NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Chicago hosts a festival entirely dedicated to puppetry—and you won’t believe what it has in store

www.timeout.com: Since the dawn of time—or at least since someone first glued string to a wooden limb—puppetry has been one of the world’s most polarizing art forms. Some find puppets downright adorable; others are still unpacking childhood trauma involving carved smiles and unblinking eyes. Chicago, however, has clearly chosen a side. The city’s appetite for puppets is downright ravenous, which is why the 8th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival kicks off its 12-day takeover tomorrow, January 21.

The Sphere Could be Headed to Your City (With a Smaller Footprint)

gizmodo.com: The company behind Las Vegas’s Sphere announced plans on Monday to bring a smaller version of the orb-shaped venue to the National Harbor outside Washington, D.C.

Smart Color-Changing Nails You Can Adjust With an App

mymodernmet.com: Imagine a manicure that can shift from subtle nude to bold crimson in seconds, without a drop of polish or a visit to the salon. That once speculative idea became tangible at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, where digital beauty brand iPolish introduced app-controlled press-on nails capable of changing color on demand.

CMU Drama Professors and Alumni Encourage High School Students To Find Their Voice

News - Carnegie Mellon University: The master class at Creators Academy in Brooklyn, New York, was part of the annual Excellence in Theatre Education Award, presented at the Tony Awards by CMU, in partnership with the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. This year’s recipient, Gary Edwin Robinson, and his theatre students spent an October day with CMU faculty who shared their expertise in acting, musical theatre and dance.

Building Digital Guardrails: Toward a Privacy-First Framework for Immersive Safety

Arts Management and Technology Lab: As virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies merge with AI-driven platforms, the line between physical and digital life is rapidly disappearing. In these immersive environments, questions of ethics, accountability, and safety have become increasingly urgent.

 

'One Battle After Another' Stunt Coordinator Interview

www.indiewire.com: When stunt coordinator Brian Machleit signed on to Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “One Battle After Another,” the writer-director gave him one clear mandate. “Paul wanted to keep everything grounded in reality and to have the actors do as much action as possible themselves,” Machleit told IndieWire.

CES finale 'sets a new benchmark' for drone shows in US

AV Magazine: Skyworx Drone Shows delivered one of the most operationally efficient large-scale drone light show deployments ever executed in the US, at the close of CES 2026. A six-person team executed four performances in the Las Vegas night sky – each featuring 1,200 illuminated Damoda drones – during a three-hour window.

4 3D Printed Tools That Are Actually Useful

www.slashgear.com: 3D printers have come a long way in recent years, allowing users to print just about anything they can think of. Typically, this leads folks to use them for fun hobby-based projects, like miniatures and environments for tabletop games, fidget toys, and other trinkets with little use.

Sphere Entertainment Eyes National Harbor for Second U.S. Venue, Smaller-Scale Model

TicketNews: Sphere Entertainment Co. has announced plans to develop a new Sphere venue at National Harbor in Maryland, marking what would become the second U.S. location for the immersive entertainment concept and the first to utilize a smaller-scale design model. The announcement was made in partnership with the State of Maryland, Prince George’s County, and Peterson Companies, according to a joint press release issued Sunday.

Lectrosonics The Right Fit For Berman Films In Seattle

ProSoundWeb: Adam Berman, an award-winning cinematographer and the self-described, “Minister of Creation” at Berman Films in Seattle, relies on an extensive Lectrosonics digital kit that includes DSR4 four-channel digital slot receivers, DCHR and DCHT Digital stereo portable receivers and transmitters, DBSM Digital transcorders, and DPR-a plug-on transmitters in managing productions for Fortune 500 companies, technology start-ups, defense contractors, and government agencies, often operating under strict NDAs.

HOCHUL PROPOSES $150 MILLION PRODUCTION TAX CREDIT EXTENSION

www.broadwayjournal.com: Empire State Development, which supports economic growth in the state, currently isn’t accepting applications for the New York City Musical and Theatrical Production Tax Credit. Applicants had to have their first paid performance by Dec. 1, 2025. The proposed state budget announced today “increases the aggregate amount available under the program by $150 million for productions with initial performances on or after December 1, 2025,” according to a state briefing book posted online.

Cable Management 101

Wenger | J.R. Clancy: In the theater world, few offenses are as unforgivable as coiling a cable the wrong way. An improperly wrapped cable twists its internal conductors, shortens its lifespan, and guarantees a mess of knots, kinks, and crackles the next time it’s pulled from the case. Over-under coiling isn’t just a technique- it’s a sign of respect for the gear, the crew, and the show itself.

18 Shows Are Participating in February Kids' Night on Broadway

Playbill: Kids' Night on Broadway, the program of The Broadway League that sends kids 18 and under to Broadway shows for free as long as they're accompanied by a full-paying adult, will return February 24.

