Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker I originally thought I was going to spread this out of two posts because there’s certainly enough material across the 8 episodes that make up Fosse/Verdon (2019) to write two lengthy posts about Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon’s very entwined professional and personal lives when I sat down to write a post about the costuming in this miniseries I realized it would barely qualify for the word-and-image minimum to be considered a decent post by Frock Flick standards (yes It’s not that Fosse/Verdon isn’t an engaging piece of television — it most certainly did deserve all the awards it scooped up And it’s not that the costumes aren’t well done — they absolutely are well done Costumer Melissa Toth pulled together outfits that stepped right out of the 1950s through 1970s in all their polyester glory It’s just that when we start to really dig into a frock flick usually there are at least 3 or 4 standout costumes that are worth discussing Everything looked perfectly on point for the period but much of it was leotards or leisure suits in case you don’t know who Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon were here’s your very brief synopsis: Fosse was probably the biggest influence in Broadway choreography in the last 60 years We are still very much indebted to his style and considering that every few years another show of his gets trotted out for a revival his influence is not likely to be leaving us anytime soon was also a huge influence on modern musical theater helped evolve his style into what we now think of as the quintessential Fosse choreography The two had a messy personal life from the get-go with Fosse leaving his terminally ill wife for the vibrant Verdon who was burning up Broadway with a string of hits their relationship ebbed and flowed in a fairly predictable pattern: Fosse continued to womanize and Verdon was there with Fosse when he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1987 The iconic dance routine from Damn Yankees was recreated in Fosse/Verdon If you need an even briefer synopsis, I recommend watching Broadway Barbara’s Fosse Dance Tutorials on YouTube go and watch it even if you already know all about Bob Fosse In terms of Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams’ performances as the couple but it’s really Williams that I felt truly embodied the human side of their relationship she scooped up an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance of Gwen Verdon despite not being formally trained in dance is a natural dancer (he’s known for his dance routines in pretty much every film he’s ever been in) and he does a solid job portraying Bob Fosse but the material didn’t really interrogate his shitty behavior This is something that really hacks me off in biographical films about male artists in particular For as much as I empathized with Gwen Verdon’s decision to stick with her dirtbag husband the film never really convinced me that a relationship with Bob Fosse was worth fighting for I still thin All That Jazz did a better job of showing the relationship One of my favorite films of all time (it doesn’t hurt that I adore Roy Scheider) having watched “Damn Yankees” about 7 times on television as a kid and thought the series was pretty successful It also captured the feel of their NYC social milieu was brought up in a hypersexualized world (he was dancing professionally in burlesque joints as a teenager; not an excuse I’ve also wondered how envious he might have been of Verdon’s charm and audiences’ love for her but he’s kind of bland on film–strange considering how flamboyant he was in person Nicole Fosse was a consultant for the series so that might also be why her father’s behavior with women was toned down She also allowed the costume design team to borrow her mother’s jewelry so it could be replicated This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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Keep the snark flowing by supporting us with a small one-time donation on Ko-fi The award will be the biggest of its kind in Europe and aims to celebrate the work of an overlooked and underpaid profession facing an existential threat from AI Norway is launching a new translation price that is one of the most highly endowed of its kind in Europe in an attempt to boost a “partly invisible” and often poorly paid profession increasingly under threat from machine translation Named after the Norwegian novelist and playwright who won the 2023 Nobel prize in literature, Jon Fosse the Fosse prize for translators will reward one author every year with 500,000 NOK (£36,000) for making “a particularly significant contribution to translating Norwegian literature into another language” Funded by the Norwegian government and managed by the National Library in Oslo the prize is exclusive to those translating from Bokmål and Nynorsk the two official written standards of the Norwegian language the work of dedicated translators are crucial,” said Aslak Sira Myhre director of the National Library of Norway creative and partly invisible work that brings literature to people and cultures closer together.” This year’s inaugural prize is being awarded to one of Fosse’s longstanding translators into German though the organisers clarified that translating the author’s work was not a prerequisite for eligibility “The award feels like a kind of Nobel prize for translators thanks to the attention it brings to our contributions to world literature,” Schmidt-Henkel said This year’s winner … Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel Photograph: © Ebba D Drolshagen/PicasaIn addition to the translation prize Oslo is setting up an annual Fosse lecture the first of which will be held at the Norwegian capital’s Royal Palace next April by French philosopher and theologian Jean-Luc Marion a former of student of Jacques Derrida and one of the “immortals” of the Académie Française The new translation prize comes in the wake of a prolonged buzz around literary exports from a country that is home to a only 5.5 million people but boasts not just Nobel winner Fosse but also autofiction trendsetters such as Karl Ove Knausgård The prize money makes it one of the most lucrative translation awards in Europe, second only to the annual 50,000 euro Martinus Nijhoff translation prize that has been handed out every year by the Netherlands’ Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds since the 1950s. 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Literary delights delivered direct to you Read moreMost translation prizes in the Anglosphere such as the PEN America Translation prize or the Society of Author’s TA First Translation prize typically award its winner a sum of about £3,000 The most recent working conditions survey by the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations (CEATL) found that experienced full-time translators rarely make a living from literary translation A 2022 report by the Authors’ Guild of America had 63.5% of translators reporting an annual income of less than $10,000 from literary translation Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK) announced that it would be using AI to assist in the translation of a limited number of commercial fiction titles sparking further concerns about future pay conditions for human translators A network of correspondents providing impartial news reports and analysis in 33 languages from locations around the world Up-to-the-minute news and analysis from around the world and in Chicago 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storytelling come together for a weekly show that straps audiences into an audio rollercoaster Radiolab is known for its deep-dive journalism and innovative sound design Created in 2002 by former host Jad Abumrad the program began as an exploration of scientific inquiry Over the years it has evolved to become a platform for long-form journalism and storytelling Radiolab is hosted by Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser Cyrie Topete (center) and fellow Hubbard Street Dance Chicago company members rehearse “Sweet Gwen Suite,” by Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon The work will be presented at Steppenwolf Theatre as part of the dance troupe’s fall series program and a dozen or so Hubbard Street dancers are puzzling over a fresh section of “Sweet Gwen Suite,” co-created by the legendary Broadway choreographer Bob Fosse and his third wife the movements might conjure other Fosse creations: “Chicago,” “Pippin” or “Sweet Charity.” But for the TikTok generation the movements are more likely to recall Beyoncé’s iconic “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” video which directly draws its steps from Fosse’s repertoire Even for a dancer fluent in different styles like the Juilliard-trained Hubbard Street company member Cyrie Topete “Sweet Gwen Suite” is a puzzler — akin to patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time When Hubbard Street performs “Sweet Gwen Suite” during its fall series Nov. 15-24, the show will mark not just a historic moment for the local contemporary dance company Hubbard Street is the only concert dance company in the world authorized to add a Fosse work — this one — to its repertory But the performance is also a homecoming for Fosse himself though the choreographer died in 1987 at age 60 One of six children of Chicagoans Cy and Sadie Fosse and a grad of Amundsen High School on the city’s North Side Fosse honed his dance skills in Chicago’s 1940s nightlife scene where he tap danced in vaudeville shows and burlesque clubs as part of a novelty teen duo called the Riff Brothers stage and film director Bob Fosse is photographed in the UK in 1973 and he went to regular public high school and played sports,” recalled his daughter who started the Verdon Fosse Legacy foundation in 2013 to preserve her parents’ dance contributions I think he came to understand different aspects and perspectives that people have because of their situations.” Fosse instead was schooled in movement by WWII-era performers strip tease artists and a tap dance instructor named Charles Weaver who instilled in the teen a love of a comedic Those Chicago years left an imprint on Fosse shaping a distinct dance style that took him from Broadway to Hollywood and back again Only in recent years are some of his contributions to American dance being fully appreciated In the Hubbard Street rehearsal room on the fourth floor of Water Tower Place over-the-ankle LaDuca dance boots commissioned just for the Fosse number Their eyes lock on choreographer Linda Haberman whose first role in a Fosse musical was “Dancin’” in 1978 has over the years become a trusted steward of his work closely working with Nicole Fosse’s foundation Choreographer Linda Haberman (front) rehearses the demanding Bob Fosse choreography of “Sweet Gwen Suite” with members of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago “Sweet Gwen Suite” is a trio of distinct dances that Haberman carefully reconstructed into one work premiering it at New York City Center in 2021 originally created the numbers for 1960s-era segments on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Bob Hope Show” — programs that were the social media platforms of their age Because the works were designed for short bursts on TV Haberman couldn’t just dust them off and remount them She fashioned some connective choreography and interlaced the suite with Fosse “Easter eggs” from her own experience and archived videos “Because [the Broadway revival of] ‘Chicago’ has run so long there are these advertising images that have gotten ingrained in people’s minds that that is Fosse,” Haberman said “but you can’t boil his work down to just one thing Gwen worked with [innovative jazz dancer and Marilyn Monroe choreographer] Jack Cole there are these advertising images that have gotten ingrained in people’s minds that that is Fosse But you can’t boil his work down to just one thing,” says choregrapher Linda Haberman the artistic director of Hubbard Street and a former longtime principal with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater the company’s acquisition of “Sweet Gwen Suite” is an opportunity to underscore Fosse’s contributions to dance and preserve them beyond the ephemeral nature of a Broadway run “Bob Fosse’s work has always been valued and recognized by Hubbard Street,” Fisher-Harrell said As a young dancer trying to get a foothold on Broadway Hubbard Street founder Lou Conte’s first gig as a chorus dancer was in the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which Fosse helped stage in 1961 Conte ultimately would start a dance company but stay in touch with Fosse and with Verdon Verdon herself visited Hubbard Street in later decades to set Fosse’s work “Percussion 4" on small groups of dancers The legendary Gwen Verdon (starring as Roxie Hart) arrived in Chicago with the national touring production of “Chicago” in 1978 as a young performer in Hubbard Street’s company in the 1990s asking Verdon if she could quietly watch rehearsal “I had no business staying in the room — that piece is just for the guys,” Fisher-Harrell recalled “but [Verdon] was open to all of those things; she was so fluid in that thinking she saw how much I really liked the turns and the jumps Both Fisher-Harrell and Nicole Fosse said that history helped open the door for a fresh collaboration between Hubbard Street and the Verdon Fosse Legacy “It’s very precise,” Fisher-Harrell said of the choreography “and that’s something we do here — our dancers are so precise Add on to that that our dancers know the weight of Bob Fosse.” the Chicago staging of “Sweet Gwen Suite” is more than a homecoming for her father The work also honors her mother’s contributions as a dancemaker and its adoption by a leading American contemporary company helps cement both her parents in the echelon of great choreographers “It is a collaborative piece,” said Nicole Fosse “It’s of huge significance to have it performed by a concert dance company because they — my mother and father — are now being recognized in a league like Paul Taylor or Alvin Ailey or Jerome Robbins.” That recognition has been a long time coming and something Nicole Fosse said her foundation has worked more than a decade to realize started a foundation in 2013 to promote and preserve her parents’ contributions to dance she arrives arrives for the FYC red carpet event for “Fosse/Verdon” at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills in 2019 “Now he’s being established and recognized as a choreographer of the work will be performed across two weekends on the stage of Steppenwolf Theatre Company which sits just a few miles from the palaces like the old Oak Theatre where Fosse and his dance partner in the Riff Brothers are where a teenage Fosse first stood in the spotlights and heard the thunder of applause — and considered that he could be a star Terms of Use • Privacy Notice • Cookie Policy • Terms of Sale "The most important thing about the theatre is this moment when an angel goes through the stage." All this will change this June translated and directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde at Manhattan’s The Culture Project in the 45 Below Theater June 7-26 Produced by Oslo Elsewhere in association with The Unbound Theatre and Spring Theatreworks I met Jon in the spring of 1998 at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh where we were both international exchange playwrights we have had the good fortune to talk about art and life and process quite often Jon Fosse graciously agreed to an ‘official’ conversation about his work and this play’s life in particular This interview was conduced via e-mail whilst Jon was in Norway and I was in Los Angeles Caridad Svich (Rail): How do you see your work in response to Nordic culture Jon Fosse: I am quite sure that growing up in a small Norwegian community by the Hardanger fjord so much so that it is almost impossible for me to see how much You know this story about the fish who doesn’t know anything about the sea I left home at sixteen years of age to go to college in another small place though a lot bigger than the town where I grew up