Tweak tax breaks for movie biz

WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL: "The study of Depp's 'Public Enemies' shows that the movie crew spent about $5 million on food, lodging, wardrobe and salaries for state residents while shooting in Madison, Columbus, Beaver Dam and a half dozen other Wisconsin locations from March through June.
In addition, the state expects to collect an estimated $270,000 in sales and income taxes related to the film being shot here.
But to lure the movie crew to Wisconsin in the first place, the state offered a 25 percent tax rebate for film expenses. That means the state will have to give the film company about $4.6 million -- far more than state coffers will receive in revenue from the movie's production."

A gender pay gap for L.A. artists (NYC too)

Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times: "As a follow-up to its report 'Artists in the Workforce, 1990-2005,' released in June, the National Endowment for the Arts is releasing today the results of a closer examination of the gender pay gap between men and women artists discovered by the original study.
Surprise -- women artists earn less."

Vista Spyder Crawls Walgreens' Wall, Times Square

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: "To process and distribute the massive amount of data necessary to feed the supersign, the digital display engineering and manufacturing company D3 LED -- the company that engineered and manufactured the spectacular -- has chosen Vista Systems' Spyder."

Behind the scenes: Christmas tree technical production

Champion - Article - Liberty University: "Great productions are made, led and performed by great people. All too often, only the performers are recognized for a job well done when there are many more key people who truly make a show successful.
Thomas Road Baptist Church’s (TRBC) Living Christmas Tree production meets many standards of greatness only as a result of an enormous collaboration of behind-the-scenes people who produce a remarkable show year after year."

Theatre Staff End Plans to Strike with Live Nation's Revised Pay Deal

Stage-directions: "A dispute between Bectu and Live Nation began back in April, after the organization offered a 3% pay raise instead of the full national pay award of 3.5% to employees who make above Theatrical Management Association minimum wages."

Two New Courses

An Inter-University Course between Carlow University and Carnegie Mellon:
CRISES IN CREATION: Compositional Thought in Conflict with Authority

Spring 2009
CMU 99-481
9 units
Tuesday evenings 6:30-9:20pm

Location alternates between CMU and Carlow on a monthly basis: January-Carlow, February-CMU, March-Carlow, April-CMU, May-Carlow

This is an inter-University, interdisciplinary course that engages the student in "classical" music by examining case studies of composers working or being in conflict with some outside force. Studying this issue can involve historical, sociological, religious, philosophical, and political issues and ideas as well as musical ones. As a joint course with Carlow, team-taught with one professor from each university, the course location will rotate back and forth between the two campuses.

This is a discussion course, and limited to 20 students. Outside work will include readings and two term papers; class time will be spent discussing issues raised by the readings, lecture, and listening to selected music on the case studies. The ability to read music is not a prerequisite for this course, but music and non-music students will be encouraged to "pair up" for one of the projects.

Professors:
Grace Ann Geibel, RSM, President Emeritus of Carlow University.
Pianist, choral director, and professor of music.

R. James Whipple, Artist Lecturer in Music at Carnegie Mellon University.
Composer, bassoonist, and arts administrator.


99-460: Urban Agriculture in a Global Context
Instructors: Larry Patrick, Ph.D and Renee Roy

Spring 2009
9 units
Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:30-7:50 PM
Room: Baker Hall A54

Course Description

Farming has been practiced in urban and peri-urban areas for centuries. However, during the past two decades, urban agriculture has gained status as a multi-pronged strategy for social, economic and environmental revitalization in cities. This interdisciplinary course explores todays phenomena of urban agriculture as a platform for inquiry into the tension between global/industrial and local/sustainable food systems. Students taking this course will investigate the interconnected socio-cultural, political-economic and spatial dimensions of urban agriculture as it exists in Pittsburgh and in cities worldwide. Ecological approaches are used to challenge students to understand what it is we eat and how each of us can engage more fully with emergent forms and sites of food production and consumption.

Course readings will span geography, policy and urbanism with detailed analysis given to: 1) the social and political act of urban food growing during times of crisis/food scarcity throughout history, 2) the evolving regulatory context of globalized and localized food systems in the U.S., and 3) the spatial implications of urban agriculture as demonstrated through the newest innovations in building and public space design involving food production.

