Surprise: Register Of Copyrights Expected To Call For Reduction In Copyright Term

Techdirt: For a long time now, the idea of an overhaul of copyright law in the US has mostly been seen as a pipedream. However, it appears that the Register of Copyright, Maria Pallante, may actually be angling for a major bit of copyright reform. Coming up next Wednesday, she's going to be testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on her supposed "Call for Updates to U.S. Copyright Law." Apparently, on March 4th, she gave a talk at Columbia University which has remained amazingly under the radar until now, in which she proposed a long list of possible copyright reforms, which are likely to headline the hearings next week. It's fairly impressive, given how much attention copyright law has been getting lately, that she could present a surprising call for massive changes to the law, and not have a single person report on it immediately after the event ended. However, that is the case.

SXSW 2013: A Roundup of Topics and Trends… and Cats

Technology in the Arts: Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College, home to Technology in the Arts, recently hosted an official party for SXSW Interactive and Film 2013. The Austin, TX, conference/festival is often referred to as “Spring Break for Geeks,” because it offers technology industry professionals a chance to immerse themselves in the latest innovations while being served free alcohol every time they turn around. The CMU party, which we gave the tongue-in-cheek name Innovation City: Tomorrow’s Destination… Today, was co-hosted with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and we used the late night event as an opportunity to showcase our city’s rising position in the modern U.S. economy. Pittsburgh was recently named by the National Venture Capital Association as one of the top cities for tech startups.

An All New TeuxDeux

swissmiss: It’s a big day for people like me, that like keeping lists: We just launched a brand new version of TeuxDeux – the minimal calendar based to-do app that started in 2009 over a lunch conversation between Cameron and myself. For the past 6 months, Team FictiveKin, Jonnie Hallman and myself worked hard to bring you a completely revamped, better TeuxDeux.

‘It’s a Bird ... It’s a Plane ... It’s Superman’ at City Center

NYTimes.com: Two-dimensional isn’t usually an adjective that any self-respecting musical would want attached to its name. But the show that opened at City Center on Wednesday night seems perfectly contented — no, make that downright delighted — to exist entirely on a flat surface. And therein lies the not-to-be-dismissed charms of the winning Encores! concert production of “It’s a Bird ... It’s a Plane ... It’s Superman,” which runs through Sunday.

Point Park's REP to stage world premiere of 'Antarktikos'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The REP, Point Park University's professional theater company, presents the world premiere of emerging playwright Andrea Stolowitz's "Antarktikos," a time- and mind-bending drama that was a finalist for the 2013 Oregon Book Award's Prize in Drama.

Review: 'Breath & Imagination' brings life to a good story

TribLIVE: “Every bird has a true voice,” Roland Hayes' father told him. And after he found that voice, this African-American singer used it to break barriers for himself and others. Hayes' journey from poverty in rural Georgia to fame and fortune on the opera stages of Europe is the organizing principle for Daniel Beaty's play with music, “Breath & Imagination.”

Blockbuster hit 'The Book of Mormon' shocks, offends, delights and entertains

TribLIVE: Buckle up for a tumultuous ride. The musical “The Book of Mormon” arrives March 26 at the Benedum Center with dueling distinctions of popular acclaim and notoriety. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the irreverent and anarchic geniuses who gave birth to television's “South Park,” created the musical in collaboration with Robert Lopez, whose “Avenue Q” offered a witty, satirical and outrageously funny Broadway musical about the private lives of some very adult puppets.

Thurgood at Pittsburgh Public Theater

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Tony Kushner opens the second half of Angels in America with a character named The World's Oldest Bolshevik ridiculing modern socialists as "pygmy children of a gigantic race." It's hard not to think of that watching Thurgood, about the late Thurgood Marshall, at Pittsburgh Public Theater. This one-man show makes the case that Marshall may be the last great Supreme Court Justice; even the few good contemporary ones are small-bore moderates reacting to, rather than leading, the times. And it's our fault; we pygmy children who, through apathy and myopia, have midwifed a political system in which mavericks like Marshall can never again flourish.

J-O-B PM

Prod Mgr Position Description by dboevers

Punchdrunk theatre company returns with show shrouded in secrecy

Stage | guardian.co.uk: Most theatre companies announce new productions in a press release. Only one would deliver that release by asking journalists to go to a mysterious video shop in east London, have them go down dark corridors and stairs to meet a slightly creepy old man repairing his film equipment who then proceeds to tell a puzzling and scary story, before sending them on their way with a copy of the announcement. The theatre company is Punchdrunk and on Thursday it unveils its first big production in London since The Masque of the Red Death six years ago.

SOLT overhauls judging process for this year’s Olivier Awards

News - The Stage: The Society of London Theatre has confirmed it will introduce a new voting system for the Oliver Awards in time for this year’s ceremony. The changes will mean that producers and theatre operators in the commercial West End and major subsidised theatres will be given the chance to vote on who wins in each category. All members, apart from those who are affiliate and honorary, will be able to cast a vote.

The new propaganda is liberal. The new slavery is digital

www.newstatesman.com: What is modern propaganda? For many, it is the lies of a totalitarian state. In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl and asked her about her epic films that glorified the Nazis. Using revolutionary camera and lighting techniques, she produced a documentary form that mesmerised Germans; her Triumph of the Will cast Hitler’s spell. She told me that the “messages” of her films were dependent not on “orders from above”, but on the “submissive void” of the German public. Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? “Everyone,” she said.

Costume Round Up: Suited for Space

clothesonfilm.com: With our first proper glimpse of the ‘life suit’ worn by Jaden and Will Smith in the latest trailer for After Earth released last week, we have put together a brief round up of sci-fi related suit posts at Clothes on Film. For specificity, we are saving the sharp lounge suits of Inception and the like for another time; these are space suits or similar – the kind of costume actors have to be zipped into.

Failing College

Reason.com: The American higher education system is the envy of the world, or so the cliché goes. The sons and daughters of foreign potentates flock to our shores, while kids raised on apple pie and Sesame Street claw each others’ eyes out for the chance to attend a top university. With more than 18 million current undergraduates—who pay average annual tuition of $32,000 each—the market for higher education seems to be going gangbusters.

