In the first year of John F. Kennedy's administration, cellist Pablo Casals famously performed "The Song of the Birds," a traditional Spanish folk melody that had long been his signature. He told Kennedy it symbolized his hopes for freedom and peace in the world. Cecil Stoughton/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library hide caption
As the star of The Diary of a Madman, Geoffrey Rush discovered threads of modern absurdism in Nikolai Gogol's writing. Heidrun Lohr/Brooklyn Academy of Music hide caption
Green Day formed in 1987 with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong (right), bassist Mike Dirnt (left) and drummer Tre Cool (center). Marina Chavez hide caption
Actor Pete Postlethwaite was a mainstay of the British theater who came to wider prominence via his roles in the films In the Name of The Father, The Usual Suspects and William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Lynne Sladky/AP hide caption
Agathe von Trapp, center, with her sister, Maria, and brother, Johannes, right, at the Martin Beck Theatre to see the reopening of the Broadway musical 'The Sound of Music' on March 12, 1998, in New York. Lynsey Addario/AP hide caption
In Frankie & Alice, Rashad plays the mother of Halle Berry's character, who suffers from a multiple personality disorder. Sergei Bachlakov hide caption
Not the end of the line? Though the Scottsboro Boys -- including Joshua Henry (center), with Julius Thomas III (left), Josh Breckenridge and Kendrick Jones -- found only a short welcome on Broadway, there's already talk that their musicalized adventures might become a feature film. Paul Kolnik hide caption
Dancers today, like these students taking a beginner's class, practice the same basic positions first introduced centuries ago. iStockphoto.com hide caption
A white whooper swan in repose Stefano Unterthiner/National Geographic hide caption