CMU School of Drama


Monday, February 28, 2022

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s 2022-23 Season Announced

onStage Pittsburgh: As PBT enters into the second season fully curated by Artistic Director Susan Jaffe, they are thrilled to share the exciting lineup of shows for the 22 – 23 season! Jaffe carefully selected each show to bring fresh, bold and challenging works to PBT, with a mixture of classical, provocative and innovative performances — from the works of internationally acclaimed choreographers and modern masters to the spine-chilling Dracula, wonderfully romantic The Sleeping Beauty and more.

What The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Gets Right About Broadway in Season 4

New York Theater: Broadway figures in the fourth season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” as it did in the third season in 2019, when I wrote about all the things that this TV series on Amazon Prime got wrong about Broadway. This time around, I’m going to focus on what it got right. And that’s really only one thing, but it’s big.

‘Pam & Tommy’ and the Art of Showing Tattoos in TV and Movies

The Hollywood Reporter: In preparation to star as Mötley Crüe rocker Tommy Lee in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, Sebastian Stan needed tattoos — lots of them. Thirty-five, to be exact. To pull it off, he went to special effects house Autonomous FX before shooting and had his body scanned and measured; he was then covered in plastic wrap as tattoo designers sketched onto his arms, back and torso. The artists then cut out the images, fully designed them in Photoshop, printed them onto decal paper and, after two hours in the makeup trailer, Stan, tattoo-less in real life, was transformed into a sleeved rocker.

Her senior recital was on historically censored songs. Then her school censored her

NPR: Caitlyn Fox put on a show - just not the one she proposed. Caitlyn Fox, a senior in the honors program at Friends University in Wichita, Kan. - a Christian university of Quaker heritage, as its website explains - mounted a senior recital called "The Shows They Don't Want Us To Produce: A Study Of Censorship Through The History Of Musical Theatre" - for mature audiences, her playbill advised.

NAB Show 2022: Shotoku to highlight robotic camera systems

NewscastStudio: Shotoku has revealed plans to highlight features that boost functionality in production environments controlled either remotely or on-site. The company will demonstrate its flagship SmartPed fully robotic XY pedestal with Orbit and LiveView features integrated into the TR-XT control panel, and its Orchestra CMS control system enhanced to enable quick and easy set-up in legislative or house of worship settings.

Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Receives NAACP Vanguard Award

www.blackenterprise.com: Carter earned her first film credit as a Spike Lee’s School Daze costume designer. She continued to have her foot on the film industry’s neck by booking a plethora of jobs that afforded her a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2021, according to Variety.

'Cyrano': How the film's costumes helped reinvent a classic tale

CNN Style: How do you give a visual makeover to a classic tale that's centered around appearances? That was the question facing award-winning costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini when he began work on the latest screen adaptation of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play "Cyrano de Bergerac," and he had 26 days to figure it out.

Back to the Future and Frozen dominate WhatsOnStage awards

Theatre | The Guardian: The West End musical Frozen, the story of an ice queen and her fearless sister that captivated a generation, has dominated the only major theatre awards decided by public vote. But the lavish production lost out in the category of best new musical to Back to the Future: The Musical, an adaptation of the hit 1985 film about a young man forced to set up his parents after being accidentally sent 30 years back in time.

Halina Rice combines 3D soundscapes and mixed reality with L-ISA

TPi: Rice and collaborator Jan Petyrek, a visual artist and interactive designer, first experienced L-Acoustics immersive sound capabilities when they performed at Abbey Road Studios’ 36-hour Hackathon 2019. “We said, ‘This is exciting, let’s start building upon that,’” she said but the COVID-19 pandemic put any further exploration of immersive audio on hold. Then, in December 2021, Rice organised her own show at London’s Copeland Gallery, programming her tracks with L-ISA Studio and performing through a 360° surround array of L-Acoustics X8 coaxial speakers in combination with mixed reality, 3D, generative and audio-reactive visuals and lighting.

