NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS Vol. 41, No. 93
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2013
nyunews.com
New Yorkers pitch ideas for de Blasio in SoHo tent By KLEIN ALEARDI
DANIEL COLE/WSN
Editor from famed New Yorker magazine engages audience with reporting tales The New Yorker editor David Remnick speaks to students at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute on Tuesday, Nov 12. Remnick converses about his career and other topics with Meryl Gordon, the director of Magazine Writing at the institute.
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STORY ON PAGE 3
‘Nebraska’ relates raw, character-focused story By J.R. HAMMERER
Director Alexander Payne is known for many trends in his films — a complete blend of comedy and drama, a strong grip on human intricacies. But he’s also a native son of the Midwest, with his first three films set in his hometown of Omaha, Neb. “Nebraska” is a homecoming for Payne in more ways than one. It’s a successful attempt at a more raw and less refined film than his previous work, with the polish of “Sideways” or “The Descendants” nowhere in sight. It aims to evoke the scrappy, characterdriven dramas of ’70s New Hollywood, which is present in the film’s gentle pace, its loose structure, its willingness to wander and its focus on character instead of events. The first glimpse of the elderly Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) shows him shuffling down the breakdown lane of a Montana highway. He’s re-
The Talking Transition Tent opened in SoHo on Nov. 9 for New Yorkers to voice their concerns about any issue around the city to aid the transition from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. Ten organizations started the transition tent to improve city policies and open the transition process to residents. Project director Danny Fuchs has two goals for the tent. “One is a new mode of citizen participation in government,” Fuchs said. “The second goal is to take those ideas and those issues and the data we collect and inform the new administration and how it governs.” In the tent, located at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue, visitors can explain the changes they want by leaving a video message for de Blasio or writing on a name tag and posting it on the wall. So far, people have written about a variety of topics — from keeping a donation-based entrance fee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to ending the stop-and-frisk policy.
ceived a promotional letter offering a million dollar prize, and the scatterbrained old man is convinced he’s won. His wife Kate (June Squibb) and sons, David and Ross, (Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk) drive him back home, exasperated by his stubbornness and single-mindedness. He starts off again to Lincoln to claim his prize money, this time without a license or luggage. A frustrated David finally decides to drive his father, even though he knows there’s nothing for Woody on the other end. Dern was one of the great character actors of the ’70s, appearing in films like “Drive, He Said,” “The King of Marvin Gardens” and “Coming Home.” Dern hasn’t anchored a film for a while, but his performance in “Nebraska” proves he deserved the Best Actor award he won at Cannes International Film Festival. Woody is a bundle of contra-
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
‘Hamlet’ production stems from Gallatin class By DYLAN JARRETT
DENISE FABELLA/WSN
Fight off winter weather with perfect boots The right pair of boots can protect you from months of cold weather. STORY on PG. 8
LAWRENCE WU/WSN
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“Hamlet” is the second-most performed story in the world, right after — oddly enough — “Cinderella.” “Hamlet” is also the Gallatin Theatre Troupe’s fall production this semester, playing through this Sunday. But unlike other productions of “Hamlet,” the cast of this show has been rehearsing far longer than the usual four-to-six-week rehearsal period. About half of the cast came from a spring 2013 advanced acting class taught by director and NYU assistant professor of practice Kristin Horton, whose class focused solely on “Hamlet.” “We basically acted our way through the play,” Horton said. “So we’ve been working together, wrestling through the text, asking these questions for quite a while.” “Quite a while,” in this case, means more than half a year — an almost absurdly long time to rehearse. In fact, from the class last spring to this fall’s production, Horton spent several weeks directing another production of “Hamlet” at a Shakespeare festival in Iowa City,
Iowa. However, the director prefers the structure NYU has provided, crediting the extended rehearsal process as something that gave the cast the freedom to make discoveries in every rehearsal. Additionally, it provided her with a confident Hamlet — Gallatin sophomore Alec Seymour. “To play Hamlet is kind of like learning a one-man show,” Horton said. Indeed, Hamlet speaks a total of 1,476 lines. But despite the immensity of the lead role, Horton views this production as incredibly ensemble-based. “There’s not one role in the show that’s inconsequential,” she said, citing examples of minor characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to the priest who are essential to the play’s action. Even more important to Horton is the text of the play itself, which she describes as one of Shakespeare’s richest. “I’ve seen numerous productions,” she said, “and none of them are alike … the text is so complex that a good
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