After three years there I went to an even bigger town to continue my studies: Bergen but in fact I do most of my writing not where I grew up—a place I visit rather seldom—but in a cottage north of Bergen with a view to the fjord similar to the view from the house when I was a child Another thing which has had a more directly understandable influence on my writing is the way of talking in these rural areas of Norway where people are famous for not talking much They are also famous for almost never expressing their feelings out loud but the truth is that they have very strong feelings and the feelings somehow come out in other words but underneath you are talking about something else That may explain why it is often said that the people where I grew up are always ironic Rail: Your characters are often trapped by their inability to express themselves fully Language cannot match their emotions and therefore they speak in short bursts This is so true of the constant (amusing and melancholy) state of the human condition: this need to communicate and yet It is often said that the characters in my plays don’t manage to communicate because they understand one another completely they don’t need to complete the sentence to say what they want to say I often have the feeling that the characters are in a way clairvoyant Rail: What continues to fascinate you about the human experience and particularly the act of communication on a day-to-day basis Fosse: I think one of our illusions is that if we manage to communicate well The German philosopher Adorno said that art is the opposition to communication And that point has also something to do with life Rail: Night Sings Its Songs received its UK premiere at the Royal Court under Katie Mitchell’s direction in Gregory Motton’s translation (under the title Nightsongs) And now it receives its US premiere translated and directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde And I understand that German filmmaker Romuald Karmaker is developing the piece into a film How do you entrust actors and directors to enter the play’s world—the private anguish and possible betrayal Fosse: Theatre is of course about trust I think it is impossible to be a playwright At least when you are produced as much as I am And I have never had the ambition to do so And of course when you write for the theatre the way I do it is very easy for an actor to destroy my writing Rail: In Norway you have been called the "new Ibsen." Do you ever feel the burden of having to measure up to expectations about your writing I am writing from a place inside myself which is not so much influenced of success or failure Rail: Your work has been translated into nearly forty languages How do you negotiate the process of translation Fosse: Theatre is translation Everyone involved in it is translating all the time as they translate one another in playing and so on Translation is at the same time an open and a closed process When I am translating a play from German to Norwegian I always try to stay as loyal as I possibly can to the original This of course may mean that I have to make changes but all the time in changing the reason for doing so is not to change but to get closer to what I experience as the objective quality of the play There is a kind of abstract form is one of the most important parts of the play It has quite a lot to do with the rhythm of the dialogue: who is talking This movement may be much clearer when you see a production in a language which you do not understand at all The first time I had this experience it shocked me It was in a reading of my play Someone is Going to Come in Prague and emotional structure was almost visible to me This structure is in another sense not abstract at all but concrete It is carrying in it the concrete emotional music of a play isn’t the understanding of it to a great degree not conceptual Rail: Your work operates so far for much of the time around the presence of absence Fosse: Yes And it is also about what is present in the absence Rail: There is palpable energy and possibility in your theatrical worlds At any moment life could change for your characters and yet the choices to them (and sometimes other characters) are either not visible Fosse: I think this is a good description But isn’t also life like that—everything can be completely changed every moment And to live is also to actively resist all these possibilities Rail: There is also a tension between duty and desire in your work Fosse: I haven’t thought about it like that Rail: It is a fascinating and beautiful tension how do you work with a director to define the space of possibility where your characters seem to live Caridad Svich is a playwright-lyricist-translator-editor and founder of theater alliance NoPassport. Her play Instructions for Breathing premieres this spring at Passage Theater in NJ under Daniella Topol's direction. Home Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times The events of March 24th 81 years ago left one of the deepest wounds ever to be inflicted on Rome and on the whole of Italy carried out by occupying Nazi troops in retaliation for the Via Rasella attack by partisans in Rome is one of the most painful episodes in our nation’s history and it is the primary duty of institutions to tell the story of what happened and pass the memory of those events on we pay tribute to the 335 victims of that unspeakable massacre and reaffirm our commitment to safeguarding and protecting the values of freedom and democracy on which our Republic is founded Certified email addresses (PEC) Email addresses Enable Javascript in your browser for an improved experience of regjeringen.no press Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and press + to increase or - to decrease Find document What's new The Government At the invitation of the Royal House of Norway the Fosse Lecture and the award ceremony for the Fosse Prize will take place at the Royal Palace on Thursday 24 April 2025 The government has established the prize and the lecture in honour of the Nobel Prize-winning author Jon Fosse and the event is organized by the National Library of Norway This is the first time the Fosse Lecture will be held and the Fosse Prize for Translators will be awarded Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mette-Marit is the royal patron for the two distinctions we want to highlight the power of literature and its role in society We now have an excellent starting point for creating a new cultural venue that encourages dialogue about literature both in Norway and internationally’ said Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery The lecturer and the translator are internationally renowned in their respective fields 1946) is a French philosopher and theologian who is one of the “immortals” of the French Academy He is professor emeritus at the Sorbonne and the University of Chicago ‘Jean-Luc Marion is one of Europe’s leading intellectuals’ ‘His perspective will help expand and inspire the contemplation of literature in Norway We are very pleased that Marion has agreed to give the very first Fosse Lecture’ Marion has written about visual art and has a close relationship with literature he can view literature from a unique standpoint which aligns with the aim to emphasize contemplation and explore literature from various perspectives and with different voices ‘He creates a very solid space for literature when it comes to understanding and experiencing life or learning something The National Library has appointed the lecturer based on input from several national and international actors The German translator Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel (b 1959) is deeply invested in Norwegian literature and has translated a number of Norwegian authors ‘Germany has traditionally been the most important country for translated Norwegian literature and for many years Hinrich has been the most important German translator so I think this is a completely obvious choice’ The prize winner is appointed by the National Library and Jon Fosse in consultation with NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad) NORLA works to advance the export of Norwegian literature and is the professional council for the awarding of the Fosse prize ‘Schmidt-Henkel has an impressive and versatile bibliography in prose The role he has played for Norwegian literature abroad is in a league of its own’ The Fosse Lecture and the Fosse Prize for Translators will further establish Norway’s position on the international literary map National Library of Norway: Press Officer Nina Bræin Ministry of Culture and Equality: The Communication Unit The following persons are responsible for the Ministry of Culture and Equality’s website: Editor-in-chief: Simon Solholm StjernWeb editor: Wenche Stadven Nybo Telephone: +47 22 24 90 90Email: postmottak@kud.dep.no The Nobel prize winner pushes at the veil between this world and the next in the immersive tale of a solitary fisherman triggering “a crackling chain of ion transports and neurotransmission” that throws up a random memory of a childhood game of baseball Will Self, in The North London Book of the Dead, looks beyond the moment of oblivion, suggesting that when we die we move to Crouch End or Grays Thurrock. In Immortality by Milan Kundera After the two men spend a bit of time discussing the rather judicial-sounding affairs of the afterlife Goethe remembers he is in a postmodern novel and remarks “You know perfectly well that at this moment we are but the frivolous fantasy of a novelist who lets us say things we would probably never say on our own.” Jon Fosse, who last year was awarded the Nobel prize in literature has done both the Ivan Ilyich moment of death – “a ball of blue light shoots into my forehead and bursts” (I won’t say which book this line brings to an end) – and what follows which was published in Norway in 2000 and is now appearing in the UK for the first time pushes and probes at the veil that hangs between this world and the next and takes us a tantalising distance beyond it whose birth we witness in the book’s opening section In the much longer second part we meet him again as an old man a fisher living in near solitude in an island community Johannes had a difficult relationship with his father and it seems as if Johannes’s children have had their struggles with him The only person he sees regularly is Signe but Johannes’s journey is one into mystery – the novella is never pious or proselytisingThe day on which most of the book takes place is both like and unlike any other a cup of coffee; as is often the case in Fosse’s work into the time-worn groove of a daily ritual and the cigarette doesn’t satisfy as it should it continues to seesaw between normality and strangeness Johannes’s familiar aches and pains seem to have disappeared and certain objects in his home have begun to glow “but the road down to the wharf is still the same old overgrown path it’s always been and the rocky peaks around him are the same as ever and at home this morning everything was just like before too he rolled himself a cigarette as usual and made coffee and a slice of bread with some brown cheese everything this morning was like every morning before” to read Morning and Evening as the portrait of a failing mind Johannes doubts his faculties when he sees his friend Peter Fosse wrings some humour from his unwillingness to clarify matters: “to ask someone something like that Fosse converted to Catholicism in 2012 and his masterpiece, Septology the seven-novel sequence he published between 2019 and 2021 contains frequent references to the 14th-century Catholic priest and mystic Meister Eckhart But even in books where the references are less explicit his writing can be seen to possess a numinous aspect – “mystical realism” is a term he has used to describe it which sits at the more supernatural end of his work less powerful than books such as Melancholy I and II Aliss at the Fire and Septology; still compelling and rewarding but not as overpoweringly immersive in the way it moves between the present and the accreted layers of the past but Johannes’s journey is one into mystery The novella is never pious or proselytising; the word heaven does not appear The closest Fosse comes to cliche is an occasional golden halo When Johannes presses Peter on what it’s like where they are headed but it is big and calm and it vibrates a little Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls, is published by Fitzcarraldo (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com In this republished novella from 2000 about a fisherman and his son the Norwegian writer captures the puzzlement and wonder of the human condition chiefly told from Johannes’s point of view chronicles the eerie hours after he wakes up one morning He steps out of the house and everything he beholds seems different somehow Johannes later bumps into his daughter Signe and “is seized with deep despair Peter accompanies Johannes to a place where nothing hurts and “everything you love is there” Fosse has a precious ear for the muted whimpers of grief; there are such depths of ache contained in this brief novel That we begin the journey of dying as soon as we are born may be one of this book’s most effectively dramatised insights in conveying late-life pain and melancholia; what the days feel like once friends and lovers are gone and we have but our own vanishing selves for company Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse (translated by Damion Searls) is published by Fitzcarraldo (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media and more is known for sultry jazz hands and black hats but his range spans a wide array of dance styles Few theatre artists revolutionized Broadway the way Bob Fosse did on the dance front in the 20th century You might have heard it said that Chicago the long-running musical revival on Broadway But perhaps you don't know what "classic Fosse" looks like or why his legacy is so unforgettable No worries — you're in the right place to find out the basics of his dance style, the different genres of musicals his moves show up in, and all that jazz. Learn more about this Broadway superstar and his sexy fancy footwork, and then check it out at the Ambassador Theatre Get Chicago tickets now and visionary changemaker in the theatre world he reshaped Broadway dancing with his innovative and influential choreography that was as precise as it was sensual His moves set several of musical theatre’s most famous shows in motion and the dancing is now just as iconic as the songs and stories Fosse also co-wrote, directed, and choreographed John Kander and Fred Ebb’s 1975 Broadway premiere of Chicago — he's a triple threat and then some which Ann Reinking meticulously choreographed in Fosse's style is now the second-longest running show in Broadway history Fosse generally gravitated to works with a sexy edge he won an Oscar for his direction of 1972 film version of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret Fosse wasn't involved with the musical's Broadway premiere, but the film indelibly linked Fosse's name with Cabaret. A number in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, "Spring Chicken," features Fosse's choreography from that film's song "Mein Herr." a number of film and TV projects portray Fosse's own life story — he was a fascinating character on stage and off In the semi-autobiographical 1979 movie All That Jazz Fosse directed Roy Scheider as his alter ego Joe Gideon a manic moviemaker who has a fatal cardiac event Fosse died of a heart attack in 1987; leave it to him to call the steps on his own demise The 2019 miniseries Fosse/Verdon focused on his personal and working relationship with Gwen Verdon his wife and the star of multiple of his projects Fosse’s full-bodied signature jazz choreography created a style and a language that speaks for itself His signature jazz moves include curved shoulders are a classic Fosse tool to make the dance more dynamic Fosse is best known as a jazz choreographer and all those styles and others are on view A great example of his range is Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ a revue last revived in March 2023 that features rarely seen Fosse choreography