NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Shooting Update: More Live Bullets Found on Set

www.vice.com: Police have recovered three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, both dummy and live, from the Rust movie set, according to a press conference Wednesday. Among the evidence collected was the Colt .45 revolver fired by actor Alec Baldwin that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and a projectile that injured director Joel Souza last week.

Posted by David at 10/29/2021 09:40:00 AM

The 10 Most-Produced High School Plays and Musicals of 2020–2021

Playbill: The Educational Theatre Association has unveiled its list of the most produced plays, musicals, and short plays in U.S. high schools during the 2020–2021 school year, the result of a survey that has been conducted annually since 1938.

Posted by David at 10/27/2021 09:40:00 AM

Two Ohio High Schools, Including Hudson, Cancel Fall Productions of the Same LGBTQ-Themed Play

Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog: Though Hillsboro High School and Hudson High School are separated by more than 200 miles, they now share one thing in common: productions of the same LGBTQ-themed play have now been canceled on both of their stages.

Posted by David at 10/28/2021 09:43:00 AM

No One Is Alone: Theatre Ghost Stories, Vol. 6

AMERICAN THEATRE: As theatre workers continue to grapple with issues of racial injustice and concerns about unhealthy labor practices, as well as the challenges of putting on shows during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the industry has its share of real-life horrors to contend with. This piece, the latest installment of a Halloween series American Theatre has published each year since 2016, discusses frights of a different kind: ghost stories from across North America. As theatre districts begin to look less like ghost towns and the theatre field comes back to life, we hope these spooky tales can help raise your spirits.

Posted by David at 10/28/2021 09:38:00 AM

Feld Entertainment Plans Return of Ringling Bros. Circus (Minus Animals)

www.ticketnews.com: Feld Entertainment is planning on bringing back the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, four years after the “Greatest Show on Earth” was retired from active performance. The circus will reportedly return without the animal attractions, which had become a lightning rod for protest and led the the promotion’s retirement.

Posted by David at 10/29/2021 09:36:00 AM

 

TAIT acquires ITEC Entertainment, creating end-to-end design solution organization

InPark Magazine: TAIT, the global group of creative engineers, fabricators, producers and technologists for live entertainment environments, announced its acquisition of ITEC Entertainment (ITEC), an industry leader of worldwide solutions in entertainment design, technology and project development. The acquisition brings together two organizations with complementary expertise in mounting live events and experiences. ITEC will join the TAIT group comprised of a roster of innovators, creating a comprehensive end-to-end developer of entertainment projects and solutions.

Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Shooting Update: More Live Bullets Found on Set

www.vice.com: Police have recovered three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, both dummy and live, from the Rust movie set, according to a press conference Wednesday. Among the evidence collected was the Colt .45 revolver fired by actor Alec Baldwin that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and a projectile that injured director Joel Souza last week.

Rosco CrystalGel – An Out Of This World Primer For Painting Foam & Synthetics

www.rosco.com/spectrum: Scott Roewer, the founder of The Organizing Agency, contacted us for advice about how to paint a “herd of foam aliens” for the Halloween display he was working on. Having seen the type of Halloween decor The Organizing Agency has created in the past, we were eager to help. Scott had created Planet Pumpkin for a client using a variety of different items, including foam pumpkins, pool noodles, and beach umbrellas. The problem was, he couldn’t get paint to stick to any of it.

Facing Our Failure: The Power of Acknowledging Racism Within the American Theatre

AMERICAN THEATRE: As Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) learned when we began our own internal antiracism work in 2017, you can’t fix something that you cannot—or will not—name. American theatre is not immune to the racist, oppressive practices baked into other industries, but too often we are resistant to holding up the same mirror to our own institutions that we hold up to society through the work on our stages. We must stop leaning on radical art to justify oppressive art-making, and start talking about radical hiring, decision-making, budgeting, and power-sharing.

Feld Entertainment Plans Return of Ringling Bros. Circus (Minus Animals)

www.ticketnews.com: Feld Entertainment is planning on bringing back the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, four years after the “Greatest Show on Earth” was retired from active performance. The circus will reportedly return without the animal attractions, which had become a lightning rod for protest and led the the promotion’s retirement.

EQ Your Vocal Reverb Return

www.sounddesignlive.com: So, Sean, I definitely want to talk to you about this topic of finding your sound tips for mixing live vocals and sound system calibration. But before I do that, after you get a sound system set up, what’s one of your favorite pieces of music to play through it to get more familiar with it.

Review Roundup: CAROLINE, OR CHANGE Opens On Broadway - See What the Critics Are Saying!

www.broadwayworld.com: Caroline Thibodeaux is a Black woman working as a maid for a Jewish family in 1963 Louisiana, as the civil rights movement is transforming America. From Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner and Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori comes the show that pulses with the urgency and passion that's shaping the world today.

The pandemic was the final blow for some dance companies. How do the survivors stay nimble?

The Washington Post: Sloan Pearson was expecting good news from the Zoom call with her director and fellow members of Taylor 2, the dance troupe she’d performed with for four years. With only six dancers, the group was an intimate, highly mobile offshoot of the celebrated Paul Taylor Dance Company, designed to bring Taylor’s beautifully made works to colleges and small towns.

New York's $3 million tax credit aims to help restart Broadway

Broadway News: Broadway productions are vying for a $3 million tax credit that the state hopes can jumpstart the industry. The New York City Musical and Theatrical Tax Credit Program is intended to support commercial productions through the industry’s uncertain return and to encourage greater diversity backstage and in the audience.

When The Fire Dragon Dances Under The Full Moon: Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

The Theatre Times: The rhythmic sound of drumming echoes through the streets. Tai Hang is normally quiet on weeknights, but tonight it is filled with people. In an alley near the Chinese Recreation Club, on the edge of the neighborhood, a creature waits in the dark. With a body of rope and a head crafted from rattan and metal, it’s a dragon, and it lies sleeping on the ground – for now.

A STRANGE LOOP's Pre-Broadway Run Announces Cast Talkbacks, Accessibility Offerings & Pay What You Will Shows

www.broadwayworld.com: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will present the pre-Broadway engagement of A STRANGE LOOP, Michael R. Jackson's blistering, mind-blowing, Pulitzer-Prize winning musical. Directed by Stephen Brackett, choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly, music directed by Rona Siddiqui, and produced in association with Playwrights Horizons and Page 73 Productions, A STRANGE LOOP runs November 22, 2021 through January 2, 2022.

New gender-neutral categories announced for Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Awards

DC Metro Theater Arts: The Lucille Lortel Awards, honoring outstanding achievements Off-Broadway (productions in Manhattan venues with 100-499 seats), has announced that its awards for acting will no longer be defined by gender. The actor and actress categories for both musicals and plays will instead move to Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical, Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Musical, Outstanding Lead Performer in a Play, and Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Play.

Two Ohio High Schools, Including Hudson, Cancel Fall Productions of the Same LGBTQ-Themed Play

Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog: Though Hillsboro High School and Hudson High School are separated by more than 200 miles, they now share one thing in common: productions of the same LGBTQ-themed play have now been canceled on both of their stages.

IATSE Area Standards Agreement: Tentative Deal Reached

The Hollywood Reporter: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and studios have agreed to a new tentative three-year Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Area Standards Agreement deal following the Oct. 16 tentative agreement reached for workers covered under the union’s Basic Agreement that averted a major strike.

