Muppet Makers Turn to Creating Whooping Cranes

The New York Times: In the world of fleece, foam and feathers in Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Queens, they make more than the “Sesame Street” Muppets. Sometimes they make birds other than that big yellow one, like a whooping crane that Heather Henson was standing next to.

DiGiCo Quantum Consoles Cover The 65th Grammy Awards

ProSoundWeb: A veteran team of mixers employed numerous DiGiCo Quantum consoles supplied by ATK Audiotek/Clair Global in their work on the recent 65th Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Center in downtown Los Angeles that this year offered more complex productions, most notably 35 rappers and four DJs who turned the stage into a 15-minute-long history of rap.

Sitting Down with Emerging Artist Thalia Ranjbar

The Theatre Times: The work of Thalia Ranjbar may be challenging– pushing beyond norms and expectations, but at its core it is kind. Her gentle, but relentless commitment to community can be felt both in the content of her work as a playwright, lyricist and librettist, as well as her process as a director and choreographer drawn to developing new work. With a thoughtful curiosity she uses theater to explore the critical questions of our moment: What do we need in order to learn how to live together? When do we celebrate our traditions, and when must we forge our own new paths? How do we approach rupture in our relationships (be they familial, communal, or societal) and find compassionate ways forward?

Hello Tomorrow!'s Production Designer Interview: Retro-Future

gizmodo.com: Step into the future by way of the past on Apple TV+’s new series Hello Tomorrow!, which stars Billy Crudup as a chipper salesman for Brightside, a company hawking condos on the moon. The show’s take on a sci-fi retro-future version of the 1950s is one of its most striking elements, so io9 was excited to speak with the show’s production designer, Maya Sigel.

Review: Cirque du Soleil's Drawn to Life at Walt Disney World

www.themeparkinsider.com: Typically, people don't come to Cirque du Soleil productions for the storytelling. Cirque provides an amazing visual experience, capturing your imagination with its unbelievable physical displays. Acrobats, aerials, tumblers, and other stunt artists command your attention then reward it with performances that have made Cirque synonymous with people whose bodies know no limits from tension nor gravity.

Christina Anderson Wades Into the History of Swimming Pool Segregation

AMERICAN THEATRE: Playwright Christina Anderson has a penchant for historical fiction. In the Tony-nominated musical Paradise Square, the book of which she co-wrote with Larry Kirwan and Craig Lucas, African Americans and Irish immigrants in New York find their favorite watering hole, not to mention the entire nation, disrupted by the Civil War. In How to Catch Creation, four feminist artists in San Francisco see their lives intersecting with that of a queer artist from the 1960s. And pen/man/ship follows a group of African Americans on a voyage to Africa in 1896 as Jim Crow took hold in the South.

Consumer Groups Launch Campaign for Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights

www.ticketnews.com: A coalition of consumer advocacy groups have launched a campaign for what they are calling a “Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights” – legislation that would support consumer rights and transparency for event ticketing. The groups – the Consumer Federation of America, Fan Freedom, National Consumers League, Protect Ticket Rights, and Sports Fans Coalition, offered the so-called bill of rights as a framework for ticketing legislation that can improve the live events ticketing market that serves millions of fans each year.

Sound System Setup: Why Subwoofer Crossover Alignment is Critical

www.sounddesignlive.com: I worked on a reggae festival 12 years ago where I fell asleep at the console and destroyed some subwoofers. I fell asleep because I just wasn’t prepared for such a long day and didn’t have anyone to take over for me. I’m still not completely clear on how the subs were destroyed, but I think it was a combination of improper limiter settings and over driving them on accident because I was mixing from a power valley and some issues with the crossover alignment.

Olivier Awards 2023 nominations: The complete list in full

The Independent: The nominations for this year’s Olivier Awards have been announced. Leading the way with the most nominations is My Neighbour Totoro, which nabbed nine nods, followed closely by Standing At The Sky’s Edge. The production scored eight nominations, making it the most nominated musical.

Review Roundup: Broadway-Aimed THE SECRET GARDEN Opens In Los Angeles

www.broadwayworld.com: The Secret Garden follows the young, orphaned Mary Lennox as she's sent from her home in India to live with her reclusive uncle on his haunted English country estate. Guided by an exceptionally beautiful score, audiences will be swept away with Mary's unapologetic curiosity as she is joined with the help of unlikely companions transporting her on a thrilling quest to untangle the pieces of her family's past and - most importantly - discover herself.

