CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, August 05, 2026

The Day I Pleated With Iris van Herpen

hyperallergic.com: “Hands are like a language,” Iris van Herpen says as we pleat a textile together inside the recreated atelier at the center of Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses. “Each pair that joins me in creating this dress will influence the DNA of the garment.” A first of its kind, the live installation at the Brooklyn Museum invites visitors to work alongside the Dutch fashion designer in creating a garment that will evolve over the course of the show’s run.

Immersive Horror Play 'A Ghost in Your Ear' Sets New York Premiere

variety.com: Jamie Armitage‘s immersive horror show “A Ghost in Your Ear” has set its New York premiere at Audible‘s off-Broadway Minetta Lane Theatre following a sold-out London run earlier this year.

Variety's New Leaders: Class of 2026

variety.com: Leadership can mean leveraging one success to create the next — and navigating hundreds of crucial steps in between. It can also mean being the best team player you can be, finding the right story, signing the right client, packaging the right product or developing the right promotional campaign.

Guest Column: The Fee You Didn't Know You Were Paying

Event Marketer: Open the exhibitor services manual for your next show and scroll past the carpet and the electrical order forms. Somewhere in the labor section sits a line item called the EAC fee. It is sometimes listed at upwards of $350. At some shows it is charged more than once for the same contractor. Very few exhibitors can explain what they are buying.

'Come From Away,' the Acclaimed Musical About a Small Town’s Response to 9/11, Gets Its First Pittsburgh Production

Table Magazine: When the United States closed its airspace on September 11, 2001, thousands of planes had to land — and, in the confusion and shock of the moment, it didn’t matter much where. Hundreds of planes found the nearest available airport or made for regional hubs; about 240 were diverted into Canada.

Tuesday, August 04, 2026

A quick overview of three CAD modeling techniques

www.thefabricator.com: Mainstream 3D CAD offers many alternative modeling techniques that can be combined to arrive at about the same ending point. The “best” modeling technique is a moving target, but completing the model without delay is a bonus. Opportunity cost (time to completion) always should be minimized.

Motorola's Razr Wheel Debuts at Lollapalooza 2026

The Knockturnal: Towering above the festival grounds, Motorola’s razr Wheel, the first Ferris wheel in Lollapalooza’s history, offered attendees panoramic views of the Chicago skyline while providing a welcome break from the crowds below. The free attraction quickly became one of the festival’s most popular gathering spots, giving fans a chance to experience Lollapalooza from a completely new perspective.

Royal Ballet & Opera In Need of Investment for Stage Infrastructure to Remain Open

OperaWire OperaWire: According to a report obtained by the Times of London, the building will need about £60 million over the next three years just to “keep the building open and functioning” and as much as £200m over the next decade. The report suggests that it will cost at least £20 million a year because of its “obsolete infrastructure.”

EDINBURGH 2026: Anna Thomas Q&A

www.broadwayworld.com: BWW catches up with Anna Thomas to chat about bringing How To Juggle A Ferret to the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Kennedy Center Halts Free Public Tours After Five Decades of Service

The New York Times: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is stopping free public tours of the center, which had been a mainstay of the cultural institution for more than five decades, according to an internal memo.

Monday, August 03, 2026

Insta360 Luna Ultra Review: This Is the Only Gimbal Camera You Need

gizmodo.com: I honestly had to ask myself: Could my one camera be a vlogging cam? I still resent the very concept to a certain degree. I don’t find my life or my face interesting enough that it deserves to be tracked from every angle, capturing every moment of my bland visage’s reaction to my ordinary life, even if Insta360’s Luna Ultra makes it so dang easy—and I’ll admit it, fun—to do just that.

Why ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Could Be A Turning Point For ScreenX

www.forbes.com: ScreenX is built around a simple idea: why settle for one screen when you can have three? In addition to the main projector, it adds two more, to project additional images onto side-wall screens for a wraparound 270° view of the action.

Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO officially merge without a name

triblive.com: After more than 130 combined years of entertaining Pittsburgh audiences, two of the city’s biggest theater companies have become one. Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Pittsburgh CLO officially merged Friday, months after their boards approved the historic move. Now, the newly formed organization has one final act: choosing a new name.

How a Former Military Settlement in Taipei Became an Artist Residency

hyperallergic.com: Two tiny lightbulbs dangle from five feet of wire, blinking on and off to the rhythm of human breath. Magnets attached to the bulbs pull them together or push them apart at random, mimicking the relationships between people — or communities.

Gavin Newsom Urges State AGs to Settle Paramount-WBD Lawsuit

www.thewrap.com: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed concern over 12 state attorneys general’s lawsuit seeking to block the pending $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

Friday, July 31, 2026

Audience member faints on opening night of London play during graphic scene

The Independent: The opening night performance of Cleansed at London’s Almeida Theatre saw Sarah Kane’s provocative play live up to its reputation – with one audience member fainting during a graphic scene. First staged in 1998, Cleansed is one of five plays by the late playwright Kane, who died by suicide in 1999 at the age of 28. It is noteworthy for its visceral violence, prolonged nudity, and dark themes.

Dallas Theater Center to merge with AT&T Performing Arts Center

CultureMap Dallas: Two of the most prominent arts groups in Dallas, AT&T Performing Arts Center and Dallas Theater Center, are exploring a merger that they say would expand theater programming, arts education, and support for local artists while keeping both institutions' artistic identities intact.

Live Nation gives first look at Citizens Live at the Wylie as construction continues

WTAE: Soon, Pittsburghers will have a new place to watch concerts, comedy shows, and other live performances when Citizens Live at the Wylie opens Oct. 1. On Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 was invited inside for a first look at the construction progress.

