Cable Carriers for the Stage

Entertainment Engineering - Volume 5 Issue 6: "The cable carriers used for KA, Cirque du Soleil’s high-tech show in Vegas, were installed on each of the show’s five stages to support the large number of wires and cables used to control the show’s electronics."

Fire Engine Experience

Entertainment Engineering - Volume 5 Issue 6: "Formations Inc. of Portland, OR was contracted to design an immersive ride focusing on the experience one would have while riding in a real America LaFrance Eagle Fire Engine cab. Their client, the Portland Fire Bureau had a donated front cab section from a real fire engine, complete with most of the electrical systems. The vacant engine compartment became the AV (audio-visual) systems bay and the cabin interior became a virtual theater where visitors could experience the sights, sounds, and feelings of being a fire fighter during an emergency response call."

LEDs On Board Queen Victoria

Entertainment Engineering - Volume 5 Issue 6: "'The Stufish design for the Queen Victoria naming ceremony stage invoked the luxury of a Victorian-style theatre,' says Ala Pratt. 'Blackout helped to create the atmosphere by providing drapes for the Royal and VIP areas, the main tabs plus the blacks, and gauze used for the final reveals.'"

Previsualisation Brings the Spiderwick Chronicles to Life

Entertainment Engineering - Volume 5 Issue 6: "The Spiderwick Chronicles movie is filled with creatures from an 'unseen' world. The various creatures the movie’s actors come upon in the film range in size from the nine-inch brownie, Thimbletack, to the ten-foot fearsome ogre Mulgarath. With so many unusual and complicated non-human characters in The Spiderwick Chronicles, the film’s producers knew the job of creating them might be best split between two visual effects wizards: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Tippett Studio."

Answers About Acrylic

Sign Builder: Acrylic is a plastic product that's proven ideal for achieving a sophisticated look. Another advantage: It can also be heated to conform to many different shapes.

Why Hardboard?

Sign Builder: What most people call Masonite is more correctly called Hardboard or Hardwood Board. Masonite is a brand name of the Masonite Corporation for a hardboard product appropriately named for William Mason

The Real Deal With DPI

Sign Builder: We've Been dealing with digital prints and wraps for the last year or so, and I've noticed one thing that's never been talked about but I think is really important - "DPI"

Stage Review: Constraints limit dramatic impact of 'This Furnace'

Post Gazette: "Thomas Bell's epic 1941 novel of three generations of Slovak immigrants, as originally adapted for the stage 30 years ago by Pittsburgh's Ironclad Agreement, has now been revived by Unseam'd Shakespeare in a production rich in the human issues of the molding of new Americans in the blast furnaces of capitalism."

Tony-winning Rylance calls on Brits to copy Broadway

The Stage: "Rylance, who received the Best Lead Actor in a Play Award for his performance in the US transfer of Boeing Boeing, said that he had been impressed by the way Broadway used the Tony ceremony to market shows."

Copyright cock-up

globeandmail.com: "Want to rip a DVD so you can show your film-class students a series of clips? Nope. Want to post a Battlestar Galactica tribute video to YouTube? Time to hire a lawyer."

Today, Harvard. Tomorrow ... ?

Inside Higher Ed: "It may seem strange for me, an ordinary mortal, to be defending Harvard’s $34 billion endowment. But we all know the way government works: today it’s Harvard, tomorrow it’s my $34 billion or maybe my 1993 Lexus. Because our government, acting through the Senate Finance Committee, has started to reach into private pockets, where it does not belong."

Clean Is Good

ExhibiTricks: "One downside of 'hands-on' exhibits is that visitors hands can be pretty dirty! Nothing makes a museum or exhibit component look 'poorly maintained' than grime and stains. I really think exhibit vandalism happens less in well-cared for and clean environments, so here are a few favorite tools to help you keep things looking fresh"

Changing the players, and the game

The Artful Manager: "But my full week in Denver, with the 12-hour days of convening and observing with the graduate student team I was co-directing there -- along with Elizabeth Lingo of Vanderbilt University and Caroline Lee of Lafayette College -- left me with a much clearer sense of our field's capacity for collective action. Full details of our findings will be published in our commissioned report in a few months. But my own reflections -- which may or may not reflect the opinions of my peers -- suggest the following"

Video - How Does David Copperfield Fly?

