Major benefits for students who attend live theater, study finds

ScienceDaily: Field trips to live theater enhance literary knowledge, tolerance, and empathy among students, according to a study. The research team found that reading and watching movies of Hamlet and A Christmas Carol could not account for the increase in knowledge experienced by students who attended live performances of the plays. Students who attended live performances of the play also scored higher on the study's tolerance measure than the control group by a moderately large margin and were better able to recognize and appreciate what other people think and feel.

Review: KillJoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House

The Mary Sue: Think sexist, homophobic stereotypes deserve some mocking and exploration? Then you’ll be right at home in KillJoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House.

Created by Toronto-based artists Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell, the installation is an homage/parody of those Christian “Hell Houses” that pop up during Halloween. But instead of warning the attendees of the horrors of sex before marriage or the dangers of drugs, the piece is promoted as being a “sex positive, trans inclusive, queer lesbian-feminist-fear-fighting celebration.”

The 5 Best Pocket Multitools for EDC

Everyday Carry: Multitools are a great addition to any EDC for the sheer amount of utility they can bring to your kit. The problem is, sometimes the tool itself takes up even more space and weighs more than the entire carry combined. It's hard to put one to good use when the added bulk is a hindrance rather than a benefit for everyday tasks. In this guide, we list five of our favorite pocket-friendly multitools, excellent not only for their repertoire of functions but also for their form factor, bringing you all the benefits without the added bloat.

This Is How Millennials Will Change Management

www.fastcompany.com: Baby boomer managers can be credited with creating employee support programs. Generation X managers can be credited with making the workplace more informal, making the term "business casual" commonplace. What will the next breed of managers bring to the workplace?

Chip Espinoza has studied millennials in the workplace. The author of the recent book Millennials Who Manage and the 2010 book Managing the Millennials says this new generation of managers will take a step further in creating a people-first workplace.

Hoist Pre-Operational Safety Inspection Part 1: Safety Standards and Regulations

blog.cmworks.com: When using hoisting equipment, it is very important to know and understand all of the safety and inspection standards that apply to your lifting system. Depending on the type of equipment you are using, different standards may apply. This can often be confusing as different regulations apply to different parts of the lifting system.

Accounting for Media in the Production Schedule

HowlRound: It is important for the Producer and Production Manager to understand the general workflow of a Media Designer in order to thoughtfully and effectively integrate media into the production schedule. It is also vital to allocate a realistic budget as early as possible, so that a designer can coordinate the correct equipment and present design ideas that take into account the limitations of the budget. Keep in mind that media design can be varied and have diverse workflows depending on the approach, needs, constraints, and goals of the production. It is vital to fully comprehend what the specific media design for your show is trying to achieve in order to specifically create the calendar. That being said, there are some general things you can expect most designs to share.

My trigger-warning disaster: “9 1/2 Weeks,” “The Wire” and how coddled young radicals got discomfort all wrong

Salon.com: At the time I was teaching the course, I was also figuring out a life outside of academia. I had been a wandering postdoc for a long time and was tired. A friend of mine had recently been violently sexually assaulted. I was a witness. The trauma she suffered, from the assault and the long, drawn-out trial of her assailants, led me to volunteer at my local rape crisis center. Working directly with folks who have experienced trauma, I entered the course believing in trigger warnings and gave them throughout the class, even though it seemed as though the title of the course was a trigger warning in and of itself. Regardless, I gave them for almost every film I showed. I even gave them for films that really shouldn’t have needed them (i.e., Psycho).

Scary Movies Are The Best Investment In Hollywood

FiveThirtyEight: It’s spooky movie season again! Halloween is days away, and “Goosebumps,” “Crimson Peak” and the sixth film in the indefatigable “Paranormal Activity” franchise are in theaters now. Horror movies get nowhere near as much draw at the box office as the big-time summer blockbusters or action/adventure movies — the horror genre accounts for only 3.7 percent of the total box-office haul this year — but there’s a huge incentive for studios to continue pushing them out.

More Weight: Arthur Miller, THE CRUCIBLE, and the P-Word

Breaking Character: Confession: I don’t like to call Arthur Miller a Political playwright. I think calling him “political” is reductive. The guy himself, when dragged in front of Joseph McCarthy, refused to attribute the encounter to his political life.

“I knew perfectly well why they had subpoenaed me,” he once told Richard Eyre. “It was because I was engaged to Marilyn Monroe. When I got to Washington… my lawyer received a message from the chairman saying that if it could be arranged that he could have a picture, a photograph taken with Marilyn, he would cancel the whole hearing. I mean the cynicism of this thing was so total, it was asphyxiating.”

