Touring company takes zany look at the Bible

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The world-famous Reduced Shakespeare Company will close the 2008 season at the Mountain Playhouse performing its zany show, 'The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged)' beginning Wednesday."

‘To Be Straight With You’ Explores Religion and Homosexuality

NYTimes.com: "Lloyd Newson first became recognized as a choreographer who boldly blurs the boundaries between dance and theater when his British company, DV8 Physical Theater, arrived on the scene in 1986. His intensely physical, sometimes violent pieces deal frankly with complex issues like sexuality, masculinity and alienation. In “Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men” from 1988, for example, he explored a serial killer’s psyche through intense, repetitive movements that were physically daring, even dangerous: falling, climbing, dancers’ throwing one another around."

PDFtk - One App to Collate, Split, Rotate and Watermark PDFs

MakeUseOf.com: "While looking for some portable apps to add to my USB drive I came across really cool utility for working with PDF files. The app is called PDFTK Builder. It’s a standalone program (so you can carry it around on your USB driver) that allows you to:
- Merge multiple PDF files into one
- Insert certain pages from one PDF into another
- Rearrange, delete pages, rotate pages within the PDF
- Split single PDF document into multiple files
- Password protect PDF document
- Disable Priting functionality and more
For the most part the program is fairly intuitive, simply select the input PDF docs, choose desired action and click on save button. Though some other features like rearranging pages within the document or merging a part of one document with the other require brief illustration."

Prototype - We’ll Fill This Space, but First a Nap

NYTimes.com: "Most people, Dr. Ellenbogen says, think of the sleeping brain as similar to a computer that has “gone to sleep” — it does nothing productive. Wrong. Sleep enhances performance, learning and memory. Most unappreciated of all, sleep improves creative ability to generate aha! moments and to uncover novel connections among seemingly unrelated ideas."

Monday Master Class: The Study Hacks Guide to Beating Student Stress

Study Hacks: "As the fall semester picks up speed, your workload is likely growing into something fierce. The optimism of the first few weeks — when assignments were light, beer always available, and plans ambitious — is starting to give way under the reality of conflicting deadlines and exams. To me, this is a perfect time to review some of our most effective stress reduction strategies. Attack stress now, before things get out of hand, and the rest of the semester can unfold without unnecessary pain."

Treasure in them there hills

New Statesman: "From the roof terrace of the Nós do Morro theatre in the Vidigal favela, Rio de Janeiro looks like the sparkling tropical paradise it would be in a perfect world. Ipanema Beach is just visible in the moonlight and the shanty towns stretching up the hills are spangled like Christmas trees with blue and orange street lamps. Inside the hot, airless auditorium the audience is settling in for a performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Babies snuffle, teenagers laugh and fidget. People greet one another with easy smiles and handslaps. This is not a rarefied, high-class crowd - it is drawn from a community in one of Rio's many poor and conflict-battered districts."

UCLA to cancel festival opener

Variety: "The visa application for Austrian actor Martin Niedermair has been rejected by the Dept. of Homeland Security, forcing UCLA Live to cancel the first production of its Intl. Theater Festival."

SCT brings out some hungry, dancing "Living Dead"

Seattle Times Newspaper: "When it comes to entertainment for children, what could possibly appeal to them more than the living dead killing people and eating their flesh?
Forget Anne Frank and 'Our Town.' Seattle Children's Theatre (SCT) is taking on another classic: 'Night of the Living Dead.'"

Comedy Preview: Another 'Record' spoofing

PostGazette: "At a time when big changes, political and financial, are bearing down on us, it's tempting to take refuge in the idea Pittsburgh will always stay the same. Even if, looking ahead 50 years, the casino's still half-built, the city and county can't hammer out a merger and the Pirates are limping through their 66th losing season."

Stage Review: Three's a charm in New Works wrap-up

PostGazette: "I call it a tasting menu because you wouldn't exactly call them plays. It takes a lot of skill to pack a real play into a short form (oddly enough, all three of these run exactly 30 minutes), and the Festival???s developing playwrights are more likely to create character sketches, comic skits or dramatic scenes."

Dance Review: 'Tango' a romantic fling

PostGazette: "While the federal government was learning that it takes two to tango in negotiations this past weekend over the Wall Street bailout, there were some experts on view at the Byham Theater Friday night."

Philip Glass pens Walt Disney opera

Variety: "New York City Opera has commissioned composer Philip Glass (“Koyaanisqatsi,” “The Hours”) to pen a new opera about Walt Disney, to be stage in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable.New York City Opera has commissioned composer Philip Glass (“Koyaanisqatsi,” “The Hours”) to pen a new opera about Walt Disney, to be stage in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable."

Making the Band, the Broadway Version, in the Musical ‘13’

NYTimes.com: "JASON ROBERT BROWN, the Tony Award-winning composer of the musical “Parade,” has been spending a lot of time with a bunch of teenagers. Day after day, at Carroll Studios, at the far end of West 55th Street near 12th Avenue in Manhattan, he has drilled them on the same piece of pop-rock music, pacing back and force with calm confidence, pointing out errors and occasionally plunking out a few piano notes of instruction, while his mop-headed charges hunch over their guitars and other instruments, receiving his wisdom through a seemingly bored air of I-don’t-care cool."

Kristin Scott Thomas Comes to Broadway in “The Seagull’

NYTimes.com: "IN France, where she began acting and where she has lived for the last 28 years, Kristin Scott Thomas is known as “la plus Anglaise des Parisiennes ou la plus Parisienne des Anglaises”: the most English of the Parisians or the most Parisian of the English. She has said of herself that she is a Frenchwoman who happened to spend her childhood in England. In person, though, she sometimes seems less a citizen of either place than a refugee from an almost vanished show-business past. Now 48, she has the big, heavy-lidded eyes, the regal cheekbones, the Garbo-like self-possession of an old-fashioned star: so glamorous and mysterious that you wouldn’t in the least mind sitting out a sandstorm with her, the way Ralph Fiennes did in “The English Patient.”"

Diane Paulus brings a reputation for vision and chutzpah to the ART

The Boston Globe: "Petite with long brown hair and piercingly blue eyes, Diane Paulus has both hands on her hips. She scans the nearly two dozen actors in their places on the lawn in Central Park and yells to the sound technician above, 'I want that helicopter louder, louder. What is that? That's not what I'm looking for. C'mon. Louder!'"

Dueling egos begat the Guthrie

OnStage: "Shortly before the new Guthrie Theater opened in 2006, architect Ralph Rapson toured the building. It was bittersweet for the man who had designed the iconic original on Vineland Place in Minneapolis. But Rapson found some solace in the new place. The signature thrust stage, with that gloriously asymmetrical scheme, was largely intact. Better yet, there was more legroom for patrons. Rapson smiled. Guthrie believed in jamming people together, and this new arrangement would have driven Sir Tyrone crazy."