Dvorak Uncensored: General interest observations and true web-log.

Compendium of odd alarms

Boing Boing Gadgets: "Techopolis finds twenty-two of the weirdest alarm clocks available, from 110db Screaming Meanies to contraptions that roll off and hide when activated."

Healing continues following church floor collapse

CanadianChristianity.com: "'WHAT SATAN intended for evil God has turned into something positive,' says Central Heights Church executive pastor Steve Boakes.
Boakes is referring to the aftermath of the collapse of the church floor during a Starfield concert April 25."

The Week in Tools: Toolmonger Top 5

Toolmonger: "It’s been a busy week here at Toolmonger. If you’ve been spending time in the shop — you should! — and you haven’t had a chance to keep up with Toolmonger this week, we suggest you start with these posts, which our readers helped to select"

Entertainment Weekly Names Top 50 New Stage Classics

Playbill News : "In the 1,000th issue of Entertainment Weekly, which hits newsstands June 20, the editors have chosen the 1,000 best films, television shows, recordings, books, stage productions and more of the last quarter-century."

Weinstein Co. Eyes "Chocolat," "Shakespeare in Love," "Cinema Paradiso" as Future Musicals

Playbill News : "Variety reported June 20 that The Weinstein Company is exploring making musicals of the Miramax films 'Shakespeare in Love,' 'Chocolat,' 'Cinema Paradiso' and 'Shall We Dance.' Bob and Harvey Weinstein ran Miramax before they helmed The Weinstein Company, which has film, TV, publishing and stage interests."

Weinsteins are bound for Broadway

Variety: "The Weinstein Co. -- a minority co-producer on the season's Tony-winning play and play revival, 'August: Osage County' and 'Boeing-Boeing,' respectively -- has developed an ambitious slate of stage projects, likely to kick off with the upcoming tuner version of 'Finding Neverland' in 2010, followed by a stage incarnation of Pink Floyd album 'The Wall.'"

Stage Preview: 35 years of 'Peter Pan' puts a spring in Rigby's step

Post Gazette: "Gymnastics and theater call upon some obviously similar physical skills. But the difference between them, says Cathy Rigby, who has been a champion in both, is that 'gymnastics is about not thinking or feeling, but acting is all about playing in the moment.'"

The innocent goes to a Tony party

Post Gazette: "Go to a Tony party, I was told. The after-parties are really where it's at.
But how?
To wangle an invitation?"

Fledgling theater company invites audience to 'Wild Party'

Post Gazette: "It's summer vacation time, so a little carousing by kids is to be expected.
But one group of young people is taking its wild party to the stage, and not only do these youths invite others to join in, they hope to make it a regular event."

Never say never to Neverland

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "In 1974, a 22-year-old Cathy Rigby first soared onstage as Peter Pan.
Thirty-four years later, she's still flying high as the boy who vowed never to grow up."

'Peter Pan': A history on stage, screen

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Numerous performers have played Peter Pan in plays and musicals since he first appeared onstage in 1904."

Noble Theatre throws 'Wild Party' for inaugural show

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The father-son duo chose the offbeat 2000 Off-Broadway musical to formally introduce area theatergoers this weekend to their new production company, Noble Theatre Productions."

Greta Scacchi's West End worries

guardian.co.uk: "It's a familiar complaint and one voiced only recently by Kevin Spacey. But Scacchi takes things further, suggesting a scheme she hopes will generate greater word of mouth for dramatic productions. As reported by The Stage, she consulted the show's producer Nica Burns on the matter, and as a result, questionnaires were produced asking audience members things like 'How would you describe this production to a friend?' and 'On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this production?'"