How Can a Gun Loaded With Blanks Still Be Deadly?

gizmodo.com: The phrase “shooting blanks” has passed into colloquialism. But, literally speaking, what does it mean to shoot blanks? And why can people who get shot with blank ammunition still die? We’ll explain what blanks are, why they’re used, and why they can still kill you.

How live ammo got on set still a mystery in Baldwin shooting

Las Vegas Sun Newspaper: Light from a high afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the weathered wooden church, catching on the plank floorboards and illuminating the stained glass. Outside, the arid ground of the northern New Mexico foothills stretched for miles — a picturesque setting for an Old West gun battle.

Broadway shows filled 85% of all seats last week, League says

Broadway News: The Broadway League shared a snapshot of the industry’s grosses Wednesday, saying that 85% of seats across all operating Broadway theaters were filled last week.

Potential legal woes mount after ‘Rust’ shooting tragedy

PBS NewsHour: Alec Baldwin the actor, who pulled the trigger on a prop gun while filming “Rust” in New Mexico and unwittingly killed a cinematographer and injured a director, likely won’t be held criminally or civilly liable for the tragedy.

No One Is Alone: Theatre Ghost Stories, Vol. 6

AMERICAN THEATRE: As theatre workers continue to grapple with issues of racial injustice and concerns about unhealthy labor practices, as well as the challenges of putting on shows during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the industry has its share of real-life horrors to contend with. This piece, the latest installment of a Halloween series American Theatre has published each year since 2016, discusses frights of a different kind: ghost stories from across North America. As theatre districts begin to look less like ghost towns and the theatre field comes back to life, we hope these spooky tales can help raise your spirits.

In praise of a resilient small theater: Fredericksburg Theatre Ensemble

DC Metro Theater Arts: The pandemic has taught us many things: a lack of human interaction (and hugs) can trigger depression, around 35 percent of jobs can be performed fully at home, and many people not only desire but need the arts in order to live a full, balanced, and happy life.

IATSE and Producers Reach Tentative Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Area Standards Agreement

IATSE: Late Sunday, 23 Local Unions of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) reached a tentative three-year agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for the 2021 Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Area Standards Agreement.

On Stage: A New Pittsburgh Ballet Emerges

onStage Pittsburgh: This past weekend, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre had more to celebrate than any other company that I’ve come across. In its season opener the company connected with the past in a tribute to former artistic director Patricia Wilde, who passed away in August, and the future with the long-anticipated reveal and the dawn of another era under the newest artistic director Susan Jaffe. Oh yes, it was also the company’s first performance at the Benedum Center in about one-and-a-half years, marking the company’s triumphant emergence after its COVID-imposed exile.

Projection mapping cities | Barco explores the rising trend

blooloop: The projection mapping market is estimated to be worth USD 2.8 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 7.9 billion by 2026. Retail is playing an increasing role, but media and culture remain the main applications. Projections onto landmark buildings continue to be a major attraction. So, what is driving the growth of projection mapping worldwide now and into the future?

'First-of-a-kind 3D curved Sony Crystal LED system' installed

www.avinteractive.com: A 32 ft by 9ft curved 8K Sony Crystal LED direct-view display system forms the centrepiece of a first-of-its-kind Crystal LED installation for 3D simulation in the aerospace arena. The display, which is one of the few curved Crystal LED walls in existence, has an extra-wide aspect ratio which required special programming to ensure that complex CAD models can be displayed in their native format.

PICT Classic Theatre’s 25th season is perfect timing for a Shakespearean comedy

onStage Pittsburgh: In the words of Shakespearean heroine Rosalind, “Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons.” That’s from As You Like It, and is followed by the speed in which time flies, when it meanders and when it stops entirely.

Guns on stage are here to stay, some Chicago theater workers say

Chicago Sun-Times: Days after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured after actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun on the set of “Rust” during the filming of the movie in New Mexico, some Chicago theater workers say their procedures are safe and have no plans to stop using guns in stage productions here.

Cincinnati’s American Legacy Theatre Aims to Tackle Social Issues Through Performance

www.citybeat.com: While Matthew David Gellin was an undergraduate theater major at the University of Buffalo in 2007, he was questioning his chosen career. “I feel like I’m wasting my life,” he told his advisor. “I hate theater.” Asked what was troubling him, he confessed to love his studies and performing, but that wasn’t enough. He had been reading theater history, and he felt that contemporary theater wasn’t playing the important role it had in the past.

The 10 Most-Produced High School Plays and Musicals of 2020–2021

Playbill: The Educational Theatre Association has unveiled its list of the most produced plays, musicals, and short plays in U.S. high schools during the 2020–2021 school year, the result of a survey that has been conducted annually since 1938.

Roundabout Theatre Company Will Host Virtual Industry Event- Opening Stage Doors

www.broadwayworld.com: From December 7-9, Roundabout Theatre Company, with support from The National Endowment for the Arts will host Opening Stage Doors, the first-of-its-kind virtual convening to share tools and innovations in job training, mentorship, and job placement, with the goal of helping remove traditional barriers to off-stage performing-arts jobs.

DiGiCo and KLANG give Midas Korolev the golden touch

LightSoundJournal.com: Highly respected Russian sound engineer, Aleksey ‘Midas’ Korolev, has recently moved to an immersive audio environment, expanding his work with d&b’s Soundscape system by adding KLANG’s immersive in ear system to his workflow. The move to KLANG also prompted him to switch from his long-term choice of console to DiGiCo, taking advantage of the SD-Range’s native integration with the KLANG system.

Donnelley Foundation survey shows arts organizations still hesitant to open in-person for fall season

Chicago Tribune: Since Illinois has reopened from the pandemic lockdown in 2020, normalcy is one thing that remains elusive. Case in point: a new survey by the Chicago-based Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation that shows that despite overall theater industry comeback, smaller organizations are still struggling to reopen.

Robe for the 2021 VMAs

LightSoundJournal.com: The 2021 MTV VMAs (Video Music Awards) was back in-person, in style and with a live audience at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City … and making it extra special this year the event celebrated its 40th … so the pressure was on for lighting designer Tom Sutherland of DX7 Design to smash it in terms of visual flair for the occasion.

Introducing the University of Pittsburgh's August Wilson Archive

HowlRound Theatre Commons: With every year that passes, it seems that playwright August Wilson's legacy looms ever larger over the American theatre. The signs of his influence are everywhere, from the recent announcement that his image will grace one of the US Postal Service’s Forever Stamps to the critical acclaim that greeted the recent movie adaptation of his play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Premieres aplenty for Adelaide Festival

The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT: Programming a top-line Australian festival with a judicious selection of highly-sought international and local acts isn't for the faint of heart, even when the going is good. Add the myriad uncertainties and complexities so bountifully gifted by COVID-19, and things really start to get tricky.

A look back: why the Philly theater scene needs…

Broad Street Review: On the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, in a pandemic world that can no longer ignore police violence, exclude our LGBTQ+ family, or avoid acknowledging how many of us experience some type of bias—from Asian people to Black people to those of Jewish or Muslim faith to those with visible or invisible disabilities—I wanted to know if things are improving in the Philly theater community.

Real World Gear: The Latest Subwoofers

ProSoundWeb: Initially developed to extend low-frequency response in the 1960s, subwoofers have grown to become the most ubiquitous specialty enclosure. For years, dedicated subs accompanied modular full-range loudspeakers with predictable tops-to-subs deployment ratios, depending on the type or style of music: two-to-one for pop music, one-to-one for rock and one-to-two for reggae and rap. This was as complicated as subwoofer math initially got.

