CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Apple TV returns to Farnborough Studios for ‘Neuromancer’

Reel 360 News: Apple TV returned to Farnborough International Studios to produce its upcoming sci-fi series Neuromancer, continuing its use of the UK facility after Prime Target.

Claypaky at PLASA Show 2026: The New B-EYE Family Debuts with IP66 Rating and RGBL Engine

LightSoundJournal.com: PLASA Show 2026 is currently serving as the meeting point for the entertainment technology sector, and Claypaky is present in London with a selection of technologies developed for professional lighting. The main highlight is the new B-EYE family, making its international debut right at the London event. This new multi-lens platform updates one of Claypaky’s most recognizable concepts by intervening on its source, optics, movement, and creative possibilities.

IATSE Applauds Building Momentum for US Federal Film and Television Production Incentive as Trump Announces Support

IATSE: IATSE welcomes President Donald Trump’s public endorsement of a federal film and television production incentive and is encouraged to see growing support for a policy the union has championed for years, Tuesday.

Claypaky Turns 50

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: Today, 50 years after its foundation, Claypaky celebrates its golden anniversary. It was on August 28, 1976, that Pasquale Quadri "Paky" -- a musician passionate about photography and optics -- founded the company in Bergamo, Italy, with an idea that was anything but obvious at the time: light could be much more than illumination. Paky saw a different future: light could become an active creative element, capable of moving, transforming, interacting with music and, above all, generating emotion.

Oh, Mary! Stage Film Will Debut on HBO, Starring Cole Escola

Playbill: Great days are officially ahead in 2027! The live stage film of Oh, Mary! will debut on HBO and stream on HBO Max next year. The play was filmed in London's West End July 28, with writer and original Broadway star Cole Escola in the title role. Sam Pinkleton re-created his Tony-winning direction for the screen version as well. A premiere date is to be announced.

Kennedy Center could close as early as Tuesday, warns of bankruptcy, documents show

The Washington Post: Leaders of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, installed by President Donald Trump, say the center is on the brink of bankruptcy and argue that putting the president’s name on its facade — and thus ensuring his fundraising efforts — may be the only way to avoid imminent and “certain fiscal collapse,” according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Pittsburgh Ballet Theater's New Artistic Director Has Bold Plans

Pittsburgh Magazine: Susan Jaffe has a list of goals she wants to accomplish as Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s sixth artistic director: increasing PBT’s touring and roster size, invigorating the repertoire and enhancing the dancers’ strengths. But her immediate priority since she took the position in July 2020 has been installing pandemic precautions to safely return dancers to the studio for classes and rehearsals.

Irondale Ensemble Project to Launch New Initiative For A New Generation Of Theater Makers

BroadwayWorld: Irondale is launching Irondale NextGen, a new artistic initiative that creates opportunities for a new generation of directors, performers, and theater makers within the Irondale Ensemble to develop and lead projects of their own, drawing on the philosophy and practices developed by the company's founders and longtime ensemble.

Quantum Theatre Names Katie Brook New Artistic Director

Table Magazine: When Quantum Theatre announced that founder and longtime artistic director Karla Boos would be stepping down, the company launched an international search for her successor. In the end, they found their choice — in rehearsals for Quantum’s next show.

Meet Michael Man, the versatile actor playing Gollum at the Stratford Festival

Intermission Magazine: There’s something delightfully impish about the way Michael Man moves onstage. I noticed it when I saw the actor in the Stratford Festival’s world premiere production of Jovanni Sy 施崇梵’s The Tao of the World as Dr. Wilson Wong, a sexually repressed, buttoned-up physician from Saskatchewan caught in the social chaos of a wealthy Singaporean family. I noticed it again in The Hobbit, when he played the instantly recognizable Gollum, a creature who has spent centuries skulking around Middle-earth obsessing over a certain band of gold.

