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FALL CHALLENGE 2020
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Fall Challenge 2020: Task Ideas
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The Bard: read a Shakespeare retelling OR a Shakespeare play.The Tony Awards: read a book by an author named Tony or Anthony.
Break a Leg: a book with a human leg or legs on the cover.
Theatre: read a book with a word in the title or subtitle ending in RE.
Hamilton: read a book with the MOG of History or Historical Fiction.
Phantom of the Opera: read a book with a mask on the cover.
Moulin Rouge: read a book originally written in French.
Halloween: read a book with two sets of double letters in the title.Trick or Treat: pick the word Trick or the word Treat and read a book by an author whose first and last initials appears in that word.
9th, 10th, & 11th Months: read a book where the page count ends in a 9, 10 OR 11.
Pumpkin Spice Latte: read a book by an author with 3 parts/words of their name. Initials count.
Back to School: read a book where the main character is a student or a teacher.Halloween Classic Characters: read a book about ghosts, vampires, werewolves or zombies.
Thanksgiving: read a book with food on the cover.
Fall Colours: read a book where the cover is at least 50% red, orange or yellow.
Sameet Zahoor wrote: "What are fall colours?"The colours that leaves change to in the fall/autumn. Red orange and yellow.
Author Photo: read a book where the author appears on the cover of their book.Different Cultures: read a book where the main character is of a different ethnicity than you are.
Author's Debut: read the first book an author has published.
Initials: read a book by an author who has the same first and last initials as you.
Ballet is my favorite kind of theater. I can't remember a single pure dance production ever winning a theater award. Some ideas to use for settings, titles, famous dancers, choreographers and composers, and premieres are:-- my favorite ballerina is french ballerina Sylvie Guillem
-- the most famous classical ballets include Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker
-- my favorite modern dance piece: Dancing on the front porch of heaven
My other favorite theater genre is opera.
-- favorite operas: Aida and Carmen
-- favorite male aria: Nessum Dorma, as sung by Pavarotti
-- favorite female aria: Queen of the night from Mozart's Magic flute as sung by Maria Callas
Marie-Anne wrote: "Ballet is my favorite kind of theater. I can't remember a single pure dance production ever winning a theater award. Some ideas to use for settings, titles, famous dancers, choreographers and compo..."The 2000 Tony Award for "Best Musical" went to the show "Contact" which had no original music and no singing or instrumental playing at all. It was only dancing to popular records.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact....
I heard that because of Broadway musician union rules, "Contact" producers had to hire 3 musicians in the Broadway musicians union to sit backstage and do nothing for the entire run of each show, paying them union scale.
Hmmm. 3 musicians? A Book third in a series? "Three" or "3" in the title/subtitle?
After having to wear a mask I would love to see a smile so how about a book with a smile on the cover.
* mask on cover* person in costume on cover
* set in theater
* set in school or university
Thanksgiving and other harvest feasts:
- food on cover
- fall scene on cover
- fall leaves on cover
- story about a family
* retelling of play
* book that inspired play
* main character playwright or director
* US election:
- story set around an election
- mpg politics
- country flag on cover (US or any country)
* Black Friday
- black cover
- money on cover
- mpg economics or finance
- item with price tag on cover
- story about selling or buying something specific
- story about treasure
Second City is a famous improvisational theater group in Chicago. Read a book set in Chicago.Two well known theater areas are Broadway in New York and the West End in London. Read a book set in either NY or London.
The Obies are awards for off Broadway plays. Read a book with all of the letters OBIE in the title/subtitle.
The Tony Awards (U.S. theater) are named for actress/director/producer Antoinette "Tony" Perry (1888-1946).-- A book by an author who uses a nickname or with a main character who goes by a nickname
-- A book by an author whose gender is not obvious from their name
-- a book first published between 1888 and 1946
According to Tony awards history at the first Tony Awards "there were eight special awards, including one for Vincent Sardi, proprietor of the eponymous eatery on West 44th Street. Big winners that night included José Ferrer, Arthur Miller, Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Patricia Neal, Elia Kazan and Agnes de Mille."
-- A book with a chef or restaurateur as a main character
-- A book by an author who shares a first or last name with any of those mentioned
-- A biography of any winner of a Tony Award
Pandemic:
-- A book set during the flu epidemic of 1918, or a non-fiction book about that pandemic
-- A book with MPG Dystopia set among survivors of a pandemic
Theatre- Read a book with MPG of "Plays"
- Read a book with a main character who is an actor/actress, playwright, director, costumer, or has another other theatre-related job (identify what that is in your post)
- Read a book set in NYC
- Off-Broadway - Read a book with a title that contains a hyphenated phrase, or a book with two primary settings
Seasonal
Halloween:
- Read a book with MPG Thriller, Horror, or Gothic
- Read a book where author initials can be found in ALL HOLLOW'S EVE
- Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Read a book with a character named WASHINGTON or IRVING, or an author with either of those names, in any place
Fall:
- September, October, November were originally the seventh, eighth, and ninth months in the Roman calendar, before January and February were added - hence their names. Read a book where the page count contains a 7, 8, or 9.
- Fall = football. Read a book with a title containing the name of any of the 32 current NFL teams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa... Cities/States do not count - "Patriots", "Cowboys", "Vikings", etc.
Around the World The Act of Independence of Central America was enacted on the 15th of September, 1821, separating colonies from the Spanish Empire. Five countries celebrate their Independence Day on this date: read a book set in any of the following countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.
