CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Multiple Consoles For Live? Top Engineers Weigh In

Pro Sound Web: A few years ago, my company developed a prototype of a console switcher that would enable an engineer to quickly switch to a backup should the main desk go down, or quickly switch between multiple consoles at events such as festivals.

How to Follow Up Without Being Annoying

lifehacker.com: No one wants to be annoying or bothersome to a professional contact, especially when you want a job, meeting, sales dollars, or something else very important from that person. But the average person can get a few hundred emails a day, and some of your messages might go unanswered. How do you know when it's okay to send a follow up message without being annoying?

Carnegie Mellon named as first higher education partner for the Tony Awards

TribLIVE: Carnegie Mellon University and the Tony Awards presenting organizations are launching a new national recognition program to honor theater educators who work with students in kindergarten through high school.
The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, which jointly present the annual Tony Awards, have signed a three-year agreement with Carnegie Mellon University to collaborate in creating the “Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre Education presented by Carnegie Mellon University.”

New Dewalt Table Saw with “Guard Detect” Intelligent Safety Switch

ToolGuyd: The DWE7499GD table saw has a new safety feature that Dewalt dubbed Guard Detect, which requires that the safety guard assembly be installed to the proper position before the saw will turn on.

Franchising Theater and its Implications for Marketing

HowlRound: In non-artistic business settings, the construct of independent entrepreneurs owning their own financially distinct entities of a widely recognizable corporate brand has become increasingly prevalent in a continually corporatized marketplace. In fact, franchising has grown into a business subculture all its own with a copious variety of print and online media offering advice, networking, and new investment opportunities for experienced and beginning franchisees.

8 Ways to Turn Unemployment Into Positive Situation

www.lifehack.org: Unfortunately, unemployment is often associated with negative feelings of fear, unworthiness, and stress. After being unemployed for a while, many will feel that they have lost all purpose and control of life. However, if you find yourself without a 9-5 daily routine, you will soon realize the one advantage that you have over your behind-the-cubicle friends – TIME.

‘House of Cards’ Maryland

Variety: The show’s production company Media Rights Capital has reached an agreement with the state government to receive $11.5 million in tax incentives and grants of the $15 million rebate it sought to keep the Netflix series in its original place of filming. The first sum will come from the 2014 Film Production Tax Credit program, while the grants will be taken from the state’s 2015 fiscal year budget.

College musical highlights battle between S.C. lawmakers, universities

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: More than 750 people packed into a city auditorium here last week for a sold-out production of "Fun Home," a musical by a New York-based troupe about a woman coming to terms with her closeted gay father's suicide. The crowd rose in a standing ovation before the show even began.
The emotional reaction was part of a worsening political battle between South Carolina's public universities and conservative Republican lawmakers, who argue that campus culture should reflect the socially conservative views of the state.

What is a more effective way of taking notes - laptop or notepad?

Neurobonkers | Big Think: Walk into any modern university lecture theatre and you can expect to see a wall of laptop lids, with students' eyes peering over them. Past research has demonstrated that laptops can be a distraction, but until now no research has compared how using computers changes the way students take notes, compared to writing on paper.

The Increase in Miniseries Could be a Boon to Actors

Backstage: TV movies and miniseries are making a comeback, and producer Jon Eskenas wants to be a part of it.
“Over the last couple of years there’s been movies, miniseries, and limited series that have really done extraordinarily well,” he said, pointing to “The Bible” and “Hatfields & McCoys.”
“It seems like almost every week you hear about a new network getting into the long-form world,” Eskenas told Backstage.

13 Startup Founders Share: How to Nail Your Next Interview

The Muse: Interviewing is tough. When there are many qualified candidates, standing out in an interview becomes about more than just presenting your accomplishments—it’s also about showcasing yourself and your skills in a compelling, memorable way.

A Twitter account is becoming a Broadway play

www.dailydot.com: First the Sh*t My Dad Says sitcom, and now a Broadway show based on a satirical Twitter feed about God. It’s this kind of success that we can blame for the zillions of terrible parody accounts that show up for every breaking news story.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Report from Moscow2: a new generation of Russian artists under political pressure

DC Theatre Scene: As reported here yesterday, Monday morning, Woolly Mammoth Theater announced the cancellation of their upcoming festival of work from Russia. The withdrawal of Moscow municipal funds crucial to the collaboration accompanies rising political pressure on artists here in Russia’s capital. Recent reactionary attention signals the newest new wave of challenges to theaters with a long history of crossing state-sanctioned boundaries of truth.

Previously Unknown Warhol Works Discovered on Floppy Disks from 1985

Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: A multi-institutional team of new-media artists, computer experts and museum professionals has discovered a dozen, previously unknown, artworks by Andy Warhol on aging floppy disks from 1985. Warhol earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University, then Carnegie Institute of Technology, in 1949.

New York Public Library of Performing Arts Acquires Jules Fisher’s Collection of Jo Mielziner’s Designs

Stage Directions: The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has acquired Jules Fisher's personal collection of scenic renderings by Jo Mielziner for their collection, creating one of the largest and most robust archives of the artist's work anywhere. Mielziner, who died in 1976, was famous for his work on such shows as the original Broadway productions of Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, Most Happy Fella and Death of a Salesman. Fisher collected more than 150 renderings and designs in pencil, pastel, pen and more over decades. After the work is processed and preserved it will be made available to the public.

Fred Gallo of PRG Honored with Backstage Legends and Masters Award

Stage Directions: Fred Gallo, president of Production Resource Group’s scenic services division, was honored with the Backstage Legends and Masters Award from the Broadway Technical Theatre History Project at Purchase College–SUNY. The award recongnizes “an individual that is selected by a panel of distinguished professionals who represent a variety of Broadway production specialties.”

2014 Drama Desk Nominees Announced!

Backstage: Academy Award winners Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (“Frozen”) and two-time Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Fran Drescher announced the 2014 Drama Desk Award nominees this morning at 54 Below in New York City.
This year, the theater community brought so many impressive productions to the stage, the Drama Desk Board authorized an increase in the number of allowed nominees in select categories. In true Drama Desk tradition, shows that opened in the 2013–2014 season on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway are placed in the same competitive categories.

Sarah Jones Moment of Silence, Safety Seminars Planned By L.A. Unions

www.deadline.com: Safety issues are starting to take center stage across the entertainment industry in the wake of Sarah Jones‘ death on the set of Midnight Rider. Tonight in Burbank at a meeting of the Local 399, fliers were handed out for an IATSE-backed May 4 seminar entitled “Safety Rights of Workers & Your Rights Under OSHA Class,” which a description says will educate union attendees on set safety protocol, their rights as workers, and “what to do when you feel you are being placed in a hazardous situation.” The seminar will be open to all members of the entertainment industry, not just IATSE members, and will be jointly hosted by the Local 80, which reps first aid employees, motion picture grips, craft services, warehouse workers, and the Local 728, which represents represents studio electrical lighting technicians.

