Why Those Post-Show Diner Trips Meant Everything

OnStage Blog: Theatre people understand that post-show hunger is not normal hunger. It is a full body emergency. You just spent two hours singing, dancing, quick-changing, carrying set pieces, pretending to die, or all of the above. Of course you need mozzarella sticks at 12:14 a.m. Be serious.

What's It Like to Star in a Cult Musical?

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Stephanie Hsu realized something was happening when she started getting tagged in fan art of her Be More Chill character: theatre-obsessed teenager Christine Canigula. She was surprised that young people from all over the world had discovered an obscure musical that only ran for a month at New Jersey's Two River Theater back in 2015. "We had so much fun while we were out there, but I wasn't thinking that it would generate such a huge following," says Hsu. "It really felt like one day I woke up two years after we did the show, and all of a sudden I had all of this fan art being sent to me. And I was like, what? That was the experience of a lot of the original cast members."

Discovery The Magic, Love, And Queerness Behind VOLTA

www.cirquefascination.com: There is beauty in art and gymnastics.

From watching a man fly in the air while hanging from a lamp, to watching bikers soar several feet above your head, or watching a woman stand on the shoulders of a unicyclist. Every sight is stunning, impressive, and little scary.

The circus is known for giving customers many of these daring feats and bringing a smile to their faces. Even further, Cirque du Soleil has become a world-renowned circus for doing all that and so much more.

What It’s Like to Make It in Showbiz With Your Best Friend

The New York Times: They met at 18, the worst dancers in a college ballet class, and sought refuge in a basement practice room, taking a first stab at songwriting with a tune about adolescents playing hooky and footsie at a suburban diner.

They went viral before going viral was a thing — their undergraduate years coincided with the birth of Facebook, and the first song cycle Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote, called “Edges,” was discovered, shared and performed by musical theater majors around the country.

Pregnancy Prompted Closing of ‘Shuffle Along.’ Should Insurance Pay?

The New York Times: Audra McDonald’s pregnancy was a surprise. But was it an accident, an illness or neither?

That is the question the producers of the Broadway musical “Shuffle Along” are asking a court to decide as it demands that an insurance company, Lloyd’s of London, compensate the show for what it says were more than $12 million in damages. The show closed in July, four months after performances began, when Ms. McDonald, who was 45 at the time, became pregnant, and the producers decided they could not continue once she went on maternity leave.

Stymied by a Tricky Problem? Why Talking Out Loud Might Help.

The Creativity Post: I once had a violin teacher who had this amusing habit of talking out loud to himself. Essentially offering a running play-by-play of whatever he was doing at the moment, whether he was sharpening a pencil, typing an email, or packing the trunk of a car.

I thought it was a personal quirk, but as the years have gone by, I’ve caught myself talking out loud on occasion.

And it seems I’m not alone in doing so.

What’s up with this? Are we just weirdos?

What's On Your Phone, Annika Presley?

AMT Lab @ CMU: Annika Presley is Managing Director at Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, a contemporary ballet company in San Francisco, CA. Prior to working at ASI, Annika was Education Director at AXIS Dance Company for eight years. Annika holds an MA in Sign Language Linguistics and originally hails from the Netherlands. In 2015, she was selected as a mentee by Dance/USA’s Institute for Leadership Training.

Hollywood Gives Time Off for Tuesday Election Voting

Variety: Hollywood is holding its collective breath over next Tuesday’s presidential election, with some people so nervous they can barely work. And at some workplaces they don’t have to – at least not on Election Day.

At least half a dozen entertainment companies are giving their employees some, or all, of the day off Nov. 8 to assure they have time to vote, and maybe to spend a little time massaging their worry beads.

Stage review: Actress gets real about family life in a library

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Feeding the Dragon” could be the title of a medieval epic or an episode of “Game of Thrones.” It’s fanciful and adventurous with an element of danger, not unlike the real-life story of a little girl who lived in a library.

Accomplished actress Sharon Washington was that little girl whose life was all those things, some fueled by the many books at her fingertips, some by family, some by what it was like to be an 11-year-old African-American making her way through New York City in the 1970s.

Multi-tasking Experiment

www.productivity501.com: Get 5 to 10 people to stand in a circle and ask them to go through the following sequences: First the alphabet, then count by 3s to 36, then count by 6s to 72. Each person says one item for the sequence and the person on their right says the next. This is pretty easy to do. It only takes a few minutes to go through all the different sequences when they are being done one at a time.