Kennedy Center disassembles 'Blue' sculpture from its grounds

PBS News: The Kennedy Center took down a sculpture known as "Blue" Wednesday, the latest change to the cultural and performing arts center that stirred some pushback in President Donald Trump's second term. The sculpture, a tall, blue stick figure poised in action — as if to kick a ball or, from a different angle, having just kicked one — was designed by sculptor Joel Shapiro and installed in 2019.

Chris Rock Says Infamous Bully Scott Rudin Made Him Better Filmmaker

variety.com: Following a triumphant Toronto International Film Festival premiere for his latest directorial effort “Misty Green,” Rock sat for a keynote chat on Sunday to discuss his expansive career. The comedian told the crowd his chops were elevated by Scott Rudin, a former producing kingpin who disappeared after harrowing accounts of bullying, verbal abuse and being an “absolute monster” in a 2021 exposé.

Monday, September 14, 2026

The Sol Project Marks 10 Years With SolFest 2026

AMERICAN THEATRE: The Sol Project, the Obie award-winning theatre initiative dedicated to producing and elevating Latine voices, has announced SolFest 2026, its annual festival celebrating Latine writers and artists with Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) and North Star Projects. This year’s festival marks the Sol Project’s 10th anniversary and SolFest’s 9th year. This season’s SolFest will run Sept. 27-Oct. 4 throughout Manhattan, with readings of new work presented at PRTT in midtown Manhattan.

Making films against the odds

amp.dw.com: No matter how difficult the conditions, there's only one thing that matters to these artists: making films. Forbidden scenes from Egypt, bold young people in Sierra Leone, behind closed doors in Iran, and the hidden world of an Indigenous community in the Brazilian rainforest.  Along with 200 other international talents, the filmmakers were guests at Berlinale Talents, the Berlin Film Festival’s global networking program.

The Metropolitan Opera reimagines Mozart at Coney Island. It involves snakes

NPR: The Metropolitan Opera has reimagined a version of Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" set at Coney Island in the 1950s. Live snakes were auditioned and a large boa constrictor named Princess has been cast.

Hollywood Studios at Disney World Adds 4 New Experiences Replacing Star Wars Attraction

disneytips.com: Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been an ever-changing park at Walt Disney World this year, and it is not finished. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster reopened with the Muppets. The Mandalorian and Grogu joined Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. Monstropolis got a partial 2027 opening timeline at D23.

Robert Juliat Modernizes The Grand Old Lady of Leven Street in Edinburgh

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: Built in 1906, the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, fondly referred to as The Grand Old Lady of Leven Street, has just emerged from a four-year heritage redevelopment with major alterations to public and technical infrastructure. Home to a wide variety of entertainment from drama to dance, musicals to family shows, live music to pantomime

Man Sentenced to 2-Year Jail Sentence After Strangling Fellow Theatregoer for Singing Along During We Will Rock You

Playbill: Seventy-five year-old Malcolm Potier was sentenced to jail time for strangling a fellow theatregoer at a 2023 performance of Queen jukebox musical We Will Rock You in London's West End. According to MyLondon, the sentence was handed down by Southwark Crown Court Judge Dafna Spiro September 10.

What Happened To Wreck It Ralph At Disney World?

brobible.com: Parades are arguably the pinnacle of the Walt Disney World experience. However, one recent “Boo To You” parade in the Florida resort went viral for all the wrong reasons. In a TikTok that has garnered 1.4 million views, TikToker user Tree (@tsh1123) expressed her concerns over a Disney World employee.

The art of producing

Chicago Reader: Before any performer twirls a tassel, drops into a split, or picks up a mike, there’s a producer writing emails, organizing spreadsheets, calling venues, crunching numbers, creating posters, tracking ticket sales, wrangling tech information, hiring talent—you get the idea. I haven’t been producing that long, but from just the handful of shows I’ve put on, I can tell you it’s a heavy task.

