‘KPOP’ final-performance talkback addresses Asian and AAPI representation on Broadway

Broadway News: On Dec. 11, the original musical “KPOP” played its final Broadway performance. At the time of closing, the musical had played 44 previews and 17 regular performances at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The musical’s swift closure raised questions and an emotional public response about how the show — which featured 21 Korean, Korean-American and Asian/Pacific Islander (API) performers and was made by a largely Korean and Korean-American creative team — could have lasted longer.

8 Tips for Winter Weather Jobsite Safety

Builder Magazine: As snow begins to build up in some areas of the country, jobsite safety hazards may be disguised by wintry conditions. "Winter weather can present extreme safety challenges for those working in the home building industry on jobsites, both outside and within the structure," says Jonathan Falk, field specialist, disaster relief at the NAHB.

Making ‘Sensory Theatre’ for All Ages and All Senses

AMERICAN THEATRE: Live theatre is unparalleled among art forms because it is alive, immediate, and visceral. It welcomes all and invites people to go on a journey beyond their day-to-day lives. Since the 1980s, Tim Webb and the U.K.-based Oily Cart company have sought to create theatre for audience members with disabilities, and to do so in a way that is interactive, immersive, and inclusive.

New 'Avatar: The Way of Water' show at Disney's Animal Kingdom

attractionsmagazine.com: Debuting for a limited time at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a brand new “Avatar: The Way of Water” projection show has begun playing nightly on the Tree of Life. This show begins shortly after sunset, alongside other holiday inspired projections. With viewing available around the park, there are numerous places to watch and enjoy this “Avatar” inspired showcase of light and sound.

‘There’s No Way to Do a Good Job if You’re Judging the Character’

The New York Times: The actor K. Todd Freeman has worked with Steppenwolf Theater since 1993. His roles, however challenging, usually don’t exact a personal toll. Bruce Norris’s incendiary “Downstate,” which debuted at that Chicago theater in 2018, is different. “After three or four months of doing the play,” Freeman said, “it’s like, OK, I need to stop.”

Online platform Singulart showcases art from over 110 countries

www.dezeen.com: Promotion: online art and furniture shop Singulart helps art enthusiasts choose work from over 12,000 designers in over 110 countries, while allowing them to search via a "myriad of specifications".

NoPro’s Best Immersive Moments of 2022

by No Proscenium | Dec, 2022 | No Proscenium: Those who’ve been with us for a while know we do things a bit differently, as immersive work covers so many different mediums and styles. So while you won’t find a definitive Top Ten list of immersive experiences on the site this week you will find the personal notes of our Review Crew on the work that has been moving them all year long.

Riffusion

www.riffusion.com: This is the v1.5 stable diffusion model with no modifications, just fine-tuned on images of spectrograms paired with text. Audio processing happens downstream of the model. It can generate infinite variations of a prompt by varying the seed. All the same web UIs and techniques like img2img, inpainting, negative prompts, and interpolation work out of the box.

Why Wellcome closed its Medicine Man exhibition – and others should follow suit

theconversation.com: In November the Wellcome Collection closed their Medicine Man gallery. In a Twitter thread, they acknowledged that “the display still perpetuates a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language.”

This portable scanner is like the Shazam of color, and it's $59 off now

Boing Boing: If you've ever needed to determine a color — whether it be to paint your bedroom walls, complete an art piece, or what have you — you know it's easier said than done. There are hundreds of color options out there, which often makes it impossible to determine the shade you actually want.

'Merrily We Roll Along' will open on Broadway in 2023

Broadway News: New York Theatre Workshop’s Off-Broadway staging of “Merrily We Roll Along” will transfer to Broadway in the fall of 2023. This production will mark the first Broadway revival of the musical written by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim.

How pink became fashion's colour of controversy: a brief history

theconversation.com: Despite its various shades and the complexities of its cultural significance, it is a colour that is often branded with the same connotations of feminine frivolity and excess – whether girlish and innocent or womanly and erotic.

‘Ain’t No Mo’ ’ announces extension to Dec. 23

Broadway News: Jordan E. Cooper’s new play “Ain’t No Mo’ ” will now run through Dec. 23 at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre. The production previously announced it would close on Dec. 18; Cooper simultaneously launched a social media campaign called #SaveAintNoMo.

Long Wharf, Southern Connecticut State Partner for Internship Program

AMERICAN THEATRE: Long Wharf Theatre has announced a partnership with Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) to form a new paid internship program. Additionally, Long Wharf’s benefit production of The Crucible will be presented at SCSU, with the opportunity for students to collaborate on the production.

How to Leverage Time to Make More Time

Lifehack: We all have just 24 hours in a day. And yet, why are there some people easily able to juggle a full-time job, build their side hustles, and enjoy quality time with family and friends without breaking a sweat while others can barely find the time to do anything besides work and sleep?

Tech and design firm Theatre Projects names new members of strategic planning team

Broadway News: Theatre Projects, a firm largely known for space and technology design on Broadway and around the world, has announced new members of its strategic planning team.

History-making production of 'Ohio State Murders’ at Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre

DC Theater Arts: This month’s opening of Ohio State Murders made history as both the inaugural production at the newly renovated and renamed James Earl Jones Theatre (formerly the Cort) and the belated Broadway debut of 91-year-old playwright Adrienne Kennedy – who, in 2021, received the Dramatists Guild of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award and this year joined the ranks of Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and Arthur Miller as one of only five recipients in history to be awarded the Gold Medal for Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among the many other honors bestowed upon her during her illustrious career.

KV2 Audio rocks Jerash Festival in Jordan with Triad Live Productions

LightSoundJournal.com: The Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts, traditionally held in July, transforms the ancient city of Jerash into one of the world’s liveliest and most spectacular events. In December this year, after a three-year, pandemic-enforced absence, the festival was back in force with an impressive line-up of top regional artists including Tamer Husny, Marwan Khoury, Asi Hillani, and Rabeh Saqer to name but a few.

'Grease' to Return to London's Dominion Theatre This Summer

The BroadwayBlog: After a successful run last summer, Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey’s iconic musical Grease will return once again to the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End starting June 2, 2023. Grease is directed by Nikolai Foster and choreographed by Arlene Phillips. Casting to be announced.

Elmwood Projects Ltd. | Science Museum Sci-Fi Exhibits

blooloop: Elmwood Projects Ltd., a fit-out specialist within the museum and commercial sectors, utilised its in-house design capabilities and bespoke joinery workshop for a new exhibition at the Science Museum.

‘I have to stand up and fight’: can a playwright save his Broadway show from closing early?

Broadway | The Guardian: It is the call that every playwright dreads. Jordan E Cooper, whose Ain’t No Mo earned critical plaudits on Broadway, was informed that his beloved show will close on Sunday – just 17 days after opening.

Prolight + Sound supports “Women in Lighting”

LightSoundJournal.com: Lighting and event technology is about creativity and artistic expression – as much as it is about planning and analytical skills: a varied field of activity for forward thinkers and sharp minds with visions. Despite all this diversity, women are still a minority in the industry.

Don’t look into the wardrobe: are Peeping Tom the world’s freakiest theatre troupe?