Makita MakPac Tool Boxes

ToolGuyd: A few years back, Tanos and Festool came out with new T-Loc Systainers that are significantly more user friendly than their original Systainers. Instead of 2-locking latches or 4-connecting latches, the new T-Loc Systainers feature a single rotating latch that is a lot quicker and easier to use.
With this in mind, I cannot help but wonder what Makita’s engineers must have been thinking when they designed these tool cases.

Inside Crisis City, a site that simulates almost any catastrophe

KansasCity.com: “He’s down! He’s down!”
As real as the scenario seemed, it fortunately was not. The officers were taking part in a weeklong course at Crisis City, a mock community in central Kansas where emergency responders undergo training on what to do when disaster strikes.
Although Crisis City has been around for several years, program consultant and manager Joe Pruitt said it’s not widely known outside public safety circles.

Paula Wagner to Produce Chinese Co-Production ‘Flying Tigers’

Variety: “Mission: Impossible” producer Paula Wagner is set to produce a Chinese-U.S. movie about the Flying Tigers aerial combat force that performed heroically in China and South East Asia during WWII.
Wagner was in Beijing last week with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Naomi Foner (“Running on Empty”) to work on the project that currently has the working title “Moon Flower of Flying Tigers.” The project, which Wagner describes as a “romantic drama with a lot of action,” originated with Desen Media International, a Chinese production finance and distribution group with credits that include “Tiny Times,” “14 Blades” and “Ip Man 2.”

Gregg Allman Wants to Stop Midnight Rider Biopic About His Life

Music News | Rolling Stone: Gregg Allman is pleading with director Randall Miller to cease production of Midnight Rider, a biopic about the Allman Brothers Band leader's life, following the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was struck by a train while filming a scene in February. Actor William Hurt, who was to portray Allman, has since pulled out of the project. The rocker put his thoughts in a letter to Miller, which The Hollywood Reporter quotes, as the director looks to resume filming in Los Angeles.

Multitools are ounce for ounce the most useful...

EDC is Everyday Carry: Multitools are ounce for ounce the most useful thing you can carry, albeit at somewhat of a compromise. They may never be the best tool for the job, but they’re rarely the wrong one. Recently, the multitool market, once justifiably dominated by Leatherman and Swiss Army Knife tools, has seen much greater diversity with the rise in popularity of one-piece multitools—ultra-compact pieces of metal designed to hang on your keychain with a number of functionalities.

How Entrepreneurs Can Learn to Be Powerful Negotiators

thenextweb.com: Negotiation is not the simple art of getting what you want, when you want it. A great negotiation, whether in your personal or professional life, will leave both parties feeling [somewhat] satisfied rather than producing a clear winner and a clear loser.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Animating ‘Archer’

Animation World Network: Adam Reed’s spy series Archer underwent a bit of a change this season, with the animated heroes forced by the FBI to jettison their spy business in exchange for lives of crime and cocaine-selling. And country western music production. As you can imagine, they’ve approached the crime business with the same bravado and dysfunction that they used to approach the spy business. Luckily, there’re still the same people keeping things running smoothly behind-the-scenes. Floyd County Productions has been there from the beginning, in fact, and with five seasons under their belt – and two more still to come – art director Neal Holman and animation director Bryan Fordney practically have the process down to a science.

Motivation after Spring Break

Duquesne University: Returning from spring break is hard for faculty and students. Whether you used break for fun or work, getting back on track and regaining momentum are essentials for successfully completing the semester. Motivation is a factor that both students and faculty must nurture.

Shakespeare: 10 things you didn't know

Telegraph:
On October 4th 1960 a Lockheed Electra aeroplane setting off from Boston Airport stirred up a flock of 10,000 starlings on the runway. It flew straight into the avian cloud which choked the engines and brought the aeroplane down. The crash claimed 62 lives.
The starling is not a species that is native to North America. It was introduced in 1890 by a Shakespeare nut called Eugene Schieffelin. He wanted Central Park in New York to be home to all the songbirds mentioned in Shakespeare.

Porter-Cable PC560 Quik Jig Pocket Hole Joinery System

Pro Tool Reviews: As a furniture maker, I am always on the lookout for new tools, techniques, and jigs that simplify the construction of strong and long lasting joinery. With a couple of face frames to build and a table project in the works, this seemed like a great time to try out the new Pocket Hole Joinery system from Porter-Cable.

Costume Designer Ann Roth Unveils New Book

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The Designs of Ann Roth, a new monograph that the legendary costume designer helped launch at USITT 2014 in Fort Worth, is now available at USITT's online bookstore.
The book, by Holly Poe Durbin and Bonnie Kruger, is the latest in a series of monographs published by USITT to document America's best living theatrical designers.

Malcolm Ewen to Receive the Robert Christen Award for Excellence in Technical Collaboration

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The Robert Christen Award for Excellence in Technical Collaboration for 2014 will be presented to stage manager Malcolm Ewen. The presentation will be at the Michael Merritt Awards event, Monday, April 21, at The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2350 N Racine Avenue, Chicago Illinois 60614.

Lego Doc "Beyond the Brick" Reveals The Company And Community Behind The World's Favorite Toy

Co.Create | creativity + culture + commerce: Lego is having a major cultural moment right now. It recently became the most profitable toy company in the world, the blockbuster The Lego Movie was released this winter, and it seems as though the bricks and minifigures are popping up everywhere: movie posters and album covers are being rendered in bricks by fans; the infamous Ellen Oscars selfie received not one but two Lego treatments; and block versions of nearly every relevant entertainment property exist, including, most recently, The Simpsons. That’s to say nothing of this travelogue of a tiny minifig photographer, which just might be one of the most endearing and artful fan tributes we’ve seen.

‘Midnight Rider’ Star Pulls Out of Movie After Fatal Accident

Variety: William Hurt has pulled out of his starring role in “Midnight Rider,” in which he was set to play musician Gregg Allman.
Production on “Midnight Rider” was halted after second camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed in a Feb. 20 train accident on a railway bridge in Georgia.
Hurt had come on board the project in early January. He was on the bridge where the crew was filming a dream sequence involving a hospital bed on the tracks.

'Lives of the Saints' a witty satire at CMU

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: David Ives has filled American theaters with a steady stream of popular plays since "All in the Timing" debuted in 1993. Last year, "Venus in Fur" was the most produced play in the country -- 22 stagings -- yet it skipped over Pittsburgh. (Too racy?)
Instead, Mr. Ives' fans must be content with "Lives of the Saints," a Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama production smartly directed by Gregory Lehane, supported by CMU's first-rate production staff led by scenic designer David Peters and sound designer Abigail Nover.

