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Roku OS 15 is starting to roll out widely, and some of the biggest changes include upgrades to discoverability and improved HDR10+ and Dolby Vision passthrough.

A new leak suggests Apple is developing cases for the iPhone Pro models that could double as secondary touch interfaces for the smartphone.

Avery Willis HoffmanCourtesy of Court Theatre Court Theatre, the University of Chicago’s professional theater of classic plays, is set to enter a rejuvenating rebirth with its new artistic director, Avery Willis Hoffman.Hoffman, who starts Nov. 1 as the Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director at the non-profit theater, calls herself a “creative doula” — a midwife for new ideas rather than a traditional director.Her background evinces such unique inventiveness. After all, Hoffman’s late father, John R. Willis, was a pioneering Black professor at Princeton University who in 1963 became the first African American Marshall Scholar. Then Hoffman became the first child of a Marshall recipient to win the scholarship in 2000. And then Hoffman’s cousin was the late novelist and Nobel laureate in Literature Toni Morrison.The “creative doula” distinction means:Hoffman will direct few, if any, plays at Court Theatre — a major change from her predecessors — and instead will focus on re-imagining the role of artistic director as someone who, as she puts it, “supports the development of new works for consideration in the canon,” as well as the trajectories of up-and-coming directors, designers and artistic leaders.“Talent scouting is one of my strengths,” said Hoffman, who is moving to Chicago with her husband and their 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter. She previously served as inaugural artistic director of Brown University’s Arts Institute and professor of the practice of arts and classics at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.Hoffman inherits the Court Theatre while it maintains solid financial and community support. The University of Chicago provides the theater annual financial and institutional support, covering about 11.5 percent of its $6.5 million operating budget, said Senior Managing Producer Heidi Thompson Saunders. The support covers both financial and in-kind resources.Hoffman said she is “super interested in the next generation of great young directors who need access, support and a space to experiment, to fail and to work on their craft.”At Brown University, Hoffman led the opening of a performing arts center, created an arts workforce development program and incubated five residencies and 32 arts projects that students, faculty, visiting artists and student groups created.Hoffman’s work here will expand upon Court Theatre’s engagement efforts, including the Community Reads Series — a partnership with the Chicago Public Library featuring book clubs, discussion groups, film screenings and post-play conversations about books that relate to Court’s productions.The Court Theatre also hosts the “Spotlight Reading Series” — celebrating its 10th anniversary next year — featuring readings of plays written by little-known Black writers whose works have been historically excluded from the stage.While Hoffman intends to keep Court Theatre’s core commitment to the classics, she aims to experiment with the very definition of a classic, looking beyond the established Western repertoire. “What is the Chinese definition of the classics,” she said, citing one example. “The Indian classical tradition? The African? There are very different ways — indigenous for example — of sharing traditional stories. How we define ‘classics’ might evolve.”Even more intriguing, Hoffman sees theater as fluid. “I am also interested in how we define ‘theater,” said Hoffman, whose extensive multidisciplinary experience informs her view of theater as “a stretchable space.”She has worked with that very definition herself, from curating wide-ranging international arts festivals, convenings and creative projects, including for the TED Prize, the Clinton Global Initiative and the New York City Opera, to producing artistic programs at the “epic-scale” Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, to leading audience experience and content development for permanent exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History…

