Brian May Reveals Reason the Band Won’t Tour in the U.S.

www.thedailybeast.com: “America is a dangerous place at the moment, so you have to take that into account,” he said. “It’s very sad because I feel like Queen grew up in America, and we love it, but it’s not what it was. Everyone is thinking twice about going there at the moment.”

Guardian of the Film Academy’s Treasures Talks Museum and Collection

www.hollywoodreporter.com: On Jan. 13, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Amy Homma, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ director and president, will henceforth also oversee the Academy Collection, which includes some 52 million film-related items held within the Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive, ranging from an original script of Citizen Kane to a pair of the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

D-Day VR Museum On Steam Is An Entertaining Educational Exhibition

www.uploadvr.com: On June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces launched the largest amphibious assault in history, turning the tide on the beaches of Normandy, eventually winning the Second World War against the Axis powers. This defining moment came to be known as D-Day. Countless accounts of it have been recorded since, making it a key point in history where democracy prevailed.

M-Cube Turns Historic Tunnel into Immersive LED Art Gallery

Sixteen:Nine | All Digital Signage, Some Snark: Italian digital signage specialist M-Cube has turned a historic underground tunnel in Gorizia, Italy, into a fully immersive LED art environment, blending contemporary digital media with protected architectural space in a carefully engineered installation.

Before a Rape Trial, a Theater Piece Passes Its Own Judgment

The New York Times: France’s reckoning with sexual violence isn’t over. After the case of Gisèle Pélicot, whose husband was found guilty in 2024 of drugging her and inviting strangers to sexually assault her, another large-scale trial looms on the horizon. This year, 17 men will appear in a French court on charges of gang rape and human trafficking that prosecutors say were linked to a pornographic website. And theater is already on the case.

'Go See a Show' encourages Pittsburgh audiences to attend performances

90.5 WESA: Pittsburgh’s three largest theater companies might be parting ways in terms of a potential merger. But this week, the troupes announced a new joint marketing initiative they hope will help performing-arts groups across the city. It’s called, straightforwardly enough, Go See a Show. It’s meant to get Pittsburgh audiences excited about live performance by letting them know more of what’s out there, while sweetening the pot with discounts and other promotions.

From classroom to credits

befores & afters: Coming from a film background, Hod always felt drawn to compositing – it relates directly to the shot as a whole. Compositors have a lot of impact on how the final image will look and the idea that you can take images from different sources and blend them seamlessly together was a draw.

All the world’s enraged: a new era of ‘resistance theater’ is rising as Trump attacks the arts

US news | The Guardian: On a cool winter night in Los Angeles, dozens gathered to protest against the Trump administration’s attacks on the arts and the recent federal immigration raids in southern California. But these protesters didn’t carry signs or chant in front of a government building – they recited poems such as Antifa Tea Party and Love in Times of Fascism. They performed anti-fascist improv to a small but lively crowd at The Glendale Room, a library-themed theater, as part of the monthly show Unquiet: A Night of Creative Resistance.

BMAC, Live Nation Urban Launch Paid Festival Accelerator for HBCU Talent

TicketNews: The Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) has announced a new collaboration with Student Freedom Initiative (SFI) and Live Nation Urban to create paid, hands-on pathways into the live music industry for HBCU students through a special cohort of the BMAC Live Accelerator Program.

Darren Aronofsky AI Revolutionary War Animated Series Used Human Voice Actors

variety.com: Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky used AI to travel back in time 250 years ago to the American Revolution. But he tapped real-life human actors to provide voices in documenting key events of the country’s foundational conflict.

To cry or not to cry: how moving the audience to tears can backfire

theconversation.com: “One must have a heart of stone not to read about the death of little Nell without laughing” was Oscar Wilde’s notorious response to the emotional onslaught of Charles Dickens’s 1841 novel, The Old Curiosity Shop. Having watched two films in two weeks about the death of a child, it offers a clue as to why I cried in only one.

Celebrating Black History Month

IATSE: As we observe Black History Month, we reaffirm a simple truth: Black history is American history! The story of our nation and of the labor movement cannot be told without the contributions, sacrifices, and leadership of Black workers who fought to expand opportunity, dignity, and democracy for all.

Music Managers to Watch Behind Chappell Roan, Olivia Dean & More

www.billboard.com: During a year in which demon hunters dominated, Goose and Geese both flew high and a British breakout earned a best new artist nod — among other major milestones on and off the Billboard charts — these managers helped guide their artists, songwriters and producers through their biggest wins to date.

Solid State Logic Provides Update On Certified Training Partner Program

ProSoundWeb: Solid State Logic has provided an update on its SSL Certified Training Partner Program that’s designed to provide schools and institutions the tools they need to help students build skills, expand their professional networks, and gain a competitive edge in the job market.