The Hidden Dangers For Workers on Film and TV Sets

The Leonard Lopate Show - WNYC: Industrial hygienist Monona Rossol returns to the show to discuss health and safety on film and TV sets. She will address safety violations in the film and TV industry which have resulted in injuries and deaths, such as the death of a young crew member last February on the set of the upcoming Gregg Allman biopic.

Shortcuts: Pro Tools vs. Hindenburg

Transom: The secret to developing speed and efficiency in digital audio editing is getting used to common, repetitive actions, so that they become automatic. Keyboard shortcuts can speed up your workflow significantly, especially when you can do them without stopping to think about them. But they can also trip you up if you start using another program, and be dizzying if you switch back and forth.

Staging Truss System Collapse Kills One, Injures 13

Theatre Safety Blog: China News reports that during the construction of the stage for an upcoming Jolin Tsai concert the ground supported stage truss system collapsed. On worker was killed, and 13 other were injured. On of the injured is in serious condition, while the others only suffered minor injuries.

The cool secret stories behind 10 of the most iconic movie scenes

sploid.gizmodo.com: Harrison Ford and Sean Connery taking off their pants and wearing just underwear in scenes from Indiana Jones because it was too hot? Jack Nicholson being too good at breaking down doors in The Shining? Martin Sheen actually being drunk and slicing his hand and fighting Francis Ford Coppola off screen in Apocalypse Now? These are the stories behind some of the most iconic scenes in some of the most iconic movies of all time.

Disappear in a Forest of Lights in 'Epicenter'

The Creators Project: An abandoned factory becomes a living organism with only the use of lights and sound in Epicenter, a collaboration between Russian light artists Tundra and Sila Sveta. This project was a spontaneous idea that arose during work for a popular Moscow techno club temporarily housed in the Trekhgornaya Manufactury, a now empty space of urban decay described as "the most powerful textile enterprise of the Soviet Union” once upon a time.

George Takei Guides ‘Allegiance,’ a Musical, Not a Starship

The New York Times: Some of the team behind the new Broadway musical “Allegiance” seems a little nervous — worried that people will assume the show is a downer when they hear it’s set in one of the internment camps where Japanese-American citizens were imprisoned by the federal government during World War II.

Theater in the Now: Spotlight On...Robert Murphy

www.theaterinthenow.com: What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: It sounds obvious, but I’m drawn to theatre that makes me feel something. Because (IMHO), so much theatre in NYC seems more focused on exploring stylistic ideas, or dazzling with cleverness, than sharing an emotionally compelling story. (I do love theatrical style, as long as a compelling story gets told.) Having said that, one my of favorite playwrights is Charles Ludlam. He embraced all kind of craziness in his plays, but was also quite firmly grounded in traditional rules of dramatic structure.

Watch: “Why Props Matter”

Filmmaker Magazine: What are props, and how do they work? Rishi Kaneria’s video essay considers the many functions props serve: as symbols of death (The Godfather‘s oranges), as ways to transition from one scene to another (Lawrence of Arabia‘s famous match cut), as objects indelibly associated with their characters (Indiana Jones’ bullwhip), and — of course — as weapons.

Juggling the Details of the ‘Hamilton’ Juggernaut

WSJ: As the nation’s founding fathers strut and fret upon the stage of Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre, Jason Bassett plays an unseen role, perched on a snug triangular wooden platform about 10 feet above them.

While the cast of the smash-hit hip-hop musical “Hamilton” weaves through fast-paced raps and intricate wordplay, he follows them word for word, calling the show’s 856 lighting cues and 40 set cues with rapid-fire, split-second timing.

Against Sameness in Theatre

HowlRound: This year is the 25th anniversary of the signing the Americans with Disabilities Act and if you had told me twenty-five years ago that upon this anniversary I would be not only a writer and director working with disabled artists, but also an advocate for and about them, I would not have believed you. My company, Nicu’s Spoon, is this very year celebrating fifteen years as the first fully inclusive theatre company in New York City history. A fact that I am proud of but one that I think the NYC theatre community should not be.

80 Playwrights Urge New York Times to Restore Production Credits in Theatre Reviews

Playbill.com: Annie Baker, John Guare, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally and Sarah Ruhl are among a group of 80 influential playwrights who have signed their names to an open letter sent to The New York Times urging the publication to restore the list of designers and production members to its printed and online reviews and listings.

The Independent Producer’s Notebook: Identifying Workable Spaces and Taking Stock of your Theatre Ecology

HowlRound: Have a vision. Find a team. Know your options.

