True Corporation has utilised technology to address human-elephant conflict in collaboration with Kui Buri National Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. The telecom operator plans to expand the Kui Buri model to cover forests across the country where there are human-elephant conflicts. The True Smart Early Warning System (TSEWS) used in Kui Buri National Park aims to reduce damage caused by elephants by up to 100%. Chief executive Manat Manavutiveth said the company partnered with the Department of National Parks and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Thailand since 2018 to pilot the project in the national park. The initiative uses 5G high-speed internet, 4G wireless broadband and Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The TSEWS is a prime example of True's "Tech for Good" initiative, showcasing how technology can drive tangible, positive social change by addressing human-elephant conflict, said Mr Manat. As forest areas are hewn down to create agricultural areas, diminishing food sources for wild elephants, the animals often wander into human communities, causing damage to lives and property. According to data from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, human-elephant conflict led to the deaths of around 200 wild elephants per year in Sri Lanka, 100 wild elephants per year in India, and 120 wild elephants per year in Kenya. Human fatalities are also significant, with around 400 human fatalities per year recorded in India and around 200 human fatalities recorded in Kenya between 2010 and 2017. In Thailand, the wild elephant population is 4,013 to 4,422, distributed across 16 forest complexes and 94 protected areas nationwide. While the elephant population is increasing, the size of protected forest areas remains unchanged, causing elephants to venture outside forest zones in search of food. From 2021 to 2023, wild elephants left forest areas more than 37,000 times, causing in excess of 3,800 incidents of property and crop damage. Of particular concern is over the past 12 years, 227 people have died and 198 have been injured from wild elephant intrusions. These figures highlight the urgent need to find sustainable coexistence solutions for humans and elephants, according to True. Mr Manat said the main challenge in areas affected by wild elephant intrusions is the inability to quickly identify the animals' locations or predict their movements. This often leads to significant damage to lives and property. "Our TSEWS combines real-time monitoring capacity with high-speed internet and camera traps equipped with advanced image analysis. This ensures precise location tracking and enables timely interventions," he said. The model can serve as a framework for other countries facing similar challenges, Mr Manat said. The TSEWS is monitoring more than 400 wild elephants in Kui Buri National Park. The system integrates 4G and 5G smart networks with artificial intelligence technology and IoT devices to develop a proactive system. Camera traps equipped with SIM cards are connected to these communications networks to identify locations and send real-time alerts. When the cameras detect elephants leaving the forest area, the system transmits images and GPS coordinates to the cloud system for immediate analysis. The control centre notifies field officers and deploys drones to verify the situation. Officers work to safely move the elephants back into the forest, reducing risks and minimising damage. Veera Kunchairuk, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the warning system supports the work of field officers by enabling swift monitoring and efficiently guiding elephants back to the forest. The TSEWS has proven to be highly effective in supporting wildlife management teams. In 2023, although 1,104 incidents of wild elephants entering the Kui Buri National Park area were reported, crop damage occurred in only four cases, or 0.36%. This is a significant improvement from 2017, when crop damage before the system's implementation occurred in 74.5% of intrusions. The system has enabled authorities to guide elephants back into the forest while preventing losses, according to the department.In 2017, the Republicans who controlled Congress tried mightily to slash federal spending on Medicaid, the government-funded health program covering low-income families and individuals. California, like other states, depends heavily on federal dollars to provide care for its poorest residents. Analyses at the time showed the GOP’s proposals would cut Medicaid funds flowing from Washington by tens of billions of dollars, perhaps even more, forcing state officials to rethink the scope of Medi-Cal. But the GOP efforts ended in failure — iconically crystallized by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, sick with terminal brain cancer, issuing his decisive early-morning thumbs-down. More than seven years later, here we go again. With Donald Trump preparing to reenter the White House, bolstered once more by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, expectations are high that the GOP will quickly resurrect its long-desired goal of cutting Medicaid. Republicans want to finance large tax cuts, and the GOP platform under Trump pledges not to touch Social Security or Medicare. To be sure, that’s not set in stone. But for now, as my KFF colleagues have noted , Medicaid looks an awful lot like low-hanging fruit. (KFF is a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.) Health officials in California and across the