A movement may be over. But nonprofit theatre lives.

hesherman1.substack.com: It hurt. As someone whose career began in and was nurtured by not-for-profit theatre, Oskar Eustis’ declaration last week, “I think the American nonprofit theater movement is over,” hit me and many others like a ton of bricks.

36 women+ playwrights commissioned to create new plays examining the current state of democracy in America

www.whatsonstage.com: A new initiative will bring together 36 acclaimed women+ playwrights from across the world, with each creating ten-minute plays that respond to shared questions about the state of democracy in America.

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Public media survives first year since Congress and Trump killed funding

NPR: A year ago, President Trump drove a conservative backlash against NPR and PBS straight to Capitol Hill, where Congress stripped public radio and television stations of nearly all federal funding. When his signature turned that bill into law, Trump ended nearly six decades of bipartisan support for funding public media.

A Homegrown Model: Adult Film’s Evolution from Basement to Backyard to Beyond

The Brooklyn Rail: In the tight confines of a basement in Ridgewood, ten acting students swirled around each other, muttering lines from the plays of Tennessee Williams. “Too loud,” announced Ryan Czerwonko, the class’s instructor and artistic director of the DIY-theater and training company Adult Film. “Whisper.”

Song, Stage & Screen 2026: Musical Theater Conference

gordoncox.substack.com: An annual event organized by the International Society for the Study of Musicals, the 2026 edition of Song, Stage & Screen brought together about 100 scholars from 17 countries and five continents. (This year the conference was held online; next year’s is in Sydney.) The 2026 theme, “Musicals Everywhere,” invited participants to look at musicals through a global lens—which explains how this journalist ended up getting asked to give a keynote alongside professors and grad students from across the globe.

Kids' Night on Broadway Sets August Return; 21 Shows Are Participating

Playbill: Kids' Night on Broadway, a program of The Broadway League that sends kids 18 and under to Broadway shows for free as long as they're accompanied by a full-paying adult, will return August 25.

Interview: Department Chair Robert Caisley On the University of Idaho's Distance-Based M.F.A. in Theatre Arts

www.broadwayworld.com: The University of Idaho Department of Theatre Arts offers a distance-based M.F.A. in Theatre Arts geared toward Working Theatre professionals and seasoned educators. The 60-credit program can be completed in three years, or fewer through an M.A. to M.F.A. conversion option, and offers both synchronous and asynchronous coursework so students can continue working within their local theatre communities while earning their degree.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

How a Romare Bearden Masterpiece Inspired August Wilson

The New York Times: The playwright August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson,” drew inspiration from the piece for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” a standout in his 10-play Century Cycle, focused on the residents of the predominantly Black Hill District in Pittsburgh.

On-Set Visual Effects Workers on Star Wars Productions Join IATSE

IATSE: A group of U.S. visual effects workers engaged directly by Star Wars franchise productions has joined the IATSE for collective bargaining purposes. The new bargaining unit includes U.S. workers who contribute to titles including, but not limited to: The Mandalorian & Grogu, Ahsoka, and Starfighter.

AI-powered drill press

Woodworking Network: According to the company, the SNIPER is designed to eliminate time-consuming manual alignment by using its Sniper Vision Targeting System to identify the intended drilling point and automatically position the spindle over the target.

Ryan Murphy to Receive Norman Lear Award at Showrunners Breakfast

variety.com: Variety‘s annual Showrunners Breakfast will return on August 14, featuring two spotlight conversations with a curated group of this year’s Emmy-nominated showrunners, plus the Norman Lear Creative Conscious Award presentation to Ryan Murphy.

Anti-Leatherman plier multitool hails from German legacy knifemaker

newatlas.com: When it comes to plier multitools, the classic Leatherman family has served as the de facto format for over 40 years, sometimes even working as a proprietary eponym. But it's not the only style of plier-equipped multitool out there, as German legacy knifemaker Böker reminds with the new Naturensöhne MK II NXT, a streamlined multitool that takes on a single-handle format more similar to a Swiss Army knife. It's built to travel swiftly and lightly across the great outdoors, slicing, sawing and cranking its weight's worth when things need to get done, and done right.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Trump Gutted the Kennedy Center. A Tour Guide Wants You to See It Anyway.

The New York Times: Some days no one turns up for a tour at all. Most days there are only a few, including those curious about all the reports of ruin. When people do come, what do they see?

SDCC Stunner: Hall H On Borrowed Time?

www.forbes.com: As San Diego Comic-Con 2026 wound down on Sunday, the organizers dropped a bombshell at the annual “Comic-Con Talkback Panel,” a forum for attendees to ask questions and vent grievances about the show. As fan after fan raised issues about getting into Hall H, the fabled 7,500 seat auditorium where the biggest studios make their biggest announcements during the show, Comic-Con Chief Communication and Strategy Officer David Glanzer made a seemingly offhand remark that raised eyebrows around the room.

Study Reveals That Creativity Has Been Declining Since the 1990s

mymodernmet.com: While both intelligence (IQ) and creativity (CQ) scores were climbing in the U.S. before 1990, creativity has since taken an alarming downward turn. Research by Kyung Hee Kim, a professor at William & Mary University, found that imaginative creativity for both children and adults has declined significantly over the past few decades.

Flexible PCBs: Not Only For The Few

Hackaday: Flexible printed circuit boards are a fascinating technique for making electronics venture beyond the two-dimensional, but surprisingly they’re not something many of us have worked with. [Jessica Stanley] gave a talk at the recent Electromagnetic Field event in the UK, exploring the different ways to make your electronics bend.

Interactive experience and gaming brand Time Mission announces 15+ location expansion for 2027

InPark Magazine: Time Mission, the social gaming location-based entertainment (LBE) brand, announced plans for its most ambitious expansion to date, with 15 to 20 new locations planned for 2027 and six venues currently under construction across the United States and Europe.