These are the first three challenges I’ve encountered as I embark on a six-month journey toward independent production in a regional market. I’ve never done it before. I’ve worked in the DC theatre community in a number of capacities—director, playwright, performer, and dramaturg—but I’ve never taken on producing before. This year, the folks at CulturalDC’s Mead Theatre Lab Program had enough confidence in me to select my project as part of their 2015-2016 season.

The power of shame: why Measure for Measure is more relevant than ever

Stage | The Guardian: While Shakespeare wrote only one formal trilogy – the Henry VI plays – the theatre schedules have a habit of arranging his one-off plays into unofficial sequences, as different productions of the same play occur in rapid succession.

In the last six months, London theatregoers have had the chance to see Measure for Measure directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins at the Young Vic (until November 14), staged by Dominic Dromgoole at the Globe, and in a touring version by the Russian-language subsidiary of the Cheek By Jowl company, which visited the Barbican and the Oxford Playhouse earlier this year.

A Gang of Despicable Ghouls Takes Over a Cathedral in NYC

The Creators Project: Every year since 1990, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine—the fourth largest Christian church in the world, located in New York City’s Morningside Heights neighborhood—hosts an event one wouldn’t expect to witness on holy grounds. At the Cathedral’s Halloween Extravaganza, visitors are greeted by a ghoul playing the cello and a giant, quivering spider hanging on the Rose Window.

“The Cost of Your Ticket” is No Way to Raise Money.

artful fund raiser: Building a relevant case for support is, of course, a fundraising fundamental. The most necessary elements to fundraising are 1. A need, 2. A solution, and 3. A Case for Support connecting the two. That’s Fundraising 101 and half the battle. Give me a compelling case that is relatable, repeatable, and inspiring and we can probably attract philanthropic support. Add a kitten and some artisanal kale and we are headed for victory.

| Unlocking 3D Printers Ruling is a Mess

michaelweinberg.org: Today the Library of Congress released its rules for unlocking 3D printers in order to allow operators to use 3D printing materials that are not approved by the printer manufacturers. The decision is, to put it mildly, a mess. It is as if, at the end of the long marathon that was the rulemaking process, the Librarian of Congress decided to slap on iceskates for the last 100 yards. The predictable result was that it fell, broke both legs, and vomited all over itself. Did it manage to fall across the finish line on the way down? That’s hard to say.

Why we’re working all wrong

MarketWatch: The way we work is not one size fits all. The eight-hour workday, the 9-to-5 time frame, the one-hour lunch, the 15-minute break — these are merely social constructs, not “natural” operational modes that work for every office, industry, and employee.

And while many offices have begun to look more custom than mass-produced, not all workplace trends improve your performance. From co-working spaces to collaboration, the “best” environment is hotly contested.

Cirque Unveiled TORUK Today in Bossier City, LA

www.cirquefascination.com: Cirque du Soleil unveiled today in Bossier City its new touring show inspired by James Cameron’s record-breaking movie AVATAR, TORUK – The First Flight. The show will be presented in arenas around the world starting in Bossier City as of November 12, 2015. Presented by Visa Signature in the United States, the show will premiere in Montreal on December 21.

Tracy Nunnally Rigger Extraordinaire

Theatre content from Live Design: To Tracy Nunnally, rigging is like dancing. While the owner and president of Hall Associates Flying Effects—a special effects rigging company that he joined in 2000 and then bought in 2005—can program a motor to move fluidly, Nunnally still senses a cold, mechanical feel to the effect. “But if you get an operator who is pulling on a rope and interfacing with an artist who is on stage, then they are kind of like dance partners,” says the rigger. Suddenly, the action is more organic, born from the human connection, as opposed to one person trying to dance with a machine. “For me, the function needs to follow the form.”

Study: 2014's Top 700 Films Confirm That Women Hire Women

Women and Hollywood: A new study looking at the top 700 domestic films of 2014 concludes that women directed 13% of last year's theatrical releases and demonstrates that female filmmakers are much more likelier than their male counterparts to hire other women in important behind-the-scenes roles.

PLASA EU Downsizes After Split

Stage Directions: In the wake of their ongoing split, UK’s PLASA organization has released more info about the future of their organization—including a “critical” cash flow problem, leading to staffing reductions and an internal reorganization. As part of the split it was also confirmed that Light & Sound America will remain a publication of the UK arm of PLASA, while Protocol will revert to PLASA North America (formerly ESTA).

