Artificial intelligence assistants help programmers ease the coding load

Control Design: Machine builders and system integrators are experimenting with the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), just like many other industries. The popularity and ubiquitous nature of generative AI has piqued the interest of OEM and integrator engineers, as well. Practical applications of AI for engineers programming code have real benefits and are being implemented into daily workflow.

From the Jewish Repertory Theater to the Movies: Screenwriter Susan Sandler on Crossing Delancey

Filmmaker Magazine: When Joan Micklin Silver died on the last day of 2020, cinephiles mourned the passing of a major American filmmaker, a status to which she may have begun to ascend in late 2014, when IFC Center presented a 35mm screening of her third feature Chilly Scenes of Winter with its original title and the director’s preferred ending—the first time in perhaps a decade that the film had resurfaced in New York’s repertory scene.

Annalisa Dias and Madeline Sayet on Ecologies of Time and Change

HowlRound Theatre Commons: On 16 November 2024, the multihyphenate artists Annalisa Dias and Madeline Sayet came together at American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) conference for a conversation on the conference’s themes of ecology, decomposition, and creation. Annalisa Dias is a Goan American transdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and award-winning theatremaker working at the intersection of racial justice and care for the earth.

Oscars Add Best Stunt Design Award to Begin With Films Released in 2027

www.thewrap.com: At the 100th Oscars, the stunt community will finally get its props. The Academy has established the Achievement in Stunt Design category that will be introduced to celebrate films released in 2027. The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made the announcement on Thursday.

Elton John: Tammy Faye Flopped on Broadway As It Was 'Too Political'

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Elton John believes his musical Tammy Faye flopped on Broadway because it was “too political for America.” The legendary singer-songwriter recently shared his thoughts with The Sunday Times on the show’s short-lived run on Broadway. Tammy Faye, which featured John’s music, chronicled the famous televangelist.

Trump Laughs Off China Reducing US Movies: ‘I’ve Heard of Worse Things’

www.thewrap.com: When it comes to China, President Trump is sticking to his tariff script — and he does not appear too worried about China’s communist government cutting the number of American movies it imports in retaliation. “I think I’ve heard of worse things,” the president said, before smiling and chuckling during a Thursday press conference.

How Sponsors Delivered for Fans at the 2025 Men’s Final Four

www.eventmarketer.com: From April 4-7, across the official Final Four Fan Fest presented by Capital One at the Henry B. González Convention Center; the March Madness Music Festival presented by AT&T, Coca-Cola and Capital One at Tower Park; the Men’s Final Four Dribble presented by Buick at Travis Park; and other fan-centric events around the city, brands gave die-hard college hoops fans plenty of chances to become a part of the action. Check out a roundup of some of the top activations below.

Equity Report: More Contracts for People of Color, Less for Women

AMERICAN THEATRE: On April 9, Actors’ Equity Association published its fifth Hiring Bias and Wage Gap in Theatre Report, documenting employment opportunities and average salaries for actors and stage managers working on Equity contracts across the country in 2022 and 2023. As with previous years, the report found that the industry is making gradual progress towards diversity and equity in union jobs for stage managers and actors. It is available in standard and higher accessibility editions.

Free summer tickets to Pittsburgh attractions are already available

nextpittsburgh.com: RAD launched its Summer Staycation program, which puts tens of thousands of free tickets to Carnegie Museums, the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium and other local attractions into the hands of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County library cardholders, on Tuesday, April 8. You can start visiting some destinations as early as today, April 10, for free.

China takes aim at Hollywood in latest trade war countermeasure

Fast Company: On Thursday, the China Film Association (CFA) announced that it would moderately reduce the number of American films imported in response to the ongoing tariff war.

The Chicago film industry is working toward sustainability

Chicago Reader: From The Bear to The Blues Brothers, Chicago is an entertainment industry town that generates an annual $700 million in economic impact across 50 wards and sustains approximately 20,000 jobs. But along with the success of jobs, money, and production comes a heaping amount of environmental waste.