Choreographer travels 'FAR' to perform at Byham Theater

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: For choreographer Wayne McGregor, dance isn't just a way to show what the body can do. It's a way to learn about it.
His studio is "more like a laboratory," says Odette Hughes, associate director at his London-based company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance. "When we're in the studio with him and the dancers it's a time for him to experiment."
This weekend, Mr. McGregor will bring one of his creations to Pittsburgh for the first time in more than five years. His troupe of 10 dancers will stage "FAR" Saturday at Byham Theater, Downtown, to close the Pittsburgh Dance Council's 2013-14 season.

The spring Crawl through the Cultural District starts early, goes late

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's spring Gallery Crawl will enlighten visitors on "The Secret Life of Robots," the electricity of Tesla, the brilliance of Teenie Harris, the power- popness of Meeting of Important People and the overall coolness of spending an evening walking the streets of the Cultural District.
It runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, but once again, in marking the 10th anniversary of Gallery Crawl, it will continue past the 9 o'clock hour with CrawlAfterDark events at several locations.

Seventeenth annual Art All Night will fill every corner of grungy warehouse

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: There's nothing like a blank canvas to spark the imagination and stir that mixture of hope, dread and exhilaration.
Art All Night offers that blank canvas with a ticking clock.
The 17th annual event returns to Willow Street Development in Lawrenceville this weekend with white canvases for savvy pros and kids still in the fingerpaint era of their careers.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

Here are the top five comment generating posts from the past week:

LED Lights Are Ruining Laundry Detergent's White-Brightening Trick

gizmodo.com: LED lighting is great. The right bulb gives the same warm incandescent glow you love from a fraction of the energy. But there's a downside: while LEDs make cities look awesome, the most common type of LED lighting dims the ultraviolet trick laundry detergents use to make white clothes look whiter. The future is bright, but it's also kind of dingy.


The 6 Best Tools For Creative Work, According To Science

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: I’d love to have a toolkit that promised me great, creative ideas every time I sat down to work. Obviously that’s not going to happen--creativity doesn’t come from tools.
But luckily there are some tools that can improve our chances of working creatively.


Why You Need to Stop Bragging About How Busy You Are

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: Do you rush through the morning paper, barely skimming the headlines while answering emails and making kids’ lunches? Do you compete with coworkers over how late you stay at the office each night?
When journalist Brigid Schulte found herself immersed in one of the most hectic, time-crunched industries, she, like many of her busy coworkers, was feeling overworked and overwhelmed by the demands of her work and home life.


Set design studio in Japan by Mattch plays with theatrical imagery

www.dezeen.com: This office and workshop for a theatre designer in Osaka was designed by Japanese studio Mattch to look like a glazed box hovering between two solid curtains


Suntory Whiskey’s New Ad Campaign Uses 3D-Sculpted Ice

Geekosystem: There’s a new ad campaign for Suntory Whiskey by Japanese agency TBWA/Hakuhodo that shows the whiskey served over intricate, precision-drilled 3D ice sculptures. It’s beautiful to watch the drill create such a complex shape, and then have that shape drowned in whiskey.



Saturday, April 26, 2014

Consoles are Big News at Prolight+Sound

FOH online: Frankfurt's 2014 Prolight+Sound exhibition drew 897 exhibitors from 42 countries from March 12-15. Combined with Musikmesse, there were a total of 2,242 exhibitors, with 110,000 visitors from 142 countries attending. New product launches tend run in cycles, and right now, live sound consoles are hot, hot, hot. Along with an ample assortment of new sound reinforcement consoles (for any budget), there were plenty of upgrades and updates for existing models.

‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ Review: Neil Patrick Harris Soars in Spectacular Revival

Variety: The screaming starts when a bespangled Neil Patrick Harris parachutes onstage in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and doesn’t stop until he’s back in his dressing room. That’s the kind of rock-star performance he gives in this spectacular revival — helmed with fabulous flash by Michael Mayer — of the 1998 musical (and later movie) by John Cameron Mitchell (book) and Stephen Trask (music & lyrics). Harris’ Hedwig is an imperfectly transformed transgender woman who grew up in East Berlin before the wall came down, resplendent in the punk drag of a nihilistic rocker but still concealing a heap of hurt under her wig.

Woolly Mammoth Cancels Festival of Radical New Theatre from Moscow in Wake of Political Tensions

Stage Directions: The heightened tension between Russia and the U.S. has reached the theatre. The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has had to cancel their Russian artistic exchange program The Russians are Coming! A Festival of Radical New Theatre from Moscow because the instability in Russia and heightened tensions with the U.S. over the invasion on the Crimean Peninsula has led to a freezing of funds that was to pay for the event. The press release from Woolly Mammoth is heartbreaking with its quotes of how quickly planning and funding for the show changed, Center for International Theatre Development founder and director Philip Arnoult just returned saying “I’m seeing a cultural war being fought against the background of the larger Ukrainian stories. Our artistic partners, as well as organizers in the country, are both stunned and saddened at how quickly the cultural climate has changed.” Woolly Mammoth has not yet announced what program will take place instead of this event on its calendar.

Beijing Market Emphasizes Film Production Detail

Variety: The fourth running of the Beijing Film Market wrapped on Saturday with a quickfire series of set-piece contract signings in front of an array of senior Chinese officials. It was announced that over RMB10 billion ($1.61 billion) of business had been done in the three days April 17-19.
That claim breaks down in RMB3.8 billion ($612 million) for production, RMB3.4 billion ($550 million) for cinema and other construction projects and RMB2.3 billion ($370 million) for ‘film foundation projects’.

The Surprising Advice That Will Make Your Next Presentation Awesome

The Muse: When giving an important presentation, you probably ask around for the best tips for captivating your audience. But maybe what you really need is some bad advice. In fact, what sounds like horrible advice at first could actually be the secret sauce to giving awesome presentations.

LED Lights Are Ruining Laundry Detergent's White-Brightening Trick

gizmodo.com: LED lighting is great. The right bulb gives the same warm incandescent glow you love from a fraction of the energy. But there's a downside: while LEDs make cities look awesome, the most common type of LED lighting dims the ultraviolet trick laundry detergents use to make white clothes look whiter. The future is bright, but it's also kind of dingy.