Social justice was not at the core at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis for many years. Then Hana Sharif took over.

www.stlmag.com: I’m sitting in a dim auditorium next to Hana Sharif, the first Black woman to serve as artistic director of a major American regional theater—in her case, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis—and the stage in front of us at the Loretto–Hilton Center for the Performing Arts on Webster University’s campus is blazing with light and sound and sweat, but Sharif is not looking at it. She’s hunched over, thumbing notes into her iPhone on how to tweak it. This is an urgent task.

Broadway Productions ‘Is This A Room’ And ‘Dana H’ To Close Early

Deadline: The first clear sign that Broadway’s road to recovery will be a very bumpy one came today with the announced early closings of Is This a Room and Dana H., two critically acclaimed plays performing on alternative nights at the Lyceum Theatre.

Inside the Gibney Company's Radical Reinvention

Dance Magazine: The Gibney Company is not your average contemporary-dance troupe. The 12 dancers, who are helmed by three directors enacting a model of lateral leadership, go by the title "artistic associate." As full-time employees, they make a competitive 52-week-per-year salary complete with health insurance, free on-site physical therapy, an annual artistic sabbatical and paid vacation. The company is deeply committed to activism, and part of each artistic associate's job is to do regular work with survivors of partner abuse, and to design fellowship projects aimed to fill a particular need in the community.

Guest essay: Penelope McPhee on why Atlanta's next mayor must invest in the arts

ARTS ATL: In Atlanta’s first mayoral election since the onset of the Covid pandemic, candidates face new or exacerbated concerns around crime, health, racism, education and reviving the economy. What if there were a single investment that could address all these issues to improve the quality of life of all Atlantans? What if it were the arts?

Dave Chappelle’s Intent Doesn’t Matter, Jon Stewart

IndieWire: Nearly three weeks after its October 5 debut on Netflix, Dave Chappelle’s stand-up special “The Closer” remains embroiled in controversy. Last week saw the promised walkout of trans Netflix employees and allies in protest of their employer’s defense of Chappelle and his increasingly trademark transphobia, as well as comments from Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in which he expressed regret regarding how the company had handled employee concerns about “The Closer” while continuing to defend the choice to proceed with the special.

Healthy, Safe & Engaging: Sound Loudness & Level Basics For Churches

ProSoundWeb: For many churches, live music plays a pivotal role in the modern worship experience. This can often lead to contention between musicians, leadership, and members of the congregation about “how loud is too loud.” Some might want the mix to be louder, some might think it’s too loud, and others might feel it’s fine the way it is. This highlights the subjective nature of loudness perception – and if someone feels uncomfortable, who are we to tell them they’re wrong?

Interview Tip: BoA Exec on Answering Key Question About 'Initiative'

www.businessinsider.com: Virgin founder Richard Branson has said that asking people "what didn't you get the chance to include on your CV?" helps him gain a better understanding of a candidate. Oprah Winfrey's "What's your spiritual practice?" aims to bring out a person's "inner relationship with themself."

Northern Ballet Dances Into The Future With RIVAGE PM3

LightSoundJournal.com: Describing itself as ‘the UK’s foremost narrative ballet company’, Northern Ballet performs a repertoire that ranges from very traditional to very contemporary. A key part of its work is taking shows on tour, performing for audiences away from its Leeds base. With touring now resuming, the ballet has looked to the future by investing in two Yamaha RIVAGE PM3 digital mixing systems. These were first put to use on the world premiere of the ballet Merlin, which started its tour at Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Pimax 12K VR Headset Announced With Release Date, Price, Specs

www.roadtovr.com: In a livestreamed presentation this week, VR headset maker Pimax announced its Reality “12K” QLED headset which aims to pack in a kitchen sink’s worth of wishlist features, not least of which is a dual-mode capability which allows the headset to function as a standalone headset or a native PC VR headset.

A Pas de Deux of Pride

Playbill: How do you choreograph an intimate pas deux in the depths of a pandemic? And how do you then make history with a romantic story of two gay men, Adam and Steve, tailored for dancers from American Ballet Theatre, that’s both erotic and heartfelt? Choreographer Christopher Rudd has the answers with his landmark ballet Touché that celebrates the inclusion and visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community. Touché will have its world stage premiere on October 26 at the Company’s Fall Gala, followed by performances at ABT’s first-ever Pride Nights, October 27 and 30, during the Company’s Lincoln Center Fall season.

Addison theater is first in DFW to partner with big streaming service

CultureMap Dallas: Many theater companies turned to streaming options in the wake of the pandemic, but WaterTower Theatre is the first in Dallas-Fort Worth to partner with national streaming service Broadway on Demand.

Kinetic Theatre premieres Donald Stephen Olsen’s Oscar & Walt on November 3rd

onStage Pittsburgh: Oscar & Walt celebrates the enduring legacy of two towering literary figures by dramatizing a real life encounter that took place in 1882 between the 62 year-old American poet Walt Whitman and the 28 year-old Anglo-Irish wit Oscar Wilde. Cultures clash, egos flare, words fly, and secrets emerge as two of the greatest writers of the 19th century – one nearing the end of his career, the other just beginning – come face-to-face in an unforgettable meeting of minds and hearts.

The Color Blue Is the Latest Victim of the Supply Chain Crisis

www.businessinsider.com: Manufacturers are running out of supplies needed to make shades of blue paint, the latest good to be affected in the ongoing supply chain crisis.

How the 'Dune' VFX and Sound Teams Made Sandworms From Scratch

WIRED: They call it “sandscreen.” Out in the deserts of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, where director Denis Villeneuve shot much of Dune, everything is varying shades of beige. To match it, visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert did something he’d never done before: turned his greenscreens brown. Sandscreen meant Villeneuve could get all his beauty shots out in the desert and Lambert could easily add whatever he needed to in post-production. All he had to do was swap out the sand color for whatever building, background, or beast he wanted. It allowed every shot to look as natural as possible—and also let them create one of sci-fi’s most iconic creatures.

“the other shoe” by CorningWorks at the New Hazlett Theater

The Pittsburgh Tatler: If you can take a work of art as an indicator of its creators’ state of mind, then it’s clear from the other shoe that Beth Corning and her collaborator Kay Cummings are frustrated, angry, and perhaps more than a little bit bitter. The source of their frustration? In part it’s the usual suspects that haunt nearly all women who have survived more than a couple of decades into adulthood

Little Amal is a reminder of how vital art is

Culture | The Guardian: Your excellent leader (The Guardian view on Little Amal: telling the unpalatable truth, 20 October) is a timely reminder of the proper value of art in an era when irony seems to have expired with the appointment of culture secretaries such as Oliver Dowden and Nadine Dorries. In England, this apparent decline in how we see our culture has been accompanied by the slow erosion of integrity, over the past 35 years, in an increasingly politically compromised Arts Council.

Pittsburgh arts organizations focus on empowering local artists with 2021 VACE Fellowship

Visual Art | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: The Pittsburgh arts coalition known as VACE, or Visual Arts Coalition for Equity, started in 2020 as a response to the pandemic. But the program seeks to address equity issues in art beyond the struggles of COVID-19. The coalition continues its work with a four-month-long fellowship described as showing candidates “the ins and outs of small Pittsburgh arts business models, nonprofit governance, financial structures, programming, administration, and core values.”