The Arduino Basic Connects Chart Is a Handy Reference Guide for All Your Arduino Projects

lifehacker.com: Learning how to do everything on the Arduino can get a little tricky when you're working with a lot of parts. Thankfully, Arduino forum member Romano d'Ezzelino has put together a series of reference cards that show the basics of a number of common connections.

The Creative Class Is Still On The Rise

Big Think TV | Big Think: In 2002, Richard Florida published his celebrated book The Rise of the Creative Class about the growth of the creative workforce and its implications for the rest of the culture and the economy. When the book was re-issued with updates ten years later, some of Florida's critics wondered whether the book should be given a new title: The Rise and Fall of the Creative Class.

Stage preview: Tony Award-winning smash 'The Book of Mormon' has a long run of converting skeptics

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The creators of television's "South Park" (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) and the composer of the Tony-winner "Avenue Q" (Robert Lopez) got together to celebrate their love of traditional musicals, fascination with Mormons and penchant for potty-mouthed, on-the-money parody. The result was the musical "The Book of Mormon," which launched on Broadway two years ago today and went on to win nine Tony Awards, including best musical. The show anointed by The New York Times' Ben Brantley as "heaven on Broadway" continues at a sold-out pace today, with productions in Chicago and London and a national tour that hits the Benedum Center Tuesday for a two-week run.

'Jungalbook' looks at what defines man or animal

TribLIVE: Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of a child raised by wolves in a jungle in India is brought to life in Greensburg Civic Theatre's production of “Jungalbook.” This adaptation of Kipling's “The Jungle Books” by Edward Mast performed by the Greasepaint Players follows the story of a young boy, Mowgli (Cameron Swartz), as he makes friends with Baloo the Bear (Denny Donegan) and is watched over by Bahgeera the Panther (Mike Crosby). Mowgli faces a major challenge when he is confronted by Sherakhan the Tiger (Rob MacIntyre), who killed the boy's parents.

West Mifflin student takes top prize at August Wilson monologue contest

TribLIVE: Thembisile Gxuluwe took first place in the fifth annual Pittsburgh August Wilson Monologue Competition. Gxuluwe, a student at West Mifflin High School, portrayed Tanya in a monologue from Wilson's “King Hedley II.” Tamiya Martin, from Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, performed a different monologue from “King Hedley II” and took second place. Shamari Nevels, who lives in Highland Park and is home-schooled, won third place with Caesar Wilkes' monologue from “Gem of the Ocean.”

Breath & Imagination at City Theatre

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Would Breath & Imagination be such engaging musical theater without the massive talents of its three cast members? Jubilant Sykes, Kecia Lewis and Tom Frey fill the City Theatre mainstage with playwright Daniel Beaty's images and imaginings of pioneering singer Roland Hayes. The well matched trio have perfected their roles in this co-production (directed by Darko Tresnjak) with the Hartford Stage, where it received its world premiere at the start of the year. Hayes' story is remarkable enough all by itself, and I slap myself for never having heard of him before. Born in 1877 into a tenant-farming family in Georgia, his mother a former slave, by the 1920s the gifted and trained vocalist was touring Europe, entertaining royalty. The first African American to achieve the musical and professional milestones that he did in both traditional spirituals and classical music, he fought to desegregate audiences and performances.

J-O-B-S Hudson Scenic

Project Manager Job Description by dboevers

Job Posting - Associate Production Manager - March 2013 (2) by dboevers

Estimator Job Description by dboevers

Performance art is thriving in Boston

Theater & art - The Boston Globe: On March 27, Raphael Montañez Ortiz will probably not take a hatchet to a piano on stage at the Museum of Fine Arts. But he might do just about anything else. Ortiz, a pioneer of performance art with the group Fluxus, and part of a movement called “destruction art,” famously destroyed a piano on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” Now in his 70s, the artist will oversee a destruction concert at the MFA. Liz Munsell, assistant curator of contemporary art and MFA programs at the museum, is coy about exactly what will happen at the event, “WHAT DOES FLUXES HAVE TO DO WITH IT.” Local performance artists who do vocal work will participate. Otherwise, all Munsell lets on is this: “It involves paper bags and paper shredders.”

A Connecticut Theater Club? Say, That's The Ticket

Courant.com: Are Connecticut theaters missing out on a new audience? New engagement? New revenue? The thought occurred to me when a colleague asked me a simple question: How can she buy a gift certificate for someone who can then choose whatever show they want at any major theater in the state? With so many terrific theaters around the state -- and not sure of the giftee’s tastes -- she didn’t want to be tied down to selecting just one theater, one show, one time.

The Executive Pas de Deux

FROM THE GREEN ROOM: Dance/USA's e-Journal: When Lourdes Lopez began dancing in the New York City Ballet in 1974, she saw firsthand how the energy of George Balanchine’s creative genius and Lincoln Kirstein’s passionate, yet business-minded motivation wove together to put their shared ideals onstage. “Mr. B would say ‘Free tickets for everybody!’ and Lincoln would say, ‘Well, we can’t quite do that…,’” she recalls. “I witnessed that partnership between them, and whether it worked behind closed doors, did they agree, disagree, like each other, hate each other, that I don’t know. What I do know is that the company flourished. I think often about that relationship.”

_DYO_ is both whimsical and philosophical

The Tartan Online: The mood was set from the moment the audience entered the studio space: stark staging with harsh geometric lighting patterns, the spicy incense floating through the air, and an actor laying in the dust on the stage, twitching and writhing every few moments.

The TEDx Broadway 2013 videos are live!

The Producer's Perspective: Miss this year’s TEDxBroadway? Curious as to where I got my “takeaways approval payday loans ?” Or were you there and do you just miss TEDxBroadway? And now you’re jonesin’ to re-see speakers like Daryl Roth, Susan Salgado and George Takei offer up a few nuggets of their “Broadway Perspective?” Well, the wait is over. The vids of each of the 16 talks are now live and available here.

How To Get Started with Electroluminescent (EL) Wire

Tested: A few weeks back, I wrote at length about LED strip lighting. Originally, that story had been about more than just LED’s—I’d wanted to cover the entire world of flexible lighting. Since addressable LED lighting proved to be more than enough glowing awesomeness for one article, I never got around to talking about another fun, affordable way to trick out virtually any project: EL wire.