Meyer Sound Names John McMahon As Chief Operating Officer

ProSoundWeb: Meyer Sound has named John McMahon chief operating officer, expanding a leadership role that has steadily grown over his 20 years with the company. “We push our products to perform at an extremely high level, and we’re pushing ourselves to perform at that same level from a business perspective,” says McMahon. “That means the way we operate has to scale with where we’re growing.”

Why You Feel Time-Poor Even After Work Hours Dropped

www.asianefficiency.com: The people who come to me for productivity coaching are already overwhelmed. They’re living in email, Slack, WhatsApp, and DMs. They feel like they never have enough time. If that’s who I spend my days with, I start assuming the whole world is drowning.

NOW YOU SEE ME LIVE to Open on Broadway This Holiday Season

BroadwayWorld: Following a year of sold-out engagements in Australia, Singapore, and London's West End, Now You See Me Live arrives in New York City this holiday season for eight weeks only at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway.

In The Attic, Shana Carroll Reflects on a Life Spent on the Trapeze

Playbill: Shana Carroll’s distinguished career in the circus arts—during which she’s performed as a Cirque du Soleil soloist, co-founded the Montreal-based circus-theatre collective The 7 Fingers, and earned a Tony Award nomination as co-choreographer and circus designer for Water for Elephants—began with a simple yet transformative encounter at age 18.

Sunday, September 13, 2026

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

London The Hunger Games Play Will Get New Cast for 2nd Year

Playbill: May the odds be ever in the favor of the new slate of actors readying to join The Hunger Games stage play in London's West End! The world premiere stage adaptation of the first novel in Suzanne Collins' epic, dystopian book series will get a new cast for the second year of its run at the purpose-built, in-the-round Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre.

ChatGPT Sketch turns your bad drawings into detailed AI images

The Verge: OpenAI announced ChatGPT Images 2.5 on Tuesday and is adding a new way to tell ChatGPT what you want it to make an image of: by drawing a doodle. With a new feature called Sketch, you can just draw something right inside ChatGPT and then tell ChatGPT how you want it to make an image based on that sketch.

What a Character Wears Is Never an Accident: Roger Teng on the Psychology of Costume Design

BroadwayWorld: When audiences watch a performance, they often notice a costume without thinking about why it feels right. A jacket, a dress, or even the way a garment fits can quietly shape the first impression of a character before a single line of dialogue is spoken. While actors bring characters to life through performance, costume designers help audiences understand who those characters are long before the story unfolds.

Check the Wall Before You Climb Faster

www.asianefficiency.com: Every Tuesday at 4 PM, I review upcoming tasks. 1.5 hours. If something doesn’t align with my top goals, I eliminate it. I keep this ritual because low-impact work still costs payroll. My time. My energy. Skip a week of it and it’s easy to spend the rest of the week on work that never should have made the list.

Behr Names Grounded Its 2027 Color of the Year

design-milk.com: Green certainly isn’t revolutionary in interiors, but Behr’s 2027 Color of the Year makes the case that there is still plenty of territory to explore. Grounded (T27-01) sits somewhere between moss and olive, tempered by brown undertones that give the shade a noticeably earthier character.

 

Friday, September 11, 2026

Fusion for Personal Use: The Best Free CAD Tool You Should Consider Upgrading

Fusion Blog: Maybe you’re designing parts for a 3D printer, building custom furniture in your garage, restoring a classic car, creating RC components, or simply learning CAD for the first time. Whatever brought you here, Autodesk Fusion for personal use gives hobbyists and makers access to professional-grade design tools at no cost.

4 Bosch Power Tools With Deep Discounts In September 2026

www.slashgear.com: September looks to be a great month for Bosch fans. More specifically, fans of what Bosch makes beyond home appliances. The company's power tool line has a variety of nice discounts floating around out there, with many of the steepest price cuts only on sale through the end of the month.

Behr Names Grounded Its 2027 Color of the Year

design-milk.com: Green certainly isn’t revolutionary in interiors, but Behr’s 2027 Color of the Year makes the case that there is still plenty of territory to explore. Grounded (T27-01) sits somewhere between moss and olive, tempered by brown undertones that give the shade a noticeably earthier character.