BreakfastTeatro Inovarte The Chicago non-profit group that nurtures and showcases Latino theater artists will host two new theater companies and five promising production companies at its Destinos festival this fall.The yearly festival, slated to feature 16 productions — 14 local, one from Texas and one from Argentina — fulfills the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance’s mission to spotlight theater startups and otherwise unnoticed genres such as storytelling, improv comedy, and, for the first time this year, a Spanish-language musical theater.So how is the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance still awarding financial grants and providing a platform for a growing, successful local theater scene while President Trump orders merciless cuts in federal arts and diversity funding?Though the Alliance in May lost a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts — the nation’s largest federal arts funder which Trump has proposed eliminating — the grant represented only 2.9 percent of the alliance’s budget, said the alliance’s Executive Director Jorge Valdivia.Ironically, the situation reflects historic underfunding for underserved communities’ arts groups, he said.Chicago’s Latino arts groups received 6.7 percent of all local arts funding grants in 2023 — the latest data available — and about 5 percent of arts grants at the local, state and federal levels — far below Latinos’ representation as 30 percent of Chicago’s population, according to a May 28 research report conducted by Greater Cities Institute and commissioned by the Chicago Latino Arts & Culture Network. Jorge ValdiviaBeking Media Valdivia was the driving force behind this effort. He had a theory that huge inequities existed in local arts funding. While the report supported Valdivia’s theory, many in the arts community were not surprised.Since Latin theater, dance and other artistic organizations have received far less public, philanthropic and federal funding than their proportional share, they have found other ways to support their viability. The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance relies on private foundations, corporate sponsorships and other government foundations for most of its funding.Still, the alliance continues to host fundraisers and boost its individual donor support, Valdivia said, noting that this year’s Destinos festival will feature one international and one national production — rather than two or three as in years past.But the festival remains as essential as ever as it introduces two theater company startups — Teatro Inovarte and Teatro Zona Rosa— defying today’s political thrashing of the arts, diversity, and multicultural inclusion.Jose Rochel, the general director and co-founder of Teatro Inovarte —- Chicago’s new — and only — Spanish-language musical theater company — draws from his Mexican roots to encourage his cast and crew to relax, rejoice and run through the latest production.He does so by feeding everyone Saturday breakfast in his home.“We sit at the table and have a small meal, and conversation comes,” said Rochel, a Mexican native who grew up in Pilsen in the 1970s when the neighborhood’s immigration rights, community activism and artists’ haven revolutions were just emerging. Rochel, who works fulltime as a court interpreter and translator for the Circuit Court of Cook County, started his career studying with the renowned ballet dancer and Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center Founder Homer Hans Bryant, the Joel Hall Dancers, and Gus Giordano’s Jazz Dance Company, and danced with Ballet Folklórico México De Amalia Hernandez. Jose RochelUlises Rangel He discovered his love for the theater by accident.Rochel was asked to choreograph a piece for the play “Alla en San Fernando,” written by local playwright Raul Dorantes, and instead ended up with his first acting role as Salome. The play depicted women slaughtered by drug cartels.That’s how he met his mentor, Jose Burgos, of Spanish-language Repertorio Latino Theater, and fell in love with…

The state’s trio of superstar players in the class of 2027 is now down to one: Warren's Jaxson Davis.Sun-Times Player of the Year Davion Thompson left Bolingbrook for Link Academy in Missouri and Devin Cleveland transferred from Kenwood to Indiana’s La Lumiere.Why did Davis stay at Warren while his two good friends left the state for prep schools?“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it,” Davis said. “These prep schools are recruiting like colleges now, trying to get kids to their school. The main reason I stayed is that my circle is here. I feel that I have all the resources I need to get where I want to go.“The fans around here love me, the students at Warren. I can feel the love from Gurnee and the whole Lake County community. Walking into the gym every day and seeing my [Mr. Basketball] banner hanging up just makes me want to work harder.”Davis, a 6-1 point guard, finally received some long-overdue national recognition this summer. He’s now a consensus top 100 player in the country and picking up scholarship offers from all the best college basketball programs.Warren lost to Benet in the Class 4A state championship last season. The game came down to the final possession.“That was definitely tough,” Davis said. “It was rough not winning a state championship, but we have another shot at it this year.”“I think about that game every single day at some point,” Blue Devils coach Zack Ryan said. “We had an awesome, crazy season. It was like life. But by the end of the year, we came together and we were right there at the end to win a state championship.”Several key players graduated from last year’s team, but Ryan is confident that the new group will be as good or even better.“We have guys that were juniors last year who maybe didn’t play a ton of minutes that are ready to go,” Ryan said. “They showed that this summer for sure. A guy like Avonn King, who played a little for us last year and struggled through injuries, had a great summer. He’s going to play college basketball.”King is a 6-4 senior. Joel Paasch, another 6-4 senior, is an excellent shooter. Warren picked up two nice additions in junior guard Tayte Cordova and senior guard LeBron Massey. Warren’s Braylon Walker (11) shoots the ball during basketball practice.Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times Cordova played on Warren’s sophomore team as a freshman and moved to Tennessee last season. Massey transferred from Cristo Rey.“[Massey] is going to bring some energy on offense and defense and some scoring,” Davis said. “He can help us tremendously this year.”Braylon Walker, Davis’s best friend, also returns. The 6-2 senior guard is a four-year starter.“Anytime you have two guards as good as Jaxson and Braylon, you have a chance,” Ryan said. “I don’t know why he’s not getting recruited by some of these colleges.”Warren, which won the last two Proviso West Holiday Tournaments, will play at Rich’s Big Dipper Holiday Tournament this season. The Blue Devils face Curie at the Chicago Elite Classic in early December and have major showdowns against Benet, Evanston, DePaul Prep, St. Louis Vashon and conference rival Waukegan this season.“I understand I have a target on my back,” Davis said. “I did the last two years, too. This year I would say my plan is to go at everyone that is coming at me. I’m just going to keep myself grounded. I have the right people around me. I’m ready mentally this year to take on that challenge.”Davis’s decision to stay at Warren has provided Illinois high school basketball with a much-needed star.“I’m so happy he stayed,” Walker said. “It brings me joy playing with him. We’ve been playing together since third grade. I get one more season with my best friend.”