Stage | The Guardian: Knock, knock. Who’s there? In Peeping Tom’s suspenseful shows you can never be sure. The Belgium-based dance-theatre company builds atmospheric and often bewildering stage architecture. The Missing Door, The Lost Room and The Hidden Floor – a triptych they are taking to the UK – open up noirish worlds of intrigue, illusions and lugubrious comedy.

Broadway marketer Whitney Britt launches independent consultancy

Broadway News: Whitney Britt, a theater and marketing industry veteran, has launched her own business, Two Dog Circus. The boutique consultancy specializes in business development, corporate partnerships and special events for Broadway, brands and the performing arts.

I Don’t Think it’s Just Me Anymore: The Shift Towards Healthier Theatre Education

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Well-meaning relatives like to ask me during the holidays: “Now that you’re out of college, when will you be in another show?” I’ve gotten quite good at smiling and word-vomiting breezy, nonchalant responses like: “I’m not sure yet” or “I’m just seeing where it goes,” despite the fact that I have actually thought a lot about it. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I were to be honest while answering the dreaded question; if instead I said, “Actually, the last time I thought about auditioning, I had a panic attack,” while my dad carves the turkey in the kitchen. Or if I quipped, “I cried in the bathroom the last time my friends tried to get me to sing at karaoke,” while sampling baked brie at the appetizer table. Who knows, maybe this year I’ll just stand up after the prayer and announce: “I am afraid of performing now, and I don’t think I’m wrong!”

Intermission: To Train, or Not to Train: Exploring Stratford's Birmingham Conservatory

www.intermissionmagazine.ca: It’s hard to find anyone living in Canada who hasn’t at least heard of the Stratford Festival. As the largest classical repertory theatre in North America, the internationally recognized festival offers more than a dozen shows every year across four venues. But incredible staged Shakespeare productions aren’t the only artistic opportunities the festival offers.

Festive freedom

Access All Areas: At last we have a Christmas events season that looks set to be uninterrupted by pandemic related restrictions. Familiar festive favourites are returning en masse, such as Winter Wonderland at London’s Hyde Park, and Edinburgh Christmas and Hogmanay, while new events have sprung into the market.

Michela Marino Lerman on the Timelessness of Tap Dance.

Dance Magazine: To be quite honest, I don’t really know when I began. Dance and music and creation have always been a part of my being. Once there was music playing, I had to move. My first memories of life are dancing around the house and putting on performances in the living room. I remember dancing in the arms of my mother and standing on my father’s­ feet as we moved across the floor.

New iOS Synth, Copperhead, Inspired By Vintage Synthesizers Of The ’80s

Synthtopia: Developer 4Pockets has introduced Copperhead, an AUv3 digital subtractive synthesizer plugin that’s inspired by the vintage synthesizers of the early ’80s.

Resource Design

Event Industry News: Over the last decade, we have worked hard in the exhibition industry using EFB (Engineered Fibre Board or as we call is Eco Friendly Board), pushing boundaries (and our designers) while keeping sustainability at the core of everything we do. We offer creative and innovative solutions for exhibition and retail requirements. From concept and design to construction and project management.

James Ijames and Lloyd Suh win Steinberg Playwright Awards

Broadway News: The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust have announced that the honorees for their 2022 Steinberg Playwright Awards are James Ijames, writer of the upcoming Broadway play “Fat Ham,” and playwright Lloyd Suh. Each will receive a $100,000 prize.

How to Find and Get Your Dream Job, According to a Career Coach

www.businessinsider.com: Jess Galica said she collected a variety of "gold stars" in her career. Prominent companies like Bain and Apple were on her résumé, along with an MBA from MIT. Despite this, she wasn't confident she was on the right career track.

Tony Awards sets date and new venue for 2023

Broadway News: The 76th Annual Tony Awards will take place on June 11, 2023. The ceremony will be held at the uptown New York City venue United Palace, marking the first time the awards have been presented at this theater.

"The Jungle And The Sea" Reminds Us War Is Profoundly Local, With The Intimate Negotiation Of Human Relationships

The Theatre Times: After the roaring success of their debut collaboration, Counting and Cracking, S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack have produced another play that will captivate audiences. Sri Lanka was in a civil war from 1983 to 2009, about a Tamil national liberation struggle for independence in the north and east. This followed decades of discrimination by the Sri Lankan state against Tamils.

The Role of Fire Inspectors

NFPA: According to the latest “Fire Loss in the United States” report, published by NFPA in September 2022, there were roughly 1.35 million fires in the United States in 2021, causing a reported 3,800 civilian fire deaths and 14,700 civilian injuries. The property damage caused by these fires was nearly $15.9 billion.

Interview: David West Read Finds a Magic Comedic Formula in New Musical & Juliet

TheaterMania: Comedy is hard, but making finding the story of a comedy out of a group of uncollected pop songs is even harder. But David West Read — known for making audiences laugh as an Emmy-winning writer on TV's Schitt's Creek and as the author of the notorious (and absolutely hilarious) Broadway flop The Performers — figured out a magic formula with & Juliet.

Top 10 Live Shows of 2022

Consequence: It’s been a rocky few years for the live music industry. There was that whole “gap” year, the tentative return in 2021, and then the full on explosion that occurred over the last 12 months. Concerts came back with a vengeance, with our favorite artists, acclaimed newcomers, and formerly retired icons all returning to the stage.

The best theatre of 2022

Theatre | The Guardian: Jodie Comer made a sensational West End debut in Suzie Miller’s hard-hitting play, which is destined for Broadway in the spring. Best known for her TV role in Killing Eve, Comer proved she could be just as charismatic and commanding on stage, playing a lawyer who ends up in the witness stand after a sexual assault.

The Best (and Worst) Theater in Europe in 2022

The New York Times: When the American writer Pearl Cleage’s 1995 play crossed the Atlantic this fall, it was the high point of a variable year for the National Theater, England’s flagship playhouse. Set in adjacent apartments in 1930s Harlem, the play takes an unsparing look at a cross section of Prohibition-era Americans yearning for release from the racism and homophobia that mar their daily lives.

Greta Stromquist: Dialogue Editor and Associate Producer

SoundGirls.org: When I began blogging for SoundGirls in January of 2022, I had hoped to interview various audio professionals from marginalized genders, but none more so than Greta Stromquist. We met at WAMCon Los Angeles 2019. We were both early to the conference at Walt Disney Studios, struck up a conversation that morning, and reconnected throughout the day.

SGM Light Helps Bring the Power back to Battersea Power Station

LightSoundJournal.com: Located on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Wandsworth, Battersea Power Station has been a major part of the London skyline since construction started in 1929. Notable for its Art Deco interior and exterior design, the structure has recently benefited from a transformational development program which has used lighting throughout the site to fully express the design and unique features of this iconic building.

God, I Wish James Cameron Would Stop Talking About Female Empowerment

The Mary Sue: James Cameron has made things like Aliens and the Terminator movies, and so he thinks that means he knows what the end-all, be-all for female empowerment is. I don’t know why he wants me to be angry with him all the time, and yet here we are. Recently, he seemed to stop doubling down on his hatred of comic book movies, but then he went right on ahead to say that a character in Avatar: The Way of Water should be more empowering to viewers than Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman because she’s a pregnant warrior.