nation are on edge about the possibility of large-scale Medicaid cuts being enacted as soon as next year. Such cuts would have an outsize impact in the Golden State, whose 14.7 million Medi-Cal enrollees exceed the entire populations of all but three other U.S. states. Medi-Cal provides health coverage for over 40% of the state’s children and pays for nearly 40% of births. It is a crucial source of funding for safety net hospitals and community clinics. And over 60% of its $161 billion budget this year comes by way of Washington. The potential for big federal cuts to Medicaid may have been a factor in Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to call a special session of the state legislature this week. California could seek to offset a sharp drop in federal dollars with higher taxes or cuts to other state programs. But both those options could be politically untenable. That’s why many health experts think leaders in Sacramento would almost certainly have to consider shrinking Medi-Cal. That could mean cutting any number of optional benefits , such as dental services, optometry, and physical therapy. It might also mean rolling back some of the ambitious expansion Medi-Cal has undertaken in recent years. That could include some aspects of California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal, a $12 billion program of services that address patients’ social and economic needs in addition to their medical ones. Some observers fear federal cuts could affect the approximately 1.5 million immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization who are enrolled in Medi-Cal at an annual cost of over $6 billion, nearly all of it funded by the state. But others say a more likely route would be to reduce payments across the board to the managed care plans that cover 94% of Medi-Cal enrollees, rather than target any specific groups of people. “Medicaid is on the chopping block, and I don’t think that’s speculation,” says Gerald Kominski, a senior fellow at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “It is widely viewed by potential members of Trump’s administration as a program that is too broad and needs to be brought under control.” Whether they can succeed this time remains to be seen. But more on that later. People who have followed previous GOP efforts to downsize Medicaid say a variety of previously attempted methods might be back on the table this time. They could include outright caps on federal Medicaid dollars; elimination of the core Affordable Care Act policy under which the feds pay 90% of the cost of expanding coverage to a wider swath of low-income adults; a work requirement, which could depress enrollment; and rule changes intended to make it harder for states to draw federal Medicaid dollars through the use of taxes on health care insurers known as MCOs. The first Trump administration proposed but later dropped changes to the rules governing such taxes. If similar changes were adopted this time around, they could cause financial headaches in California, which has frequently used MCO taxes to offset Medi-Cal spending from state coffers. Proposition 35, recently passed by California voters, could also be at risk. The initiative calls for the MCO tax to become a permanent fixture in 2027, pending federal approval, with the goal of financing billions of dollars in new Medi-Cal spending, primarily to increase funding for doctors and other providers. A federal rule change could upend those intentions. Termination of the federal government’s 90% coverage of the ACA Medicaid expansion would put a gaping hole in the Medi-Cal budget. Medi-Cal spent over $34 billion in fiscal year 2023 covering the roughly 5 million people who enrolled as a result of the expansion, and nearly $31 billion of that amount was paid by the federal government. If the feds’ share dropped back to its regular Medi-Cal rate of 50%, California would have to pony up nearly $14 billion more to keep the expansion enrollees covered — and that’s just for a year. A more ambitious GOP push, including both spending caps and a rollback of federal support for the Medicaid expansion, could really send California officials scrambling. In 2017, the state’s Department of Health Care Services issued an analysis showing that a legislative proposal filed by a group of Republican U.S. senators to cap Medicaid spending and end enhanced funding for the ACA expansion, along with some other cuts, would result in nearly $139 billion of lost federal funding to California from 2020 to 2027. “There are almost limitless changes state leaders could make to Medi-Cal if they are forced to do that,” says David Kane, a senior attorney at the Western Center on Law & Poverty. “And we fear that burden will almost certainly hurt poor people and immigrants the most.” But big Medicaid cuts are not a foregone conclusion. After all, when Trump was in the White House in 2017, Republicans also had House and Senate majorities and still did not achieve their goal. The political stars could be aligning differently this time, but the GOP has only a razor-thin majority in the House. A decade into the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, some 21 million people across the country have coverage through it, embedding the program more deeply in the nation’s health care landscape. According to a 2023 study from Georgetown University, Medicaid and the related Children’s Health Insurance Program cover a higher proportion of the population in rural counties than in urban ones. And as we know, rural America leans strongly Republican. Will GOP members of Congress, faced with a vote on cutting Medicaid, buck their own constituents? Edwin Park, one of the authors of that Georgetown study, thinks there’s a chance big cuts can be averted. “Large numbers of Americans are either on Medicaid, have family members on Medicaid, or know somebody on Medicaid,” says Park, a research professor at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy. “Hopefully its popularity and its importance will win the day.”
