Clear-Com Presents USITT Stage Management Award to Carnegie Mellon Student

audiovideoproducer.digitalmedianet.com: Clear-Com, a global leader in critical voice communications systems, continues to demonstrate its dedication to the live sound industry through its ongoing support of the USITT (United States Institute for Theater Technology) Young Designers & Technicians (YD&T) Awards. This year, as the sponsor of the organization's Stage Management Award, Clear-Com and USITT honored Carnegie Mellon senior, David Beller, for his excellence in stage management and dedication to the performing arts. The award is part of USITT's annual Conference & Stage Expo, which attracts roughly 4,000 design and production technology professionals each year.

CMU film festival goes distinctly Dutch (and Greek, and German ...)

post-gazette.com: Two " Distinctively Dutch " -- and diametrically different -- documentaries give deeper definition this weekend to the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival's " Faces of Others " theme and to the symbiosis of directors emotionally tied to their subjects.

Peer review should make way for critics' awards

theage.com.au: Unlike Sydney or Adelaide, where theatre awards are decided by critics, Green Rooms are peer-based — judged by panels of artists, academics and commentators, with artists predominating. Artists rewarding artists immediately raises questions of conflict of interest, transparency and accountability, and competence to judge on merit. The collaborative nature of most performing arts makes warm fuzziness and mutual backslapping particularly likely.

The Price of Cool: Berlin's Struggling Artists Demand Share of the Pie

SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International: A few weeks ago, four SPIEGEL authors presented the theses of their new book, "Der Kulturinfarkt: Von allem zu viel und überall das Gleiche" ("Cultural Infarction: Too Much of Everything and Everywhere the Same"). The book, a blistering polemic against the "just-keep-on-doing-the-same" attitude of the German arts scene, has sparked an uproar. Arts funding needs to be organized in a fundamentally different way, the authors argue. They say that too much money goes to maintaining an infrastructure that is primarily preoccupied with itself.

Why Straight Plays Can't Make It on Broadway

Sightings by Terry Teachout - WSJ.com: Nina Raine's "Tribes," which opened off-Broadway earlier this month, is a superb new play about a dysfunctional family whose youngest member is deaf. Beautifully staged by David Cromer, it was hailed by the critics, myself included, and has extended its run through September. This was the last sentence of my review: "Why can't we have plays like this on Broadway?"

International Cinematographers Guild partners with NAB Show

mediamughals.com: The International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600) will be involved in an unprecedented, multi-faceted content partnership with the 2012 NAB Show in Las Vegas, reflecting the Guild's commitment to leadership in the areas of film and television image creation and technology. As part of this, the ICG and NAB Show are organizing two panel discussions—"Two Minds: One Vision," which will take place on April 16 in the Creative Master Series and "Spotlight on ICG's Emerging Cinematographer Awards: Three Winners and Their Stories" on April 17 in the Content Theater. The ICG will also be conducting tours of the show floor for selected independent filmmakers.

Tracking LED Wall Animation

YouTube: Animation demonstrating the integration of PRG Mbox EXtreme® v3 Media Server and the Stage Command™ System while encoding video to track with/without movement.

SAG Health Plan on Steep Downward Trend, While AFTRA Plan's Changes Are Modest

The Hollywood Reporter: With results of the SAG/AFTRA merger vote just hours away, an extensive analysis by The Hollywood Reporterunderscores that the future of the SAG health plan may hang in the balance: unmerged, that plan is becoming less robust and more expensive – and this is happening much faster to SAG’s plan than AFTRA’s.

Moving To NYC: Expectations Vs Reality

buzzfeed.com: When we move to NYC, we think our lives will be luxurious and decadent because of what we've seen on TV. But eventually we all realize living in the city can be a bit hard, and sometimes even gross. So before you move here, take a look at what you're getting yourself into.

PILOT LOCATIONS: New York & Vancouver Production Booming, Los Angeles Declines

Deadline.com: The TV comedy resurgence cannot come soon enough for the Los Angeles production community because Hollywood is fast losing ground on the drama side to New York and Vancouver. New York State’s August 2010 decision to extend and expand its Film Production Tax Credit Program continues to pay dividends in TV in a big way. A record 11 broadcast drama pilots are shooting in New York this season, up from 9 last year and 0 the year before, just before the tax credit vote.

