Stephen Colbert: 'America is Exceptional Because of our Greatness'

			Just in time for the presidential election and the holiday season, Stephen Colbert released his second book, America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t. Stated was at the Barnes & Noble in New York’s Union Square earlier this month to hear Colbert read from his book on a stage filled with his co-authors. Colbert joined a packed house—many of whom waited three hours for a seat near the front—about an hour late after coming across town in the rain post-Colbert Report taping. He signed his new book and answered questions from the crowd, who had come hoping to catch him both in and out of character. In one exchange, an audience member asked, “Are there any politicians that you deliberately avoid?” Colbert responded, “No, no, no. I would have any of them into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.” It’s fun to compare the delicious, patronizing, and jingoistic word salad of his new book with what our real-world political leaders are feeding to both their base and the undecideds: Although funny, it’s difficult to parody the already absurd world of political stump speeches. In fact, Mitt Romney may have a legal case against Colbert for plagiarizing his Primary victory speech in New Hampshire, April 24, 2012…
			“But the real question is, ‘Are America’s best days ahead of us?’ Of course they are, and always have been. We have the greatest history in the history of history. But never forget that our best days are ahead of us and always will be. Because America also has the greatest history in the history of the future. It’s our present that’s the problem, and always is be.” - Stephen Colbert			I think the true discovery of America is before us. I think the true fulfillment of our spirit, of our people, of our mighty and immortal land, is yet to come. I think the true discovery of our own democracy is still before us. And I think that all these things are certain as the morning, as inevitable as noon. I think I speak for most men living when I say that our America is Here, is Now, and beckons on before us, and that this glorious assurance is not only our living hope, but our dream to be accomplished. - Mitt Romney
			(Photos: Thomas V. Hartmann)

Scenic Designers' Roundtable: Whom Do You Serve?

			Over the course of four weeks, scenic designer David Gallo will pose one question each week to a group of some of the top designers working in theatre and entertainment today. The hope is to scratch beneath the surface to glean some insights into these working artists’ artistic processes. SCENIC DESIGNERS’ ROUNDTABLE: WHOM DO YOU SERVE? While realizing the world of a play, whom do you feel that you ultimately serve? Is it the playwright, the director, or the producer? And do you serve a different master when you are working on a new play versus a revival or perhaps a tried and true classic? - David Gallo, Performing Arts / Design Contributing Editor

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PERFORMANCE: The Actors' Roundtable: Art for Art's Sake

For 12 weeks, Paden Fallis posed one question each week to a group of professional working actors from a variety of backgrounds in an effort to dig a bit deeper into their artistic working processes. In this second series, an expanded group of actors looks at where art fits into a larger cultural context. ACTOR’S ROUNDTABLE: ART FOR ART’S SAKE We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem’s sake […] and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force: —but the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for the poem’s sake.  – Edgar Allen Poe Or as the French would say, “l’art pour l’art.” I’m a staunch “art for arts sake” guy. I don’t believe, as artists, we serve any other masters. However, with so much unrest, malaise and confusion in the world, is this too high-minded and narrow an idea? Should art not be more than for its own sake? Where do you stand? Do you see art and your work in theatre/film as intrinsically self-sufficient or do you see it as being its strongest when serving another aim? - Paden Fallis, Performing Arts Contributing Editor

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Scenic Designers' Roundtable: The Art of Design

			Over the course of four weeks, scenic designer David Gallo will pose one question each week to a group of some of the top designers working in theatre and entertainment today. The hope is to scratch beneath the surface to glean some insights into these working artists’ artistic processes. SCENIC DESIGNERS’ ROUNDTABLE: THE ART OF DESIGN When David Mitchell was asked whether or not he defined himself as an artist, he replied, “To earn a living in this business—in order to survive—you must do a great variety of things. I don’t feel I have the luxury of taking a philosophical stance. Although I take what I do very seriously. Basically, it’s an interpretive and derivative art rather than a truly original or seminal one.” Do you have a personal philosophy on the “art” of being a scenic designer? - David Gallo, Performing Arts / Design Contributing Editor

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Entrepreneur Nora Abousteit: '“I think building and making things are part of human nature.”