Preview: The World Premiere Staging of J.S. Bach's 'Marcus Passion', April 11th at Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland

onstagepittsburgh.com: Chatham Baroque and Concert Theatre Works are presenting the world premiere staging of J.S. Bach’s long-lost Markus Passion in Pittsburgh on April 11, 2025, at Carnegie Music Hall. This semi-staged performance, directed by visionary Bill Barclay, brings to life Malcolm Bruno’s groundbreaking reconstruction of Bach’s lost Passion.

Behind The Lights: White Light In Conversation With Andrew Stuttard, Head Of Lighting At The Old Vic About Oedipus

Live Design Online: Currently playing at The Old Vic in London, Oedipus is a contemporary adaptation of Sophocles' classic tragedy. Featuring a cast led by Rami Malek as Oedipus and Indira Varma as Jocasta, the production is co-directed by Hofesh Shechter and Matthew Warchus, in a new adaptation by Ella Hickson.

How Can Theatremakers Be Partners in Public Health? Just Ask Eureka Day.

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Jonathan Spector’s play Eureka Day stands as a poignant example of how theatremakers can help society collectively understand and engage with one of the most polarizing public health issues of our time: vaccination. As the world continues to struggle with vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, and distrust in public health institutions, theatre provides an essential medium for breaking through philosophical divides.

5 of the Most Obviously Reused Movie Costumes

Cracked.com | Cracked.com: Every cent counts on a movie set, so it’s understandable that sometimes, a character’s outfit is simply plucked from the studio closet rather than sourced wholesale. After all, it’s not like anyone’s going to know that the heroine of this fall’s teen rom-com is wearing the same jeans as the heroine of last fall’s teen rom-com. Some costumes are so iconic, however, that the very idea of reusing them is both blasphemy and ballsy as hell.

How to Visit Pittsburgh Cultural Attractions for Free

www.pittsburghmagazine.com: Pittsburghers made more than 53,000 free visits to the city’s cultural amenities last summer — all thanks to having a library card. It was all part of the inaugural Summer Staycation 2024 RAD Pass, which provided Allegheny County library card holders free access to local attractions and museums that typically charge daily admission.

Review Roundup: THE LAST FIVE YEARS, Starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren

www.broadwayworld.com: The first ever Broadway production of Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown’s THE LAST FIVE YEARS, starring Grammy and Golden Globe Award nominee Nick Jonas and Tony Award winner Adrienne Warren, directed by Tony Award Nominee Whitney White just opened at the Hudson Theatre.

Robert’s first review of Universal Orlando’s Epic Universe

www.themeparkinsider.com: Imagine a world’s fair for stories. Instead of celebrating nations and corporations, each pavilion would celebrate a story – a hero’s journey, or perhaps even an anti-hero’s. Human beings are built for story. Before we formed nations – and long before we started corporations – we told stories. Through stories, we made sense of the world around us and passed that understanding along to others. At its foundation, our civilization rests not upon the polity of nations or the profit of corporations, but upon epics – upon stories.

Trump’s new tariffs leave small creators scrambling

The Verge: If you’ve ever been to an anime or any fan convention, you know that the place that’s often the busiest is artists alley. There, creators sell their wares ranging from commissioned artwork to stickers, enamel pins, stuffed toys, apparel, food, and more. Often these goods are made with the artist’s own hand. Other times, merchants are resellers, importing goods that are hard to find domestically, like gunpla kits, from markets where they’re more abundant. But with the Trump tariffs in effect, artists alleys might soon become ghost towns.

ETC Collaboration Fuels Future Careers in Space

Entertainment Technology Center: Last fall, the team of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) graduate students behind MoonRover — one of Fall 2024’s ETC projects — got big news during their final presentation.