The Maverick as Inspiration

American Orchestra Forum: Can anyone be a “Maverick”? Can we leverage the example of this American icon to spark creativity? If so, how does our notion of the Maverick need to be adjusted to make such exceptional inspiration open to all? The San Francisco Symphony’s American Mavericks festival justly celebrates the creativity of musical individualists, yet as a teacher I am interested in the Maverick not as rarefied genius, but as an everyday icon that inspires today’s artists, thinkers, and inventors.

Total Structures' Pioneers Outdoor Stage Roof Workshop

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: This March, Total Structures' hosted its first ever Outdoor Stage Roof Workshop, focusing on aluminum temporary stage roof systems. The primary objectives for this event were safety, education, and to promote discussion within the industry on the correct use of such structures.

Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. Launches the Creative Minds Monthly Design Competition

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. is excited to announce the start of the Creative Minds Monthly Design Competition in the US. This "charette style" competition introduces a new concept every month to be answered with any kind of design response -- architectural design, product design, landscape design, entertainment design, and others. It challenges designers to explore multiple options for documenting and presenting a response to a design concept.

The Case(s) Against Law School

nymag.com: Last fall, Frank ­Raimond quit his job and moved his belongings across town to a cluttered office suite on lower Broadway. Almost everyone he knew thought he was crazy. For six years, Raimond had worked in the New York City Law Department, the last three in a senior post handling high-profile litigation. Although his salary was modest, the benefits were good and the work was interesting. “Frank, I just don’t understand,” said his boss one afternoon. “Help me understand. Is this about money? Because if it’s about the money, I can make some inquiries.”

Gallery: Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Setup

livedesignonline.com: Check out images from the setup for the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime, courtesy of DWP.

IATSE/AMPTP Talks Recess to Wrestle with Pension & Health Data

The Hollywood Reporter: Contract talks between IATSE and the AMPTP have gone into recess, with resumption to occur at an unspecified date, according to a joint statement.

Teresa’s Weekly Update: Garden Gate Edition

TCG Circle: The old saying has it that laws are like sausages—the less you know about how they are made, the more you like them. Theatre, however, may be more like a garden, and increasingly, audiences want to get their hands dirty. In every community I’ve visited of late—from the San Francisco Bay Area to Fairfield County—theatres are experiencing increased audience interest in the behind-the-scenes process of theatre.

The Importance of Beginning: the Changing Relationship of Artists, Organizations, and Communities

HowlRound: We’re living through a major shift in the way people make and consume culture, one that we can’t yet see the end of. Theater institutions must respond to this change or face increasing irrelevance. So, what is essential to theater-making and what can be discarded? What is the particular value of live performance? And, if you’re an artistic director who wants to shift your relationship with your audience, where should you start?

Array, or not to array? That is the question

svconline.com: Let’s begin with a hypothetical question: Is a single loudspeaker better than an array of loudspeakers? If we can level the playing field by making the single speaker an exact match in power capability and coverage pattern, the decision is clearly in favor of the solo speaker. All other things being equal, we are far better off with a single source of sound instead of the complications and irregularities arising from multiple arrivals from a speaker array. Wouldn’t the ultimate speaker be a single device with enough power and coverage to fill a stadium? It doesn’t seem so.

IATSE leaders says they'll protect health and pension benefits

latimes.com: In a sign that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees may be headed for a showdown with the major studios, union leaders told members that they would "hold the line" on their health and pension benefits. Matt Loeb, president of IATSE, and members of the union's West Coast bargaining committee sought to assure the rank and file that they were standing their ground in contract negotiations with the producers that ended on Monday without a deal.

Center Theatre Group Names 2012 Theatre Educator Fellows

Stage Directions: Center Theatre Group has named its 2012 Theatre Educator Fellows, a program that supports educators who use theatre in their teaching. The fellows receive up to $5000 apiece to put towards individualized study this summer, as well as a $100 gift card from Chase Bank to use for school supplies. The 2012 Fellows are: Jill Holden, from the Los Angeles Unified School District; Lisa Okikawa, in the Pasadena Unified School District; Denise Tarr, from Los Angeles Unified School District; and David Wright, from the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Greek Sing shines with amusing performances

The Tartan Online: “Carnegie Mellon University’s largest student-run fundraising event,” boasted the program for Greek Sing 2012. With over 1,000 participants from the Greek community representing 17 different chapters, the event managed to raise over $55,000 for The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh. The philanthropy award, given to the house that raised the most money on its own, was awarded to Delta Gamma for raising over $8,000.