These Interview Fake-Outs Reveal What Your Employer Really Wants To Know

⚙ Co.Labs ⚙ code + community: There are few professional rituals as steadfast as the job interview. But there is one way in which interviews are changing: They're accounting for personality. These characteristics are called soft skills, or emotional intelligence. Assessing soft skills is about determining if a candidate is someone the employer actually wants to have around five days a week, says Daniel Flamberg, managing director of tech-centric ad agency Publicis Kaplan Thaler.

A centuries-old tragedy brings teens together

The Times of Israel: When William Shakespeare wrote about the warring households in “Romeo and Juliet,” he wasn’t thinking about Jews and Arabs. Yet in Israel, more than 400 years later, his classic tale of feuds and betrayal served as a focal point of harmony for mixed audiences of Jewish, Muslim and Christian students.

Islam the opera: curtain up on Clusters of Light about life of prophet Muhammad

Stage | The Guardian: It was quite a challenge, even for the crack team of theatrical experts summoned from around the world: less than six months to produce a hi-tech musical extravaganza about one of the most renowned figures in human history. Oh yes, and the title character can't appear on stage.
But somehow it happened and on Sunday night a lavish production about the life and teachings of Muhammad, Islam's main prophet, intended as a rejoinder to more militant interpretations of the faith, premiered at a specially built £20m mock-Roman amphitheatre in Sharjah, the small emirate adjoining Dubai.

'Heaven is for Real' joins Hollywood's year of faith

CSMonitor.com: The movie "Heaven is for Real," which depicts the story of a young boy who claims to have visited heaven during a near-death experience, is the fourth faith-based film this year to stir movie-going audiences with impressive box office numbers.
Made for $12 million, the film, which stars Greg Kinnear, collected $21.5 million over the Easter weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters, finishing third at the box office behind bigger budget films "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" from Walt Disney and "Rio 2" from Fox.

Arianne Phillips Talks Dressing Hedwig and Her Angry Inch

style file | Style.com: Broadway is no stranger to men in drag (think Kinky Boots, Cabaret, and, soon, Casa Valentina). But it has certainly never seen anything quite like the rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The transgressive, transformative, transgender title character first stomped onto the underground scene in the late 1990s, the surly brainchild of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. Creating not only the singing, dancing, wisecracking East German ingenue, Mitchell played her in off-Broadway productions and in the cult-hit film of 2001. It was on the big screen that, along with her angry inch (so named, as she comically hisses in one song, for the proverbial chop she hastily underwent in an effort to flee East Berlin), the stubby star was born.

Subjective Versus Objective: If It Sounds Good, Is It?

Pro Sound Web: As with the ever-ongoing debates about “tubes versus transistors,” “analog versus digital” and “Mac versus PC,” there’s not likely to be agreement any time soon about “objective versus subjective” when it comes to sound quality.
Extremists in the “Objectivist” camp argue that, “if it can’t be measured, it doesn’t exist” while on the other hand, the “Subjectivist” side firmly backs the idea that “human beings can hear things that can’t be measured.”

Community Completes New Loudspeaker Test Facility

FOH online: Community Professional Loudspeakers has opened a new indoor test facility at its factory here. Designed by Charlie Hughes of Excelsior Audio and operated by Senior Measurement Technician, Hadi Sumoro, the new test facility enables loudspeaker measurements with unprecedented accuracy and precision.

Friday, April 25, 2014

#NFTRW

Set design studio in Japan by Mattch plays with theatrical imagery

www.dezeen.com: This office and workshop for a theatre designer in Osaka was designed by Japanese studio Mattch to look like a glazed box hovering between two solid curtains

The 6 Best Tools For Creative Work, According To Science

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: I’d love to have a toolkit that promised me great, creative ideas every time I sat down to work. Obviously that’s not going to happen--creativity doesn’t come from tools.
But luckily there are some tools that can improve our chances of working creatively.

Cirque du Soleil’s Highest Grossing Shows

www.cirquefascination.com: Guy Laliberté is the man behind the fantasy, who turned circus acts into magic and acrobatics into fairy tales when he laid the foundations of Cirque du Soleil. Accordionist by trade, a specialist in walking on stilts, and fire eater, Laliberté and a group of 20 Montreal performing artists founded Canada’s most successful export product back in 1984. Just as their slogans says, “we reinvent the circus,” Cirque du Soleil created a new niche, focusing on a new type of audience, where clowns became sophisticated and their numbers elaborated, all the while increasing the public’s comfort. Furthermore, they added theater elements, each show with its own storyline and musical score, dedicated exclusively to the most skillful of human talents.

4 Ways to Make Writing Cover Letters Suck Less

The Muse: If there’s one thing that all job seekers have in common, it’s that they hate writing cover letters. With a passion.
But why? It’s not like they’re very long. And when you really think about it, they’re not that difficult. But something about that step between the resume and interview gets people really, really irritated.
In fact, people ask us all the time: Is there any way to make writing cover letters suck less?

5 Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund on Tools

ToolGuyd: If you will be receiving a nice sized tax refund this year, there are a few things you could do with it. You could pay any outstanding debts, contribute to your retirement fund, or pad your savings account. Or you could go on a fun outing, mini vacation, or out to a nice dinner.

Why You Need to Stop Bragging About How Busy You Are

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: Do you rush through the morning paper, barely skimming the headlines while answering emails and making kids’ lunches? Do you compete with coworkers over how late you stay at the office each night?
When journalist Brigid Schulte found herself immersed in one of the most hectic, time-crunched industries, she, like many of her busy coworkers, was feeling overworked and overwhelmed by the demands of her work and home life.

Media Takes Control On Bon Jovi’s Because We Can Tour

Education content from Live Design Magazine: Media Takes Control on Bon Jovi’s Because We Can Tour – Projection Master Class Session: Show designer Doug "Spike" Brant hosts a panel at the 2013 Projection Master Classes looking at the development of new media control solutions for Bon Jovi's latest tour.

5 Questions: René De Keijzer, XL Video

News content from Live Design Magazine: When Lucas Covers joined XL Video last year as CEO, founder and board member René de Keijzer (also commonly spelled “de Keyzer,” though he assures us “de Keijzer” is the correct Dutch spelling) took on a somewhat new role as founder-president, responsible for strategic projects and global sales. With that shift came de Keijzer’s decision to take over leadership of XL Video’s US business, based in Atlanta, with an additional office in Los Angeles.

Live Design Announces 2013-14 Products Of The Year

Gear content from Live Design Magazine: Live Design has named its 2013-2014 Products of the Year, chosen by panels of prestigious designers and programmers in the disciplines of lighting, sound, and projection. Awards will be presented during the Broadway Master Classes next month, along with the Excellence In Live Design Awards.

The Stage Managers tool kit

Techie Talk: One of the first things I do when I start prep on a new show is re-stock my stage management kit with everything I’ll need for that show. I’ve been building and refining my kit for a little over 5 years now. I thought I’d share what I keep in it as a starting point for other stage managers. If you notice that I’m missing something that you consider invaluable, please let me know – I’m always updating!

