From the category archives:

Theater

"Newsies the Musical" at Paper Mill Playhouse. Photo Credit: Sara Krulwich.

There is something extremely special about the movie, Newsies, that was released in 1992. It was a box office bomb, yet it became the #1 most requested movie-stage adaptation ever from Disney. After over 18 years, Disney Theatricals announced they would be producing the show, Newsies the Musical, for Papermill Playhouse‘s first show of their 73rd season. As this became a huge deal in the theater world, I had to see for myself the magic of the most anticipated show Disney has ever produced! [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Mike Daisey in THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS. Photo Credit: Kevin Berne.

These open letters to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, were written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at The Public Theater, one of our cultural partners.  At the end of Mike Daisey’s performance, fliers are distributed with information about Apple’s labor practices, which  he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook’s email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns and comments, in light of the situation at Apple.  He politely asked that we do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters here as well.

Below are excerpts from the letters, with links to the full text:

“Daisey was successful in dispensing the truths behind the production of technology’s latest products, the emphasis being on Apple. I was ignorant of the manpower that fueled the production, distribution and satisfaction of the hungry masses. They are tired. The workers are tired.” –Carina Clores

Read CARINA’s full letter.

“Mr. Cook, you can help make Apple even better in Steve Jobs’ wake. Even if he’s gone, you can help the company’s reputation, their policies, their products. You can do this by forcing plants to stop hiring underage workers. You can do this by forcing plants to pay overtime and set a maximum amount of hours to be worked each week. You can do this by helping better the work conditions, by making Apple products clean instead of allowing them to be covered in the blood of thousands of overworked innocents.” – Cecilia Kim

Read CECILIA’s full letter.

“Apple has long shone as a beacon of inspiration for tech geeks everywhere. Unfortunately, as more and more people learn of the methods by which your beloved products are made, more and more of us feel like Apple has let us down. I’d love to see Apple as an unstoppable force of good, a shining beacon of hope for ALL people, all around the world.” – Logan Erickson

Read LOGAN’s full letter.

“I know I’m only one person and Apple has billions of other brainwashed people, but I solemnly swear I am never buying another Apple product until the end of time. Not only are they overpriced, (I mean really, $1200 for a laptop?) but I would feel too much guilt using it [...] I still use my iPod Touch 3rd Gen. but I don’t plan on getting another updated version and I haven’t updated to iOS 5.” – Sean Scotto

Read SEAN’s full letter.

“Apple is a giant company now that has a responsibility, not only to shareholders or even customers, but to the world. Being large enough to influence history is to hold a huge responsibility. Perpetuating the class divisions and supporting exploitation only traps the people below you in their respective economic classes. – Lucian Li

Read LUCIAN’s full letter.

The New York Times has also run a series of recent articles detailing Apple’s labor situation in China:  check them out here and here.  Also, Mike Daisey’s website has a wealth of information and ongoing dialogues with people responding to his show, the Times articles, and the THIS AMERICAN LIFE episode he was recently featured in.  Check it all out.

{ 0 comments }

Top: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs; photo credit to James Martin/CNET. Bottom: Mike Daisey at the Public Theater; photo credit to Mike Daisey.

[Editors' Note:  This letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is one of several written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theater.  At the end of Mike's Daisey's solo performance, fliers are distributed with information about the labor practices he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook's email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns.  He politely asks that you do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters as well.]

 

Dear Mr. Cook,

Every time I use my newly bought iPhone 4, I see blood on the immaculate touch screen. I am seventeen years old. And if I were born in the special economic zone of the Chinese city Shenzhen, it’s very likely that I would be working in an assembly factory, say Foxconn, putting together one of the most popular technological devices for first world countries. Mike Daisey’s THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS opened my eyes to this all too horrific possibility. [click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

Top: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs; photo credit to James Martin/CNET. Bottom: Mike Daisey at the Public Theater; photo credit to Mike Daisey.

[Editors' Note:  This letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is one of several written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theater.  At the end of Mike's Daisey's solo performance, fliers are distributed with information about the labor practices he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook's email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns.  He politely asks that you do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters as well.]

 

Dear Mr. Tim Cook,

I am not a Mac. Nor am I a PC. I am what most would call “old-fashioned” – so my bias stems from there. But that is also where my objectivity rests. [click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

Top: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs; photo credit to James Martin/CNET. Bottom: Mike Daisey at the Public Theater; photo credit to Mike Daisey.

[Editors' Note:  This letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is one of several written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theater.  At the end of Mike's Daisey's solo performance, fliers are distributed with information about the labor practices he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook's email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns.  He politely asks that you do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters as well.]