Shadow Art Sculptures by Diet Wiegman

TwistedSifter: Diet Wiegman is a Dutch artist that uses a combination of sculpture and light to create fascinating shadow art projected onto walls. Born in 1944, he began experimenting with light sculptures in the 1980s, inspiring a generation of artists after him to also explore the art style (e.g., Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Kumi Yamashita). For more artwork by Wiegman, be sure to check out his official site at dietwiegman.tumblr.com/ where you will find all of his light sculptures as well as drawings, paintings, photographs, ceramics and more.

Grey Henson, a 'veteran' of 'Mormon' touring company, credits CMU for his big break

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Grey Henson wasn't sure where his clean-cut look would fit in the world of musical theater until "The Book of Mormon" came along. A young Mormon on a mission as told by the creators of "South Park" and "Avenue Q" -- that he could do. The rising junior at Carnegie Mellon University auditioned for the national touring company of "The Book of Mormon," which won nine Tony Awards, including best musical. As a non-Equity actor, he was a long shot, but his school ties came through and he earned a callback for the role he wanted: Elder McKinley, the character played on Broadway by Tony-nominated CMU grad Rory O'Malley. Audition followed audition, and during Christmas break of his senior year, Mr. Henson was cast as the closeted mission leader who sings the repression anthem "Turn It Off" and doubles as the angel Moroni. At 21, he was about to be a big player in a huge musical hit.

'Antarktikos' set to make audience warm to cold continent

TribLIVE: For most people, Antarctica is a remote, unfamiliar and exotic continent where legends and mysteries outnumber facts. That makes an ideal setting for “Antarktikos,” says director Sheila McKenna. The play's title refers to the name the ancient Greeks gave to a theoretical southern landmass that they believed was necessary to keep the weight of Northern continents from destabilizing the planet.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's Shakespeare contest gives students chance to experience the Bard

TribLIVE: Scenes from “The Comedy of Errors” earned prizes in upper and lower divisions of the Pittsburgh Public Theater's 19th annual Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest, on March 25 at the O'Reilly Theater, Downtown.

Young Jean Lee's Untitled Feminist Show lets women be themselves.

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: By forcing herself to explore subjects she'd rather not, and using theatrical forms that discomfit her, playwright Young Jean Lee pushes her work in fascinating directions. Previous touring shows by the Brooklyn-based Lee have addressed Korean-American stereotyping (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven) and, in the searing The Shipment, racism. "I have a tendency to be somewhat apolitical, and so I tend to do a lot of political work," says Lee in a phone interview.

J-O-B Technical Manager

Technical Manager 2013 by dboevers

A Muslim 'Measure for Measure'? That's one updated version of Shakespeare I'd love to see

Comment - Voices - The Independent: Does Shakespeare always have to be our contemporary? Many theatregoers will surely have had moments when they answered "no" – when the prospect of a period production of the play they're watching will have risen up like a tantalising mirage, overlaying the storm-troopers or the city bankers or the Edwardian toffs who have been selected to refresh our sensibilities. It's even happened to me now and then – and I count myself as pretty easy-going about these things. But it can be very soothing, sometimes, to think of a production that dispenses with all forms of conceptual seduction and simply lets the language do the work.

These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For…

Adaptistration: There’s a terrific article by Janos Gereben in the 3/25/2013 edition of the San Francisco Classical Voice that begins to push past much of the talking point fluff coming from the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and its musicians. In short, there’s plenty of ambiguous spin and attempted caginess to go around; all of which only makes the entire labor debacle look that much worse. But the part which should catch your attention is toward the end when the focus turns to proposed work rule changes.

Why Are There So Few Female Magicians?

Ashley Fetters - The Atlantic: In the new Steve Carell comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, there's a moment when Jane (Olivia Wilde), Burt's reluctant onstage assistant, transforms Burt's dollar bill into a butterfly. It's a charming scene, showing one more adorable step toward Burt and Jane's inevitable rom-com happy ending. Plus turning money into a tiny fluttering monarch is just generally pretty cool. Yet it also got me thinking: Why is this the first time I have ever seen a woman do a magic trick?

Voice majors leave audience in stitches

The Tartan Online: Kresge Theatre was filled with uproarious laughter last Thursday at a production written and produced by the School of Music sophomore vocal performance class, The Curious Murder of a Person Not Particularly Liked. Convocation is a requirement for all students in the School fo Music, but instead of a standard formal performance of one solo after another, the students comically arranged classic songs into a musical that swept the crowd away. Every scene had its own unique and standout character.

EFF’s Fight for Open 3D Printing Continues at Ask Patents

Electronic Frontier Foundation: We’ve been working for some time—with your help—to ensure that improvidently granted patents don’t threaten exciting and growing 3D printing technology. The good news is that with the help of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, we’ve been able to challenge a number of such dangerous patent applications at the Patent Office. But we’re not done.

ABOUT LUMILOR

www.lumilor.com: The LumiLor TM electroluminescent coating system is a patent-pending, practical, durable and affordable technology that can be illuminated with a simple electrical current. Used in conjunction with simple driver electronics, LumiLor will illuminate any surface brightly, and is capable of being custom-animated to flash in sequenced, strobed, and sound activated modes. The potential for customization is practically limitless!

Still Untitled Supplemental: Adam's Inexpensive Beginner's Toolkit

Tested: Knowing what tools to purchase when you're a fledgling maker is tough, especially if you're on a tight budget. And building a tool collection can get downright pricey--the price swing from a cheap version of a tool to the expensive version can be massive. On the March 26 edition of Still Untitled, Adam, Norm, and I came up with a universal list of tools to put in a cheap toolkit for beginners.

Students interpret Wilson, Shakespeare in monologue contests

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The August Wilson Monologue Competition and the Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest announced their winners Monday night. In the regional finals of the fifth annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, held at the August Wilson Center, Downtown, first prize of $500 and a $10,000 scholarship in the acting program at Point Park University went to Themb'isile Gxuluwe, a student at West Mifflin Area High School, who performed Tonya's passionate wail, "I'm through with babies," from "King Hedley II."

Lavish curtain calls give audiences one last treat

TribLIVE: French fries and soft drinks aren't the only things that come super-sized. If recent national touring shows are any indication, curtain calls are bigger and more lavish than ever. Curtain calls have long been a familiar ending to live stage performances.

Pittsburgh Playhouse REP's Antarktikos.