Victory for Users: Librarian of Congress Renews and Expands Protections for Fair Uses

Electronic Frontier Foundation: The new rules for exemptions to copyright's DRM-circumvention laws were issued today, and the Librarian of Congress has granted much of what EFF asked for over the course of months of extensive briefs and hearings. The exemptions we requested—ripping DVDs and Blurays for making fair use remixes and analysis; preserving video games and running multiplayer servers after publishers have abandoned them; jailbreaking cell phones, tablets, and other portable computing devices to run third party software; and security research and modification and repairs on cars—have each been accepted, subject to some important caveats.

IATSE Local 2 Speaks Out Against JAM Productions’ Firing of Riviera Theatre’s Backstage Crew

Stage Directions: IATSE Local 2 took aim at JAM Productions on Oct. 22, saying that “just as Local Two was about to file its petition” to the NRLB on behalf of stagehands hoping to organize, the local promoter/music venue operator “fired the entire stage crew at the Riviera, totaling over 30 employees.”

Noises Off? A Brief History of Unruly Audiences

HowlRound: None of us wants to piss off Patti LuPone. But it seems that an increasing number of theatregoers are doing just that, especially with their use of cellphones during performances. “I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore,” she said in a statement in July. Nor was that even the worst example of audience behavior that month; an attendee at Hand to God, the Broadway play about a possessed puppet, found himself the subject of national headlines when he climbed up onstage to try and charge his phone in a fake, electrical outlet on the show’s set.

d3 Technology Enables World’s Largest Projection Mapping on Roof of The O2

InPark Magazine: “Wear the Rose,” the multimedia campaign to generate excitement among England Rugby fans in the run up to The O2’s England Rugby Campaign, culminated in a record-breaking projection mapping on the roof of The O2.

The send-off concert for the national team England Rugby showcased the world’s largest projection mapping to date. Official anthem singer, mezzo soprano Laura Wright, performed “Jerusalem” from atop The O2 as perpetual rose animations were projected onto the immense canvas of the roof below her.

More Than a Conversation for Christmas

The Clyde Fitch Report: This November will mark the thirty-eighth year the Goodman has presented A Christmas Carol. Joined by Hell in a Handbag’s ninth annual Christmas show, the fourth year of Profiles’s Hellcab, and numerous others, it’s fair to say that Chicago theater has a long-held and well-loved tradition of the holiday show. This holiday season, emerging Chicago playwright Dakota Parobek will add their voice to this tradition, with their play Merry Christmas, Mulch Pile! receiving a one week run with Mercy Street Theatre. The play features all the good cheer one would expect for a Christmas play, but with the hope of providing an experience that will change us all year long.

Can BroadwayHD Be The Netflix For Theater?

ThinkProgress: BroadwayHD, a site that could become the Netflix of theater, launched on Monday. The site is the brainchild of Tony award-winning producers Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley; they’ve been working on this project for four years and have, at present, the rights to stream over 100 productions. Lane and Comley spoke with ThinkProgress by phone about how BroadwayHD was conceived, what musicals and plays you can expect to find on the site (and which shows you probably shouldn’t hold your breath for), and why they believe making Broadway shows available to stream won’t cannibalize ticket sales but will instead spark an interest in live performance among audiences who have extremely limited access to the theater.

SAG Health Plan Changes Prompt Protest

Variety: Two high-profile members of the SAG-AFTRA national board have gone public with their dissatisfaction over an upcoming change in the SAG health plan.

Frances Fisher and Patricia Richardson are objecting to the Trustees’ recent decision over the plan — which is overseen by reps of the performers union and management — to eliminate the self-pay option for health insurance premiums for members who have taken early retirement. That decision will go into effect at the end of the year.

LightPool is UK’s First Permanent Projection Mapped Show

Techie Talk: ‘Projection mapping’ has become an industry buzz word in the last couple of years and the iconic ‘Blackpool illuminations’ – among the world’s most historic festivals of light is home to the first permanent projection mapped show in the UK, scheduled to run for the full two months / 66 day ‘Illuminations’ period each year from now on.

How Leatherman President Ben Rivera Designs Your Multitools

indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com: You likely have one of Ben Rivera’s designs in your pocket or on your keychain right now. If not, he’s hoping to put one there. This is where Leatherman came from and where it’s going with new, wearable tools like the Tread.

ETC Supports Behind the Scenes with App Sales

Stage Directions: ETC continued its support of Behind the Scenes, presenting the organization with a check for $27,405.58 at the recent LDI show. The amount reflects the ongoing proceeds from sales of ETC’s iRFR and aRFR (Radio Focus Remote) application for iOS and Android devices.

20,000 NYC High School Students Will Get to See Hamilton for $10

jezebel.com: New York City high school students are getting a chance to see the fantastic (so I’ve heard) Broadway play Hamilton for much less than the ticket price.