Digital Drama: The technology transforming theatre

BBC News: "Vidiots, they sometimes call us," admits Timothy Bird. Some people in the theatre industry don't take kindly to the innovations that Mr Bird and his team at Knifedge are introducing to the stage. Innovations like a computer-generated avatar sword-fighting an actor live on stage in his most recent show Pippin, transporting the audience to the world of a computer game.

Automation in art

MailTribune.com: Three college professors create dialogue between technology and art in the Schneider Museum of Art's newest exhibit, "Three Tales: Narrative, Mechanism and the Digital Thread." The exhibit, which contains live and static works, will be displayed through Saturday, April 28, at the museum on the Southern Oregon University campus, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland.

Judge Tells Sugarland to Answer Delay-of-Cancellation Questions by April 15

PLSN: Mid-America Sound Corporation, owner of the staging structure that fell in high winds at the Indianapolis State Fair, has been seeking testimony from Sugarland band members and its management on whether they resisted attempts to cancel their Aug. 13, 2011 show, despite the bad weather. A judge ruled March 23 that band member Jennifer Nettles will need to testify no later than April 15, according to published reports.

Amid complaints, N.J. high school pulls plug on play about murder of gay college student

NJ.com: Bowing to pressure from parents and the school community, Notre Dame High School has canceled its spring production of “The Laramie Project,” a play based on the violent 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard. The decision to shut down the production has proved to be just as controversial as the play’s edgy and dramatic portrayal of a Wyoming town gripped in the aftermath of a hate crime.

Minnesota Theater Alliance Presents National Conference on Sustainable Practices in Theatre

Stage Directions: Concerned about how “Green” (or not) your theatre is? The Minnesota Theater Alliance and the Twin Cities Sustainable Theatres Group are presenting "Sustainability in Theater Conference,” a national conference on sustainable practices for the performing arts. The conference will be hosted by Brave New Workshop. In a nice touch, you can attend without traveling there and incurring all sorts of carbon debt. There will be a live Webcast through QwikCast and online collaboration through Google+ Hangouts On Air.

Rosco Offers Scenic Swag Promotion

Stage Directions: Rosco is giving out swag for any scenic designers, scene shops or costume builders looking to share their work. Anyone who has used a Rosco coating or paint product in a significant role in the creation of a scenic piece or prop is invited to submit some photos of the end result and some text describing the process. Rosco is stressing that this isn’t a contest—no one is judging the work, and every project submitted will be shown on their website, and everyone who submits will receive a limited design t-shirt from Rosco.

Recording: Recording: The Importance Of Space In A Mix

Pro Sound Web: We spend a great deal of time considering individual sounds in a space. We prescribe attributes to the instruments and the players in order to organize our thoughts about the sounds and how they blend. We may often say a singer is “mid-rangy,” a snare is “ringy,” or perhaps the acoustic guitar is “warm.” We do the same for microphones, pre-amps, compressors, and what have you. It is surprising how little time is spent considering the sound of rooms, reverbs, delays, and whatever other spaces are coexisting within our mix.

Florence company celebrates 30 years of bringing sound, lighting to the stage

SCNOW: What started as a hobby 30 years ago turned out to be the recipe for success in the music industry for Stafford Lighting and Sound.
Owner Rick Stafford was a student at The Citadel when he started working as a stage hand for parties that booked national recording artists. The artists would hire locals to help unload the equipment trucks, and Stafford was always first in line.

The Euro Crisis Is Hurting Cultural Groups

NYTimes.com: In Italy, the world-famous opera house La Scala faces a $9 million shortfall because of reductions in subsidies. In the Netherlands, government financing for arts programs has been cut by 25 percent. Portugal has abolished its Ministry of Culture.