Good Housekeeping is Good Business: 5 Steps to a Safer Worksite

Occupational Health & Safety: Year after year, the leading cause of accidents and injuries in the workplace is slips, trips, and falls (STFs). The U.S. Department of Labor reports that STFs account for 15 percent of all accidental deaths and are second only to motor vehicle accidents as a cause of fatalities. In addition, DOL statistics show that STFs were responsible for more than 308,000 non-fatal workplace injuries in 2012, the most recent data available.

To Delegate or Not to Delegate Safety?

Occupational Health & Safety: To delegate or not to delegate safety? Yes, this is still a valuable question. Utopia, where all unquestionably own safety and hold themselves accountable for the results of their own behavior, would be ideal. We seek for safety to be a value, woven into the fabric of operational decisions and behaviors, but not everyone is there yet. Some are not even close. Envisioning the desired future is of value, but even more valuable is knowing precisely how to get there and who should play what role in the process.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Canonizations among events coming to theater near you

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Move over, movies.
Some of the best entertainment at your local cinema wasn't shot in Hollywood, nor would it be eligible for Academy Awards.
Thanks to the growing concept of "event cinema," everyone from Benedict Cumberbatch to Pope Francis can be a star on the big screen.

Artist Piotr Bockenheim Puts Your Easter Egg Decorating to Shame with His Intricately Carved Goose Shells

Colossal: Unless you spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours with a tiny electric drill carving intricate patterns into eggshells the last few months, you may have yet to reach your Easter egg decorating potential. One person who clearly has is artist Piotr Bockenheim who uses a reductive drilling technique to transform goose eggs into slitherting tangles of string and various geometric or floral patterns.

Pure Auditory Nostalgia: Over 40 Minutes of Cartoon Sound Effects

io9.com: Here now for your aural pleasure are 42 minutes and 29 seconds of sound effects from vintage Warner Bros. cartoons. This is highly concentrated auditory nostalgia, delivered right to your ear-holes.

Ditch the 10,000 hour rule! Why Malcolm Gladwell’s famous advice falls short

Salon.com: Here’s a study that may surprise you. A group of eight-year-olds practiced tossing beanbags into buckets in gym class. Half of the kids tossed into a bucket three feet away. The other half mixed it up by tossing into buckets two feet and four feet away. After twelve weeks of this they were all tested on tossing into a three-foot bucket. The kids who did the best by far were those who’d practiced on two- and four-foot buckets but never on three-foot buckets.

Bentley Does Point Clouds

The CAD Insider: It as at SPAR Europe late in 2011 that Bentley announced it had bought PointTools for its Vortex point cloud engine. The idea was to make point clouds more usable -- which was not the case previously given the massive amount of data and file sizes of infrastructure scans.
"A point cloud file can be 50 to 60 billion points," says Ron Gant, head of marketing for Bentley's civil engineering line. "We've integrated PointTools into all Bentley applications now and can handle very large datasets."

Suntory Whiskey’s New Ad Campaign Uses 3D-Sculpted Ice

Geekosystem: There’s a new ad campaign for Suntory Whiskey by Japanese agency TBWA/Hakuhodo that shows the whiskey served over intricate, precision-drilled 3D ice sculptures. It’s beautiful to watch the drill create such a complex shape, and then have that shape drowned in whiskey.

Analogies between hydraulic and electrical systems

Technologies content from Hydraulics & Pneumatics: Most technical people working in the fluid power industry have roots either in the mechanical realm or the electrical realm. Those who consider themselves “mechanically inclined” often struggle with understanding of electrical concepts. Likewise, those well versed in electrical science are often faced with terminology in fluid power that is inconsistent with their knowledge.

Carnegie Mellon Senior Art Students Present Final Exhibition; "Actual Size" Opens May 2 at Miller Gallery on Campus

Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University: Forty-three students graduating with bachelor's degrees in fine art and interdisciplinary art (humanities and art, science and art, and computer science and art) present their final work in "Actual Size" at Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Gallery.

The Mic That Changed Everything

www.avnetwork.com: As microphones go, it’s the tool of choice for rock stars worldwide. As a first purchase, it signifies a rite of passage for garage musicians who predict rock stardom in their near futures. As audio gear goes, the Shure SM58 is an extremely democratizing piece of technology: it meets the needs of the most important VIP s, but it doesn’t require an A-list budget.

Five Advanced EQ Techniques You Need to Know

Pro Sound Web: EQ is pretty simple, right? Crank a knob, hear the sound’s tone change?
Not quite. Just when you think you know everything there is to know about EQ, something new comes up. Here are a few advanced EQ techniques that you might not be using to full potential.

Watching the Obamas Watch "A Raisin in the Sun"

The New Yorker: On Thursday, the cast of the Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” was told that a “high-level official” would be coming to the show the next night. Who could it be? Kathleen Sebelius had just resigned—maybe she had more time for theatregoing? Word got out on Friday afternoon: the Obamas were coming to Broadway. By seven o’clock that night, Forty-Seventh Street had been partitioned off, and the Barrymore Theatre was swarming with security guys—not an unwelcome sight, after the Times reported that Broadway has had a tough time attracting men.

Board pursues steps to save the opera

UTSanDiego.com: The San Diego Opera’s board of directors on Thursday took steps to save the company from closure by agreeing to move forward with a reorganization plan that will reshape it into a leaner, more modern entity.
That decision came during a chaotic board meeting in La Jolla in which board president Karen Cohn resigned and was replaced by board secretary Carol Lazier, who has been named as the company’s new acting board president.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Olivier Awards: Small theatres flex muscles in West End

BBC News: Islington's Almeida Theatre emerged triumphant at Sunday's Olivier Awards with a combined eight wins for its West End transfers of Chimerica and Ghosts.
Lucy Kirkwood's Chimerica, inspired by events in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989, had the most wins for a single production - five in all, including best new play, best director for Lyndsey Turner and best set design for Es Devlin.
Chimerica opened at the subsidised 325-seat Almeida before transferring to a bigger commercial West End venue - the Harold Pinter Theatre near Leicester Square.

Play Titles and Casting Announced for "Take Ten" Festival

Playbill.com: Theater Masters will present its eighth annual "Take Ten," eight ten-minute plays from award-winning MFA graduate playwriting students from across the country, April 22-26 at 7:30 PM at Off-Broadway’s The American Theater of Actors.