The Gerber Pocket Cleaver Could Be the EDC Tool You Actually Use

www.popularmechanics.com: Like most EDC enthusiasts, I have a lot of pocket knives that look quite similar (but I promise, I have a reason for owning each). I’m a sucker for the sleek, minimalist design of most pocket knives because they make for excellent compact carry. However, they can all start to look the same after a while. It gets harder to break through the noise of super steels, anodized handles, and shrinking multitools.

University installs cinema to showcase work by students

AV Magazine: The school of social sciences at one of South Africa’s leading universities’ has opened a cinema to allow students to experience the work they have produced in a professional and immersive environment.

‘Try/Step/Trip’ Is a Story of Hip-Hop Rehabilitation, Told in Step

The New York Times: Dahlak Brathwaite was on the rise. He had just graduated from the University of California, Davis, and he had appeared twice as a spoken-word poet on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam.” Then he was pulled over by a police officer, who found hallucinogenic mushrooms in his car and arrested him.

The Super Bowl Will Test New Device for Blind Fans Who Want to Enjoy the Big Game

gizmodo.com: For years, blind and low-vision sports fans have been limited to audio play-by-play commentary to follow their favorite teams. But that isn’t always ideal. Audio feeds can lag behind the action, miss key moments, leaving fans having to repeatedly ask friends or family for clarification on what’s going on the field or court.

Google's Project Genie Is Not for You

gizmodo.com: Google has a whole new world for people to play in—but only for a minute. This week, the company released Project Genie, which the company calls its “general-purpose world model” that is capable of generating interactive environments. First unveiled to a small group of invite-only testers back in August of last year, the model, known as Genie 3, is now rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US, so you can get your hands on it for the low, low price of $250 per month.

The Columbia Theatre – Sharon, PA

After the Final Curtain: The Columbia Theatre opened on November 29, 1922, with 1,732 seats and a construction cost of $350,000 (about $6 million today). It was built by the Columbia Amusement Company, which also operated theaters in Warren, Erie, and Salamanca. Architect Arland W. Johnson of New York City designed it as a true vaudeville palace—complete with a marble staircase, full stage, orchestra pit, seven dressing rooms, and elaborate plasterwork throughout the auditorium.

'Go See A Show' Offers Discounted Tickets to Participating Pittsburgh-Area Theaters

onstagepittsburgh.com: Go See a Show, a regional initiative currently involving nearly 20 producing theater companies, is underway, offering discounts to performances and aiming to “reenergize local audiences and celebrate the enduring impact of live theater.”

West End Production of HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD Will Become One Part

www.broadwayworld.com: After ten years in the West End as a two-part theatrical event, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will evolve into a single performance-format. The production will move to the version of the show currently performed by companies around the globe, including the Broadway production in New York City, where the reimagined one-part production premiered in 2021 and is currently breaking all major box-office records.

How to build a culture of innovation

Fast Company: Every company wants to be innovative. Most approach this by trying to hire highly creative specialists or by spinning up a new “innovation” team. But companies that consistently innovate do something different: They build company-wide systems focused on customer solutions and make innovation part of everyday business.

Trump Announces Kennedy Center Closure Due to 'Renovations'

www.ticketnews.com: The President said the venue will officially close on July 4, 2026, noting that the center has spent a year consulting with contractors, musical experts, art institutions, and other advisers and consultants to decide whether or not the venue will close and reopen or move forward with partial construction while still holding performances. Trump noted that “if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding,” the venue “can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World.”

ADJ and AVANTE Audio gear up for ISE 2026

TPi: Many of the new lighting products being shown by ADJ at ISE were first unveiled to international audiences at the LDI show in Las Vegas in December, giving EMEA visitors the opportunity to experience these solutions in person for the first time. AVANTE Audio will also use the exhibition to showcase its exciting new Akro Series active line array system, which pairs power and performance with precision and portability.

Evolution Dome US Revs Up Ford’s Historic F1 Return in Detroit

Event Industry News: As Ford Motor Company roared back into Formula 1 with the reveal of its new racing lineup, inflatable structure specialist Evolution Dome was on the ground to ensure the event infrastructure was just as cutting-edge as the cars.

Amazon’s Firm Order to Employees on ‘Melania’ Revealed

www.thedailybeast.com: Amazon did not allow talent to opt out of working on Melania for political reasons, a new report alleges. That order came straight from Amazon’s leadership, forcing studio staff to choose between working on an absurdly expensive documentary about Melania Trump or risk losing their jobs, three sources told The New York Times

The Number of TV Shows Available in the U.S. Fell Again in 2025

www.hollywoodreporter.com: The number of original series running on networks and streaming services in 2025 was down for the third straight year since a high in 2022. According to a year-end report from data firm Luminate, 1,122 shows premiered last year, an 11 percent drop from the 1,266 premieres in 2024. Since hitting a high of 1,695 shows in 2022, per Luminate, the TV landscape (excluding live sports and news programming) has shrunk by a third.