Bernadette, The Musical Isn't Just the Story of a Saint; It's the Story of a Girl

Playbill: From a theatrical poster stylized to evoke a watercolor painting, a young girl gazes pensively at the viewer, her portrait awash in soft tones of blue, white, and red. While the design may nod to the iconic artwork for Les Misérables, it’s actually promoting another melodic show set in 19th-century France: Bernadette, The Musical which tells the story of an impoverished teenager from Lourdes who saw a series of apparitions believed to be the Virgin Mary.

Shure Announces New SLD-D+ Wireless Microphone System

ProSoundWeb: At the 2026 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center, Shure (booth 15608) has announced the introduction of the new SLX-D+ wireless microphone system that builds on the SLX-D combined with more advanced features for applications that include live performance, houses of worship, education, content creation, electronic newsgathering (ENG), broadcast, and video.

New President of NYC Musicians' Union on Broadway Strike, AI and More

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Dan Point has taken over the leadership of the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, the union for Broadway and New York City musicians, months after the union was set to go on strike.

Talking Shop: Seven Exhibit Trends Spotted at NRF 2026

www.eventmarketer.com: Upon arriving at NRF 2026, the exterior of the first booth we encountered said it all: “Lead with experience.” It was a message from Toshiba that was widely shared by exhibitors and panelists across Retail’s Big Show, as retailers grapple with balancing human connection and the proliferation of AI. Held Jan. 11-13 at New York’s Javits Convention Center, this year’s show drew more than 40,000 attendees who came to network, learn and address the “Next Now” in retail, from agentic commerce to media networks.

How Long Can An HDMI Cable Be Before You Start Losing Quality?

www.slashgear.com: Whether you're setting up a gaming console or installing a home theater system, choosing the right HDMI cable is an important part of the process. Depending on the size of your space, you may need to use longer cables, especially if you're having to reach across the room or even into another room.

Grit Stash: Sandpaper Storage

Make:: Sandpaper is one of those things that can be a challenge to store. Bunches of random loose sheets thrown in a box or drawer, rubbing together and losing their grit, or inside cardboard sleeves obfuscating how many sheets you have left, or worse, mysterious partial sheets with no grit numbers on the back.

Waves Expands Curves Series With New Curves Resolve

ProSoundWeb: Waves Audio has announced the release of Curves Resolve, the third installment in the company’s Curves Series of intelligent mixing plugins that’s designed to help manage frequency masking and congestion between tracks and across complex mixes.

KV2 Audio delivers world-class sound to three major musicals across Madrid and Barcelona

LightSoundJournal.com: Cinderella, Cabaret, and Tootsie recently lit up the stages of Madrid and Barcelona in a spectacular display of musical theatre. The monumental task of designing the audio systems for each show across three separate venues was given to Poti Martin, of Poti Martin Sound Design (PMSD), who implemented KV2 Audio solutions to bring all three musicals to life.

The First-Ever Evening Art Installation in NYC's Union Square Will Debut in February

www.timeout.com/newyork: Sure, those festive holiday lights have officially burnt out, but that doesn't mean things have to be dark and dreary this winter: the Union Square Partnership (USP) is graciously adding some light and liveliness to the darkest time of the year with its new interactive art installation, "Patterned Behavior" by MASARY Studios, on view every evening (dusk to 10pm) from now through Tuesday, February 17.

Disguise and ASB GlassFloor partner to bring AR visualization to arenas

InPark Magazine: Disguise and ASB GlassFloor announced a strategic partnership that turns the arena floor into a fully customizable interactive digital surface. This will enable coaches to visualize ball tracking data as well as players’ live positions, movement speed and performance metrics right on the playing surface, allowing teams to win more matches.

CMU Drama Professors and Alumni Encourage High School Students To Find Their Voice

News - Carnegie Mellon University: The master class at Creators Academy in Brooklyn, New York, was part of the annual Excellence in Theatre Education Award, presented at the Tony Awards by CMU, in partnership with the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. This year’s recipient, Gary Edwin Robinson, and his theatre students spent an October day with CMU faculty who shared their expertise in acting, musical theatre and dance.

Statutory Damages: The Fuel of Copyright-based Censorship

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Imagine every post online came with a bounty of up to $150,000 paid to anyone who finds it violates opaque government rules—all out of the pocket of the platform. Smaller sites could be snuffed out, and big platforms would avoid crippling liability by aggressively blocking, taking down, and penalizing speech that even possibly violates these rules. In turn, users would self-censor, and opportunists would turn accusations into a profitable business.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball Unveils Broadway Theatre Configuration

Playbill: You better purr! Cats: The Jellicle Ball, the reimagined revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical, newly set in the underground world of Ballroom, has pulled back the curtain on what the show will look like when it comes to Broadway later this year. The musical is coming to the Broadhurst Theatre beginning March 18, ahead of an April 7 opening night.