The Week That Shook Center Theatre Group

AMERICAN THEATRE: “We knew we had to pivot and let folks know,” said Meghan Pressman (she/her), the managing director of CTG, which had on Sept. 30 proudly announced a 10-show 2021-22 season at two of its Los Angeles venues (the mid-sized Mark Taper Forum and the intimate Kirk Douglas Theatre, though one Taper production, The Lehman Trilogy, would be presented at CTG’s larger Ahmanson Theatre). It was by many measures a diverse mix of plays and musicals, blending new work and revivals by both local and out-of-town writers, a majority of them people of color, but for one significant metric: gender parity. Only one of those 10 plays was written by a woman, Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky.

“The Chief” at the Pittsburgh Public Theater

The Pittsburgh Tatler: I moved to Pittsburgh in the summer of 2007. This means, as far as I can tell, that I have had six opportunities before now to see a production of The Chief, the one-man show about Steelers’ owner Art Rooney written by Rob Zellers and Gene Collier.

Rust Shooting: At Vigil for Halyna Hutchins, There’s Grief and Anger

IndieWire: At a candlelight vigil held outside the Burbank offices of Cinematographers Local 80 on Sunday evening, Halyna Hutchins was remembered by her friends and colleagues as a loving and passionate mother, wife, friend, and filmmaker whose life was cut short when she was shot and killed on the New Mexico set of “Rust” last week when the film’s star and producer Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun.

Rust Shuts Down Production for Shooting Investigation

Variety: The producers of the movie “Rust” are suspending production while sheriffs investigate the circumstances of the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins that occurred when a gun handled by Alec Baldwin discharged on Thursday.

Meet the dramaturg for 'Hadestown'

DC Metro Theater Arts: A dramaturg is one of those jobs in the theater world that many people don’t quite understand yet that are vital to a show’s success. The dramaturg works with the playwright and creative team to support a show’s development by asking key questions, starting conversations, researching, providing context, and helping the artists as they work together to bring the book to life.

San Diego's Old Globe to premiere musical adaptation of India's longest-running film 'DDLJ'

Rancho Santa Fe Review: One of India’s most-beloved and enduring cinematic stories, “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,” better known as “DDLJ,” will be turned into a Broadway-bound stage musical that will make its world premiere next September at The Old Globe in San Diego.

Halyna Hutchins 'Rust' Death: Candlelight Vigil Attracts Hundreds

Variety: Hundreds of entertainment industry artisans gathered on Sunday evening in the crowded parking lot of IATSE Local 80 Burbank headquarters to pay tribute to Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed by a prop gun on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust.”

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Alec Baldwin Fired Prop Gun That Killed DP and Wounded Director

Variety: Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun while filming a scene in New Mexico on Thursday, causing the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Posted by David at 10/22/2021 09:21:00 AM

Broadway's set-building maestro, Neil A. Mazzella, puts hammer and nail to the job of restoring theater's sparkle

The Washington Post: Back and forth across the country Frank Swan flew for months this spring and summer, dusting off all the dormant "Hamiltons": a "Hamilton" due to restart in Los Angeles, another "Hamilton" in Tempe, Ariz., a "Hamilton" in Atlanta and a "Hamilton" in San Francisco. Sets for these touring and sitting productions had to be retrieved from warehouses and storage trucks; backstage motors and wheels and audio equipment had to be retested and fixed.

Posted by David at 10/22/2021 09:17:00 AM

The real star of Wes Anderson's films? The model maker who meticulousl

www.fastcompany.com: In one of the opening scenes of Wes Anderson’s latest movie, capital letters poke off the top of a mid-rise building advertising a magazine and its office below. The French Dispatch, about the foreign bureau of a New Yorker-ish American publication, is set in a made-up French town, and much of its action takes place within the rooms of this sign-topped building.

Posted by David at 10/21/2021 09:22:00 AM

Here’s How a Prop Gun Using Blanks Can Still Fire a Fatal Shot

www.yahoo.com/entertainment: Scroll back up to restore default view. The Wrap Here’s How a Prop Gun Using Blanks Can Still Fire a Fatal Shot Ross A. Lincoln Fri, October 22, 2021, 1:22 AM·5 min read A horrific tragedy occurred Thursday on the New Mexico set of the upcoming western, “Rust,” when the film’s cinematographer, 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, was killed, and director Joel Souza gravely injured in an accidental shooting. A prop gun, filled with blanks, malfunctioned when it was fired by star Alec Baldwin, an event that is still under investigation by local law enforcement.

Posted by David at 10/22/2021 09:09:00 AM

Did You Know – Color My World

ASTC: Did You Know (DYK) that a Black Box Theatre does not have to be black? It can easily be a deep, rich, warm, dark color such as a deep royal blue or a deep purple, or some other lovely, deep and dark color that absorbs more light than it reflects.

Posted by David at 10/22/2021 09:15:00 AM

 

Alec Baldwin Fired Prop Gun That Killed DP and Wounded Director

Variety: Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun while filming a scene in New Mexico on Thursday, causing the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Corning Works challenges the imagination with The Other Shoe at the New Hazlett

onStage Pittsburgh: Corning Works opened their season with The Other Shoe, a full-length dance/theater project in their Glue Factory series. The Other Shoe explores the state of our country and society today, where we are inundated by a torrent of information that we must process, evaluate and deal with.

Broadway's set-building maestro, Neil A. Mazzella, puts hammer and nail to the job of restoring theater's sparkle

The Washington Post: Back and forth across the country Frank Swan flew for months this spring and summer, dusting off all the dormant "Hamiltons": a "Hamilton" due to restart in Los Angeles, another "Hamilton" in Tempe, Ariz., a "Hamilton" in Atlanta and a "Hamilton" in San Francisco. Sets for these touring and sitting productions had to be retrieved from warehouses and storage trucks; backstage motors and wheels and audio equipment had to be retested and fixed.

5 Best Hammers of 2021

www.businessinsider.com: Few hand tools provide more bang for your buck than a basic hammer. They don't weigh much and take up minimal space, and their simple design allows users to generate a huge amount of force without much effort. Whether you're using it to drive and pull nails, pry apart materials, or demolish areas for remodeling, a hammer is an invaluable tool to have in your home.

Alec Baldwin fired shot on movie set that killed woman, authorities say

Las Vegas Sun Newspaper: Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of a Western he was making in New Mexico on Thursday, killing the film’s director of photography and wounding the movie’s director, the authorities said.

Did You Know – Color My World

ASTC: Did You Know (DYK) that a Black Box Theatre does not have to be black? It can easily be a deep, rich, warm, dark color such as a deep royal blue or a deep purple, or some other lovely, deep and dark color that absorbs more light than it reflects.

How the ‘Dune’ Stillsuit Costumes Transformed the Cast Into ‘Karate Masters’

www.thewrap.com: The sad truth about some of the coolest movie costumes is that for as great as they look on screen, they can be a bear for an actor to actually perform in. Not so with the costumes from “Dune” though, as the film’s costume designers boasted that the film’s stillsuit outfits gave the cast a confidence and swagger that set the tone for the whole movie.

Theatre for One: A New Kind of Theatre Experience

The Theatre Times: Theatre is coming back slowly but surely. Though a difficult medium to translate online, it has been done with numerous shows, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Theatre for One: We Are Here is a collaboration between The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, the US-based Octopus Theatricals, and Kenya-based Nairobi Musical Theatre Initiative and Rainmaker Limited.