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The Louisville Cardinals host a ranked team for the second time this week when the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils pay a visit on Sunday, and the Cardinals hope for a better outcome in the teams' Atlantic Coast Conference opener. Louisville (5-3) has lost two straight, including an 86-63 thrashing at home by No. 23 Ole Miss in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Tuesday. The visiting Rebels shot 56.7 percent and dominated inside with a 48-26 edge on points in the paint. Tuesday's game was the first for coach Pat Kelsey's team without Kasean Pryor, who suffered a season-ending knee injury against Oklahoma in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. The 6-foot-10 senior wing, a transfer from South Florida, was a key player early on for Louisville, averaging 12 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and blocking eight shots in seven games. Pryor is the latest Cardinals player to go down with an injury. Before the season started, the school announced center Aly Khalifa and guard Kobe Rodgers would redshirt due to injuries. Then just two games into the season, Aboubacar Traore broke his arm and Koren Johnson injured his shoulder. Traore is expected back this season, but Johnson announced earlier this week that he would also redshirt this season and undergo surgery. Besides the injuries, the Cardinals are also struggling to hit 3-point shots, a key facet to Kelsey's offense. Louisville entered Saturday 340th nationally in 3-point shooting percentage at 27.3 percent and seventh nationally averaging 31.6 attempts per game. Despite the woes, Kelsey told reporters after the Ole Miss loss that he doesn't plan to change his offense, adding that he believes in his players. "The percentages even themselves out," he said. "This has happened before. I just don't want our guys to lose confidence, because I really, really believe in them. They'll bounce back and be better on Sunday." The Blue Devils (6-2) won their SEC/ACC Challenge game on Wednesday, beating No. 2 Auburn 84-78 in Durham. Duke overcame a 13-2 deficit to get the Quadrant 1 victory on its resume. Coach Jon Scheyer's team shot 50 percent from the field and committed just four turnovers. It was just the 14th time in program history the Blue Devils had four or fewer turnovers in a game. Freshman Cooper Flagg, a preseason All-American and a contender for national player of the year awards, leads the Blue Devils in scoring (16.6 ppg), rebounding (8.6 rpg), assists (4.1 apg) and blocked shots (1.4 per game). He scored 22, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out four assists in the win against the Tigers, but it was another freshman who stole the show. Isaiah Evans came off the bench to score 18 points and hit 6 of 8 3-point shots. The guard averages 9.4 points per game but has only played in five games and has yet to play more than 17 minutes in a contest. Scheyer told reporters after the win that Evans provided a "special moment" when his team needed a lift. "To have that amazing courage to come into this game and do what he did -- I'm not sure if I've ever been a part of something like that in my years here," Scheyer said. --Field Level Media
IPHONE and Android users have been urged to ditch texting and use WhatsApp instead in a warning from the FBI. Chinese cyberattacks are targeting Americans through messages and calls that aren't encrypted, officials said. The FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the best way to prevent hackers from seizing their messages is to use encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. Encrypting involves technology that scrambles a message and requires a key to unscramble it. “Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here: Encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication," said CISA's executive assistant director for cybersecurity Jeff Greene. "Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible." READ MORE TECH WARNINGS He said people should be “using a cell phone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant [multi-factor authentication] for email, social media and collaboration tool accounts.” The massive cyberattack, which is called Salt Typhoon by Microsoft, has exposed private communications between Americans to foreign hackers. China hacked tech giants like AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies to spy on customers, officials told NBC News . "China firmly opposes and combats all kinds of cyber attacks," a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy said to NBC News. Most read in News Tech A senior FBI official confirmed the agency started investigating the questionable activity in the spring of this year. Greene said it's "impossible" to predict when the issue will be fully resolved. Signal and WhatsApp automatically use end-to-end encryption in both calls and messages. Google Messages and iMessage also encrypt calls and texts. This means that messaging from Android