Pittsburgh's Revitalization and Millennials

Future Majority: "I've written a few times now about larger cities in the Rust Belt (largely the Detroit to Buffalo corridor, with Pittsburgh included), what they're lacking, and how they can bounce back. I'll continue to write about this because of my relative familiarity with the region and because I am genuinely interested in revitalizing these cities with youth in mind."

Safety Roundup: 6 to Watch

Industrial Equipment News: "Here, in no particular order, are 6 innovative ideas we've come across recently -- ranging from the simple and easy to adopt to a complex and promising nano-research project."

Why Did Carnegie Mellon Students and Faculty…

University Diaries: "… dislike Walking to the Sky so much that they got the sculpture moved from a prominent to a less prominent location, and insisted that future decisions about campus art and its placement be more democratic?"

USITT Sets Stage for 2009 Conference

PLSN: "USITT’s annual Conference & Stage Expo is set for March 18 to 21, 2009, and the association is finalizing plans for activities before, during and after the show. Despite the uncertain economic outlook, USITT reports that more than 85 percent of the exhibit space available for the Stage Expo is already sold."

Mayor Bloomberg Stars In “Broadway Goes Green”

Live Design: "Mayor Bloomberg pointed out how appropriate it was to hold Broadway’s “green awakening” on the stage of Spring Awakening as part of the city’s overall commitment to a “greener, greater New York, and to turning the Great White Way green.” The 39 Broadway theatres have engaged to help cut the city’s carbon footprint by 30% by the year 2030 as part of PlaNYC (in NYC only 20% of the problem comes from transportation, the other 80% from buildings which need to be made more energy efficient and less polluting). Theatres have begun the process by changing over 10,000 marquee and lobby lights to low-energy lamps and compact fluorescents, and recycling as much as possible, even the discarded Palybills. “Broadway’s stages fuel dreams and help fuel the city’s ecomony,” said the mayor."

Lighting The President (Elect)

Live Design: "How does one go about lighting the nation’s first African-American President-Elect for his first official speech, both outdoors and on television, without distracting from the historical significance of the moment?"

Pensacola's Katy Mixon catches fire

OrlandoSentinel.com: "Lest you think her rube turn is a bit close to home, Mixon is an alumna of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Of course, being distinctly Southern made her stand out there, her teachers say. Now that she has Hollywood's attention, Mixon is mixing it up."

Waffle shop produces art that's off the grid

Pittsburgh City Paper - Pittsburgh: "When it comes to art appreciation, 'People being drunk goes a long way,' allows Jon Rubin, an assistant professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University.
Or so it seemed late one Saturday night (or early Sunday morning, but who's counting?) at a former tuxedo shop at the corner of Baum and Highland avenues, in East Liberty. Here, in an emerging cultural nexus formed by the Shadow Lounge and a spate of trendy new restaurants, students from Rubin's Contextual Practice course hosted a combination art happening, waffle house and reality-TV show."

In the Strike Zone

LA Weekly: "The huge news, the only news, is that there is a possibility that Hollywood could suffer another strike. After months of stalled negotiations and bitter acrimony between the two sides, both the Screen Actors Guild and the negotiators representing the Big Media Cartel sat down for federally mediated talks, which broke down after only two days."

The Alchemy of Theatre, by Charles Marowitz

Swans Commentary: "As far as the theatre is concerned, Intelligent Design definitely trumps Evolution. The former has been responsible for some of the most outstanding work in the past two hundred years and its exponents have included directors such as Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Evgevny Vakhtangov, Max Reinhardt, Bertolt Brecht, Jacques Copeau, Jean Vilar, Tyrone Guthrie, John Dexter, Peter Brook, Richard Foreman, and Robert Wilson. All these men have exercised their creative imagination on works both modern and classical. The 'Evolutionary' directors have relied on the fruits of collaboration, the input of talented performers, the egalitarian impulse to let every artist in the creative process make their own (often self-styled) contribution. There have been some outstanding successes with that free-wheeling approach, but the zeniths have been achieved by men who were single-minded, dictatorial, autocratic, and often tyrannical."