Linda Winer: The sad decline of Off-Broadway

Newsday.com: "Where's Off-Broadway? This is not a trick question, like the one about how to get to Carnegie Hall. You see, most theatergoers, after a few visits, know where to find what we know as Broadway - the nearly 40 playhouses that line and, more often, adjoin Broadway, the boulevard, from 41st Street to 54th."

How the British managed to seize Broadway

The Observer: "According to Eleanor Roosevelt, 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' The former First Lady may have made her famous remark in a different context, but her words resonate today as British art and entertainment again dominate New York's cultural scene. For some American commentators it is as if there is still a collective colonial hangover in Manhattan, with audiences happy to prize talent from across the Atlantic above anything of their own."

Back to black: Phoenix Dance resurrects the race issue

guardian.co.uk: "Leeds dance company Phoenix has sacked its Venezuelan director for not producing sufficiently 'black' work. That is not the solution to inequality in the dance world"

Payday for Tony Kushner

WSJ.com: "One of America's best-known playwrights has just added another trophy to his collection -- and it's made of solid gold. Tony Kushner, the author of 'Angels in America,' will be presented on Oct. 21 with the first Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, a $200,000 prize that will be awarded every other year by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust to 'an American playwright whose body of work has made significant contributions to the American theater.'"

Edgy new play puts DNC, media on mock trial

The Denver Post: "Long before he knew Barack Obama would be the Democratic presidential nominee, local filmmaker Mitch Dickman knew the party's convention here would be an anticlimactic and expensive orgy of spectacle and excess."

Shaw to mount Noel Coward series

TheStar.com: "In the highly appealing season announced yesterday, artistic director Jackie Maxwell revealed that the festival will present all 10 shows from the late playwright's series of one-act plays called Tonight at 8:30, marking the first time they have all been produced in repertory by a professional company since their debut in London 73 years ago."

University Lectures

Thursday, October 2

4:30pm – Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

Robert Sternberg, Dean, School of Arts and Science and Professor of Psychology, Tufts University

Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized: A New Approach to University Admissions

Robert J. Sternberg is an American psychologist and psychometrician and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He was formerly IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological Association. He is a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals, including American Psychologist. Sternberg has a BA from Yale University and a PhD from Stanford University. He holds ten honorary doctorates from one North American, one South American, and eight European universities, and additionally holds an honorary professorate at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. In this talk, he will describe a model of human abilities that is broader than the narrow model of general ability upon which contemporary admissions assessments are based, and will discuss two assessments—Rainbow and Kaleidoscope—which operationalize this model. He will present data showing that the new assessments increase prediction of academic performance, decrease ethnic-group differences, and result in improved perceptions on the part of students, their parents, and guidance counselors regarding universities’ willingness to consider the whole person in admissions decisions and how these ideas are being implemented at Tufts University.

Thursday, October 2

4:30pm – Breed Hall Auditorium, Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall 103

JAMES LaPAGLIA LECTURE

Larry Temkin, Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University

Why Care About Equality?

Many people are suspicious of equality as a value. They believe that egalitarians are motivated by base emotions like envy, and that they are committed to the Levelling Down Objection, which holds that valuing equality leads to levelling down. Specifically, many anti-egalitarians believe that egalitarians are committed to policies such as putting out the eyes of the sighted in order to promote equality between the sighted and the blind. Accordingly, egalitarianism is claimed to be an absurd view that only a hardened misanthrope could endorse. In this talk, I distinguish between different kinds of equality, and illuminate one particular version of egalitarianism that I call Equality as Comparative Fairness. I defend this version against several rival positions, as well as against numerous objections, including the Levelling Down Objection. In addition, I present several examples illustrating that although equality is not /all/ that matters, we cannot simply dispense with the ideal of equality if we want to do full justice to all our moral beliefs.

Larry S. Temkin is Professor II of Philosophy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He graduated number one with a B.A.-Honors Degree from the University of Wisconsin/Madison (1975), and earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton (1983). He also studied at Oxford University. Specializing in ethics and political philosophy, Temkin is the author of Inequality, (Oxford University Press, 1993), as well as many articles. He has received fellowships from the Danforth Foundation and the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and been a Visiting Fellow or Scholar at the National Humanities Center, Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, All Souls College Oxford University, the National Institutes of Health, and the Australian National University. He is also the recipient of eight major teaching awards. Temkin is currently working on a book, tentatively titled, Rethinking the Good, Moral Ideals, and the Nature of Practical Reasoning.

Monday, October 6th

4:30pm – Adamson Wing Auditorium, 136A Baker Hall

David Blight, Professor of American History and Director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition, Yale University

A Slave No More: Two Men who Escaped to Freedom (including their Narratives of Emancipation)

David W. Blight is a renowned historian of the collective memory and cultural legacies of racism and slavery. At Yale University, he holds the Class of 1954 Chair in American history and directs the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. His 2001 book, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory received the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, the Frederick Douglass Prize, and five other book awards. At Carnegie Mellon, he will discuss his latest book, A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation (2007). Based on manuscripts discovered in 2004 – an event given front-page coverage by The New York Times – Professor Blight reconstructed the authors’ lives in slavery and freedom to reveal a complex process of emancipation that long outlasted the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Sponsored by the Center for AfricanAmerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE) and the Department of History

Friday, October 10th

12:30pm – Rangos Ballroom, UC
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Gary Knell, President & CEO, Sesame Workshop
Muppet Diplomacy: How Sesame Street Is Changing Our World

Free tickets (REQUIRED) for lecture & lunch available at UC Info Desk

Conservatory Hour

Conservatory Hour

Monday Sept. 29^th

5:00-6:00pm

in the Checco Studio A

Anya Martin will give a short presentation about this year’s

Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts, which will run Oct. 10-25

Pifof.org

There will also be a discussion about PLAYGROUND!

Learn all you need to know about how to get involved with

Playground this year.

Attendance is required for all freshman.

Pittsburgh CLO/Carnegie Mellon New Works Program, Stephen Schwartz and The ASCAP Foundation to hold workshop of new Bubble Boy Musical

ascap: "Pittsburgh CLO and Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, in partnership with The ASCAP Foundation and Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, are pleased to announce that the new musical, Bubble Boy, has been selected for presentation as part of the Pittsburgh CLO/Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama New Works Program. The program encourages the development and refinement of new works of the American musical theater."

Google, Internet Users Push Back Against U.S. Copyright Treaty

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "Internet companies led by Google Inc. joined groups representing Web users in challenging the Bush administration's bid to toughen international enforcement against copyright pirates."