Use Google Maps in AutoCAD for Free With Plex-Earth Lite

AutoCAD Blog - Autodesk: For many years, Plex-Earth has brought incredible new advantages to AutoCAD through their innovations with satellite imagery. Now, they’ve done it again!

How Inflation and the Supply Chain Are Crushing Your Favorite Indie Bands on Tour

www.thedailybeast.com: The COVID-19 pandemic was so bad for RN Entertainment, a company that rents RVs to touring musicians, that its owner broke his office lease and moved his entire fleet to his house.

China's Setting the Standard for Deepfake Regulation

gizmodo.com: In a year marked by seemingly weekly advances in AI capabilities, government authorities and lawmakers around the world have struggled to keep up. Starting next month, however, Chinese regulators will put in place new rules restricting one of AI’s most nerve-racking use cases: deepfakes.

Josh Groban Shares a 1st Look at His Beast Costume...and It's a Giant Puppet

Playbill: When sneak peek photos were released this week for ABC's upcoming animated-live action hybrid Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, there was someone missing.

An Ephemeral Night of Perfumance

F Newsmagazine: The Modern Dance Club presented a night of “perfumance” (performance with perfume) and improvisational movement on Dec. 9, 2022. In collaboration with the ATS Olfactory Art class, the Modern Dance Club distributed an information booklet sprayed with hand-made perfume.

Connecting the Dots: Advancing Gender Equity in the Arts through Research, Policy, and Change

ARTS Blog: New data from the National Endowment for the Arts, summarized in the research brief “Artists in the Workforce: Selected Demographic Characteristics Prior to COVID‐19,” paints a fuller picture of why women in the dance industry, particularly women of color, were particularly devastated by the pandemic.

Broadway Box Office Starting To Look Like Christmas: Grosses Up 10%

Deadline: The holiday spirit – at least the kind measured at the box office – seemed to arrive on Broadway last week, for some shows anyway. Obvious case in point: A Christmas Carol, starring Jefferson Mays in his tour de force as every last ghost, miser and Cratchit in the story, was up a bountiful 34% in receipts, taking in $742,010 and filling 83% of seats at the Nederlander.

Taylor Swift Settles “Shake It Off” Copyright Suit Before Trial

The Hollywood Reporter: A copyright suit against Taylor Swift from two songwriters accusing her of lifting the lyrics to her 2014 hit single “Shake It Off” has been dropped a month before trial.

What Does the Closure of ‘Ain’t No Mo’ Mean for the Future of Black Stories?

AMERICAN THEATRE: It was Nov. 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama’s election, and a young Black high school student was “beaming with pride, full of joy and optimism about his Blackness and everything he could be.” Then, on his locker, he saw a note: “Go Back To Africa.” And so, as any good writer or dramatist does when faced with a challenge, he took it.

Maker jargon and slang for 2022

Boing Boing: These aren't necessarily new terms, some are very old, basic, and well known. These are just words related to the various domains of making that crossed my transom this year and I thought my newsletter (and Boing Boing) readers might find them interesting.

Mark Gordon Pictures to Adapt Doc ‘Flagmakers’ Into Stage Musical

Deadline: Mark Gordon Pictures has tapped playwright John J. Caswell Jr. to adapt a stage musical of the acclaimed short documentary The Flagmakers, from Oscar winner Cynthia Wade and AFI Doc Award winner Sharon Liese. The New York Public Theater’s associate artistic director Saheem Ali is attached to direct.

'Top Gun:Maverick' used real jets to create sonic sounds

Variety: When “Top Gun: Maverick” landed in theaters this summer, audiences around the world enjoyed the excitement of soaring through the sky alongside the Navy’s best of the best. One key to creating that sensation was building the perfect soundscape.

1,500 Fish Die After 50-Foot Aquarium Explodes In German Hotel

brobible.com/culture: There are plenty of strategies hotels can harness in an attempt to set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. That includes the over-the-top spectacle that was installed in the lobby of a Radisson in Berlin in 2003 in the form of a 50-foot-tall aquarium capable of holding 264,000 gallons of water.

Cut Above the Rest

JLC Online: In my company, Great Lakes Builders, we were early adopters of the SawStop safety system, and we bought one of JSS Job Site Saws as soon as they became available. Like most small businesses, safety is a big concern, and we strive to make our workplace as safe as we can. Having a safe table saw – one that shuts down the instant the blade comes in contact with skin – certainly helps lower the risk.

Rebecca Musical Rising From the Ashes for New London Production

Playbill: Like its titular character, Rebecca the musical refuses to be forgotten. Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay's Rebecca musical will make its long-awaited English premiere in London in 2023. The musical, which has been an audience favorite in Germany and Japan since its premiere in 2006, was Broadway-bound in 2012 before an infamous scandal took the project down.

Rebecca Remaly, Stephen Weitz to Leave Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado

AMERICAN THEATRE: Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (formerly Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, or BETC) has announced that managing director Rebecca Remaly and producing artistic director Stephen Weitz will leave the organization at the end of the 2022-23 season. The couple co-founded the theatre in 2006 with Stephany Roscoe.

2022 Fusion 360 Drawings Recap

Fusion 360 Blog: The Fusion 360 Drawings team has been really busy this year. Here’s an update on just some of what we built this year and details on how to tell us about what you’d like to see next.

‘Ain’t No Mo’ Should Have Been A Hit: Lee Daniels And Jordan E. Cooper On What Happened

Deadline: Ain’t No Mo’, the Broadway debut of author and star Jordan E. Cooper, opened at the Belasco Theatre on Dec. 1 to the sort of reviews producers and playwrights dream about. Even the few critics who weren’t completely won over couldn’t help but point out a singular brilliance at work here, not to mention a stars-in-the-making cast and more laugh-out-loud moments than most of the rest of Broadway combined.

Top 10 Tips for a More “Rocking” Woodgrain

Guild of Scenic Artists: What’s that quote again, “Scenic Artists: Painting wood to look like wood… since forever”? I mean, honestly, if you haven’t transformed CDX Plywood into the finest of Mahogany, can you call yourself a Scenic? Let’s say it’s kind of in our roots, and we all have apron pockets full of recipes, techniques, and cool tools for creating our faux wood effects.

A Massive Illuminated Eye of 100,000 Lights Twinkles Above a Madrid Plaza

Colossal: Now on view in Madrid’s Plaza de Canalejas is a gleaming eye that peers both downward at those who pass underneath its red-and-blue canopy and upward at the sky. Extending across more than 2,000-square-meters, the temporary site-specific installation is the project of design studio Brut Deluxe, which strung 100,000-plus LED lights into a web of color that hovers nine meters above ground.

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene presents…

Broad Street Review: As I traveled to New York last month to review National Yiddish Theatre Folksbeine’s Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, I remembered my first BSR review of Fiddler. It was a touring revival that opened before white supremacists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, torches in hand, chanting “Jews will not replace us!”. I called that production “relevant, contemporary, and powerful,” noting that for many Jewish Americans, the rise of incidents like the Charlottesville rally “shattered our belief that anti-Semitism was a thing of the past.”

