2,374 stories by "Terry Teachout"
"The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude."
Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (trans. Gregory Rabassa)
Continue reading Almanac: Gabri…
In today's Wall Street Journal, I review regional webcasts of Doubt and The Niceties. Here's an excerpt.
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Some plays are so obviously well-suited to socially distanced web…
Meryl Streep and Viola Davis in a scene from the film version of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable, directed by the author:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-relate…
"I think there is in the heroic courage with which man confronts the irrationality of the world a beauty greater than the beauty of art."
Somerset Maugham, A Writer's Notebook
Continue re…
In today's Wall Street Journal I pay tribute to Hal Holbrook. Here's an excerpt.
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Hal Holbrook, who died on Jan. 23 at age 95"his death was announced this week"spent mo…
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
Mark Twain, notebook entry, January or February 1894,Â
Continue reading Almanac: Mark Twain on honesty at About Last Night.
A scene from the film version of Somerset Maugham's "The Alien Corn," directed by Harold French, adapted for the screen by R.C. Sherriff, introduced by Maugham. The film is one of four secti…
"'If I thought you had in you the makings of an artist I shouldn't hesitate to beseech you to give up everything for art's sake. Art is the only thing that matters. In comparison with art, w…
From 2015:
Pamela Paul, the editor of the New York Times Book Review, just did an excellent "By the Book" interview with my old friend David Brooks. I liked the results so much that…
"Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be pra…
The Manhattan Transfer sings Claude Thornhill's "Snowfall" in concert:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, …
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review the Irish Rep's webcast of AedÃn Moloney in Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom. Here's an excerpt.
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Throughout the pa…
Fredric March appears as the mystery guest on What's My Line? (His first name is misspelled on the nameplate.) John Daly is the host and the panelists are Steve Allen, Bennett Cerf, Ar…
"One of the difficulties with all our institutions is the fact that we've emphasized the reward instead of the service."
Harry S. Truman, letter to Harold E. Moore (September 27, 1949)
Conti…
"There is a sort of man who pays no attention to his good actions, but is tormented by his bad ones. This is the type that most often writes about himself."
Somerset Maugham, The Summing …
Vladimir Horowitz plays Schubert's Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 2, at a recital in Vienna in 1987:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space ea…
"It is drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, the most massive of the devices by which the young are tortured in the name of education and the grown-up in the name of entert…
From 2005:
I went to my framer yesterday afternoon and picked up the presidential commission for my appointment to the National Council on the Arts. It's a splendidly old-fashioned docume…
"Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous."
Thornton Wilder, The Eighth Day
Continue reading Almanac: Thornton Wilder on hope at About Last…
"To want power is corruption already."
Gore Vidal, The Best Man
Continue reading Almanac: Gore Vidal on the will to power at About Last Night.
In an undated TV interview, Gore Vidal talks about Franklin J. Schaffner's 1964 screen version of The Best Man, his 1960 play, and the ideas about politics on which it was based:
(This is t…
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's Shaw! Shaw! Shaw!. Here's an excerpt.
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Webcasts of the plays of George Bernard…
In today's Wall Street Journal "Sightings" column, I talk about how to jump-start a post-pandemic revival of the arts in America. Here's an excerpt.
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As everybody with eve…
Alfred Hitchcock is interviewed by Dick Cavett on TV in 1972:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Frida…
"Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly."
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude)
Continue read…