How to Transport An Entire T. Rex

Popular Mechanics: The Wankel Tyrannosaurus Rex is a dinosaur with many names. The fossil's namesake is Montana rancher Kathy Wankel, who discovered the specimen on a national wildlife refuge in 1988. The dino's technical name, MOR 555, refers to the T. rex’s home for more than two decades, the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mt. But now, the dinosaur is known by a different name: "the Nation’s T. rex". The near 65-million-year-old specimen arrived this morning at its new home at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where he will be part of $35 million planned dinosaur hall and become the most viewed dinosaur fossil in the world.

Pittsburgh Public Theater will be staging George Bernard Shaw classic 'Candida'

TribLIVE: It's been 20 years since a play by George Bernard Shaw has been part of a Pittsburgh Public Theater season.
That's far too long, decided producing artistic director Ted Pappas, who chose Shaw's “Candida” to correct this lapse. He's also directing the play, which will run through May 18 at the O'Reilly Theater, Downtown.

Tom Lehrer, Culture And Copyright After Death

Techdirt: But what caught my attention was some discussion that Lehrer has had with certain fans concerning the copyright on his works, whether or not it's okay to put them online and what happens to them after his death. The simple answer seems to be that Lehrer couldn't care any less about all of it.

Another Part of Hollywood Where Women Are a Minority: Lighting

Public Spectacle | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly: Andrea Sachs is much more comfortable controlling the spotlight than she is underneath it.
She had a hand in the light that dappled the frogs in the series of mid-'90s Budweiser ads, and in the soft, eerie glow that perpetuates Diana Ross' music video "Pieces of Ice."
Sachs is a gaffer, the head of the lighting department on a film set. She currently works on Carls Jr. commercials.

Point Park-produced doc series to air on STARZ

Blogh | Pittsburgh City Paper: The new documentary series produced by Point Park University has found a home. The Chair will air on STARZ this fall.
The Chair is a 10-episode series, shot in Pittsburgh, that follows two first-time feature-film directors making their films based on the same source material. More details are here.
Filming — of both the dueling features and the documentary series — took place in February and March at various locations around town.

How to Save Money When Studying Abroad

MyBankTracker.com: Studying abroad can be a life-altering and massively enriching experience. Getting out of one’s comfort zone and into a learning environment that includes cultural exchange, new surroundings, and gaining a broader world view can be a wonderful experience for students of any age. That experience can also cost a lot of money, and careful planning is crucial to avoid running short or making some bad financial moves after the journey has started, or worse, having to come home because of unexpected financial issues. Here are some tips for keeping costs down and planning well.

‘Evil Dead The Musical’ has its moments in either of its venues

Las Vegas Review-Journal: It’s not Part 2, but “Evil Dead The Musical” squared.
The cult musical based on a cult movie is the only show in town that bombards its audience with stage blood, F-bombs, middle fingers and bad puns. And now it’s the only one staged in two places: upstairs and downstairs venues inside The V Theater at the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood Resort.

Simple Guide To Recording Keyboards

Pro Sound Web: Some of the most popular instruments in many genres of music are keyboards, so let’s look at some techniques to capture a grand piano, upright piano, Leslie organ speaker, digital keyboard or synthesizer.

Behind Barbed Wire, Shakespeare Inspires a Cast of Young Syrians

NYTimes.com: On a rocky patch of earth in this sprawling city of tents and prefab trailers, the king, dressed in dirty jeans and a homemade cape, raised his wooden scepter and announced his intention to divide his kingdom. His elder daughters, wearing paper crowns and plastic jewelry, showered him with false praise, while the youngest spoke truthfully and lost her inheritance.

After the Spring, Arab Art Blossoms

Middle East Institute: In a historic first, three Arab films—all dealing with the political and social challenges faced by Arab youth—were nominated for Academy Awards this past March for best foreign language film (Omar, Palestine), best documentary feature (The Square, Egypt), and best documentary short (Karama Has No Walls, Yemen). Though none took home the Oscar, their recognition by Hollywood is a tribute to the high quality of Middle East filmmaking and, by extension, the importance and value of supporting and empowering Arab artists and their work.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Quantum Theatre keeps its production of 'Pantagleize' moving, funny

TribLIVE: Two popular sayings kept running through my head during “Pantagleize”: The Beatles' lyric “You say you want a revolution?” and the cautionary warning, “Be careful what you wish for, for surely it shall be yours.”
Quantum Theatre's bitterly funny production, which is playing inside a vacant office space in Point Breeze, is a fresh and free adaptation of Michel de Ghelderode's 1931 play “Pantagleize.”

Sony Hopes ‘Heaven Is for Real’ Continues Religious Movie Hot Streak

Variety: Sony’s Christian drama “Heaven Is for Real,” which opens Wednesday, is the latest offering in a year with an uncommonly large slate of religious-themed wide releases.
Although there’s long been a robust DVD market and numerous indie releases, more major studios have been taking a leap of faith and embarking on extensive marketing missions this year. It’s only fitting that the senior production exec for “Heaven Is for Real,” DeVon Franklin, is an ordained minister and one of the film’s producers, T.D. Jakes, is a bishop. Jakes has teamed up with “Alice in Wonderland” producer Joe Roth for the project.

Let's talk about the word 'potential'

bestoftheblogs.com: In the world of pro sports, it's used most often as a bet-hedger by general managers, who see raw talent in a player whom they also think lacks the discipline or other psychological necessities to be a star at the top pro level. See Johnny "JFF" Manziel in college football. See the idea of "phenom" among baseball scouts. (That's you, Clint Hurdle, though you're doing more and more to redeem yourself as a manager.)

Death and Art in Palestine: Nabil Al-Ra’ee and The Freedom Theatre

HowlRound: Nabil Al-Ra’ee, artistic director of The Freedom Theatre in Palestine’s occupied territories, has been arrested and interrogated by both the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority and faces the constant threat of reprisals for his work. The danger is unequivocal. The Freedom Theatre’s former director, Juliano Mer Khamis, an Israeli/Palestinian actor and director (who used to say he was 100 percent Palestinian and 100 percent Jewish), was shot dead two years ago by a masked man as he left the theater. According to a Human Rights Watch report, “Israeli occupation forces have repeatedly raided the theater and beaten and arbitrarily arrested employees.” The theater is under siege from all sides—by the forces of the occupation, religious conservatives opposed to change, and the Palestinian Authority.

‘Book of Mormon,’ ‘Chimerica’ Score at London’s Olivier Awards

Variety: North London’s 326-seat, not-for-profit Almeida Theater was the runaway winner at the 2014 Olivier Awards, along with the West End version of the Broadway hit “The Book of Mormon.”
The Almeida and Headlong co-production of Lucy Kirkwood’s new play “Chimerica” netted five awards, the largest haul of the night, plus three for Richard Eyre’s production of Ibsen’s “Ghosts.” Both shows were transferred to the West End by Sonia Friedman whose exceptional tally climbed still further — to a remarkable total of 14 — comprised of her four tuner wins for the London production of “Book of Mormon” for which she is lead producer, and two for “Merrily We Roll Along” which won Best Musical Revival and shared Best Sound with “Chimerica.”