Top News - Technology makes art education a bigger draw

eschoolNews: "Sophisticated software and new online collaborations are helping students of all abilities acquire key art concepts and skills"

Schwartz to Direct Pittsburgh Workshop of Bubble Boy

Playbill Newsy: "Bubble Boy, which was previously presented at the ASCAP/Disney Workshop in Los Angeles last April, is presented as a partnership between the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, ASCAP Foundation and Carnegie Mellon University's New Works Program."

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Relies on Lawo

Stage-directions: "Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) is rapidly approaching its grand opening — scheduled for Oct. 3-19, 2008. Billed as “an unprecedented platform for exploration where the physical and virtual intersect,” EMPAC is a cutting-edge facility whose mission is to create opportunities for artists, scientists and students that, previously, did not exist. Providing facilities for creative exploration as well as for research in fields such as virtualization and large-scale interactive simulations, EPMAC’s audiovisual core will rely heavily upon technology from Lawo."

Off-Off-Broadway's Big Winners Announced at the 2008 Innovative Theatre Awards

Stage-directions: "A celebration of Off-Off-Broadway, The 2008 Innovative Theatre Awards announced winners Monday night at the awards ceremony held at the Fashion Institute of Technology."

Lighting Designer Among 25 "Genius Grant" Recipients

Stage-directions: "The MacArthur Foundation’s MacArthur Fellows program, nicknamed the “genius grants,” gives artists, scientists, humanitarians and others $500,000 each in “no strings attached” support over a five-year span to simply do what they do best and make the world a better place. This year, a stage lighting designer was included among the 25 recipients — Jennifer Tipton."

Searching For The Perfect Wave: A Life Recording Sound Effects | Once upon a time, I was involved in a small and vastly underfunded theatre company's production... | Sept 2008

LiveDesign: "I have to say that, when I first started in theatre sound, way back in the last century (I love being able to write that), I really didn't think that it would lead to a point where I would have my name up in lights and my contribution described as “pivotal” to a play by one of the world's greatest living playwrights."

American Dreams | Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is celebrating the Year of a Million Dreams in 2008 | Sept 2008

LiveDesign: "Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is celebrating the “Year of a Million Dreams” in 2008. Appropriately, the audio and lighting engineers at EPCOT's America Gardens Theatre think the venue's new systems are a “dream.”"

Fireworks to blame for club blaze that killed 43

Scotsman.com News: "A FIRE has ripped through a nightclub in southern China, killing 43 people dead and leaving a further 88 injured.
Police said the blaze, which broke out late on Saturday night, had been triggered by fireworks ignited during a stage show."

Les Zellan

Les Zellan, Owner, Cooke Optics and Carnegie Mellon alum (CFA 1972, 1973) will make a presentation at Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Wednesday, October 1 at 7pm. Mr. Zellan will appear as a guest of Filmmakers' "Cinematography" class, but the event is open to all interested Carnegie Mellon University students and faculty.

Cooke Optics is one of the world's oldest and most revered manufacturers of motion picture lenses. Recent credits include such films as Angels and Demons, Before the Rains and The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and TV series including Fringe (TV Pilot), Psych, and Entourage, HBO TV Series. Mr. Zellan will speak about the issues of designing and manufacturing high quality lenses and will answer questions on the subject. The presentation will be in room 210 (also known as the Classroom Theater) at Filmmakers' facility at 477 Melwood Avenue in North Oakland.

'Idaho!' the Musical Currently Playing at NYMF

(BroadwayWorld.com): "Tater country is turned spud-side-up in IDAHO! when a mail order bride comes to town and falls in love with the wrong man. Born (out of wedlock) from the golden age of musical comedy comes a new love story...a twisted tale of wife stealin', spud peelin' and double dealin' at a time when men were men and Aunt Pearlie carried the shotgun."

Arts, Inc: The Corporate Control of Culture

Multinational Monitor: "Bill Ivey is the former chair of the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, a federal cultural agency. He is the author of Arts, Inc: How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights (2008). Ivey serves as director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, an arts policy research center with offices in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C. He also directs the Center’s program for senior government, the Arts Industries Policy Forum."

"Pittsburgh 250 Festival of Lights" Largest Festival of its Kind in the United States Starts October 10th

PRWeb: "The largest light festival of its kind in the United States, the Pittsburgh 250 Festival of Lights is a 'mecca' event strategically timed to coincide with the height of visual and performance arts schedules, to get local residents and tourists alike to experience the region's tremendous array of arts, events and activities that drive economic development, increase travel and tourism and change the way Pittsburghers see their City."

Top 10 Ways to Stay Energized

Lifehacker : "Even if you're a hyper-organized, task-oriented worker with an expansive mind and endless ambition, you won't get a lot done if your mind and body are demanding you curl up and doze off. Luckily, you can overcome a late night of net surfing, a rough morning, or just the post-lunch stupor without becoming an over-wired mess. We've put together 10 of the best ways to jumpstart your brain and get back into a productive groove, and all of them are tricks you can put to work this Monday."

Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock Lightning Review: It Explodes Your Dreams

Gizmodo: "I can sleep through anything. I do, notoriously. It's why I already have three alarms: My current super clock has two built-in, and I set my phone. But it's still not enough. So Brian told me I had to review the only thing left to try: the Sonic Bomb, which has a 113dB extra loud alarm—louder than a jackhammer or chainsaw—and a bed shaker."

New Works fest readies for final weekend

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Now in its 18th season, the annual Pittsburgh New Works Festival is dedicated to fostering the development of original plays. Each year, it debuts a dozen original one-acts each produced by a different theater company. A different trio of plays is performed during each of the festival's four weekends."

Second Stage puts down roots

Variety: "Second Stage Theater is getting a third stage -- which means another Gotham nonprofit is taking a Broadway venue out of play for commercial producers.Second Stage Theater is getting a third stage -- which means another Gotham nonprofit is taking a Broadway venue out of play for commercial producers."

Sorge, Finley, Booth and More Will Star in Happy Days Tour

Playbill News: "The troupers of the new national tour of Happy Days – A New Musical have been announced. The Milwaukee-set family-friendly musical comedy will launch Oct. 31 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in California."

Why can't I get a pony too?

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE : "That's how I and so many other Broadway and Off-Broadway producers felt after reading this article about tax credits for the television industry (to accompany those already received by the film industry)."

