Research on Mystery Escape Room Finds “Fun” May Be the Best Way to Create Stronger Corporate Teams--and Families

Business Wire: University researchers are learning that participants having fun breaking out of Mystery Escape Rooms (www.mysteryescaperoom.com) are also capturing best practices for leadership styles, productivity and diversity. Carnegie Mellon University is reviewing data from 1,381 teams; initial findings show the most successful teams have collaborative leaders, open communication and diverse teammates.

Check out this excellent video for the new Moog Sound Studio

Boing Boing: Moog Sound Studio, announced today, is a modular analog synthesizer "exploration station" designed to give even newbies the thrill of using patch cables to create a wide variety of sounds.

How Genius: Aretha Re-created Aretha Franklin’s Iconic Style

www.vulture.com: It was Aretha Franklin’s perfectly drawn cat eye that first caught a 13-year-old Jennifer Bryan’s attention back in the ’60s. “Her makeup blew me away,” says the costume designer behind Genius: Aretha, the third season of the National Geographic anthology series. “Just the glamour of it. I had never really seen that before.”

'Game of Thrones' Play Eyes Broadway, West End Run

Variety: George R.R. Martin is facing something even more menacing than White Walkers: New York theater critics. The fantasy maestro is bringing “Game of Thrones” to the stage, hoping to transform the novels’ machiavellian power moves into Broadway magic that will please even the most jaded reviewers.

Broadway's Nail-Biting Return: The Longest Overture in Theater History

thebroadwayblog.com: It’s the longest overture in modern theater. With theaters shuttered for more than a year, culture-craving audiences are eagerly anticipating when the curtain will rise once again. Recent developments offer a cautiously optimistic outlook, while Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the labor union representing American actors and stage manager, is tired of waiting in the wings.

Where Does Immersive Theater Go From Here?

Dance Magazine: It's 9:30 pm on a Thursday night in November; my eyes close as I hear the familiar, haunting notes of the closing music for Then She Fell. Music I've heard thousands of times before. Eerie, swelling strings that have signaled the beginning of a dinner break with fellow castmates, or the end of a long night. In this particular moment, on this particular evening, my mind begins to unwittingly sift through memories like yellowed papers in an old filing cabinet, the ink smeared just barely, the pages crumbled in a perfectly satisfying and familiar way. I have been here countless times before and yet this time is remarkably different.

1 Pandemic, 2 Productions Of 'A Chorus Line,' Plenty Of Teen Resilience

NPR: A year ago, Jada-Lynn Pledger was ecstatic — then a sophomore at The Akron School for the Arts in Ohio, she was cast as Judy Turner in A Chorus Line, the big spring musical. "She was my first sort of supporting role ... I was like, oh yeah, like I'm with the big dogs, you know? ... " Pledger recalls. "And then, March 13th, Friday the 13th, is when we got the news that school was closing."

This Concrete Pavement is Talking to Me

by Anagram | Mar, 2021 | Immerse: Augmented Reality is the name given to a layering technique enabled by recent technological developments. It is a broad and bizarre umbrella — encompassing Snapchat lenses that turn your head into a cucumber, Instagram filters that perfect your imperfect skin and immersive audio “grime rap operas” triggered by your movement through a place.

PRG opens digital studio in Chicago

Reel Chicago - At the intersection of Chicago Advertising, Entertainment, Media and Production: Production Resource Group, LLC. (PRG), known for its technological innovations and production support for TV/Film, live entertainment, and events has announced it has opened a new digital studio in the McCook area of Chicago, adding to its network of studios in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, and Orlando.

6 AAPI Artists Reflect on the Spike in Anti-Asian Violence

Artsy: On March 16th, Robert Aaron Long targeted three massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia, area citing a need to eliminate the temptations they provoked. Eight people were shot to death, including six Asian women; their names were Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Xiaojie Tan, and Yong Ae Yue. While Long has insisted to police that the incident was not a hate crime, according to the Chosun Ilbo, a major Korean language newspaper, one witness recounted Long shouting, “I am going to kill all Asians” before firing in one location.

Chop Saw vs Miter Saw Explained | Are You Cutting Metal or Wood?