in all sorts of styles “Percussion” is a four-part piece that showcases Fosse’s appreciation for the precision and rigor of traditional ballet “Big City Mime” is a mini-ballet set in a seedy urban sexscape. “Sing Sing Sing” – set to the Benny Goodman classic – bursts with energy as dancers leap and tap across the stage. A bit of the iconic “Manson Trio” from Pippin even gets its place at center stage musicals like Chicago continue to introduce Fosse to new audiences – one hip pop at a time You can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy head of reducing reoffending at HMP Fosse Way discusses how a facilities management operation staffed by prisoners demonstrates the benefits of training and employment schemes for ex-offenders With many UK recruiters reporting a decrease in the number of job vacancies into 2025 and the barriers are particularly high for ex-offenders Tackling this problem could be the most significant factor in reducing reoffending rates – so what is being done New employment councils acknowledge how both ex-prisoners and employers can benefit from improved employment schemes running within prisons – both in terms of tackling skills gaps and reducing reoffending Many are now watching with interest at how various schemes being run by both public and private sector institutions perform Employment councils set up to help offenders into work Iceland Foods considers jobs for low-risk offenders Ministers to encourage more recruitment of former prisoners One example I have been closely involved with is at HMP Fosse Way in Leicester deliver facilities management (FM) services to support the effective running of the prison building As one of the largest prison-staffed FM schemes in the UK it focuses on training and routes to employment post-release it benefits businesses by creating workshops and roles directly informed by labour market data Where the data shows significant skills gaps workshops are established to target shortfalls in those specific industries the team at HMP Fosse Way ensures that prisoners who lack experience can acquire valuable trade skills such as carpentry or even making components for new-build prisons prisoners’ skills can then be used both within the prison and for the wider benefit of the local community One example of our partnerships with employers is with the National Association of Air Duct Cleaners representing an industry which recently experienced a labour shortage across the UK resulting in more than 1,500 vacancies Training workshops have now been set up at Fosse Way where prisoners can acquire the relevant skills and qualifications within three weeks they are then able to work proactively within these vacancies Employers not only benefit from skills availability but also from committed staff the scheme creates loyal and hardworking employees evidenced more widely by research conducted by the Ministry of Justice which showed that 90% of businesses that employ ex-offenders agree that they are “good attenders Being a part of the wider FM team within the prison itself is also an aspiration for many in custody encouraging them to engage with active work and training to prove their reliability and hard work our information and advice guidance team meet with prisoners to conduct interviews and background assessments This enables our teams to guide individuals towards suitable workshops Initial assessment of prisoners allows us to identify individuals with existing trade experience so they can put these skills to good use and also develop them further by working with fellow prisoners one prisoner who was a part of this employment scheme and had previously worked in a construction environment had said it “felt good to be able to help other people out within the workshop mentoring them to a safe standard and coaching them on how to do things correctly and safely” The nature of this shared work creates a sense of community fostering connections as well as independence – both of which help with rehabilitation and further improve employability for prisoners prisoners are allowed to go to work under curfew or during working weeks prisoners are gaining industry skills and important soft skills such as self-sufficiency and reliability which can improve their chances of securing sustainable employment upon release The impact of this is clear when we look at the stories of ex-offenders who have successfully transitioned into employment outside of prison who gained a job as a highway operative after his release is undergoing further training thanks to his newfound ambitions While his work currently focuses on the repair and maintenance of equipment his training will eventually enable him to operate HGVs Speaking of his experience at HMP Fosse Way and the company is willing to invest in me meaning that I’m gaining more qualifications keeping my work varied and progressing my career I’ve been supported through every step of the journey by a great team of people and I’m looking forward to what the future holds.” prisons such as HMP Fosse Way are removing the barriers many prisoners face while establishing a unique pipeline of talent for businesses to access Similar approaches to ours across all UK prisons will be vital in reducing reoffending creating positive working environments and diversifying the much-needed talent pool that employers across all industries will depend on Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" I have this very clear and distinct feeling that what I’m writing on is already written,” Fosse says I just have to write it down before it disappears.”Photograph by David Levene / ReduxSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyThe Hardangerfjord carves its way from the North Sea into the distant mountains of Vestland and the dark of the water is silvered by light an organization dedicated to Jon Fosse—novelist and one of the most produced contemporary playwrights in Europe—who was born there The members of the foundation meet in a small gray prayerhouse overlooking the curve of the harbor; a waterfall runs down the black rock face behind it Down the road from the foundation are two white houses: the house that Fosse grew up in and the house that belonged to his grandparents the Fosse Foundation hosted a lunch for the translators and journalists who had gathered to attend the Jon Fosse International Symposium a fiddler played a waltz on the Hardanger fiddle which vibrate according to the notes played on top visitors could walk through an exhibit by the textile artist Åse Ljones who had stitched sentences from Fosse’s writings into sheets A member of the Fosse Foundation held up one of Ljones’s sheets and asked any one of Fosse’s six translators to translate it from Transit Books.) The narrator of “Septology” is a painter named Asle a diffuse consciousness capable of existing in many times and places at once To read Fosse’s plays and novels is to enter into communion with a writer whose presence one feels all the more intensely owing to his air of reserve whose characters usually have generic names—the Man Child—seize upon the intensity of our primordial relations and are by turns bleak and comic “Septology” is the only novel I have read that has made me believe in the reality of the divine as the fourteenth-century theologian Meister Eckhart describes it: “It is in darkness that one finds the light then this light is nearest of all to us.” None of the comparisons to other writers seem right “He is the most destructive writer I know,” Fosse claims “I feel that there’s a kind of—I don’t know if it’s a good English word—but a kind of reconciliation in my writing thereof one must be silent.” We chatted over dinner where a black-and-white mural of Fosse’s face benevolently looked down at us Fosse resembled his description of Asle: long gray ponytail He seemed at times pained by the need to speak I felt the same competing impulses to which his writing gives rise: both curiosity and protectiveness toward the man behind the words; both skepticism and faith in his mystical descriptions of how he writes fiction as expressed by his willingness to speak about everything: grace Our conversation has been edited for clarity You do not grant many face-to-face interviews I have interviewed several writers who claim that the reason they write is because they cannot speak The man from the foreign department quoted Wittgenstein: What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence You know this famous twist by Jacques Derrida: “What you cannot say you have to write.” That’s closer to the way I think about it Derrida is extremely present in your early essays in “An Angel Walks Through the Stage.” One can sense his patterns of thought in many of your plays and novels particularly around the play of speech and silence “Of Grammatology” somehow had an influence on me You have read Martin Heidegger’s “Sein und Zeit.” I studied and read Heidegger very much I felt that what Derrida was doing was turning Heidegger on his head The main question for Heidegger was: what is common to everything that exists The main question for Derrida was the opposite: what makes all that exists different And I thought that the act of writing is something very peculiar And that also gave me a kind of connection And then I started studying comparative literature I had already written my first novel and various literary things The theory of the novel was my main subject These theories always had the narrator as the basic concept: narrator but still I felt that the basic concept for a theory of fiction ought not to be the narrator The way I thought of the writer was as the bodily part of what was written the materiality that went into your writing And I wanted to write my own small theory of narration or of written fiction with the writer as the main concept And I felt that when I wrote for myself and by myself And it’s still the place I found at the age of twelve by myself That place is for listening and for movement because it’s the route for me to enter the unknown And to cross these borders is frightening if you’re feeling very fragile I simply didn’t dare to write my own things because I was afraid of crossing these borders in myself I have this very clear and distinct feeling that what I’m writing on is already written I just have to write it down before it disappears I wrote its two parts without changing anything at all “Someone Is Going to Come”—I also wrote that in one go I had to search for the text that I felt was there It’s fascinating—this experience of entering a new place a new universe each time I manage to write well And I always think that I’m prepared—that someday I won’t manage to write anymore I was thinking about the unknown on the fjord about the darkness and the stillness of the water You spent a great deal of your childhood on a boat in the middle of the water Being out there helped me visualize or feel your work’s mood I and the other children around had a very free upbringing We were allowed to go out on a boat alone when we were seven And some of my best memories from growing up were when I went out on a boat with my father to fish in the afternoon and at night especially during the summer or early autumn The experience of being in the boat when it’s getting dark on this shore—I don’t like the word picture but it’s this kind of picture that I feel more like a color or like a sound I never ever imagine anything clearly or literally when I write It’s my language and I’m using something I know about as material The logic of the text you are writing creates what I might call form and the form you have to make new for each and every text And this form is to a large degree connected to what I could call a universe the narrator of “Septology,” describes as his “innermost picture.” They exist as a whole I think all three parts of “Trilogy” are unique universes And “Trilogy” and “Septology” are also connected I use the same names over and over again and more or less the same places A lot of people are drowning or looking out of the window It’s a bit like being a painter who is painting another tree a good painter uses the same motif over and over again I hope that I manage to do something of the same How do religion and literature come together for you I had a kind of religious turn in my life that had to do with entering this unknown but I couldn’t explain what happened when I wrote You can always explain the brain in a scientific way Literature in itself knows more than the theory of literature knows Asle thinks something similar about God: “Because God is both a very faraway absence Even if “Septology” is not autobiographical at all there are thoughts and there are traits that resemble me—the way Asle looks I decided to make it autofictional by making the main character look like me this idea that God is so close that you cannot experience him and so distant that you cannot think of him But the happy few still have experiences of what might be called God Asle’s sense of religion is not particularly doctrinal or dogmatic How do you think about the relationship between God and the Church and its dogmas you do not believe in dogmas or institutions But that doesn’t­­­­ mean that religious dogmas and institutions aren’t necessary If the mystery of faith has survived for two thousand years it has to do with the Church becoming an institution But that doesn’t mean that the dogmas are true in a religious way I feel that the powers are economic powers And you have some forces that are on the other side And for the church to exist—and the Catholic Church is the strongest one—you have to force Catholicism in a way The Church is the most important institution You have literature and art as another institution I’ve been thinking a lot about that concept You sitting here with me in person—I don’t feel that I deserve it Even one production of one of my plays—each production takes a lot of work for the actors to learn the lines and the scenography and everything And I think perhaps life in itself might be a kind of grace I can completely understand people who decide to leave this life life is a kind of gift and a kind of grace And sometimes I feel I’m so full of contradictions that I can hardly understand how I manage to stay together You write very beautifully about childhood I have to talk about it because it’s so fundamental to me: at the age of seven I was close to death because of an accident I could see myself sitting here—I saw myself like that and I felt quite sure that I saw them for the last time as I was going to the doctor Everything was shimmering and very peaceful This experience is the most important experience from my childhood And it has been very formative for me as a person And what’s interesting to me about your plays is that they often turn on the most compressed and painful depictions of sexual jealousy It goes back to ancient times: just put two persons on the stage and then let a third enter It’s possible to make drama even between two persons But that’s why I got so tired of writing plays—because it was very easy to enter into jealousy When there’s sexual jealousy on the surface And to make it a good production you have to manage to get both If you play it just as a play about erotic jealousy or something In your play “Someone’s Going to Come,” what makes me feel the most uneasy is how intensely and unremittingly its two characters They think that they can somehow escape that It’s about the impossibility of being whole—of being just the two of them together But not in that way that they have tried to realize it but it is about the impossibility of being together alone You have a beautiful line in “Dream of Autumn,” which is maybe my favorite of your plays renewing a love affair that was interrupted by his marriage And he says to her something like “I don’t believe in love love that takes fathers away from their children.” But what kind of love is worth believing in Both plays know something about what love is But I have this feeling that what I’ve written And that’s the way I can give you a wise answer and it knows more than you as a person know a way to look at it is to think that love is something very unique and There’s something completely unique and something completely universal to