As much as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has become a cultural force, the show is so much in demand (the Obamas have gone, as have Jay Z and Beyoncé) that tickets are sold-out and prices run in the thousands on sites like StubHub.

Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions for 2015

Glassdoor: Job candidates must be prepared for anything during an interview. That's why Glassdoor has combed through tens of thousands of interview questions shared by job candidates over the past year to compile its annual list of the Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions.

Orwell Estate Sends Copyright Takedown Over the Number "1984"

TorrentFreak: George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic book that describes a rather dystopian future with surveillance and control as central themes.

The author himself passed away in 1950 and currently his rights are controlled and protected by the Orwell estate.

Being a Woman in Film School…

Victoria Rozler: For the past two days I have been more than prepared to flex my feminist muscles; whether that be because I’ve been watching the Suffragette trailer 29 times a day to prepare for the premiere this Friday or what, but I have been on edge. And SO luckily for me, there have been many instances I’ve come across (mainly during classes) that I’ve been forced to witness and experience the idiocy of those bigoted minds around me. I’ve decided to share these moments to not only to bring awareness to the small, misogynistic situations I already have to deal with but to hopefully start a conversation on the matter.

Aziz Ansari And Minority Accents in Hollywood

The Mary Sue: Aziz Ansari spoke at EW Fest about his new show, Master of None, and the ways he drew from his own experiences in writing his Indian-American actor protagonist, Dev. Ansari doesn’t want to call the Netflix series autobiographical, but he definitely relates to Dev.

Beyond Vivienne Westwood: When Designers Become Activists

The Creators Project: Last week, Miki Agrawal and Céline Semaan Vernon sat before a roomful of aspiring and active designers to talk about the future of social- and environmentally-minded design. Hosted by AIGA NY in their newly acquired pop-up space in lower Manhattan as part of their latest series of members-only events, the discussion was titled “Beyond Vivienne Westwood: Fashion brands that are changing the world." And, to say that these two designers were the perfect picks to headline just such a discussion, would be a gross understatement.

Harassment Claims Fuel Debate about Employee Safety at Theme Parks' Halloween Events

www.themeparkinsider.com: Three women posted over the weekend to a Halloween Horror Nights fan group on Facebook that they were quitting their jobs as scare actors at Universal Orlando's annual Halloween event due to ongoing harassment from guests.

"I'm leaving due to the physical sexual and verbal assault that I experience every single night," one wrote.

8 Secrets to Landing the Job You Want

www.thegrindstone.com: 1. Know what job you want. The most important part of landing the job you want is knowing what job you want. If any job paying $20 / hour will do, you’ll be lucky to land one. If you take the time to figure out exactly what job you want — and will excel at — then you can invest all your energy in landing that one job.

Where Does This Diverse Broadway Season Leave Women of Co

Women and Hollywood: Viola Davis said in her Emmy speech last month, “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You can’t win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.” The same can be said of Broadway, where there is currently a small surge in leading roles for women of color. But, despite a season hailed as a one of diversity, the number of women writers of color on Broadway remains dismal, especially in musical theater. Off-Broadway and regionally, the numbers are better but still low, and the pipeline to Broadway needs to be addressed.

Court to decide whether Buck Rogers will fly again in the movies

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A copyright fight between a Hollywood producer and a trust represented by a New Castle lawyer over the Buck Rogers name will be heard in Pittsburgh after the case was transferred here from California.

Producer Team Angry Filmworks, run by Don Murphy, whose credits include “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” “Transformers” and “Natural Born Killers,” said in a federal suit filed this summer in Los Angeles that the Buck Rogers name is in the public domain, so he can use it.

SXSW Interactive Cancels Gaming Harassment Panel Due to “Threats of Violence,” Fails to See Irony

The Mary Sue: Last night, two sets of panelists scheduled to take part in discussions at SXSW 2016 learned that both of their panels had been cancelled: “SavePoint – A Discussion on the Gaming Community” and “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games.” In both cases, the panelists were informed that their panels had been removed from the schedule due to SXSW’s concerns about the public response to the panels and the resources that hosting them would require from SXSW’s staff.

An Upgraded Tape Gun Lets You Quickly Build Life-Size Wireframe Prototypes

gizmodo.com: How many times have you battled a tape measure to try and figure out a if new piece of furniture will actually fit in your living room? With the ProtoPiper—a heavily upgraded tape gun—you can quickly build a full-scale mockup of almost any object and know for sure how big it will be.