PTR: We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard the term “chop saw” used to describe a miter saw. It’s not a huge deal, but we always try to educate our readers (and those new to the trades) about the differences. It helps to use terminology correctly—particularly when you communicate with other professionals. In looking at a chop saw vs miter saw we can quickly see these are two very distinct tools.

A Year Into the Pandemic, What Is the Future of the Corps de Ballet? Here's Why It Matters.

Pointe: Occasionally, in my dreams, I relive the entrance of the Shades from La Bayadère. From the quiet, hypnotic buildup of arabesques snaking down the stage to the prayerlike moment when the entire corps de ballet freezes in a front tendu, arms crossed and eyes turned upwards, it is where my mind goes for rest and contemplation, more so than any extraordinary variation.

Steve Kosiba Conveys Moods of June Divided Songs on Ruby Stage with Rogue R1 BeamWashes

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: There is a well-known, and very close, connection between designing a light show and making music. So much so, that many lighting designers will tell you that musicality is the driving force behind their lighting designs.

How Trish Summerville Went From Designing Christina Aguilera's 'Dirrty' Chaps to Receiving an Oscar Nod For the 'Mank' Costumes

Fashionista: As the Academy Award nominations were being announced on March 15, "Mank" costume designer Trish Summerville was all PPE-ed up, shooting the Jason Momoa-starring fantasy film "Slumberland." She was simultaneously FaceTiming her wife, up early in Los Angeles, and watching a semi-delayed livestream (relatable), when she heard her name.

Senator Chuck Schumer Details Federal Relief Plan for Venues

Variety: For the second time in just over six months, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer stood at a nightclub in his home borough of Brooklyn and stumped for independent music venues. Where last August he was promoting the “Save Our Stages” bill outside Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg, on Monday he was at Elsewhere in Bushwick, where he detailed the benefits that are now available to New York’s live venues and artists through the American Rescue Plan, including critical relief to struggling independent live venues, movie theaters, and cultural institutions, increased COBRA health insurance benefits, and additional federal relief for struggling New Yorkers, including gig workers and others in non-traditional employment.

Perry Farrell wants Lollapalooza to return to Chicago ‘in some capacity’ this summer

www.timeout.com/chicago: Lollapalooza hasn't announced potential 2021 dates or a lineup, but according to festival co-founder Perry Farrell, there's a distinct possibility that the event could return to Chicago this summer. In a recent interview with iHeartRadio, Farrell explained, "If we can all stay on course, get vaccinated, stay socially distanced and masked up, maybe—please God, maybe—we’ll get to go to Chicago in early August in one capacity or another."

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek

Costume Designers Guild, I.A.T.S.E. Local 892: The landscape of sci-fi would be very different were it not for Star Trek and Star Wars. What was once considered fodder for nerds has become the nucleus of the triumphant rise of geek culture. These two intellectual properties have permeated society so thoroughly that words and terms from them have entered the public lexicon, and symbols they originated are as familiar as traffic lights. Most recently, the Star Wars property has morphed from the film into a live-action television show, The Mandalorian, and Star Trek is back on the small screen in its latest iteration, Star Trek: Discovery.

Pay Transparency In Theatre: The Campaign To Playbill For Equity

www.theatreartlife.com: Several requests have been made to Playbill in recent years; Costume Professionals for Wage Equity got in touch back in 2019, while On Our Team and Costume Professionals for Wage Equity with support from Theatre Communications Group (TCG) also contacted Playbill to make the change prior to releasing the open letter.

Taking ADA From the Page to the Stage

AMERICAN THEATRE: Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but many who work in the theatre would agree that there is much left to do before even the nation’s largest venues can be called truly accessible. This work has both a long and recent history. In 2018, Katherine Fritz wrote for American Theatre about the need for accessibility policies in American theatre spaces, and in 2010, the National Endowment for the Arts’ Office of Accessibility released a primer on the Department of Justice’s ADA changes at the time of a major update to the legislation.

Dynacord's MXE5 matrix mix engine gets new functionality for IP-based media and building control systems

LightSoundJournal.com: Dynacord’s MXE5 was introduced to the market last summer as the first member of the new MXE matrix mix engine series. The performance audio matrix with 24 x 24 crosspoints provides comprehensive routing and mixing capabilities, while also serving as a communications hub for IP-based peripherals with extensive control and monitoring functions.