a human being to transform the uniqueness of love into authentic literature that is necessary to create something worth it You say in one of your early essays that there’s a difference between the private and the personal There are many personal things that are also universal: a romantic triangle The names that attach to these experiences may differ from person to person but they are fundamentally shared structures of experience and then this relation becomes a new sound then the sounds go together into what I call a song the reason that my plays have travelled well is because the words can be re-created in another way—with that sound and that sound but perhaps in a slightly different way and you can sing it as a kind of ballad or in an operatic way or whatever It doesn’t matter as long as you’re doing it well But that goes more for the plays than for the fiction The characters in your plays strike me more as states of being in the world that are inhabitable by anyone this or that actor has to make it his own character And a director has to also visualize it his way And I feel very strongly as a writer that I’m not a man of the theatre it was very important to me to have my plays published The relationship between your plays and your novels sometimes seems to be one of rhythm—a very deliberate musical alternation between speech and thought There’s a rhythm among the elements or the relation between them very hard to tell what it is or what it’s doing but they’re very hard to understand in a real way I’m quite sure that God is present all the time There was a debate at lunch between some of your translators about the idea of slow prose some of them—and I would agree with this—were claiming that nothing about it feels especially slow I had two short breaks when I wrote the first and second parts of “Morning and Evening.” And I also wrote “Aliss at the Fire.” But mainly I wrote plays “Aliss at the Fire” is based on a play called “A Summer Day.” It’s a quotation from Shakespeare’s famous sonnet: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” I came to a point in my life where I had to write a commission of a play I wanted to go back home to where I come from I simply changed my life to a very large degree There are occasions in which I have to take part We have a place in Austria and one in Oslo and two places here in the western part of Norway I keep travelling between these private places where I have everything I need I’m not alone with a bottle of whisky somewhere Is there a continuity with who you were before All these things that I’m talking about are external But we were talking about this concept of slow prose And I thought that a play doesn’t need a lot of action to manage to work and get truth from the stage to the audience it needs a very strong intensity and an extreme concentration And to write such dense text doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time it demands a lot of you and it takes a lot of force That’s how I started: I wanted to write prose and make it slow And then I had to cut some of the essayistic parts I had some hundred or more theological essays written that I took away from “Septology.” And you have said that those were attributed to Ales Some are in dialogue with Asle; they were in a dialogue Now you never learn anything about the thoughts of Ales I was thinking about it today: is it fair to cut this or is it wrong It was [my editor] Cecilie who said that this young girl cannot be that wise that there must be some realism to it after all Would you consider publishing them separately I’m quite sure she said a lot of wise things And “Septology” is not a realistic novel in that way I wish more novelists would work as translators They are collected in one volume called “Translated Poems.” And I read Georg Trakl and I really fell in love with this poetry because Hauge had translated it And then I bought Trakl’s collected poems in German It wasn’t that difficult because he’s like me: he keeps repeating himself I started trying to translate some of his poetry and some versions I included in one or two collections of my own poems I was in my teens when I read Trakl for the first time “Sebastian im Traum.” It’s been with me for fifty years or something like that And then this year I published a translation of “The Elegies.” You have also translated Kafka’s “The Trial.” I think it’s the most reliable translation into any Scandinavian language That was the first time I ever translated a novel It was after “Septology.” I felt that I needed a break to do something else I decided to try to translate a novel for the first time and it was “The Trial,” one of my favorite novels especially the Greek tragedies by the three masters: Aeschylus It’s very easy for me to hear and to write that voice in the way I write And now you’re translating Gerald Murnane’s “The Plains.” I don’t know how I ended up reading Murnane He has not been translated into Norwegian before and “The Plains” is his most translated and famous novel but I prefer to read in a Scandinavian language I read it in Swedish and I really liked it And then I decided that I wanted to try to translate it myself Learning that you were translating Murnane reminded me of the Hardanger fiddle with the strings on top and the sympathetic strings underneath You and Murnane seem to share a certain set of commitments To meet a literary voice that really talks to you How do you translate “The Plains” into Nynorsk it’s “Die Ebenen.” Where I live in Austria I feel that Murnane has a quite unique voice and way of seeing I’ve never read anything like “The Plains,” but it resembles my writing—this sense of distance and closeness but I can tell that there’s a similar way of seeing that’s behind it The way I write when I concentrate—everything needs to be precise and correct I’ll have to change something in some other place I don’t know how many such connections I could make When you enter such a universe and you are separate from the real world—when you make up this universe of your own—it’s not yours I experience it as a necessity—something you have to do exactly like this or like that I think there are thousands of rules that I have to follow when I’m writing a novel to follow all these rules and to listen to them it demands much more memory and mental capacity than I believe I have as a person to organize the relationships of the parts of the novel or the art work to the whole And it’s the wholeness that’s the soul of the writing The message comes from the wholeness of it It’s the wholeness that remains silent and insists on silence I think peace has to do with the achievement of this wholeness And this is what a person never could achieve consciously I think it was Cicero who said that philosophy is a way of learning to die And I think literature is also a way of learning to die I guess this has to do with the form of great literature and there’s a reader who can bring it to life again Why Bishop Mariann Budde wanted to speak to Donald Trump Lena Dunham’s change of pace Tim Walz might run for President in 2028 if you ask him nicely Maya Rudolph is ready to serve Sarah McBride wasn’t looking for a fight on trans rights The liberated life of Colman Domingo Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today. Having long been tipped as the next Nobel laureate the Norwegian writer has this year been awarded the prize For those new to the acclaimed playwright and novelist • Jon Fosse wins the 2023 Nobel prize in literature Jon Fosse wins the 2023 Nobel prize in literature Fosse’s powerful (and frequently very short) stories in the collection Scenes from a Childhood span Fosse’s literary career from 1983 to 2013. They serve as an introduction to the central themes of his work – childhood, memory, family, faith – coupled with a strong sense of duality and of fatalism. Fragmentary, elliptical, at times deliberately simplistic, they mark life’s journey from extreme youth to old age. Standouts include Red Kiss Mark of a Letter, And Then My Dog Will Come Back to Me. Read moreIf you only read oneIn Fosse’s 2023 novella Aliss at the Fire lies by the fire at her house next to a fjord dreaming of herself 20 years earlier and her husband who rowed out one day on the water in a storm and never came back with a grand use of a repeated central image and structured around the grip of ancestral history (the Aliss of the title is Asle’s great-great-great-grandmother) doubles and repeated actions: Asle’s grandfather had the same name as him and met the same fate by drowning The Boathouse is the closest thing Fosse has written to a crime novel The 30-year-old narrator seems to have failed at everything in life – he lives with his mother doesn’t seem able to do basic things for himself His most important achievement lies in his past – the rock band he had with his childhood friend Knut Yet one summer a chance encounter with Knut the narrator is also writing a novel that is an acute observation of every instance of his “restless” existence: a perfect example of the “write don’t think” maxim as Fosse instructed his students in the late 80s in Bergen Free weekly newsletterDiscover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews the undercurrents are not: a man and a woman meet in a graveyard and begin an affair – perhaps they knew one another in a past life As they leave the graveyard the man’s parents arrive for a funeral and longing dance of intergenerational circularity Fosse takes us deep into the tortured mind of the 19th-century landscape artist Lars Hertervig who died impoverished in 1902 in his early 70s and whose life was blighted by the hallucinations and delusions that made his paintings appear so dreamlike Hertervig first became psychotic as a student at art school in Düsseldorf and as well as an often terrifying examination of mental illness the novels (originally published separately but now as one volume) are most significantly about what it means to be an artist Melancholy I details the young Hertervig’s obsessions and eventual breakdown during one terrible day; Melancholy II acts as a coda with different narrative perspectives – including that of a would-be fictional biographer – many years after Hertervig’s death The seven books of Fosse’s Septology I-VII (helpfully compressed into three volumes comprising The Other Name, I Is Another and A New Name) centre on Asle, an ageing artist living in remote south-west Norway It is an extraordinary work of existential crisis which is rendered without a sentence break so that the reader is essentially living Asle’s life with him Septology is also a work of deep religious faith in which a man in the end comes full circle: “It’s definitely true that it’s just when things are darkest To explore all books by Jon Fosse, visit guardianbookshop.com After not receiving any Tony Award nominations the revival has announced that it will close Bob Fosse's Dancin' on Broadway has announced that it will close on Sunday, May 14. This news comes on the heels of today's Tony Award nominations where the show notably did not pick up any nominations The show opened on March 19. By the time of its closure at the Music Box Theatre, Dancin' will have played 17 preview performances and 65 regular performances.  Dancin' is a revival of Fosse's 1978 dance revue which contained no narrative through-line—instead it was an explosive series of dance vignettes The show's producers say that additional news about the future life for this revival will be announced soon The news is unfortunate, considering that Dancin' received overall positive reviews from critics and it was created with the cooperation of Nicole Fosse the show has steadily seen a decrease in revenue and attendance It is a sharp contrast to the original Dancin' In Dancin', Tony winner and Dancin' original Broadway cast member Wayne Cilento directs and provides musical staging for the production who serves as text consultant for the production READ: How These Fosse Dancers Have Reconstructed (And Revised) Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ READ: Nicole Fosse Knows That Dancin' Was Particularly Special to Her Father Gail Kriegel's new play follows a family affected by mental illness. The Tony-winning Best Musical continues at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Noah Himmelstein will direct Matthew Puckett's original musical. Neumann is the Tony nominated choreographer behind Hadestown and Swept Away. Finalists included Cole Escola's Oh, Mary! and Itamar Moses's The Ally. The world premiere opera, based on a play by Gerber, is the second opera by Nottage and Gordon. In the Sondheim revue, one Tony winner is playing the trumpet while the other is channeling Mama Rose. The George Abbott, Douglas Wallop, Jerry Ross, and Richard Adler musical opened May 5, 1955. Due to the expansive nature of Off-Broadway, this list is not comprehensive. Thank You!You have now been added to the list. Blocking belongson the stage,not on websites. Our website is made possible bydisplaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us bywhitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.Thank you! charts the couple through the turbulent nineteen-seventies when their marriage broke up even as their legendary collaboration persisted While Fosse honed his glitter-and-doom aesthetic on Broadway (“Pippin,” “Chicago”) and on film (“Cabaret,” “All That Jazz”)—an incredible run punctuated by nervous breakdowns and heart attacks—Verdon raised their daughter played artistic swami when Fosse was blocked and tried to revive her own thwarted career Into that two-person minefield stepped Reinking a sinewy young dancer who became Fosse’s protégée to have a real dancer involved in the show poking holes in the notion of the dysfunctional male genius—and Fosse sleeps his way through the female chorus of “Pippin,” the musical he directed in 1972 After one dancer fends him off with a knee to the groin (drawn from an incident described in an earlier biography) Fosse sidelines her from a dance number and has Reinking step in The real Reinking insisted that this wasn’t an issue “I didn’t feel that there was any casting couch or anything I have felt more uncomfortable with other people on a more sinister level And I think for anybody who knew Bob and really worked with him and really knew him You knew that those two things are separate.” She used herself as an example Reinking met Fosse when she was twenty-two at the auditions for “Pippin.” “He was up on stage with you,” she recalled “He wasn’t just the dark voice in the theatre where you can’t see the face ‘This is not a great step for you—do this step.’ ‘You stick with that.’ ” That night Aren’t you being unfair to ask me out and we’re still auditioning?’ He goes it sounds like a serious case of creepitude but Reinking told the story with a wistful laugh But he was so funny during the conversation I realized I could say no to him.” She was awed by his way with dancers it was remarkable to meet you.’ I never thought he was abusive that way at all I think everybody he was with was completely willing to be with him I never perceived him as using a part as being manipulative And I’ll tell you how I knew that—it was instinctual By the time I got through with all of the auditions and if you got the part it was because you were right for it.” Months later So by the time we did start going out I was pretty sunk.” She met Verdon when the show was still playing out of town in Washington The two women—romantically and artistically entangled with the same complicated man—might have easily been rivals “Gwen and Bob had been legally separated for close to three years and they had both gone on with their lives with other people and they were on my side.” Verdon was “eccentric”—Reinking compared her to the topsy-turvy set of “Sweet Charity,” the musical that Fosse conceived for Verdon in the late sixties When Reinking took on the role years later Verdon pointed to the zigzagging proscenium and told her “That’s the way Charity thinks.” Reinking replied Reinking was flung into the world of brilliant screwed-up show-biz legends two decades older than she was—not just Fosse and Verdon but their nebbishy circle of friends “They weren’t intimidating at all,” Reinking said “They were very nice to me.” As for Fosse and Verdon They were friends in the deepest sense of the word And I think the reason why she liked me—not only could I perform well but she knew I loved Bob and wanted him to be as happy as possible So I think that we in a tacit way understood that in each other he became the only person ever to win an Oscar (for “Cabaret”) and an Emmy (for “Liza with a Z”) in a single year—and promptly had a nervous breakdown He checked himself into the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic Reinking thought I had the timeline all wrong He had an epileptic fit—he was an epileptic He went into Payne Whitney for a little while There was really a psychiatric issue with him.” Why had he hit bottom after reaching show-biz heights “You get to a certain point in your life,” Reinking said directing the Lenny Bruce biopic “Lenny” and rehearsing “Chicago” with Verdon In “Fosse/Verdon,” the Ann character worries about the effect that the stress would have on his health—and is proved correct when he winds up in the hospital with a heart attack He doesn’t want anybody else to take care of it even if it might be to his detriment.” Fosse’s open-heart surgery deepened his depression He was worried that it had compromised his virility In one scene in “Fosse/Verdon,” Bob tests his fears by having Ann mount him on his hospital bed “I heard that I’m in the hospital with Bob and we’re having intimate relations?” She let out a hoarse laugh there’d be a nurse in the room in two seconds flat the moment his heart rate went up He was just trying to get well.” I read aloud from page 402 of Wasson’s biography: “Having sex with Reinking he wept with relief that impotence hadn’t set in She had never seen him cry before.” “But that was later on,” she clarified when he had the heart attack she was in a back brace having fractured her vertebrae during a “gravity-defying” jitterbug in the Broadway show “Over Here!” “I auditioned for everything,” she told me “That was just par for the course.” But she worried that Fosse’s unflattering self-portrait would taint his reputation but people are going to think that’s who you are Why did you do that?’ And he answered right off the bat because if they do they won’t get the moral: they won’t see that glamour can kill.’ ” she still had an immense talent as a performer and even as a dancer,” Reinking said “She said she’s good for eight bars and then she gets tired.” We don’t flood you with panic-inducing headlines or race to be first We focus on being useful to you — breaking down the news in ways that inform We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today Sam Rockwell plays Bob Fosse and Michelle Williams plays Gwen Verdon in a show for theater geeks and fans of complicated marriages by Emily St. James a glossy eight-episode miniseries about a Great Man Who Is Also A Terrible Human and the genuinely fantastic stuff they made together Your mileage may vary. I loved it, but the miniseries is either a masterpiece or an utter disaster, and I’m not sure how much room there is between the two in this case. The show it reminded me most of was The Americans, not just because that show’s co-showrunner, Joel Fields and not just because a handful of its writers are writing on this both series are about the impossibility of those inside of a marriage to understand each other and those outside of it to understand the couple as a unit And they’re both about how easy it is to use toxicity as a crutch and if we gain something from trying to understand how he was such an asshole we still have to factor in that all of this happened to real people The women Fosse used and discarded and harassed and mistreated were real So were the deeply rooted mental health issues and suicidal ideations he refused to deal with The show doesn’t soft-pedal any of this but it also sort of does merely by existing And Fosse/Verdon can never escape how often it finds itself in the canyon between “great artist” and “terrible person.” But remember how I said this might be a masterpiece Because if Fosse/Verdon isn’t quite the excoriating biography of Fosse or the retroactively celebratory biography of Verdon anyone might have expected or dreamed of it is a deeply fascinating portrait of Fosse/Verdon a third person formed out of the two of them If you come in to Fosse/Verdon without a great knowledge of who Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon were, the show doesn’t offer a lot of easy hand-holding. (It probably knows Wikipedia exists, but let’s set that aside.) It begins in 1969, when Fosse’s first film, a movie version of Sweet Charity which he had directed on stage to great acclaim a career setback plenty of people would never recover from It’s a time when people don’t want Bob without Gwen and that clearly rankles him just a little bit because one of the people who doesn’t want Bob without Gwen is Bob Fosse himself Verdon is about to descend the ladder of fame She’ll have to scrap and scramble to get parts worthy of her talents and her career never hits the same heights as it did in the 1950s and ’60s again will both receive Best Picture nominations he’ll also direct and choreograph the original production of Chicago on Broadway in 1975 it’s Gwen no one wants if they can’t have Bob — a brutally swift reversal of fortunes.) From there, Fosse/Verdon moves both backward and forward in time. The second episode chronicles when the two first meet, on the 1955 musical Damn Yankees, where the electric choreography they conceived of together (though only Fosse was credited) essentially rewrote the rules of American dance (Fosse’s choreography is all about creating tension between the body and the direction of its movement — he didn’t invent the Moonwalk but it’s very much in harmony with his choreography if you need a broadly famous example of something similar.) The third delves into Verdon’s past, and the fourth Fosse’s darkest night of the soul (at the height of his success). It’s only in the fifth episode (the last I’ve seen) that the show brings all of its many ideas crashing into each other, complete with a terrific cast of modern Broadway types playing ’70s Broadway types (Norbert Leo Butz as Paddy Chayefsky!) There is clunky stuff scattered throughout rankles with its too-pat explanations for why someone like Bob Fosse might not commit suicide while continuing to smoke and drink and snort their way to death (Fosse died of a heart attack in 1987 — by Verdon’s side through some stroke of coincidence that would feel forced if it hadn’t really happened — and the miniseries counts down to this moment with a gleeful solemnity.) The series is certainly aware of the monstrous elements of Fosse’s personality particularly the way he would make sleeping with him a virtual requirement for young But it’s never quite sure if it should say something damning his behavior or let the audience make up its own mind Fosse/Verdon knows it’s making a show about Bob Fosse in the era of #MeToo. The show is just so narrowly focused on the Fosse and Verdon partnership, its main attempts at underlining how bad Fosse could be mostly amount to Verdon and Fosse’s later girlfriend, Ann Reinking (Margaret Qualley) This has the curious effect of turning them into the long-suffering wives of a cable drama antihero from the 2000s even as the show clearly longs to afford them perspective equal of Bob Fosse’s more than it wants to show what these women have in common with Breaking Bad’s Skyler White Now, on a series about a fictional antihero I’d say this is the point — the audience is supposed to be morally mature enough to realize that what the hero does is wrong the way that you can see how his steps influenced essentially any music video or stage musical you might stumble upon the way that both Cabaret and All That Jazz are among my favorite films of all time makes it harder to commit yourself (or maybe just myself) to the idea that his corrupting appetites somehow influenced his greatness (That said: I do appreciate the way the series acknowledges Fosse was the victim of sexual abuse as an adolescent without ever making that an excuse for his own abusive behavior.) If you know that Fosse did all of this stuff it becomes so easy to simply write it off as the cost of creativity That may be inherent in the very genre of the biopic Fosse/Verdon can never quite escape its deteriorating orbit plunging closer and closer to the black hole that is its central subject the thing that’s supposed to keep it from becoming just another antihero show is that it elevates the prominence of Gwen Verdon showing just how much of a creative constant she was in Bob Fosse’s life he needed her to bounce ideas off of — and often to save his ass Turning Gwen Verdon into Fosse’s creative equal is a smart idea that often pays dividends But it also flattens her life story into: “She was every bit as talented and creative but limited by a society that had little value for women.” That’s true this conceit too often reduces her within the show’s schematic to “a talented woman,” instead of “Gwen Verdon.” The handful of story points devoted to pre-Fosse Verdon largely boil down to personal struggles and issues with motherhood They rob her of a humanity that Williams’s tremendous performance restores This might have worked if we got a good sense of why audiences so loved Verdon at her height, of why her dancing became so instantly iconic and beloved. The show’s head writer, Steven Levenson (who also wrote Dear Evan Hansen), its pilot director, Thomas Kail (director of Hamilton) know plenty about what makes somebody kill on stage But perhaps because Williams isn’t as technically precise a dancer as Verdon (who could be?) they’re never able to quite convey it The show also accidentally stacks its own deck in favor of Fosse by cribbing cheekily from his most famous films The quick flashes of footage meant to convey a character’s jumbled thought process from Cabaret and the elaborate fantasy sequences from All That Jazz — they’re both here in ways that are sometimes great and sometimes exasperating But the movie you really have to see to understand Fosse/Verdon the one which ultimately brought me closer to the “masterpiece” than “utter disaster” camp on this show 1974’s Lenny is the least watched of Fosse’s three Best Picture nominees nowadays It’s a somewhat conventional biopic of comedian Lenny Bruce (played by Dustin Hoffman) but one that nevertheless keeps darting through time following its subject backward and forward and focusing almost as much on his darkly inscrutable marriage to Honey Bruce (Valerie Perrine) as his comedy While the film is ostensibly a portrait of Lenny both Hoffman and Perrine received lead acting nominations at the Oscars right down to the way Lenny can never bring itself to stop idolizing its often unsympathetic subject Fosse/Verdon is most interesting when it’s about what happens to two people who know they probably shouldn’t be together but keep getting drawn back together by some invisible pull But he is good for her (and she for him) as a creative collaborator And Fosse/Verdon is as good as anything I’ve ever seen at depicting the cost of sharing that brain except it’s the only place you can get this one particular thing The series’ best scene — and one of the best you’ll see on TV this year — comes in its second episode when the two meet for the first time and begin working on a routine from Damn Yankees giddily excited less at the prospect of finding someone they’re attracted to than someone they’re artistically simpatico with For all of Fosse/Verdon’s faults when it comes to depicting Fosse or Verdon separately it always understands just why they would keep collapsing themselves into a unit even after so much toxic water under the bridge Neither was going to find that frisson with somebody else And if Verdon spent much of her life after Fosse’s death (she died in 2000) trying to preserve his legacy maybe that’s best understood as her trying Fosse/Verdon airs Tuesdays on FX at 10 pm Eastern Episodes will be on FX’s streaming platforms after air I watched five out of eight episodes for this review Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day the courts must rule in favor of a lawmaker who bullied a high school student Today, Explained podcastMay 4Love on the Spectrum stars call on RFK Jr. to resignTwo cast members of the hit Netflix reality TV show on what the HHS secretary misunderstands about autism. Here’s why your potentially romantic meetup actually sucks. A new prosecutor, a surprising defense team addition, and a whole lot of controversy. Candace Owens and Joe Rogan are the latest frontier of the Me Too backlash. Norwegian author and playwright Jon Fosse, the recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature his literary star had firmly risen in Europe; yet it would take another decade for him to appear on the Anglophone horizon “I was really enamored with the writing style and the mentality of the protagonist’s mind that is dissolving over the course of the book.” was in line with the press’s long-term strategy of investing in quality authors who would slowly gather steam as their international reputations grew it’s waiting for a Nobel Prize,” says Post Fosse novels sold out in the US on Thursday within hours of the early-morning announcement from Stockholm Dalkey went on to publish six more books by Fosse Post has also been the publisher of Rochester’s Open Letter which is dedicated to increasing access to world literature for English readers Open Letter is now one of only about a dozen or so US presses that publishes foreign works translated into English Issuing about ten translated titles each year and running an online literary website called Three Percent Open Letter searches for works and authors that are “extraordinary and influential”—works that the press hopes “will become the classics of tomorrow,” according to its website To that end, Open Letter received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts last year to help fund its International Voices project which will result in the translation and publication of five works of literature from around the world Fosse, of course, has become a shining example. On Thursday, he ascended the pinnacle of literary recognition for “his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable,” according to the Swedish Academy One of the world’s most widely performed playwrights, Fosse’s immense oeuvre written in Nynorsk (a literary form of Norwegian based on country dialects and constructed in the 19th century as a national-language alternative to Danish) spans a variety of genres—novels To date, Fosse has been translated into more than 50 languages and has won many of the world’s prestigious literary prizes. Unsurprisingly, for the past decade, he’d been considered a top contender for the Nobel Prize had anticipated Fosse’s win for several years describing his work as “more conservative in structure centered on the humanism of the artist and the struggle to exist within an unjust or strange society,” which fits more “with the Nobel vibe” rather than being focused on the “current tropes of identity politics.” Septology It tells the story of the aging painter Asle who over the course of seven days tries to make sense of religion with strong autobiographical undercurrents including a literary tribute to Fosse’s late first wife and his own work as a painter To first-time Fosse readers, Post recommends starting with Trilogy which he says has a Samuel Beckett quality to it—“moving and his heart is what makes him really an interesting and very cool writer to read,” says Post more attention is paid to translated books today than a decade or two ago yet the overall lack of focus on international writers across genres and countries persists usually hovering around three percent of all titles published in the US “Without access to other cultures and other ways of looking at literature and life and the representation of what life is through this artistic medium It’s not just readers who suffer—American authors do with fewer new influences and “fewer new ways of thinking or doing things.” The University of Rochester, meanwhile, has a more than 30-year tradition of connecting readers