The General Assembly of the United Nations meets every September to address matters of international importance. The UN has six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Read a book originally written in one of these languages, which has been translated to a second language (of your choice) that you are reading it in. Required: state in your post both the original language, and the language you are reading in. i.e. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun was originally published in English; I read the Arabic translation. نصف شمس صفراء
Hamilton: Read a book featuring an immigrant or an immigrant family.
Black Books Matter:*Read a book from the Black Boy Joy List
*Read a book from the Black Girl Magic List
*Read a book featuring a Black main character.
Avenue Q won the Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. *Read a book with a MPG of "LGBT" or "Queer."
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Dreamgirls is an iconic Broadway show featuring a mainly Black cast. It won the Tony Award for Best Book in 1982, and was adapted into a movie featuring an amazing cast of beautiful and talented Black women, such as Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, and Anika Noni Rose.
*Read a book on the list of Black Women Everyone Should Read
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The Wiz
The Wiz is is Broadway retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of contemporary African American culture.
*Read a book on either the list of 2019 Fantasy and Science Fiction Books by Black Authors or 2020 Fantasy and Science Fiction Books by Black Authors
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a Broadway retelling of the book of the same name by Mark Haddon. Although the book specifically features a main character with Asperger, the author wrote in a 2009 blogpost that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time "is not a book about Asperger's... if anything it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder." In that spirit:
*read a book from BookRiot's list of 50 Must-Read Books About Neuro-Diversity
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Langston Hughes was a Harlem Renaissance playwright, poet, and social activist whose works have had a major impact on theater to this day. In his honor:
*read a play by an African American playwright that is found on this wikipedia list of African American dramatist and playwrights.
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Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American female author to have her play performed on Broadway. Her best known work is A Raisin in the Sun. In her honor:
*read a book with the MPG of "African American" (embedded is ok), and in which the letters S-U-N can be found somewhere in the book's title and/or subtitle.
Halloween Although H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulu Mythos fiction has had an indelible influence on the horror genre, Lovecraft's legacy has recently been reexamined. For instance, in 2015, the World Fantasy award dropped Lovecraft's image as the model for its trophy after Sofia Samatar, a women of color who won the World Fantasy best novel prize in 2014, addressed in her acceptance speech how awkward it was to take home a statue of an avowed racist and sexist.
The upcoming TV show, "Lovecraft Country," based on the book of the same name by Matt Ruff, and produced by Jordan Peele, uses the work of H.P. Lovecraft to analyze horror's contentious relationship to race and racial exclusion. The television show will conclude it's first season this October.
In honor of the first season of "Lovecraft Country," read a book on the Counter-Lovecraft List, which feature books that try to challenge or subvert the racism and sexism that were core to Lovecraft's original Cthulhu Mythos fiction.
The Tony Award-winning play with the longest title was The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1966). That’s 151 letters, 26 words, 44 syllables (and four Tonys).- read a book where the authors initials can be found sequentially in the play title
The Tony Award-winning play with the shortest title was Da (1978).
- read a book where DA is found intact in the title
The only play to have won a Best Revival Tony in three different productions is Death of a Salesman, in 1984, 1999, and 2012. In addition, the original production of Arthur Miller’s drama won the Best Play award in 1949.
- read a book shelved as retelling
Ben Vereen and Patina Miller are the only pair of individuals who identify with different genders to win a Tony Award for portraying the same character. They were honored for their performances as “Leading Player” in Pippin, he in 1973 for the original Broadway production (Best Actor in a Musical); she for the 2013 revival (Best Actress in a Musical).
- read a book shelved as gender or queer
The Best Musical with the longest Broadway run to date is the 1988 winner, The Phantom of the Opera, which opened on January 26, 1988 and is still going strong.
- read a book first published in 1988
David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish are the only performers to have jointly won a Tony Award for their alternating performances of a single role: the title character of Billy Elliot, The Musical (2009).
- read a book that is not an anthology written by 3 or more ppl
read a book where the author shares first or last name with someone who has won the EGOT (all 4 awards) - name may be in any position but must match exactly
- Performers John Gielgud, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, and Rita Moreno
Director/producer/performer Mike Nichols
Composer/producers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Rodgers
Composers Robert Lopez and Alan Menken (won daytime Emmys) and Marvin Hamlisch
Orchestrator Jonathan Tunick
Performer/writer/ composer/producer Mel Brooks
Performer/producer Whoopi Goldberg (won daytime Emmys)
Producer Scott Rudin
Performer/composer/producer John Legend
Lyricist/producer Tim Rice
halloween equals horror - read a book from NPR;'s 100 best horror novels and stories (caveat, not all fit SRC requirements)- https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779...
More Halloween suggestion: Lovecraftian horror for the new milenium:https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
"Works that consciously try to challenge and subvert racism, sexism and general conservative/right wing outlook that were at the core of Lovecraft's original Cthulhu Mythos fiction..."
... while staying true to the themes of existential horror Lovecraft was the master of.
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The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Lovecraft Country (other topics)The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (other topics)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (other topics)
A Raisin in the Sun (other topics)
نصف شمس صفراء (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
H.P. Lovecraft (other topics)Sofia Samatar (other topics)
Matt Ruff (other topics)
Mark Haddon (other topics)
The bonus theme is Awards: Theatre Awards.
As in past challenges some tasks may revolve around the seasonal theme of fall or autumn. Others may reflect the bonus theme. Other tasks may have nothing to do with either of those themes, they’re just fun or unique ideas to stimulate your reading.
Feel free to post as many ideas as you can come up with. Don’t worry about repeating what someone else has might have already suggested. The more ideas, the better!
The moderators will draw from these ideas as well as their own to create the 5, 10 and 15 point tasks. This thread will be open for ideas until August 14. Fall tasks will begin to be posted on August 15. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!