Folk Costume and Embroidery of the Hutsuls, Part 6, Putyla Region

FolkCostume&Embroidery: Today I will continue talking about the Hutsul region by adressing the Putyla Region, sometimes called the Vyzhnytsia Region. This lies mostly in Chernivtsi Oblast, consisting of the Putyla and Siret River valleys, and also the White Cheremosh River valley, including a few villages in the south of Ivano Frankivsk Oblast. It extends from Vyzhnytsia in the north to the Romanian border in the south.

BBC Proms 2025: Full line-up revealed, with Claudia Winkleman to host Traitors Prom

The Independent: Claudia Winkleman, presenter of the hit BBC show The Traitors, is set to host a Prom concert as part of the 2025 season. The eight-week festival, running from July to September, will feature 86 Proms showcasing orchestras and musicians from across the globe at the Royal Albert Hall and other UK venues.

Proto provides 'hologram models' for fashion chain's stores

AV Magazine: The 3D ‘hologram models’, which are being deployed in Matin Kim and Hago Haus stores, can move and turn 360° to showcase outfits to shoppers. They have built-in cameras, microphones, speakers and touchscreens, as well as AI capabilities.

Arena Stage announces 2025/26 season

DC Theater Arts: Arena Stage Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif and Executive Producer Edgar Dobie are proud to announce the company’s diamond anniversary season. Celebrating 75 years of captivating, compelling, and immersive storytelling in the nation’s capital, the 2025/26 season lineup ignites the path ahead.

The DIY 1982 Picture Phone

Hackaday: If you’ve only been around for the Internet age, you may not realize that Hackaday is the successor of electronics magazines. In their heyday, magazines like Popular Electronics, Radio Electronics, and Elementary Electronics brought us projects to build. Hacks, if you will. Just like Hackaday, not all readers are at the same skill level. So you’d see some hat with a blinking light on it, followed by some super-advanced project like a TV typewriter or a computer. Or a picture phone.

Theme-park stylings come to the Broadway stage in ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ at the Marquis Theatre

DC Theater Arts: A new stage prequel to the popular Netflix series created by the brothers Matt and Ross Duffer in 2016, Stranger Things: The First Shadow is now making its Broadway debut in an open-ended run at the Marquis Theatre following its Olivier Award-winning world premiere on London’s West End. Like the TV show, it combines sci-fi, mystery, and horror with 20th-century small-town nostalgia, a coming-of-age high-school story, and over-the-top special effects reminiscent of a theme-park ride, while adding many touches of juvenile humor to lighten the inherent creepiness.

At EXPO Chicago 2025, Galleries Take Risks and Find Room to Reflect

Artsy: There was perhaps an unexpected confidence to be observed when the 2025 edition of EXPO Chicago opened its VIP preview on Thursday, April 24th. Despite lingering anxieties over tariffs and broader stock market volatility, the mood at Navy Pier was one of relative buoyancy.

All About My Mother: The Parent Trap of ‘Rheology’

AMERICAN THEATRE: My first question for playwright Shayok Misha Chowdhury and his physicist mother, Bulbul Chakraborty—who appear together in Rheology, a beautiful and disarming 75-minute meditation on mortality and family at the Bushwick Starr through May 10—was a simple one: How on earth did you rope your mom into this?

Another Day, Another Project Breaks Ground in Downtown Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Magazine: If it seems like a big chunk of Downtown is under construction, that’s not an exaggeration. And there’s more coming as the official groundbreaking of the 4-acre Arts Landing is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 29. Demolition of the Goodyear Auto Service store on a corner of the Cultural Trust-owned property is making way for construction to begin on the $31 million Eighth Street civic space.

The Entire World in One Body

HowlRound Theatre Commons: For the last couple of decades, I have been asking myself: How do you put a community on stage? How do you convey interconnectedness and reciprocity? How do you show that individual happiness, health, and resilience are functions of community? In our hyper-individualistic society, it is easy to focus inward and forget that we are mere nodes in an intricate, living, breathing web of relationships.

“Hyperlong Exposure” Photographs Merge Past and Present

mymodernmet.com: Compared to other artistic media, photography is far more capable of time travel. Its ability to capture our past with such astonishing immediacy is unique, serving as more representational portraits of historic lifestyles. This is why Garry Pycroft is drawn to the medium, and also why he feels compelled to reinvent it.

TCG’s New Survey of Nonprofit Governing Boards Is First in 10 Years

AMERICAN THEATRE: Today Theatre Communications Group (TCG) released In Whom We Trust VI: Governing Boards Survey 2024, the organization’s sixth comprehensive study of nonprofit theatre governance, and their first in over 10 years. Since 1998, TCG (which is also the publisher of American Theatre) has periodically conducted a survey exploring theatre governing boards in depth. In Whom We Trust provides a wide range of comparative data broken down by budget size to inform the evaluation of giving levels, give/get requirements, board demographics, meeting practices, recruitment policies, and more.