Company First and Last: SITI Takes Its Final Bow

AMERICAN THEATRE: Over the past three decades and more than 40 productions, the venerable New York performance group has created dazzling theatre, ranging from grand spectacles to solo shows. A significant portion of it has been based on collages of texts by and about important 20th-century artists, from Virginia Woolf to John Cage. They have also spent serious time with the Greeks, collaborated on multiple projects with playwright Charles Mee and dramaturg Jocelyn Clarke, and even dabbled in Shakespeare, Marivaux, and Noël Coward.

Gig workers are racking up legal victories across the world, new report

www.fastcompany.com: Gig companies across the globe employ a similar playbook: Use gobs of venture capital to undercut legacy firms, skirt labor law to keep costs low, then use their resulting market dominance to pass new, more favorable laws. That’s how companies such as Uber and Lyft helped pass Proposition 22 in California, a 2020 ballot measure that cut gig workers out from a state law that would’ve classified many of them as employees with the right to unionize and strike.

Favorite Tools to Buy, Find or Make

Guild of Scenic Artists: Theater artisans are renowned for making up or repurposing items and products. When the item we really need is just not out there to be purchased or found, we invent what we need. I’ve been at the Children’s Theatre Company for 32 years, and we frequently make up tools to help streamline a process. Often it’s to help with a physical problem or to make the job more efficient so that it doesn’t take forever.

From AV nerd to illustrious lighting designer: a Q&A with Allen Lee Hughes

DC Theater Arts: With the national tour of A Soldier’s Play launching this week at the Kennedy Center, lighting designer Allen Lee Hughes has special reason to be pleased — because this Broadway production for which received a Tony nom has come to his hometown.

Rigging Terminations – Then and Now

ASTC: A recent observation made by an ASTC member noted that in a recent industry publication an advertisement included an image of wire rope lift line terminations consisting of a clove hitch around a pipe batten held in place by three cable clips. This observation became a topic of some discussion among members on ASTC’s internal email group.

South Bay teen puts goth angst to work in 'Beetlejuice' musical

Datebook: Children’s Musical Theater San Jose was the performance home for Alex Brightman for years before he embarked on a journey as a professional performer, a path that has taken him to massive heights in New York City. The Saratoga native and Bellarmine College Preparatory graduate is concluding his time as the title character in the musical “Beetlejuice,” set to close Jan. 8, after a run on Broadway since April 2019.

From Wagatha Christie to Donald Trump: can rapid-fire real-life drama upstage the news?

Theatre | The Guardian: Just before the curtain came up on Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial, producer Eleanor Lloyd spoke to the audience about its breakneck transposition from real-life courtroom drama to stage show and the “high-wire act” that such theatre becomes. The part-verbatim show dramatises the case that was detonated soon after Coleen Rooney dropped her Instagram grenade and Rebekah Vardy filed for libel.

Actors’ Equity urges members to push Congress to pass Performing Artist Tax Parity Act

Broadway News: On Dec. 10, Actors’ Equity Association sent notice to its full membership of 51,000 actors and stage managers nationwide encouraging them to appeal to their representatives to pass the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act (PATPA).

Outline’s Butterfly System Helps Prog Titans Celebrate Milestone Album In Washington

LightSoundJournal.com: Dean comments, “I’ve used the Butterfly system in the Warner a few times now and it always sounds great. Ishai (Ratz, the house sound engineer) has that rig singing like a classic Sinatra song. He was a big help in making sure I utilized the system in a most efficient way and those new subs they installed are nice. Gives the system a little more thump without becoming boomy.”

‘Ain’t No Mo’’ to Close on Broadway

The New York Times: “Ain’t No Mo’,” a raucously funny and provocative new Broadway play imagining that the United States tries to end racism by offering to send Black Americans to Africa, will close on Dec. 18, a little more than two weeks after opening.

Revealed: how women bankrolled rival to 17th century Globe theatre

Theatre | The Guardian: Male performers may have dominated the early modern stage, but female investors were a driving force behind one of the foremost playhouses of the 17th century, according to new research.

Dem. Senator Hints that Ticket Transparency Legislation is Coming

www.ticketnews.com: Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar hinted at the potential for upcoming legislation aimed at the ticketing industry, specifically related to increasing transparency for consumers. The Democrat indicated that something is in the works during a recent interview with NPR related to the Ticketmaster/Live Nation role in the Taylor Swift fiasco in November, which has spurred the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy Antitrust and Consumer Rights – which she chairs – to announce plans for hearings in the near future.

When Jewish Artists Wrestle With Antisemitism

The New York Times: Antisemitism has such a long, violent history that it seems absurd to claim it’s getting worse. Compared with when? And yet, there’s something about our current moment that feels different.

Five Small Job-Search Tasks You Can Do While Watching TV

lifehacker.com: Whether you’re actively looking for a new gig or just exploring your options, it can be easy for a job search to eat up all your waking hours. Spending 18 hours a day thinking about finding the next step on your career path is a sure-fire way to build stress, do worse in interviews, and burn out—plus, imagine all the TV you’re missing.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

8 Festive Facts You Need to Know About Holiday Décor at Walt Disney World

Disney Parks Blog: From cheerfully curated Christmas trees and festive wreaths to glittering garland and gingerbread structures with an aroma of sugar and spice, holiday festivities are in full swing at Walt Disney World Resort during the 50th Anniversary celebration, which runs through March 31, 2023.

Posted by David at 12/09/2022 10:22:00 AM

20 Years of Playground at CMU Drama

Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama: The week of December 5-10, 2022 marks the twentieth anniversary of Playground, the School of Drama’s entirely student-run theater festival which takes place annually at the end of the fall semester. During Playground week, all drama classes are canceled, and within a four-day rehearsal period, students write, direct, design, perform, and produce original works. Performances and installations are open to the public and take place December 8-10 in various locations throughout the Purnell Center for the Arts.

Posted by David at 12/08/2022 11:09:00 AM

Oscars actor categories: Should they go genderless?

GoldDerby: The Gotham Awards present genderless acting categories. The Independent Spirit Awards now present genderless acting categories. Even the MTV Movie and TV Awards have gone genderless with their performance awards. Should the Oscars follow suit? Scroll down to vote in our poll at the bottom of this post.

Posted by David at 12/08/2022 11:08:00 AM

Entertainment Unions Urge Congress to Restore Tax Fairness for the Industry’s Workers

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO: Americans will soon start gathering their receipts and documents to prepare their taxes, and entertainment workers anticipate owing unnecessarily burdensome amounts in taxes because they are unable to deduct required work expenses. In a letter sent today, unions of entertainment workers affiliated with the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) call on Congress to restore tax fairness for these middle-class creative professionals by passing the bipartisan Performing Artist Tax Parity Act (PATPA), S. 2872/H.R. 4750.

Posted by David at 12/09/2022 10:24:00 AM

Broadway's KPOP Sets Abrupt Closing Date

Playbill: KPOP has announced that it will play its final Broadway performance December 11. The musical opened at Circle in the Square Theatre November 27 following the beginning of previews October 13. While in previews, the show cancelled multiple matinee performances. As of the final performance, the musical will have played 44 previews and 17 performances.

Posted by David at 12/07/2022 10:18:00 AM

 

Billy Porter on Walk of Fame Honor, Breaking Barriers and His Music

Variety: Billy Porter is three decades into a career he was repeatedly told would never happen. A Black, queer artist with a booming voice and indelible screen and stage presence, Porter has ascended to extraordinary heights by defying those expectations.