Google used AI to enhance The Wizard of Oz for the Sphere’s giant screen

The Verge: Following an announcement last week that Sphere Entertainment was creating an immersive version of The Wizard of Oz for its unique Las Vegas venue, we now have more details on how companies like Google and Magnopus are using AI to enhance the 86-year-old film to fill the Sphere’s massive 160,000-square-foot semi-spherical screen.

Jeff Calhoun will direct Deaf West’s Broadway-aimed ‘Elephant Shoes’ musical at Two River Theater

www.broadwaynews.com: The new musical “Elephant Shoes” will take a world premiere bow at New Jersey’s Two River Theater next spring. The Broadway-aimed tuner, which will be helmed and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun, will play the Red Bank venue from June 4 through June 28, 2026. The co-production between Two River and Deaf West Theatre will be performed in American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English.

Why People Feel More Energized with Less Sleep

Scientific American: A full night’s rest is key for waking up alert and energized for the day. But a wave of social media habitués, across platforms from TikTok to Reddit, have recently boasted a contrarian-tinted trend: avoiding sleep to feel more awake. Many report feeling weirdly wired—and paradoxically more productive—despite snoozing for three to four hours instead of the seven to nine hours most experts recommend for adults.

10 Most Popular Exterior Paint Colors for 2025

Family Handyman: In 2025, exterior paint color trends are shifting toward warmer, natural tones and away from the cool grays and stark contrasts that have dominated recent years. Instead, homeowners are opting for soft, earthy neutrals like warm whites, beiges and sand tones, along with mid-range hues like muted blues and greens.

City Theatrical Talks With Lighting Designer Clifford Spulock

Live Design Online: City Theatrical's QolorTOPIX Light Conversations podcast series Episode 8 features a conversation with Delray Beach-Florida based lighting designer Clifford Spulock, who recently co-designed the 2025 Theme Show, "The Grand Slam of Entertainment" at Woodloch Resort in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, in collaboration with LD Aaron Spivey.

Boston’s Theatre Resources After StageSource’s Sunsetting

HowlRound Theatre Commons: During the COVID-19 shutdowns, life as we knew it became unmoored. We felt the impacts culturally: Many of us baked bread for the first time. Yeast and toilet paper were out of stock everywhere. We made telehealth doctor appointments for the medical issues we’d been ignoring. Self-identifying non-artists developed their passion projects in their kitchens. Individual artists took breaks. Theatre companies streamed productions online. With the globe as their community, the performing and designing possibilities seemed limitless—for a time.

Shakespeare’s Cymbeline explores how to live through the end of the world

theconversation.com: Written in 1611, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is a raw mess – full of feeling and as messy as life. The 18th-century man of letters, Samuel Johnson decried the play as a work of “unresisting imbecility”, a hotch-potch of incongruities.

Getting in Touch With the Black Imagination at the Oculus

The New York Times: The Institute of Black Imagination, in the Oculus at the World Trade Center PATH station, is an experiment in cultural alchemy. It turns a retail store called Space 001, typically a space for transaction, into a place of transformation, providing public access to an archive of thousands of books, periodicals and record albums pertaining to Black culture. The store serves as a platform for innovative Black designers of all kinds, who sometimes make personal appearances.

Adobe Showcases Premiere Pro’s Generative Extend and Media Intelligence at NAB 2025

No Film School: While NAB is always a whirlwind filled with exciting new brands, products, and innovations, there are few spots on the Las Vegas convention center floor that seem to remain familiarly the same. The Adobe booth, set up where it was in years past, was a reliable place to visit to check out the latest tools and features in Premiere Pro.

Blackmagic Shows Off Complete Immersive Video Experience for First Time at NAB 2025

No Film School: As a follow-up to our first IRL check-in with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera back at SXSW last month, which showcased the URSA Cine Immersive in a lineup next to the rest of the current URSA Cine lineup, the Blackmagic Design team was finally able to fully showcase the immersive video experience as it's meant to be viewed here at NAB Show 2025.