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: I hate to open with this, but: SPOILER ALERT. There's no way to discuss the Pittsburgh Playhouse REP's world premiere of Antarktikos, by Andrea Stolowitz, without giving away a little bit of a plot twist. So if you're planning on going and you like surprises, stop reading right now. Actually, the twist comes early and isn't that surprising. But it's also the most interesting thing about the play and I feel bad diminishing what little oomph the script has. But forward we march.

J-O-B University of Delaware

2013-14 recruiting

The REP (Resident Ensemble Players) is a resident professional Equity acting company presenting a five play season in the Thompson Theater on the University of Delaware campus in Newark, DE.  Each season we collaborate with guest directors and designers to produce work of the highest quality.  Please visit our web site at www.rep.udel.edu to see examples of the scale and quality of our work.  The successful candidates will be team players with a collaborative spirit, positive attitude, and a love of theatre. 

ATD - ME - Sound Engineer - Assistant Costume Designer - First Hand

Judge Sets Court Date in 'Spider-Man' Trial

NYTimes.com: A federal judge has set a May 28 trial date for the director Julie Taymor, Bono and the Edge of U2, and the producers of the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” to battle in court over a lawsuit stemming from the spectacular implosion of their years-long collaboration on the show. Judge Katherine B. Forrest of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered on Friday that the parties may conduct discovery through May 1 and that “trial is and will be on May 28, 2013,” adding that no further meetings with the judge were necessary. The order came four days after the judge, during a closed-door session with the various sides, expressed frustration that they had not been able to settle disputes over copyright control and profits from the show in spite of coming to terms in principle in August.

Book of Mormon: The new golden age of the musical

Telegraph: Jean-Luc Godard said it four decades ago. Neil Tennant said it last year. Even Andrew Lloyd Webber said it – just before he launched Aspects of Love upon the world. The musical is dead. “Dead as cave painting,” declared a critic in The Guardian in 1992. “Dead in its tap shoes,” said the man from The Observer in 1999. “Dead on its feet,” affirmed this paper in 2007.

SFS Strike Through a Glass, Novelistically

San Francisco Classical Voice: Working on coverage of the S.F. Symphony strike, a scene came to mind from a book read decades ago. I don't have a copy now of Thornton Wilder's Heaven's My Destiny, so this is an approximation through the haze of time. A young, naive, well-meaning Bible salesman encounters a boy, perhaps 6 years old, playing outside his home. The man says hello to the kid, hoping to speak to the child's parents. The boy kicks the man in the shin, starts screaming, and when his mother runs out from the house, the boy points at the man at yells: "He kicked me!"

How to Find the Perfect College Acting Program

www.backstage.com: When an actor is feeling general onstage, it’s often because there is too much on which to concentrate. To combat that, Konstantin Stanislavsky developed an exercise called the circle of attention that has actors place an imaginary circle around a fixed number of objects and then concentrate only on those objects within that circle to create a reality. This helps limit your concentration. The search for the perfect college training program can likewise feel overwhelming because there are too many concerns. I offer the following considerations to place in your circle of attention to help refine your search.

Ultra Fest Underway Despite LED Screen Collapse

CBS Miami: Ultra Music Festival went on as planned Friday despite a stage-related accident that sent three people to the hospital Thursday night. Thousands of neon-clad revelers packed Bayfront Park in Downtown Miami for Ultra 15, the world’s largest electronic music festival. “The music makes you move. You just don’t want to stop moving. Once I walk in that gate. I’m going to just jump around,” Chris Chapman said. The man from Houston was visiting Miami for his 30th birthday. It was his first time attending Ultra.

Three-Dimensional Clouds Appear in Layered Glass

My Modern Metropolis: Buenos Aires-based artist Leandro Erlich's Single Cloud Collection gives us a surreal taste of what capturing a cloud in glass would look like. Using the artistic method of layering, Erlich's sculptural pieces are given a three-dimensionality. Each "captured cloud" is the illusionary result of numerous panes of glass that are individually embellished with acrylics.

Hydrophobic Nanocoating vs. Household Objects

Tested: Hydrophobic nano-coatings like Liquipel have the potential to be the Next Big Thing for electronics. We were impressed with Liquipel at CES 2013. Who wouldn't want a smartphone impervious to the threats of rain and an accidental drop in the ocean (or a toilet)? While Liquipel is focused on electronics, there are other companies selling waterproof nanocoatings for other purposes. Like--just for example--ketchup resistance.

The Bay Bridge's Crazy Light Show Has an Illuminating Documentary

gizmodo.com: Whether you think it's a fantastic expression of creativity, or a horrible waste of money, for the next two years San Francisco's Bay Bridge will be illuminated every night with 25,000 animated white LEDs. And that like all large-scale projects, there's a fascinating story behind it.

A Zany weekend of Downtown performance art

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A weekend after the St. Patrick's Day festivities, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership will keep the city lively this weekend with public performances by our own Zany Umbrella Circus and Sisters of the Lattice.
The Zany Umbrella Circus will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Market Square with a retrospective featuring free performances, workshops and a traveling museum. Zany is presenting "Cake," a live visual storybook, with bold colors and 1950s-era stylings, about a young child whose birthday surprise does not go as planned. It will integrate aerial, trapeze, clowning, mask work and other circus feats.

Straightening Combs at Pittsburgh Playwrights

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Discontent with hair is just the beginning of the female self-image problem. Oh, I remember only too well the scorching heat and burning chemicals used to try to force some semblance of a curl into my resistant locks. Noted local actress-poet-playwright Kim El channels that and many other memories in her autobiographical one-woman play, Straightening Combs, presented by Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co.

Pittsburgh Musical Theater's Children of Eden

Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist who struck gold with Wicked, is particularly fond of his most personal project — Children of Eden. Pittsburgh Musical Theater's new production of Eden is a mixed bag of striking performances, trite production choices and undeniably spectacular music.
Children of Eden draws its subject directly from the Book of Genesis. It begins with the Creation and works its way through Noah and the flood. But like any narrative where everyone knows the ending, the story isn't the reason you're there. Schwartz fashions a compelling thematic structure out of deliberate repetitions which the production communicated deftly.

J-O-B Draftsman

Job Posting - CAD by dboevers

J-O-B Annenberg Center

TD Job Description - Ad Copy by dboevers

Production Super Notice by dboevers

What difference will arts cuts really make?

