The Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the western powers shaped the entire back-half of the 20th century. While the Soviet Union would eventually die a slow and anticlimactic economic/political death in 1991, the echoes of this ideological conflict can still be heard well into the 21st century, as the western powers and the various flavors of communism alike would see dozens of governments deposed and dictators (quite often called “presidents”) installed across the globe. This may seem like your standard listicle of “top” bad people, but our purpose here is not to off-handedly rank whose regime was the cruelest
Category: History
Hamilton 2.0: We Tell Their Story
You’re reading part 4 of our 4-part series on adapting Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” for television. Read part 1 here! Finally, with format (part 1), cast (part 2), and production (part 3) figured out, it’s time to figure out how our own Hamilton: the Musical Miniseries will be structured. To sufficiently cover the characters over both the revolutionary and congressional eras of the play, we feel the appropriate duration to aim for will be roughly 7 episodes, varying from 45min-70min in length. The big goal to aim for is that each episode begins and ends with one of the bigger musical
Hamilton 2.0: Balancing Diversity, Accuracy, and Style
You’re reading part 2 of our 4-part series on adapting Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” for television. Read part 1 here! Continuing our discussion on how to film our version of Hamilton, this article will focus on our approach to casting. As a history buff, I would normally want a film adaptation to visually represent a time period and setting as much as possible. This no doubt leads to a big question that concerns me, do I want our characters to actually look like their historical counterparts or should they reflect the theme of the play? Part of Hamilton‘s genius on stage
Hamilton 2.0: Adapting Stage for Screen
A limited-run miniseries seems the only way to address all the sub-plots and character arcs of Hamilton faithfully without rushing or dragging the pacing. Another added bonus from this platform is there is more time to fully explore our characters as historical figures.
The Czars Must Be Wasted – A Historical Analysis
This article is a summary analysis of the book Vodka Politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad by Mark Lawrence Shrad, professor of political science at Villanova University. Schrad wrote this book with the goal of addressing how Russian diplomacy often includes the deployment of a large amount of alcohol, particularly as his title implies, vodka. He explores vodka’s evolution under the czars and how it was employed by the soviets to control their internal enemies and allies alike. It is a problematic tradition that continues to this day, according Schrad’s thesis: “Putin and every Russian autocrat who follows will continue the