to Android or iPhone to iPhone is typically safe. However, the issue pops up when iPhone users text Android users and vice versa. Here's what you need to know... WhatsApp was created in 2009 by computer programmers Brian Acton and Jan Koum – former employees of Yahoo It’s one of the most popular messaging services in the world Koum came up with the name WhatsApp because it sounded like “what’s up” After a number of tweaks the app was released with a messaging component in June 2009, with 250,000 active users It was originally free but switched to a paid service to avoid growing too fast. Then in 2016, it became free again for all users Facebook bought WhatsApp Inc in February 2014 for $19.3 billion / £14.64 billion The app is particularly popular because all messages are encrypted during transit, shutting out snoopers As of 2024, WhatsApp has over 2.78 billion monthly users globally A Senate Commerce committee is set to hold a hearing about Salt Typhoon on December 11. The subcommittee is expected to go over security threats to communications networks and "review best practice," Reuters reported. The warning to use encrypted messages comes after officials warned Chrome and Safari users to avoid certain websites while shopping on Black Friday. The FBI said shoppers should avoid websites that don't start with the letters "https." Read More on The US Sun Officials said people should also be wary of buying from sellers that only appear to be authorized dealers. Plus, they recommended making purchases with a credit card over gift cards.Searching for comfort food, the writer discovers a social enterprise that is using kueh to create jobs for a marginalised group. Connecting with our roots can lead us to surprising places, says the writer, who has missed traditional fare like Teochew kueh while living in Australia. In Singapore on a short break from my life in Perth, I went in search of my Teochew food fix and chanced upon a cafe selling Teochew kueh that turned out to be about a lot more than selling kueh. Yoon’s Social Kitchen at Block 4, Upper Aljunied Lane, is a striking-looking cafe in a Housing Board block, with dark-framed sliding doors, concrete floors polished to a shine, and wooden tables and chairs. Already a subscriber? Log in Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month $9.90 $9.90/month No contract ST app access on 1 mobile device Subscribe now All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowTarot Card Reading For All Zodiac Signs: December 6, 2024
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This Clear AI Class-Action Settlement Is Only Open Until Friday: Are You Eligible?Barry Keoghan breaks his silence amid Sabrina Carpenter split: 'I can only sit and take so much' By SONIA HORON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 21:16 GMT, 7 December 2024 | Updated: 21:29 GMT, 7 December 2024 e-mail 26 shares View comments Barry Keoghan has broken his silence following his split from Sabrina Carpenter. The actor, 32, took to X (formerly known as Twitter ) to hit back at the 'lies, hatred, disgusting commentary' about him, and explain why he recently deactivated his Instagram account. 'I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don't respond too,' the Saltburn star wrote in a lengthy statement. He went on: 'I have to respond now because it's gettin to a place where there are too many lines being crossed.' 'I deactivated my account because I can no longer let this stuff distract from my family and my work. The messages I have received no person should ever have to read them. Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine.' 'Dragging my character and everything I worked extremely hard for and stand for. Talking about how I was a heroine baby and how I grew up and dragging my dear mother into it also. Knocking on my grannies door.' Barry Keoghan, 32, has broken his silence following his split from Sabrina Carpenter, 25; he is pictured November 17 The actor took to X to hit back at the 'lies, hatred, disgusting commentary' about him, and explain why he recently deactivated his Instagram account; Sabrina and Barry pictured together in May 'Sitting outside my baby boys house intimidating them. Thats crossing a line. Each and every day I work harder to push myself on every level to be the healthiest and strongest person for that boy. I want to provide opportunities for him to learn, fail and grow. I want him to be able to look up to his daddy, to have full trust in me and know I will have his back no matter what.' Read More Barry Keoghan deactivates his Instagram following split from Sabrina Carpenter amid cheating rumours He wrapped up adding, 'I need you to remeber he has to read ALL of this about his father when he is older. Please be respectful to all. Thank u x.' The statement comes after Barry deactivated his Instagram in the wake of his split. The Irish actor was an active user on the social media platform under the handle @keoghan92, though he notably only followed his singer ex Sabrina, 25. Only on Friday, Barry took to Instagram to share thirst trap shots of his muscular arms in in a teal green sweater vest as he posed in front of a mirror. The actor also shared another photo of him wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet with the face shield up and his icy blue eyes exposed. However, just hours later, his Instagram handle became unavailable, with the actor seemingly stepping away from social media amid the breakdown of his relationship and the subsequent cheating rumours that followed. 