Unity? It's a guilded cage

Variety: "Since the last round of guild contract talks two years ago, Hollywood had braced for the prospect of a synchronized work stoppage by SAG, the WGA and the DGA in July, since the thesps and the helmers had the same June 30 expiration date on their previous contracts."

Joe Satriani Sues Coldplay For Copyright Infringement

Techdirt: "Guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani has sued Coldplay for copyright infringement over claims that their hit single, Viva La Vida, used 'substantial original portions' of his song If I Could Fly from 2004, seeking damages for 'any and all profits.' The lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles federal court."

NEA Awards National Alliance for Musical Theatre Grant

Playbill News: "'We are honored to be recognized by the NEA as playing a crucial role in nurturing the development and production of new musicals. And we are excited to play a part in helping such talented artists find future homes for their work in theatres across the country,' said NAMT executive director Kathy Evans in a statement."

"Today Show" to Welcome Shrek Cast Dec. 8 and 9

Playbill News: "On Dec. 8 'Today Show' host Meredith Vieira will explore the world of Shrek with actors Brian d'Arcy James (Shrek) and John Tartaglia (Pinocchio) and director Jason Moore. The segment is scheduled to air during the 8:30-9 AM half-hour."

NAMT bestowed $60,000 grant

Variety: "Sum is the highest awarded for 2009 to a legit org by the NEA, which doles out coin to NAMT in support of the org's annual fall conference and its fest of developing tuners."

Kraftwerk copyright case overturned in Germany

International Herald Tribune: "Germany's highest civil court has dealt electronic band Kraftwerk a blow in ruling that sampling music does not in principle violate copyright."

In Memoriam: Robert Ornbo, Theatre Lighting Designer, 1931-2008

Live Design: "Ornbo was a brilliant and prolific lighting designer, whose work on over 300 productions ranged across drama, musicals, opera, and ballet to events such as the Edinburgh Tattoo, the Royal Tournament, the naming ceremonies of ocean- liners and events at Buckingham Place for the Royal Family. His influence has had a profound impact on theatrical lighting over the last fifty years."

Yale School of Drama and School of Music Join Forces for Institute for Music Theatre

Stage-directions: "The Yale School of Drama (Dean, James Bundy) and Yale School of Music (Dean, Robert Blocker) have joined forces to create the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, which exists to identify distinctive and original music theatre works by emerging writers and composers, and to serve those writers by matching them with collaborators who can help them further develop their work in an un-pressured workshop setting."

Seattle Opera Receives $750,000 Wallace Excellence Award

Stage-directions: "Seattle Opera has announced that the company will receive a $750,000 grant from the Wallace Foundation over the next four years to increase accessibility to opera through new and innovative practices."

Tina Turner Video Wall Splits and Shines

PLSN: "With at least 80 shows scheduled for her first tour in eight years, Tina Turner is proving that she still has legs. But at age 67, the only thing doing a split is the video screen backdrop. LD Baz Halpin hides 80 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300 fixtures behind the motion-controlled video wall, which separates into a total of eight sections, allowing the Alpha Beams to shine through."

Cameron MacKintosh on Oliver! and his success with musicals

Times Online: "Just as the West End producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh is saying that he has no regrets about not having children, a huge high noise flies out from behind a closed door. It is keening but melodic and bears the unmistakable stamp of Fagin's boys. Almost half a century after the first production of Oliver!, it seems to freeze for eternity the condition of canny childhood. “Consider yourself one of the family,” they sing."

'Ligonier Christmas' aims to spark yuletide spirit

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "A holiday tradition returns to the stage in Ligonier, during a show that features everything from Santa to the biblical Christmas story.
The Valley Players of Ligonier will present the 11th annual 'A Ligonier Christmas' this weekend."

White director for Wilson play on Broadway upsets some artists

TwinCities.com: "The good news for fans of August Wilson is that 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone' will return to Broadway next spring. But the idea that a white director will helm the work of America's foremost black playwright has raised some eyebrows in the place Wilson once called home."

‘Carousel’ Whirls With Vibrant Colors: London Stage

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "With its evergreen numbers “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “June is Bustin’ Out All Over,” it’s not surprising that “Carousel” was declared the best musical of the 20th century by Time magazine in 1999."