“Pantagleize” at Quantum Theatre

The Pittsburgh Tatler: Revolutions are tricky business. As we’ve seen in recent years, in the example of the Arab Spring, the Syrian conflict, and even recent events in the Ukraine, revolutions inspire hope and optimism. Yet when their aims get muddied, their motives become sullied by realpolitik, and they devolve into chaos, violence, and endless bouts of recrimination and revenge, they also engender confusion, cynicism, and despair. A revolution shines light on the oppressiveness of totalitarian regimes and provokes our individual sympathy for the people who suffer under those regimes; at the same time, it often also reveals the complicity of our own national foreign policy in keeping those regimes in power in the name of regional stability.

What Has Vampire Diaries Executive Producer Julie Plec "Disgusted and Fuming"?

The Vampire Diaries | Wetpaint: Vampire Diaries executive producer Julie Plec is expressing outrage on Twitter when news broke that production will go ahead on Midnight Rider. Production on the Gregg Allman biopic was suspended in February after 27-year-old crew member Sarah Jones was struck by a train and killed on set. Sarah had previously been a part of the TVD crew, and her death shocked and saddened not only those who knew and worked with her, but the entire industry.

'Midnight Rider' to Resume Production in Los Angeles, IATSE Says

Hollywood Reporter: Filming on the Gregg Allman biopic was suspended in February when camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed while shooting on a train track. Now, however, a producer from Unclaimed Freight Productions has informed the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees of plans to resume the project, with preproduction beginning in a couple of weeks.

Leaving The Comfort Zone

Pro Sound Web: Like the majority of people working in the audio biz, I love music. Growing up in the 1970s, I was fortunate that my favorite FM radio station played a pretty diverse selection of musical styles, including folk, soft rock, pop, disco, R&B, rock, and even heavy metal.

‘King Charles III’ Causes a Stir in London

NYTimes.com: The Queen is dead. Charles, paranoid and power obsessed, dissolves Parliament and parks a tank outside Buckingham Palace. While Prince William dithers, his steely and pragmatic wife, Kate, orchestrates a palace coup to save the monarchy and prevent Britain from sliding into civil war.

Marcus Gardley’s ‘The Box: A Black Comedy’ Comes to Brooklyn

NYTimes.com: Marcus Gardley had been rewriting through the night. The next morning, it was time for a pep talk to the five actors in a scruffy rehearsal space who were clutching Draft 18 of “The Box: A Black Comedy,” his satire about black men and prisons both literal and metaphorical.

‘Casa Valentina,’ Fierstein’s Play About ’60s Cross-Dressers

NYTimes.com: Before rehearsals began for the new Broadway play “Casa Valentina,” the seven men in the cast were asked to come to work a few days early. They arrived to find a huge table covered with ladies’ wigs in ’60s-era hairdos — flips, bobs, French twists. Nearby was a long rack of colorful house dresses and white slips and brassieres. Yet no one made a move. The actors shared small talk, sipped coffee, checked their smartphones and looked around as if the room were empty.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Contenders for the New Musical Tony Are Anyone’s Guess

NYTimes.com: Practice usually makes perfect, but not for this season’s new Broadway musicals. Eleven of the 12 new shows had tryout runs in an effort to get them right, only to find a tepid reception from critics and audiences when they finally opened on Broadway.
The 12 shows are such a mixed bag that this year’s race for the top prize, the Tony Award for best musical, is wide open for the first time in recent memory. In question is not just that award, but also (and this is truly rare) the four or five nominations for that category, which will be announced on April 29.

Incorporating Rescue Into a Fall Protection Plan

Occupational Health & Safety: A fall protection plan is commonplace for most employers, but does it include a rescue plan? Even with the best fall protection plan and equipment in place, accidents do happen. How can you protect your workers at height in the event they need a way to save themselves or rescue a co-worker?
Falls continue to be one of the most common accidents in the workplace, according to NIOSH; however, fall protection equipment is only half the answer to keeping workers safe at height. The other half involves rescuing workers to get them safely to the ground in a timely fashion to avoid additional injuries while suspended.

Attack Theatre's Dirty Ball attendees get creative with attire

TribLIVE: There was a spectacle unfolding within an otherwise nondescript warehouse on Jane Street in the South Side the evening of April 12, one that began with a plea to check your coat and shoes and seemed to peak when glasses were no longer necessary for drinking the champagne.

Savoyards celebrates 75th anniversary of singing satire

TribLIVE: There are lots of theater groups in the United States and elsewhere that devote themselves to performing the works of William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.
But, few have been around as long as The Pittsburgh Savoyards.
On April 26, the semi-professional, community-based, nonprofit theater company will mark its 75th anniversary.

Montreal Gazette: “Kurios: A Glimpse for the Curious”

www.cirquefascination.com: Nouveau circus is about to go “Steampunk” antique with Kurios, Cirque du Soleil’s latest tent show scheduled to open April 24 at the Old Port in Montreal.
The look is late 19th century and the locale is a faux village installed at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. The performers arrive by train (of the steam locomotive era), gramophones circle the playing area like ghosts, and a pre-Wright brothers airplane soars above the crowd.

Hitachi KC18DKL/JB 18V Cordless Li-ion 2 Piece Kit

www.toolstop.co.ukk: Having two of the power tools you rely on the most in one tough carry case, both running the same type of battery, is the sensible way to go. These twin packs aren't a new idea, and there are loads available on the market.
Typically you'll save cash by buying both tools in one pack and you'll benefit from at least 2 batteries and a fast charger.

Appeals Court Denies SeaWorld’s Attempt To Overturn OSHA Violation

Consumerist: The main reason that people nominated and voted for SeaWorld in our recently concluded Worst Company In America tournament was the controversy — highlighted in the documentary Blackfish — over its treatment of orca whales and, more precisely, the multiple deaths that have been tied to one particular whale. SeaWorld has been fighting workplace safety citations issued following the 2010 death of a trainer, but today a federal appeals court ruled against the park.

Dear Victoria Inox, I love you. Your slender...

EDC is Everyday Carry: In reality, the brand of Swiss Army Knife we all know and love is a portmanteau of the founder’s mother’s name (Victoria) and the French word for stainless steel (inoxydable). There was a real Victorinox, and I can’t help but feel indebted to her as the namesake of some of my most cherished knives. Victorinox makes many a splendid tool, but among their best are those that do away with the traditional lipstick-red handles in favor of ribbed aluminum ones, a material Victorinox calls Alox. This more durable material both slims the knife down and manages to retain its sleek appearance even after absorbing an amazing amount of damage compared to its cellidor counterpart.