Tedra Millan on Channeling the Grief of Her Ancestors in Broadway's Leopoldstadt

Playbill: Directed by Patrick Marber, the critically acclaimed, decades-spanning drama begins in 1899 Vienna and follows the lives of one extended Jewish family through to the mid-20th century, including the devastating effects of the Holocaust. Leopoldstadt has just been extended to July 2, 2023.

Riedel intercom systems deliver reliable communications at the Burgtheater in Vienna

LightSoundJournal.com: Riedel Communications announced that the Burgtheater, the Austrian Federal Theater in Vienna, has opted for a comprehensive communications solution with Riedel’s Artist and Bolero intercom systems. As an extension of an existing Artist-64-based intercom and radio network, an Artist-1024 node and a Bolero wireless system with 85 beltpacks and 36 antennas have been gradually integrated into the historic venue since the summer of 2021.

The ‘Little Theatre’ and Big Personality That Made Justin Tanner a Playwright

AMERICAN THEATRE: Theatre is, among other things, a social activity, and when we think of the plays we’ve loved or companies we’ve followed, I’d wager none of us recall only the transporting traffic of the stage. We also think of the bar next door where we had a knockdown argument or a passing flirt, the lobby where we ran into an old friend, the parking garage where our car got keyed.

We Want the Funk Festival brings legendary music acts to Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh City Paper: We Want the Funk Festival wants to prove that “funk is timeless and is at home everywhere.” That’s according to a statement about the event, set to unfold across two days full of performances from “chart-toppers to R&B-fusion groups to solo vocalists.”

Entertainment Unions Urge Congress to Restore Tax Fairness for the Industry’s Workers

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO: Americans will soon start gathering their receipts and documents to prepare their taxes, and entertainment workers anticipate owing unnecessarily burdensome amounts in taxes because they are unable to deduct required work expenses. In a letter sent today, unions of entertainment workers affiliated with the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) call on Congress to restore tax fairness for these middle-class creative professionals by passing the bipartisan Performing Artist Tax Parity Act (PATPA), S. 2872/H.R. 4750.

Eventbrite Accused of “Campaign of Cancellation” Against Gender-Critical Events

www.ticketnews.com: Eventbrite is being criticised for the removal of several events from its platform, drawing accusations of censoring unpopular voices through its cancellations. The ticketing system’s latest controversy comes on the heels of de-platforming events that planned discussions on gender ideology from the perspective of individuals who disagree with the trend of acceptance of transgender individuals as belonging to the gender of their choice.

Drama, in German, in the Shadow of ‘Leopoldstadt’

The New York Times: “My grandfather wore a caftan, my father went to the opera in a top hat, and I have the singers to dinner,” boasts a character in Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” summing up the rapid trajectory from piety to cultural assimilation that was common among Vienna’s Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

8 Festive Facts You Need to Know About Holiday Décor at Walt Disney World

Disney Parks Blog: From cheerfully curated Christmas trees and festive wreaths to glittering garland and gingerbread structures with an aroma of sugar and spice, holiday festivities are in full swing at Walt Disney World Resort during the 50th Anniversary celebration, which runs through March 31, 2023.

Unionizing as Pedagogy

Architect Magazine: This fleeting speck of a life we’re given is nothing compared to the infinity one experiences when opening the morning’s emails. You send one, and six more arrive. In the workplace, time slips by; you forget the monetary and moral value of an hour spent on Zoom, in meetings, and, yes, sending those emails. But as a part-time faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects department, I’m deeply aware of the value of each bit of labor I perform.

How ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ Composer Created Those ‘Disturbing’ Sounds of War

www.thewrap.com: The new German-language version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” is one of the most harrowing and brutal war movies (or anti-war movies) ever made, and the music has a lot to do with that. At times, brutally sharp drum beats come out of nowhere and seem to assault the audience; other times, three enormous, foreboding chords blast in and linger, an unholy Dies Irae hanging in the air.

Balancing Act: Bringing Structural Form To Live Sound For Alicia Keys

ProSoundWeb: Matt Patterson may have been the RF wrangler/monitor tech for the live dates that Alicia Keys brought to North America from early June to late September this year, but just like the rest of his fellow crew members, his job duties required a lot more than just technical skill.

Visual Effects of Black Adam, Doctor Strange, Jurassic World and More

The Hollywood Reporter: VFX pros explain how they staged Batmobile crashes, captured aliens in the night sky and created an underwater kingdom in some of the year’s biggest tentpole releases.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Costume Designer on Queen Ramonda’s Wardrobe

The Hollywood Reporter: Early on in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) makes her grand entrance into a United Nations council meeting. Now ruler of the highly advanced African nation after the death of her son T’Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman), she wields fashion as diplomacy in a royal purple and gold halter gown, accented with a regal collar matching the gilded panel on her isicholo, the traditional hat for a South African Zulu married woman. Ramonda delivers sharp, precise words for the white Western nations, rapacious for Wakanda’s vibranium, and shames them on the global stage.

Meyer Sound Reimagines & Broadens Global Education Program

ProSoundWeb: Meyer Sound has announced a rebooting of its education program, with a full slate of workshops and training sessions scheduled at the company’s Berkeley headquarters as well as at other locations in the U.S. and overseas as well as the formation of partnerships with educational institutions.

TCG National Conference to Return to Biennial Calendar

AMERICAN THEATRE: After 13 years of running its national conference as an annual event, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the publisher of American Theatre, has announced that the organization will return to a biennial conference schedule. In the near term, that means there will be no TCG National Conference in June 2023, and that the next National Conference will be in 2024.

Issa Rae on What Inspires Work Amplifying Underrepresented Voices

The Hollywood Reporter: Issa Rae received a standing ovation when she was honored with the Equity in Entertainment Award at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment breakfast gala, presented by Lifetime, held Wednesday at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

‘The Music Man’ breaks all-time Red Bucket fundraising record for Broadway Cares

Broadway News: During its fall fundraising season, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS raised a total of $5,107,79. The Broadway production of “The Music Man” raised $2,002,612 alone, thanks to nightly auctions of props and costume pieces by stars Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. In the final week of the campaign, Nicole Kidman famously donated $100,000 during the post-curtain call fundraising.

“A Christmas Story” at The Pittsburgh Public Theater

The Pittsburgh Tatler: The Pittsburgh Public Theater – or, as artistic director Marya Sea Kaminski likes to say, your Pittsburgh Public Theater – has a couple of bright shiny gifts for the community this holiday season.

Australia Council finds arts workers face wider gender pay gap

limelightmagazine.com.au/news: The Australia Council has today released its report Culture and the Gender Pay Gap For Australian Artists. Prepared by David Throsby, Katya Petetskaya and Sunni Y. Shin, the report expands upon its preliminary findings from 2020 and examines the income inequality between female and male artists in Australia, and the further income disadvantage faced by women artists from non-English speaking backgrounds.

20 Years of Playground at CMU Drama

Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama: The week of December 5-10, 2022 marks the twentieth anniversary of Playground, the School of Drama’s entirely student-run theater festival which takes place annually at the end of the fall semester. During Playground week, all drama classes are canceled, and within a four-day rehearsal period, students write, direct, design, perform, and produce original works. Performances and installations are open to the public and take place December 8-10 in various locations throughout the Purnell Center for the Arts.