with less accessible books and authors. Beyond Open Letter’s endeavors, Rochester houses the Middle English Text Series a project that democratizes access to a wide range of medieval texts through free digital and affordable print editions providing a platform for global voices is especially important at a time of interwoven politics and economies “Being able to hear individual voices from remote parts of the world that you may never be able to visit adds to our overall understanding of the world at large.” the strong-armed MLB catcher whose career was upended when he was bowled over by Pete Rose during the 1970 All-Star Game said in a statement online that Fosse died Wednesday after a 16-year bout with cancer Fosse was a budding talent for Cleveland when he made his first All-Star team as a 23-year-old in 1970 the same year he hit .307 with a career-high 18 homers and won the first of two Gold Gloves while throwing out 55% of attempted base stealers Rose barreled over him to score the winning run in the 12th inning of the exhibition at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium Fosse fractured and separated his left shoulder and he told The Associated Press in 2015 his body still ached 45 years later I don't have to see it on TV as a replay to know what happened He batted .256 with 61 homers in 924 games and helped the Athletics win the World Series in 1973 and 1974 Fosse became a popular broadcaster for the A's and he worked through part of the 2021 season "The Oakland A's are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Ray Fosse," the team said in a statement on Wednesday "Few people epitomize what it means to be an Athletic more than Ray He was the type of franchise icon who always made sure every player and fan knew that they were part of the A's family Fosse told the AP in 2015 that he had pain and arthritis had two bum shoulders he never had fixed and a stiff neck he knew that wasn't all from Rose's blow at the All-Star Game A lot of that was a result of the rigors of being a catcher That's something that I take with a lot of pride." Two days after the 1970 All-Star Game, Fosse caught nine innings in a win at the Kansas City Royals He couldn't lift his left arm above his head "That's something people will continue to talk about whether they were alive at the time or watched the video and see the result," Fosse said they always vote on the All-Star Game highlights or lowlights and that always seems to be at the top that people talk about." Cleveland also released a statement after Fosse's death "The Cleveland Indians family is deeply saddened by the passing of Ray Fosse a true fan favorite who loved wearing a Cleveland Indians uniform He was so proud to be our top draft pick in 1965 We extend our deepest sympathy to the entire Fosse family Major League broadcast colleagues and the organizations impacted by his nearly 60 years in the game he loved," said Bob DiBiasio Date published: 2025-01-16 | Category: Children's Services Parents of children at Fosse Way House have received a letter from The Partnership Trust saying that the Fosse Way House residential provision would need to close from September 2025 due to Bath & North East Somerset “no longer… funding students to attend Fosse Way House” from that date Bath & North East Somerset Council is making the following statement on this Fosse Way House is not a council-run facility and any decisions about its future are matters for The Partnership Trust.  the council works closely with schools and others to ensure pupils with special educational needs receive the support set out in their education health and care plans (EHCPs)  Provision is reviewed annually so we can act on the most up-to-date needs and provide as much notice as possible to families and providers In this academic year we have placed a small number of young people who are at Fosse Way School into the additional Fosse Way House overnight residential provision on the site.  While Fosse Way House is registered with Ofsted it is not registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and so the provision can only meet educational needs rather than additional health and/or social care needs Through the ongoing annual review process with settings families and professionals it has been increasingly difficult to find evidence-based reasons for this purely educational provision for the academic year starting in September 2025 we have not identified any children or young people attending Fosse Way School whose special educational needs would be met by this additional overnight residential provision We let the school know this in October of last year so they could inform parents with plenty of notice and so it is unfortunate that this information is only now being passed on to parents by the Trust We are pleased to see that the Trust has now established two dates to meet with parents We will of course work with the families of the children whose placements at Fosse Way House are due to end in July on any follow-up changes to arrangements we may need to make The council’s decision is not due to budget pressures but is because the facility at Fosse Way House is not required to meet the educational needs of young people with special needs in our area there are a number of challenges facing The Partnership Trust in securing a viable future for Fosse Way House Currently only children on roll at Fosse Way School can use the provision and it has been increasingly difficult to identify students who require educational provision from the Fosse Way House provision as part of their EHCP and who do not have the level of need that would mean a residential provision that was registered with both Ofsted and the CQC was required We value the work of Fosse Way School and have been working over a number of years to find ways to improve the viability of the Fosse Way House facility  We will continue to work with the school and support The Partnership Trust in their plans for Fosse Way House so it can continue to benefit young people and our community We are also grateful that The Partnership Trust have confirmed there will be no changes at all to the provision for the remainder of this academic year Ensuring that our young people have access to local good-quality special needs provision that meets their needs – including modern and fit-for purpose residential care within Bath & North East Somerset - is a key priority for the council as can be seen in the council’s investment plans including for special needs residential provision at Charlton House.  Choreographers Christine Colby Jacques and Corinne McFadden Herrera talk about bringing the 1978 work back to Broadway When talking about Bob Fosse choreography people tend to list a series of images—the moves captured in photos that But talk to a Bob Fosse dancer and they’ll tell you it’s so much more than that Ironic,” enthuses choreographer Christine Colby Jacques because it's not like you’re going to thigh slap and laugh I've seen people like that before.’ Or it's just a quirky thing where he's making two different joints move at the same time and your eye does not expect it Herrera points out that Colby Jacques has also been teaching Fosse’s work for many years now through The Verdon Fosse Legacy Professional Training Program. She knows the work deep in her muscles. And sometimes it was muscle memory that brought something back in the reproduction process “It was kind of a surprise to me,” admits Colby Jacques ‘What about that little crossover in ‘Dancing Man?’ Do you happen to know it?’ And I was like I’ll have to think about it.’ But then I did the step and I put my body in the form Colby Jacques and Herrera began the reconstruction phase with only seven dancers and three weeks creating the framework of what would become the whole show It was an incredibly detailed and painstaking process for the pair “She was pumping out phrases and steps and which way they travelled I was busy with my assistant charting it and putting people in the places they needed to be,” says Herrera who would also dip into his own performance and muscle memory and often demonstrated the work with the dancers After that initial reconstruction phase and subsequent full rehearsal period the new Dancin' had a tryout run at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in the spring of 2022.  Those lines are very tricky when you're recreating somebody else's work." In some places, Cilento has found it necessary to revise the story for modern audiences. But to stay true to Fosse's intentions, the creative team had to go back in time and try to figure out why Fosse made some of the choices he did, and what choices he might make today. Such as in “Mr. Bojangles,” an homage to the legendary dancer Bill Robinson a Black hoofer from the early days of film who Fosse deeply admired the song was sung by a white man and danced by a white man with a spirit dancer who was also a white man.  while the other two actors in the sequence are POC “I know some purists might not be happy about a change like that but even Bob has changed his own work,” says Colby Jacques “Even after a couple of years go by and he revisits something he kind of sees where he could make that better or he didn't quite like that—it didn't exude the right atmosphere or the right attitude I don't think he'd have a problem with some of the alterations that were made I think if he were alive and recreating Dancin’ Audiences will also get the chance to see a brand-new Fosse piece in the number “Big City Mime.” Fosse cut the piece during the Boston tryout in 1978 using Fosse’s original intentions—Fosse’s notes that Nicole Fosse found in his notebooks and steps from the original “Big City Mime,” as well as moves and steps culled from very early Fosse works I was just floored,” says Colby Jacques of seeing the new number and Ron Todorowski in rehearsal for Dancin' Jovan Dansberry and Ida Saki in rehearsal for Dancin' Peter John Chursin in rehearsal for Dancin' Gail Kriegel's new play follows a family affected by mental illness The Tony-winning Best Musical continues at the Walter Kerr Theatre Noah Himmelstein will direct Matthew Puckett's original musical Neumann is the Tony nominated choreographer behind Hadestown and Swept Away one Tony winner is playing the trumpet while the other is channeling Mama Rose Due to the expansive nature of Off-Broadway Thank You!You have now been added to the list Blocking belongson the stage,not on websites Our website is made possible bydisplaying online advertisements to our visitors Please consider supporting us bywhitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.Thank you I’ve been re-reading Jon Fosse’s essays these last few days which is to say in the first half of this shifting which despite unfolding in so many different forms—novels short prose and drama—has always borne the same unmistakable hallmark What rises forth from Fosse’s 1983 debut novel isn’t that different from what rises forth from his first theatre piece Og aldri skal vi skiljast (And Never Shall We Part) this unmistakableness which rises forth from everything Jon Fosse has written but more what manifests itself in all of these things The protagonist in Michel Houellebecq’s novel Submission reflects on the nature of literature music can overwhelm us with sudden emotion and painting can make us see the world through fresh eyes but only literature can put us in touch with another human spirit with all its weaknesses and grandeurs adding to this his astonishment that philosophers have devoted so little attention to such a simple observation Few modern writers could be as far removed from Jon Fosse and the place in which he stands than Michel Houellebecq and seem somehow to present a face towards the reader the contemporary is toned down or else avoided completely and although his work often approaches death and explores a kind of existential ground zero it is never disillusioned and certainly not misanthropic his writing presents no face towards the reader in it the reader sees himself and his own time whereas Fosse’s writing absorbs the reader is something into which the reader vanishes These are essential characteristics of Fosse’s work as the opposite are essential characteristics of Houellebecq’s and in this the two writers stand at each end of a divide What brings them together is what makes their work literature and what Houellebecq in Submission brings to our attention in such provocatively simple terms: the presence in the writing of a human spirit but of a particular individual’s writing resonating within us regardless of whether we’re reading a late-19th-century Russian novel written in the third person or first-person Swedish poetry of the 1990s the more idiosyncractic and expressive of the writer’s particular self precisely because the presence of another human spirit is then its essential feature the tongue of the accepted truth and the fixed idiom Books penned in this language of the social world are infused with the spirit of their time and when time moves on little but this remains much as a photo will tell us about the fashions of the day the literature which does endure is never typical never couched in the fits-all language of the social space We don’t read Thomas Bernhard’s Extinction in order to learn about postwar Austrian society and postwar Austrian culture nor to discover what it means to lose one’s parents but rather to immerse ourselves in Thomas Bernhard’s prose which yanks us out of our selves and propels us headlong into something else entirely And it is this uniqueness and exceptionalness which is common to us all this uniqueness and exceptionalness which is the truth of the world and our reality Against this it might be contended that to claim that the nature and essence of literature consists in the presence of another person in the writing is unjustifiably reductionist that it is to take away the societal aspect the social aspect from literature and to return to the genius cult of the Romantic age when what mattered was the singular individual claiming literature to be the presence of another person in the writing nor any understanding of the literary work other perhaps than that Thomas Bernhard’s books were written by Thomas Bernhard This would render superflous the whole academic discipline of literary studies or at least make the exams a lot easier to pass for the only relevant question then would be something like: “Who wrote Thomas Bernhard’s Extinction?” Or for that matter: “Who wrote Jon Fosse’s Boathouse?” which begins with the sentence “I don’t go out anymore and I don’t go out,” is unlike any other novel of its time but it’s a lot like much of what Jon Fosse had written before that But this presence is not the presence of his biographical person and evoking the person he was at that time (which in my case would be relatively easy Jon Fosse having been one of my teachers at the writing academy where I was a student the same year as Boathouse came out) would add little of significance to our reading of the novel as little as any considerations we might have as to the time and the social environment in which it was written the presence we feel has to do with a certain receptiveness The strange thing about writing is that the self seems to let go that what in our self-conception normally keeps the I together the inner being reconfigurating in new and unfamiliar ways the self lets go as we follow the words down the page and for a time we submit ourselves to a different I between the selfless writer and the selfless reader it calls forth moods and tones which are there always but which normally go unheard in the everyday noise of the world or in the iron grip of the I and our self-knowledge the poem or the theatre piece are the medium through which the world is communicated our configurations of the world and ourselves dissolve Jon Fosse’s essays are almost all about literature and art sociological or historical aspects of literature and art but circle invariably around what is essential to them what it is that makes literature literature and art art And since this consists always in the idiosyncratic in the sense that what makes literature literature and art art is found only in literature and art themselves Jon