BBC News: Plays at The Merlin theatre in Frome, Somerset, and the Brewhouse in Taunton, rarely register on the national radar. But the venues have been of interest to the arts world of late. They could be the canaries in the coal mine, having lost all regular Arts Council England and most local council funding. The Brewhouse has fallen off its perch, having gone into administration in February. The Merlin is still going but with a changed set of shows in order to boost box office takings.

Why British critics don't get The Book of Mormon

Oliver Burkeman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: The Book of Mormon, the much-applauded musical from the creators of South Park, officially opened in London last week – and like the grinning, clean-cut missionaries whose story it relates, it's been getting some baffled reactions from the locals. Well, the ones who work as professional theatre critics, anyway. I saw it on Broadway last spring, and can't recall a more purely hilarious and heart-warming evening in years. But the Telegraph's Charles Spencer found it "hard to warm to", "decadent" and "self-indulgent". My colleague Michael Billington, though deeming it "perfectly pleasant", also called it "essentially a safe, conservative show for middle America", awarding three stars out of five. Quentin Letts, of the Mail, called it "cowardly, coarse, cynical" and "worth avoiding"; in the Times, Libby Purves found it "morally null" and even "pretty racist".

Hollywood 'craves digital versions of actors'[VIDEO]

BBC News: Hollywood sometimes finds close-ups difficult to do during dangerous stunt scenes because the person carrying out the stunt is not the film star but a stunt man. Digital CGI has gone a long way to creating believable images of characters but still finds difficulty replicating the complexities of the human face. Marc Istook finds out how accurate digital copies can be.

Television Still Written by White Men: Report

www.backstage.com: Minority writers remain underrepresented in American television, which may contribute to the dearth of roles for minority performers.
“[W]riters play a foundational role in the fashioning of the stories a society circulates about itself. But in the Hollywood entertainment industry, unfortunately, there has all too often existed a disconnect between the writers hired to tell our stories and an America that’s becoming increasingly diverse with each passing day,” the report from the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) states.

The Second Screen Comes To The Movies With App-Enhanced Film, "App"

Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce: It’s rare that moviegoers are encouraged to fiddle with their smartphones during a film, but that’s the case with App, the new Dutch movie directed by Bobby Boermans.
Before going to see the film, moviegoers are asked to download a free app (available for Android and iPhone) to enhance the plot, which involves a 21-year-old psychology student who becomes addicted to her smartphone following a tragic accident.
The App app uses SyncNow, a digital audio watermarking technology originally developed by Civolution to prevent illegal downloads.

Julie Taymor's Lawsuit Over 'Spider-Man' Musical Set for May Trial

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark was supposed to be an epic -- the most expensive Broadway musical ever with audacious stunts and music from U2's Bono and The Edge.

Judge Confirms Warner Bros. Owns Superman Rights

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Warner Bros. scored another win in the war over Superman rights Wednesday when a federal judge confirmed the enforceability of a 2001 agreement between DC Comics and the estate of Superman co-creator Jerome Siegel.

sleep is more important than food

The Energy Project: Let's cut to the chase.
Say you decide to go on a fast, and so you effectively starve yourself for a week. At the end of seven days, how would you be feeling? You'd probably be hungry, perhaps a little weak, and almost certainly somewhat thinner. But basically you'd be fine.
Now let's say you deprive yourself of sleep for a week. Not so good. After several days, you'd be almost completely unable to function. That's why Amnesty International lists sleep deprivation as a form of torture.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Things I Wish I Had Been Told in Theatre School

Callam Rodya / Creative Work + Commentary: Theatre school was great. It is great. But it can omit some of the more fundamental and important career lessons. School is, after all, a bubble. It’s not a natural professional environment. So, with what little wisdom I have regarding a career as an actor, here’s a list of some things I wish somebody had told me in theatre school. Some of these lessons, I had to learn the hard way. Others simply would have saved me a bit of time.

Posted by David at 3/22/2013 03:08:00 PM- 11 Comments Here

Etiquette Redefined in the Digital Age

NYTimes.com: Some people are so rude. Really, who sends an e-mail or text message that just says “Thank you”? Who leaves a voice mail message when you don’t answer, rather than texting you? Who asks for a fact easily found on Google? Don’t these people realize that they’re wasting your time? Of course, some people might think me the rude one for not appreciating life’s little courtesies. But many social norms just don’t make sense to people drowning in digital communication.

Posted by David at 3/23/2013 03:08:00 PM- 7 Comments Here

Choreography and computers

The Washington Post: From pop concerts to ballet, high-tech effects are usually a secondary feature, worked into the design elements. You remember Beyonce interacting with an army of clones in her animation-enhanced performance of “Run the World (Girls)” at the 2011 Billboards Music Awards. That was a collaboration with media artist Kenzo Hakuta, a Sidwell Friends graduate who studied under video pioneer Nam June Paik.

Posted by David at 3/23/2013 04:07:00 PM- 6 Comments Here

Why 3D Printing Will Be The Next Big Copyright Fight

ReadWrite: It's finally happening. That moment we've been hearing about for years - the one where futuristic-sounding 3D printing becomes ubiquitous - is actually upon us. President Obama even mentioned 3D printing in his State of the Union address. As prices drop and the technology improves, consumers are awaiting this disruptive new era with bated breath. So are intellectual property lawyers.

Posted by David at 3/24/2013 03:22:00 PM- 6 Comments Here

IMDb Lawsuit: Actress Suing IMDb Plans to Have Nine Other Actors Testify at Trial

www.hollywoodreporter.com: According to her pretrial statement, she won't be alone in attempting to hold the Amazon.com affiliate liable for costing her jobs in Hollywood. Hoang's lawyers want to potentially bring nine other actors and actresses onto the witness stand to testify about their own efforts to get IMDb to remove birth dates.

Posted by David at 3/21/2013 04:13:00 PM- 6 Comments Here

Broadway Tryouts Move Closer to Home

Variety: It used to be that when a Broadway show booked an out-of-town tryout, it actually went out of town. Not anymore. The world premiere of Rialto-targeted musical “Honeymoon in Vegas” premieres this fall at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. — less than a half-hour ride from midtown Gotham — and that proximity is the mark of a major shift in the way commercial producers think about legit creative development in the new media age.

