Artist Nikk Alcaraz, Who's Done Design Work For Disney, Brings Holiday Cheer to Brownsville

Pittsburgh Magazine: Nikk Alcaraz’s life is like a Hallmark Christmas movie. Last year, the 31-year-old artist, author and content creator left California with his partner, Weston Reindl, and moved into an old fixer-upper in Brownsville that they purchased online.

LDI Awards Presented

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: The annual round of awards at the LDI Show took place at a breakfast presentation. (LDI took place in Las Vegas, December 7-9). The award for sound product went to the Qu-Series of mixers from Allen & Heath. Designed for small to mid-sized applications, it was cited as being reliable and budget-friendly.

Kate Hudson to receive Costume Designers Guilds Spotlight Award

Mint: Actor Kate Hudson is all set to be honoured with the prestigious Costume Designers Guild's (CDG) Spotlight Award, recognising performers whose careers demonstrate a sustained commitment to excellence and a deep appreciation for the critical role costume design plays in storytelling, according to Variety.

PAUL TAZEWELL

Hollywood Authentic: Paul Tazewell has profoundly impacted theatre and film. As well as receiving an Oscar for his work on Wicked earlier this year, he also won the Critics’ Choice Award, the Costume Designers Guild’s Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film award, the NAACP Image Award, and the Innovator Award from the African American Film Critics’ Association, underscoring his critical role in bringing the fantastical world of Oz to life.

Paul Tazewell & More Nominated for Costume Designers Guild Awards - Full List of Nominees

www.broadwayworld.com: Tony Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell has been nominated for his costume design work in Wicked: For Good at the 28th Costume Designers Guild Awards in the category of Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film. Tazewell previously took home the award for the first film earlier this year.

Hilti Takes on Heavy Duty Work with its Unified Battery Platform

Engineering News-Record: When Hilti announced its Nuron battery platform in 2021, there were open questions on whether its commitment to a single 22-Volt battery format would hold as it moved into more demanding applications normally dominated by corded and gas-powered tools.

“Midnight Radio Lampoons Christmas Vacatyinz” at Bricolage Production Company

The Pittsburgh Tatler: It’s December, an’ lemme tell yinz what, that means Bricolage Production Company’s holiday Midnight Radio is crawlin’ ahtta the woodwork again, n’at — this year doin’ up a whole jagoff-y spoof of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, turned into a big ol’ comedy present duct-taped together speshly fer Picksburgh. They’re callin’ it Christmas Vacatyinz, ‘cause of course they are.**

Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: Thomas G. Moses and His Scenic Designs for the Oakland Scottish Rite

Drypigment.net: Tens of thousands of historic opera houses were constructed between 1850 and 1950. Of that number, a significant percentage was lost to fire and other natural, or manmade, disasters. Many of the remaining structures fell prey to building renovations, repurposing, and demolition. Thousands were gutted, transformed into department stores, apartment complexes, and office spaces.

'Theater is the sun' for Karla Boos, and will remain so as she retires from Quantum Theatre

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It could have happened in any mid-size American city, but it happened here: A young woman arrived in 1990 to start a theater company with big hopes, bigger ambitions and some scraps of experience.

Best Cordless Reciprocating Saw 2024 - Tested and Reviewed

www.protoolreviews.com: After testing dozens of options over the years and weighing them against our collective decades of experience, we’ve narrowed down the absolute best cordless reciprocating saws (AKA Sawzalls) from manufacturers we trust the most. We rounded up the newest, most advanced models and tested them head-to-head in a series of experiments to help you decide which model is the best or simply see how well your favorite brand competes.

Kathy Hochul Signs SAG-AFTRA Bills to Regulate AI Performers

variety.com: Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed two bills backed by SAG-AFTRA that will regulate the use of “synthetic” AI performers in New York. One bill will require disclosure when an AI performer is used in advertising, while the second will forbid the use of a dead performer’s likeness to create a deepfake without the estate’s consent.

Best New Milwaukee Tools: Winter Update 2025

Pro Tool Reviews: Milwaukee puts out tons of new products every year—often well over 100! It can be tough to track everything, so I aim to keep you up to date with the best new Milwaukee Tools as they’re announced.