Seattle’s Deaf Spotlight presents performance showcase and short play festival

The Seattle Times: A nonprofit organization in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood is re-imagining art, highlighting American Sign Language culture and language through the arts. Deaf Spotlight provides opportunities for artists who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing to create new art. The organization produces a variety of theater productions, film festivals, curated visual art exhibitions and workshops.

Proving a villain: Problematic Shakespearean mentors

Folger Shakespeare Library: Elvis and Tár — two films nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Picture —feature problematic protagonists who control their respective narratives. They evoke inevitable thoughts of Shakespeare’s Richard III (and several self-serving others), and also play with a Shakespearean level of performance where, in addition to taking place in musical worlds, characters put on costumes, airs, and postures to signify who they are.

Indiana School Cancels Play After Protests Due to LGBTQ+ Themes

www.broadwayworld.com: A petition has been created in response to an Indiana high school cancelling a production of Adam Szymkowicz's Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood. According to the petition, the production was cancelled due to "safety concerns for the students involved" after parents learned that there are LGBTQ+ themes in the play.

Actors’ Equity publishes 2021 report on hiring bias and wage gaps among union members

Broadway News: The report tracks the number of new Equity contracts and average salaries of those contracts for productions that opened between Jan. 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2021 in the United States. Data is organized and assessed across six identity categories — race/ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability and veteran status — to examine hiring biases and pay differences through the lens of these identity markers.

Evolution of Show Control

John Huntington: You could probably trace the development of electronic[1] show control back to Disney’s Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln animatronic show at the 1964 World's Fair; a version of this attraction also opened at Disneyland 1965.[2] That show marked one of the first instances where show producers started integrating then new automation technologies (many analog) into their attractions to enable story telling on a large scale.

PARADE Protesters Bring Growing Antisemitism to the Streets

www.broadwayworld.com: In some ways, it was a surprise that antisemites took to the streets last week to demonstrate outside of PARADE. We don't see that sort of thing outside a Broadway show. We don't typically see it at all in New York City. But, if you were paying attention--and, as a member of an Anti-Defamation League NextGeneration Advisory Board, I have been--you would know that antisemitic sentiment is increasingly spilling onto the streets.

After Winnie the Pooh, these other characters will soon enter the public domain

www.fastcompany.com: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, the low-budget horror film that opened in America on Friday, has grossed more than $2.5 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo. Admittedly, $2.5 million would be a disastrous figure for most films, but the haul makes Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey a financial hit. This is because the movie reportedly cost less than $100,000 to make, which means it’s already grossed 25 times its production budget

Celebrating Sondheim and new works in Seattle theater

The Seattle Times: My first introduction to the work of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim was performing in a middle-school production of “Into the Woods.” Well, more specifically, “Into the Woods Jr.” I absolutely didn’t appreciate Sondheim’s work back then.

I'm sick of Broadway audience members acting like jackasses

nypost.com: As audiences have returned to Broadway, they have simultaneously morphed into cavemen — drinking to belligerent excess, causing loud ruckuses and, in some previously unimaginable instances, they’re even becoming violent with helpless ushers.

HH Electronics Scores at Kampong Speu Stadium

LightSoundJournal.com: Kampong Speu Provincial Stadium is located in Chbar Mon, central Cambodia. Completed last year at a cost of $4 million, the facility aims to raise the profile of Kampong Speu Province and contribute to the government’s development of the Kingdom’s sporting culture as it prepares to host the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.

What to Expect at... Young People's Theatre

Insider Intel - Intermission: Young People’s Theatre (YPT) is Canada’s largest and oldest professional theatre for young people. The company produces and presents a full season of theatre and arts education programming, serving approximately 150,000 patrons annually. Since 1966, YPT has staged many of the most important plays that form the canon of work for youth in our country.

Winners of the 66th Obie Awards for Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway to be celebrated on February 27, in person and on YouTube

DC Theater Arts: For more than sixty years, the Obie Awards, developed by the Village Voice in 1955, have honored the boundary-pushing achievements of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway theater, with informal awards categories that recognize the people, productions, and companies worthy of distinction.