August Wilson's Words Get New Life In Monologue Contest

NPR: When the stage lights go up at Chicago's Goodman Theatre on Monday evening, more than 20 high school students will each have a moment to step into the spotlight and perform a monologue from one of the plays written by the late August Wilson. Chicago's contest is one of several regional finals that strives to introduce students to the Pulitzer Prize winner's work. It's also a lead-up to the national August Wilson Monologue Competition that will be held on Broadway later this spring.

Carol King Jukebox Musical to Debut on Broadway in 2014

www.backstage.com: The music of Billy Joel, ABBA, and Green Day have all inspired Broadway adaptations of their work—and now the catalog of Carole King will join their ranks. “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” is heading to Great White Way in spring 2014.

‘Othello: The Remix’ a brilliant, hip take on Shakespeare’s classic tale

Chicago Sun-Times: To cut to the chase: “Othello: The Remix” — the 90-minute, lightening-fast, hip-hop version of Shakespeare’s tragic tale of jealousy and self-doubt, is absolutely brilliant, and immense fun. The show, which wholly reimagines the original, is now in its U.S. debut at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre Upstairs. Written, directed and musicalized by Chicago’s Q Brothers (with help from Rick Boynton), it was devised for London’s 2012 “Globe to Globe” Cultural Olympiad, and subsequently toured to Edinburgh and Germany. And while it has been “transferred” from Renaissance Venice to 21st century America, it turns out to be every bit as faithful to the play’s core meaning and message as poor Desdemona was to Othello.

Live Sound: Everyday Carry: The Right Tools For The Job

Pro Sound Web: How many freelance stagehands does it take to plug in a cable? It sounds like the setup line of a joke, but it’s actually the subject of a recent discussion with a colleague. At a gig a couple of weeks ago, he’d asked a freelance stagehand to plug in a cable at the back of a rack. It was dark, particularly in the recesses of the rack, and the stagehand couldn’t see the channel numbers (let alone the jacks).

The Canaries in the Coal Mine

Psychic Infection: What of the Fabulous Invalid? Broadway as a whole, after decades of mistaken calls of its imminent demise, continues to roll along, posting impressive yearly grosses. But if the industry's foundation was ever on uncertain shifting sands, it is now. Most of the gains in dollars are not coming from increased attendance, but from higher prices. How long can this trend continue? The answer is unknowable, but it can't go on forever. Ask the Yankees or the Met Opera. Is that a fat lady I hear singing?

Why 3D Printing Will Be The Next Big Copyright Fight

ReadWrite: It's finally happening. That moment we've been hearing about for years - the one where futuristic-sounding 3D printing becomes ubiquitous - is actually upon us. President Obama even mentioned 3D printing in his State of the Union address. As prices drop and the technology improves, consumers are awaiting this disruptive new era with bated breath. So are intellectual property lawyers.

The Royalty Pool

Law Offices of Gordon P. Firemark - Top Los Angeles Theatre & Film Entertainment Lawyer: One of the most confusing terms in theatrical production agreements is the discussion of the “Royalty Pool”. This provision in most Broadway and Off-Broadway production contracts, and increasingly in other commercial theatre situations, is usually presented as an alternative approach to paying the creative and business personnel who participate in royalties.

Billie Joe Armstrong to Write Songs for Yale Repertory Theater Show

NYTimes.com: The Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong will write new songs for Yale Repertory Theater’s production of “These Paper Bullets,” a rock ‘n’ roll updating of “Much Ado About Nothing” that will have its world premiere next March, the theater announced on Thursday.

Assistant Professor - Scene Design, University of South Dakota

University Job: This is a 9-month, tenure track position commencing August, 2013. Teaching responsibilities include scenic design, scene painting, rendering, periods and styles of design, and other courses depending on curricular needs and personal specialization. The successful candidate will design scenery and properties, supervise student scenic/property designs, and oversee paints and props for 5-6 productions annually.

Choreography and computers

The Washington Post: From pop concerts to ballet, high-tech effects are usually a secondary feature, worked into the design elements. You remember Beyonce interacting with an army of clones in her animation-enhanced performance of “Run the World (Girls)” at the 2011 Billboards Music Awards. That was a collaboration with media artist Kenzo Hakuta, a Sidwell Friends graduate who studied under video pioneer Nam June Paik.

Performers left unpaid after tour

News - The Stage: Actors employed on a touring musical are owed thousands of pounds and fear they will not receive full payment after it emerged the show’s producers have a history of not paying performers properly. The cast members were part of A Viennese Strauss Gala, staged by Theatre Productions, which is run by Stephen Leatherland and Karie Musson. Both are known to Equity and are named on the union’s Special Attention list for issues concerning performers’ payments.

‘Measure for Measure’ a sly barometer of today’s headlines

Chicago Sun-Times: A profoundly corrupt clergy. Hypocritical, moralistic politicians engaged in sexual indiscretions that run the gamut. Cops with a taste for brutality. A thriving sex industry that knows the power of a payoff. Prisons packed with both the deserving and undeserving. A crumbling infrastructure. Drugs.

Backstage Santa Fe Opera Weekend, July 5-7, 2013

News content from Live Design Magazine: The Santa Fe Opera, one of the most prestigious summer opera festivals worldwide, has invited Live Design/LDI to go backstage for a special weekend at the opera, July 5-7, 2013. Santa Fe production director Paul Horpedahl will coordinate the technical side of the weekend, with lighting designers Rick Fisher and Duane Schuler among the esteemed guest designers and in-house technical staff to participate in panels and backstage tours.

Production: PSW Webinar Coming Up: Wireless Apocalypse Or Hype?

Pro Sound Web: Join us for a free live webinar—“Wireless Apocalypse or Hype?”—to be presented by noted RF consultant James Stoffo here on ProSoundWeb this coming April 2 at 2 pm Eastern U.S. time. (Register for the webinar here.) Stoffo has done wireless and frequency coordination work with countless high-profile performances, events and venues such as the Super Bowl, Broadway theatre, the World Cup, theme parks, NBA All-Star Weekend, the Radio City Rockettes and many others. He also previously hosted two highly successful webinars here on PSW, also focused on wireless.

