Joan Rivers Gets Ready for Her Close-Up

(NEWSER) - Nobody’s No. 1 on O, the Oprah Magazine’s inaugural “Power List.” Indeed, no one’s any other number either. “Power can be so many things,” the editors reason, so they’re honoring women who are powerful in different ways. A sampling:

• The Power of Loud: Anna Deavere Smith: Her one-woman plays are “a form of theater unto themselves, brilliantly conjuring the voices of real people.”

Director insists he's mocking media, not rape and incest

(NEWSER) - A comic play about accused rapist Josef Fritzl is set to open in Vienna, drawing the ire—and death threats—of Austrians who are not amused, the BBC reports. Director Hubsi Kramar stressed that the largely improvised piece, co-starring victims of abuse, is a commentary on media coverage of Fritzl’s alleged crime. “The media are writing the play and I'm reacting to it,” he said. More»

Sleepwalking With Me wins praise from neurologists

(NEWSER) - Fighting off an imaginary Brad Pitt and leaping from a second-story window confirmed it: Mike Birbiglia was ready to turn his sleepwalking stories into a one-man show, Newsweek reports. Launched off-Broadway in November, the comedic Sleepwalk With Me is drawing raves from reviewers and sleep researchers alike. "Mike is really de-stigmatizing this disorder," one neurologist said. More»

Second City co-founder, dead at 80, saw movement reach SNL heights

(NEWSER) - For a performer, Paul Sills kept a pretty low profile. But make no mistake: The Second City co-founder was a massive influence not just on improvisational comedy, but on comedy and theater in general. Without Sills, who died yesterday at 80, there would be no Chicago improv scene, no Saturday Night Live, no 30 Rock, Chris Jones writes in the Tribune. More»