Arts and Humanities

This week on our audio diary series "The Big Break," Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach tackles an unfamiliar role in "A Christmas Story," while Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks prepares for "The Nutcracker." The Kentucky Opera studio artists are on hiatus until January, but Brad Raymond finds he still has plenty to keep him busy over his break.  

The Kentucky Opera is on the list of Kentucky artists and organizations receiving grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for the next fiscal year. The opera will receive $12,500 to help fund the development of a new one-act opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout through its innovative composer workshop. 

A sponge, a jellyfish and a crab walk into a Christmas party—stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

If you haven’t, it’s because a Squallis Puppeteers show isn’t your average holiday fare. Created by puppet artist Kathryn Spivey, “Plank’s Holiday Special” is the story of three sea creature friends whose party is threatened by a dangerous, unwelcome guest who turns out to be a harmless brine shrimp—and the life of the party. 

Today, All Things Considered asks an intriguing question. It's a scene we take for granted: the orchestra cues up and plays at the direction of the baton-wielding, tuxedoed conductor. But if orchestra musicians play with sheet music in front of them, do they really need conductors? Shankar Vedantam consults not art, but science--a study from the University of Maryland that tracked how orchestra players followed conductors: