Nina Goodheart

When we embody a classic play like The Bacchae , I am interested in including the history of the play and all of its previous productions into our consideration about how to stage it it today. For example: If playing Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire , do you pretend that Marlon Brando never performed the role? What do you do with the ghost and m... See more

I do not desire any technology that might bring my late mother back to life, allow me to hear her voice or her laugh again. I believe that what makes the dead worthy of our grieving (by which I mean our memories, our returns, our affections) is that they cannot come back.

The remaining church in the borough, the town's Ukrainian Catholic church, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, remains in use. It holds weekly services on Sundays and attracts worshippers from surrounding towns including people who were once residents of the town. It has not yet been directly affected by the fire. A geological survey found t... See more

Humans have had this dream for millennia: Talk with the dead.

So far, we haven’t been able to make it happen. Until now.

Rebecca Solnit explores the connection in “A Paradise Built in Hell,” articulating how amidst the destruction that disasters enact, more considerate and caring communities often arise. It’s a dynamic that can spark deep joy for those who experience it, Solnit writes — a joy that “reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness an... See more

People might calm down when we take over, but they never become more capable.

Maybe more people will use griefbots as the shortage of qualified mental professionals worsens. People may become more comfortable talking to computers, or poor oversight might mean that many people won’t know they are talking to a computer in the first place. So far, neither questionable ethics nor tremendous cost have prevented companies from try... See more