The Social Theater of Ambulatory Care in Poland. Part 1

The Theatre Times: As the Węgajty Theater [1] was launching an appeal for Easter food donations for homeless people locked away in quarantine in a hostel in the city of Olsztyn in northeast Poland, Warsaw’s Międzypokoleniowy Chór Ruchowy (Intergenerational Choir of Movement) continued, via Zoom, rehearsals they had started before the pandemic. With its activities coordinated by the Strefa WolnoSłowa [2] Foundation, the Choir aims to support those over (and under) fifty, keeping them active during lockdown.

Imagining a Way Forward: Discussions on Theatre and Race

HowlRound Theatre Commons: As art mirrors life, theatre mirrors our country in crisis. We are an industry that makes a living off of convincing people it's worth sitting side by side, row upon row, in order to be as close as possible to bodies on stage and to each other. Theatre exists to connect humans. But a pandemic has forced us apart, and in that separation we have felt in the most visceral way that we were never really together.

Daychia Sledge, Audio Engineer, R. O. C. U. (Part 2)

Roadies Of Color United: Daychia Sledge is a successful audio engineer. She has experience as a recording engineer in the studio, as a live sound engineer, and as a sound engineer for television. As part of an interview series with members of Roadies Of Color United (R. O. C. U.), this story in three parts focuses on Daychia. She tells us about her life and how amazing circumstances, great timing, hard work, grit, focus, and determination aided her in making her dreams come true.

Envisioning Change

HowlRound Theatre Commons: The global pandemic has highlighted societal injustices and devastated the arts. It has forced organizations to pause and reflect, providing people with a challenge and the opportunity to redesign theatre with equity and inclusion in mind. However, there’s a tendency to think about recreating what we once had instead of seizing the opportunity to create new accessible—and therefore more inclusive—practices. Will we simply try to retrace our steps to get our theatres up and running, or will we deliberately choose a new path and cover new ground?

Lea Salonga, David Henry Hwang and Hoon Lee Urge Support of #StopAsianHate in Digital Video Series

www.broadwayworld.com: Today, Jess McLeod (Resident Director, Hamilton Chicago), Arianna Afsar (Singer/Actor, Hamilton/Netflix's Wedding Season), Eric Keen-Louie (Producing Director - La Jolla Playhouse), and Lauren Yee (Playwright, Cambodian Rock Band) announced the launch of a celebrity digital video campaign aimed at raising awareness about the dramatic rise in hate crimes against the Asian American community. The series was coordinated in collaboration with Parag Parikh (Director, South Asians for Biden) and playwright Stefani Kuo.

New York City Comptroller calls for vaccination of theater workers

Broadway News: New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer has joined the calls to expand vaccine eligibility to members of the theater industry. In a letter sent to New York Gov. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker Friday, Stringer urged the state to prioritize theater and entertainment workers for vaccination, particularly as venues begin to reopen at reduced capacities in April.

‘Ma Rainey’ work earns Pittsburgh’s Diana Stoughton her first Oscar nomination

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Diana Stoughton may be one of the only people in Pittsburgh who got to see “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” on a big screen. While most people saw the movie on Netflix because of the pandemic, there was a short window in December when it enjoyed a theatrical release exclusively at The Manor Theatre in Squirrel Hill. Stoughton and five friends went to see it there before COVID-19 restrictions ended its moviehouse run.

Columbus Makes Art Presents Costume Designer Tabitha Abney

CU: Columbus costume designer Tabitha Abney, who started her creative career as an independent fashion designer, caught the costume design bug about seven years ago when she helped a friend create a specific coat for a lead actor. This spring, Tabitha is creating the costumes for CATCO’s upcoming production of Working: A Musical, which will be presented virtually Apr. 29 — May 9. Tabitha recently took time from researching costumes for Working to talk about her art and the costume design world.

Interview: Lovecraft Country Costume Designer Dayna Pink On Creating Period-Specific Outfits

theseriesregulars.com: Getting the opportunity to speak with costume designers is always a privilege that we don’t take for granted. As viewers, we see the final product but the effort, hours, and perseverance it takes to bring every nuance of a film or show to life is something we truly can’t begin to understand.