Can We Talk About Success? The Pregones/PRTT Story

AMERICAN THEATRE: Before founding Pregones in 1979, Rosalba Rolón considered a job in marketing for Miriam Colón at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT). Rolón, then in her 20s, recalled that she was nervous in Colón’s presence. She looked up to the iconic actress and director, who had paved the way for Latine theatremakers by founding PRTT in 1953 as one of the first Puerto Rican theatres in the U.S., and the only one in Manhattan’s theatre district. When Colón offered Rolón the marketing gig, Rolón accepted, but with a disclaimer.

BMG and Concord complete merger and announce leadership structure

www.broadwaynews.com: International music company BMG Rights Management has completed its combination with Concord, announcing its new executive management and strategic leadership teams. BMG and Concord previously announced the agreement to combine their businesses on April 28, a transaction that has been finalized following the receipt of all required regulatory approvals.

Rendez-vous 2026 Brings Canada's Live Performance Community Together in Ottawa

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: 2026 Rendez-vous, held August 12 to 14 in Ottawa, Ontario, brought together emerging and established professionals from across Canada's live performance and events industry. The annual conference and trade show, which moves to a different Canadian city each year, welcomed both CITT/ICTS members and non-members in a welcoming, hands-on environment designed to inspire ideas, strengthen connections, and support career growth.

The Creators of Come From Away Recall Living in NYC During 9/11, and How That Influenced Their Musical

Playbill: Irene Sankoff and David Hein have always considered their musical Come From Away as a show, not about 9/11, but about what happened on 9/12 and after. Notes Hein, "In times of tragedy, we often focus on the horrible things that happen. And in the days after, it's the wave of support and the wave of people who are doing good that doesn't get highlighted enough."

CallSheet adds Wrap Sheet to simplify production close-outs

Reel 360 News: CallSheet: Crew Calls has added a new feature to tackle one of production’s less glamorous but essential rituals: wrapping the job. The new Wrap Sheet workflow allows producers to send selected crew members a single closing email containing a thank-you, job code and invoicing instructions once production is complete.

Battery Park City Announces Free Fall 2026 Events

www.timeout.com/newyork: Lower Manhattan is about to get considerably brighter. Battery Park City has unveiled its fall 2026 programming, with four months of free performances, festivals, environmental events and community celebrations planned along the waterfront.

Laika Officially Doubles Down on Stop-Motion in the AI Era

collider.com: This past weekend, on Sunday during the Telluride Film Festival, Laika President and CEO Travis Knight sat down for a discussion with cinematographer and six-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel and film expert Dave Karger to talk about Wildwood, the next stop-motion animated film from Laika.

Harman system reinforces sound at world's oldest mosque

AV Magazine: The mosque that is widely regarded by historians as the first one ever built has implemented a Harman Professional audio system designed to deliver consistent, highly intelligible sound across its expanded prayer spaces. As one of only four mosques mentioned in the Quran, Quba Mosque in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina stands among Islam’s most historic places of worship – making clarity, consistency and restraint in sound reinforcement especially critical.

Inside Camelback Productions' Plans for an AI-Powered Production Space

variety.com: Anita Verma-Lallian, founder of Camelback Productions, doesn’t see the future of film production in Los Angeles. Instead, in her vision, it is on a complex one hour’s drive west of Phoenix, complete with backlots, a Universal Studios-inspired theme park — and a data center.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

PortAventura World gets ready for its most complete Halloween yet: a new passage andproposals for the whole family

Amusement Today: PortAventura World is preparing for a new Halloween season with a renewed proposal that raises the intensity of the experience and expands its entertainment offering. From September 19 to November 15, PortAventura Park will transform its areas with new elements of terror and proposals for the whole family, among which the premiere of El Carnicero de Penitence, a new passage in Far West.