Broadway's `Cry-Baby' to Close Sunday, a Tony, Box-Office Flop

Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "``Cry-Baby,'' a musical based on the John Waters movie of the same name, will close Sunday after 113 performances at Broadway's Marquis Theatre. It probably will have lost its entire $10-million-plus capitalization."

Drawing a Simple 3D Stairway

Daily Autocad: "I have talked about drawing a 3D straight stairway in my last article. This time I will explain a 3D circular one. Please remember, the way mentioned here is just one method, you can develop your own method."

Autodesk Wii

The CAD Geek Blog: "I have to admit, when I made that post it was meant more as a joke. Afterall this is a CAD blog, not a Nintendo Wii blog. However this morning I saw a strange post come up in my feed reader – Scott Sheppard over at the “It’s alive in the lab” blog made a post “Wiimote Navigation Add-in for Autodesk Design Review Now Available”. All of a sudden that post back in February about Nintendo Wii didn’t seem so foolish."

City Theater Invites Bloggers to a Show! (RSVP by July 3rd!)

pittsburgh bloggers: "City Theatre announces a special summer engagement of 'The Wonder Bread Years,' a hilarious one-man show by former 'Seinfeld' writer Pat Hazell. An open-ended run of this hit comedy will begin Thursday, July 10, 2008 in City Theatre¹s Lester Hamburg Studio. Anyone who remembers Silly Putty and Sugar Pops will love this entertaining salute to Baby Boomer culture, performed at City Theatre by John Mueller."

Career in Creatures: A Stan Winston Art Retrospective

I09: "With the sad news earlier this week that special effects master Stan Winston had died, Hollywood lost one of its master creature-makers. Though Winston's studio did do some digital effects, Winston may have been one of the last great artists of the animatronic. With the help of a huge group of artists, sculptors, mechanical engineers, and even (at one point) the Sociable Robotics Lab at MIT, Winston built everything from a life-sized dinosaur for Jurassic Park to the uncannily realistic teddy bear bot for the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He also had a hand in some productions you might not have guessed, like 1970s Wizard of Oz remake The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (holy crap I loved that movie when I was a kid)."

Tell us your AutoCAD story and get a free video camera!

Lynn Allen's Blog: "Announcing the Autodesk Customer Video Project! They will be giving away 100 of the very cool Flip Video Cameras (I want one!) in return for a couple of minutes of video. They are looking for a few good passionate AutoCAD users who want to share their stories with us (how AutoCAD has changed your life, cool projects you've done, etc). You upload the videos to the website then after approval you get to be features on the AutoCAD site! Think of this like the YouTube for AutoCAD fans."

Amazing New Take on House Decoration 3D Wall Paintings

Freshome.com: "When I saw these pictures for the first time I’ve immediately thought at the amazing 3D chalk drawings done by Julian Beever ( see his works here ). What you can see in these pictures is a brilliant new take on house decoration, and I’m sure that that my readers would want to admire these pictures. This guy does an amazing job, but unfortunately the work of this one mystery man has been floating all around the internet for some time now, but does anyone know his name, or something about him. Finally I would like to ask you to post a comment if you know who is the author of these amazing 3 dimensional wall paintings, because he should be getting some commissions."

Music - Nathan Gunn and Paulo Szot

NYTimes.com: "Opera buffs who admire the American baritone Nathan Gunn should perhaps be concerned about his recent forays into musical theater. After stealing the show as Lancelot in the New York Philharmonic’s presentation of Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” in May, he scored another triumph as Gaylord Ravenal in the concert adaptation of “Show Boat,” the landmark Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical, at Carnegie Hall on June 10."

3 Lives Inspire Portrayal of a Complex Artist, Louise Nevelson

NYTimes.com: "“This was the first place I came,” Mercedes Ruehl says, looking around the small white pentagonal chapel that Louise Nevelson designed for St. Peter’s Church in Midtown Manhattan. She is describing how she prepared to portray Nevelson onstage in “Edward Albee’s Occupant.”"