La Scala Plans EU350,000 Gala Dinner Amid Lawmakers’ Protests

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "Milan’s La Scala opera house is going ahead with a 350,000 euro ($444,000) gala dinner after the Dec. 7 opening night of Verdi’s “Don Carlo,” even as politicians criticize such ostentation amid the global economic slump."

3-D Movie Plans Stall as Theaters Curtail Spending

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "The credit crisis is stalling plans to convert thousands of theaters to digital projection, threatening profits on more than a dozen 3-D films Hollywood will release next year, including DreamWorks Animation SKG’s “Monsters vs Aliens.”
Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp., a supplier of software to run digital theaters, had planned to convert as many as 1,500 screens by March 2009. Now, with funds on hold, the company expects 100 to 200, Chief Executive Officer Bud Mayo said."

SImon McBurney on Naturalism

(Theatreforte): "The brilliant Simon McBurney (of Complicite) talks in the December 2008 issue of American Theatre about, well, a lot of brilliant things.
This quotation about naturalism really jumped out at me (and my wife, Acacia) and will no doubt become part of my permanent repertoire."

Autodesk University 2008: The Lenovo W700

Core77: "It's not often that we get excited about a laptop that weighs 8.5 pounds, but the Lenovo W700 caught our eye on the AU exhibition floor yesterday for a couple of reasons. Mainly, it was the built-in Wacom digitizer and massive (1900 x 1200) display, making it a viable and (more or less) portable replacement for the Intuos + cinema display set up so many designers have tethered to their desktops."

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"

The “Bcc:” Field is Your Friend

Whatever: "Since I’ve just received the third such e-mail in as many days, a happy, friendly, not-at-all passive-aggressive suggestion:
When you are sending out an e-mail to a large number of recipients, many of whom do not know each other, won’t you please please please PLEASE GODDAMNIT PLEASE put all those addresses into the “Bcc:” field rather than the “Cc:” field of your e-mail software?"

Pandora's Trunk announces Success in all endeavors!!

Medium Reality: "Last night Pandora's Trunk presented Visual Vaudeville & Built Burlesque at Brava Theater Center to resounding cheers, thunderous applause, and the clickety flash of cameras. Hooray!"

Broadway Sings for Toys to Feature Creel, Murney, Jenkins, McElroy and More

Playbill News: "The fourth annual Broadway Sings for Toys concert, presented by The Broadway Boys, will be offered Dec. 14 at the Zipper Factory in Manhattan."

Lesbian Take on Hedda Gabler to Play Philadelphia in 2009

Playbill News: "Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler has been re-imagined as a lesbian drama in a new production by Caroline Kava for Philadelphia's Mauckingbird Theatre Company."

Production Assistant Needed

Craigslist: "We are planning a small shoot at a farm in Stonesboro, PA on 12/7 and looking for a production assistant who will help the crew"

Des McAnuff on Daltrey and Townshend

Variety: "In the 1980s, cousins of a close friend of mine climbed the water tower of a Long Island town under the shroud of darkness to emblazon the name of their favorite rock band in 20-foot fluorescent letters -- 'The Who.' When they dropped back to the ground, they realized they had somehow, in the ultimate slacker achievement, managed to actually misspell a three-letter word. For the next decade in Huntington Bay loomed the ominous name 'The Woh' above puzzled onlookers."

'Vanities' postpones Broadway run

Variety: "'The production is being rescheduled for later this season out of responsibility to the investors at this complicated economic time, which makes it very hard to support a new musical on Broadway,' lead producer Sue Frost said in a statement."

Final Friday

The divine Junior MT's, along with a fabulous band and brilliant sound and
lighting designers will present a final Final Friday Cabaret tomorrow
evening at 11:00 (or shortly thereafter) in the Rauh Studio Theater.

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is just the thing we all could use on the last day of
Classes.   Tickets can be picked up at the box office beginning at 12:00
noon.    The $5.00 donation goes entirely to the Senior Showcase.