Mechanical Linkage CAD For Everyone

Hackaday: As much as some of us don’t like it, building things for real requires some mechanical component. Maybe it is something as simple as an enclosure or even feet for a PCB, but unless you only write software or play with simulators, you’ll eventually have to build something.

Film Industry Reacts to Halyna Hutchins' Death on the Set of 'Rust'

Variety: The film industry is shocked, dismayed and angry following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Thursday. She was killed while filming “Rust” when one of the movie’s actors, Alec Baldwin, discharged a prop gun on set.

Who Was Halyna Hutchins, the ‘Rockstar Cinematographer’ Killed at 43 by a Prop Gun on ‘Rust’ Set?

www.thewrap.com: Halyna Hutchins, the award-winning cinematographer killed Thursday when actor-producer Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun on the New Mexico set of the indie Western film “Rust,” was a 43-year-old “rockstar cinematographer” and rising star in the industry.

Here’s How a Prop Gun Using Blanks Can Still Fire a Fatal Shot

www.yahoo.com/entertainment: Scroll back up to restore default view. The Wrap Here’s How a Prop Gun Using Blanks Can Still Fire a Fatal Shot Ross A. Lincoln Fri, October 22, 2021, 1:22 AM·5 min read A horrific tragedy occurred Thursday on the New Mexico set of the upcoming western, “Rust,” when the film’s cinematographer, 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, was killed, and director Joel Souza gravely injured in an accidental shooting. A prop gun, filled with blanks, malfunctioned when it was fired by star Alec Baldwin, an event that is still under investigation by local law enforcement.

Directors of Inclusion in Theatre Need to be more than Symbolic Positions

OnStage Blog: Last year, when I finally got the call that I had been hired, I was over the moon. Having worked in other industries, but always being a theater fan, this seemed like a dream come true. The position I was hired for was described as being a key part of leadership discussions on how to improve not only how we cast shows, but also hire for other positions, and how we value the contributions of those employed by us going forward.

New Hazlett Theater announces latest Community Supported Artist season

Theater | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: Pittsburgh has a thriving community of artists and creatives, and New Hazlett Theater will highlight five of these artists in its ninth season of Community Supported Art.

Make Some Paper and Tape Prototypes!

ExhibiTricks: The Museum Exhibit Design Blog: Earlier this month I was delighted to present an exhibit prototyping workshop at the Museums Alaska conference. Thomas Edison said, "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk." His reference was to inventing, but he could have also been speaking about prototyping.

Aurora Theatre opens Lawrenceville Arts Center with public tours this weekend

ARTS ATL: After much anticipation, the curtain rises this week on the $35 million, 59,500-square-foot Lawrenceville Arts Center, as it hosts grand opening tours Friday through Sunday. Completing a city block for the arts in downtown Lawrenceville, the complex is the product of a remarkable partnership between Aurora Theatre and the City of Lawrenceville — one that, over many years, has played a significant role in revitalizing the Gwinnett County seat’s central business district.

Broadway ticket buyers make more last-minute decisions

Broadway News: Unlike prior seasons, many ticket buyers are purchasing Broadway tickets one to two weeks before or even the day of the show, rather than several weeks ahead of time, according to ticketing companies and producers. The buying trend underlies the uncertain and evolving landscape of the industry’s return as Broadway shows vie to attract non-tourist audiences.

Talking shop with Las Vegas woodworking expert Jamie Yocono

Las Vegas Weekly: In high school, Jamie Yocono was barred from her dream elective. “Back then, girls weren’t allowed to take wood shop,” Yocono recalls. “I thought that was so ridiculous.” So she struck a deal: If Yocono took home economics—the required course for girls—she could also take wood shop. “From the moment I walked into the wood shop, I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Yocono says.

Varjo Aero Announced: $1990 SteamVR Headset, 2.9K Per Eye

uploadvr.com: The Varjo Aero launches orders today with the first shipments expected in December. It’s a $1,990 wired SteamVR headset that is still largelly intended to be sold to commercial markets, but Varjo also envisions top-end enthusiasts that want the best experience for simulator apps like Microsoft Flight Simulator picking the headset up.

45 Moments from 45 years at ETC

et cetera...: On Christmas eve 1975, ETC was founded, and a tale of impressive growth and expansion began. As we wrap up our 45th year in business, we thought it would be fun to look back at the moments that have made us who we are today.

“Live From the Edge” created and performed by UNIVERSES at City Theatre

The Pittsburgh Tatler: Seven virtuosic performers from the company UNIVERSES are in town at City Theatre with Live From the Edge, a production that might best be described as a “highlight reel” of their unique brand of musical storytelling. Using nothing but the human body as an instrument, the ensemble generates an astonishing richness of harmony, melody, and rhythm as they deliver songs that blend and juxtapose the musical vernaculars of the spiritual, gospel, jazz, hiphop, Spanish bolero, Portuguese fado, beatboxing, salsa, and the blues, with the occasional nod to Motown and the American musical.

PRG turns to GLP impression S350 Wash for Virtual Production Studio-xR

LightSoundJournal.com: Since the end of 2020, PRG, along with its subsidiary Cinegate, has been running the Virtual Production Studio-xR in Hamburg, a facility that specialises in digital events of all kinds. Across 360m² of pure studio space, company events, as well as film and music video shoots, advertisements, and livestreamed concerts (eg Wacken World Wide), can be realised in a virtual environment.

Culture and storytelling | East meets West part 3

blooloop: In the third piece of this East meets West series, Louis and Amy now talk about how society helps to inform physical design with consideration of the guests embarking on each experience. This goes beyond the story: it involves sizing, location, and family dynamics within individual societies.

The real star of Wes Anderson's films? The model maker who meticulousl

www.fastcompany.com: In one of the opening scenes of Wes Anderson’s latest movie, capital letters poke off the top of a mid-rise building advertising a magazine and its office below. The French Dispatch, about the foreign bureau of a New Yorker-ish American publication, is set in a made-up French town, and much of its action takes place within the rooms of this sign-topped building.

ESTA's Technical Standards Program Has Five Draft Standards in Active Public Review

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: ESTA's Technical Standards Program currently has five draft standards in active public review. The reviews are open to anyone having a material interest in the subject matter. The review opportunities are as follows.

How to Be an Antiracist Theatremaker

AMERICAN THEATRE: As live, in-person theatre begins to return, many artists and administrators are focusing on the ways they can make this moment count—to come back to a changed industry rather than business as usual. In September, New York City’s Playwrights Realm gathered of a cohort of theatre professionals to wrestle with the question, What Does Anti-Racist Producing Look Like? Led by Hope Chávez, the four discussed the many ways they’re seeking to embrace a values-centric approach to putting on a show.

What is MR and How Does it Create Exceptionally Immersive Experiences?

AMT Lab @ CMU: MR, or Mixed Reality, is appearing across the arts world, but its actual meaning is not well understood. A strong beginning includes a foundational understanding of the concepts of reality and virtuality. The concept of the reality-virtuality continuum was introduced as an anthropological concept by Paul Milgram, referring to the scale of continuity between fully virtual and fully real with an application in displays.

How Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jane Campion, and Other Women Filmmakers Are Upending Hollywood Expectations

Vanity Fair: Nicole Holofcener knows she’s not the first person who comes to mind for a medieval action movie. For more than 20 years, the indie-film icon (Lovely & Amazing, Enough Said) felt perfectly content directing her own screenplays, biting slices of life in which rich dialogue was the main attraction. Then Ben Affleck came knocking. “He emailed me a strange request: Would I want to write a sword-fight movie with him and Matt Damon,” says Holofcener.

