Whether it’s a clown at a birthday party, a Broadway show or your friends fighting over the last potato chip, entertainment makes us happy and distracts us from our everyday troubles. It’s all rooted in the word entretenir, which means to keep company or support a guest. It’s no wonder Scheherazade, a woman in the Persian professional storytelling tradition, saved her life by telling stories. She’s been a source of inspiration for composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Ravel, director Pasolini and innovative video games.