Manage Your Life with Free Online Time Management Tools

MakeUseOf.com: "In addition to offering a wealth of information, the internet also provides us with a ton of tools. Are you taking full advantage of them? For example, how well do you manage your life? Are you well organized, do you easily remember birthdays, deadlines and appointments?
Should you struggle with these tasks, don’t worry, most of us are. Fortunately, you are free to change things and make your life a little easier. Here is what you can do to organize your life and reduce the amount of things you have to remember"

The Week in Tools: Toolmonger Top 5

Toolmonger: "It’s been a busy week here at Toolmonger. If you’ve been spending time in the shop — you should! — and you haven’t had a chance to keep up with Toolmonger this week, we suggest you start with these posts, which our readers helped to select"

The Woman Behind Miss Piggy

Smithsonian Magazine: "Bonnie Erickson designed and built the inimitable Miss Piggy in 1974 for an early 'Muppets' television special, produced by Jim Henson. Puppets, props and storyboards from Henson's prolific career are featured in the traveling exhibit 'Jim Henson's Fantastic World.' Anika Gupta spoke with Erickson."

Uncloaked Potter Blinds Horses in `Equus' Revival

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "Some plays read well but play poorly; ``Equus,'' specious as literature, is nevertheless dazzling theater. Now Peter Shaffer's 1973 drama rides again on Broadway, in a production starring Daniel Radcliffe, filmdom's Harry Potter, and Richard Griffiths, aka Uncle Vernon and star of ``The History Boys.'' It is a gripping spectacle but not a substantial one."

Gay Stars Thrive, Even Without A-List Company

Backstage: "Hollywood has come a long way from the days when stars like Rock Hudson had to keep their sexuality a secret. But coming out can still be risky for a star even if it is no longer a career ender, Hollywood watchers said."

PLAYBILL.COM'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Oskar Eustis

Playbill Celebrity Buzz: "the last few weeks have been busier than most. The Public's acclaimed revival of Hair — a show that had its original debut at the Public — has been announced for a Broadway arrival sometime in the 2008-09 season. And rehearsals have begun for the long-in-coming New York premiere of Road Show, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's years-old musical about the American Dream as practiced by the quixotic Mizner Brothers."

Hatcher's Six-Actor 'Jekyll & Hyde' Gets Chicago Premiere by Northlight

Yahoo! News: "Northlight notes ask, 'What happened the night that Henry Jekyll died? Against the backdrop of Victorian London, the respected doctor has begun to display alarmingly erratic behavior toward his friends. At the same time, a mysterious figure haunts the city's streets under the cloak of the London fog. Nationally renowned playwright Jeffrey Hatcher brings Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale to life with a fiendishly clever and theatrically innovative new adaptation, with four actors playing Mr. Hyde.'"

Police Drama, 'The Rant', Will Premiere at New Theatre in FL

Yahoo! News: "Artistic director Ricky J. Martinez will stage the drama, about an investigator assigned to the murder case of a 16-year-old African American boy shot and killed by an NYPD police officer. The investigator 'must wade through prejudice, deceit, and a volley of anonymous threats to find out where culpability and truth really lies,' according to New Theatre notes."

Never Forget cast members fight proposed pay cuts

The Stage: "Cast members of West End musical Never Forget have clashed with the show’s producers over proposed new contracts, which would see them facing pay cuts when the production shifts to a smaller venue in November."

Aspiring actors failing to take advantage of stage experience

ReviewJournal.com: "Whenever I go to local acting classes, or Screen Actors Guild seminars, I'm always amazed at the number of faces I don't know. I'm a theater critic. I see nearly every local play. Shouldn't I know most of the actors in this town?
I've come to learn what I think is a sad fact. Most Vegas thespians want to be movie stars, and movie stars only."

It's one woman, many characters in Dael Orlandersmith's Stoop Stories.

Pittsburgh City Paper - Pittsburgh: "It seems a strange profession for a loner, standing on a stage and performing for a crowd. But Dael Orlandersmith says that as a writer, she too is a loner of sorts. And she's drawn to the sort of 'invisible' characters she embodies in Stoop Stories, the performance piece she's bringing Sept. 26 to The Andy Warhol Museum's Off the Wall series."

Soul

Pittsburgh City Paper - Pittsburgh: "I don't find it particularly remarkable when trendy, well-subsidized theater companies perform outré work. (In fact, I expect it.) What does set me back is tiny theaters in extremely out-of-the-way places staging work unlike anything their unexpecting audiences have ever seen."

Good shows running

OnStage: "A flurry of new productions have opened for the fall theater season, from revues and musicals to riveting dramas and intimate send-ups of society. Here's a survey of some critical favorites."

Stage Review: 'Story' tells a compelling tale

PostGazette: "Here's a story ripped right from recent headlines: an ambitious young reporter gets a scoop on a murder, but it turns out she's been lying for years -- is she lying now? Her supposed informant may be lying, too, but the reporter may turn her in anyway to protect her own supposed scoop."

Dance Preview: A cast of Tango champions pumps life into 'Forever Tango'

PostGazette: "Another edition of 'Dancing With the Stars' may be up and running with its rainbow of dances. Most prominent will be the waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, cha cha, samba, rumba, paso doble, jive and, of course, the tango. It's a dance that has seduced the world for over a hundred years."

Stage Preview: Pittsburgh Playwrights revives 'Dorothy 6'

PostGazette: "You don't have to be a Pittsburgh native to know that Dorothy 6 was a steelmaking blast furnace, the heart of U.S. Steel's Duquesne Works. But you have to have been at home here for some time to understand how dumb machinery could be the focus of obsession, possessiveness and even affection."

Stage Right goes for big laughs with portly Italian tenor

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "'Lend Me a Tenor' is the story of a small opera company and the mishaps that take place on the evening of their big event, in which famed Italian tenor Tito Merelli is scheduled to make an appearance."

Illusionist Angel joins Cirque du Soleil

Variety: "But at the Luxor Hotel on Halloween, that's all about to change, as Cirque teams up with Criss Angel for the Montreal-based company's first celebrity-driven show. 'Criss Angel Believe' is billed as a fusion of Cirque and magic, and as a trip deep inside the TV magician's head.But at the Luxor Hotel on Halloween, that's all about to change, as Cirque teams up with Criss Angel for the Montreal-based company's first celebrity-driven show. 'Criss Angel Believe' is billed as a fusion of Cirque and magic, and as a trip deep inside the TV magician's head."

Lightning Review: The Wicked Lasers Torch Flashlight Can Burn Paper

Gizmodo: "In order to illustrate its power, Wicked Lasers has released several videos showing the Torch burning paper, lighting matches and frying eggs. These claims are true—as you can see from my own test"

Production: Stanley (WIT #261)

AMT: "The production team of Stanley — press representative Bill Evans, producers Gregory Mosher and Edgar Rosenblum, and marketing representative Evan Shapiro — discuss the process of bringing the play from the Royal National Theatre in London to Broadway, working with director John Caird, extensive press coverage, and target marketing including a new $10 ticket program aimed at young people."

Chihuahua Unemployed as `Legally Blonde' Closes

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "The credit crunch has claimed an unlikely victim: an emotive Chihuahua named Chico."