A Theater Renaming Will Honor a Foot Soldier of Broadway

NYTimes.com: "The Manhattan Theater Club has announced a new name for its Biltmore Theater. And who will receive that honor, one now shared on Broadway by a select group of people? Maybe a writer, a critic, an actor, a cartoonist? Perhaps an airline or a large multinational bank?"

ASK PLAYBILL.COM: Crew Hiring

Playbill News: "Question: We often hear about the typical audition process that actors go through when they want to join a Broadway production. However, what process do potential backstage crew members go through when they want to join a new/current show?"

Millburn buys Paper Mill

Variety: "By unanimous vote of its Township Committee on Tuesday night, the city has elected to pay $9 million to the Paper Mill for the buildings and the land housing the 1,200-seat nonprofit theater and will lease the property back to the Paper Mill. Millburn Mayor Sandra Haimoff described the decision as good business sense, saying that, despite its monetary woes, the theater remains 'an economic driver for the township. It brings at lot of business to stores and restaurants and so forth in the area.'"

Stage Review: 'Salome' seduces with its surprises

Post Gazette: "There's nothing ordinary about this 'Salome,' an elegant, bloody tale of wayward passion, drenched in poetic extremity. Whatever Oscar Wilde's unlikely prose poem may be on the page, Dubliner Alan Stanford and Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre have realized it as a fastidious tale of lust and superstition, perversion and morality."

Meticulous 'Salome' lingers over details

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Oscar Wilde's 'Salome' has never had an easy time of it.
Its first London production in 1892 was abandoned when England's Lord Chamberlain banned it. Wilde published the play in French in 1893 instead.
When he later commissioned his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, to translate it into English, the resulting script required mammoth revisions.
By the time it finally got staged in 1896 -- in France -- Wilde was in jail."

Should I read a new script before I review the production?

guardian.co.uk: "As well as discussing the various issues facing theatre criticism in our respective countries, comparing the various traditions of reviewing and talking about the problems that we encounter, we are also assessing a large selection of the new plays being shown here. And this is where the differences between critical cultures really start to show. As preparation for our reviews, our coordinator sent us all the respective scripts of the plays that we would be seeing."

'August' poses a potty-mouth problem for Mirvish

TheStar.com: "How do you solve a problem like August: Osage County?
And are Toronto audiences ready for this 3 1/2-hour look at a dysfunctional family, which was crowned on Sunday with the Tony for the best play of the year?
That's a question David Mirvish is grappling with at the moment.
'It's definitely a challenge,' Mirvish said yesterday."

Cirque du Soleil denies rumoured Dubai deal

globeandmail.com: "Cirque du Soleil is dismissing reports that an oil-rich Dubai investment fund has approached the Canadian company with a takeover bid.
British media reports say an investment arm of the Kingdom of Dubai has offered the equivalent of close to $2-billion for the wildly successful Montreal-based circus company.
'Cirque du Soleil is not for sale,' Cirque spokesperson Renée-Claude Ménard wrote in an e-mailed statement to The Globe and Mail yesterday, calling the reports 'rumour and speculation.'"

Disastrous (If Funny) Hamlet Howls in Central Park

Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "Oskar Eustis's Central Park revival is the most misguided ``Hamlet'' I have ever seen. If there existed a booby prize for consummate demolition of Shakespeare, Eustis would win it hands down."

Broadway gearing up for fall season

Reuters: "Congratulations to all you new Tony winners. It's a tradition that had a noble start: When the coveted prizes for Broadway's best were handed out for the first time 61 years ago, it was not at the 5,933-seat Radio City Music Hall but rather at a festive dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria, with only eight categories saluted, compared with 21 these days."

Be Accountable

Stepcase Lifehack: "like to think that I am a very good driver, if not an expert. Even so, once in a while I miss a red light, I speed. and sometimes even make a wrong turn. Does that mean I should quit driving altogether?
I don’t think so. I need to be aware of these errors and be careful. Similarly, it is not unusual to miss a project deadline. No matter how well we plan, we may still miss a deadline at some point. Should we be afraid to plan because we fear our plans would slip?
Not at all. We have to put in our best effort and plan. Then we publish that plan, track its activities, anticipate slippages, re-plan and continue tracking."