'I can only sit and take so much. My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don't respond too,' he wrote in a lengthy statement 'The messages I have received no person should ever have to read them. Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine,' he wrote It comes following claims that Barry was 'very faithful and loyal' to Sabrina according to a source who spoke with Us Weekly, amid recent rumors that he cheated with OnlyFans star Breckie Hill. Barry was hit by the claims he cheated on the Espresso hitmaker after it was reported that the pair had split after a year of dating on Tuesday. However, the source told Us Weekly the actor was 'very devoted to her happiness', but that they are 'at different places in their lives.' The insider further divulged that it's been 'challenging for their relationship since she started going on tour and has been gone a lot' and that 'their schedules were not aligning.' 'All the time spent apart it was hard to maintain a relationship amid her career exploding.' The source added that Sabrina was being 'pulled in so many directions' and simply did not have time to 'commit to a relationship.' After reaching a 'huge level of stardom' it's reportedly been tough for the songbird to 'focus and to be present for him in a relationship.' The source added she 'barely has time for herself let alone for a relationship.' Another insider told the publication that the breakup happened within 'the last month' because of their busy schedules. The fact that they weren't able to spend more time together 'took a toll on the relationship.' The statement comes after Barry deactivated his Instagram in the wake of his split Only on Friday, Barry took to Instagram to share thirst trap shots of his muscular arms in in a teal green sweater vest as he posed in front of a mirror The Irish star also shared another photo of him wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet It was noted that there's no bad blood between the 'cordial' pair and their split was 'not contentious.' 'Both agreed it wasn’t working.' The two have indeed been busy with their careers. Sabrina recently completed the U.S. leg of her Short ’N’ Sweet tour, and is now gearing up for the release of her Netflix holiday special on Friday. Meanwhile Keoghan's career also shows no signs of slowing down. He has roles in the forthcoming projects: Bird, Hurry Up Tomorrow, Amo Saddam and a Peaky Blinders film. 'Barry's very focused on his career and being a dad,' a third source shared with Us Weekly, in reference to his 2-year-old son Brando, from his prior relationship with Alyson Sandro. The source added that while he was filming Peaky Blinders, he was also 'balancing being with his son during his downtime.' A similar sentiment was shared by a source who spoke with People, telling the publication that the couple have decided to go their separate ways in a bid to focus on their respective careers. A blind item on gossip site Deuxmoi has claimed that a breakup between a rising pop star and her 'foreign actor boyfriend' occurred because he'd cheated on her with a 'semi-famous TikTok influencer'. While the item did not name Barry or Sabrina, fans were quick to claim that the piece was about them. Hill — who is also an OnlyFans star — has since fueled wild cheating rumors after reposting two different videos on TikTok that allege Keoghan had cheated on Carpenter with her. It comes following claims that Barry was 'very faithful and loyal' to Sabrina according to a source who spoke with Us Weekly, amid recent rumors that he cheated with OnlyFans star Breckie Hill [pictured] Barry was hit by the claims he cheated on the Espresso hitmaker after it was reported that the pair had split after a year of dating on Tuesday The item read: 'It appears that this A-list singer who's having her breakout year and her foreign actor boyfriend are done for good. 'On the closing night of her biggest tour to date in LA, he was busy getting very cozy at San Vicente Bungalows with a blonde, semi-famous, LA based influencer (who's particularly big on TikTok).' 'I snooped around a bit out of curiosity and apparently he and his popstar girlfriend called it quits very suddenly less than a week before her final shows in LA after she found out he had been chatting with said influencer behind her back for months in a not-innocent-at-all way...' The item also claimed that the influencer 'had even gone to find [Barry] while he was filming in the UK, eager to keep him company while his girlfriend was touring in the US'. They added: 'He had messed up before and she had forgiven him but nothing as serious and infidelity is where she draws the line.' Sabrina and Barry were first linked back in early December of 2023. The couple had met just a few months earlier, in September. The Espresso singer attended a screening of Barry's polarizing thriller Saltburn earlier in the month, which may have prepared her for their official meeting at the Givenchy runway show at Paris Fashion Week. Sabrina and Barry's relationship heated up to the point that he even starred with her in the music video for her single Please Please Please. But there were hints of trouble between Sabrina and Barry when a source claimed to People in August that the couple's relationship was 'on and off.' Sabrina previously had a high-profile romance with the Disney Channel actor Joshua Bassett from 2020 to 2021, and she was linked to singer Shawn Mendes early last year. Instagram Barry Keoghan Sabrina Carpenter Share or comment on this article: Barry Keoghan breaks his silence amid Sabrina Carpenter split: 'I can only sit and take so much' e-mail 26 shares Add comment