'American Psycho' Aims for Broadway Show

Backstage: "Controversial social satire 'American Psycho' is headed for Broadway, eight years after the novel became a movie starring Christian Bale, the companies adapting the book to the stage said on Tuesday."

At Signature, an Electric Decision

washingtonpost.com: "Amplification might seem like a natural consequence of the Arlington troupe's move last year from its cozy, 136-seat space to a spanking-new, high-ceilinged 299-seat cube, yet it's taking the company a bit by surprise."

Vegas’ art world abuzz over Smith Center

Las Vegas Sun: "The $475 million project is on everybody’s mind. The facility, often touted by supporters as “a world-class performing arts center,” is scheduled to break ground in January in downtown’s 61-acre Union Park."

NURTURING THE WELL-KNOWN

New York Post: "I go away for a couple of weeks and miss the big news of the year: Tony Kushner has won an other award!"

Diavolo is industrial-strength dance

The Courier-Journal: "'They cannot be afraid of heights,' says artistic director Jacques Heim, 'or be afraid of heavy contact with other dancers, of getting bruised, hurt or bleeding. Sometimes you get cut and have to go to the hospital and get stitches, then come back and do the next performance.'"

New job: Master Carpenter

Full time, year round position available immediately for an experienced theatrical carpenter with leadership and self-motivation abilities. This is not an entry level position. Must play well with others. Pay: $30,700 - $36,000 annually.

General:
Under the direction of the TD and/or ATD, the Master Carpenter (MC) assists in the preparation of construction drawings, builds and loads in scenery, helps to maintain the shop and theatre facilities and equipments, and directly supervises students, volunteers and over hire labor in the shop.

Ability to budget time, assume responsibility, and work as a team member while still seeing the big picture is critical.

Teaching:
The Master Carpenter has the opportunity to teach college-level stagecraft classes and labs for additional pay. Bachelor's Degree in technical theatre or design plus 3 years min. experience in scenic carpentry, or Associate's Degree plus 6 years experience required for teaching.

Skills:
The ideal candidate will have the following combination of skills and experience:
• Standard scenic carpentry
• Welding
• Drafting (CAD or VectorWorks experience a plus)
• Rigging (experience in counterweight systems esp.)
• Stage Mechanics (turntables, winches, etc.)
• Teaching experience (stagecraft, technical theatre)

Qualifications:
• Valid driver's license
• Ability to lift 50 lbs.

Benefits:
• Employer pays 100% health (Kaiser), dental and vision for employee
• Paid vacation and sick leave & holidays

Solano College Theatre: SCT is a division of Solano Community College, located in Fairfield, CA. SCT produces an 8 show season in 2 venues, the Campus Theatre (375 seats) in Fairfield and the Harbor Theatre (175 seats) in Suisun. SCT is an equal opportunity employer—we encourage all qualified persons to apply.

To Apply: Send letter & resume to Chris Guptill, Solano College Theatre, 4000 Suisun Valley Rd., Fairfield, CA 94534 or by email to chris.guptill@solano.edu

Dates: Dec 31, 1969-Dec 31, 1969
Pay: $30,700 - $36,000

Two linked Wilson plays stir ambition in Atlanta

PostGazette: "With his massive Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, August Wilson has left the American theater with a challenge and an opportunity."

Theatre Factory dusts off Broadway gem

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The Theatre Factory in Trafford opens its season with 'The Apple Tree,' a little-known Broadway musical that its director considers a diamond in the rough."

Ovation Awards unveil nominees

Variety: "Productions of “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Singin’ in the Rain” secured a total of 18 nominations to establish the Cabrillo Music Theater as the leader in mentions for the 2008 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Awards."

Spider-Man The Musical: Singing Spidey Will Dance Across Broadway Sooner Than Expected

I09: "Julie Taymor's webslinging Broadway musical featuring Peter Parker has upped its release date to 2009 instead of the original 2010. Also, set descriptions and a review of the Spidey workshop between Taymor's old cast from Across The Universe, Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, have finally leaked out. I can't wait to hear these two sing again, I hope they go all the way to the stage without getting replaced or leaving for a film."

Gypsy: A Novel $4.60 Idea

Steve On Broadway (SOB): "No matter. After years and years of seeing production after production, some good, some bad, I decided it was finally time to get the real story on the world's most famous ecdysiast. And what an entertaining story it is, replete with Mama Rose, June Havoc, Louise and cow (moo-moo-moo-moo) all hoofing it across the country, even if there was no one named Herbie every step of the way."

Let someone else play with your play.

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "When I saw the Mexican production of My First Time earlier this month, I remembered something: there are ideas other than my own . . . and some of them are good!"

Use This Tool to Rate Your Time-Management Skills

Ian's Messy Desk: "Print this assessment then complete it to determine how effectively you manage your time. Determine your tendency for each of the following items."

Vampire Cowboys Earn Three IT Awards

Backstage: "The Innovative Theatre Awards, formed in 2004, were the first theatre awards to exclusively honor Off-Off-Broadway productions in New York City."

Page gets real with Playhouse

Variety: "Filmmaker Lawrence Page has bought and renovated downtown venue The Actors' Playhouse with the intention of producing a reality TV skein about thesps putting on dueling legit shows."

'American Psycho' heads to stage

Variety: "Legit version of the 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel, about a 1980s Wall Street banker who is also a serial killer, will come from the Johnson-Roessler Co., management-production company the Collective and XYZ Films. The three shingles have partnered to acquire the rights to develop and produce the stage incarnation."

Naked clown calendar -- now that's scary

ContraCostaTimes.com: "Graduates of San Francisco's Clown Conservatory Class of 2008 have stripped down to their birthday suits to make a 2009 Naked Clown Calendar, a joyful and humourous work of art the clowns hope to sell in honor of a beloved mentor paralysed from the effects of multiple sclerosis (MS) and others stricken with the disease."

Power of the rouble lures the RSC

The Independent: "e Royal Shakespeare Company is to launch a series of four specially-commissioned plays about Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union in Stratford-upon-Avon next year, in a move it is hoped will attract international billionaire investment."

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Anthony Rapp at Purnell

The Tartan Online: "When Anthony Rapp walked onto the stage of the Philip Chosky Theater in the Purnell Center for the Arts, he looked little older than the college crowd before him. Slender, with a head of mussed blond hair, Rapp hardly seemed like one of the most famous stage actors of our time, or one of the original cast members of a landmark contemporary American musical, Rent. But Rapp can without a doubt claim both of these distinctions. His appearance at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Conservatory Hour gave students a chance to participate in a Q & A and talkback session, in conjunction with Rapp’s one-man show, which just closed in Pittsburgh."