Williamstown Theatre Festival Cancels Summer 2026 Programming

Playbill: Massachusetts' Williamstown Theatre Festival will not present programming in summer 2026. The summer theatre company will resume in 2027. The company says it will use the intervening time "to activate a new phase of artistic research, development, and year-round engagement," aimed at creating a sustainable model of newly year-round programming, with the annual summer Festival as a cornerstone.

A Many-Headed ‘Lear,’ a Theatrical ‘Dinner With André’

AMERICAN THEATRE: The royal “we” reportedly dates to the 12th-century reign of Henry II, the English king best known to me as the one who had his former bestie Becket knifed over a church-state dispute (yes, I learned much of my history from the theatre), and who had, possibly in light of that very killing, a strong motivation to double down on the purported divine right of kings: By “we” he meant “God and I.” Talk about pulling rank.

CES 2026: Editors’ Picks for the Best of the Booth Experiences

www.eventmarketer.com: CES is a much-evolved show these days. Spread out across three official venues, with many other unofficial ones now in play, creating that punch of brand sizzle (a la the Google Assistant: The Ride) requires a combination of visibility efforts. It’s one of several insights we walked away with from the global trade show for consumer technology, which took place January 6-9 in Las Vegas, a key “pulse check” tentpole for the event and exhibit industry each year.

All Digital Signage, Some Snark

Sixteen:Nine: In a recent conversation with George Pappas, CEO of i5LED, he shared how his company distinguishes itself in the dvLED screen market. Sacramento, California-based i5LED focuses on unique product development and closely controls its supply chain with trusted partners in Taiwan, China, and Malaysia, avoiding mere reselling of displays.

Still ‘popular’: ‘Wicked’ soars again in its return to Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle: After more than two decades on stage, “Wicked” remains, in Glinda’s words, undeniably “popular.” And it’s easy to see why. With an inventive story, resonant themes and an iconic score, the show continues to strike all the right notes.

Dr. King’s Call for Economic Justice Still Guides the Fight for Workers’ Rights Today

IATSE - IATSE: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words remind us that equality cannot exist in fragments. A society cannot proudly defend political rights while overlooking or denying the economic conditions every human being needs to live with dignity. Dr. King understood that the struggle for justice did not end at the ballot box. It extended into workplaces, homes, hospitals, and schools, into the everyday spaces where people fight for stability, opportunity, and respect. His vision for equality demanded not only legal fairness but economic security, for without both, true freedom is incomplete.

‘Sex Lives of Puppets’ explores candidly carnal conversations about sex, no strings attached

Chicago Sun-Times: Nothing ruins a Las Vegas sex party like a phone call from your spouse in which she explains that she’s just discovered a lump in her breast. Sex is messy, complicated; it is true for humans and, it turns out, for puppets too. They have hang-ups. They’ve got saggy bits. They enjoy kinks.

Building Digital Guardrails: Toward a Privacy-First Framework for Immersive Safety

Arts Management and Technology Lab: As virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies merge with AI-driven platforms, the line between physical and digital life is rapidly disappearing. In these immersive environments, questions of ethics, accountability, and safety have become increasingly urgent.

The Sphere Could be Headed to Your City (With a Smaller Footprint)

gizmodo.com: The company behind Las Vegas’s Sphere announced plans on Monday to bring a smaller version of the orb-shaped venue to the National Harbor outside Washington, D.C.

Metropolitan Opera Announces Layoffs, Salary Cuts & Postponement of a New Production

OperaWire: The company’s General manager Peter Gelb told the New York Times that he was forced to take these steps due to concerns with the Saudi Arabia deal, under which the Saudis agreed to subsidize the Met in exchange for the company performing at the Royal Diriyah Opera House near Riyadh three weeks each winter. He added that although he remained confident that the deal would happen, his decision to make cuts was due to concerns about the future of the Saudi arrangement.

Chicago hosts a festival entirely dedicated to puppetry—and you won’t believe what it has in store

www.timeout.com: Since the dawn of time—or at least since someone first glued string to a wooden limb—puppetry has been one of the world’s most polarizing art forms. Some find puppets downright adorable; others are still unpacking childhood trauma involving carved smiles and unblinking eyes. Chicago, however, has clearly chosen a side. The city’s appetite for puppets is downright ravenous, which is why the 8th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival kicks off its 12-day takeover tomorrow, January 21.

Trump appoints James McCrery and others to U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

www.archpaper.com: Members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) appointed by the Biden administration were terminated by the Trump administration in October 2025. Every CFA seat was vacant until this month, when the Trump administration began appointing members to the government agency tasked with reviewing design plans.