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The best rom-com of the year wasn’t in movie theaters, nor is it a streaming series on Netflix. It’s a new Broadway musical about two retired robots – plant-dad and hyperfixating jazz fan Oliver, and cool, brilliant Claire – having an odd-couple affair before one of their batteries dies forever. Maybe Happy Ending , written by American composer Will Aronson and South Korean lyricist Hue Park, is a charming, sweet, visually dazzling show, blending throwback, screwball comedy with technically elaborate, futuristic production design. Other shows in recent years have caused screen-fatigue; here, screens are used cleverly to illustrate the robots’ interfaces and memories, sort of like After Yang, but also Wall-E, and they don’t come at the expense of physical sets, classic jazz-inflected score, and chemistry between the leads Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen. The true lead of the show, however, at least on social media , is HwaBoon, Oliver’s potted plant. Unlike other famous Broadway botanicals, like Little Shop’ s Audrey II, or even Shucked ’s drooping corn stalk, HwaBoon doesn’t move, and certainly doesn’t talk. He is simply a plant. But Oliver treats him like a roommate, a sidekick, a pet, and the production team is running with it. HwaBoon’s headshot is in the Playbill, and he was awarded a Legacy Robe on the show’s gala night. We wanted to get HwaBoon himself for this Chat Room, but he’s a plant of very few words. So instead, we spoke with director Michael Arden, and HwaBoon’s close personal friend, tech assistant stage manager Karlie Teruya, in a conversation that branched out into topics including how we relate to inanimate objects, technical feats of staging, and adapting a show that originally ran in Seoul for an American Broadway audience. A post shared by HwaBoon (@thereal_hwaboon) I’ve seen this week , people are taking the performance of HwaBoon and really holding space with that, and feeling power in that. What have HwaBoon’s thoughts been on this? KT: HwaBoon is new to this. This is his Broadway debut. So he is very excited that people are being touched by his performance. As Cynthia said, that is also what he intended in his performance. He really came out of nowhere, and now has this major part in a Broadway production. Is HwaBoon an industry plant? MA: No. He’s really a fresh new talent. To see him so embraced by the community and the world is so thrilling, and hopefully inspires many other people who never thought they’d be on a Broadway stage. What is it that gives this prop, essentially, such an It-factor? MA: HwaBoon represents us in this story. He is the only living thing in this room with these robots, and therefore he bears a witness to the story of Oliver and Claire in the way that we do. We are all Spartacus, we are all HwaBoon, in a way. Also, we all, in our moments of loneliness and solitude, cling on to something, and need something to hold, and that is our security, and that is our safety. What HwaBoon represents to Oliver feels very known to us, as an audience. It’s hysterical and sweet and very real. HwaBoon is necessary. Attention must be paid to such a houseplant. The show has really leaned into HwaBoon on social media, and gave him a bio in the Playbill. How does this represent the show, and how does it help your strategy of marketing an original show in 2024? MA: We’re figuring out how to market something totally new without anything to latch on to, so the fact that people are latching onto HwaBoon is so exciting. I always knew I wanted the show to start on HwaBoon, and to end on him too; it reminds us who we are, that we live and we die. But also, it’s such a small cast, and he is such a character. His name is probably said more than Oliver or Claire’s names. One day I was like, “HwaBoon needs a bio and picture in the program.” And we convinced HwaBoon to start an Instagram page. He was new to that, but really getting into it. It’s a way to let audiences in on something that they are foreign to: a rehearsal process, a Broadway show, a company, through the lens of HwaBoon. It seemed like a really exciting way to bring new minds and eyes and ears to what we were up to. KT: It also came from Will [Aronson] and Hue [Park], because from the moment you open the script, HwaBoon is a listed character. It’s clear that he’s a very important character in the show. Speaking of the script, I imagine he was off book on day one. KT: He is the most consistent actor. We’ve never had to give him a line note. MA: Green, but consistent. A post shared by HwaBoon (@thereal_hwaboon) What is the rest of the cast’s relationship to him backstage? KT: Everybody tries to give HwaBoon his space at half-hour, because it takes him a minute to really get into character. He likes to feel very rooted before he goes on stage. But everybody loves him. He’s a favorite. MA: HwaBoon did have an accident the other day. During our understudy run, he fell off the stage, soiled himself, and everyone in the theater screamed. He was totally fine. A little embarrassed, if anything. Oh no! MA: There’s become this understanding of what our play is about — when does inanimate become animate, and how do we prescribe our feelings and emotions to it — has transcended into our work environment in the theater. Now we all have this reverence for HwaBoon in a way that we might not have had, had we not been