Writers in the Loft Presents Ty Burr on July 17

"[A] lively and provocative chronicle of the genesis of movie stars and the metamorphosis of movie stardom. [Burr] offers original thinking about the audience factor." —The New York Times  

Ticket package includes book, bar beverage, and author meet-and-greet/signing 

 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, June 14, 2013: The Music Hall’s Writers in the Loft series welcomes Boston Globe film critic and former Entertainment Weekly writer Ty Burr, with his captivating cultural history of movie stardom, GODS LIKE US, on Wednesday, July 17, 2013. The 7pm event includes an author presentation and moderated Q+A, plus book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at the Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Burr, who appears regularly on local and national media programs and has contributed to The New York Times, Spin, and the Boston Phoenix, will be visiting the Loft to shed light on Americans’ captivation with movie stardom and our evolving notions of celebrity. It has been more than a hundred years since film’s invention created a new kind of fame, and our worshipful yet resentful relationship with film stars continues to be a powerful reflection of us as a society, even as innovations like YouTube make fame increasingly accessible. With his trademark witty, incisive-yet-gossipy style, Burr takes the stage at the Music Hall Loft to share his commentary on the history of stardom, its expanding parameters, and how the stars we have created reflect the ways in which we have changed over the past century.

“Who better to speak to us about stars and the mania of stardom than one of the country’s top film critics?” asks Margaret Talcott, Associate Producer of Writers in the Loftand the evening’s moderator. “Ty Burr is an insider – he has seen celebrities in action at film festivals, movie premieres – and his unique insight is based on experience.”

ABOUT THE BOOK

In GODS LIKE US, Burr traces our obsession with fame from the dawn of cinema through the age of the Internet. Why do we obsess over the individuals we call “stars”? How has stardom changed over the past hundred years? What does celebrity mean if people can now become famous…for being famous? With brilliant insight and entertaining examples, Burr reveals the blessings and the curses of celebrity for the star and the stargazer alike. From Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin; to Archie Leach (a.k.a. Cary Grant), Tom Cruise, and Julia Roberts; to such no-cal stars of today as the Kardashians and the new online celebrity –GODS LIKE US is a journey through the fame game at its flashiest, most indulgent, most tragic, and ultimately its most culturally revealing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TY BURR is a film critic for the Boston Globe. Previously, he worked as the chief video critic for Entertainment Weekly, where he also covered film, music, theater, books, and the Internet. He began his career at Home Box Office in the 1980s, where he helped program the Cinemax pay-cable service. His previous book, The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together, was published by Anchor Books in February, 2007. Burr has also written articles on film and other subjects for the New York Times, Spin, the Boston Phoenix, and other publications. He regularly appears on such local and national media programs as WBUR’s “Here and Now” and WGBH’s “Greater Boston.” In addition, he is an adjunct professor in the Film & TV department at Boston University.

TICKETS

The ticket package for Writers in the Loft: Ty Burr on Wednesday, July 17, at 7pm is $31 ($28 for members). In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy GODS LIKE US ($16.95, paperback), a bar beverage, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchasedthrough The Music Hall Box Office, located at 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, over the phone at 603-436-2400 or online at www.themusichall.org. 

WRITERS IN THE LOFT SERIES SPONSOR:  Citizens Bank

MUSIC HALL SEASON SPONSOR: River House Restaurant and Carey & Giampa Realtors   

ABOUT THE MUSIC HALL

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named "best performing arts venue" by Yankee Magazineand the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence. Acclaimed signature series bring top authors and artists to both stages, while HD broadcasts and independent film fill both screens. A radio show broadcast on NH Public Radio originates here. This dynamic arts center urges patrons to Explore + Learn via master classes, post film panel discussions, and matinees for children. An anchor cultural organization in this historic working seaport, The Music Hall is one of downtown Portsmouth’s biggest employers and largest contributors to the regional economy: The Music Hall and its patrons contribute $7 million annually to the local economy through show and visitor related spending. Innovative in its outlook, the organization is community oriented and committed to making the Seacoast flourish. The Music Hall is 501c3 nonprofit managed by a professional staff with the assistance of a volunteer board.  Though global in the scope of its artists and programs, The Music Hall operates independently with the support of 3,000 members, 300 business supporters and 40 community partners. Welcoming more than 100,000 patrons (including 20,000 children) each year from the tri-state area and beyond, The Music Hall is the region’s center for the performing arts, literature and education…easy to get to, impossible to forget. www.themusichall.org 

###For more information, contact:

Margaret Talcott

Associate Producer

Writers in the Loft and Writers on a New England Stage

The Music Hall                                                                      

mtalcott@themusichall.org

603-433-3100x5013  

PRAISE for TY BURR and GODS LIKE US 

“A penetrating, lively cultural history of movie stardom. . . . [Burr] has a witty, readable style, but don't let that pop façade fool you.  There is substance here, as he dissects how each period in American history finds or create stars to serve its needs.”

—The New York Times Book Review  

“Burr presents a fresh take on the medium’s history, eschewing the standard roll call of moguls and filmmakers, preferring to understand the triumph of Hollywood as a carefully orchestrated harnessing of the ferocious power of celebrity.”

—The Boston Globe 

“Gods Like Us is an entertaining, wide-ranging account of the way movies created a new kind of fame, and changed the world in the process. Ty Burr’s encyclopedic history of movie stardom is gossipy (in the best of sense of the word) and insightful, and his cultural analysis is as provocative as it persuasive.”

—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Leftovers 

“Burr has both a fan’s and scholar’s grasp of the history of film, and he travels along a celluloid highway that extends from the early days of Thomas Edison to Zac Efron. Of greatest interest to the author is our evolving notion of celebrity—of what celebrities mean. . . . A focused history of films.” 

—Kirkus Reviews