A guide to DC-area theater summer camps

DC Theater Arts: While summer may seem far away with a major snowstorm in our forecast, DC-area parents know that January is prime time for securing coveted summer camp spots — and early bird discounts. The DC Theater Arts staff has curated a list of theater summer camps and classes available for children and teenagers within a 30-mile radius of DC.

Korg Intros microAUDIO Interface Line Ahead Of 2026 NAMM Show

Synthtopia: microAUDIO offers a pristine, open sound with a strong sense of depth and generous headroom in a compact, desktop-ready design. Studio-grade preamps are tuned for musical gain with minimal noise, prioritizing clarity while avoiding excess circuitry. Both models support 24-bit/192kHz audio and include balanced inputs and outputs for high-quality recording and playback.

AXS Sues Over ‘Spoofed’ Mobile Tickets, Renewing Scrutiny Over Transfer Restriction Schemes

TicketNews: AXS has filed a federal lawsuit against SecureMyPass.com, accusing the ticket‑delivery service of “spoofing” AXS Mobile ID tickets to help brokers transfer tickets outside the official AXS app — a practice AXS says has caused fans to be denied entry to concerts and sporting events.

An Interview with, Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist Matt Soibelman, Who Sings the Role of Abbot in ‘Curfew River’

onstagepittsburgh.com: Based on the Japanese Noh play Sumidagawa River. In Curlew River, a woman driven mad by the mystery of her lost son learns her boy’s unfortunate fate from a chance encounter with a Ferryman while crossing a river. These will be its first-ever performances in Pittsburgh.

ASM Intros Leviasynth 16-Voice Hybrid Synthesizer

Synthtopia: Ahead of the 2026 NAMM Show, Ashun Sound Machines (ASM) has introduced the Leviasynth, a new 16-voice, 8-oscillator digital / analog hybrid synthesizer.

Smart Color-Changing Nails You Can Adjust With an App

mymodernmet.com: Imagine a manicure that can shift from subtle nude to bold crimson in seconds, without a drop of polish or a visit to the salon. That once speculative idea became tangible at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, where digital beauty brand iPolish introduced app-controlled press-on nails capable of changing color on demand.

New Jersey, Illinois See Major Gains In Film and TV Production As California Loses Ground

www.hollywoodreporter.com: When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in to law a doubling of California’s tax incentives for film and TV projects from $330 million to $750 million annually in July, the move sent a signal that the state was finally taking runaway production seriously. Yet that piece of legislation may just be the first step needed to keep more of Hollywood in Hollywood, if the latest U.S. production figures are any indication.

AUDIX Unveils New Wireless MicroBoom (MBW) Line

ProSoundWeb: AUDIX has announced the introduction of the new Wireless MicroBoom (MBW) condenser microphone line, a forerunner of the company’s new digital wireless ecosystem that builds upon the MicroBoom range for applications such as choirs, houses of worship, vocal ensembles, theater and stage productions, orchestras, acoustic groups, locating recording, presentations, broadcast, sports, and live events.

Illinois gains ground on Georgia as production shifts from California Reel Chicago News

reelchicago.com: As Hollywood continues to look beyond California for cost-effective production hubs, Illinois is emerging as one of the fastest-rising film and television states in the country, now gaining ground on longtime powerhouse Georgia, according to new fourth-quarter 2025 data from industry tracker ProdPro.

The forces shaping attractions in 2026

InPark Magazine: When I sit down to write the yearly strategy plan for Gantom, I begin, as most do, with a SWOT and environmental analysis. I review top stories from 2025, industry research, and trend reports to identify the environmental forces shaping the attractions industry. Those environmental forces inspired a recent episode of Green Tagged, and also this article.

Which Torque Wrench Type Is The Most Accurate? It's Complicated

www.slashgear.com: From my experience teaching mechanics to properly torque fasteners in the aerospace industry, the potential accuracy of any torque wrench type is often defeated by user error. However, some torque wrench types allow users to achieve more accurate results thanks to their design features.

Broadway Salutes, honoring behind-the-scenes workers, returns for 16th year

www.broadwaynews.com: On Jan. 20, the Broadway League and the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG) will come together to celebrate the 16th annual Broadway Salutes. The annual event honors workers in every single department, venue and office tied to Broadway, who have worked in the industry for more than 25 years, acknowledging individuals at the 25-year mark, 35-year mark, and 50-plus mark.

Wisconsin Lawmakers Consider Ticket Resale Cap as Critics Warn of Unintended Consequences

TicketNews: Wisconsin lawmakers are weighing a proposal aimed at curbing high-priced ticket resales, but opponents argue the measure could ultimately hurt consumers by reducing competition in the secondary market while doing little to address pricing practices controlled by event operators and primary ticket sellers.