"The Gift That Keeps on Giving": An Interview with Carmelita Tropicana

www.thesegalcenter.org: For longtime frequenters of the downtown New York theatre scene, Carmelita Tropicana is a household name. In her decades-long career as a performance artist, actor, author, and teacher, she has built a body of work that alloys raucous humor and fantastical role play—with the help of a roster of memorable personas and characters—to interrogate the entanglements of queerness, ethnicity, nationality, and gender.

Grammys 2026 stage features "modern sculptural" gramophone

www.dezeen.com: The stage and scenography for the Grammy Awards ceremony in LA this coming weekend is designed by New York-based Yellow Studio and anchored by a giant golden gramophone. The Recording Academy's annual celebration of musical achievement, which takes place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on 1 February 2026, is Yellow Studio's fifth production design for the Grammys.

Chicago theaters bet on the future

Chicago Reader: The theaters-to-apartments pipeline in Chicago has claimed several long-running venues in recent years, including Briar Street Theatre (longtime home of the Blue Man Group), the Royal George (which debuted in 1984 and primarily served as a rental facility), and Stage 773 on Belmont (which opened as the Theatre Building in 1977 and has been home to countless companies and productions in the decades since). All three sites are slated for residential or mixed-use development.

Kennedy Center was always in the political spotlight but not like this

Los Angeles Times: Last Tuesday, Philip Glass withdrew the delayed premiere in June of his latest symphony, No. 15. Originally meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2022, it is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but the composer decided the values of the current Kennedy Center were “in direct conflict to the message of the symphony,” which is inspired by Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address.

Tickets Now on Sale for Kids' Night on Broadway Featuring THE OUTSIDERS, WICKED and More

www.broadwayworld.com: Tickets for Kids’ Night on Broadway are now on sale. The program returns to New York City on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, with 18 participating Broadway shows. A program of The Broadway League, Kids’ Night on Broadway allows anyone 18 and under to attend a participating Broadway show for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult.

Consumer Advocate Urges Senators to Look Beyond ‘Bots and Scalpers’ Ahead of Senate Hearing on Ticketing

TicketNews: As the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy prepares to gavel in today’s high-profile ticketing hearing, a major consumer advocacy group is urging lawmakers not to let the conversation collapse into a familiar script: blame scalpers, blame bots, and leave the structure of the market untouched.

Miss Saigon Will Return to London's West End in 2027

Playbill: The international hit musical Miss Saigon, which launched the career of Lea Salonga, will return to the West End in 2027, playing an eight-month limited engagement at the Prince Edward Theatre, more than a decade since the last revival played that same theatre.

Tony Award-winning producers Hal Luftig, Cathy Dantchik and Kevin Connor launch new production company

www.broadwaynews.com: Tony Award-winning producers Hal Luftig, Cathy Dantchik and Kevin Connor have announced the establishment of a new company. Halcyon Theatricals provides producing, consulting and dramaturgy services in addition to lead-producing new work for the stage. According to a release, the company gets its name from “the mythic halcyon bird who could calm the seas and create a time of success, prosperity and harmony.”

Christie to showcase the power of visual storytelling at ISE 2026

TPi: Showcasing an array of innovative and adaptable solutions, Christie will highlight its latest visual technologies across a range of immersive and interactive demonstrations, including 1DLP and 3DLP laser projectors, LED video walls, and powerful image processing solutions.

4 New DeWalt Products Coming Out In 2026 That Aren't Power Tools

www.slashgear.com: It would be nearly impossible for any hardware manufacturer to make and sell every single type of tool available, which is why there are always tools that one brand makes that another doesn't. For instance, there are Milwaukee tools you won't find from DeWalt, including common devices like soldering irons and more innovative tools, like the Drain Cleaning Air Gun.

A 3-day Broadway Concert is Happening in the Hudson Valley This Summer: How to Get Tickets

www.timeout.com/newyork: New York theatre’s summer plans just got a major new addition. In August, a first-of-its-kind, three-day outdoor Broadway celebration will head north of the city, transforming Kingston’s historic Hutton Brickyards into a destination for musical theatre fans. Running August 14–16, The Festival reimagines Broadway as a full-scale festival experience, blending big voices, beloved songs and scenic Hudson Valley surroundings.

Recipients of the 2026 Victor Shargai Leadership Award Announced

DC Theater Arts: The Board of Directors and Advancement Committee of Theatre Washington, in partnership with Craig Pascal, community advocate and husband of Victor Shargai, are thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2026 Victor Shargai Leadership Award: award-winning playwright, director, and actor Psalmayene 24 and philanthropist and theater champion Share Fund, with leadership by Julie Jacobson and Pamela Nash.