Report fears art program funds getting lost in money crunch

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In a year in which state education funding is perhaps tighter than ever, arts supporters want the state and school districts to ensure that all students pre-kindergarten through 12th grade have access to arts programs. The Arts and Education Initiative of the Harrisburg-based Education Policy and Leadership Center Wednesday issued a report making recommendations on how to ensure access. While the report was 18 months in the making, Ron Cowell, president of the leadership center, said, "The budget situation right now adds a sense of urgency to much of this report."

Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show: Lighting Gear

livedesignonline.com: The following is a look at the lighting gear list for the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show, lit by UK-based LD Al Gurdon.

This Is A Work of Non-Fiction

artsjournal.com: In 2010 I worked at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, when The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (TATESJ) was “birthed” at the theatre, and the following spring was the marketing and communications director who worked on the show at Woolly. Today, as an independent consultant, I write as a former marketing director who is no longer bound by the public statement of her institution in this matter, and what I would like to say is this: Mike Daisey, you should be ashamed of yourself. And to members of the American theatre: we should be disappointed in ourselves too.

AV: Series Or Parallel? Linking Loudspeakers Properly

Pro Sound Web: Multiple loudspeakers can be connected in series or parallel to the output of the amplifier. In either case, the current drawn from the amplifier is determined by the total impedance of the load as presented to the loudspeaker terminals. Impedance is the opposition to the flow of current.

No Entry

Out West Arts: Last week the Spring for Music Festival, an annual New York-based concert series at Carnegie Hall celebrating adventurous programming by North American orchestras, announced a contest to pick the best English-language culture blogger in North America. The contest involves bloggers writing responses to a series of prompts while a panel of judges and the voting public slowly whittles away the dross to determine a virtual champion. As a member of the likely target audience for this endeavor, I wasn’t particularly taken with the idea for several reasons. Chief among these was the first writing prompt. To wit: “New York has long been considered the cultural capital of America. Is it still? If not, where?”

Make Our Garden Grow, apropos the Arts Blogger Challenge

Likely Impossibilities: “New York has long been considered the cultural capital of America. Is it still? If not, where?” So asked Spring for Music’s Arts Blogger Challenge, which is having a contest to locate "America's Best Arts Blogger." (Apparently this includes a Food division.) The first challenge is to answer this question. To start with, I’ve lived in the greater NYC orbit for most of my life. I love and hate many things about New York, but don’t see the point in waving its flag over other American cities that I don’t know much about.

The State of (New) Play in DC, Part V

Gwydion Suilebhan: I don’t know what it’s like to be a playwright in New York; I’ve never done it. (And I don’t intend to.) I sometimes think all the competition must make it stressful. (Then again, that’s what I think about life in New York in general.) I imagine always being the fifth playwright in line for a three-play opportunity, or burning the midnight oil all the time to try to meet the right people, or worrying about making ends meet in a demanding financial environment. Of course, New York also sometimes seems like the land of plenty: opportunities, collaborators, shows to see, and so on. I’m sure it comes with more than its fair share of benefits, or we wouldn’t have so many playwrights living there.

Live Event Safety Seminar’s Message: Act Now or Pay Later

PLSN: A seminar on Live Event Safety would seem like a hard sell to a group of hardened concert touring pros, especially in the cheerful setting of the Pollstar Live! convention in downtown Los Angeles. For the rock ‘n’ roll crowd, health and safety discussions are up there with estate planning, colonoscopies and dealing with aging parents — all topics that will clear the lobby bar well before closing time.

Rob Marshall returns to Pitt and CMU on Friday

post-gazette.com: Rob Marshall, director of Oscar-winner “Chicago" and a six-time Tony nominee, will be in town for appearances at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Landing a Summerstock Job

 ControlBooth: Many young adults choose to spend their summers sleeping and cruising the Internet high way. Others slave away, returning shopping carts to the front of their local Walmart. And still others prefer to live their summer as a cliche, relaxing by their pool and working on their tan. But not you. You've got grander things in mind. You want to expand your career and life experience by working for a summer stock theatre. Awesome. Good for you. Ahead of you is a great opportunity to learn theatre in a professional environment away from your profesors and instructors. It will help you build your resume' and give you a leg up on the competition when you leave school.