PBT's 'The Nutcracker Opens' This Friday

onstagepittsburgh.com: One of Pittsburgh’s favorite holiday traditions returns to the Benedum Center stage this Friday. Marie and her Nutcracker prince journey to the Land of Enchantment. Along the way, they encounter the Snow Queen and King, The Rat King, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and a whole cast of memorable characters!

Oscars actor categories: Should they go genderless?

GoldDerby: The Gotham Awards present genderless acting categories. The Independent Spirit Awards now present genderless acting categories. Even the MTV Movie and TV Awards have gone genderless with their performance awards. Should the Oscars follow suit? Scroll down to vote in our poll at the bottom of this post.

Entertainment Unions Urge Congress to Restore Tax Fairness for the Industry’s Workers

IATSE: Americans will soon start gathering their receipts and documents to prepare their taxes, and entertainment workers anticipate owing unnecessarily burdensome amounts in taxes because they are unable to deduct required work expenses. In a letter sent today, unions of entertainment workers affiliated with the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) call on Congress to restore tax fairness for these middle-class creative professionals by passing the bipartisan Performing Artist Tax Parity Act (PATPA), S. 2872/H.R. 4750.

‘Theater of the Mind,’ Sure, But How About a Theater Accessible for All Bodies?

AMERICAN THEATRE: Accessibility is too often a theatrical afterthought. Not so for Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA), and its long-standing inclusion commitment has gone next level with its world premiere Off-Center production of Theater of the Mind (TOTM), a new immersive project from musician David Byrne and writer Mala Gaonkar, which opened last summer and has been extended through Jan. 22, 2023.

Broadway's KPOP Sets Abrupt Closing Date

Playbill: KPOP has announced that it will play its final Broadway performance December 11. The musical opened at Circle in the Square Theatre November 27 following the beginning of previews October 13. While in previews, the show cancelled multiple matinee performances. As of the final performance, the musical will have played 44 previews and 17 performances.

You won't get shushed by ushers at two popular holiday shows in S.F. — here's why

Datebook: At one performance of “A Christmas Carol” this year, American Conservatory Theater isn’t going to turn down the house lights all the way. The sound is never going to surpass a certain decibel level. Stage lights won’t flash. Audience members can make whatever noises they want or need to. If they head to the back of the theater, they can move around while they watch. If they need to fidget with their hands, ushers will pass out small toys. If they require a break from the theater altogether, the downstairs bar is being repurposed as a cozy space with cushions, coloring pages and a televised live feed of the performance.

­­­­­­­Acting “As if” – Role Play Simulations in High Stakes Police Encounters­­­­­­­

­­­­­­­WIT journal: I once served as the General Manager of the Italian branch of a multinational financial services firm. I held the job for about five hours. The brevity of my tenure had nothing to do with my performance. It also had everything to do with it. Because I wasn’t a manager at all. I just played one in a board room.

Vince Kelley Left Michigan. When He Came Back, He Found a Family Who Changed Everything.

Pride Source: When the Ringwald Theatre’s “Who’s Holiday” star Vince Kelley took his first steps into the big wide world after high school nearly 20 years ago, he couldn’t have predicted who he’d be by the end of 2022: An out gay man in a longterm relationship, an accomplished actor who took on New York before coming home to Detroit, and a successful, in-demand costume designer.

Latin GRAMMYs rely on Shure Axient® Digital

LightSoundJournal.com: The 2022 Latin GRAMMYs celebrated the best artists in Latin music on November 17. Broadcast live from the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, the sound team trusted Shure Axient® Digital to ensure music and Latin voices were the brightest stars of the night.

Rules of the Tour Bus - Make Friends Not Foes

Rich Roadie: Unfortunately, a lot of people who have been in our industry for years have left it during the pandemic. This was either for necessity to pay the bills, loss of faith for shows ever returning, or a combination of both.

‘KPOP’ to close on Dec. 11 — final performance to include AAPI community talkback

Broadway News: “KPOP” will play its final performance on Dec. 11. The new musical, which officially opened on Nov. 27 at the Circle in the Square Theatre, will have played 44 previews and 17 regular performances at the time of closing.

What's on at Shakespeare theaters in December

Shakespeare & Beyond: This month, Shakespeare theaters across the country are getting ready for the holidays with stories of Scrooge-i-ness defeated. Even Malvolio learns a lesson! Check out our round-up of performances in December.

Can-Do Spirit and Life Skills: Carnegie Mellon Visits a Houston Magnet School

AMERICAN THEATRE: Roshunda Jones-Koumba holds court in the classroom. She is a teacher, mentor, friend, and sometimes therapist to nearly 200 students at G.W. Carver High School in Houston, where she’s served as the drama teacher for 18 years. The magnet school is a historical landmark in the Acres Home neighborhood, a predominantly Black community in the city’s northwest. Carver is known for its technology and engineering tracks, and, thanks to Jones-Koumba, a flourishing arts program with past productions including Hairspray, Memphis, Dreamgirls, and The Color Purple, which had a sprawling cast of 130. In January, G.W. Carver Magnet High School will be the first high school in the country to stage the jukebox tuner Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.

Holiday pantos are distinctly British. This S.F. theater is trying to translate for U.S. audiences

Datebook: When theater producer Peggy Haas lived in London, from 1978 to 1982, she fell in love with a holiday theater tradition known as the panto, partly because she recognized that she and its performers shared similar urges. “I am a ham and cheese onstage,” she told The Chronicle.

Platinum XP Standardizes On Renkus-Heinz ICLive X (ICLX) For Live Events

ProSoundWeb: Renkus-Heinz announced that Kansas City, MO-based production company Platinum XP has standardized on its ICLive X (ICLX) combinable, steerable array modules and subwoofer for deployment to deliver sound reinforcement at live events.

Booming virtual production scene faces talent shortage

www.avinteractive.com: The market for virtual production technology is set to grow 20% year on year to $2.2 billion in 2023, up from $1.8 billion in 2022, according to consultancy Deloitte Global. But there is a shortage of qualified virtual production talent and the industry landscape of virtual production studios is currently fragmented, the consultancy also warns.

AAPI artist collective returns with "Finding Kin"

Pittsburgh City Paper: Sara Tang, one of JADED's organizers, says she connected with the Sidewall project to open up the opportunity to showcase an 8-foot photo in the project's space on 608 S. Millvale Ave. The collective debated what to do with the space and decided it would be best to put out an open call to the community and take a photo together, titled 'Finding Kin.'

Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh to explore societal prejudices by playing Richard III

Adjoa Andoh | The Guardian: Was Richard III inherently evil? Or was he othered, excluded and pathologised because of societal prejudices? What happens when the person who has been punched down, punches up? These are the questions Adjoa Andoh will ask when she steps into the shoes of one of Shakespeare’s most notorious villains, who deceived and murdered anyone who stood in his path to becoming king of England.

AICP, IATSE Ink Neutrality Agreement Over Stand With Production Group

The Hollywood Reporter: Crew union IATSE and the bargaining representative for commercial production and postproduction companies, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, have inked a neutrality agreement for organizing production workers on TV commercials.