The Different Types Of Reverb

Pro Sound Web: There are five primary categories of reverb, all with a different sonic character; three of these are actual acoustic spaces, one is an analog way to reproduce one, and one is not found in nature but can really sound cool.
The reason why there’s a difference is that just like everything else in music and audio, there are many paths to the same end result. You’ll find that every digital reverb plugin or hardware unit provides its own version of these sounds.

What’s A Watt? Clarifying Audio Power & The Amplifier/Loudspeaker Relationship

Pro Sound Web: Years ago, only car stereo makers would advertise “2,000 Watts Of Earth-Shaking Power!” But with the recent shift to switching power supply amplifier topology, we’re now seeing this with many pro-oriented products.
What’s behind the hype? And what about properly matching power amplifiers and loudspeakers? Answers start by focusing on the fundamental unit of measure in audio, the watt.

OSHA Wins SeaWorld Case

Occupational Health & Safety: OSHA has won the appellate case involving its enforcement case against SeaWorld of Florida LLC following the death of killer whale trainer Dawn Brancheau on Feb. 24, 2010. A 2-1 decision issued April 11 by a panel of three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that SeaWorld "recognized its precautions were inadequate to prevent serious bodily harm or even death to its trainers and that the residual hazard was preventable."

After winning a Tony and a Grammy, Billy Porter still thrills them on Broadway, and now here comes an album

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: This is Billy Porter's time, and he's not wasting a second of it.
He won Tony and Grammy awards last year for his starring role in Broadway's "Kinky Boots" and continues in the role that got him there, singing his heart out nightly as the dynamic drag queen Lola. The show has had a recent changeover in Mr. Porter's co-stars but continues to play to near or capacity houses, while celebrities such as Billy Joel and Robin Roberts drop by regularly offering kudos and seeking photo opps.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

Here are the top five comment generating posts of the past week:

Theater Director Responds Perfectly to Anti-Gay Patron

The Bilerico Project: It was supposed to be a routine performance of Deathtrap, a popular 1978 play by Ira Levin that holds the record for the longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway. The production, mounted by the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City, Utah, has garnered favorable reviews and a strongly positive response from the community. But one patron was so upset that she grabbed her teenage son, left at intermission, and demanded a refund for the rest of the season.


Actress Lashes Back After Being Sued for Refusing Nude Sex Scene

Hollywood Reporter: Two years ago, Anne Greene sued Time Warner, HBO, Cinemax and producers True Crime claiming that she was bullied into performing nude scenes, sexually harassed and placed in a dangerous work environment on the set of Femme Fatales.


Going iPad-only: How to do it with the right apps and accessories

www.asianefficiency.com: If you have been thinking about of going iPad-only or making your iPad your main computer – you’re not alone. I’ve been going through similar thoughts and for a few weeks I’ve been experimenting with going iPad-only.
I’ll be going over my experience with using the iPad as my main workstation and how you can make the iPad an integral part of your day-to-day workflow.

Updated: The French Move To Protect Workers From After-Hours Email

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: There are many ways to distance yourself from the crushing tidal wave that is your work inbox. You can, for instance, impose an email sabbatical, which is supposed to be good for your mental health. Or you can plow through all of your emails in one go with the savvy use of search filters.


A Simple Trick to Always Keep Your Resume Updated

The Muse: Picture this: That dream job suddenly becomes available, you have an opportunity to secure a promotion, or your annual review sneakily shows up on your calendar. You realize you haven’t updated your resume in, well, too long. After putting in all the work, you want to ensure your biggest accomplishments are reflected. But, well—what are they?


Saturday, April 19, 2014

Pittsburgh hotels cater to movie stars and crews

TribLIVE: As filmmakers continue to set their sights on the Steel City, area hotels are becoming accustomed to hosting movie A-listers and crews.
“When the (Pittsburgh) Film Office calls and says a film wants to come to Pittsburgh, we drop everything,” says Tom Hardy, past president of the Pittsburgh Hotel Association and current general manager of the Sheraton Station Square, which is undergoing a $15 million renovation. “It's become a very, very large part of our business.”

Andy Warhol Museum nearly done with repurposing, redesign

TribLIVE: If you haven't been to the Andy Warhol Museum recently, it's time for a second look.
After 20 years in its North Shore home, the museum is nearing completion of a project to redesign and repurpose its galleries and public spaces with a new vision and visitor-friendly exhibits.

Musicians Union Holds Rally to Protest Outsourcing of Film Scoring Jobs

Variety: Using the Kevin Costner film “Draft Day” as an example, the American Federation of Musicians on Thursday launched a campaign designed to stop producers from sending scoring jobs to musicians outside the U.S.

At a Westwood rally attended by about 75 musicians and members of other unions, AFM president Ray Hair contended that Lionsgate accepted $5 million in Ohio tax credits but then “outsourced” the music by recording it in Macedonia.

Lionsgate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How Accessibility Works at the Wheelock Family Theatre

HowlRound: Wheelock Family Theatre is the most comprehensively accessible theatre in the Boston area, and I spoke with Kristin Johnson, WFT’s inclusion specialist and in-house ASL consultant to get a full menu of what they have available, and how each of these works.

▶ DON'T LOOK DOWN: The real Mad Men of New York advertising

YouTube: Imagine strapping in, clipping on, and jumping off the roof of a building - every day. In an age with instant communication at your fingertips and digital marketing on every platform, there are those who still get out messages the old-fashioned way, with a paintbrush and some attitude.

'Six Characters' bridges reality and the stage world

TribLIVE: A half-dozen unexpected visitors barge into a stage rehearsal in a production of a 1921 Modernist play by Italian dramatist Luigi Pirandello.
It turns out the family is merely “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” which is both the title of the play and the reason for their disruption. They proceed to tell the original cast that the author of their play abandoned the work before it was completed.

Movie magic rolls in Pittsburgh 'like a military operation'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: On Wednesday morning -- Day 17 of a scheduled 37-day shoot for the movie "Fathers and Daughters" -- crews assembled as the sun peeked over the rooftops of million-dollar homes in Shadyside. They were there to film two scenes inside Mansions on Fifth Hotel.
Five large production trucks, five trailers and a "honeywagon" -- a nicer-than-generic port-a-potty mobile bathroom unit -- lined both sides of Westminster Place. Along Amberson Avenue, which runs perpendicular to Fifth Avenue, were four huge 18-wheelers, two smaller trucks and a variety of cars.