How a lavish 1930s theater was reborn as an acoustical paradise

www.fastcompany.com: The perfect acoustics aren’t always visible to the naked eye. Once a lavish cinema owned by Warner Brothers studio, the Warner Grand Theater in Milwaukee has been transformed into an acoustic paradise for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The four-year-long renovation involved moving a 625-ton, 85-foot-tall wall into the street to make room for a larger stage, and introducing a slew of hidden acoustical features to make the space sound as good as it looks.

25 Carrick Ave brings good vibes, careers to a diversifying neighborhood

www.publicsource.org: XLR cables like the one looped around Marita Adams’ hand are the unsung heroes of concerts and conferences, carrying energy from microphones to sound boards to speakers. So on a January evening, in a third-floor room in a former church in Carrick, Adams tried again to properly roll up one of the cables. “I know I did this last time,” she said.

Proteus elates Super Bowl LVI Pepsi Halftime Show veteran

TPi: Super Bowl halftime veteran Al Gurdon of Incandescent Design was backlighting the show and, as befits a show of this caliber, had a large lighting package at his disposal. This was the Emmy-winning designer’s sixth time lighting the event and with ambient lighting conditions to contend with chose a powerful package that included Proteus Maximus, new Proteus Excalibur and Protron 3K Color luminaires.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

‘The Crown’ Production Has Over $200,000 Worth of Antique Props Stolen

IndieWire: Keep calm and carry on filming. Netflix confirmed that Season 5 of “The Crown” suffered a large theft to the tune of £150,000, or $201,000, after three production trucks were broken into February 18.

The pandemic nearly killed theatre – the creative way it fought back could leave it stronger

theconversation.com: When the UK went into lockdown in 2020, its multibillion-pound theatre industry could have ceased to exist. However, the vacuum caused by this physical shutdown served in many cases as a spurring force for increased creativity and resourcefulness. Productions did not stop completely, but instead went online, showcasing the potential of modern technology to bring theatre to wider audiences despite a lack of traditional performance spaces or funding.

Meet The Professionals Keeping Sex Safe On The Set

Pittsburgh Magazine: Hollywood has fallen hard for Pittsburgh’s many charms, so close encounters with Oscar winners like Viola Davis, Tom Hanks or Christian Bale are a possibility on any given day. And with each new project comes a growing list of job opportunities, including several involving safety and boundaries — and one that might make you blush.

Choreographer Mark Morris on what it means to be an artist today: ’Everything’s terrible right now’

The Washington Post: Theaters are open, tickets are selling, dancers and singers and actors and musicians are back at work … the pandemic’s clampdown on the performing arts is behind us, right? Right?

Unraveling the World of Costume Design With Artist Michelle J. Li

Asia Society: Costume designer and production designer Michelle J. Li got her big break with Emma Seligman’s 2021 breakout comedy feature Shiva Baby. She hasn’t looked back since. At a time when a lot of Hollywood productions slowed on account of the pandemic, Li has had the busiest years of her career, working on star-studded projects like the 2022 Sundance Film Festival short film Chaperone featuring Zachary Quinto, and the upcoming feature project Meet Cute starring Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson, and more.

 

Friday, February 25, 2022

Technicolor Visual Effects Unit To Become Separate Company in Reorg

www.forbes.com: Entertainment services and hardware giant Technicolor announced a major reorganization, with plans to spin off its Creative Studios division as a separate company, issue convertible debt to reduce leverage, will change its top management, and sell its trademark-licensing unit.

‘The Crown’ Production Has Over $200,000 Worth of Antique Props Stolen

IndieWire: Keep calm and carry on filming. Netflix confirmed that Season 5 of “The Crown” suffered a large theft to the tune of £150,000, or $201,000, after three production trucks were broken into February 18.

MIX-Apalooza: A Simple Lighting Setup Creates Vibrant Colors For…

Rosco Spectrum: When Apalooza Video produced a two-part dance video series entitled Saltatio, they knew they wanted bright, bold colors for their dance videos. Director Charly Correia, and Lighting Designer Paolo Morvan used two Rosco SL1 MIX® lights to configure several different lighting setups inside Lablab Studio. The fixtures empowered them to create the perfect fusion of light, color, and dance to engage their audience.

