see)


Links to stuff we talk about:
The Death of the Artist: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250125514/thedeathoftheartist
Article “We’re all Bored of Culture”: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/bored-of-culture-william-deresiewicz
Article “On Not Drinking the Kool Aid”: https://salmagundi.skidmore.edu/articles/434-on-not-drinking-the-kool-aid


💋👁👂🏼 Artists on the Verge website: https://artists-on-the-verge.com/

👀 Instagram: @artists_on_the_verge


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/artistsontheverge/message