working on the show together. It’s a beautiful thing that everything we touch has an experience. It certainly made me think about how we choose to interact with our surroundings, and that’s really rippled through the whole cast and crew. KT: It’s been fun to see everybody really adopt HwaBoon as this mascot of the show. What has it been like to adapt a show that originally ran in Seoul? How has it differed from directing a Broadway revival? I approached this as a completely new piece. I have never seen the Korean production. I didn’t want to, because I knew I’d be influenced by it, and I wanted to make something that was its own creation. So I started from the script on the page, and the score. The writers wanted this production to be its own thing. They weren’t trying to do the American version of the Korean show. It’s quite different. In the Korean production, James and Gil are played by the same actor, and the plot is quite different. There are five or so different songs, they have a different relationship, the ways the robots break down are different. When I first got the script, I had ideas for how I wanted the show to change, and the writers were so collaborative. We approached it like there had not been a production before. That was probably very difficult for them to do, given that it was such a success there, but they knew that what worked for those audiences wouldn’t necessarily work for a Broadway audience. And I was really trying to make something for people who had no idea of what it is they were about to see, which was very different from a revival. With a revival, you know how the story works, so it’s more about, what lens are we looking through? What do we want to focus on? Whereas with this, my job was to really tell story as clearly as possible, to try to get one point across, as opposed to my opinion on the show. What were some of those different elements that you feel wouldn’t have worked on Broadway the way they did in South Korea? MA: I knew there should be an extreme comedy sequence in the piece, and the whole motel sequence was really developed in the room. It’s so ridiculous, and funny, and the caper of it all very American musical theater. It’s fun that they depart from the norm of this quieter Korean version, for a moment. And the flashbacks, learning about Claire’s past and Oliver’s past through video and film sequences, that was something that I was really interested in bringing out in this production. They wrote such nuanced, subtle material that I think it’s exciting for audiences to get to play in both mediums as well. Beyond the video sequences, which use screens in interesting ways, the staging has a cinematic style. There are panels in front that seem to pan and zoom to focus on the onstage action. MA: It’s incredibly complex. The video, lighting, automation, scenery, props, action, and music all have to work in such tandem, with such interlocking synchronicity, that it was both a challenge and so delicious to work on, because it really took all departments thinking outside of their own purview a little bit, which is the way I love to work. I want to create a system in which the edges are blurred between departments. When we usually look at a stage, it’s flat and the actors are low. But we spend so much time on our iPhones, which are vertical, and we pinch, and zoom, and we decide what we want to focus on, and we swipe left and right and drag things. That’s how this rising system came into my mind. It’s the idea of two fingers zooming in on things. If you notice, for the whole first half hour of the piece, it’s more of a vertical space than it is horizontal. I wanted to give people a way in that was quite personal. And the way we look at our phones is very personal. I raised the height of the stage, too. It’s much higher than normal, so that it creates a bit more of an egalitarian viewership between the mezzanine and the balcony and the orchestra. I started doing that in Parade, where I put the action eight feet in the air. If you’re looking at something from a new perspective, it automatically opens you up a bit more to feeling something in more of a spongy way. That’s how we started, and we knew it had to move cinematically, yet we didn’t want it to be just like a movie. We wanted to feel like we were really letting the audience be an active part in deciding what adventure they wanted to go on, almost like a manga. We have a lot of black space outside of these incredibly realistic worlds, so the audience can imagine something much more exciting than we can ever actually do on a stage. We’ll save that for the movie. It allows the audience to get a firm grip on what the real world is. Dane Laffrey and I went through a bunch of iterations of this, and we did the majority of this design in a high rise in Tokyo. So it’s very inspired by Eastern design, and verticality of space. Luckily, none of our cast members are afraid of heights. What is the most challenging bit of staging to pull off? KT: There’s one part, in “Goodbye, My Room,” where they have a very short amount of time to strike all of the props from the Oliver unit. We call it Propnado. And there are seven people involved in that transition in that tiny little room. Everybody has this very precise choreography, but when it works, and we all do it in a synchronized way, it’s really beautiful. There are much more crew members [under Production Stage Manager Justin Scribner] than there are cast members. You see four people onstage this whole time, and you don’t realize that there