 

Dear Mr. Cook,

I recently saw THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS by Mike Daisey at the Public Theater, and I was appalled by what I heard about the working conditions of employees at Foxconn who probably made my iPhone. I’m sure you are aware of Mike Daisey’s show and his horrific stories of child labor and crippled workers. As a devoted Apple customer, I was deeply disturbed by what I heard. But I am also hopeful, because I know that you can change the lives of the Foxconn workers for the better. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Top: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs; photo credit to James Martin/CNET. Bottom: Mike Daisey at the Public Theater; photo credit to Mike Daisey.

[Editors' Note:  This letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is one of several written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theater.  At the end of Mike's Daisey's solo performance, fliers are distributed with information about the labor practices he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook's email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns.  He politely asks that you do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters as well.]

 

Dear Mr. Cook,

Hello there, Sir. My name is Sean Scotto and I am an American teenager. And like all teens in America, I am in LOVE with Apple. Even though I only own about 3 iPods, I am interested in the company of Apple. I’ve been wanting a iPad and possibly a Macbook of some kind. Well sir, I’m sorry to inform you of this, but these wants are no more. I’ve learned the truth about your company. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to be brainwashed by Apple and your ring leader Steve Jobs. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Top: Tim Cook and Steve Jobs; photo credit to James Martin/CNET. Bottom: Mike Daisey at the Public Theater; photo credit to Mike Daisey.

[Editors' Note:  This letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, is one of several written by participants in the Fall 2011 Theater Teen Reviewers and Critics program after attending a performance of THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS at the Public Theater.  At the end of Mike's Daisey's solo performance, fliers are distributed with information about the labor practices he discusses in the show, along with Tim Cook's email address and a call to action.  Mr. Daisey suggested emailing Mr. Cook with concerns.  He politely asks that you do not send SPAM.  We obliged, and decided to publish them as open letters as well.]

 

Dear Mr. Cook,

This letter an expression of outrage and concern after watching THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS by Mike Daisey. Although the Apple company’s trade practices and manufacturing partners are widely known, Mike Daisey shows us both the innovation and ingenuity of Apple, Steve Jobs and the horrible conditions  and practices used to produce the shiny glass and aluminum products that we love. This isn’t an accusation that you are purposely commissioning sweatshops and abusing foreign workers, but the system used to produce electronics and other products for the first world is unsustainable. Ultimately, this is class warfare. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Life Will Always Get Better

by Carla Aguirre January 24, 2012 Teen Reviews

Jordan Harrison’s play Maple and Vine at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Anne Kauffman was a very intriguing story. Marin Ireland plays Katha a woman who has nightmares and hasn’t been the same since she had a miscarriage. That day changed her life, since then she felt empty with no path worth taking, she wasn’t sure [...]

Read the full post →

Horsedreams at Rattlestick Theater

by Amryll Cummings January 24, 2012 Teen Reviews

Horsedreams by Dael Orlandersmith at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, wasn’t what I expected, but it was a great performance none-the-less. Dragged into the live scene of a packed club, we are introduced to young Desiree (Roxanna Hope). She lives for the night life and self-expression.  Desiree is a woman that can’t be chained, but is [...]

Read the full post →

The Bumbling Escapades of an American Business Man

by Logan Erickson January 24, 2012 Teen Reviews

David Henry Hwang’s new Broadway play Chinglish at the Longacre Theater, directed by Leigh Silverman, follows the bumbling escapades of American Businessman (and former Enron executive) David Cavanaugh (Gary Wilmes) as he tries to win a deal for his sign-making company in China. The story begins as Mr. Cavanaugh listens to advice from his “consultant” [...]

Read the full post →

Life in 1955 on Maple and Vine

by Lucian Li January 19, 2012 Teen Reviews

Maple and Vine, a play by Jordan Harrison, tells a complex story as it compares and contrasts life in 1955 and the present. We are offered an intriguing premise of a society and organization that endlessly perpetuates a lifestyle from 1955. The play manages to show us the suburban culture from this era but fails [...]

Read the full post →

The Message Is Not Lost In Translation

by Lucian Li January 19, 2012 Teen Reviews

David Henry Hwang’s new play Chinglish deals with communication and loyalty in today’s world, two large aspects of doing business. Thus, the hapless Midwestern businessman Daniel Cavanaugh (Gary Wilmes) opens the play with an explanation of chinglish, which describes the loss in translation of words between Chinese and English. He is trying to revitalize his [...]

Read the full post →

Bringing the Fifties to the Twenty First Century

by Sean Scotto January 19, 2012 Teen Reviews

Ever feel like you were born in the wrong time period? That’s an understatement for Katha and Ryu. Maple and Vine, written by Jordan Harrison and directed by Anne Kauffman, is the story of a married couple named Katha and Ryu (Marin Ireland, Peter Kim) living in the modern world. They are living an average [...]

Read the full post →