Priscilla Lopez (DSC #206)

American Theatre Wing: "Tony-winner Priscilla Lopez talks about what drew her to the new musical In The Heights and talks about her patience and faith that by the time it reached Broadway, she’d have her own song in the show. She also talks about her early training, including additional details about her high school years that didn’t make it into the song “Nothing” in A Chorus Line; both her attempted and actual Broadway debuts in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Henry Sweet Henry; her recollections of the workshop sessions that ultimately became A Chorus Line; how she came to channel Harpo Marx for the musical A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine; and how she came to make her Broadway dramatic debut in Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics, some 35 years after her musical debut."

Hollywood braces for actors strike

Marketplace: "Production on movies and television has again slowed to a virtual halt under the threat of an actors strike."

Is Your Time-Management System UGH-ly?

Ian's Messy Desk: "I may be the guy who blogs about time management and productivity, but my wife is the master of putting it into practice. She has a system that works for her. What is the secret of her success? She uses an UGH-ly planner. No, it’s not some fancy new technology—though she uses a PDA—and it’s not some some new binder from DayTimers."

Julie Taymor @ TED (Theatreforte)

TheatreTube: "Julie Taymor gives some great talks. And TED hosts some great talks (check out the YouTube channel). And now, TED hosts one of Taymor's great talks, and puts it on the internet."

Theater things that don't make sense: Vol. 3. We need you. Pay up.

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "This year's Tony Awards featured more performances than previous years. Why? Because the producers of the Tonys know that performances are what America wants to see."

Yes, It’s (Sometimes) Ok To Be Inefficient «

Web Worker Daily: "Wherever you turn in the blogosphere, you’ll probably encounter dozens of tips on how to be more productive, efficient, and super-focused. A recent news item says that over 90 minutes each workweek is spent on idle web surfing. Upon reading this, the overly productive types are probably going “The horror!”, not realizing that there’s a simple truth behind such news:
We can’t escape inefficiency."

TKTS Discount Ticket Booth to Open in Brooklyn in July

Playbill News: "Theatre Development Fund (TDF) and MetroTech Business Improvement District announced June 18 that the new ticket booth — offering discounted tickets to Broadway, Off-Broadway, music, dance and Brooklyn performing arts events — will be located on the ground floor of the MetroTech Center at the corner of Jay Street and Myrtle Avenue."

Hartford Stage Receives $1 Million Grant for Expansion

Playbill News: "Hartford Stage intends to utilize the funding to support a proposed renovation project that will modernize the current venue and allow an expansion of the current 489-seat theatre. Representatives for the Connecticut theatre said that full details of the renovation will be announced in late 2008."

'Cry-Baby' to close on June 22

Variety: "'Cry-Baby' is the first post-Tony casualty of the summer, with the tuner posting a closing notice for June 22.
Like the 2002 Tony-winning hit 'Hairspray,' 'Cry-Baby' is based on a John Waters pic, but this time out the Waters-inspired material never found traction at the box office or with critics."

Peter Flynn to Helm Ithaca's Hangar Theatre

Yahoo! News: "Bushlow stated, 'Peter Flynn will build on the vision of past artistic leaders, including Robert Moss, Mark Ramont and Kevin Moriarty. With his experience and enthusiasm, we look forward to a new integration of our professional summer season, our acclaimed training programs, and our year-round education programs in local schools.'"

Ashland director takes a new course

San Jose Mercury News: "The Remembrance Tree, standing 18 feet tall in the lobby of the New Theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, may be the perfect symbol of Bill Rauch's approach to drama.
The maverick who took the helm of the festival last year already has struck a chord with the Ashland community and forged that feedback into art."

Regional theater has good showing at Tony Awards

www.kansascity.com: "It was a great night for regional theater at the 2008 Tony Awards, the annual extravaganza designed to celebrate the art and promote the business of Broadway."

Can serious drama compete against the musical?

Times Online: "There is something I'm quite worked up about at the moment. After eight years away, I'm back in the West End, and I'm seeing first-hand what everybody has been complaining about in the business. The straight play is an endangered species. The last time I was in the Vaudeville Theatre was in Uncle Vanya, with Michael Gambon, in 1988."

Theatre should be free for kids, argues playwright Wood

The Stage: "“Children’s theatre should be getting, if not as much as, more funding than adult theatre. Our seat prices have rightly to be kept low, yet the production values we keep as high as possible, and there is a natural gap there between revenue and expenditure. How do you fill that? We try to get sponsorship, we try to get funding, but small people attract only small funding.”"

Rome Churches Shut to "Angels and Demons" Filming

Backstage: "The Italian Catholic Church has refused to let a new movie based on a Dan Brown novel be filmed in churches in Rome after the author's 'The Da Vinci Code' novel and film outraged the Vatican."

Munich's Lavish Theater Reopens With Mozart

Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "The festive reopening of Munich's ornate Cuvillies Theater after a four-year renovation was the housewarming party of the decade in the Bavarian city, which is celebrating its 850th birthday."

Green Theater: How-To: Policy

ecoTheater: "My writing on ecoTheater has enabled me to work out my ideas about creating a more sustainable way to produce theater as I go along — and it’s been a rather bumpy path. My bread and butter at the moment happens to be my work for a rather conventionally run, small, but productive and largely fulfilling children’s theater. So, my writing here has also helped me formulate the steps I can take within that organization to help it inch its way toward a greener model."

Museum attendance soars for dinosaurs

Post Gazette: "Attendance at the Carnegie Museums in Oakland more than quadrupled on Saturday as thousands flocked to a members-only preview of the newly reopened exhibit featuring the museums' Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons."

How to Motivate and Inspire Others

Ian's Messy Desk: "The Green Bay Packers were a lacklustre team prior to the arrival of Vince Lombardi. The now legendary coach turned the Packers into the dominant NFL team of the 1960s. Why such a turnaround? Frank Gifford says it wasn’t Lombardi’s knowledge that made the difference, it was his ability to motivate the players. “He could get that extra ten percent out of an individual,” Gifford says. “Multiply ten percent times forty men on the team times fourteen games a season—and you’re going to win.”"

Obituary: Stan Winston / Brought 'Jurassic Park' dinosaurs to life

Post Gazette: "Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special-effects maestro responsible for bringing the dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park' and other iconic movie creatures to life, has died. He was 62."

Understanding Polar Coordinate Input

Daily Autocad: "Many Autocad users have some troubles with angles. The reason beyond this is the lack of information about polar coordinate system. Examining the figure below, let us start to learn polar coordinate system."

The Three Rivers Arts Festival

Pop City

'In the Heights' takes best musical Tony

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "'In the Heights,' a joyous celebration of Latino life in the upper reaches of Manhattan, was named best musical at Sunday night's Tony Awards, while 'August: Osage County,' Tracy Letts' scabrous tale of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, took best play."

'Unnecessary Farce' begins today

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "You know what they say ... when one door closes, another one opens.
And that usually spells trouble in the comedy romp 'Unnecessary Farce' being staged beginning today at Mountain Playhouse in Jennerstown."

Foundation grant to help launch Phipps building

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens has received $5 million from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to help pay for design and construction of a building that is touted to become the world's greenest building when it opens, officials said today."

Glass Ceiling Meets Sisterhood in ‘Top Girls’ and ‘Sex and the City’

NYTimes.com: "THE women are gathered for a celebratory dinner. The wine flows freely, as does the talk. Of the fickleness of men, the pleasures of sex, the price of achievement. Fashion is touched upon briefly — one woman boasts dreamily of a particularly extravagant gown made of eight layers of silk — but, oddly enough, the subject of shoes never once arises."