NFTRW Weekly top Five

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

Tweet seats deserve to be booed out of the theater

arstechnica.com: Marketers, when they hit, can identify the seed of a product, service or organization and plant it in fertile soil where it will grow like mad. They can tease out the implications of the object they're charged with publicizing or find the motif that others are most likely to riff on. But when they fail, they can fail in the most mortifying fashion. All around the country, the marketing staff at live performance spaces big and small are embracing the "youthquake" in the grooviest way I've seen in years. They are offering up "tweet seats" to the kids.
It is an operatically stupid idea.

Posted by David at 3/24/2012 10:17:00 PM<-- Comments Here

Let’s Talk About Tumblr

Technology in the Arts: Tumblr has not been discussed here in over a year, which I believe to be an egregious error. Since it’s undergone some significant changes since our last post, let’s revisit this microblogging platform (which is one of my personal faves). Our original post covered the basics of Tumblr, so if you haven’t checked it out, maybe that’s a good way to get up to speed.

Posted by David at 3/23/2012 03:24:00 PM<-- Comments Here

Facebook Agrees: Employers Should Definitely Not Be Asking For Your Passwords

The Consumerist: We weren't the only ones shocked to find out that employers have been asking job applicants or in some cases, actual workers, for the passwords to their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. Facebook has issued a statement addressing that practice, calling it "alarming."

Posted by David at 3/23/2012 03:18:00 PM<-- Comments Here

Sweatbox, the insane, behind-the-scenes documentary Disney doesn't want you to see

io9.com: Watch a Disney production originally spearheaded by the mighty Roger Allers (right off of Lion King fame) with a soundtrack by Sting and the voice talents of Eartha Kitt, David Spade, and John Goodman crumble into the wasted opportunity comedy The Emperor's New Groove.

Posted by David at 3/23/2012 03:17:00 PM<-- Comments Here

An Open Letter to Carnegie Mellon School of Drama

The Ghost Light Collective: When I showed up at CMU on a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for the Arts in Society, I never dreamed I would wind up as a tenured professor here. But the faculty of the School of Drama gave me a shot. And I am so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together. I won’t pretend it wasn’t difficult, but I owe the faculty and staff of the School a tremendous debt. Through a combination of their openness, energy, and support of my ideas, and their forbearance with my mistakes and personality flaws, we have been able to grow the curriculum and the opportunities for all students in significant and lasting ways. I’m proud of the part I played in that, and I think that with your continuing support these seeds may continue to bloom in enriching ways. Personally I think the department is entering a new golden age; the sky is literally the limit.

Posted by David at 3/24/2012 10:21:00 PM<--  Comments Here

Play on London stage to be broadcast live at local movie theaters

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Oliver Goldsmith's famous "She Stoops to Conquer" (1773) is exactly what Americans expect of Britain's National Theatre: a sprawling, roistering comedy classic, performed with clarity, invention and style. That it's staged in the big Olivier Theatre matches its sense of a major revival with the resources such a theater can provide. It's lots of fun. To my taste, though, it goes too far in exaggerating the comedy and condescending to the audience with a series of goofy musical interludes. But I'll get to check my response Thursday when the play will be shown in the National Theatre Live digital series at two local Cinemark theaters.

Smash producers get top award by gay media group

Reuters: The producers of the new TV musical drama series "Smash" were honored by gay and lesbian watchdog group GLAAD at a gala on Saturday that highlighted gay marriage and bullying. Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, film and television producers known for such movies as the Oscar-winning "Chicago," and "Hairspray" were honored at New York's Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, Media Awards.

Theater-hopping in London: comedies, dramas and fine acting

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Prepping members of the Post-Gazette's annual Critic's Choice theater tour to London in early March, I like to describe that fabulous, colorful city as a giant theme park of history, palaces, pubs, museums, shopping, street fairs, cathedrals and, of course, theater. We always include a London travel card (subway and bus), plenty of advice and lots of free time, so by the third morning I have the pleasure of watching everyone heading off happily in different directions.

SAG Primetime Market Share to Fall Below 50% This Fall

Hollywood Reporter: In a stomach-churning plunge more typical of a double black diamond ski run than a business graph, the Screen Actors Guild’s share of scripted primetime television fell from 93 percent in 2008 to about 50 percent in just three years, according to previously unreported data provided to The Hollywood Reporter by the guild.