Women Directors Are Reshaping Our Perception of the Arab World

www.indiewire.com: While its submission process certainly has its faults, the Best International Feature category has only gotten more and more exciting each year in the past decade since the Academy reconfigured its diversity efforts. No longer are films in languages other than English partitioned from consideration in other categories, save for a few outliers.

2026 Music Festivals: The Ultimate Guide You’ll Check All Year

www.ticketnews.com: As 2025 nears its end and we approach a new year, festivals are already popping-up across North America for 2026. We’ve rounded-up a list of must-see festivals from all different genres; whether you’re looking to put on some cowboy boots and sing along at Stagecoach and Cattle Country, dance the night away at EDM’s Ultra and EDC Daisy Carnival, head-bang alongside metalheads at Louder Than Life and Aftershock, or reminisce with early 2000’s rock at When We Were Young and Sick New World — we’ve got you covered.

Springboard to Design Launches $150,000 Fundraising Campaign

Playbill: Design Action's Springboard to Design program, which offers tuition-free theatrical design mentorship and training to high school students from underrepresented communities, has launched a fundraising goal of $150,000.

Top Rock Tours of 2025: 10 Highest Grossing Tours

www.billboard.com: Much has already been made of rock’s decline in popularity over the last several decades. It’s still the biggest revenue generator in live music, but hits an all-time low on the 2025 Top Tours chart. At 30.2% of the year’s top 100 tour grosses, the genre represents less than half of its share from the 1990s after consistent dips throughout the 2000s and 2010s.

American Academy of Dramatic Arts Launches New Works Project for In-Development Musicals

Playbill: The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is launching a new initiative to present readings of in-development musicals, New Works Project, December 15-16, with readings of Winner and Much Ado.

What's That Red Square on My Tape Measure?

www.familyhandyman.com: If you’ve ever taken a close look at some of your tools, you’ve likely noticed perplexing features on them. Surely these features serve some purpose, but they’re not always intuitive. Take tape measures for example. There are all kinds of marking on them. But do you know why there’s a red square around some numbers on a tape measure? It certainly makes the squared numbers easier to see at a glance, but there’s more to it than just visibility.

Fall of Remembrance and ‘Good Trouble’

AMERICAN THEATRE: As I was gathering my thoughts for this issue’s letter, I couldn’t help but notice that it would be heading to print around the 24th anniversary of 9/11. What’s different in today’s cultural and political landscape from 2001, and what’s the same? What does it take mentally, emotionally, physically to stay true to the North Star of our values? What are we fighting for versus what are we fighting against? Is it possible to both fight for and against simultaneously?

RIGZ! – Roy Bickel Keynote

Live Design Online: A highlight of the second annual RIGZ! on Saturday, December 6, 2025 at LDI 2025 was the keynote by Roy Bickel: From Human Cannonball to Award Winner: The Extraordinary Journey Of Roy Bickel: a master rigger reflects on his six-decade career.

2025 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards Announced

AMERICAN THEATRE: Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre and the publisher of American Theatre, has announced the recipients of the 2025 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $783,000, allow 16 world premiere plays extra time for development and rehearsal with the entire creative team. This support aims to encourage and bolster future productions.

Review Roundup: GOTTA DANCE Opens Off-Broadway at the York Theatre

www.broadwayworld.com: The York Theatre Company and American Dance Machine are now presenting Gotta Dance, co-directed by Nikki Feirt Atkins and Randy Skinner. The production runs through December 28, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. at Off-Broadway’s Theatre at St. Jean’s.

Lessons from the BIPOC Critics Lab at Five

HowlRound Theatre Commons: As a freelance critic of color who works in a field where Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) voices are often excluded, I wanted to build a space that disrupted traditional paths into arts journalism. In 2020, I started the BIPOC Critics Lab, a free, fully digital training program for emerging critics who meet weekly on Zoom over ten weeks for workshops on craft, ethics, experimentation, and industry advice.

Elvis' Birthday Fight Club celebrates 15 years of inappropriate fun with 3 weekends of debauchery

DC Theater Arts: Astro Pop Events is excited to announce the 15th anniversary performance of one of DC and Baltimore’s most bizarre and exciting annual traditions! The annual Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club (EBFC) will kick-off 2026 with glorious debauchery on January 2 and 3 at Washington, DC’s Gala Hispanic Theater and, for the first time, will run for two straight weekends in Baltimore

Re-Imagined Multi-Concept Venue The Bristol Opens In Australia With Martin Audio

ProSoundWeb: A major makeover of a popular Sydney, Australia-based 80s retro venue in the city’s Central Business District has resulted in a completely re-imagined multi-concept venue called The Bristol, with many of its spaces outfitted with Martin Audio loudspeakers and supporting components.