An Open Letter to Richard Grenell

by Emil J Kang: You said something on PBS NewsHour that I want to take seriously: “We cannot have arts institutions that lose money.” You are responding to real pressures. I’ve spent thirty years in this sector. I’ve sat in rooms where we discussed debt reserves, union contracts, and ticket revenue that could not cover costs. I’ve felt the anxiety you’re responding to. It’s real. But the conclusion you’ve drawn from it reflects a misunderstanding of what you’ve inherited.

Why Did Teatro ZinZanni in Chicago Just Close?

www.timeout.com/chicago: Teatro ZinZanni will wrap its current Chicago run this Saturday, effectively going dark through the spring and summer, with hopes of returning in the fall. The immersive dinner-theater staple has been a Loop fixture since 2019, serving multi-course meals alongside circus acts, cabaret, comedy and live music inside a custom Spiegeltent perched on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel on West Randolph Street.

The Guardian view on the class crisis in the arts: the UK’s culture must not become the preserve of the elite

Editorial | The Guardian: In his McTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV festival in 2024, the playwright James Graham called class “everyone’s least favourite diversity and representation category”. A socioeconomic duty on public bodies was included in 2010’s Equality Act, but has never been enacted.

MEXODUS to Return to NYC This Spring at the Daryl Roth Theatre

www.broadwayworld.com: On the heels of a twice-extended run at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in Fall 2025, Mexodus, the new musical written and performed by Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, choreographed by Tony Thomas, and directed by David Mendizábal, will return to New York City this spring for a limited 10-week-only engagement. Performances begin Friday, March 6 at the Daryl Roth Theatre.

Gloves

Cool Tools: These Spectra/Kevlar gloves are used in the restaurant industry to defend against knife and mandolin cuts, as well as handling trash that may have protruding bits of glass and fish bones. I read about them in a cooking magazine, and bought one glove after cutting myself on a mandolin.

Trump Announces Sweeping Kennedy Center Renovation Plan

Engineering News-Record: President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Feb. 1 that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will undergo a sweeping renovation that would require a multiyear closure. In a post that reads more like a declaration than a proposal, Trump said that following the nation’s 250th birthday celebration, the venue would close for as long as two years.

The Kennedy Center Embarrassed Trump, so Now He Needs to Destroy It

www.jezebel.com: As soon as artists and performers began canceling their scheduled Kennedy Center engagements en masse following President Donald Trump’s historically self-aggrandizing move to add his own name to the building, we probably should have figured that the single most likely outcome would be that Trump would immediately begin tracing his fat fingers over a glowing, red self-destruct button for the center, which has served the American public for 55 years since its opening in 1971.

KSS NW LTD takes home Festival Supplier Award

Access All Areas: Bolton-based security and crowd management company KSS NW LTD won the Best Crowd Management & Security award at the Festival Supplier Awards last week. The award was presented on 29 January at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London and recognises performance across the UK and Ireland’s outdoor events and festival industry.

White Light elevates Channing School’s production with expert technical solutions

LightSoundJournal.com: Channing School, renowned for its commitment to creativity and excellence in performing arts, recently captivated audiences with its ambitious musical production of Hadestown. Known for its bold storytelling and immersive staging, the school’s Performing Arts team sought a solution that would bring the industrial, underground aesthetic of the West End show to life, while empowering students to lead on technical execution.

Is the Husky Tripod from Home Depot an Influencer's Dream?

www.themarysue.com: Arguably, the best thing for any retailer these days is for one of its products to go viral online. If a TikTok girlie with a sizable audience reviews your product favorably, her followers will inevitably flock in droves to get said object for themselves.

Kennedy Center Official Resigns Less Than Two Weeks After Hiring

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Kevin Couch, the newly appointed head of artistic programming at the Kennedy Center, has resigned from his post. Couch told The New York Times that he left his position of senior vice president of artistic programming Wednesday, but did not provide a reason for his resignation.

Seattle Children's Theatre Pulls Bruce Lee Play From Kennedy Center Lineup

Playbill: Seattle Children's Theatre has joined the growing list of artists who wish to no longer be affiliated with the Kennedy Center following President Trump's takeover. On January 20, the theatre announced that it would be pulling its upcoming production of Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story from the Washington, D.C. institution's Family Theatre venue.

Review: Prime Stage Shines a Spotlight on the 'Freedom House' Hidden Figures

onstagepittsburgh.com: The pioneering Freedom House Ambulance Service has garnered much-deserved attention of late, thanks to The Pitt, the HBO show that shines a spotlight on all things Pittsburgh, following the WQED documentary Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders and the 2022 book American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, by Kevin Hazzard.