How ‘Nightmare Alley’ Costume Designer Luis Sequeira Figured Out Rooney Mara Was Pregnant

www.thewrap.com: It’s the job of movie costume designers to quite literally know every inch of an actor or actress’s body. And that impeccable tailoring creates a close bond on a film set, whether the performer knows it or not.

Broadway's 'Paradise Square' is a 'nightmare' behind the scenes

nypost.com: There’s trouble in “Paradise.” The cast of the new Broadway musical “Paradise Square” was instructed by their union, Actors Equity, not to show up to rehearsal on Monday, multiple sources told The Post. And it wasn’t so producer Garth Drabinsky could give his 40-strong ensemble some Presidents’ Day relaxation.

A team of artists had dreams of a new musical. A pandemic crushed them.

The Washington Post: Theaters are accustomed to weathering the storms of critical and audience response, especially when they are unveiling new work. But the coronavirus pandemic introduced an entirely novel variable to the arduous and sometimes heartbreaking process of creation. Among the many dozens of productions that had to be canceled when the pandemic forced a shutdown of live theater in March 2020 are some that have not made it back to the stage.

Ukrainian Film Producer Who Fled Kyiv Fears She’ll Never Return Home: ‘Nobody Knows What’s Next’

www.thewrap.com: Darya Bassel, a Ukrainian film producer and a programmer with the country’s largest documentary film festival, fears she may have left her home in Kyiv for the last time after fleeing the city earlier on Thursday, hours after Russia invaded the country.

National Deaf High School Theatre Fest Bows in Utah

AMERICAN THEATRE: Back in the summer of 2020, the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) Sunshine 2.0 partnered for the first National Deaf High School Theatre Festival, an educational theatrical competition for young Deaf actors, that was entirely virtual due to COVID safety protocols.

Freedom and Theatre: An International Meditation

HowlRound Theatre Commons: In the fall of 2020, bubbled in the Poconos in northeastern Pennsylvania, nineteen theatremakers from the Wilma Theater, including director, stage manager, actors, designers, a skeleton crew, and myself (serving as the project’s producer/company manager), came together to make a filmed version of Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery.

What’s Gender Got to Do With Acting Awards?

AMERICAN THEATRE?: Awards ceremonies are thorny, polarizing beasts. The very idea of giving out awards for art can seem like a direct contradiction of what art is meant to be. What is the value in singling out artists and their work? And why is it that performers are almost always singled out along the gender binary?

See The Northern Lights In NYC At This Mesmerizing New Light Show On 'Edge'

Secret NYC: A new experience on Edge — the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, open in Hudson Yards — will mimic the coveted natural phenomenon with a new interactive light spectacle called “SKYLIGHT.”

Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show performers rely on Sennheiser Digital 6000 Wireless

TPi: While the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals faced off in Super Bowl LVI at Los Angeles’ new $5.5bn SoFi Stadium on February 13, a significant draw for fans in the stadium and millions of viewers around the world was the historic halftime performance, which featured the biggest names in rap and hip-hop. Five out of six acts – including 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre and Eminem – delivered performances using Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 wireless system, which performed flawlessly.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Review Roundup: Critics Sound Off On Geffen Playhouse's POWER OF SAIL

www.broadwayworld.com: Distinguished Harvard professor Charles Nichols (Emmy & Tony Award winner Bryan Cranston) finds himself in hot water after inviting an incendiary white nationalist to speak at his annual symposium. His colleagues are concerned, his students are in revolt, but Charles is undeterred in his plot to expose and academically thrash his invited guest. This profoundly relevant new play by Paul Grellong (The Boys, Manuscript) examines the insidiousness of hate disguised as free speech and the question of who ultimately pays the price.