4 Bay Area Artists Receive $100,000 Kenneth Rainin Grants

KQED: Four Bay Area artists have been awarded grants of $100,000 each from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation as part of its 2025 Rainin Arts Fellowship. This year’s fellows are Brenda Wong Aoki, Christy Chan, Kyle Casey Chu and Vanessa Sanchez. The unrestricted $100,000 grants are meant to be spent in whichever way each artist feel best supports their individual practices.

Gloria Estefan's BASURA and More Set For Alliance Theatre's 2025/26 Season

www.broadwayworld.com: Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre has announced its full 2025–26 season, highlighted by the world premiere of BASURA, a new musical by Gloria Estefan and Emily Estefan. Inspired by the true story of Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra, BASURA tells how young musicians transform discarded materials into instruments—and their lives.

There’s a new, easier way to score an elusive Magic Castle invite

www.timeout.com/los-angeles: You’ve partied in most of Hollywood’s hottest clubs, but for many, an invite to the mysterious Magic Castle, perched under Yamashiro, remains an out-of-reach experience—even for longtime L.A. residents.

Harvey Fierstein to Receive Lifetime Achievement Special Tony Award

Playbill: This year's Tony Awards will honor four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein with the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. The annual honor recognizes titans of the industry, with past recipients including George C. Wolfe, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, Joel Grey, and Terrence McNally.

AOTO LED displays play many parts at Expo 2025 Osaka

AV Magazine: In the host nation’s pavilion, AOTO screens play a key role in delivering a multisensory experience. The manufacturer’s technology ensures every visual detail supports the immersive storytelling – from humanity’s relationship with nature to its evolving role in a technologically driven ecosystem.

Two new original musical comedies on Broadway share a curious plot point

NPR: What are the odds that two original musical comedies, based on real historical stories which feature corpses, land on Broadway at the same time? You don't need to calculate that because the British show "Operation Mincemeat" and the American show "Dead Outlaw" are entertaining audiences on Broadway right now.

EMS 2025 Event Trends: From Creativity on a Budget to AI Ops

www.eventmarketer.com: The 2025 Experiential Marketing Summit (EMS) brought the high-octane energy, camaraderie and compelling perspectives the annual industry showcase is known for, and a global audience of more than 1,500 b-to-b and b-to-c marketers, trade show organizers, agency execs, meeting planners, event strategists, sustainability champs and technologists kept the good vibes and peer-to-peer education going strong throughout the 23rd annual show, hosted this year April 14-16 at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.

New app StagePlay will offer live stage performances on mixed-reality headsets

www.broadwaynews.com: Scene Partners has announced a new entertainment platform called StagePlay. It is a virtual platform that will allow audiences to experience live theater performances outside of the confines of a physical venue via mixed-reality headsets.

For Tiara Whaley, race isn't a factor in Media Theatre's 'Grease'

The Arts | phillytrib.com: She’s much like her character, Sandy Dumbrowsky in “Grease.” She’s cheerful, full of life, and a great singer. There’s only one difference: in the 1978 movie, Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, was white, and in the Media Theatre’s production, coming May 2-25, Tiara Whaley is Black.

Fertile Ground wrap-up: Four shows from a vibrant festival

Oregon ArtsWatch: I had a terrible time choosing which Fertile Ground shows to see this year. I pored over the guide for 2025’s festival of new works over and over again, trying to coordinate the many productions that sounded interesting with a busy schedule of April theater-going. In the end, I chose four, missing dozens of intriguing pieces, including Theatre Diaspora’s Ten Minute Tapestry II, Alice Wilkinson’s Nightlatch, and Linestorm Playwrights’ Small Bites.

3 Rivers Arts Festival Lineup Announced for One-Time Move to the Strip District

onStage Pittsburgh: The 2025 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, announced its lineup of performing and visual arts attractions, slated this year only at the riverfront lots at the 15th Street Plaza along Waterfront Place in the Strip District, while the festival’s future home – Arts Landing, a new four-acre civic space in the Cultural District – is under construction for a 2026 opening.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE Musical to Have 'Substantial Workshop' Later This Year

www.broadwayworld.com: Bob Martin and Rick Elice, book writers for Broadway's Smash, have given an update on their long-awaited musical adaptation of The Princess Bride. In an interview with Variety, Martin revealed that the show is actively in the works, also providing a time frame for a major workshop taking place later this year.

DC super heroes coming to Orlando at Gaylord Palms

attractionsmagazine.com: DC Summer, a celebration of DC Comics, is coming to Gaylord hotels — including Gaylord Palms, bringing the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman to Orlando.