Michael Wilkinson Interview: Zack Snyder's Justice League

screenrant.com: Now that Zack Snyder's Justice League has shown audiences more than four full hours of story, there is no question that the workd put into the movie can be appreciated as originally intended (and then some). In the process, revealing more of the Amazons, Atlanteans, and Apokolips than fans even knew to expect. For costume designer Michael Wilkinson, Justice League represented yet another evolution and refinement of Zack Snyder's movie universe.

After COVID-19: Musicians worry about movie and TV score work

Los Angeles Times: The historic scoring stages of Hollywood — where orchestras record the music for IMAX blockbusters and Netflix binge-watches alike — stood empty and silent last year. The COVID-19 quarantine banished musicians to their closets and bedrooms, where solo players recorded files and sent them into the digital void for an engineer to blend into a patchwork symphony.

Talawa theatre company: 'It's time to double down on Black Lives Matter pledges'

Stage | The Guardian: Britain’s oldest black theatre company, Talawa, is plotting its 35th-anniversary celebrations and hopes to go big. It might have gone bigger, had its plans to stage an ambitious season of works not been aborted late last year. Michael Buffong, its artistic director, had programmed Black Joy at Birmingham Rep for this autumn, which “was supposed to present a step change” in its scale and ambition.

The Wonder Of Wavelets: A Tool To Clarify The Difference Between Delay, Phase Shift & Polarity

ProSoundWeb: Wavelets are both a theoretical tool and a system tuning tool. Here’s how to use them to address some common system tuning problems. In the time domain, we are blind to frequency. In the frequency domain, we are blind to time (Figure 1). This results from one of the most important relationships in audio: TF = 1

Review Roundup: HAMILTON Opens in Sydney, Australia - What Did the Critics Think?

www.broadwayworld.com: The cast is led by Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton, Chloé Zuel as Eliza Hamilton, Lyndon Watts as Aaron Burr, Akina Edmonds as Angelica Schuyler, Matu Ngaropo as George Washington, Victory Ndukwe as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson, Shaka Cook as Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, Marty Alix as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton, Elandrah Eramiha as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds and Brent Hill as King George III.

New survey shows young talent are staying hopeful despite pandemic

DC Metro Theater Arts: Despite the ongoing pandemic, high school and college arts students are cautiously optimistic and still committed to pursuing their dreams of being a part of the arts community, according to a new survey conducted by ArtsBridge.

Reactive Vs Proactive: How To Be Proactive And Not Reactive

www.lifehack.org: For us to know how to be proactive and not reactive, we first need to know what these terms mean. When we are reactive to problems, we react to previous events instead of attempting to anticipate future ones. When we decide to be proactive, we choose to act on a situation before this situation becomes a crisis.[1] Managers must be “strategically proactive,” as I like to say, so they can do their regular day-to-day work and still have time to spend on improvement efforts.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Drop the Zoom video? Audio-only communication boosts group IQ

newatlas.com: A new study led by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University is challenging the common assumption that video conferencing is better than audio-only communication for collaborative group activities. The findings suggest video cues may in fact lower a group’s collective intelligence by disrupting interpersonal synchrony.

Posted by David at 3/26/2021 09:42:00 AM

Coming to Broadway: Vaccinations for New York’s Theater Workers

The New York Times: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday that the city plans to create a coronavirus vaccination site on Broadway that will be reserved for theater industry workers, promising to dedicate city resources to help Broadway theaters reopen for live performances in the fall.

Posted by David at 3/26/2021 09:42:00 AM

3D Concrete Printing Used in Construction Projects Across the World

www.protoolreviews.com: We seem to be at a point where we’re just starting to see 3D printing on jobsites. While 3D concrete printing in construction may not be the norm, some companies want it to be. Two companies in particular—Korodur out of Amberg in Germany and CyBe Construction from Oss in the Netherlands—have found plenty of use for it across the world.

Posted by David at 3/25/2021 12:26:00 PM

Are Virtual Events Really More Inclusive & Accessible?

Endless Events: Nick starts today’s topic with relating it to what he knows best – event and experience design. “One of the best aspects of experience design is designing for the most amount of people and learning from it, so you can be more inclusive as you continue to design. One of the things that I’ve heard in the last year is that there was a lot of people who were attending events who hadn’t really attended events before because there were different barriers.”