Maisie Williams Calls out Sexist Character Descriptions, Doesn’t Have Time to Play “The Girlfriend”

The Mary Sue: During an interview with The Radio Times recently, Doctor Who‘s Maisie Williams opened up about the film and TV industry’s pervasive sexism. As reported by Mashable, the actress talked about the lack of well-written female characters, and the emphasis placed on women’s looks

Copyright Office Rules: Yes, Security Researchers May Hack Cars (And A Couple Other Things) For Science

Consumerist: Copyright law is surprisingly pervasive. It affects everything from computers to cars (and tractors). The law says you’re not allowed to circumvent DRM on anything for any reason… except for a big pile of things you actually legally can. Those exemptions get re-evaluated every three years, and today the new list is out.

5 Tips: Best Times To Schedule An Interview

Glassdoor Blog: The call or email comes in – the company you were hoping would contact you wants you to come in for an interview. The recruiter or hiring manager asks, “When could you come in to see us?”

While you may think to immediately turn to your calendar to throw out a few dates and times that work, remember your interview is a chance to a give a presentation that influences and persuades an employer as to why you’re right for the job.

What Investment Guru Peter Lynch taught me about Broadway Investing

The Producer's Perspective: You know me, I love to look outside our industry for tips on how to improve what I do every day. Since I’m a big believer in the theory that the entertainment industry should be its own investment asset class, I read a lot of investment advice to see if I can apply it to how I screen shows.

One of the best pieces of Broadway investment advice I ever received comes from one of the most important investors of the 20th century, Mr. Peter “Legend” Lynch, who took one mutual fund from $18 million to $14 billion.

So when Peter Lynch talks, people punch other people in the face to get them to shut up so they can listen.

From The Public to Broadway: Fun Home’s Growing Pains

HowlRound: Fun Home, the Tony-winning musical adapted from Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir has not one but three protagonists. They are dubbed, quite aptly, Small Alison, Middle Alison, and just Alison. I had the pleasure of seeing the three New York City incarnations of Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's musical which might be quite similarly described: Small Fun Home, staged as a Public Lab production in October 2012, Middle Fun Home, staged to great acclaim as a much-extended limited run at the Public in Fall 2013, and just plain Fun Home, the Broadway version at Circle in the Square which opened on April 19, 2015 and went on to win five Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical this past spring.

Top 10 Skills You Need at Work That Have Nothing to Do with Your Job

lifehacker.com: Hiring managers make the difficult decision of who the best candidate is for the job based not just on the specific job requirements but also basic “soft skills” every worker should have, like communication and teamwork. Here are the top 10 additional job skills everyone needs.

Effie Brown: ‘Project Greenlight’ Flap Fuels Industry Focus on Diversity

Variety: The drama that has played out on HBO’s “Project Greenlight” this season has been part of the groundswell of discussion within the entertainment industry about diversity.

That’s what panelists at the Produced By NY conference agreed Saturday in a session focused on tactics for boosting diversity across film and TV. The panelists included producer Effie Brown, who had a much-publicized confrontation with “Greenlight” exec producer Matt Damon over the issue of diversity in the show that revolves around giving an up-and-coming director the challenge of delivering a movie.

Equity in Theatre: What exactly does it mean and what would it take to actually have it?

HowlRound: The April 2015 Toronto Equity in Theatre Symposium and International Summit on Gender Parity in Theatre assessed the state of gender equity in theatre and then brainstormed what can be done to move equity forward quickly and effectively. For me, as a participant in Day One and a coordinator of Day Two, it became very clear that although we do not all mean the same things by equity or parity—either in theory or in practice—the threads that string our experiences together have many resonant colors and patterns. We also know that by whatever criteria we determine gender parity in theatre, we don’t have it yet.

How to Keep People Talking Long After Your Show

Selling Out: Live entertainment certainly has its fair share of challenges. You’ve got to create a compelling show, market it to your audience, deliver an incredible experience while audiences are there and then (ideally) keep them talking about your show long after it’s over.

Dance review: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre season opener has unparalleled 'wow' factor

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Any one of the three works on Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s season opener would be cause for excitement. But when put together — the unabashed joy of Jiri Kylian’s “Sinfonietta,” the stunning angularities of William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated” and the rambunctious hi-jinks of George Balanchine’s “Western Symphony” — the Friday night program of modern choreographic masters at the Benedum Center had a collective “wow” factor unparalleled in PBT’s 46-year history.

Staging Fright At Chiller Theater: The Musical

90.5 WESA: Many a Pittsburgher grew up watching Chiller Theater the late-night horror and science fiction program that ran from 1963 to 1983. This weekend The Strand Theatre in Zelienople will present Chiller Theater: the Musical. Actor and storyteller Tim Hartman joined Essential Pittsburgh with a preview of the upcoming music and comedy show.