Pittsburgh Ballet returns to Benedum Center with classics and a world premiere

90.5 WESA: When Susan Jaffe started her new job as artistic director at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, it was July 1, 2020 – not even four months into the coronavirus pandemic. As with most of the nation’s performing-arts calendar, the final shows of PBT’s previous season had been postponed, and the group was weeks from canceling its announced fall shows.

New IATSE Contract: Everything We Know

Variety: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is beginning to roll out more details of its tentative contract with major film and television studios to its members, as it looks to build support for a ratification vote.

One Perspective on IATSE's New Contract

Larchmont Buzz - Hancock Park News: Many in Hollywood are breathing a sigh of relief that the strike no one wanted has been averted. But there’s still plenty of concern that the IATSE negotiators may not have won enough concessions to suit the nearly 60,000 members of the union, now looking over the fine points of the deal. Members are expected to vote on the contract over the next three to four weeks.

A Hollywood strike may have been averted. But radio performers are still waiting for justice.

www.nbcnews.com: The 60,000 members of Hollywood’s International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees who work in film and television were able to avert a national strikewhen their collective demands were partially met. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major film and TV production companies, agreed to fairer wages, more time for sleep, meal breaks and weekend rest periods. The agreement is now before IATSE members.

IATSE Strike Averted—For Now

Progressive.org: On October 16, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union representing 60,000 behind-the-scenes workers in the film industry, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) negotiated their way to a deal.

InfoComm 2021 Adds Virtual Experience

Commercial Integrator: In addition to the in-person InfoComm 2021 show on Oct. 27-29, 2021, in Orlando, Fla., show producer AVIXA will also host a virtual experience that will include livestreamed content from InfoComm.

Frame Of Reference: Choosing The Right Material For Critical Listening

ProSoundWeb: When I was a budding sound engineer with the U.S. Air Force Band during the 1990s, one of my mentors was a consultant in the Washington, D.C. area named George Weber. He was a somewhat eccentric guy and definitely a dyed-in-the-wool audiophile. George had done some modifications to the band’s K&H studio loudspeakers, and those things did sound amazingly good.

IATSE, AMPTP Reach Agreement, Averting Strike

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The potential IATSE strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was averted on Saturday when the two sides struck a deal. The tentative three-year agreement for The Basic and Videotape Agreements affects 40,000 film and television workers represented by 13 West Coast IATSE local unions.

Friday Essay: A World of Pain – Australian Theatre in Crisis

The Theatre Times: Australia’s performing arts sector has long been recognized as an ecosystem. It is a community of artists, arts organizations and institutions, all affected by factors such as education and training, audiences, policy and revenues. It comprises commercial organizations; not-for-profit, government subsidized companies; independent grassroots ventures; and amateur groups making and touring creative works for audiences locally, nationally and internationally.

Gender Casting: Theatre Educators in the United States Need to Pay Attention to Title IX Developments

HowlRound Theatre Commons: As a theatre educator who has spent the last few years working with high school students, I find some of this year’s headlines troubling. This summer, Laurel Hubbard made news as the first transgender woman to compete in the Olympics. Many celebrated this highly publicized, international victory for transgender people. However, just a few months before, on a much smaller, more local stage, the rights of transgender students were being threatened. In March, Tennessee governor Bill Lee joined like-minded officials to pass a law that requires students participating on a girls’ or boys’ sports team to show a birth certificate to prove their assigned sex.

Support for Latinidad Onstage: A Lifelong, Not a Month-Long, Job

AMERICAN THEATRE: Being a playwright in the American theatre means getting used to scarcity: There are not enough resources to support everyone, or at least that’s what we’re constantly told. For some of us, this pessimism is compounded by other barriers; being a Latinx/e writer in this industry means constantly balancing the upholding of one’s identity in the face of those who reject it while avoiding being pigeonholed into creating stories that fit a narrow vision of who we should be.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD Hires Patricia Dayleg as Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

www.broadwayworld.com: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has announced Patricia Dayleg has joined the company as Director of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. She officially begins in the newly created role today, October 18th following ten years in government and community-based nonprofits.

The Folger’s Karen Ann Daniels: Making the Shakespeare We Want

AMERICAN THEATRE: Karen Ann Daniels (she/her) has long had an interest in Shakespeare. From a trip to the Old Globe in middle school to seeing Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington in the film of Much Ado About Nothing (still her favorite Shakespeare play) or Laurence Fishburne in Othello, Daniels wasn’t just impressed—she also saw a place for herself. “Oh, I guess I could do that,” she thought, she recalled in a recent interview.

Worldwide Industry Conference, EPIC, Will Launch This January

www.broadwayworld.com: Introducing the Entertainment & Performing Arts Industry Conference (EPIC), a global online entertainment conference event to be held in one 24-hour period on January 10, 2022. EPIC is for anyone working in, studying, or interested in the entertainment or performing arts industries. The online event will feature 50 sessions with international industry leaders from numerous disciplines and provide opportunities for participants to ask questions and engage with fellow conference attendees.

How to Know If Your Benefits Offer Is the Total Package

www.businessinsider.com: Anytime you head into a job interview, you're probably more than ready to dive into a salary conversation. By the time you're sitting across the table from the hiring manager, you've read all the advice, you're armed with stats + industry information + a whole lotta confidence… But are you ready — really ready — to discuss the benefits?

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre brings dance back to Benedum Center

Dance | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: Local ballet fans have had to mostly go without live, in-person performances for well over a year, as COVID-19 left Pittsburgh companies grappling with how to bring their art to the public. The wait will soon end when the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre leaps back on to the Benedum Center stage later this month.

Shure helps Tony Awards welcome back Broadway with unparalleled wireless audio technology

LightSoundJournal.com: Shure was proud to support the 74th Annual Tony Awards® and thrilled to welcome the theatre community home after a year without Broadway. Broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, this year’s Tony Awards, hosted by Audra McDonald and Leslie Odom Jr., achieved cutting-edge audio for the entire ceremony and subsequent “Broadway’s Back!” event.

Quantum’s Chimerica finds its performance space at East Liberty’s The Maverick Hotel.

onStage Pittsburgh: Directed by Quantum Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director Karla Boos and featuring Art Direction by Susan Tsu, the original 2020 cast and crew finally join for this examination of capitalism and culture, journalism, and censorship, which takes a point of departure from the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, 1989.

MLA Conquers The Notorious Hill at Historic Leeds Castle Concert

LightSoundJournal.com: Organisers of the annual Leeds Castle Concert, worked tirelessly to reschedule this year’s event, featuring the world-famous Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, following the easing of restrictions—staging it later than normal, on September 4th.

Single channel RTA targets to improve your mixes

www.sounddesignlive.com: How good is your live stream mix? What does it sound like on the audience end? How do you quantify that? Loudness metrics are helpful. I discovered YouLean meter like a lot of other sound engineers who have been doing more broadcast gigs during the pandemic. I monitor the live stream on a mobile device on ear buds to experience what the target audience might be hearing.