Posted by David at 9/22/2008 02:00:00 PM

Back to Basics: Procrastination - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Stepcase Lifehack: "There is a positive side to procrastination, but it’s important not to confuse procrastination at its best with everyday garden-variety procrastination. Sometimes — sometimes! — procrastination gives us the time we need to sort through a thorny issue or to generate ideas. In those rare instances, we should embrace procrastination — even as we push it away the rest of the time."

Posted by David at 9/19/2008 03:56:00 PM

Gary Hardesty’s Massive Olympic Sound System

Live Design: "How do you make sure an audience of 91,000 can hear what’s going on in an Olympic stadium? Ask Gary Hardesty of Sound Media Fusion in Los Angeles, who served as chief audio designer for the opening and closing ceremonies at the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in August 2008"

Posted by David at 9/21/2008 02:15:00 PM

Nemetschek North America Releases Vectorworks 2009 Product Line

Stage-directions: "Nemetschek North America has announced the 2009 release of its Vectorworks line of design software, including: Designer, Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Machine Design, Fundamentals and Renderworks. The Vectorworks 2009 product line features a new engine that gives users 2D and 3D capabilities, at speeds the company says are up to five times faster for modeling operations."

Posted by David at 9/21/2008 02:45:00 PM

Should You Live Blog/Twitter A College Class?

Techdirt: "It's quite common these days for people to 'live blog' or 'live Twitter' different conferences or events they're attending, filling in others what's happening in near real time. However, what happens when someone does that in a college class? Already, there are some professors struggling with the fact that students use the internet during class, but they're not at all happy about the idea that they might not just be using the internet to surf around -- but to report to others what's happening inside the classroom. The issue is discussed in detail by Mark Glaser in his latest MediaShift column after an NYU professor told her students to stop blogging or Twittering things about her class."

Posted by David at 9/19/2008 03:59:00 PM

JPP's

JUNIOR PERFORMANCE PROJECTS

Wednesday 9/24:

8pm Project #1 The Front Desk

Thursday 9/25:

8pm Project #2 Carousel

Friday 9/26:

4pm Project #3 Twelfth Night

7pm Project #1 The Front Desk
9pm Project #2 Carousel

Saturday 9/27:

2pm Project #1 The Front Desk
7pm Project #3 Twelfth Night

9pm Project #1 The Front Desk

Stage Review: 'Pittsburgh Project' remixes recent history

PostGazette: "Other cities also inspire passionate affection. But Pittsburgh seems to rank especially high on the loyalty meter, both among the natives who now hail from somewhere else and the smaller number who are still here -- and don't forget to include the loyal immigrants, like me, a Pittsburgher for 40 years and still counting."

Xanadu Will Now Close Sept. 28

Playbill News: "Xanadu, the Tony-nominated musical based on the infamous flop film of the same name, will end its run two weeks earlier than recently announced."

Bernard Telsey (DSC #220)

ATW: "Prolific Broadway casting director (and recent reality TV judge) Bernard Telsey discusses his parallel careers as the head of Telsey + Company and the artistic director of Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater. He shares some tidbits about his own training as an actor, his few acting gigs (including understudying Matthew Broderick) and how that training effects his casting work; the impetus behind MCC Theater and what his plans are for the company; what he thinks of casting theatre by reality TV in general and the Legally Blonde program in particular; and he talks about the varied challenges of casting, with particular focus on the actor-musicians of both the John Doyle-directed Company and the original cast and many companies of Rent over its 12 year run, as well as the distinctive characters of Wicked."

Hip tip: M2P (Middle of 2 Points)

Daily Autocad: "M2p is a parameter that helps to find the mid-point of a line joining two points (hence the acronym m2p) . I don’t understand anything from this definiton neither, so lets try to understand using an example. Lets have two paralell lines 10 units apart. Then activate the lin command once more and type m2p"

Social-networking sites viewed by admissions officers

chicagotribune.com: "Lauren Pfeiffer said she doesn't have to worry about what's on her Facebook profile, but she can't say the same about her fellow students.
'Some of my friends could get in trouble with their photos,' said the junior at Andrew High School in Tinley Park. 'I wouldn't want it to be a deciding factor in their future.'"

Dolly Parton reworks 9 to 5 for first musical

Reuters: "Almost 30 years after starring in the movie '9 to 5' and writing its hit theme song, country star Dolly Parton's first stage musical gets its world premiere in Los Angeles on Saturday before heading for Broadway."

Congress Gets Its Arts Grade

Backstage: "Support for the arts in the House of Representatives increased appreciably during the soon-to-conclude legislative session, according to Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, which released its Congressional Arts Report Card Sept. 22."

Singing Spider-Man may hit Broadway next year

TheStar.com: "The much talked about Spider-Man musical might make its way onto Broadway next year, according to Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel."

Lyn Gardner: Will free theatre tickets make a difference?

guardian.co.uk: "So, as everyone expected, the idea of an annual 'free week' of theatregoing proposed by the McMaster review has been declared a dead duck. In its place rises Andy Burnham's proposal in which 18-to-26-year-olds will be able to access free theatre tickets at 95 theatres across the country. Over a two-year period beginning next February, Burnham hopes to give two million tickets away in a government scheme funded to the tune of £2.5m."

25 Receive $500,000 MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowships

NYTimes.com: "A sculptor who transforms straws, paper clips and Scotch tape into dazzling forms; an urban farmer who delivers healthy food to poor city dwellers; and an astronomer who looks toward the edge of the universe are among the 25 recipients of the $500,000 “genius awards” to be announced on Tuesday by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation."

Atlanta Ballet Re-Hires its Orchestra

ATLarts: "The Atlanta Ballet, which sparked a firestorm of controversy in 2006 when it scrapped its orchestra to cut costs, will return musicians to the pit for much of the 2008-2009 season, beginning Oct. 23 with “Swan Lake.”"

Director Jerry Zaks Plugs Into 'Nerds' Musical

Yahoo! News: "Zaks, a four-time Tony Award-winning director, confirmed his participation to Playbill columnist Harry Haun on Sept. 18. A production spokesperson could not confirm any details; full creative and casting for the musical are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. The Broadway launch is expected to happen in spring 2009."

Apple Tree Founder Boevers Will Get Special Jeff Award in Chicago

Yahoo! News: "Boevers has produced, directed, taught, performed and written for Apple Tree Theatre since its founding in 1983. During her tenure Apple Tree Theatre garnered 112 Jeff nominations and 28 Jeff Awards for excellence in Chicago area theatre. Further, she founded the Eileen Boevers' Performing Arts Workshop in 1970, where, employing Chicago's top theatre artists as teachers, she trained and developed a generation of theatre artists."