Antisemitic tropes are back on stage again

Dave Rich | The Guardian: Of all the stereotypes about Jews in the lexicon of antisemitism, none is as commonplace or enduring as the one about Jews and money. From Shylock and Fagin to Joe Rogan’s podcast and TikTok videos about the Rothschilds, the idea that Jews have a unique taste for acquiring wealth is the one thing that people think they “know” about them. Yet this historic anti-Jewish trope seems able to hide in plain sight, in the most surprising of places.

A Coral Necklace Should be Pretty Quick to Make. . . Right??

The Sewing Goatherd: Coral necklaces were fashionable in the late18th and early 19th century, so one would be something I could wear with multiple history ensembles, not just the Felicity outfits I’m slowly (very slowly) making.

‘Nobody can go back – we all face jail’: the dissident theatre company opening Adelaide festival

Theatre | The Guardian: Long before the pandemic, working over video calls was completely normal for husband-and-wife team Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin. The founders of Belarus Free Theatre, who arrive in Australia soon to put on the production Dogs of Europe at Adelaide festival, have worked under extreme conditions since the company’s birth in 2005.

Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless system shines bright during Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII halftime performance

LightSoundJournal.com: Rihanna delivered the second-most watched halftime show in Super Bowl history on Sunday, exceeding the average viewership of the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs football match by 5 million, according to data from Fox. The highly anticipated performance was driven by Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 wireless microphone system and a custom chrome SKM 6000 transmitter with an MD 9235 dynamic cardioid microphone capsule.

Senators Blast Live Nation's "Trust Us" Responses, Call for DOJ Inquiry

www.ticketnews.com: Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) issued a blistering response to Live Nation’s evasion of key questions posed during last month’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in a letter published Thursday, asking the Department of Justice to continue its ongoing investigation of Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s alleged anticompetitive conduct. The senators organized the bipartisan hearing held in January, which featured numerous witnesses outlining extensive allegations of monopolistic behavior by Live Nation Entertainment and its ticketing subsidiary, while executive Joe Berchtold attempted to deflect all blame for consumer issues in the space to ticket resale operators.

Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 powers 50-date Pitbull party visuals

LightSoundJournal.com: American rapper Pitbull’s Can’t Stop Us Now tour has been zigzagging its way around the US with a backdrop of energetic visuals displayed on three vertical LED screens driven by Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers.

London MSG Sphere Project Temporarily Put On Hold

www.ticketnews.com: The development of the MSG Sphere London, an entertainment venue to be built in the Stratford area of London, has been paused by Michael Gove, UK housing secretary and Member of Parliament (MP). It is reported that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has decided to issue an Article 31 holding directive over a request it received to call in the planning action.

Tracy-Ann Oberman: ‘Shakespeare could not avoid the attitude of hatred towards Jews at the time he was writing’

The Independent: I arrive at the stage door early and ask for Tracy-Ann Oberman. “She won’t be here yet,” says the woman behind the desk. “She’s always one of the last in.” Sure enough, it is exactly the designated hour when Oberman arrives in big glasses – “they’re new and rather comforting” – and a flurry of warmth, words and energy. Once inside her tiny dressing room, she begins to speak with the urgency of a woman who never has quite enough time on her hands for all she wants to achieve.

'Yellowjackets' Heads to SXSW With Pop-Up 'Camp Yellowjackets' Event

Variety: As Showtime prepares to launch Season 2 of its hit thriller “Yellowjackets,” the network is bringing the show to Austin’s South by Southwest festival next month via a three-day interactive popup.

Artisans Work Behind the Scenes to Make Magic for Oscar Hopefuls

Variety: As the lead prosthetic designer on 2022’s “Bones and All,” Jason Hamer’s twisted artistry can be spotted in many of the film’s most bloodcurdling, pivotal moments. Hamer’s influence on the feature dates as far back as pre-production, when he collaborated with director Luca Guadagnino to research the logistics of eating another human being.

Projection mapping deployed in Japanese makeup simulator

www.avinteractive.com: A Color Machine projects eye shadow and lipstick on to the face of the user, who sits in front of the machine’s camera and selects from different options. The images are projected in line with the position of the eyes and mouth, and remain in place even if the user moves their face.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Music Is Making Your Hardest Video Games Even Harder

lifehacker.com: Every part of a video game is designed to evoke specific responses from players. The user interface, the level design, and—most importantly—the soundtrack all impact your emotional state while playing. While that can be great for immersion, high-intensity music elevates the player’s sense of tension, making difficult sections of a game even harder.

