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Entertainment>Exciting
North America | United States | Arts

The Goodman Theatre Announces First All-Female Playwrights Unit

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Chicago's Goodman Theatre has announced that its sixth playwrights unit will be made up entirely of female playwrights. The Chicago writers participating in the 2015-16 program are Kristiana Rae Colón, Sandra Delgado, Jenni Lamb and Calamity West. The Unit is a year-long residency designed to nurture new work. The writers attend bi-monthly meetings with the Goodman's artistic team, culminating with public staged readings of their completed works. The Goodman's decision in selecting all female playwrights is particularly important in light of recent statistics showing that only o
North America | United States | Arts

Nicki Minaj Wins Best Female Hip-Hop Artist at the 2015 BET Awards

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In maybe the least-surprising event at tonight’s 2015 BET Awards, Nicki Minaj snagged the honor of Best Female Hip-Hop Artist for the sixth straight year. But this year’s victory was different in one significant way, breaking a tie with Missy Elliott to make Nicki the female rapper who has won the award more than anyone else; Missy follows with five victories, while Eve, Remy Ma and M.I.A. are the only other MCs to take home the honor with one victory apiece.
North America | United States | Arts

Misty Copeland named first black female principal dancer by Ballet Theater

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Misty Copeland was fast becoming the most famous ballerina in the United States — making the cover of Time magazine, being profiled by “60 Minutes,” growing into a social media sensation and dancing ballet’s biggest roles on some of its grandest stages. But another role eluded her: She was still not a principal dancer. Until Tuesday, when Ms. Copeland became the first African-American woman to be named a principal in the 75-year history of American Ballet Theater.
North America | United States | Arts

Women totally owned the Tonys this year

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Last night’s Tony Awards, the prestigious celebration of the best of the stage, had one major recurring theme: The ladies dominated. Major awards went to a whole slate of women who worked on some of the year’s most celebrated productions, including Fun Home and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It was an amazing moment of recognition for women in theater, and underlined the strength of women in the arts after the disappointingly male-dominated Oscars.
Europe | France | Entertainment

Women take spotlight as Cannes film fest opens

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The Cannes film festival eschews its usual blockbuster kick-off on Wednesday, opening with a gritty French film that marks only the second time a female director has won the coveted first slot. Normally reserved for flashy hits such as "Moulin Rouge" or "The Fifth Element", the opening selection this year is "Standing Tall", starring French icon Catherine Deneuve. Director Emmanuelle Bercot, little known outside her native France, is the first woman to open the world's most famous film festival since Diane Kurys in 1987 for her film "A Man in Love". The festival has come under fire in
North America | United States | Activism

Geena Davis launches Arkansas film fest for women

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With help from a slew of corporate sponsors, Geena Davis and filmmakers focused on women and diversity have taken over Bentonville, Arkansas, a city of 40,000 best known as Wal-Mart’s home base. While it’s not the first film festival to specialize in diversity, Davis said it’s the only film competition to promise theatrical releases for winning entries. “It’s unheard of in the world, actually,” the Oscar-winner said in a telephone interview before opening the festival Tuesday. “It’s the only festival offering distribution across theatrical, digital and on TV and on DVD. �
North America | United States | Entertainment

Captain Marvel movie to be written by two women, Marvel confirms

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Captain Marvel, the upcoming Marvel Studios film featuring the Carol Danvers version of the comics character, will be co-written by Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve, Marvel Entertainment announced today. The announcement confirmed a report from The Hollywood Reporter a week ago. Perlman co-wrote Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, which ended up in the No. 3 spot on the list of 2014's top-grossing films in the United States. LeFauve is a co-writer of Inside Out, the next Pixar film, which premieres June 19 and takes place in the mind of a young girl. LeFauve has also worked as a film pro
Middle East | Lebanon | Entertainment

Female DJs find the beat in Beirut

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Laila Sarkis, aka El Djette, stands on an elevated platform above the packed crowd of Club 27 in Beirut on a Friday night, with turntables at her fingertips and a computer on her right. She moves to the beat of easy listening, remixed from one side to the other, clearly in her element — as she should be, with 15 years of experience spinning tunes in Beirut’s bars and clubs. Sarkis has female company in the nightlife scene now, but that was not always the case. When she started in 2000, she found herself an anomaly in what was traditionally a man’s world in Lebanon. Since then, the Leb
Europe | Netherlands | Arts

For Michaela DePrince, a Dream Comes True at the Dutch National Ballet

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Michaela DePrince was appearing here in the third act of Balanchine’s “Jewels” with the Dutch National Ballet on a recent evening. There were about a dozen ballerinas in bejeweled white tutus arrayed across the stage, and there she was all the way stage right in the front line. This 20-year-old American ballerina, who joined the Dutch National Ballet’s main company in August, is in some respects the equivalent of a chorus girl in a Broadway musical. But night after night, people show up just to see her dance. Ms. DePrince, who was an orphan in war-torn Sierra Leone and became a profe
Africa | Ghana | Arts

In Ghana, movies project fierce female leads

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Ghanaian filmmaker Shirley Frimpong-Manso was on an international flight when she struck up a conversation with the passenger beside her. The man asked “Why is it that every time you watch an African movie, you see a woman crying?” For Frimpong-Manso, the question struck a nerve. Growing up in Accra, the capital of Ghana, she was always bothered by the way women were portrayed in African films as weak, passive, nothing like the bold American stars she saw who smart-talked their way through leading roles. They were also nothing like the women she saw around her. “I grew up in a tota
Middle East | Iran | Culture

Rocking the casbah: the gig of a lifetime that put Iranian women back on stage

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Three years ago, the Iranian singer and composer Sara Najafi came up with the idea of hosting a concert in Tehran, her hometown. It was a plan so audacious, it seemed slightly nuts. The concert would be “a festival of the female voice” featuring solo singers – not just Iranians, but artists from France and Tunisia, too. Nothing like it had been attempted in Iran for 35 years: after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women were banned from singing solo in public. What’s more, Sara was inspired by the Green Movement, which grew out of the mass protests at Iran’s 2009 presidential elect
International | United States | Entertainment

MMA Fighter Ronda Rousey breaking down gender barriers

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When Ronda Rousey debuted in the UFC just over two years ago, she not only broke down gender barriers that had existed since the promotion first started in 1993, but she quietly became a face for women's empowerment worldwide. She's breaking new ground in women's sports, but as Rousey said this weekend when appearing at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, TX, her accomplishments in the Octagon should also serve as a springboard for women to understand they can truly do anything if they put their minds and hearts into it.

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