The Arts' College of Cardinals Equivalent

Barry's Blog: So that got me thinking about our next Chair of the NEA, as we wait for the President to put forth a name for Senate confirmation. Obviously, this particular political appointment is not high on the priority list. They will get to it when they get to it. And the name ultimately put forth will likely not be the result of any organized, systemic search or vetting process. That’s not how it works. Someone in the administration will ask someone else if they have any ideas and a name will somehow emerge. It may well be a political process. Not, however, likely to be transparent in any sense. To be fair, this process has yielded us some very good Chairmen, even if they were not from the field itself. But perhaps we are squandering a great media opportunity - a chance to call attention to not just the agency but the role of art itself in our society.

Sleep Deprivation

Radiolab: Ahhhh, babies. We get in bed with producer Hannah Palin, and her husband, and her baby Dominic, as they all try to go to sleep. An intimate portrait of the effects of sleep deprivation. And then we try to understand what sleep is for by looking at what happens when you don't get it. The tired, cranky feeling of exhaustion, what’s that really about? What thing are you missing by not getting sleep? Dr. Allan Pack describes what an exhausted brain looks like (hint: a 14 year-old boy's room). And Dr. Gulio Tunoni gives us insight into why a good night of sleep is good for the brain and, as the Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers and opera singer Brad Cresswell tell us, good for learning how to play music.

Etiquette Redefined in the Digital Age

NYTimes.com: Some people are so rude. Really, who sends an e-mail or text message that just says “Thank you”? Who leaves a voice mail message when you don’t answer, rather than texting you? Who asks for a fact easily found on Google? Don’t these people realize that they’re wasting your time? Of course, some people might think me the rude one for not appreciating life’s little courtesies. But many social norms just don’t make sense to people drowning in digital communication.

Pushing pixels to promote plays

Local | News | Beacon Herald: The play’s still the thing, but the Stratford Festival has developed some new and innovative strategies to catch the attention of young theatregoers. Specifically, it’s pushing pixels. On the heels of its groundbreaking Behind the Scenes mobile app, the Festival is now trying its hand at videogames to help bring a 400-year-old play to life. Executive director Anita Gaffney said gaming, with its emphasis on challenges and rewards, is the perfect medium to draw a younger, tech-savvy crowd to the Festival’s work.

Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Theatre in Scene Design, University of Tulsa

University Job: The University of Tulsa invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Theatre in Scene Design, beginning Fall 2013. Join a growing faculty committed to collaboration in an intensive undergraduate B.A. liberal arts program at a top 100 doctoral-granting private institution. Qualifications: MFA required; USA membership and skills in secondary design emphasis or production management desirable.

Has 'Veronica Mars' Kickstarter Campaign Ushered in a New Era of Movie Development?

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Three days into its campaign, The CW drama-turned-movie has shattered several crowd-funding records: fastest Kickstarter project to hit $1 million (4 hours, 24 minutes). Highest goal ever set in the 4-year-old website’s history. And 10 hours after its launch on Wednesday morning, the proposed Veronica Mars movie became the fastest project to hit that $2 million mark. As of Thursday night, it had received more than $3.2 million in pledges, with 28 days to go.

R.I. theaters look to expand business through ‘alliance’

Providence Business News: In an alliance of the state’s “brightest theaters,” three performance venues plan to exchange their artistic, technical and management resources in an effort to bolster long-term expansion with the creation of the Rhode Island Theater Alliance.. The Mixed Magic Theatre, Contemporary Theater Co. and Epic Theatre Co. will collaborate within the Rhode Island Theater Alliance, or RITA, a partnership deal that looks to facilitate the mutual growth of each company by encouraging technicians, administration and actors to work in the cross-theater network.

Threat of West End Strike Lifted

Variety: The threat of a strike by members of the U.K. union BECTU at West End and regional theaters owned by ATG (Ambassador Theater Group) — including the Lyceum (“The Lion King”) and the Apollo Victoria (“Wicked”) — has been lifted following the resolution of a pay dispute. Negotiations between 25,000 member entertainment and media union BECTU and ATG — the largest owner/operator of theaters in the U.K — had broken down Feb. 25, prompting BECTU to issue a statement warning theatergoers to check in advance whether the shows they had booked might be affected.

URTA Announces Elections of New Board Members

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The University/Resident Theatre Association (URTA) announced the three candidates who had won election to the URTA board of directors, the governing body of URTA. Greg Leaming, accomplished director, director of the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory of Actor Training, and associate artistic director of the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, and Robert Ramirez, professional actor and voice artist, and a member of the theatre faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were each elected to a three-year term on the board.

Live Sound: Decisions, Decisions: Bringing Common Sense To Gear Purchasing

Pro Sound Web: So you need a new “thingamajig” for your system? The problem: there are so many brands and types of this thingamajig available, how do you best go about the process of choosing the one is exactly right for your situation? Sometimes buying a new toy - rather than being fun and exciting - is instead fraught with frustration and indecision. And the need rarely comes at a “financially convenient” time.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater uses rich media messaging to build mobile database

Mobile Marketer - Messaging: Chicago Shakespeare Theater used rich media messaging to engage opted in audience members with a campaign that helped bring a famous painting to life and drive awareness for an upcoming performance. The theater group used rich media messaging to send opted-in audience members exclusive video content on their mobile devices that could be shared on Twitter and Facebook, driving viral awareness of an upcoming production. More than 14 percent of opted-in users shared the rich content they received on their Facebook page while more than 17 percent agreed to receive future updates from Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Return to BioShock

Studio 360: While the most visible evolution in video games has been in the realm of graphics, resolution, and processing power, another kind of progress has been taking place on the level of narrative. Ken Levine, the creative director of Irrational Games, has been in the forefront of that development.

Things I Wish I Had Been Told in Theatre School

Callam Rodya / Creative Work + Commentary: Theatre school was great. It is great. But it can omit some of the more fundamental and important career lessons. School is, after all, a bubble. It’s not a natural professional environment. So, with what little wisdom I have regarding a career as an actor, here’s a list of some things I wish somebody had told me in theatre school. Some of these lessons, I had to learn the hard way. Others simply would have saved me a bit of time.

Suzan-Lori Parks' "Watch Me Work" at Public Theater—New York—Thurs March 14 2013

#NEWPLAY TV - live streaming video powered by Livestream: Suzan-Lori Parks' "Watch Me Work" at Public Theater

Assistant Professor in Design for Theatre, University of Calgary

University Job: The Department of Drama is looking for a Regular, Full-time, Assistant Professor in Design for Theatre. The Department of Drama at the University of Calgary invites national and international applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level, commencing July 1, 2013. Responsibilities will include teaching, at undergraduate and graduate levels, with the majority of teaching in the areas of Design for Theatre or Scenography (Set, Costume, Lighting and Projection Design or Sound Design).