“In a World Without Roe,” Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre Fosters Theatrical Parity

The Theatre Times: Walking to the back of Sisters on Fulton, the excitement is palpable. A sizable group has gathered in the warmth of this cozy-yet-upscale eatery to enact and celebrate Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre’s mission: “By re-casting the past, we can re-shape the future.” Tonight, the reading is of Shirley Graham Du Bois’s Dust to Earth; I am thrilled to be but a small part in bringing awareness to this woman’s legacy, and find myself in camaraderie and query the whole of the inspiring night.

Almost 100 Quattrocanali provide audio backbone for US stadium overhaul

LightSoundJournal.com: Powersoft amplifier platforms were key to a full audio overhaul at 44,500-capacity Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, home to the Boston College Eagles American football team.

'Into the Woods' will tour U.S.

Broadway News: The current Broadway revival of “Into the Woods” will embark on series of limited-engagements across the U.S. after concluding its run at the St. James Theatre on Jan. 8. The tour will begin in February 2023 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., following a brief preview run at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo.

Josefina López: The Arts Can’t Be Left to the Privileged

AMERICAN THEATRE: Josefina López contains multitudes. The versatile writer-actor-producer, best known for the 1990 play Real Women Have Curves as well as the screenplay for the popular film version (which introduced America Ferrera and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary), came by TCG’s New York offices recently, ostensibly to talk about Remembering Boyle Heights: Part 2, a historical anthology show now running at Casa 0101, the theatre she founded in the East Los Angeles neighborhood of its title, through Dec. 18.

Soulpepper and TO Live's 'da Kink in My Hair Returns to its Roots for its 20th Anniversary

www.intermissionmagazine.ca: It’s been more than two decades since Trey Anthony’s hit ‘da Kink in My Hair premiered at the Toronto Fringe. Now, after 20 years and multiple iterations, including a television series and multiple international productions, the show is returning to Toronto to celebrate its roots.

The arduous journey of Chinese immigrants to San Francisco in ‘The Far Country’ at Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company

DC Theater Arts: On May 6, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act – the only federal legislation ever implemented to prohibit all members of a specific nationality or ethnicity from immigrating to the United States – was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, following an increase in anti-Chinese sentiment and violence, when US workers blamed their depressed post-Civil-War wages on the immigrant laborers.

Fans Sue Citing Deception, Fraud in Taylor Swift Tickets Fiasco

www.ticketnews.com: More than two dozen fans have filed lawsuits against Ticketmaster over the Taylor Swift tickets fiasco, alleging that the ticketing giant and Live Nation Entertainment subsidiary engaged in fraud, price fixing, antitrust violations, and even “intentional deception.”

‘Fat Ham,’ a Pulitzer-Winning Riff on ‘Hamlet,’ Is Broadway-Bound

The New York Times: “Fat Ham,” a comedic and contemporary riff on “Hamlet” set in a backyard in the American South, will transfer to Broadway next spring, one year after winning the Pulitzer Prize in drama.

Handel’s 'Messiah' Thrills a Massive PSO Audience

onstagepittsburgh.com: The Heinz Hall box-office sang its own version of the “Hallelujah Chorus” last night, after Handel’s timeless oratorio, The Messiah, drew a colossal crowd to its doors. At 7:45 there were still long lines at the ticket windows. Eavesdropping in the sea of humanity, we overheard plans for reuniting being mapped out, as families and other groups found it impossible to find seats together. All genders and ages were stacked to the very last seat in the last row of the gallery, but there seemed to be nothing madding about this crowd.

TheatreWorks' 'Little Shop,' set in S.F.'s Chinatown, reveals exciting possibilities for musical theater

Datebook: Outside Mushnik’s flower shop, murals of Bruce Lee and Anna May Wong watch over the block, while inside its proprietor stores some of his flowers in a giant soy sauce bucket. When he needs to drown his sorrows after yet another day of no customers, his go-to is Chinese take-out.

Review: 'The Wanderers' at City Theatre

onstagepittsburgh.com: The Wanderers takes a hard look at the eternal conundrum of being a part of something bigger than oneself – a couple, a culture, a community – while holding on to one’s individuality.

Best theater of 2022: So many L.A. bright spots in L.A. despite a challenging year

Los Angeles Times: Just when you think things are about to improve, the reality of what we’ve been dealing with sinks in. Let’s not hide the truth: 2022 was a bruiser, economically and emotionally.

DeWalt 5-in-1 Drill/Driver Kit

JLC Online: As a carpenter and cabinetmaker, I sometimes find myself in predicaments where a regular drill just will not work. Whether it’s an odd angle that doesn’t allow me to get square with the screw head or a tight spot where I need to drill a hole but just can’t quite squeeze the drill in, there have been plenty of situations where I wished I had a solution. Enter the DeWalt Xtreme 12-volt Max 5-in-1 drill/driver kit.

Harvard musical reimagines Jesus, Judas relationship as 'gaysian love story'

nypost.com: Harvard University students have “reimagined” the story of Jesus Christ and one of his disciples as a “heretical gaysian (gay, Asian) love story,” in a new play premiering this week.

Playwright Neil Bartlett on bringing Virginia Woolf’s provocative, prescient novel Orlando to the stage in 2022

The Independent: Virginia Woolf’s fantastical fictional biography Orlando is one of those stories whose central image seems to have escaped into the wider world. Even people who have neither read the original novel nor seen the beautiful 1992 film by Sally Potter will know that this is the one where the hero starts out in life as a gorgeous young Elizabethan aristocrat – and then wakes up at the age of 30 to discover that he has become a woman.

KPOP Producers Request Apology From New York Times' Theatre Critic Jesse Green

Playbill: KPOP producers Tim Forbes and Joey Parnes are formally requesting an apology from New York Times theatre critic Jesse Green following his review of the new musical, which opened November 27 at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre. In a letter to New York Times Chairman and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and Theater Editor Nicole Herrington obtained by Playbill, Forbes and Parnes describe the review as "casual racism."

AiRAY bosses it for Bosse

LightSoundJournal.com: Axel Bosse or just Bosse, as he and his backing band are more commonly known in his native Germany, has enjoyed more than a decade of success, storming the charts with hit albums and guaranteeing full houses across the country. The remarkable consistency of his career was evident again on his recent sellout ‘Sunnyside Live’ tour, which was met with huge enthusiasm in concert halls and clubs by thousands of fans.

New York Times Theatre Critic Jesse Green Draws Criticism for KPOP Review

Playbill: In what seems to be turning into a growing trend, company members of Broadway's KPOP are speaking out following a negative review of the musical by New York Times theatre critic Jesse Green.

Best Theater of 2022

The New York Times: Musicals are exceedingly difficult; they not only have to ace all their disparate elements but also shuffle them perfectly. Perhaps that’s why they’re so thrilling when they succeed — and why I’ve included so few on my Top 10 lists over the years.

Interview with Kosovo Theatremaker and Human Rights Activist Kushtrim Koliqi—“In Kosovo Men are Bulls**t, We are like Criminals…”

The Theatre Times: Theatre has a certain power that no other medium can have. It has direct contact with the audience and it has live emotions. But there is a narrative in Kosovo at the moment that the theatre is very elitist, so I want my theatre shows to reach those who are not converted to the art form and to challenge them with my plays.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Design a Costume Quick-Change

Dramatics Magazine Online: Costumes are crucial to any show. Costume quick-change is key, but screenwriters occasionally leave only a short amount of time to transition from one to the next—sometimes not even enough for the actor to get to the dressing room and back. In cases like these, you’ll need to design a smooth costume quick-change.