Racism Shouldn’t Have to Be My Muse

AMERICAN THEATRE: Even as white America wakes up like never before to the realities of its biased and oppressive institutions, there’s a hugely traumatic aspect of the Black experience that remains largely unseen and undiscussed. The United States has placed its Black citizens in a form of emotional incarceration from which we desperately want to be freed. Black people learn from a young age that our very presence is seen as a threat, and our emotions, when they aren’t completely invisible, can be terrifying to our white counterparts. This conditions us to understand that self-expression is both dangerous and futile, like staring into the sun while asking to not go blind.

Opinion: Is It Time for Performers to Renegotiate the Eight-Show Week?

TheaterMania: Broadway is back — and so are the insane schedules that performers (and crews) must deal with. Many productions have returned to eight-show weeks and announced grueling holiday schedules with 10 shows or more before a night off. Add in rehearsals and put-ins and you've got incredibly intense workweeks. Sacrificing rest and time spent with loved ones is a given, and maintaining these schedules is especially exhausting for more vocally and physically demanding roles.

Review Roundup: DANA H. Opens on Broadway

www.broadwayworld.com: Dana H. tells the harrowing true story of a woman held captive in a series of Florida motels for five months. Told in Dana's own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son, playwright Lucas Hnath, this groundbreaking work shatters the boundaries of the art form and challenges our understanding of good and evil.

How to get your team to work like a Formula One pit crew

www.fastcompany.com: If you’ve ever watched motor racing, you’ve likely been in awe of the pit crew. A team of two dozen individuals changes tires, fills the fuel, and checks the aerodynamics in a well-choreographed series of actions. How well they execute can make the difference between getting the checkered flag and being seconds behind.

IATSE and AMPTP reach tentative agreement

Reel 360 News: With a walk-out looming at 12:01 a.m. Monday, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have reportedly reached a tentative agreement on a new collective bargaining deal.

Mexico's new culture war: decolonizing or rewriting history?

Los Angeles Times: A replica of the Great Temple of the Aztecs, about a third of the size of the original, rose from the floor of the central square of Mexico’s capital this summer like a gargantuan child’s toy, more than 50 feet high, a gleaming form smack in front of the baroque National Palace. At night, the pyramid’s slanting white walls became a video-mapping screen that told a dramatic animated story of the rise and fall of the Mexica, or Aztec Empire — an event that took place 500 years ago, right on this spot in a city on a lake that was once called Tenochtitlan.

What It's Like to Plan Weddings for Celebrities, Billionaires

www.businessinsider.com: I was working in four- or five-star restaurants for years before I started my own wedding-planning company. My husband, Bryan Keck, said it sounded like a terrible idea, but I did it anyway. I started by placing an ad on Craigslist and immediately booked a wedding at a huge estate with 100 people. I still don't know how it happened.

FX Infuses Soundscapes From its Top Series into Interactive Sculptures

Event Marketer: FX Networks is renowned for executing largescale, multisensory activations at tentpole events like San Diego Comic-Con. But amid the pandemic, the brand has been exploring new avenues for in-person engagement that allow for maximum throughput, but minimal crowding. The most recent example is the network’s multi-city Sound FX campaign featuring the installation of interactive sound sculptures in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles in September.

IATSE And AMPTP Reach a Deal, Averting Nationwide Strike

Variety: Negotiators from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have reached a deal for a new three-year contract, averting a strike that would have shut down film and TV production across the country.

IATSE and AMPTP Close to Deal to Avert Strike as Monday Deadline Looms

www.thewrap.com: With just days to go until the Monday deadline, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are making “very good progress” on a new labor agreement, which would avoid one of the biggest strikes in Hollywood history.

IATSE Strikes Deal: Union Crew May Not Ratify

IndieWire: Saturday evening IATSE claimed victory with a “landmark” tentative agreement with the AMPTP for new three-year contract for its West Coast Film and Television Workers, who were prepared to go on strike in just little over 24 hours. Negotiations still continue over the Area Standards Agreement, governing production in major production hubs like New Mexico, Georgia, and Louisiana.

Hollywood Strike Averted; IATSE Producers Reach Deal On New Film/TV Contract

Deadline: The new three-year contract, which must now be ratified by the union’s members, comes just hours before the deadline – midnight Sunday – imposed by IATSE president Matthew Loeb. The union and the Carol Lombardini-led AMPTP are expected to make the agreement public very shortly.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Mind Your Language

SoundGirls.org: I’m a big fan of cognitive behavioural therapy. I think everyone should learn about it, whether they’re in need of therapy or not because it explains so much about how we think and how to control our mindset. One of the main insights I have taken away from it is that when we’re tired, stressed out, or even bored our brains revisit the same thoughts and memories that we already think about the most.

Posted by David at 10/15/2021 09:37:00 AM

How Do We Walk the Line Between Plagiarism and Direct Inspiration?

nofilmschool.com: Inspiration is one of those buzzwords in all artistry that I think probably gets overused. Nevertheless, I find myself looking to be inspired day in and day out. What material will spark my creative juices and get me excited to chase down the next spec script? What worlds will I find so enthralling they'll lead me to write a new pilot?

Posted by David at 10/13/2021 09:49:00 AM

Imposter Syndrome Gets a Bad Rap.

SoundGirls.org: We like to blame everything on that voice in our head telling us we’re not good enough. But it hit me the other day that maybe we are so focused on ignoring any negative voices in our head that we are depriving ourselves of progress.

Posted by David at 10/14/2021 09:42:00 AM

Trans 'Hamilton' Actor Claims Discrimination by Production

www.themarysue.com: Suni Reid, a transgender performer on the hit Broadway show Hamilton, has accused the production of discrimination against them for asking for a gender-neutral dressing room. Per the complaint, which was published by The Hill, Suni Reid, who has been apart of the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles Hamilton productions, did not have their contract renewed.

Posted by David at 10/15/2021 09:42:00 AM

The SFX supervisor on 'No Time To Die' breaks down the film's five biggest practical effects

befores & afters: Chris Corbould has worked on 15 James Bond films, and has been the special effects supervisor for nine of them; No Time To Die is his latest. And amongst all that intense practical effects supervision, he has slowly been transitioning into second unit directing, an area he now plans to concentrate on.

Posted by David at 10/15/2021 09:35:00 AM

 

Hollywood Faces Major Strike Monday Unless Deal Is Reached

www.forbes.com: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) will go on strike Monday unless it strikes a deal with Hollywood producers, the union announced Wednesday, which could shut down most film and television production nationwide as 60,000 crew members and behind-the-scenes workers would walk off the job.

The Dramaturg’s Perspective: A Conversation with Amauta Firmino

The Brooklyn Rail: Dramaturgical labor is so expansive in scope that defining it is a fool’s task. Any definition is sure to miss some aspect of a dramaturg’s varying contributions to a production. The last time you saw a play, did the joke land right? Probably the work of a dramaturg. Were the costumes believable? Probably the work of a dramaturg.

New Musical The Visitor, on Day of Scheduled 1st Preview, Delays Off-Broadway Start

Playbill: The Visitor, a new musical by composer Tom Kitt, librettist Brian Yorkey, and book writer Kwame Kwei-Armah, has pushed back its first preview dates for the second time this month. The Public Theater now intends for the production to start October 16 on the Off-Broadway company's Newman Theater stage, instead of the previously announced October 14. Opening night is still set for November 4.

IATSE Making “Progress” At Bargaining Table To Avert Strike, Deal “Not There Yet”

Deadline: IATSE and the AMPTP are making progress at the bargaining table, but the two sides still have a ways to go to avert a threatened strike on Monday. “We did make progress,” a union source said. “Yesterday was a pretty good day, but we’re not there yet, by any means.”