ROBERT JULIAT and MADRIX announce strategic partnership

LightSoundJournal.com: With the original MADRIX software well-established outside the entertainment industry, MADRIX RADAR was released in 2020 and is specifically tailored and refined for the theatre and architainment markets. MADRIX RADAR software is designed for remote management, configuration and monitoring of lighting devices compatible with the RDM protocol (Remote Device Management).

SGPS/ShowRig Acquires Niscon to Expand Global Automation Solutions

www.billboard.com: SGPS/ShowRig, the global staging, rigging and automation company, has acquired Niscon Inc., the Ontario-based engineering firm behind the widely used Raynok motion-control software. The deal brings together two long-time partners and further consolidates SGPS/ShowRig’s position in live entertainment as a provider of automation solutions for tours, festivals, film/TV productions, and permanent installations.

An Introduction To Analog Filtering

Hackaday: One of the major difficulties in studying electricity, especially when compared to many other physical phenomena, is that it cannot be observed directly by human senses. We can manipulate it to perform various tasks and see its effects indirectly, like the ionized channels formed during lightning strikes or the resistive heating of objects, but its underlying behavior is largely hidden from view.

The 10 Best Booths at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025

Artsy: Art Basel Miami Beach returned for its 23rd edition on December 3rd, when its VIP day got underway at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Featuring some 283 galleries from 43 countries, this year’s fair remains the main event of the U.S. art world’s most chaotic week of the year.

How we created a climate change museum to inspire hope among eco-distressed students

theconversation.com: In 2023, a visit to a local state secondary school to discuss our project, The Museum of Climate Hope, led to an unexpected discussion. A few weeks earlier, an eminent climate scientist had presented a harrowing tale of climate apocalypse to the school’s sixth form. But the students told us the scientist’s presentation, intended as a wake-up call to apathetic teenagers, had backfired.

Director Joseph Kosinski and Mixer Gary Rizzo Talk Sounds of F1

www.thewrap.com: It is, for one, the story of Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a washed-up Formula One driver who is recruited by a failing team, to help a hotshot young driver (Damson Idris, in a breakthrough performance) focus and get their team on the path to glory. It is also, under the stylish direction of Joseph Kosinski, a true technological marvel.

Recording Academy Advocacy Chairs On Creating a 'Fair Music Ecosystem'

www.billboard.com: As musicians face myriad challenges, from negotiating fair streaming royalties to navigating the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI), the Recording Academy is among the most critical institutions fighting for their rights. With the business staring down another consequential year, the academy announced in October its new National Advocacy Committee co-chairs: DJ-producer Dani Deahl will return for a second consecutive yearlong term, with Hanson’s Taylor Hanson joining her for his first term in the role.

Maker Faire Shenzhen Soars to New Heights

Make:: It’s always a shock to witness the scale of things in China’s Bay Area. Despite only being the third largest national central city in China, Shenzhen dwarfs the combined population of the three largest US cities. Descending toward Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, this notion of scale is reinforced, as one immense skyscraper after another dominates the horizon, even as new construction dots the outskirts of the city. Likewise, Maker Faire Shenzhen continues to grow and impress.

Video: Andrew Lloyd Webber's Thoughts on Broadway Economics Amid Financial Uncertainty

www.broadwayworld.com: Andrew Lloyd Webber, known as the most successful Broadway composer ever, has sat down for a new interview where he dissects the current financial state of Broadway and the West End. In the new video with MarketWatch, the Sunset Boulevard composer reveals what he thinks is wrong with the economics of theatre and how they can improve.

KAWS' companion lifts glowing moon along abu dhabi's waterfront

www.designboom.com: KAWS’ monumental Companion lands on Abu Dhabi’s waterfront, not floating this time, but stretched across the edge of Mina Zayed as if pausing between breaths, lifting a glowing moon toward the sky. The arrival of KAWS:HOLIDAY Abu Dhabi, created in collaboration with long-time partner AllRightsReserved, marks the newest stop in the artist’s global series of large-scale public sculptures.