CLO's Scrooge has company from a pair of curmudgeons at PICT

Post Gazette: "The Christmas Day redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge is the core of Charles Dickens' 1843 'A Christmas Carol,' perhaps the most adapted and dramatized of all Christmas stories on stage and screen, save the Nativity itself."

Atkins discovers it's no picnic playing Scrooge

Post Gazette: "Along with making a career in film and TV, Tom Atkins has long been a fixture on Pittsburgh stages, particularly that of Pittsburgh Public Theater, where to his more classic roles he's added his franchise portrayal of Art Rooney in 'The Chief.' Taking on Scrooge for the first time, he may have found himself another franchise."

PICT'S 'Dublin Carol' is American debut for director Maxwell

Post Gazette: "'St. Nicholas,' a monologue in which Martin Giles is directed by PICT artistic director Andrew Paul, is only indirectly a Christmas story, the connection probably being that the original St. Nicholas was a 4th-century bishop reputed to perform miracles."

Flamenco ensemble promises a confluence of energy

Post Gazette: "Flamenco sprang from a turbulent confluence of Spanish cultures that included Muslim Moors, Jews and Gypsies. It was the latter group that sustained it, passing on the music and dance through an oral tradition that placed a heavy emphasis on improvisation."

Theater options range from traditional to challenging

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Whether you like something traditional for your holiday theatergoing or prefer some variety or challenge this holiday season, area producers are willing to oblige."

Compelling 'Frost/Nixon' bends history to find the drama

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Whether it's Friedrich Schiller writing 'Mary Stuart' in 1800 or Peter Morgan writing 'Frost/Nixon' in 2005, the facts often are bent or eliminated to maximize drama, confrontation and a satisfying conclusion."

Dance Alloy production draws on 19th-century love story

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Marina Harris is a practical artist. A choreographer and costumer, she turned to a potent love story for her new work, knowing full well it would fit Dance Alloy Theater's double-bill called 'Dirty Little Secrets.'"

Autodesk University 2008: Getting schooled.

Core77: "The celebrity speakers and inspirational keynotes are a big part of AU, but what really brings in the masses are the classes: every hour of the day from 8am to 6pm several dozen concurrent sessions are being led by CAD experts from all over the planet. Here are a few from Wednesday afternoon."

Theatrical Fratricide, Prop 8 vs. the Arts, and Milk

ARTicles: "The Bay Area theatre world is still recovering from news of the sudden closure of American Musical Theatre of San Jose (AMTSJ) - a shocking story that has repercussions for three theatres across the U.S."

Collaborative Teaching

Carnegie Mellon University: "First-year College of Fine Arts students recently had an opportunity to explore the architecture of ancient Athens through a rare book collection offering the first measured drawings of the Acropolis and other key sites. The course, called 'Critical Art Histories,' examines James Stuart and Nicholas Revett's Antiquities of Athens, housed in the University Libraries."

Autodesk University 2008: Cabbages, pumpkins and crumpled paper bags -- where Scott Robertson gets his inspiration

Core77: "It'd be difficult to overstate how excited we were to hear Scott Robertson talk about his work live and in person...though a little apprehensive given the presentation bore a thoroughly non-specific name like 'Creativity and Narrative Imagery,' and much of the audience wasn't all that familiar with his work."

American Theater Honors Grant Recipients At Sardi's 12/5

Broadway World: "The American Theatre Wing's Grants Program will honor its 2008 grant recipients, 50 New York City not-for-profit theatres that reflect the range of diversity of New York's theatres, at a luncheon at Sardi's on Friday, December 5th at noon."

Labors of Love Now Lost

Backstage: "In mid-October, a month into the economy's steep decline, the artistic director of Milwaukee Shakespeare attended a statewide theatre conference. While the other directors talked about how their ticket sales had screeched to a halt, Paula Suozzi counted her blessings: Her company's ticket sales had increased by 20 percent from the previous year and Love's Labour's Lost had recently sold out. 'We sold more tickets to Love's Labour's Lost than we have to any other show in that space,' Suozzi said. 'Nothing was happening to our ticket sales except that they were going up.'"