Squishy Tech: DMX Lighting for Makers

Make:: DMX stands for Digital Multiplex. It was invented in 1986 as an easy way to control lots of theater lights. DMX is really useful because it’s a very simple protocol that lets you command a large number of elements with a single controller. Lots of off-the-shelf DMX lights are really made to light big things: like a stage, building, or sculpture. Using devices that are controlled through DMX can really make your work feel more professional.

Blade Runner 2049 AI Lawsuit Rules That Elon Musk's Tesla Can Still Be Sued for Copyright Infringement

gizmodo.com: Things are getting too meta in this dystopian landscape. Blade Runner 2049‘s production company Alcon Entertainment has sued Tesla and Elon Musk for allegedly feeding stills from the Warner Bros. picture to an AI image generator to create promotional material for the car manufacturer.

Mexico Says Billy McFarland Is Def Not Holding Fyre Festival in Mexico

Jezebel: The next Fyre Festival is quickly turning into…the next Fyre Festival. The event, which was supposedly going to take place May 30-June 2 in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, hit a snag in March when Mexico’s tourism board issued a statement saying: “We have no knowledge of this event, nor contact with any person or company about it. For us, this is an event that does not exist.”

US Film Ban Among Tariff Responses Considered by China

www.thewrap.com: The global trade war sparked by Donald Trump’s tariffs may hit the box office soon, as two public figures in China released a list of countermeasures reportedly being measured by the country’s government that includes a possible ban on American-produced films.

Elton John Says TAMMY FAYE was 'Too Political' for Broadway

www.broadwayworld.com: Tammy Faye, the musical filled with music by Elton John, had only 24 previews and 29 performances at the Palace Theatre before closing. Though the musical was not met with much interest from theatre goers, Elton John knows why.

L-Acoustics Announces Collaboration with AFMG on EASE 5 Integration, Enhancing Soundvision Workflow

LightSoundJournal.com: L-Acoustics announces a strategic collaboration with AFMG, developers of EASE 5 (Enhanced Acoustic Simulator for Engineers). The partnership creates a seamless workflow between L-Acoustics Soundvision, an industry-leading 3D acoustic modeling software that allows sound designers to predict and optimize audio performance with exceptional accuracy, and AFMG’s EASE, the brand-agnostic industry standard for acoustic simulation.

SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike: Sides Far Apart, Union Says

www.hollywoodreporter.com: SAG-AFTRA has been on strike against major video game studios for more than seven months, and the two sides don’t seem to be particularly close to making a deal.

Carnegie Science Center exhibit combats mental health stigma with empathy

Health | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: With a goal of breaking stigmas and building understanding and empathy about mental health and wellbeing, the exhibit undertakes the difficult task of “bringing the science of mental health to life." A series of multimedia and interactive displays aim to immerse museum-goers in others’ experiences living with mental health conditions and physically represent what are often considered internal states.

Why Dancers Are Prone to Impostor Syndrome

Dance Magazine: Jenn Edwards has crafted a multifaceted career: She performs with Le Patin Libre, a contemporary skating company, dances, teaches, and choreographs for gymnasts and dancers, and plays in a band. Though her breadth of work is impressive, she’s also struggled with periods of self-doubt, questioning whether she truly belonged in any of her chosen fields. “Because I’ve hopped around to different disciplines a lot, I sometimes felt like I wasn’t an expert at any one of those things—I was just sort of a fraud at all of them,” she says.

Best Electric Screwdriver Reviews 2025

Pro Tool Reviews: When you finally find a screwdriver set that fits your hand perfectly, it’s a special moment. But even the perfect design has limited productivity compared to one of the best electric screwdriver models. Since they’re relatively affordable, cordless screwdrivers can be a smart purchase for both Pros and DIYers. In this guide, I’ll share my favorite models, break down the different types, and shine a light on what to look for while you’re shopping.