Whereas Chiller Theater showed movies focusing on horror and science fiction Chiller Theater: the Musical will be focusing on fun more than fright.

Land and Sea: Two Musical Revivals

The Clyde Fitch Report: When revivals materialize, the question is often whether everything old can be made new again. Two musicals struck up the band this week by taking different approaches to this question, with varying degrees of success.

The story on The Rothschilds — though never confirmed, to my knowledge, by either lyricist Sheldon Harnick or composer Jerry Bock — is that during the run-up to the 1970 opening on Broadway, the songwriting team clashed over how director Derek Goldby was handling the material. Harnick was anti-, Bock pro- (and Michael Kidd replaced Goldby), causing the rift that left them never collaborating happily ever after.

Jeremy Renner on gender pay gap

Business Insider: Business Insider asked Jeremy Renner, who also starred in "American Hustle," if he would also be willing to negotiate alongside his female co-stars on future projects. He also was paid more than Adams and Lawrence for his role in the film, according to a Sony email leaked during the hack on the company.

"That's not my job," Renner said, while taking part in an intimate press day on Tuesday for the new "One Life/Live Them" campaign he's doing for Rémy Martin Cognac.

A Closer Look at the Glowforge Laser Cutter

Make:: I had the pleasure of being at the launch of the Glowforge laser cutter (or “3D laser printer” as they are wont to call it) at this year’s MakerCon in New York. I was extremely impressed with what I saw, as were many others at the convention and the ensuing World Maker Faire. It was obviously a prototype and they had their wrenches and soldering irons out more than once, but it was very exciting to see technology this potentially game-changing up close and personal. This device really does represent a significant leap forward, in terms of ease of use, broadening the user base, the available feature set, and of course, the significant reduction in price relative to what’s currently on the market.

On his 100th Birthday: The Legacy that was Arthur Miller

Breaking Character: Playwright Arthur Miller was, clearly, not referring to himself here. His character Linda Loman was talking about Biff. The two, Loman and Biff, reside among the pages of the playwright’s most renowned Death of a Salesman. Theatre lovers, literature nerds and informed human beings have, at some point in their lives, heard of Miller and his plays The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, All My Sons and A View from the Bridge. But there was so much more to the man than the four of these; Miller left behind a legacy of writings and literature. With his 100th birthday this month, I would like to take a few paragraphs to take a trip down his works, decade by decade, many words at a time.

AEA Should Be Making Realistic Choices, and I Wonder If This LA Lawsuit Will Wake Them Up

Bitter Gertrude: There’s been an interesting development in the small theatre/AEA controversy in LA. Actors have banded together to sue their own union.

Part of the complaint is that the union ignored the will of its members when members voted down, by a 2-to-1 margin, AEA’s proposed changes to the 99-and-under code. To be fair, AEA signaled from the start they were going to do exactly that if the LA membership voted against them by telling them before the vote that it was “non-binding.” It doesn’t get clearer than that that a union has no interest in members’ opinions.

Every 28 Hours: Creating a Performance for Ferguson

HowlRound: While sitting at the airport in Providence, RI, I await my flight to St. Louis, MO. I am anxious. I am excited. I am humbled. I am emotional. I am scared. The past few months have been a trial. There has been a lot of loss, but triumph as well. I was intrigued when Trinity Rep asked me to represent them in Ferguson for a weeklong residency produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and a grass roots theatremaking organization called The One Minute Plays Festival. And of course, I said yes.

The Crucible, Now at a Campus Near You

Reason.com: The centennial of the great American playwright Arthur Miller, born in New York on October 17, 1915, has been noted in articles and recognized with commemorative events and editions. For all the tributes, Miller (who died ten years ago) seems more a relic than a living voice on today's cultural scene; his earnest old-style liberal leftism alienates both conservatives and modern-day progressives obsessed with racial and sexual identities. Yet one of his most famous works, The Crucible—a mostly fact-based dramatic account of the 17th century Salem witch trials—is startlingly relevant to today's culture wars, in ways that Miller himself might have recognized.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Inside Las Vegas' only rated-R haunted house

Las Vegas Review-Journal: To enter the Gates of Hell, an R-rated haunted house part of the Freakling Bros. Trilogy of Terror, patrons must accept their fate.

They will be touched, groped, verbally assaulted, emotionally disturbed and electrically shocked.

Holding the waiver all people entering must sign is the character Cardinal Sin, who dons a Roman Catholic robe with an upside-down necklace he occasionally licks suggestively.

"Are you ready for this?" the actor asks glancing over the waivers.