Ted Sarandos: 'Not a Single Episode' Cleared China's Censorship Board

www.indiewire.com: If you think there’s seemingly no one who doesn’t have a Netflix account or who hasn’t seen “Squid Game,” there’s about 1.4 billion people in China who haven’t signed up, and the streamer’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos is just fine with that.

PADDINGTON THE MUSICAL Will Premiere at the Savoy Theatre in London's West End

www.broadwayworld.com: PADDINGTON The Musical will receive its world premiere this Autumn - opening at the Savoy Theatre on 1 November. Adapted from the much-loved books written by Michael Bond, and the award-winning films by STUDIOCANAL, with music and lyrics by Tom Fletcher, book by Jessica Swale and direction by Luke Sheppard, priority booking will open on the 13 May, with public on sale on 15 May. Full cast, creative team and performance schedule will be announced shortly.

StubHub Partners With Broadway Theater Owner Ambassador Theatre Group

www.hollywoodreporter.com: StubHub has partnered with ATG Entertainment to become the official resale partner for 16 of its venues, including ATG’s Broadway theaters.

Real Women Have Curves Team Saw 'Hundreds' of Mexican-American Actors for the Show

Playbill: Real Women Have Curves premiered as a play by Josefina López in 1990. It also was adapted into a 2002 film. The title is now a new Broadway musical, and according to its cast, this story about a young Latina trying to follow her dreams while working in a sewing factory in Los Angeles remains as important as ever.

'The Righteous Gemstone' Makeup Gets Dirty in Season 4

www.indiewire.com: “The Righteous Gemstones” is a Biblically epic comedy in every sense. Danny McBride and his creative team have always made the Gemstone family look as big and as loud and as garish as they feel important, entitled, and touched by destiny. In Season 4, it was crucial to make sure that the show left absolutely everything out on the field — be it a battlefield, a pulpit, or a soundstage for “Teenjus.”

Theater Alliance reimagines new works initiative with Hothouse New Play Block Party

DC Theater Arts: Theater Alliance is thrilled to announce the return of its signature new works initiative, the Hothouse New Play Development Series, with a bold reimagining for 2025: the Hothouse New Play Block Party on April 25 and 26. This two-day celebration of bold voices, fresh stories, and community-centered performance is the next installment of performances at their pop-up home in Southwest DC.

Costuming Prometheus: Genesis of the Nightmare

The Art of Costume: Over the past four years, we have celebrated every “Alien Day” by spotlighting the costume design of the first four films that built the Alien universe, first unleashed by legendary director Ridley Scott in 1979. Much like the dormant monsters awaiting their moment to burst from their hosts, the franchise went quiet — until fifteen years later, when Scott returned with Prometheus, a bold new prequel that reignited the nightmare.

New 3-Play 2025 Festival Brings 'Two Trains Running,' 'Fences,' 'Ma Rainey' to the Hill District in August

onstagepittsburgh.com: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and the August Wilson House have made it official, setting the schedule for a 2025 three-play summer festival, titled August Wilson’s American Century Cycle Experience.

Kennedy Center Cancels Pride Events Amid Trump Takeover

www.broadwayworld.com: Following sweeping leadership changes under Donald Trump, the Kennedy Center has quietly canceled or relocated its Tapestry of Pride events, originally set for June 5–8 as part of WorldPride 2025 in Washington, D.C., according to the Associated Press.

An Audience Member at Redwood Donated $10K to Broadway Cares to Sing With Idina Menzel

Playbill: What would you give to sing a Rent duet with Idina Menzel herself? One audience member donated $10,000 to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS for the honor at a recent performance of Redwood, according to a fellow theatregoer’s Reddit post (where the ad-hoc performance was posted in full). Menzel sang "Take Me Or Leave Me" with the two fans, a song she performed when she originated the role of Maureen in Rent on Broadway—at the Nederlander Theatre, where she is currently performing in Redwood.

PHANTOM Return Teased With Masquerade Masks Appearing Around the City

www.broadwayworld.com: The New York return of The Phantom of the Opera is being further teased with masquerade masks popping up all around the city. The Instagram account Masquerade NYC, which has been dropping teasers about the show's immersive return, has posted photos of the new promotion.

NFTRW Weekly Top FIve

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

How the Redwood Design Team Created a Forest on Broadway, Complete With a Giant Tree

Playbill: The California redwoods are one of the most spectacular natural sights in the world. After all, it inspired a Broadway musical currently starring Tony winner Idina Menzel, who plays a woman who finds healing by climbing a gigantic redwood tree. For the show's design team, when it came time to visualize how the musical would live onstage, the objective was clear: they had to bring a redwood forest onto the stage of the Nederlander Theatre.