11 Woodworking Tools Under $50 Worth Adding To Your Collection

www.slashgear.com: Woodworking delivers a return to simpler times. Those who cut, plane, and attach boards together to transform planks of wood into something spectacular do so as part of an ancient tradition. Humans have been working with wood for the entire span of their existence, and the practice of woodworking itself is even believed to predate the emergence of Homo sapiens.

Container review – avant-garde experiment evokes the vocalised sound of online scrolling

Theatre | The Guardian: It starts off with single words being spoken in turn, like a game of association between friends, but it builds to sentences crisscrossing each other. Some are benign, funny or quotidian statements, others feature torture and incriminating violence. “Overwhelm” is what inspired the five-strong cast to devise this avant-garde experiment in polyphony and it might be the closest thing to the vocalised sound of online scrolling.

New Data Shows West End Attendance Was Higher Than Broadway in 2024

www.broadwayworld.com: Just yesterday, London theatre makers had lots to celebrate at the Olivier Awards 2025. Now, new box office figures from the Society of London Theatre for 2024 highlight the West End’s recent success

‘I always thought it would be amazing to be the first person to play a role’: Ewan McGregor on his return to the UK stage

Theatre | The Guardian: In September last year, it was announced that Ewan McGregor, the 54-year-old Scottish actor, had been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The news item happened to pop up on the feed of Michael Grandage, the theatre director who worked with McGregor in the mid-2000s on two productions, Guys and Dolls and Othello, both under the Donmar Warehouse umbrella.

Everything You Need to Know About the Stage AE Concert Lineup

Made In PGH: Stage AE is showing everyone some 412 Day love. Visit the box office on Saturday, April 12 and you can purchase concert tickets fee free! Keeping the fee free love going, Stage AE has also scheduled additional “Fee Free Fridays” on June 27, July 25, and August 29. Purchase your tix at the Stage AE box office on those select dates and you will get them without any additional fees!

How to Get Tickets to Broadway's Othello That Aren't $900

Playbill: Broadway's Othello revival officially opened last month, and with stars like Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal leading the cast, it's no secret that tickets to the show are going for a pretty penny—with many articles being written about the show's top-tier ticket price of $921. But don't worry—we've got a few tips to help you snag a seat at the Barrymore Theatre without emptying your wallet.

L.A.'s production woes worsen: Soundstages go unused, shoot days decline

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles’ soundstages once were nearly filled to capacity, as demand for streaming content reached its peak. But last year, the average annual occupancy rate dropped to 63%, a further indication of Hollywood’s sustained production slowdown, according to a new report.

Sennheiser launches MKH 8018 stereo shotgun microphone

LightSoundJournal.com: Sennheiser has launched a new, compact stereo shotgun microphone, the MKH 8018 for broadcasting and filming applications. The high-class short gun mic completes the company’s MKH 8000 range of RF condenser microphones, which excel in the field due to their climate-proof ruggedness and natural sound capture with virtually no off-axis coloration.

Setting Sound System And Mixing Console Gain Staging

ProSoundWeb: Are you getting the best possible sound from your mixing console or sound system? By setting up your mixer and system for proper gain staging (gain structuring), you might be surprised how clean they can sound. Gain staging is the process of setting the gain of each stage of a mixer, or of a sound system, to achieve the best compromise between noise and distortion. The goal is to have every stage in the mixer (or the sound system) operating at its optimum signal level.

AV Stumpfl to continue 50th anniversary celebrations at 30th Prolight + Sound

LightSoundJournal.com: AV Stumpfl will showcase PIXERA zero, the smallest member of its award-winning PIXERA ecosystem, at Prolight + Sound 2025 in Frankfurt. The compact media server platform, which launched at ISE in February, will make its trade show debut in the DACH region at PL+S, which marks its 30th year at Messe Frankfurt from 8th to 11th April 2025.