Fosse’s essays are about the irreducible Frå telling via showing til writing (From Telling via Showing to Writing) these enigmatic and untranslatable qualities are tied to the writing itself Whereas telling connects with the social world and moreover comprises some element of entertainment with that part of our language which perhaps communicates only itself and in this one feels Fosse’s language and thinking to be shaped by 1980s literary theory though connects now with something quite different: the Divine The leap from writing and the writer as conceptualized in the theories of literature to the religious concept of the Divine may seem giant but this is by no means necessarily the case and in a way Fosse writes here in both instances of exactly the same quality of literature albeit now approached from a different angle He alludes to the connection in the title essay itself: is caught either in one or the other form of rhetoric Only the character who lacks language is free the active writing must constantly restore the longing for that which lacks difference and in good novels you may perhaps notice something like that the difference between Fosse’s essays and his fiction is huge Whereas the essays stand outside art and peer in on it shifting in such a way that his essays of the 1980s are 1980s-like which instead of peering in from the outside Jon Fosse’s voice is unmistakable in whatever he writes but whereas the voice of the essays is a presence in their contemporary age the voice of Fosse’s fiction is a presence unconnected with Fosse’s own time which the essays endeavour to isolate in various ways according to their time of writing No one has written more perceptively about Jon Fosse’s literature than Lev Tolstoy in War and Peace is moved to tears when listening to a piece of music and endeavours to understand why He finds reason in the terrible contrast between the illimitable infinity within him and the constraint of his worldly materiality between the infinity within us and the constraints of the external –translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken The quotes from Jon Fosse’s Boathouse and From Telling via Showing to Writing are from the published translations by May-Brit Akerholm Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving Literary Hub asked him to tell us about the best or worst writing advice he’d ever received I think the best advice I’ve learned from life is to listen to yourself not to what you want to have or wish you had to your inner voice and vision and how you want the writing to be When my first novel was published it got lots of bad reviews and if I had listened to them I would have stopped writing I decided to listen to myself instead—to what I knew Ever since then that has been a kind of rule for me For some years now my writing has been well received but I try to not let it influence my writing in any way Good reaction or bad reaction: it doesn’t matter my plays were a great success but I decided to stop writing plays Read the rest of the interview (and the interviews with the other finalists!) here. Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for your contribution, you'll get an ad-free site experience, editors' picks, and our Joan Didion tote bag. Most importantly, you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving. and the scenery was minimal: a large illuminated rock in the middle many of whom were seated in folding chairs ringed around the rock The man explained that he had gone for a drive and and the audience heard the voices of an older man and an older woman speak about the young man expressing their distress at the direction his life had taken The author speaks with Merve Emre on where his body of work comes from in a glittering white slip dress and a white fur stole Her feet were bare and beautiful and caught the light from the rock with each step he stopped right next to the chairs of the audience members to argue “My own shame is bigger than myself,” he screamed I watched the faces of the audience; most of them remained impassive They looked down at their hands or feet and away from his stricken face they seemed no different from the trees that surrounded them although I had read the English translation of the script I did not understand the words as they were being spoken It was strange to realize how little this mattered the profound indifference of the world to him—all of it exceeded language His characters seemed to know this as well as I did “But there’s something there,” the older man said to the older woman or at least something else other than life When the Swedish Academy awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature to Fosse yesterday genre-spanning body of work as giving “voice to the unsayable.” What I think the Academy meant is that what is unsayable—the absolute depths of abandonment and grace—is felt without needing to be named surpassing the mere arrangement of words on a page “And I see myself standing and looking at the picture with the two lines that cross in the middle it’s a painting wider than it is high and I see that I’ve painted the lines slowly,” Asle He knows that the essence of a painting is its ability to create a convincing illusion of depth and that one looks at it to find some elaborate meaning behind appearances The illusion is created by the dripping lines of the painting But it is also created by the space that surrounds these lines—the flatness and the forbidding blankness of the canvas—that is everything that the painting is not what is absent and what is present create the painting’s sense of wholeness If a man stands in front of a painting what can he understand about the essence of what he sees The image of the cross reminds him of how far he is from divinity The only way for him to believe that divinity might exist somewhere within the painting is by committing to the reality of what he cannot see and unfathomable; of what he knows to exist only by virtue of its absence from the worldly limits of our perception This absent presence is perceived by Asle as the “soft invisible light” that emanates from the painting This light is an extension or an emissary of God the light that emanates from the dark in the writings of the medieval German theologian Meister Eckhart which Asle reads and recites throughout “Septology.” The soft invisible light assures Asle that the painting bears the possibility of transcendence The painting is vaster and more varied than its surface suggests and suffused with a meaning that cannot be explained or captured by any of our tools We cannot point to or photograph the soft invisible light the way that children catch fireflies in glass jars We cannot study it by measuring its frequency in either broken particles or unbroken waves the reality to which Asle must commit is a form of unreality at least according to our empiricist standards of knowledge if we believe in the integrity of our belief then the distance between illusion and reality shrinks to nothing What we gain in the process is an astonishing freedom from the rational world Some might describe the faith that one has in unreality as the belief in God I do not think Jon Fosse would mind what you or I call this faith so long as we allow for the possibility that it exists A long-ago crime, suddenly remembered A limousine driver watches her passengers transform The day Muhammad Ali punched me What is it like to be keenly intelligent but deeply alienated from simple emotions? Temple Grandin knows The harsh realm of “gentle parenting.”  Retirement the Margaritaville way Fiction by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thank You for the Light.”  Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security Want to get started with 2023 literature laureate Jon Fosse but don’t know which book to pick up first Chairman of the The Nobel Committee for Literature who gave us three of his Fosse favourites My first choice is Fosse’s second novel Stengd gitar (1985) which presents us with a harrowing variation on one of his major themes As always Fosse goes for the existential core of everyday situations Here a young mother leaves her flat to throw rubbish down the chute but locks herself out She is panicking and the whole novel is one furious search for a solution reinforced by Fosse’s intense and repetitive language The novel stops however in the middle of a phrase a very typical trait in Fosse’s extraordinary plays from the subsequent decades expressing the fundamental inability to come to a resolution You have to read this book in one sitting.   My second favourite is the short novel Morgon og kveld from 2000 It is written in the midst of a very productive period of dramatic output and takes place not in an urban context like Stengd gitar but in Fosse land the Norwegian west coast where he has his roots and where most of his narratives are situated the sense of reality of the elderly protagonist and fisherman Johannes is dissolving in an uncanny way Things lose their weight and start to shimmer and Johannes cannot distinguish any more between real and imagined people Remarkable in this process towards death is the voice of the narrative transmitting a tone of warmth and reconciliation staying with us long after we have finished our reading remains the late Septology he completed in 2021: the English titles of the three books are The Other Name the novel is written in the form of a monologue in which an elderly artist speaks about another person with the same name as himself Soon we understand that this other person may be another projection of himself is trying to save and find reconciliation with the other Asle Even if the work progresses in long periods without sentence breaks it is held together by repetitions and prayers and is deeply absorbing and accessible Fascinating is how the doppelgänger motif is inscribed in the painting that the narrator cannot be separated from and that he meditates on in every part of the novel: two diagonal strokes crossing one another As if the painted cross represents the reunion of the two parts of the split personality at the moment of death.  The septology is no doubt a major achievement and should be seen not only as Asle’s attempt at reconciliation with his own fate it is also an elegy through which he mourns the premature passing of his wife as well as a Künstlerroman dealing with his rather less than successful career as an artist he is unable to tear himself away from the painting: should he even paint over it in white Tasked with a mission to manage Alfred Nobel's fortune and has ultimate responsibility for fulfilling the intentions of Nobel's will these academic institutions have worked independently to select Nobel Prize laureates Several outreach organisations and activities have been developed to inspire generations and disseminate knowledge about the Nobel Prize who danced the number in the original Broadway production explains how he re-conceived it for this revival "It's a typical Bob Fosse number. No one would think that, but he had an incredible sense of humor," says director Wayne Cilento He grew up watching American Bandstand and MGM movie musicals starring Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire After an invitation from a neighborhood girl to attend dance class at age 9 or 10 "I feel I'm the most me when I dance," he says.  Cilento originated the role of Mike ("I Can Do That") in A Chorus Line and performed in the original 1978 production of Dancin'. In fact "Big Noise From Winnetka" was one of his numbers—he was in the center Cilento has flipped that makeup for the revival placing Mattie Love in the center (he calls her "the spitfire in the middle") with Tony d’Alelio and Nando Morland at her sides.  Bringing Dancin' back to life has been an intense labor There were several weeks-long reconstruction periods with smaller groups of dancers Then there were rehearsal periods teaching the numbers to the cast But teaching Fosse choreography is more than teaching dance steps Motivations for movement have to come from within "Everything he does has some sort of a meeting or he's being sarcastic in a very intelligent way It's a very complicated challenge to take on." For "Big Noise From Winnetka" the choreography is exactly as it was in the original but there's room for each dancer to make it their own Says Cilento: "There are moments of time where you need to fill it in with your personality And these three are hysterical every day. When I was watching it every show I would look up and there would be something else going on which makes me believe that they're thinking about it and they're coming up with stuff to kind of like play around And that's what the piece is about—bouncing off of each other Wayne Cilento is directing the seldom-produced work The reviews are rolling in for the reimagined revival of Bob Fosse's 1978 dance work Dancin', which opened March 19 at the Music Box Theatre. Tony winner and Dancin' original Broadway cast member Wayne Cilento directs and provides musical staging for the production READ: Nicole Fosse Knows That Dancin' Was Particularly Special to Her Father Broadway News (Brittani Samuel) CitiTour NY (Brian Lipton) The Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones)*  The Daily Beast (Tim Teeman)* Entertainment Weekly (Lester Fabian Brathwaite) New York Daily News (Chris Jones) New York Stage Review (David Finkle, Melissa Rose Bernardo) New York Sun (Elysa Gardner) New York Theatre Guide (Gillian Russo) The New York Times (Jesse Green)* New York Theater (Jonathan Mandell) Queerty (Matthew Wexler) Theatrely (Kobi Kassal) TheaterMania (Pete Hempstead)  Theater Pizzazz (Carole Di Tosti) Vulture (Jackson McHenry)*  The Wrap (Robert Hofler) *This review requires creating a free account or a paid subscription Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in “Bob achieved immortality through his work and I consider it both the responsibility and honor of my life to steward his legacy for a new generation,” said Cilento in an earlier statement “None of Bob’s shows exemplified the fullness of his spirit quite like Dancin’ and bringing it back in this fresh way is how I hope to keep that spirit alive.” Cilento received a Tony nomination for his performance Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application to John "Buddy" and Harriet Olson and joined big brother Rick on the Olson family farm where she enjoyed living on the lake and riding her horses Julie attended school in Lake Park and graduated in 1975.  Julie was joined in marriage to Mickeal Fosse on July 15 Classic Roadsters and Case IH (for over 24 years) riding motorcycles including trips to Sturgis she enjoyed keeping busy and worked at Michael's and Sanford Hospital She later moved to Valley City.  She worked at AmericInn enjoyed riding hammerhead with friends and gardening She loved going to Las Vegas for the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) and loved gambling; she was especially lucky at the slots Julie spent the last few months staying with her daughters she stated she was looking forward to riding her horses again Julie was a hard worker and didn't always work jobs that were considered to be normal for women She enjoyed keeping busy and spending time outdoors.    John "Buddy" Olson and her brother Richard "Rick" Olson.  