Exactly How To Position Yourself As A First-Time Jobseeker

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: If you're kicking off an entry-level job search, standing out in a sea of qualified candidates can be tough. After all, your work experience is likely limited to internships, and your academic credentials may be a hit or miss as far as an employer’s needs are concerned.

How To Successfully Respond To A Question You Really Don't Want To Answer

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: If you watched the presidential debates, you may have come to the conclusion that answering questions is optional. If you don’t want to provide an answer, simply insert your own topic and carry on.

When you’re at work and your client or boss asks a question, however, it’s not always smart to change the subject and promote your own agenda. Questions need to be addressed.

West End Producer: 10 things they won’t teach you at drama school

www.thestage.co.uk: Drama school is an institution in which you are given a certain status by the staff and your peers. There will be favourites who get all the good parts and people who will spend three years standing at the back holding a spear. Don’t let this worry you. When you enter the professional world of theatre, none of this will matter. Your place and status in drama school is forgotten as soon as you leave. You are a new actor, with a fresh slate, a new face – and the possibility to be the next Dale Winton. Good luck, dear!

Six Hundred and Ninety-Two Million: On Art, Ethics, and Activism

HowlRound: Wake early to an alarm clock before it actually rings.
You look for your slippers. Something to warm your feet from the cold of the bare floor.
You look out the window. It’s not even dawn yet. The darkness of the morning is alive and pulsing.
You stretch your legs. You stretch your body.
You go into the kitchen and get the coffee going.
This is routine. This is a kind of safety.
But you know that the demands of the day have barely begun, least of all the ones that will test your overall sense of morality and ethics.

Ellen Thomas: 'You have to go to America for leading roles these days'

WhatsOnStage.com: "Excuse me, could we have a picture taken with you?" Two slightly sheepish young men have sidled up to Ellen Thomas in the middle of our interview and put in a request. When she says yes, they beam, delighted that she's so forthcoming. But it's not just them who are beaming, Thomas herself laughs loud with glee. "I love people asking for pictures!" she says.

What's On Your Phone, Dek Ingraham?

AMT Lab @ CMU: Dek Ingraham is the Technology Projects Specialist at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (GPAC). GPAC is the leading voice for arts and culture across the Greater Pittsburgh region, driving the political, financial, and professional support for the sector. AMT Lab contributor Anna Okuda sat down to ask Dek about apps on his phone including ones he suggests for arts managers.

Roads into Portrayals of Mental Health Onstage

HowlRound: I had been invited to observe Belarus Free Theatre’s (BFT) workshop exploring A Road Back from Schizophrenia, a controversial 2012 memoir by Norwegian Arnhild Lauveng chronicling her painful recovery from schizophrenia, in preparation for Tomorrow I Was Always A Lion, their new show based on Lauveng’s account. The idea was to gather medical professionals and artists who live with hearing voices (HV) or seeing visions (SV), to work together with BFT to consider director Vladimir Shcherban’s three questions about the work in relation to its adaptation to stage: “What is schizophrenia? Where is the line between the illness and a patient’s rights? What methods can we find to tell this private story in a simple way?”

What's On Your Phone, Kierstin Wilson?

AMT Lab @ CMU: Kierstin Wilson is the Manager of Events at Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, an internationally recognized symphony that strives to bring great music to the community.

As a project manager of special events, Wilson creates, manages, and implements a million-dollar annual fundraising gala attended by thousands of patrons, as well as donor specific, young professional and new audience events aimed at breaking down barriers between classical music and the public. AMT Lab Contributor Wei Wei sat down with Kierstin to talk about her favorite apps.

Next to Normal

Pittsburgh in the Round: Mental health is a tricky subject to approach in storytelling. Do you try to solve the depression of a character, and risk pulling all the weight out from under your story’s credibility? Do you try to define the core of a character’s mental illness, and risk simplifying the psychological and biological complexities of a common real world problem? Do you avoid diving into the issue out of fear, reducing an otherwise compelling spider web of head and heart to the dusty cobwebs of an unswept stage?

So you think I'm taking a break from theatre, do you?

Gail Tierney: A few days ago, I was planting shrubs alongside a new friend. We were asking polite questions to get to know each other, and my background in theatre naturally came up. He asked follow-up questions, and I shared my well-oiled monologue about how I’ve been doing theatre since I was a child and how I recently graduated from an intense conservatory program and how I’m now taking a break to define my artistic voice because my limited perspective as a young, privileged white woman doesn’t feel too relevant in 2016.