Worship in Winter Haven has Changed with Adamson

LightSoundJournal.com: Winter Haven Worship Center in Winter Haven, Florida, has installed a new Adamson PA system in their 1000-seat facility. The new system features a main stereo hang of nine IS10b sub-compact line array cabinets on each side, along with a total of four IS10pb full-range point source cabinets for outside and centre fill. Eight PC5i ultra-compact coaxial loudspeakers were incorporated for front row nearfield coverage. Finally, for low frequency reinforcement, they installed an under-stage sub arc, consisting of eight IS119b.

The Second Annual National Deaf High School Theatre Festival Has Been Announced

Playbill: Deaf West Theatre will partner with the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) Sunshine 2.0 for the 2022 National Deaf High School Theatre Festival (NDHSTF), an educational theatrical competition for young Deaf actors across the United States.

Behind the scenes at CUE 2022

et cetera...: With just over 2100 people registered in 80 countries around the world, Virtual CUE 2022 was definitely our largest event to date! As you might expect with an event that spans most of the time zones, and many of our ETC corporate offices, it took a small army to pull it all together.

After controversy, change, Suzi Bass Awards to honor Atlanta theater again

ARTS ATL: Two years after a controversy-stirring choice to not announce nominees for the 2019-2020 theater season, the Suzi Bass Awards are back to their practice of adjudicating productions, albeit with new eligibility requirements. The decision by Suzi Awards leaders to step back and make internal adjustments, spurred in large part by a push for equity, created tension within the organization and caused several judges to resign.

Björk is back with d&b Soundscape

LightSoundJournal.com: After a run of large scale residencies in the US, Mexico and Europe in 2019, Björk is back, bringing her critically-acclaimed Cornucopia tour to the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium and San Francisco’s Chase Center. As with the previous tour dates, d&b partner Southby Productions deployed a Soundscape system powered by the d&b En-Scene object-based mixing and En-Space room emulation software.

Machining Fundamentals: Introduction to NC-Code

Fusion 360 Blog: We created the Machining Fundamentals series to help you brush up on your CAM knowledge, whether you work in a machine shop or are just getting started. In-house machinists at our Birmingham Technology Center host each episode and provide a detailed overview of a tool/process. In the last edition, we covered tool length offset. Here we cover how to make your CNC machine move using NC-code.

THE LION KING Welcomes TDF's Introduction To Theatre Program and Autism Friendly Performance in March

www.broadwayworld.com: Two upcoming events have been announced for The Lion King-the first time TDF has partnered with the landmark Broadway musical since the production's emotional reopening last fall. On Wednesday, March 2 at 2 p.m., 1,500 New York City public school students along with their teachers and teaching artists will attend a matinee performance of The Lion King. This is not only the first Broadway full house for TDF's Introduction to Theatre program in almost two years, but also the first time a Broadway show has been filled with students from one program serving NYC public school students since performances resumed in 2021.

Julie’s Bicycle announces further investment in The Creative Green Tools from Arts Council England and the expansion of its digital team

Event Industry News: Launched 12 years ago, Julie’s Bicycle’s Creative Climate Tools (formally known as Creative Green Tools) are globally recognised as the leading online environmental reporting tools designed specifically for the Arts and Culture sector. This unique set of tools is helping to drive international creative climate action.

Can A.I.-Generated Art Receive Copyright Protection? U.S. Authorities Say No, Citing a Lack of 'Human Authorship'

news.artnet.com: The U.S. Copyright Office has once again rejected a request for copyright protection on a work created by artificial intelligence, affirming an earlier decision that found the work “lacks the human authorship necessary to support a copyright claim.”

Long Wharf’s New Home: New Haven

AMERICAN THEATRE: In 2017-18, Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre programmed a whole season around their city while their venue was under renovation; this fall Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will stage shows in various venues while a new permanent theatre is being constructed. But today the board of directors at Long Wharf Theatre, one of New England’s major LORT theatres, took a step outside of the box for good: They will forfeit the lease on their current space, which they’ve occupied since 1965, and embrace an itinerant production model in line with the organization’s “focus on a commitment to artists, collaborators, and the communities they serve,” according to a press release. It went on to say the new vision is “guided by three core pillars: revolutionary partnerships, artistic innovation, and radical inclusion.”