GREAT 'BOY' BUT NO 'PAL'

New York Post: "The actor withdrew two weeks ago from the revival of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's 1940 musical, now in previews at the Roundabout's Studio 54 theater.
Officially, Hoff injured his foot - which is true.
But there's more to the story than the press release.
Hoff's injury was minor, and he wanted to return to the show. But several people involved in the production didn't want him back."

Noises off: The rehearsal's the thing

guardian.co.uk: "Now it appears that theatre-makers in America are going one step further. The New York-based Ontological-Hysteric Theatre is in the process of rehearsing its new show, Astronome – A Night at the Opera, and will be streaming its rehearsals online every Wednesday evening until the show opens. This idea has excited bloggers stateside. George Hunka says, 'It's a unique offering from two unique theatre and music artists ... watch Foreman, his cast and his crew create a new work before your very eyes. You want the theatrical process available through the internet, you've got it.'"

Frankel, Green team on venture

Variety: "The pair ('Gypsy,' 'Hairspray,' 'Young Frankenstein') has worked together for 14 years as part of the general management arm of Richard Frankel Prods., often on shows produced by RFP or by the Viertel/Baruch/Routh/Frankel Group, of which Frankel is a producing partner."

Shubert vets take centerstage at org

Variety: "In the wake of the sudden death of Shubert Organization chairman Gerald Schoenfeld, the appointment Tuesday night of Philip J. Smith and Robert E. Wankel as co-CEO's reflected a company that looks to remain consistent."

3 new dramas show Broadway's grasp of human condition

Post Gazette: "We think of today's Broadway as primarily home to musicals, but it can also stage plays at the very highest level. Witness three recent openings: a starry revival of an American master's first successful play, Arthur Miller's 'All My Sons'; a new play by a living American master, Horton Foote's 'Dividing the Estate'; and a star-led revival by a Russian master, Chekhov's 'The Seagull.'"

'Frost/Nixon' has unique feel on stage

Post Gazette: "But in this moment between Broadway and the big screen, 'Frost/Nixon' arrives tonight for a week on stage at the Benedum as part of the PNC Broadway series. The juicy role of Nixon is played by Stacy Keach, well known here from tours and the CLO, with Alan Cox as his antagonist."

Stage Right's Scrooge 'invested' in role, director says

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "There's nothing like the retelling of 'A Christmas Carol' to put even the meanest of Scrooges in a holiday mood this time of year -- unless it's the updated version of the yuletide classic by lyricist Lynn Ahrens ('Seussical,' 'Once on this Island,' 'Ragtime') and composer Alan Menken ('Little Shop of Horrors,' 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'Aladdin,' 'The Little Mermaid')."

'Black Patent Leather Shoes' needles parochial education

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "You don't have to be an alumnus of a Catholic elementary or high school in the 1950s to appreciate the humor of 'Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?,' but it helps."

A nervous Broadway looks forward to spring

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "It's been a weird, schizophrenic couple of months on Broadway as the theater prepares for the holidays in the middle of an economic downturn and what, in the past, have been some of the most profitable weeks of the season."

'Frost/Nixon' reveals a tragedy

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "In 'Frost/Nixon,' playwright Peter Morgan offers his take on how British talk-show host David Frost, played here by British actor Alan Cox, used a series of interviews with the former president to draw out of him an apology for his actions."

Artist activists bring ideas to Carnegie Mellon

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Obviously not a real issue of The New York Times, it was a hoax masterminded by longtime liberal pranksters The Yes Men, who are showcasing the prank along with several more they have perpetrated over the past decade in their first ever solo-exhibition, 'Keep It Slick,' at the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University."

August Wilson Center offers Fellows Program

WDUQNews: "The August Wilson Center, for the first time, is offering a Fellows Program for passionate artists of African descent."

CMU Showcases Virtual Technology

WDUQNews: "The hottest ticket at Carnegie Mellon University today is for the Building Virtual Worlds show. Every year, a select group of Master's students at CMU's Entertainment Technology Center presents cutting-edge projects."

Graduate students at CMU center blend technological and artistic talents

Post Gazette: "Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) doesn't look like an academic building, but rather a geeky playground for very bright, creative young adults -- which in many ways it is."

Human skull abandoned by Hamlet

BBC NEWS: "A human skull will no longer appear in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet as it may distract the audience, the company has said."