Posted by David at 12/02/2022 10:29:00 AM

Being Disorganized Is Costing You Money

lifehacker.com: As long as inflation keeps making our lives more and more expensive, it’s crucial to be as conscientious a spender as possible. The last thing you want is to keep losing money on the typically avoidable costs that come with being disorganized. As someone who has dabbled in being a disorganized procrastinator, I know just how expensive being scatter-brained can be.

Posted by David at 11/30/2022 10:27:00 AM

How to motivate different kinds of workers

www.fastcompany.com: Senior leaders must implement new strategies to deal with a rapidly changing world, but their workforce don’t always buy in. You can talk all you like at Davos about diversity, or at COP27 about sustainability, or at shareholder meetings about innovation, but it’s just talk if you can’t bring your colleagues on board with you.

Posted by David at 12/02/2022 10:22:00 AM

Disney Made an AI Tool That Automatically De-Ages Actors

gizmodo.com: Further demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence when it comes to photorealistically altering footage, researchers from Disney have revealed a new aging/de-aging tool that can make an actor look convincingly older or younger, without the need for weeks of complex and expensive visual effects work.

Posted by David at 12/01/2022 11:00:00 AM

Hollywood Should Leave Dead Actors Alone

Variety: When “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” recently opened, audiences did not see a reanimated Chadwick Boseman. Instead, the title character’s sister, played by Letitia Wright, took over as the superhero. The technology existed for a digitized Boseman to reprise his celebrated 2018 star turn — but allowing a new, living actor to fill the role was the right call, not just for the franchise, but for the medium of film.

Posted by David at 12/01/2022 11:02:00 AM

 

Design a Costume Quick-Change

Dramatics Magazine Online: Costumes are crucial to any show. Costume quick-change is key, but screenwriters occasionally leave only a short amount of time to transition from one to the next—sometimes not even enough for the actor to get to the dressing room and back. In cases like these, you’ll need to design a smooth costume quick-change.

Erik Jensen Q and A. The Collaborator Beats Death, Makes Broadway Debut

New York Theater: Erik Jensen is making his Broadway debut the same year he suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm that almost killed him. The two are not unrelated, as he explains in the interview below. In “The Collaboration,” a play by Anthony McCarten that’s scheduled to open on December 20 at MTC’s Samuel J Friedman Theater, Jensen portrays Bruno Bischofberger, the Swiss art dealer who brought together Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Billy Porter - Newest Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

onstagepittsburgh.com: It was officially Billy Porter Day in Hollywood on December 1 on Thursday, but it is always Billy Porter Day in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Porter, the Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy-winning favorite son of Pittsburgh, was honored on Thursday with the 2,741st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

London Production Gathering Brings Back Buzz to Screen Biz

Variety: London’s Focus, a meeting place for the international production community, is ready to return in December for an “ambitious” eighth edition. “It’s all about volume and ambience. This will probably define Focus this year,” says managing director Jean-Frédéric Garcia. “People expect this show floor to be buzzy.”

Why Meow Wolf's immersive art should make Disney nervous

www.fastcompany.com: If you happen to visit Convergence Station, the Denver outpost of the popular immersive-art empire Meow Wolf, the staff has one request: Don’t push the emergency call button on the elevator, unless there’s a real emergency. “It happens at least once or twice a day,” says Amanda Clay, the company’s chief exhibitions officer. In the 90,000-square-foot, five-story building, a team of 300 artists has created a series of beguiling, Wonka-esque spaces laced with interactive elements.

Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience – Cameo stages immersive LIVE adventure in London

LightSoundJournal.com: In “Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience”, teams of eight people experience an adrenaline-fuelled adventure in search of a powerful artefact in an approximately 30,000 m2 LIVE action course in London. On behalf of Little Lion Entertainment, Darkside Audio Visual was responsible for the planning and installation of the lighting, audio and video technology, and for this, the London-based integrator relied on a total of 166 spotlights from Cameo.

How to motivate different kinds of workers

www.fastcompany.com: Senior leaders must implement new strategies to deal with a rapidly changing world, but their workforce don’t always buy in. You can talk all you like at Davos about diversity, or at COP27 about sustainability, or at shareholder meetings about innovation, but it’s just talk if you can’t bring your colleagues on board with you.

Dramatizing the Story of a Gay Mid-Century Tattoo Artist Who Was So Much More

The New York Times: You might not expect a show about a man who wrote for the Illinois Dental Journal to come with a warning about “nudity, graphic images and adult themes.” But Samuel Steward, the subject of John Kelly’s “Underneath the Skin,” which begins previews at La MaMa on Thursday, may well be one of the wildest figures to ever prowl the outer reaches of American literature.

The David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center Has Finally Finished Its $550 Million Renovations

Playbill: Sitting onstage, there was a warmth and a resonance that didn’t exist before,” says New York Philharmonic cellist Nathan Vickery following the exploratory “tuning” week this past August. That’s when Music Director Jaap van Zweden, acousticians, and the players themselves gathered in the new Wu Tsai Theater to fine-tune the space in anticipation of the opening of the new David Geffen Hall in October. Coming two years ahead of schedule, it was one of the few silver linings around the clouds of the global pandemic.

Buttcracker burlesque cracks traditional ballet wide open

Chicago Reader: “I was hanging out with some burlesque dancers,” they recall. “I had been working at a burlesque theater for a little bit as a sort of company manager. We were just riffing on some funny names for shows, and I just started talking about The Buttcracker and how funny that would be. We all laughed about it, but I kind of thought, ‘Actually, that could be super fun.’”

Broadway's Michael Berresse directs Pittsburgh Public's 'A Christmas Story'

onstagepittsburgh.com: Michael Berresse, the director, choreographer and Tony-nominated performer, will have a Christmas story of his own to tell now that he finds himself in Pittsburgh, a stone’s throw from where it all began.

‘We bring something fresh’: the theatre companies exploding myths about disability

Stage | The Guardian: In late 2015, the performer Emma Selwyn was working in a call centre. It was, she says, a “steady job”, if not a particularly fulfilling one. In fact, she had thoughts of quitting, tempted by the prospect of a diploma for learning disabled and autistic artists. In the end, the decision was taken out of her hands: she was let go while still on her probation, so signed up for the diploma.

New Computing Approach May Save At-Risk Carnival Costume Making Tradition

College of Computing: Some costumes are so large and expansive, it makes the person wearing them appear as if they are carrying an unbelievably heavy load on their shoulders. Built on techniques in the traditional craft of wire-bending, these costumes and dancing sculptures are dynamic and performative and decorated with painted textiles, feathers, and beads.

Does Broadway Need Another ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Musical? Pat Benatar Says Yes.

The New York Times: Romeo, devastated and bereft, gazed over Juliet’s lifeless body, lying atop a table in a rehearsal studio at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts here. But rather than offer a farewell soliloquy before taking his own life, in this adaptation of the Shakespeare play, Romeo broke into song, the lyrics familiar to any rock music fan who grew up in 1980s.