IMDb Lawsuit: Actress Suing IMDb Plans to Have Nine Other Actors Testify at Trial

www.hollywoodreporter.com: According to her pretrial statement, she won't be alone in attempting to hold the Amazon.com affiliate liable for costing her jobs in Hollywood. Hoang's lawyers want to potentially bring nine other actors and actresses onto the witness stand to testify about their own efforts to get IMDb to remove birth dates.

A bonanza of daring, across the boards

The Washington Post: Whether it’s an intensifying appetite for novelty, a newfound embrace of boldness — or maybe an increase in spinach consumption — something has gotten into the theater makers who are deciding what the rest of us will see on Washington’s stages next season. In the river of announcements spewing from the front offices of theaters around town, a theme is emerging for the offerings of 2013-14, and it’s as robust and optimistic a stream as any I’ve encountered. In company after company, the emphasis is on broadening audiences’ horizons, presenting theatergoers with galleries of voices and projects they may not have heard or seen before.

The Actors’ Equity Card…"Don’t Leave Home Without It!"

Actors' Equity Association News: You may remember the "Don’t Leave Home Without It" ad campaign from American Express– made famous by Karl Malden. Could that same tagline work with your Equity card? Have you thought about what your union card can offer beyond entry to EPAs or Chorus calls, basic wages, working conditions and numerous provisions in more than 30 agreements?

Obituary: Brian Johnston / CMU professor shook up established view of Ibsen

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: There are many stories about Brian Johnston, world-renowned Ibsen scholar, CMU professor, Middle East human rights activist and educator, but perhaps the most noteworthy has to have been when he was teaching at American University in Beirut in the 1980s. Even as the city became increasingly dangerous, and some of his fellow university professors had been kidnapped, Mr. Johnston still ventured out, until one day he was stopped at a checkpoint by a man with a machine gun and a black cloth over his face, recalled Jed Harris, a longtime colleague. He was certain that he was about to be taken, when the man lifted his cloth slightly and said, "Have you graded your papers yet, professor Johnston?" and waved him on. That's how good a teacher he was, Mr. Harris said.

Haimes Honored at Lortel Awards

Variety: Roundabout Theater Company a.d. Todd Haimes will receive a lifetime achievement kudo as part of the Lucille Lortel Awards ceremony, a May event to be hosted by Assif Mandvi and Maura Tierney. Neil LaBute will get a star on the Lortel Theater’s Playwrights’ Sidewalk as part of the awards, which consider only Off Broadway titles in the org’s annual competish for trophies.

Seth Rudetsky’s ‘Midtown March Medley’

NYTimes.com: When he isn’t doing his radio show on Sirius XM or filing his Playbill.com diary or hosting his weekly “Chatterbox” series of onstage interviews or writing theater-theme novels or uploading cheeky YouTube deconstructions of Broadway legends or doing his other Sirius show or writing new musicals or coordinating diva-heavy benefit concerts or masterminding his SethTV Web site or directing his young daughter’s school chorus, Mr. Rudetsky spends a lot of time on the road. There are command performances of solo pieces, theater-theme cruises, master classes and piano gigs in support of other performers.

Live Sound: Getting The Right Flow—Logical Approaches To The Live Show

Pro Sound Web: The corporate world calls it “workflow,” and in audio, we generally call it “prepping the show” as well as “load in-load out” and “set up-strike.” But none of it is quite adequate in describing effective practices in our overall approach to every show. In running a small sound company in Texas for almost a decade, it occurred to me that there might be a lack of information about how to go about these common yet vital aspects of working in sound reinforcement. A look around the internet pretty much confirmed this.

Going Once, Going Twice Come for the shopping, stay for the theatre

American Theatre – March 2013: The prevailing hunch about auctions and tag sales is that they are aimed at generating revenue. Generally, they are. But when Philadelphia's Gas & Electric Arts tacked on a tag sale to Cabinet of Wonders: An Impossible History, a Kira Obolensky commission produced in 2009, the company was more focused on extending the audience's experience of the world of the play beyond the play itself—and on appealing to and connecting with new theatregoers.

Embrace New Skills, and Open New Doors

NYTimes.com: I’M a classically trained professional dancer, and I have three different jobs. My main one is performing with a group named Evidence, A Dance Company, which is based in Brooklyn. I’m also a co-choreographer and dancer in a three-person musical comedy group, Adira Amram and the Experience. On Saturdays, if not on the road with one of those groups, I teach dance at the Ailey School.

Tweeting Mahler, Graham and Stoppard?

MARKETING THE ARTS TO DEATH: I once did marketing for an old vaudeville theatre-turned performing arts center that had amazing acoustics. One day I was walking past the telemarketing room where I overheard a young salesperson saying, “The acoustics in this theatre are so good that it’s like listening to a really well-produced CD with a great set of headphones.” I thought of this yesterday when I read a story about tweeting during orchestral concerts in Pacific Standard Magazine (via Artsjournal.com). According to writer Tom Jacobs, a young Alabama journalist was recently asked to tweet from his seat at a symphony orchestra performance and afterward said, “The exercise helped transform me into more of an active listener, a true observer instead of merely an audience member.”

The Data Crunchers of Theatre

Stage Directions: Good stage managers don’t just collect information, they manage it An organized stage manager … Isn’t that redundant? Organizational skills are a prerequisite to becoming a good stage manager. But why are stage managers known for organization above all other managers? In a business sense, stage managers are the ultimate transactional leaders, the perfect project managers. They are not asked to transform a company, but they are expected to replicate a project flawlessly, even with substitute team members. Daily. And if you are in rehearsal, the source material for that flawless replication changes hourly. Who else but a stage manager would be expected to know the exact layout of a cluttered desk or a formal dining table as it progresses by the minute?

Production Manager - Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley

University Job: The Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies seeks a Production Manager to organize, supervise, and coordinate all TDPS productions. This position incorporates both administrative and academic responsibilities including budget development, planning and contracting for up to 15 productions annually in three performing spaces, staff supervision, and oversight of students as designers, cast and crew. May teach stage management. For further information on TDPS see: http://tdps.berkeley.edu.