Austrian Drama School Schauspielschule Krauss Marks 60th Year

Yahoo! News: "'The acting school is the only continuously operated, state-recognized private acting school in Austria,' stated Michaela Krauss. 'Sixty years ago, my grandfather started in this very place offering evening acting courses; for the last 20 years, I have grown this into a full-day, three-year program.'"

The Met at theaters via satellite: a marriage of popcorn and opera

Seattle Times Newspaper: "With the wonders of high-definition satellite technology, New York's Metropolitan Opera is coming to a movie theater near you — and to more than 850 locations all over the world."

Actor Richard Griffiths: "It's better if you're still peaking when you're 60"

Seattle Times Newspaper: "Daniel Radcliffe gets naked during 'Equus,' but his Broadway co-star and 'Harry Potter' cohort Richard Griffiths is the one who's shed 60 pounds over the last year — with 40 more to go."

From 'Harry Potter' to 'Equus'

NPR: "Daniel Radcliffe, best known for playing the role of Harry Potter, and Richard Griffiths, who play's Potter's Uncle Vernon, are starring in Peter Schaffer's play 'Equus.' The play recounts the story of a boy who blinded six horses — a character Radcliffe describes as disturbed. The production opens at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway on Thursday, Sept. 25."

Dolly Parton, Working '9 To 5' To Get To Broadway

NPR: "Over the past decade or so, Broadway has raided Hollywood to find material for new musicals. Some have become enormous hits, like The Producers and Hairspray. Some have vanished without a trace — witness Urban Cowboy and Saturday Night Fever."

Opera in the buff for opera buffs

The Dallas Morning News Performing Arts: "In recent years, with all the talk from general managers, stage directors and go-for-broke singers about making opera as dramatically visceral an art form as theater, film and modern dance, traditional boundaries of decorum have been broken. Opera productions have increasingly showcased risk-taking and good-looking singers in bold, sexy and explicit productions."

Play dramatizes youth murders

PittsburghCourier: "On Sept. 6, more than 300 Pittsburghers gathered at West Park on the North Side for “Two-for-One,” a drama by playwright Deborah Starling-Pollard that featured adults and teens who dramatized the murders of two young people and the wave of grief that hung like a cloud over the community."

'Forever Tango' reflects history of dance

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Luis Bravo has been playing tango on guitar since he was 4. Trained as a classical cellist, he returned to his roots and found his path to big success."

Building, growing images express artist's hope

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Carnegie Mellon University art professor Susanne Slavick is one such artist, and her work is now the subject of the '2008 Artist of the Year' exhibition currently on display at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Shadyside."

PHOTO CALL: 9 to 5: The Musical Plays in L.A.

Playbill News: "Allison Janney stars opposite Stephanie J. Block and Megan Hilty as the office gal trio with Marc Kudisch as their boss. Andy Blankenbuehler choreographs."

Genre-Mixing Shows Are Born Here in Here’s Experimental Lab

NYTimes.com: "LIKE so many shows at Here Arts Center, “Oh What War” is hard to define. In some ways it’s a musical revue, drawing inspiration from “Oh! What a Lovely War,” Joan Littlewood’s 1963 satire of World War I. But “musical revue” hardly communicates how the director Mallory Catlett evokes a bunker where soldiers have fled from conflict."

9 to 5 a wild and witty stage musical

Reuters: "Actually, the film always was a musical waiting to happen, and Parton has made the most of the opportunity. Her songwriting skills along with her desire to dazzle in whatever she does were made for Broadway, which is where the show is headed in April."

International and fantastical

The Tartan Online: "Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama will put on three productions this semester. The shows — The Other Shore, Into the Woods, and The Mill on the Floss — represent a departure from traditional university plays by highlighting theatrical content that is both international in scope and fantastical in nature. As faculty directors and both undergraduate and graduate student designers and managers produce the works, the subject matter and execution of the plays are both powerful pieces of art as well as tangible representations of Carnegie Mellon student work."

Anthony Rapp at Purnell

The Tartan Online: "When Anthony Rapp walked onto the stage of the Philip Chosky Theater in the Purnell Center for the Arts, he looked little older than the college crowd before him. Slender, with a head of mussed blond hair, Rapp hardly seemed like one of the most famous stage actors of our time, or one of the original cast members of a landmark contemporary American musical, Rent. But Rapp can without a doubt claim both of these distinctions. His appearance at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Conservatory Hour gave students a chance to participate in a Q & A and talkback session, in conjunction with Rapp’s one-man show, which just closed in Pittsburgh."

Dolly Parton Warbles, Wins Starry Crowd at `9 to 5' Premiere

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "The thrilling Los Angeles premiere of ``9 to 5: The Musical'' will be hard to duplicate on Broadway, for reasons having nothing to do with the presence of Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman in the audience Saturday night at the Ahmanson Theatre."

Blanchett launches international theatre

The Independent: "A new brand of international theatre is hitting the West End as leading lights from Hollywood sign up to promote productions involving theatres in Britain, Australia and the United States."

Nicholas Hytner: British theatre is the envy of the world

Times Online: "As The Sunday Times sponsors the National’s new Sunday openings, Nicholas Hytner, its director, explains why British theatre is the envy of the world"

Atlanta's fall theater season: Musicals!

AccessAtlanta: "Ever notice how many musicals have exclamations in their titles? “Oklahoma!” “Mamma Mia!” “Hello, Dolly!” A little song, a little dance, a little enthusiastic punctuation, and you’ll go all the way to Broadway, baby!"

Chilling, poetic "Braided Sorrow" could stand an even harder edge

The Denver Post: "Brutality and mythology collide in El Centro Su Teatro's 'Braided Sorrow,' which makes for a world-premiere play that's alternately haunting and beautiful; gut-wrenching here and a bit soft there."

Stoppard, Zizka and Czechoslovakia

Philadelphia Inquirer: "With a career spanning four decades, from 1967's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to Rock 'n' Roll, which opened on Broadway last season and has its local premiere at the Wilma Theater on Wednesday, Tom Stoppard is considered by many to be the greatest living English-language playwright."

Cincinnati Playhouse Hosts Town Hall Meetings

Stage-directions: "Cincinnati Playhouse will hold two town hall-style meetings about its future facility needs for subscribers, donors, community leaders and members of the general public on Monday, Sept. 22 and Monday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Marx Theatre."

Summer Play Festival Now Accepting Submissions for 2009

Stage-directions: "Submissions are now being accepted by The Living Room for Artists for the sixth annual Summer Play Festival (SPF), which will be presented at The Public Theater in New York City for a second year, July 7 through Aug. 2, 2009. Submissions are open to all writers of plays and musicals across the globe, with or without representation."