How music affects productivity and your brain

Fast Company: Music is everywhere—playing in coffee shops, on hold lines, in Ubers, behind YouTube ads, and of course, in your earbuds while you work. It’s so constant, we often treat it like harmless background noise. But the brain doesn’t.

25 most Oscar-worthy stunts of the 2000s

GoldDerby: The Academy has officially (finally!) announced the creation of a Best Stunt Design category, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Oscars in 2028. To many, the award is long overdue — after all, how many of our favorite scenes in film history stick out thanks to harrowing, entertaining, or mind-bending stunt work?

The Only Constant: Why Are We So Resistant To Change?

ProSoundWeb: If you’ve been able to survive in the live music production business over a few decades as I have, you would certainly have to concede that the 2000s and the years leading into it have been a fascinating ride for our industry. If you were to fly up high enough and gaze down on it all you might likely fall in line with one of two mindsets: “Awesome industry! Incredible people! Incredible technology! We’ve have never experienced better results. Shows have never sounded better.”

Do Any Swiss Army Knives Come With A USB Drive?

www.slashgear.com: From the battleground to the boardroom, Swiss Army Knives have evolved to fulfill modern needs. And one unexpected way that it manages to do it? Adding a USB drive into its arsenal. While USB flash drives are typically used for storage, they can do a ton of other nifty things as well, like act as a password manager, boot operating systems, and even act like digital keys.

 

25 most Oscar-worthy stunts of the 2000s

GoldDerby: The Academy has officially (finally!) announced the creation of a Best Stunt Design category, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Oscars in 2028. To many, the award is long overdue — after all, how many of our favorite scenes in film history stick out thanks to harrowing, entertaining, or mind-bending stunt work?

Imax Revenue Jumps 10% to $87 Million in First Quarter on Record Success of 'Ne Zha 2'

TheWrap: The first quarter of the 2025 box office was a poor one for American theaters, but Imax was able to avoid taking a hit in their Q1 earnings thanks in good part to the record-smashing success of the animated sequel “Ne Zha 2” in China.

Solution by Thern: NFL Draft Stage Winches and Controls

Thern® Stage Equipment: StageFX, a prominent organization specializing in large scale structures and turnkey staging solutions, sought Thern’s expertise for a unique challenge. In November 2022, they approached Thern with a specific request involving the installation of winches within their expansive truss sections. Their objective was to lift these interconnected truss sections from ground level to a desired height, guided by vertical support box trusses.

Get 'H.A.P.P.Y' with Liz West's Immersive Installation Made of More Than 700 Colorful Discs

Colossal: Spanning nearly the entire floor of the main space of Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate, Liz West’s expansive new installation invites viewers to revel in color and brightness. The artist has reimagined the historic early-19th-century spa promenade room as a vibrant, sensory immersion.

How the Redwood Design Team Created a Forest on Broadway, Complete With a Giant Tree

Playbill: The California redwoods are one of the most spectacular natural sights in the world. After all, it inspired a Broadway musical currently starring Tony winner Idina Menzel, who plays a woman who finds healing by climbing a gigantic redwood tree. For the show's design team, when it came time to visualize how the musical would live onstage, the objective was clear: they had to bring a redwood forest onto the stage of the Nederlander Theatre.

Inside Dior’s ‘Designer of Dreams’ exhibition in Seoul

Wallpaper: ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ arrives in Seoul this spring, marking the exhibition's ninth iteration since its 2017 debut at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs. After captivating London, Shanghai, Tokyo, and other global capitals, the show finds new form at Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza.

New App StagePlay Will Bring Live Performances to Mixed Reality Headsets

www.broadwayworld.com: A new app is coming to mixed reality headsets which will allow fans to be immersed into live stage performances. Scene Partners, an experiential entertainment venture builder, has announced StagePlay, a virtual platform and production process that will aim to extend the reach of live entertainment beyond physical venues, bringing performances to audiences worldwide. The app will launch with a performance from Blue Man Group.

Tonys: Will Romeo + Juliet be nominated for the first time this year?

GoldDerby: Since premiering in 1597, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet has endured as one of the greatest and most tragic love stories ever written. It's been performed countless times all over the world. On Broadway alone, there's been a grand total of 37 productions.

She Built Herself a Home

AMERICAN THEATRE: Nothing escapes Kelli O’Hara. When she sings “To Build a Home” from The Bridges of Madison County, memory rolls across her eyes; each note becomes a tree, a station, a life. You hear landscapes in her voice. Therein audiences have found refuge: In her emotion and presence, they’ve seen their own stories reflected back. And within the warmth of each song, role, and city that has touched her, it is clear that she, too, has built herself a home.