Posted by David at Student Comments Here

3 Advantages of Giving A PowerPoint-Free Talk

Inside Higher Ed: This week I unplugged, went acoustic, presented naked.

Okay, I didn’t really do any of those things - but I did give a big off-campus talk to an important group without a PowerPoint.

I had my slides all ready to go. The deck was loaded up on the podium computer. And these were good slides. Lots of visuals and evocative images. 22 slides that I’d worked hard on to make each visually appealing. No slides with lots of text. Only images and words that supported a few key arguments and assertions.

I didn’t use these slides.

Posted by David at Student Comments Here 

Why we are burning out in the arts

ArtsHub Australia: Even by arts industry standards, poet, playwright, fantasy novelist, columnist, librettist and performance critic Alison Croggon has a lot to juggle.

She admits she has ‘flirted with burnout' for years.

‘Burnout is an occupational hazard in the arts,’ said Croggon. ‘There's no doubt that artists face particular issues, which are largely to do with the fact that so many work outside institutions, often alone, and have no structures to assist them or any kind of financial stability.’

Posted by David at Student Comments Here 

Why Getting Fired Can Be Critical To Success As A Leader

www.fastcompany.com: Losing your job isn’t something anyone wants, but the experience can make a person a better leader. Steve Jobs, Carly Fiorina, Mark Cuban, and Anna Wintour were all fired during their careers, for example, and each came back stronger.

Imergy Power Systems CEO Bill Watkins was just 21 when he was fired the first time. Working in the psychiatric ward of a Texas hospital during the early ‘70s, the head nurse told him to cut his hair; the hospital had a policy that male employees’ hair couldn’t be longer than the top of their ears. Watkins refused.

Posted by David at Student Comments Here 

Emerson College Take Heed: The Colonial Theatre Matters

Cognoscenti: As the proud parent of an Emerson College student and a longtime patron of Boston’s magnificent Colonial Theatre, I must confess that Emerson President Lee Pelton’s recent op-ed in The Boston Globe and his half-hearted justification for possibly turning the space into a dining hall left me totally confused.

“It is clear,” he asserted, “that maintaining the Colonial for its intended purpose is no longer viable.”

Really?

Posted by David at Student Comments Here 

Being Open To Suggestions To Improve Your Mix

Pro Sound Web: At live events (church services, weddings, concerts and so on), it’s definitely not my favorite thing to tell sound operators how to fix their mixes.

But when there is basic stuff happening like constant feedback, the monitors turned up louder than the mains, EQ that has taken the vocals out of the mix, and so on, I feel compelled to help, and also to spare the ears of those in the audience.

Inside Las Vegas' only rated-R haunted house

Las Vegas Review-Journal: To enter the Gates of Hell, an R-rated haunted house part of the Freakling Bros. Trilogy of Terror, patrons must accept their fate.

They will be touched, groped, verbally assaulted, emotionally disturbed and electrically shocked.

Holding the waiver all people entering must sign is the character Cardinal Sin, who dons a Roman Catholic robe with an upside-down necklace he occasionally licks suggestively.

"Are you ready for this?" the actor asks glancing over the waivers.

6 Ways to Avoid Troubles with the Feds Over Your Use of Subcontractors

Remodeling | Finance, Contractors, Business: Answering the sub-vs.-employee question has always required a judgment call, and until recently the determining factors have involved the amount of control a contractor had over the sub and that amount of control a contractor had over his own decisions. But recently, the administrator of the Wage and Hour Division in the U.S. Department of Labor issued a memorandum that analysts say puts more emphasis on the sub’s economic independence. In essence, the more that subcontractor relies on you for his living, the harder it will be for you to prove he’s independent.

Meanwhile, the IRS is increasing its audits of contractors with 1099 classifications in its crosshairs. Protect yourself now!

Top Five Reasons Mic Preamps Matter

Pro Sound Web: Few topics stir up more debate than microphone preamplifiers. With dozens, if not hundreds of different brands, models, shapes, sizes, variations, and configurations to choose from, it’s no wonder mic preamps are among the most misunderstood pieces of the audio signal chain.

Even low-cost interfaces offer built-in mic preamps, some of which sound pretty decent. So why would anyone want to spend money on an external preamp, let alone several?

Youth Investment

ChurchProduction.com: Nearly 70% of the people volunteering in the church’s technical production ministries are in their early teens to college-age years—and The Naz draws upon this youthful passion and energy. “My youngest team member is 14 and the age ranges all the way up to early 60s,” says Grove City Nazarene Technical Director Matt Groves. “Mentoring and teaching is very important to me as well as to the church in general.