are 17 people backstage making it all happen. MA: There’s a sequence where we go into the memory of Oliver with James, “Where You Belong,” where we suddenly use a turntable for the first time, and these walls drop in, but we’re not actually on a turntable; we’re on a donut. If it’s a credit card’s width off, it will fall apart. But that’s what’s so exciting. Musical theater is like an extension of circus. It has to stick the landing in order to work, and if you can do that without the audience noticing it’s happening, you’re creating a magical world in which they can fully forget that they’re even in a theater. They’re in the story in such a way that they’re believing everything is happening. And if you get people to believe in magic without being skeptical, that’s when people’s hearts open. It’s beautiful. And you only use that giant rotating set once during the whole show, for like, five minutes. MA: It’s three minutes, actually. Memory is like that. That was an entire life, and we just got a glimpse of it. The sadness that can bring when it’s gone, and we’re back in his old room, I love it. The temptation would be, “We’ve spent a bunch of money, and built this huge thing, let’s sit in it for a good while, and not just let it drift by.” But Oliver can’t stay there. That’s why he’s got to go on his adventure. Broadway tickets are so expensive, and many sets are so minimal. In that context, these elaborate, huge setpieces and moments of staging feel very generous towards the audience. MA: Look at something like Parade, which was incredibly minimal but ultimately, we had 19 people in the orchestra and 27 people on stage. It was a different experiment and different endeavor. For this, people are paying the same to come see Maybe Happy Ending as they are to see Wicked, let’s hope, and I think there’s a responsibility to the audience to really take them away, as long as it doesn’t overshadow the story. It’s about finding that balance of visual and storytelling so that you’re amazed but you’re not distracted. Making sure the visuals are always in service of something. There’s a beautiful moment in the show that I won’t spoil, involving the fireflies, which are a motif throughout much of the show. MA: In the script, there’s no mention of fireflies in that section. I think in the script it says, “images of Claire and Oliver together begin to separate and fade away,” and I really wanted to bring back this idea to represent them in that moment of darkness as fireflies, who are so tiny in the world, and briefly dance with each other and then separate and fly away. It’s a tiny point of light in this huge, infinite darkness, and every type of stage craft is happening in that moment. It’s done by humans, by computers, by everything. It’s a simple gesture during this super technological sequence. Was HwaBoon worried about the fireflies stealing focus? KT: HwaBoon loves to be the star, and he definitely is very protective of his friendship with Oliver. But he still gets his moment. He gets to end the show. So HwaBoon gets the last bow. You mention taking inspiration from manga and phone screens in the staging, as well as playing to more affordable seats higher up. Were you thinking about appealing to a younger audience when building this show? MA: WHen I first read it, I thought, this is about end-of-life. It’s not necessarily a young person’s story. Obviously the meet-cute and the hijinks are so young romance. So you’re watching On Golden Pond in the bodies of 20-year-olds. You can be 15 years old, and come see this, and be like, “That’s me. I’m Oliver,” or “I’m Claire.” And I’ve seen 90-year-old couples come, and they’re getting to see themselves in the bodies of these people. To be able to look across any type of physical human divide, and be like, “Oh, that’s me,” is the reason I do theater. So no, it isn’t something I just wanted to make for young people. I wanted to make this for people, and the only way to really make it for people is to be hyper-specific, with robots. But that’s why we love Pixar movies. We can see ourselves in inanimacy a little bit better than we can when we actually look in the mirror. Isn’t that funny? At a time when the world is so divided, this feels like a very unifying 100 minutes. For as futuristic as it is, the show also has elements of classic screwball rom-com. What art were you looking towards when working on this? MA: Its setup is super classic. I went to the opera this weekend to see La Boheme, and while I was watching it, I thought, Oh my god, it’s Oliver and Claire. Her candle is out, and she’s dying, and she comes and knocks on his door. And the show has hints of a classic score through the Gil Brentley material, which really helps nod to that. I was trying to draw upon old school, mid-century stories and cinema, movies from the 60s. There’s such a great wealth of material out there that we wanted to pay homage to, with a twist of futurism mixed in. It was funny, watching La Boheme. Here we are again: no tuberculosis, but we do have a dying battery, which is kind of the same thing. Earlier, you said something like “save it for the movie.” Have you thought about how this would be adapted as a movie? MA: Oh my god, I’m ready. Let’s go. I’d like to introduce more people to this story, and actually go to Korea to show these places. It would be a real thrill. KT: And HwaBoon would be in it. He’d be mad if we cast a different actor. MA: But we want to make sure he doesn’t get too old for the part.
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