Front Page Meets Center Stage

Backstage: "Part theatre artists and part investigative journalists, the New York City-based production company The Civilians hit the streets last month to report on the Atlantic Yards project, a commercial development plan already in the works in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Though the real drama is in the Yards, The Civilians will enact all sides of the convoluted issue on stage in Brooklyn at Eye Level, a limited engagement from Dec. 4-7 at the Brooklyn Lyceum."

Shubert Organization Names Two Insiders to Succeed Schoenfeld

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "The Shubert Organization, Broadway’s largest theater owner, last night named Philip J. Smith as chairman, succeeding Gerald Schoenfeld, who died last week of a heart attack at age 84."

‘Fidelio’ Gets New Text, Hi-Tech Gadgets, Odd Overture in Paris

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "“Fidelio,” Beethoven’s only opera, is often staged to celebrate an extraordinary event -- such as the resurrection of the bombed-out Vienna State Opera after the war."

Leaping Chinese Monks, Hip-Hop Mix in Cherkaoui’s Dance

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "The kung-fu-trained warrior monks of China’s Shaolin Buddhist temple perform spectacular cat-like leaps in “Sutra” at the Berliner Festspiele through Dec. 6."

Carl Bass Takes On A Roomful of Journalists

CAD Insider: "Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, addressed the press in a Q&A session at Autodesk University. Though Autodesk now seems to be favoring separate 'press events' for journalists, several seemed to make it to AU anyway and Carl was not afraid to face a room full of them by himself, rather than being flanked by senior management as is the norm in the industry."

Tune Up Your Time Management System for the New Year

Ian's Messy Desk: "January 1 is often the time people set or reset direction for their lives. They set resolutions, they review the past and set goals for the future. Regardless of how well or poorly you’ve been managing personal productivity, the New Year can be a good milestone to review your processes and see if there are places you can make improvements. Time management is a way of life and needs to be reviewed regularly."

Six Valuable Things Web Design Clients Won’t Tell You

FreelanceSwitch - The Freelance Blog: "When talking to potential clients, always keep in mind this mantra: It’s all about the client (and what you can do for the client.) That means being a good listener, gathering project requirements and doing whatever you can, (within reason), to please your client. However, there are a number of things that even the best-intentioned clients will not tell you about themselves and their project. Here are five valuable things your clients won’t tell you, and how to deal with them."

Public Theater Strikes a New Kind of Broadway Deal With ‘Hair’

NYTimes.com: "The Public Theater and Broadway have always had a love-hate relationship. Broadway has made millions for the nonprofit Public and helped build it into a cultural powerhouse; it has also lost the Public millions, bringing the theater that Joseph Papp founded to the brink of bankruptcy."

In Waterlogged Venice,Operatic Puppets and Shadows on a Curtain

NYTimes.com: "By chance a watery hero arrived in town. Over the weekend, just before the city became nearly impassable, Monteverdi’s “Return of Ulysses” had a short, magical run at the ancient Malibran Theater, near the Rialto Bridge, slightly off the beaten path."

The New Leaders of Shubert Organization Have Roots In Its Past

NYTimes.com: "The ascension of Philip J. Smith and Robert E. Wankel to the top of the Shubert Organization Tuesday night ended a 20-plus-year guessing game about the future of the largest theater-owning enterprise in the nation."

Gypsy, In the Heights, Mermaid, Pacific and Frankenstein Are Grammy-Nominated

Playbill News: "Nominations for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards were announced Dec. 3. Nominees in the Best Musical Show Album category include Gypsy, In the Heights, The Little Mermaid, South Pacific and Young Frankenstein: The Musical."

Dancer learning to go with flow of modern company

Post Gazette: "Christopher Bandy is shedding his ballet skin and growing more facial hair as he continues to make the transition from the more traditional Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre corps de ballet to the intimate and edgier modern Dance Alloy."

Goodbye is the word for 'Grease'

Variety: "'Grease' will end its run at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on Jan. 4, joining 'Young Frankenstein,' 'Boeing-Boeing,' and 'Hairspray' in what is shaping up to be the Rialto's Black Sunday. After the traditionally lucrative Christmas and New Year's frames, 'Grease' will quit while it's ahead before the dreaded post-holiday slump."