Life imitates art with a daring real-life rescue on the set of Chicago Med

Reel Chicago - At the intersection of Chicago Advertising, Entertainment, Media and Production: If you are lucky enough to know a fireman or first responder, then no doubt you have witnessed a rare breed, and the abundance of compassion that calls them to duty. The call to save lives does not end when they clock out and leave the station, or even after they’ve retired from active duty.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The best character on "The Gilded Age" is the bustle, adding an extra party to the back

Salon.com: When I was very young, I started having terrible and specific nightmares. Eventually, my parents figured out that my babysitter was letting me watch soap operas with her, and that was the source of my dreams of drownings, shootings, marriages and twins. I've never much been interested in soap operas since.

Michael B Jordan's 'Creed 3' Hires Georgia Film Academy Interns

Variety: MGM’s “Creed III” has partnered with the Georgia Film Academy (GFA) to hire eight student interns to work on the boxing drama, which marks star Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut.

$10 Million Gift Will Establish The Joseph Ballay Center for Design Fusion

www.cmu.edu: Carnegie Mellon University today announced that alumnus and emeritus faculty member Joseph Ballay and his wife, Sue, have established The Joseph Ballay Center for Design Fusion in the university's School of Design through a $10 million gift, the single largest ever presented to the College of Fine Arts. The center establishes a formal presence of design expertise and outreach at CMU and also will serve as a central hub for design courses for the CMU campus community, executive education, sponsored projects and collaborations, and design research.

Cirque Confirms New Show at New York-New York, "Mad Apple"

www.casino.org: Cirque du Soleil confirmed it has a new show opening at New York-New York this spring. The company will share details about the new show at a new conference on Feb. 22, 2022, including the show’s name, which we first shared six months ago. It’s “Mad Apple.”

Shure Delivers The Sounds of Super Bowl LVI Weekend to Millions Worldwide

LightSoundJournal.com: While the outcome of Super Bowl LVI remained uncertain until the final minutes, the performance of Shure’s wireless audio technology could not be questioned on or off the field.

Theater Notebook: Despite state's lifting of indoor mask mandate, local theaters still embrace face coverings

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Although California lifted its indoor mask mandate for most locations on Feb. 16, many San Diego County theaters plan to keep their mask rules firmly in place for the time being.

Cirque Walking an Ethical Tightrope in Saudi Arabia

www.cirquefascination.com: Send in the clowns. Don’t bother. They’re here. Cirque du Soleil is defending its decision to deepen its business ties with Saudi Arabia despite concern about that country’s human-rights record and the fate of imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi – whose family lives in Quebec. The Montreal-based entertainment company recently signed an agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Culture to bring more of its shows to the kingdom, including The Illusionist, Now You See Me, Paw Patrol Live – Race to Rescue, Trolls Live! and Blue Man Group World Tour.

Disneyland Announces Return Dates for Nighttime Shows

www.themeparkinsider.com: Disney had announced earlier that its Disneyland Forever fireworks, Main Street Electrical Parade, Fantasmic, and World of Color shows would return to the resort this year, following their pandemic closures. But we did not have specific dates until now.

US Copyright Office Gets It Right (Again): AI-Generated Works Do Not Get A Copyright Monopoly

Techdirt: For years, throughout the entire monkey selfie lawsuit saga, we kept noting that the real reason a prestigious law firm like Irell & Manella filed such a patently bogus lawsuit was to position itself to be the go-to law firm to argue for AI-generated works deserving copyright. However, we've always argued that AI-generated works are (somewhat obviously) in the public domain, and get no copyright.

A Smorgasbord of Shakespeare, With Some New Trimmings

The New York Times: No matter how many Lady Macbeths I see go mad, no matter how many Hamlets I watch have existential crises, I am always game for new productions of Shakespeare. Go ahead: Call me old-fashioned. It’s a good thing, then, that I’m a critic in a city that, in any given season, has a smorgasbord of works by that old Elizabethan scribbler.