Tour Backstage at the Old Vic - a new kind of back-of-house

Wallpaper*: Backstage at the Old Vic – the theatre's new building – may seem a relatively modest project on paper; a slim structure including space for some social and back-of-house spaces, around the back from the main, 1816-built theatre. By another metric, though, it is huge. 'It is the first addition to the Old Vic in some 200 years,' says Laura Stevenson, executive director of The Old Vic.

What It's Like Being Backstage for the Madness of Oh, Mary!

Playbill: Last month we got to check in with the last remaining original stars of Cole Escola's unlikeliest of wacky smash-hits Oh, Mary!—but we couldn't leave the Lyceum without chatting with another fabulous band of hilarious misfits: the understudies of Oh, Mary!

All Access Staging Behind-the-Build – Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Set

Live Design Online: All Access was honored to provide the set and staging for the Super Bowl Halftime show for the twelfth year in a row. And this year the staging company had home field advantage. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA, is just down the street from All Access’ headquarters in Torrance.

Backstage Academy Takes Centre Stage with Covid Best Practice

ETNow.com: Backstage Academy has affirmed its commitment to safeguarding students entering the live events industry after it was selected by the QAA to take part in a series of best-practice Covid case studies. The institution was recognised by the assurance agency for the measures put in place following the outbreak of the pandemic.

SLEEPLESS Musical Will Use New Fast COVID-19 Test Backstage

www.broadwayworld.com: SLEEPLESS, A Musical Romance, which announced last month it would begin socially distanced indoor performances at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre from 25 August, will begin using a new accurate COVID-19 test on cast, musicians, crew and theatre staff on a daily basis during rehearsals and during the run of the show. The test is called FRANKD (Fast, Reliable, Accurate, Nucleic-based Kit for Covid19 Diagnostic Detection).

Coronavirus: Behind the Scenes on Tours Shattered by COVID-19

Rolling Stone: Paul Klimson, a veteran audio engineer who’s worked with artists like Justin Timberlake, the Roots, and Eric Clapton, was putting together a docket of upcoming shows across multiple venues last week. Then, suddenly, they were all axed in one go. A “text came through that wiped out $11,000 in gigs between now and at least April 8th,” Klimson tells Rolling Stone.

The Mechanics of Crafting Transitions

The Theatre Times: For ensemble pieces in theatre, where actors never once leave the stage, what becomes all-important are the transitions between scenes — how the action, settings and mood segue in transforming ways from one set-piece to the next. But often, even in projects with an extended period of rehearsals, transitions are sometimes afterthoughts put into place much closer to show-dates than might be considered desirable by an anxious stage manager.

Get a Behind-the-Scenes Look at THE LION KING

www.broadwayworld.com: The smash hit musical The Lion King has been showing audiences the circle of life for a remarkable twenty-one years on Broadway, and now the show is giving Business Insider a look backstage at the productions' intricate puppets and set design.

Backstage Video: The Cameras and Switchers for Network on Broadway

Stage Directions: Blackmagic Design announced that the hit Tony-winning Broadway play Network used its products to help create an immersive experience for audience members, putting them right in the middle of a live news broadcast. In this video from the National Theatre, Video Designer and Cinematographer, Tal Yarden explains the use of cameras in the London production

‘Setting the Stage’ tells the story of Chicago theater in 56 objects

Performing Arts Feature | Chicago Reader: A new exhibit at the Design Museum of Chicago pushes visitors through the theater's proverbial fourth wall and onto the scaffolded backstages of some of the cities most storied theaters.

Working in the Theatre Video: Wardrobe

Stage Directions: Here's a video from the American Theatre Wing that takes a look at the work of the Wardrobe Department, specifically for the current production of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theater. The costumes are created to fulfill the epic world that a play or musical inhabits. It takes lots of organization, maintenance, and often creativity to get the performers ready for each and every scene (and maybe even a quick change during a scene).

Show Girls

Evolve: Showgirls is a photo series aimed at bringing attention to female technicians in the live events industry, highlighting that they are not just girls on show site, but are qualified and capable technicians. We interviewed 5 women, of varying experience, for their perspectives on working in a male dominated field and how we get more women interested in a career in AV. The consensus? We need to make more women aware that this industry exists.

A Look at the Masks and the Puppets in The Lion King's Puppet Shop

Stage Directions: It was this week 21 years ago, Oct. 15, 1997 to be precise, that The Lion King played its first preview and audiences first saw the beautiful and intricate costumes, masks and puppetry so central to the narrative and to the unique experience of the production. Adam Savage and the team at Tested went backstage at The Lion King during its run in San Francisco in this video visit to the musical's puppet shop, where puppet supervisor Michael Reilly walked them through the numerous intricate and varied puppets and masks used in the performance and showed how they're maintained in their traveling workshop.

Edgar Degas’s Ballet Dancers Hide a Sordid Backstage Reality

Artsy: Although it enjoyed unprecedented popularity in Degas’s era, the ballet—and the figure of the ballerina—had suffered a demoralizing fate by the late 1800s. Performances had been reduced to tawdry interludes in operas, the spectacle serving as an enticing respite for concertgoers, who could ogle the dancers’ uncovered legs.

Creating Saturday Night Live: Wardrobe

SNL - YouTube: Saturday Night Live's wardrobe team - Dale Richards, Tom Broecker, Eric Justian and Donna Richards - reveals the magic behind the show's numerous costumes and impossible quick changes.

Historical SM Calling Technology: Telephone Switchboards

Stage Directions: Over the course of 75 years, as cueing technology was continuously updated, it drastically altered how a show was called and how the audience perceived the performance. As noted in my article on bells and whistles, the prompter performed an aural role in the production, one that was noticed and acknowledged by audience members.

A Rough Rehearsal, a Suicide and a Broadway Show in Turmoil

The New York Times: The text came in on a Thursday afternoon. The director of “Chicago,” the second-longest-running show in Broadway history, wanted to see the sole remaining member of the opening night cast the next day.

It was an unusual request. The cast member, Jeff Loeffelholz, an understudy who in recent years rarely performed, hadn’t met with the director in a long time.