Shubert vets take centerstage at org

Variety: "In the wake of the sudden death of Shubert Organization chairman Gerald Schoenfeld, the appointment Tuesday night of Philip J. Smith and Robert E. Wankel as co-CEO's reflected a company that looks to remain consistent."

Home Project

Transparency needed in Siminovitch prize, former finalist says

globeandmail.com: "The close association of several winners of the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize, the richest award in Canadian theatre, to the Toronto theatre company Necessary Angel has led one former finalist to speak out about what she calls the 'appearance of a conflict of interest.'"

RSC warns of fake Hamlet tickets

BBC NEWS: "The Royal Shakespeare Company is to reissue some tickets to its production of Hamlet, starring David Tennant, amid fears counterfeits are circulating."

Satellite Award Nominations Announced Early

Backstage: "Getting a jump on rival awards groups, the International Press Academy announced its nominees Sunday for its 13th annual Satellite Awards."

Broadway’s Shubert Organization Gets Ready to Appoint Successor

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "The Shubert Organization’s board of directors is scheduled to meet tomorrow to select a new leader, who will oversee its 17 Broadway houses and $300 million foundation."

Effort to save historic opera building

Post Gazette: "When Jonnet Solomon-Nowlin bought Homewood's Harris House with a friend eight years ago, all she knew about the property came from an outside historical marker noting its past use as the home of the nation's first black opera company."

London finally discovers the Chicago theater

Chicago Tribune: "When the Steppenwolf Theatre Company arrived here on November 18, Nicholas Hytner described the famous acting ensemble at a meet-and-greet event as “the second-best thing to come out of Chicago.”
Before this month, one might reasonably have surmised that the artistic head of Britain’s prestigious National Theatre was referencing deep-dish pizza as numero uno.
Not any more."

The public domain

Core77: "In The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind James Boyle introduces readers to the idea of the public domain and describes how it is being tragically eroded by our current copyright, patent, and trademark laws."

MTEXT “Background Mask” feature

Daily Autocad: "AutoCAD 2005 has brought a new feature to MTEXT objects. I will be talking about “Background Mask“, i.e. adjusting the backgroung for MTEXT objects."

Vit Horejs Envisions Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as Puppets at the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater

NYTimes.com: "The puppeteer who controls a marionette is called a manipulator, and the latest theatrical rendition of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg atomic bomb spy case, a “musical tragedy” staged by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater, is fundamentally about manipulation. Someone is always pulling the strings, whether the actors are real people or puppets."

Forget Citigroup and Lehman, Puppet Show Needs a Bailout

NYTimes.com: "There are many ways to measure California’s tanking economy: an 8.2 percent unemployment rate; a multibillion-dollar state budget gap; threatened endowments of the city’s museums, causing some cultural institutions to nearly default on mortgages; and the continued weakening of the Hollywood studio system. But the meltdown of the marionettes may say it all."

American Musical Theatre of San Jose Cancels Productions of 42nd Street, Tarzan and Closes Doors

Playbill News: "Michael Miller, CEO and executive producer of AMTSJ, said in a statement, 'We received a telephone call a few days ago from our co-producer for Tarzan, which was the Theater of the Stars in Atlanta, Georgia basically telling us that they had used all of the funds that we had paid them towards the production for other things. In essence, they cancelled the show without giving us any warning, and we discovered that the funds we had paid for Tarzan were spent on another production of theirs, which lost a significant amount of money.'"

Low budget TV production looking for crew

Craigslist: "RLS Entertainment is looking for various crew members for a TV comedy shoot for this coming weekend."

Bargains begin on Broadway

Variety: "Producers are hawking discounted tickets, which in recent years have become de rigueur for perfs during the traditional winter slowdown. Stepped-up efforts are aimed at persuading ticket buyers, potentially gun-shy due to the state of the economy, to pull out their wallets."

'Joe Turner' gets Broadway revival

Variety: "Lincoln Center Theater will produce a Broadway revival of August Wilson's play 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone,' to be helmed by Bartlett Sher ('South Pacific') in the spring."