Storytelling Classes in New York

NYTimes.com: THE eight people in David Crabb’s Wednesday night class had been asked not to walk like themselves. So the students shuffled or pranced, puffed out their stomachs, clutched their backs. They all had their own gaits, and no one made eye contact.

Finding the Right Wig for the Role on Screen

NYTimes.com: FROM the first Shakespearean performer ever cast as Ophelia, wigs have been a necessary staple in the toolbox of props that aid an actor in assuming a character. They’ve allowed Elizabeth Taylor her austere and almost incomprehensibly silky Cleopatra hair, Cher her dowdiness and her dazzle in “Moonstruck,” and Steve Van Zandt a screen career that doesn’t require his E Street Band do-rag.

Internet-Based Theater Company Lives Between Cyberspace and the Stage

mashable.com: A small Philadelphia-based company called New Paradise Laboratories is re-creating theater for the connected generation. It’s incorporating social networks like Facebook, Skype and Chatroulette into the production and presentation of shows, pulling theater into the virtual space. This innovative experience takes audiences through a rabbit hole on a visually stimulating online adventure. Stories evolve on social networks with multimedia components from YouTube and Sound Cloud. It can be hard to decipher what’s real and what’s fiction.

An Open Letter to Carnegie Mellon School of Drama

The Ghost Light Collective: When I showed up at CMU on a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for the Arts in Society, I never dreamed I would wind up as a tenured professor here. But the faculty of the School of Drama gave me a shot. And I am so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together. I won’t pretend it wasn’t difficult, but I owe the faculty and staff of the School a tremendous debt. Through a combination of their openness, energy, and support of my ideas, and their forbearance with my mistakes and personality flaws, we have been able to grow the curriculum and the opportunities for all students in significant and lasting ways. I’m proud of the part I played in that, and I think that with your continuing support these seeds may continue to bloom in enriching ways. Personally I think the department is entering a new golden age; the sky is literally the limit.

Conflict Kitchen awarded $25,000 to catalyze new downtown Pittsburgh location

The Sprout Fund: To celebrate its first 10 years of grantmaking, and through the support of The Benter Foundation, The Sprout Fund has supported Conflict Kitchen with a Root Award of $25,000. Only offered to former Seed Award winners, the Root Award builds on a project’s previous successes and enhance the sustainability of the project. The Root Award has been offered only twice before: in 2007 to the Zany Umbrella Circus for their Zany Tent, and in 2008 to Bike Pittsburgh for their Bike Friendly Employer program.

Stage Review: At Dutch fest, an odd play is enlightening

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Engaging and downright odd, "Diespace" prepares you for an afterlife as a digital representation of yourself. The five fellows of PIPS:lab are conducting this theatrical experiment through tonight as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Distinctively Dutch Festival.

10 More Insanely Awesome Inspirational Manifestos

lifehack.org: There’s nothing like a manifesto that gets the blood pumping, the ideas flowing and a person moving. I offered up several insanely awesome inspirational manifestos not too long ago, and I’ve scoured the Internet looking for more of them that can inspire people with different lifestyles and “workstyles” that they can relate to. Whether you’re a creative, an entrepreneur, an artist, a writer, or simply want to live a better life , here are 10 more insanely awesome inspirational manifestos for you to ponder…and perhaps live by

Working Hollywood: An armory of costumes for 'Wrath of the Titans'

latimes.com: In a Hollywood obsessed with futuristic CG effects, Simon Brindle does things the old-school way — really old school. As the costume armor supervisor for “Wrath of the Titans,” the sequel to the 2010 Warner Bros. film “Clash of the Titans” due out March 30, Brindle and his team fashioned the suits of armor worn by Sam Worthington and other actors using leather and wooden mallets and other tools and materials employed by the ancient Greeks.

Tweet seats deserve to be booed out of the theater

arstechnica.com: Marketers, when they hit, can identify the seed of a product, service or organization and plant it in fertile soil where it will grow like mad. They can tease out the implications of the object they're charged with publicizing or find the motif that others are most likely to riff on. But when they fail, they can fail in the most mortifying fashion. All around the country, the marketing staff at live performance spaces big and small are embracing the "youthquake" in the grooviest way I've seen in years. They are offering up "tweet seats" to the kids.
It is an operatically stupid idea.