Lincoln Center’s Big Shows Set Records at Tonys

NYTimes.com: "Broadway might have been in the haze of a post-Tony hangover Monday morning, but the math was as clear as a bell: Lincoln Center Theater won big. Again."

Broadway's Spring Awakening Offers Online Rush Tickets

Playbill News: "The Broadway production of Spring Awakening has launched a new digital ticket rush offer on the official webpage of the Tony Award-winning musical."

SAG's Rosenberg proposes debate

Hollywood Reporter: "On Monday, SAG president Alan Rosenberg, citing the spread of misinformation, proposed that SAG and AFTRA hold an official debate on the issues involving AFTRA's newly brokered primetime/TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers."

Makeup Artist

Craigslist: "I am interested in forming a small group of makeup artists to build a professional team, work together and book jobs in Pittsburgh."

2008 Tony winners

Post Gazette: "2008 Tony winners"

Enchanted evening for 'South Pacific'

Post Gazette: "'In the Heights,' a joyous celebration of Latino life in the upper reaches of Manhattan, was named best musical at last night's Tony Awards, while 'August: Osage County,' Tracy Letts' scabrous tale of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, took best play."

Broadway event helps Fight AIDS

Variety: "Summer's here and it's time for Broadway's finest to strip off their clothes. On June 22, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will produce the 18th installment of 'Broadway Bares,' a burlesque fund-raiser that has become one of the most recognizable brands in Gotham legit."

Tony Awards

New York Times: "Broadway might have been in the haze of a post-Tony hangover Monday morning, but the math was as clear as a bell: Lincoln Center Theater won big. Again."

The Tonys Spread the Glory Around

NYTimes.com: "Reflecting an eclectic Broadway season, the 62nd Annual Tony Awards crowned a salsa-flavored musical written by a theater novice, a nostalgic glamorous revival, a sweeping melodrama from a writer making his Broadway debut, and the revival of a ’60s sex farce."

Hip-hop hooray for 'In the Heights'

LA Times: "In the tossup of this year's Tony Awards, a Latino story trumped an unusual African American coming-of-age tale Sunday as Tony voters gave their best new musical prize and three others to 'In the Heights,' about Caribbean immigrant families struggling to reach for the American dream in New York's Washington Heights barrio."

Yielding benefits

NJ.com: "'South Pacific,' a musical revival that sailed off with the most Tony Awards on Sunday night, was one more artistic triumph for Lincoln Center Theater, a non-profit institution. Lincoln Center also brought 'Rock 'n' Roll' and 'Cymbeline' to Broadway this season, in cooperation with commercial producers or alone."

'In the Heights' edges Berkeley Rep's 'Passing Strange' with 4 Tony awards

San Francisco Chronicle: "A loud cheer rose from members of Berkeley Repertory Theatre assembled in a conference room at CBS 5-TV (KPIX) when word came that singer-songwriter Stew had won the Tony award for best book of a musical. A collective groan greeted the announcement of the final award of the evening, when 'In the Heights' beat out Stew's 'Passing Strange,' which had premiered at the Rep before moving to New York."

South Pacific wins big at Tony Awards

Reuters: "'Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific' dominated Broadway's top honors, the Tony Awards, with seven prizes on Sunday, followed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'August: Osage County' with five wins."

Multi-Cultural Tonys Made Broadway Look All-American

Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "When Lin-Manuel Miranda rapped his Tony Award acceptance speech to a giddily stunned audience last night, he rhymed props to Stephen Sondheim, his family and that Latin-inflected fingertip of northern Manhattan where his show, ``In the Heights,'' is set.

And when the rock musician Stew won for his book for ``Passing Strange,'' he nodded to Los Angeles, where his exuberant, loud, sexy show begins and ends.

I liked ``Passing Strange'' more than ``In the Heights,'' but really, that's not the point. The remarkable thing is that those two comparatively small-scale, unassuming shows came to dominate the Tonys at all."