Posted by David at 2/21/2023 10:20:00 AM

TeamLab goes to the opera

The Japan Times: A new production of Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, the stormy and bloody “Turandot,” comes to Tokyo after its 2022 premiere in Geneva. The production, performed by Tokyo Nikikai Opera, runs Feb. 23 to 26 at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, with musical direction by Diego Matheuz, stage direction by Daniel Kramer and stage design and scenography by teamLab.

Posted by David at 2/24/2023 11:47:00 AM

Jews in theater gather after neo-Nazis disrupt 'Parade' performance

The Forward: Ari Axelrod was out for margaritas with a friend when he first saw the videos — neo-Nazis accosting theatergoers and handing out antisemitic leaflets in front of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater. The much-anticipated Broadway revival of Parade, a musical about the 1913 trial of wrongfully convicted Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, was about to play its first preview.

Posted by David at 2/24/2023 11:39:00 AM

The magic feeling of feeling safe in the theater

OnStage Blog: Three performers—one an up-and-coming ingenue, one a world-famous musician, and one… well, me—share center stage as we take our first bow of Cinderella at Diamond Head Theatre. As I squeeze their hands and hear the cacophony of applause and cheehoos from the sold-out opening night audience, I realize that the three of us are glowing.

Posted by David at 2/21/2023 10:36:00 AM

Artists Pull Play From Cleveland Play House Over Mishandled Assault

AMERICAN THEATRE: Weeks after Cleveland Play House (CPH) announced it was canceling the February world premiere of I’m Back Now: Returning to Cleveland, playwright Charly Evon Simpson issued a statement on Feb. 8 saying that she in fact had pulled the rights to her play, in tandem with director Stori Ayers, who resigned in protest over the way the theatre handled a case of sexual assault. In a statement on Twitter, Simpson wrote, “I said NO to having my play done at Cleveland Play House…I said NO to my play being the site of and excuse for further harm. I said YES to prioritizing the health, well-being, and safety of the I’m Back Now company.”

Posted by David at 2/24/2023 10:46:00 AM

 

COVID-19 rules on Canadian TV and film sets cause tension

The Globe and Mail: Early in the pandemic, the film and television industry emerged as a leader in COVID-19 safety while other sectors struggled to recover. Its success was in part owing to the co-operative nature of filmmaking. Wardrobe, set decoration, lighting, camera and talent – the departments that collaborate to bring a production to life – applied that same approach to health and safety. It also helped that productions spared no expense in finding solutions, from creating entirely new positions for COVID-19 compliance officers to footing the bill for weekly tests.

Why Is Canadian Theatre So Russian Right Now?

www.intermissionmagazine.ca: By the end of this season, Chekhov will have had at least four productions in Toronto. In the fall, Michel Tremblay paid tribute to the writer in Cher Tchekov at the National Arts Centre. I saw Bulgakov’s Le roman de monsieur de Molière staged at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde in November (an adaptation which, in quite the flight of fancy, depicted the writer of Master and Margarita as pro-Ukrainian). Buddies in Bad Times put a call out for submissions this February inviting artists to playfully “filter Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s unique style and perspectives through a 21st century queer lens.”

Casts announced for City Theatre's Native Gardens, Pittsburgh Public's 'Steel Magnolias'

onstagepittsburgh.com: If you follow Pittsburgh theaters on social media, you know that casting news has been coming at a fast-and-furious pace, with City Theatre and Pittsburgh Public Theater each announcing the cast of their upcoming shows this week.

Amber Ruffin to host Artios Awards honoring casting professionals in theater, film and TV

Broadway News: Amber Ruffin, co-book writer of Broadway’s “Some Like It Hot,” will host the New York ceremony of the 38th annual Artios Awards. Set for March 9 at the Edison Ballroom, the evening will honor casting professionals in more than 20 categories across film, television, commercials and theater.

TeamLab goes to the opera

The Japan Times: A new production of Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, the stormy and bloody “Turandot,” comes to Tokyo after its 2022 premiere in Geneva. The production, performed by Tokyo Nikikai Opera, runs Feb. 23 to 26 at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, with musical direction by Diego Matheuz, stage direction by Daniel Kramer and stage design and scenography by teamLab.