Music Publisher Drops Key Claim in 'Y.M.C.A.' Copyright Termination Lawsuit

Hollywood Reporter: As Victor Willis, the original lead singer of the Village People, fights to regain control over his share of the copyright credit for 32 of the band's songs, including the hit "Y.M.C.A.," the music publisher Can't Stop Music has withdrawn an important claim that the songs were works made for hire. The development came at an oral hearing on Tuesday in a closely-watched case that will determine the validity of Willis' termination notices to the music publisher.

Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show Renderings

livedesignonline.com: Check out Bruce Rodgers of Tribe inc.'s renderings for the Super Bowl XLVI Halftime show.

Review: Dutch 'Diespace' does death digitally

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Somewhere beyond the boundaries of traditional theater but just this side of the intersection of performance art and interactive installations, you'll find a band of artistic pioneers who go by the name PIPS:lab. Alternately, you can simply drop by the Trust Arts Education Center, Downtown, where you'll find this collective of Dutch artists performing "Diespace" through today as part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Distinctively Dutch Festival.

Moon Area students' take on 'Guys and Dolls' lively and relevant

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: What do today's high school students make of the colorful 1940s Damon Runyon world of Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls"? It's one of the greatest American musical comedies, but what do they have in common? Many of its references are dated even for their parents or grandparents. But wait. In its heart "Guys and Dolls" is all about a personal dynamic high schoolers know as well as anyone and more intensely than many: the danger/attraction of falling in love with someone from the "wrong" social group. Furthermore, it's also about mixing secular and sacred, gambling with your ideals and listening to your better self.

Andrey Nemzer's big sound lands him a prestigious honor

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Last Sunday might have been one of the biggest days in Andrey Nemzer's life, but this week, he returned to the routines of his life in Pittsburgh. He studied. He taught. And, above all, he sang. Nemzer was named one of the winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions after the Grand Finals concert Sunday in New York City. It is one of the most prestigious musical competitions in the world. The five winners receive $15,000.

Poet, trumpeter make powerful tandem in performance

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Blending music and words can produce something other than a song. Poet/spoken word artist Vanessa German and trumpeter Sean Jones created their own powerful product Thursday evening in a mix of jazz and poetry at the August Wilson Center, Downtown. German performed her looks at our culture and the world backed by a quartet led by Jones. Well, the musicians did far more than support her. They were a rod of steel to the unbending spine that was her words.

Pine-Richland brings out fun in 'Wedding Singer'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Who knew "The Wedding Singer" could be so much fun? I didn't -- and I saw it on Broadway (2006). Or maybe I didn't because I saw it on Broadway. It was OK, but there was a caustic edge to it, making the New Jersey setting seem overly condescending -- an attitude Pennsylvanians share with New Yorkers, come to think of it. Then I missed the PNC Broadway Series tour (2008) and Pittsburgh Musical Theater (2009) version, or at least I think I did. I might have seen its greater appeal then. I never saw the original 1998 movie.

Let’s Talk About Tumblr

Technology in the Arts: Tumblr has not been discussed here in over a year, which I believe to be an egregious error. Since it’s undergone some significant changes since our last post, let’s revisit this microblogging platform (which is one of my personal faves). Our original post covered the basics of Tumblr, so if you haven’t checked it out, maybe that’s a good way to get up to speed.

Carrie Dies Sooner Than Expected; Revival to Close April 8 Off-Broadway

Playbill.com: The Off-Broadway return of Carrie, MCC Theater's newly revised production of the 1988 flop musical, will end its run April 8, two weeks prior to its announced extension of April 22.

'Smash' Creator Theresa Rebeck Steps Down as Showrunner

backstage.com: In a story similar to that depicted on the Broadway drama at its center, NBC's “Smash” is changing its behind-the-scenes star. Series creator Theresa Rebeck will step down as showrunner of the newly renewed musical drama, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Fired Employee Sues SAG Pension & Health Plan for Wrongful Termination

backstage.com: Craig Simmons, the SAG Pension & Health Plan’s former head of human resources and information technology, sued the Plan for wrongful termination Thursday, alleging that he was discharged a year ago after reporting alleged illegal conduct by the organization’s CEO, Bruce Down.