Sarah Hepola: Why I love the Tony Awards!

Salon Arts & Entertainment: "Of all the major awards shows, the Tonys may be the most unloved. If the Oscars are the night of a thousand stars, then the Tonys are a mostly dark and windswept night. 'People whose names and faces I didn't recognize from shows I haven't seen' -- that's how writer David Marchese described the experience of being backstage at the Tonys on Salon last year. And for most people, that pretty much sums it up; the Tonys are the broadcast equivalent of someone else's summer camp story. Hosted by Whoopi Goldberg."

Whoopi Goldberg talks about hosting the Tonys

NY Daily News: "For the past two years, the Tony Awards have gone without a host. But that's about to change. Enter Whoopi (in some outrageous fashion). The funny lady and former Oscar host who once descended from the ceiling on a swing, in a hilarious nod to 'Moulin Rouge,' will be helming Broadway's biggest night tonight. You can bet she's got some surprises in store."

Those poor, lowly crafts awards just got demoted

Los Angeles Times: "In the past, PBS telecast the bestowal of the creative-arts Tony Awards that were handed out before the CBS broadcast. At least that gave them some serious media attention. This year PBS didn't bother. The presentations were only webcast. That might be OK in this Internet age, but they didn't even get attention from the Tonys chiefs. As those awards were being passed out, that video wasn't what appeared on the monitors back in the press room. Instead, those monitors were tuned to the red-carpet arrivals aired on NY1, the local, New York-only cable channel."

'Heights,' 'Strange' Vie for Top Musical Tony

Backstage: "'Boeing-Boeing,' a 1960s sex farce filled with slamming doors and eager stewardesses, won as best-play revival and the revival of 'South Pacific' took four design prizes as the 2008 Tony Awards got under way Sunday."

`Osage County,' `South Pacific' Win Early Tony Awards

Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts: "August: Osage County'' won the Tony Award for best play tonight as Lincoln Center Theater's revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's ``South Pacific'' dominated Broadway's early musical awards."

South Pacific early winner at N.Y.'s Tony Awards

Reuters: "'Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific' was an early winner on Sunday at Broadway's top honors, the Tony Awards, with the musical picking up five prizes -- for direction, scenery, costume, lighting and sound."

This Year’s Tonys Spread the Broadway Glory Around

NYTimes.com: "Reflecting an eclectic Broadway season, the 62nd Annual Tony Awards decided to spread around the goodies, with the new musical “In the Heights” winning several awards, including for choreography and score, “Passing Strange” winning for best book of a musical, “August: Osage County” winning for best featured actress in a play and “Boeing-Boeing” winning for best revival of a play."

Benanti Is First "Gypsy" to Win the Tony

Playbill News: "Laura Benanti is the first actress to have played the role of Gypsy Rose Lee in a Broadway production of Gypsy to win a Tony Award for her performance."

'Osage County' takes best play at Tonys

Hollywood Reporter: "'August: Osage County,' Tracy Letts' scabrous tale of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, was named best play Sunday at the 2008 Tony Awards ceremony, picking up two acting prizes as well as an award for direction.
Thanking the show's producers, Letts said: 'They did an amazing thing. They decided to produce an American play on Broadway with theater actors.'"

'Heights,' 'August' top Tony Awards

Variety

Tony winners react backstage

Variety: "The difference between 'Boeing-Boeing' now and 'Boeing-Boeing' then? When the play first played the Rialto in the 1960s, it flopped. This year, it won the Tony for play revival."

Giving Opportunites - Holiday Cards

ESTA Foundation - Behind the Scenes: "Prepare for the holidays and support your colleagues with Behind the Scenes holiday greeting cards. Choose from six designs created especially for Behind the Scenes by some of the industry's top designers. Cards can be personalized with your company’s logo and custom message. Click on a design to see a larger image. All proceeds benefit Behind the Scenes."

Morningness Is A Predictor Of Better Grades In College

Science Daily: "Morningness is a predictor of better grades in college, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 9 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS)."