Pretty in Pink on a Dark Street

Extras | Women in Lighting: The live performance, Pretty in Pink on a Dark Street, is a collaboration between designer Marina Menéndez-Pidal and dance artist Anastasia Bezruchko. The work is just as much about femininity as it is about the role lighting plays at night. Marina received guidance and support from the MA Information Design department at Design Academy Eindhoven in Eindhoven, the Netherlands to complete the work. The live performance has been shown at Dutch Design Week and the Walking-with Amsterdam WARP Conference in 2022.

Interview: Fredi Walker-Browne's Lena Younger Proves Art Imitates Life In Raisin

TheaterMania: Fredi Walker-Browne originated the role of Joanne Jefferson in Rent, and returns to the stage this month as Lena Younger for the 50th anniversary production of the Tony-winning musical Raisin at New Jersey's Axelrod Performing Arts Center. Based on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun - with a score by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan, and book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg - Raisin is directed by Evelyn Collins, and runs February 24-March 12.

Surging Ticket Prices Continue to Fuel Record Live Nation Earnings

www.ticketnews.com: Live Nation Entertainment reported its earnings and financial outlook for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022, and it’s safe to say that things are booming for the California entertainment giant. With ticket surge pricing systems like “dynamic” pricing during periods of high demand and “platinum” pricing charging customers far above any semblance of a face value for tickets, the company saw revenue soar to $16.7 billion over the year, a 44 percent increase over 2019.

12 Best Theater Books in the Past 10 Years

New York Theater: The dozen most enlightening and entertaining non-fiction books about the American theater that have been published since 2013 have been works of history, criticism, biography and memoir.

Jews in theater gather after neo-Nazis disrupt 'Parade' performance

The Forward: Ari Axelrod was out for margaritas with a friend when he first saw the videos — neo-Nazis accosting theatergoers and handing out antisemitic leaflets in front of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater. The much-anticipated Broadway revival of Parade, a musical about the 1913 trial of wrongfully convicted Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, was about to play its first preview.

Live Nation Seeks Legislation Eliminating Consumer Ticket Rights

www.ticketnews.com: Pressure is mounting on Live Nation Entertainment, as lawmakers across the U.S. are considering legislation that might challenge some of its allegedly anticompetitive business practices and give consumers more rights to tickets they’ve purchased. In response, Live Nation is pushing for what it frames as “a Fair Ticketing Act” that would effectively eliminate any consumer ownership rights for tickets to live events.

Broadway Guilds Condemn Antisemitic ‘Parade’ Protesters

AMERICAN THEATRE: The Coalition of Broadway Unions & Guilds (COBUG), representing workers both on and offstage in New York State and beyond, has released a statement condemning the self-described neo-Nazis who harassed theatregoers prior to Tuesday’s preview performance of Parade outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

The Future of Wireless Audio

LightSoundJournal.com: Alignment meetings with regulatory bodies, demonstrations to high-profile wireless users and decision-makers – is there a new type of wireless audio transmission on the horizon? While the rumour mill is leaking some details here and there, four Sennheiser experts reveal what this new technology is about. Dr Andreas Wilzeck (Head of Spectrum Policy and Standards), Martin Brandenburg (Project Manager), as well as Dr Sebastian Georgi and Jan Watermann – the two research and development engineers who are the inventors of what is called Wireless Multi-Channel Audio Systems (WMAS) – dive into the benefits of the technology and explain how it will change the wireless landscape.

Artists Pull Play From Cleveland Play House Over Mishandled Assault

AMERICAN THEATRE: Weeks after Cleveland Play House (CPH) announced it was canceling the February world premiere of I’m Back Now: Returning to Cleveland, playwright Charly Evon Simpson issued a statement on Feb. 8 saying that she in fact had pulled the rights to her play, in tandem with director Stori Ayers, who resigned in protest over the way the theatre handled a case of sexual assault. In a statement on Twitter, Simpson wrote, “I said NO to having my play done at Cleveland Play House…I said NO to my play being the site of and excuse for further harm. I said YES to prioritizing the health, well-being, and safety of the I’m Back Now company.”