ChatGPT Sketch turns your bad drawings into detailed AI images

The Verge: OpenAI announced ChatGPT Images 2.5 on Tuesday and is adding a new way to tell ChatGPT what you want it to make an image of: by drawing a doodle. With a new feature called Sketch, you can just draw something right inside ChatGPT and then tell ChatGPT how you want it to make an image based on that sketch.

LDI & Live Design Are Thrilled To Announce The Return Of The Excellence In Live Design Awards

Live Design Online: LDI and Live Design are thrilled to announce the return of the Excellence in Live Design Awards, celebrating the outstanding projects, people, and creative and technical achievements shaping the live entertainment and events industry.

How to Make Sense of 4,000 Edinburgh Shows: Just Soak It All Up

The New York Times: “Fringe” implies decoration happening out on a margin, threads on the hem of a larger garment. But if you have ever elbowed your way down a crammed Edinburgh sidewalk in August, past hundreds of posters for stand-up shows and circus spectaculars, accepting promotional fliers from, say, a woman wearing a disco ball on her head — you might wonder what garment could possibly be larger than this.

Wendell Pierce Joins Classical Theatre of Harlem's Board of Directors

BroadwayWorld: The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH), one of the nation's leading theater companies and the producer of the acclaimed annual Uptown Shakespeare in the Park, announced the appointment of award-winning actor, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Wendell Pierce to its Board of Directors.

Daniel Millhouse Named Managing Artistic Director of Buffalo Theatre Ensemble

BroadwayWorld: Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (BTE), the professional theater company in residence at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC), is pleased to announce that, in keeping with the company's general policy of promoting from within, BTE Interim Artistic Managing Director Daniel Millhouse has been named the company's new Managing Artistic Director.

London The Hunger Games Play Will Get New Cast for 2nd Year

Playbill: May the odds be ever in the favor of the new slate of actors readying to join The Hunger Games stage play in London's West End! The world premiere stage adaptation of the first novel in Suzanne Collins' epic, dystopian book series will get a new cast for the second year of its run at the purpose-built, in-the-round Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre.

Special Events Set for SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY

BroadwayWorld: MTC will host a series of special events and conversations, inviting audiences to explore the play’s themes of identity, beauty, colorism, friendship, education, empowerment, and belonging through a range of varied perspectives from artists, scholars, activists, and community leaders.

Line Voltage Into an Ethernet Switch—What Happens?

John Huntington: I’ve always wondered, what if a forklift operator ran over a power cable and an Ethernet line and crushed them together, shorting the high voltage into the low-voltage Ethernet switch? I’ve seen interfaces blown out on switches before, but I was never around when it happened. But I had a couple extra switches and some other parts laying around, so I decided to do a test; the results really surprised me.

Hsin Hsuan Yeh Presents 'The River Within You' in Venice

variety.com: Taiwanese animation director Hsin Hsuan Yeh (“Sense of Nowhere”) is in pre-production on “The River Within You,” an immersive VR experience exploring the connection between holding on to the memory of someone lost and finding the strength to let them go. Yeh will present the project at the 13th Venice Production Bridge’s Gap-Financing Market, running Sept. 4-6.

What a Character Wears Is Never an Accident: Roger Teng on the Psychology of Costume Design

BroadwayWorld: When audiences watch a performance, they often notice a costume without thinking about why it feels right. A jacket, a dress, or even the way a garment fits can quietly shape the first impression of a character before a single line of dialogue is spoken. While actors bring characters to life through performance, costume designers help audiences understand who those characters are long before the story unfolds.

Dollywood to Honor Dolly Parton With New Experiences & Installations

www.billboard.com: The team at Dollywood is working “9 to 5” to celebrate Dolly Parton and her life after the country icon’s death on Aug. 25. Eugene Naughton, the president of Dollywood Parks & Resorts, revealed the plans for the theme park located in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., during a press conference Wednesday (Sept. 2).