Posted by David at 3/26/2021 09:46:00 AM

This NYC artist collective has created the Goodnight Moon bedroom

www.timeout.com/newyork: Goodnight Moon, that dreamy book that's been lulling children to sleep since 1947, has come to life in a new Manhattan exhibition. "Goodnight House" at Fort Makers, a design studio and artist collective on Orchard Street, contains reimaginings of the objects found in the book's bedroom setting. Standing in this exhibit is like stepping into the book itself.

Posted by David at 3/25/2021 11:30:00 AM

 

CNC Scroll Saw Add-On Cuts Beautiful Wooden Spirals

Hackaday: If there’s one thing that woodworkers have always been good at, it’s coming up with clever jigs and work-holding solutions. Most jigs, however, are considerably simpler and more static than this CNC-controlled scroll saw add-on that makes cool wooden spirals a snap.

Are Virtual Events Really More Inclusive & Accessible?

Endless Events: Nick starts today’s topic with relating it to what he knows best – event and experience design. “One of the best aspects of experience design is designing for the most amount of people and learning from it, so you can be more inclusive as you continue to design. One of the things that I’ve heard in the last year is that there was a lot of people who were attending events who hadn’t really attended events before because there were different barriers.”

Meyer Sound to Offer Interactive Spacemap Go Demos at FILO Chicago 202

LightSoundJournal.com: Meyer Sound will be offering hands-on, interactive demos of its Spacemap® Go spatial sound design and live mixing tool at FILO Chicago, a hybrid in-person and live-streamed event for technical artists serving local churches on May 11 and 12. The demo sessions will take place between breakout sessions in the spacious lobby area at the host venue, Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois.

This $50 app helps digital artists create vivid 3D human figure models

Boing Boing: The rules of drawing have got through a serious metamorphosis from the days before digital canvasses. Back in the day, it took a lot of consideration if you wanted to draw a human figure. You had to settle on the proportions of your figure, then start to bubble in the shape of various body segments.

What a Year: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

www.flyhouse.com: On March 20, 2020, the state of Illinois declared a “Stay at Home” order. Just four days later, on March 24, we debuted our first Flyhouse Online Training course. At the time, Flyhouse had two exciting live classes planned for April: a public class in California at a wire rope vendor’s shop, and a class with Local 10 in Buffalo to train high steel riggers. We were excited about both and really disappointed to cancel. Our cruise ship clients were also shutting down and we quickly realized that life was changing in a big way. We made the call to pivot to online learning.

Ars Nova Announces Vision Residency Spring Performances

thebroadwayblog.com: Do you have a vision about theater’s future? Ars Nova, “a company known for pop-culture-savvy experimentation, with a hipness that sets it apart” (New York Times), does. The company has announced its fifth slate of 2021 programming, including five events curated by Starr Busby as part of the new Ars Nova Vision Residency program. All events will take place on Ars Nova Supra, a new streaming platform from Ars Nova that showcases some of New York City’s most promising emerging artists and currently serves as the online home for the majority of Ars Nova presentations.

Broadway & Beyond Will Host Event for Stage Managers of Color- Registration Ends Saturday!

www.broadwayworld.com: Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color has just announced its next event aimed at providing opportunity, education, and vital industry connections for stage managers of color. The event will be held virtually on Wednesday, March 31, from 6:00-8:00pm EST, and will offer stage managers of color the unique opportunity to connect directly with industry professionals who are in positions to share advice and personalized counsel and - crucially - to hire.

Audinate’s Dante Now Supported in More Than 3,000 Devices

LightSoundJournal.com: Audinate’s Dante, the de facto standard for digital audio networking, recently reached an impressive milestone with more than 3,000 different products now incorporating Dante for audio-over-IP connectivity. According to research from RH Consulting, 3,034 Dante-enabled devices are available from 361 different manufacturers as of January 2021. The data from RH Consulting indicates Dante is the protocol of choice in more than 91 percent of the networked audio products currently on the market.

Drop the Zoom video? Audio-only communication boosts group IQ

newatlas.com: A new study led by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University is challenging the common assumption that video conferencing is better than audio-only communication for collaborative group activities. The findings suggest video cues may in fact lower a group’s collective intelligence by disrupting interpersonal synchrony.