Nemetschek North America Releases Vectorworks 2009 Product Line

Stage-directions: "Nemetschek North America has announced the 2009 release of its Vectorworks line of design software, including: Designer, Architect, Landmark, Spotlight, Machine Design, Fundamentals and Renderworks. The Vectorworks 2009 product line features a new engine that gives users 2D and 3D capabilities, at speeds the company says are up to five times faster for modeling operations."

J. R. Clancy Named "Best in Class" in 2008 ESTA Customer Survey

Stage-directions: "J. R. Clancy, Inc. has been named “Best in Class” of all manufacturers in the ESTA 2008 Customer Service Survey. The ninth annual survey, administered by ESTA, gathers data on a specific manufacturer’s performance from theatrical equipment dealers throughout the country. Survey questions examine five major categories: Customer Service, Shipping & Billing, Technical Support, Web site and Quotations."

Autodesk Releases Maya 2009

Desktop Engineering: "At SIGGRAPH 2008, Autodesk, Inc. (San Rafael, CA) announced Autodesk Maya 2009 3D animation and visual effects software, released in celebration of the software's 10-year anniversary. Maya 2009 includes a host of advancements in modeling, animation, rendering and effects that maximize productivity, optimize workflows, and provide new creative possibilities, says the company."

LDI2008 Announces Lighting And Projection Portfolio Review In Las Vegas

Live Design: "As part of its comprehensive professional training program, LDI2008 has added a portfolio review in lighting and projection to its schedule this year. Undergraduate student designers who are looking for graduate schools or jobs and graduate students or recent grads who are looking for jobs can have their portfolios reviewed by professional designers at LDI on Sunday October 26,2008 from 1pm-3pm. Every student and young designer who registers will get a free VIP floor pass for the show. Brackley Frayer, chair of the theatre department at UNLV, is coordinating the portfolio review."

Conservatory Hour

Dear School of Drama Community,

Conservatory Hour on Monday, September 22, will be the Equitable Workplace Discussion. Attendance is mandatory for all first-year students, including graduate students. Please meet at 5:00 p.m. in the Cecco Studio.

Thank you,

Dick and Doc

ETCP certification

The deadline is fast approaching for the paper and pencil exams for ETCP certification which will be offered in Las Vegas at the LDI show next month. All three ETCP examinations will be offered. The entertainment electrician exam will be Friday, October 24; the arena rigging exam will be Saturday morning, October 25 and the theatre rigging exam will be held that afternoon.

Candidates who wish to take multiple exams will receive a discount for the second exam. Interested applicants must submit their application, along with supporting materials and fee, to the ETCP office no later than September 25, 2008. Space is limited, so applications should be submitted soon! USITT members are reminded they receive a discount on exam fees.

Candidate information, including eligibility requirements and applications, is available on the ETCP website. Those with questions or needing further information should contact Meredith Moseley-Bennett, ETCP Certification Coordinator, at 212-244-1505 or certification@esta.org.

Digital Manufacturing

Modern Woodworking - September 2008: There are some new buzz words going around the Georgia Tech campus these days - digital manufacturing. At least that's what students are calling what's going on at the College of Architecture's Advanced Wood Product Laboratory.

"Idealism / Realism/ Modernism: Rethinking Literary History, or, How Modernism Emerged,"

"Idealism / Realism/ Modernism: Rethinking Literary History, or, How Modernism Emerged," 

A Lecture by Toril Moi

James B. Duke Professor of Literature & Romance Studies and Professor of English, Duke University

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 4:30 PM, Margaret Morrison 103

Toril Moi is author of Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy, was published by Oxford University Press in September 2006. Ibsens modernisme, the Norwegian translation by Agnete Øye, was published by Pax Forlag in Oslo in May 2006. The book won the MLA's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for the best book in Comparative Literary Studies in 2007. In spring 2008, the 2nd edition of her book, Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (with a major new introductory chapter) was published. Her other books include Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory (1985; 2nd edition 2002), and What Is a Woman? And Other Essays (1999), republished in a shorter version as Sex, Gender and the Body (2005). She is the editor of The Kristeva Reader (1986), and of French Feminist Thought (1987).

CMU Philharmonic composes bold plan

Post Gazette: "In his first year, Zahler has taken major steps to enhance the 100-member Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic, already considered among the top university orchestras in the country. Next on the list is auditioning candidates to be conductor, starting with a concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland."

Fisher Technical Services Navigator Automation System

Live Design: "Over the past decade, automation has gradually been shifting from something that scene shops and rigging companies do in-house as part of their construction efforts to a business in its own right. Las Vegas-based Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (FTSI) provides automation controls and machinery for the entertainment industry and builds complicated automated scenic pieces, including one of the most sophisticated theatrical automated props ever built: the chandelier for Phantom — The Las Vegas Spectacular"

Gary Hardesty’s Massive Olympic Sound System

Live Design: "How do you make sure an audience of 91,000 can hear what’s going on in an Olympic stadium? Ask Gary Hardesty of Sound Media Fusion in Los Angeles, who served as chief audio designer for the opening and closing ceremonies at the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in August 2008"

What’s New At Vectorworks

LiveBlog: "On Friday, September 12, Vectorworks hosted a press day in Baltimore, which included a keynote by CEO of Nemetschek North America Sean Flaherty, and a whirlwind presentation of the various aspects of the products by Mike Pacylowski, president of ProBuilt Home Solutions, an end-user who used to work for the company and a whiz at showing off all the elements. After lunch the group divided, with the four press folks interested in Spotlight for lighting designers ushered to a presentation by scenic/lighting designer Gregg Hilmar, who took Spotlight through its paces and demonstrated a few of the new elements for 2009."

CEO Forum on Innovation

Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Technology Council

With the assistance of the United States Department of Commerce

Invite you to an event with Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez

CEO Forum on Innovation: Drivers and Impediments to the Development of Energy Technology

Monday, September 22, 2008

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Please join us as a distinguished panel discusses innovation in today's enterprises and economies, sharing their lessons and insights on driving innovation and presenting their thoughts on how government policies can help or hinder innovation.

Welcome and Introductions

Audrey Russo, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pittsburgh Technology Council

Dr. Jared L. Cohon, President, Carnegie Mellon University

Moderators

Carlos M. Gutierrez, United States Secretary of Commerce

Ashish Arora, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, H.J. Heinz School of Public Policy and Management

Panelists

Dr. Aris Candris, President and CEO, Westinghouse Electric Company 

Murry S. Gerber, Chairman and CEO, Equitable Resources, Inc.

Andrew W. Hannah, President and CEO, Plextronics, Inc.

Free and open to the public

RSVP Required

Please respond by September 18th to: poprocky@andrew.cmu.edu

Rauh Studio Theatre

Purnell Center

Carnegie Mellon University

5000 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Parking is available in the East Campus Garage. For directions and maps, please visit

http://www.cmu.edu/about/visit/index.shtml