Trans 'Hamilton' Actor Claims Discrimination by Production

www.themarysue.com: Suni Reid, a transgender performer on the hit Broadway show Hamilton, has accused the production of discrimination against them for asking for a gender-neutral dressing room. Per the complaint, which was published by The Hill, Suni Reid, who has been apart of the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles Hamilton productions, did not have their contract renewed.

Pittsburgh Native Kyle Abraham Shows Hometown Love in a Hometown Show

Pittsburgh Magazine: When Kyle Abraham was preparing his latest work, “An Untitled Love,” he took his dancers on a tour of the Hill District. “Everyone who knows me knows how prideful I am of my Pittsburgh roots,” says the award-winning, New York-based choreographer from Lincoln-Larimer. “This was the first time we did a tour … and it’s something that we’re going to do again when they come back just to give more of the history of the city and having the dancers have much more of a connection to the rich history Pittsburgh has.”

Review: 'Jesus Christ Superstar' in San Francisco an Awkward Resurrection

KQED: We live in Anniversary Hell. Our cultural calendar revolves around the 30th anniversary of this album, the 10th anniversary of that movie, the 17th anniversary of this episode of this one show on this one network, all while new and relevant art continues to be made, and not given prominence, all over the city, constantly, every single day.

Mind Your Language

SoundGirls.org: I’m a big fan of cognitive behavioural therapy. I think everyone should learn about it, whether they’re in need of therapy or not because it explains so much about how we think and how to control our mindset. One of the main insights I have taken away from it is that when we’re tired, stressed out, or even bored our brains revisit the same thoughts and memories that we already think about the most.

Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebrating Isidro Rodriguez

IATSE: Meet Costume Technician (stitcher, costume construction) and professional dresser, Isidro Rodriguez. He is the Recording Secretary of IATSE Theatrical Wardrobe Local 896 and has been a PROUD member of his Local since 1998.

Live From the Edge at City Theatre

onStage Pittsburgh: City Theatre opened its new season with a raucous, in-your-face company of performers of color that shook the dust off its reopened South Side venue closed during the pandemic year.

The SFX supervisor on 'No Time To Die' breaks down the film's five biggest practical effects

befores & afters: Chris Corbould has worked on 15 James Bond films, and has been the special effects supervisor for nine of them; No Time To Die is his latest. And amongst all that intense practical effects supervision, he has slowly been transitioning into second unit directing, an area he now plans to concentrate on.

A South Side Story: How Joshua Allen’s “The Last Pair of Earlies” Chronicles the Struggles of the Great Migration

Newcity Stage: In the early-to-mid-twentieth century, the Great Migration brought more than a half-million African Americans to Chicago who hoped to escape the brutal oppression and economic depression of the Jim Crow South. While some thrived in some of the most vibrant Black neighborhoods in any American city of the time, others faltered in an over-promised land of inopportunity.

Lynn Nottage, Clint Ramos, and More Call for the End of 10 out of 12s

thebroadwayblog.com: Prominent theater artists are calling for the end of 10 out of 12s, a shorthand that describes the theater workdays during tech, which have traditionally consisted of a 12-hour work day, six days a week, with only a two-hour break each day. Such long workweeks, with only one day off, have made it more difficult for theater artists and technicians who are also parents, those who live farther away from the theater, and others.

Imposter Syndrome Gets a Bad Rap.

SoundGirls.org: We like to blame everything on that voice in our head telling us we’re not good enough. But it hit me the other day that maybe we are so focused on ignoring any negative voices in our head that we are depriving ourselves of progress.

From Pygmies to Puppets: What to Do with Roald Dahl’s Enslaved Oompa-Loompas in Modern Adaptations?

The Theatre Times: But there is a troubling aspect to this story. In the first edition of Charlie (1964), the Oompa-Loompas are black pygmies who Wonka imports from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle” and enslaves in his factory. In this latest stage production, the Oompa-Loompas are transformed into “humanettes” (living dolls that are part human, part puppet). Their recent manifestation raises a number of questions. What do the Oompa-Loompas represent? And how should they be portrayed in modern-day adaptations?

North Side’s Moonshot Museum, dedicated to space exploration, unveils final designs

nextpittsburgh.com: It’s one small step for man — and just a few small steps from the Carnegie Science Center — but soon Pittsburgh will be closer to the moon and space travel than ever before.

IATSE Leaders Face Pressure From Members to Deliver in Negotiations

Variety: IATSE leadership got a big win on Oct. 4, when more than 98% of the rank and file voted to authorize a strike. Having riled people up, the leaders now face pressure to deliver the goods. Within days of the vote, members were growing frustrated at the slow pace of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

‘Slave Play’ Back On Track For Los Angeles Production

Deadline: Slave Play will arrive in Los Angeles after all. Playwright Jeremy O. Harris announced last night that his Tony-nominated comedy-drama will remain on the line-up at Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum in light of commitments made by the venue to expand opportunities there for women, trans and non-binary artists.

Hollywood crews set to strike next week if new contract deal not reached

National | Globalnews.ca: The union representing film and television crews says its 60,000 members will begin a nationwide strike on Monday if it does not reach a deal that satisfies demands for fair and safe working conditions.

Film TV workers union says strike to start next week

PBS NewsHour: The union representing film and television crews says its 60,000 members will begin a nationwide strike on Monday if it does not reach a deal that satisfies demands for fair and safe working conditions.

Former ‘Hamilton’ actor files complaint

Chicago Tribune: A former “Hamilton” cast member filed a federal workplace complaint against the show Wednesday, alleging that the show had retaliated and refused to renew a contract after the actor had requested a gender-neutral dressing room.

The nation’s oldest park ranger is also a singer-songwriter, and now she has a musical

Datebook: As Betty Reid Soskin listened to recordings of herself singing her own compositions, she kept her legs gingerly crossed, her fingers knit tightly together. But as she mouthed along with the lyrics, recorded decades ago, she tilted her face toward the sky and arched her eyebrows, the way singers do when they’re making an offering or blissfully communing with the muses.

Japan’s all new circus team ‘CIRQUEWORK’ debuts in Tokyo this month

Japan Today: If you’ve ever been lucky enough to witness the amazing acts of a Cirque du Soleil stage performance, then I envy you. The entertainment company travels the world, mesmerising audiences in more than 400 cities across 60 countries. With performances of such high stakes, it can be quite the challenge to get your hands on tickets.

AV Stumpfl to exhibit new products at InfoComm

blooloop: AV Stumpfl, Austrian award-winning creator of mobile and installation projection screens, multi-display and show control systems, will be heading to InfoComm 2021, which takes place in Orlando from 27 – 29 October.

Bay Area theater artists who called out discrimination find that as some doors close, others open

Datebook: The first rule of theater is you don’t speak out against theater, but no one has to say that rule out loud. Every ingenue crowding into an audition room, every playwright lobbing a script into the void, every college grad applying for the privilege of an unpaid internship can tell that if you get branded as difficult, there are plenty of others eager to take your place. Speak out loudly enough, and you might never work again.

How Do We Walk the Line Between Plagiarism and Direct Inspiration?

nofilmschool.com: Inspiration is one of those buzzwords in all artistry that I think probably gets overused. Nevertheless, I find myself looking to be inspired day in and day out. What material will spark my creative juices and get me excited to chase down the next spec script? What worlds will I find so enthralling they'll lead me to write a new pilot?