She is survived by her daughters Stacey (Troy) Christianson and Kellynn (Kyle) Zinck; her 5 grandchildren Craig & Lois Schulstad and numerous cousins Also included are her closest best friends- Jolene and Lori A Celebration of Julie's Life will be held on Friday Wright Funeral Home and Cremation Service- Hawley and Lake Park Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors On June 24, 1970, the Cleveland Indians were visiting New York to play a doubleheader against the Yankees. Tribe catcher Ray Fosse went 2-for-4 with one RBI, one run scored and one walk as Cleveland won the first game 7-2 behind Sam McDowell’s tenth win and was in the midst of a 23-game hitting streak In the Yankees’ fifth, with a runner at second base, New York pitcher Stan Bahnsen tried to bunt the baserunner to third, but missed the ball. Fosse threw the baseball back to Indian pitcher Mike Paul. As Fosse stood behind home plate, waiting for Paul to go to the pitcher’s mound, a cherry bomb was thrown from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium It exploded four feet from the ground and landed at the instep of Fosse’s right foot “I saw that thing land at my feet, but I didn’t have time to do anything,” he said.1 Fosse covered his head to protect his eyes as a reflex The cherry bomb burned through his spikes and both pairs of socks Indians trainer Wally Bock feared hat Fosse had been shot But the catcher insisted that he return to the game He was treated for ten minutes and continued to play while others sidelined him for long periods Ray played the infield his freshman year at Marion High School but his second year moved to catcher and was named the team’s Most Valuable Player all three years He hit .475 his sophomore year and .535 as a junior Fosse posted a .465 mark with four home runs and led Marion to the Illinois Regional Finals Ray also lettered in football as a fullback and in basketball as a forward the City of Marion renamed its city park Ray Fosse Park The park grew to have a number of baseball and softball fields Ray Fosse Park is used for everything from class reunions to the annual Easter Egg Hunt In June 1965 the Indians selected Fosse with the seventh pick of baseball’s first-ever amateur draft. Advised by his high-school coach, Leroy Anderson, Fosse signed a $28,000 bonus contract with scout Walter Shannon within four days of the draft Fosse reported to the Indians Eastern League (Double-A) team in Reading and batted .219 in 55 games to start his climb through the minor leagues In 1966 he batted .304 in 116 games for Reno of the Class A California League and the next season hit .261 in 75 games for Portland of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League before earning a call-up to the Indians in September Making his debut on September 8, 1967, batting eighth in the lineup, Fosse grounded out to shortstop in the first inning of a Cleveland 6-3 win over the Kansas City Athletics at Cleveland Stadium. On September 30 he collected his first major-league hit, a single off Baltimore pitcher Gene Brabender his only hit in 16 at-bats in his first brief major-league stint Fosse returned to Portland for the 1968 season and hit.301 with 9 home runs and 42 RBIs for the Beavers. He joined teammate Lou Piniella on the postseason PCL All Star Team Fosse would have liked to have played winter ball after the season but had to fulfill a six-month commitment with the Army Reserve a foul tip exploded against Fosse’s right index finger It was discovered later that the finger was broken He did not return to action until September For the season he played in only 37 games and hit just .172 Duke Sims became the Indians’ “Outstanding Player of the Cactus League” during spring training in 1970 and Fosse feared that his role would again be limited. Before the season he married Carol Mancuso, a Los Angeles schoolteacher he had met four years earlier when he played at Reno. Indians teammate Lou Klimchock served as the best man (The town of Marion sent Fosse a congratulatory telegram with 1,713 signatures His mother’s name was at the top of the list.) After the National League scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Fosse was waiting for Dark to ask him if he was hurt Rose missed three games from the home-plate collision when a foul tip struck his right index finger in a game against Washington Fosse developed the habit of double-clutching when he threw the baseball back to the pitcher At times he had trouble getting a good enough grip the first time he tried to toss it back to the mound Fosse still batted .297 after the collision with Rose but with only two home runs and 16 runs batted in He was named to The Sporting News All-Star Team won the Gold Glove Award for catchers in the American League Fosse threw out 48 of 88 would-be basestealers He shared Indians Man of the Year honors with Sam McDowell In the offseason Fosse played in the Florida Instructional League, and then in winter ball in Venezuela (as he had the previous year). On December 14, 1970, tragedy struck. Several members of the Magallanes team, including Herman Hill and their wives spent an offday swimming at Puerto Cabella Beach A terrible current swept Hill into the sea forcing the other team members to try to save him but the players were not able to rescue Hill and had just been traded to the Cardinals from Minnesota after spending parts of two years in the majors Fosse was traded to Oakland on March 24, 1973, along with shortstop Jack Heidemann, for outfielder George Hendrick and catcher Dave Duncan. Gaylord Perry was shocked by the news.  “…[W]hy would we want to trade our quarterback?” he said.5 Fosse was thrilled to be going to Oakland, the reigning world champion. “I was shocked to say the least,” he said of the trade. “Once I got my thoughts together, I was very happy. After all, the A’s are a championship team and I couldn’t go to a better club. I don’t think I will have any trouble with the pitchers there because that staff is the best.”6 Another positive from the trade was that Oakland was only 40 miles from Tracy In 1973 Oakland won the AL West by six games over Kansas City. Fosse played 143 games, the most of his career, and hit .256 with 7 home runs and 52 RBIs. The club featured three 20-game winners, Ken Holtzman, Vida Blue, and Catfish Hunter The A’s beat Baltimore in the League Championship Series Fosse’s defense stood out; he threw out four of five would-be basestealers in the series coming from behind to win Games Six and Seven at home Oakland repeated in the AL West in 1974, this time by five games over the Texas Rangers. Injuries plagued Fosse again that season. On June 5 in Detroit, a fight broke out in the clubhouse before the game between Reggie Jackson and Bill North Fosse got caught in the middle and had surgery in July for a pinched nerve He did not return to the starting lineup until August 26 The A’s again bested the Orioles in the ALCS to earn their third consecutive pennant. In Game Two, Fosse went 3-for-4 at the plate with a three-run home run in Oakland’s 5-0 victory. The A’s met the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series and won in five games. Four of the five games ended up 3-2, with Oakland winning three of them. Fosse hit a home run in Game Five off Dodgers starter Don Sutton The A’s claimed their fifth consecutive division title in 1975, finishing seven games ahead of Kansas City, but it was a frustrating year for Fosse. Gene Tenace had become the starter while Fosse was sent to the bullpen to warm up pitchers The A’s run of three consecutive pennants was snapped when they were swept by Boston in the ALCS Fosse was sold back to Cleveland after the season. Oakland owner Charles Finley brashly told the Indians they were getting damaged goods,8 but Fosse felt that Finley was upset that he had taken the A’s to arbitration the year before but now he was happy to be playing on a more regular basis and working with the Indians’ young pitching staff Fosse again went on the disabled list with a spiked left hand after a collision at home plate with Boston’s Jim Rice on April 13. Alan Ashby took over the catching duties As a major leaguer he batted .256 with 61 home runs and 324 runs batted in He threw out 286 of 723 runners attempting to steal Fosse had a career fielding percentage of .985 After retiring, Fosse worked for TRS Video Sports Productions. He made instructional videos on how to play baseball, often using former teammates, among them the A’s Sal Bando Fosse then took a variety of positions in the Oakland front office then was director of sales and finally director of public relations In 1986 Fosse joined the radio booth to provide color commentary for A’s games as well as hosting a pregame show He worked for more than 35 years as an announcer providing insights to the game of baseball to generations of A’s fans in the Bay Area In the offseason he and Carol lived in Phoenix as a celebration of their 100th anniversary the Indians named their 100 greatest players of all time The players were selected by a panel of veteran baseball writers Fosse was selected as one of seven catchers on the all-time team cleveland.indians.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=cle oakland.athletics.mlb.com/team/broadcasters.jsp?c_id=oak 1 Terry Pluto The Curse of Rocky Colavito  (New York: Simon and Schuster) 2 New York Times 3 Ibid 4 Cleveland Plain Dealer 5 The Sporting News 6 The Sporting News 7 The Sporting News 8 The Sporting News 9 Cleveland Plain Dealer 10 Miami Herald If you can help us improve this player’s biography, contact us 1970s All-Stars · Broadcasters · 1972-74 Oakland Athletics Meet the Staff Board of Directors Annual Reports Inclusivity Statement Contact SABR and director who created the legendary Jazz Age musical From his distinct style of dance (Finger snaps Shoulder rolling!) to his ability to bring fantasies to life down to every last detail Fosse changed the face of American theater with his dazzling musicals One of the most striking common threads through his productions Directional beauty that dazzled both onstage and on screen "[Bob] didn't just choreograph," explains Kaliardos was heavily influenced by Fosse's 1979 American musical drama All That Jazz which found the visionary telling his own story of working on projects including Chicago through a semi-autobiographical fantasy "He was all about creating these expressive hyper-individual characters," said Kaliardos "And always with this extra-ness in the hair and makeup that communicated glamour In honor of Anderson's big night on the Great White Way we're looking back on the beauty motifs that Fosse and his genre-defining productions thrust into the zeitgeist from Swinging Sixties eyes to impossibly chiseled limbs 2002.Photo: Courtesy of MiramaxDuring the Roaring Twenties women cut their hair into bobs—lopping off the old and ushering in the new in the most liberated sense based on Fosse's musical of the same name wannabe vaudeville star Roxie Hart (played by Renée Zellweger) performs with a perfectly pin-curled platinum bob and a stamp of deep red lipstick Hart's go-to combo is the picture of old-school glamour—and unapologetic femininity Suzanne Charny in Sweet Charity, 1969Photo: Courtesy of UniversalOne of the most iconic of his career, the Rich Man's Frug scene in 1969's Sweet Charity not only offered up three different interpretations of the Frug dance craze, but put the power ponytail on the map to extraordinary effect in Beyoncé's music video for her 2007 single "Get Me Bodied," she recreated the groovy dance sequence complete with an itsy-bitsy mini dress and a high-slung updo rivaling that of lead dancer Sweet Charity, 1969Photo: Courtesy of UniversalAs far as Fosse was concerned, the eyes always had it. In Sweet Charity, the joie de vivre of the 60s was celebrated with Cleopatra-like cut crease eyeliner designs, while in 1972's Cabaret, swathes of royal blue eyeshadow were an essential component to Liza Minnelli's Oscar-winning portrayal of Sally Bowles. Sweet Charity, 1969Photo: Courtesy of UniversalThere's no such thing as a bad hair day in Fosse's world, and this is due in no small part to the array of statement-making toppers that have outfitted his dancers. And while top hats are a tried-and-true favorite, it's the dizzying display of eye-catching headpieces in Sweet Charity that takes the cake, from the neon plumed wigs to the crystal-beaded caps. All That Jazz, 1979.Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century FoxWhile Fosse made a point of utilizing every inch of a dancer's body in his choreography, the legs always stole the show. "Choreography is writing on your feet," he once said, after all. Equal parts lithe and toned, every pair of superhuman, crescent jumping limbs was more dexterous than the next. For proof, look no further than the parade of robust stems in All That Jazz's ensemble scenes. Jon Fosse attends the 73rd National Book Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on Nov Jon Fosse has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in literature "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable." The 64-year-old playwright is not well-known outside his home country of Norway where he was born on the western coast in the city of Haugesund But the author is internationally celebrated in literary circles and has been called "the most produced living playwright." He has won prestigious European awards and has long been fully subsidized by the Norway government with a lifetime stipend and a residence near the Royal Palace in Oslo In 2007 he was made a Knight in France's National Order of Merit In its citation written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose." The author has often been called "the new Henrik Ibsen," and Samuel Beckett was evoked by the chairman of the Nobel committee as he discussed Fosse's "artistry in the wake of modernism" during his announcement. But Damion Searls made a different comparison in a 2015 essay in The Paris Review "Think of the four elder statesmen of Norwegian letters as a bit like the Beatles," he wrote always dependable Ringo; Dag Solstad is John the ideas man; Karl Ove Knausgaard is Paul and did not break through as a theater writer until he was in his 40s His international reputation as a playwright was sealed in 1998 with a Paris production of his first play Nokon kjem til å komme (in English his work has been performed in more than 60 countries around the world The Nobel Committee has been criticized for its focus on European and Anglo writers. In the past 20 years, only five writers of color have been awarded the literature prize. Last year's award went to French writer Annie Ernaux Become an NPR sponsor High school students participate in college-level artistic training in New York City and online These intensive and enriching courses are taught by Tisch undergraduate faculty.  Visiting students and non-majors are invited to take classes during January Term Come be inspired by New York City and our international sites Tisch Pro/Online Courses are non-credit/non-degree courses giving you professional training in various artistic industries Build your creative skillset with an online course or join us in New York City Our short-term and semester-long study abroad programs are specially designed to draw on the artistic strengths of our global partners and incorporate the rich history The Office of Special Programs at Tisch School of the Arts provides access to the arts Whether you’re an NYU or visiting college student high school student or working professional we provide you with the introductory exposure to the performing or cinematic arts and the advanced-level training to grow your craft The Tisch Office of Student Affairs comprises 20 professionals on a mission to provide you with the support you need to find meaningful community and success as artists and scholars during your time at Tisch and beyond New Broadway musical Bob Fosse's DANCIN' features NYU Tisch Dance alumni and former students Nando Morland Click the link below to learn more about the reimagined Bob Fosse's DANCIN' with Choreography by Bob Fosse and Direction and Musical Staging by Wayne Cliento On the list of influential choreographers of the 20th century Fosse showed exceptional talent for dance at an early age and was tap-dancing on vaudeville and burlesque stages before he was old enough to attend high school Fosse initially endured teasing and whistling “I beat up a couple of the whistlers,” he said “and the rest sort of tapered off after a while.” which he described as the “Fosse Amoeba,” was distinctive for its shoulder-rolling The brash sexuality of his work reflects the influence of the vaudeville stage combined with the styles of Jack Cole Biographer Martin Gottfried claimed that Fosse put bowler hats on his dancers because he wore a bowler hat to hide his balding head and that they wore gloves because Fosse didn't like his hands a musical satire on the themes of corruption in the criminal justice system and the rise of “celebrity” criminals and one of the shows most closely identified with Fosse's work onstage at Wilner Auditorium at Wichita State University