'Off the Record IX' promises satirical hilarity

Post Gazette: "Imagine Luke Ravenstahl, Lynn Cullen and Ben Roethlisberger in high school together, in a biology class taught by Cyril Wecht.
If that's a little tough, not to worry: The slightly demented folks who put on 'Off the Record' have done it for you."

Dance Review: Exuberant Philadanco an ideal partner for August Wilson Center

Post Gazette: "Philadelphia is a city that likes to soar, as witnessed by the names of some of its sports teams -- the Eagles, the Flyers and the lesser-known Wings (lacrosse). But it's doubtful any of them can equal the expansive spirit and due diligence of another hometown team, the remarkable Philadanco."

Opera Review: Pittsburgh Opera stages soaring 'Eugene Onegin'

Post Gazette: "A Russian delegation of one held her own summit at the Benedum Center Saturday night as soprano Anna Samuil put on a remarkable performance in Pittsburgh Opera's production of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin.' And the other delegates, as it were, in the cast held up their end of the bargain excellently."

Pop Filter Event of the Week: Ella!

Pop City: "So just who was the greatest jazz singer of all time? Find out as the Pittsburgh Public Theater (PPT) opens its 35th season with Ella , the hit bio-musical about 'The First Lady of Song,' known for her pure tone, impeccable phrasing, and 'horn-like' improvisational singing style (a.k.a. scat)."

WGAE Looks to Get in on Digital Ground Floor

Backstage: "Better to be early to the party than late. That's the attitude of the Writers Guild of America, East, which announced Tuesday that it has signed deals with 11 companies creating new content for digital-media. The signatories, producers of Web series with titles such as 'The Temp Life' and 'Hedge Fund,' may not be household names, but guild executive director Lowell Peterson believes that the deals represent an opportunity to establish a guild presence in a corner of the media world that is growing quickly and still taking shape."

'Laramie' Sequel Gives Voice to Killer

Backstage: "A decade after 'The Laramie Project' became a theatrical phenomenon, its creators are back with an epilogue highlighted by a riveting prison interview with the killer of gay college student Matthew Shepard — depicting him as candid but not remorseful over the murder."

Good Theater Business News?!

Chicagoist: "So as we were flipping through our Wall Street Journal this morning (O.K., O.K., it was a press release), we were surprised and excited to hear that there is some hope out there for the business we call show. Our very own Steppenwolf Theatre Company has been named on of the top 15 places to work by the Wall Street Journal’s Top Small Workplaces 2009."

The Marvels Inside the Wyly

Art & Seek – A service from KERA for North Texas: "In planning for its new home in the Wyly Theatre, the Dallas Theater Center was determined to continue its 25-year tradition of 'flexible' theater. The Theater Center's Arts District Theater was flexible in the way it could be completely altered, its seating and staging configuration changed for each production. The basic thinking behind the Arts District Theater was that of a movie studio. It was a tin shed with a concrete floor, and everything inside it could be dismantled and scraped away and re-built differently for the next show."

Donmar West End season records 98% average attendances

The Stage: "London’s Donmar Warehouse has revealed that its West End season at the Wyndham’s Theatre recorded average attendances of 98%, including 13.5% of first-time theatre bookers."

Jackman, Craig Play Low-Down Chicago Blues in ‘Rain’: Review

Bloomberg.com: "It may be sensation enough that in the two-character police drama “A Steady Rain,” stage-and- screen stars England’s Daniel Craig and Australia’s Hugh Jackman have come to Broadway to play low-level Chicago cops. They even have the accent right. The rest is less impressive."

“Light Plot Deconstructed” by Gregg Hillmar – A Review

Ramblings of a Techie: "Gregg Hillmar is a busy scenic and lighting designer who has been using Vectorworks for many years. And he has used the skills that he has learnt over these years to put together this book. His book looks at how he uses Vectorworks to draft lighting plots."

Yeast Nation (The Triumph of Life)

The Rob Kozlowski Chicago Theater and Vintage Film Medicine Show: "A lot has been made of how Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman picked the worst possible concept for a musical as a fun challenge - covering the lives of single-cell organisms at the beginning of the creation of life on the Earth more than three billion years ago - but personally I don't think it was that much of a challenge if only because the musical necessitated the creation of a universe and society not unlike those from science fiction. No, I think something more up Kotis and Hollman's alley would be a musicalization of Beckett's Not I. Let's see it. I dare them."

Animal Crackers

The Rob Kozlowski Chicago Theater and Vintage Film Medicine Show: "There are few riskier propositions for a theater than attempting to replicate the stage and screen performances of legends, but Henry Wishcamper's production of Animal Crackers at the Goodman Theatre takes that proposition and bravely runs with it, taking what could have been a disaster to the eyes of this Marx Brothers worshiper and creating a lovely tribute not only to the brothers but also in large part to the songwriting team of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby."

Lightwright 5 New Features YouTube Video

iSquint | Entertainment Lighting News & Review: "At the release of Lightwright 5 at the beginning of September, John Mckernon, the developer of the software put together a YouTube video of some of the new features found in the update."

And the Top Jobs for 2009 Grads Are...

CollegeSurfing Insider: "There’s no doubt, job offers are few and far between in these dreary days of layoffs, cutbacks, and hiring freezes. That’s why we can learn a lot from the list of the 10 jobs most offered to the class of 2009 as reported by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in its Fall 2009 Salary Survey."

Electronic Webcaster Gun makes Halloween decorating a cinch

DVICE: "If you want your house to look a little more like a set piece for Arachnophobia, this Electronic Webcaster Gun should do just the trick. It's loaded up with 'Web Sticks' that give it something of a glue gun feel, but — instead of hot glue — it shoots out icky streams of webbing."

'Where the Wild Things Are' Production Designer Speaks!

I Watch Stuff: "K.K. Barrett was production designer for Human Nature, I Heart Huckabees, Lost in Translation, Maria Antoinette, and every feature film Spike Jonze has made. If he spends 18 minutes talking about his work, including his recent Where the Wild Things Are job, wouldn't you want to hear that?"

40 Styles of Chairs

Props: "There are 40 distinct styles of chairs embracing the period from 3000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. — nearly 7,000 years. Of all the millions of chairs made during the centuries, each one can be classified under one or more of the 40 general styles shown in the chart. This chart was compiled by the editor of Decorative Furniture. The Colonial does not appear on the chart because it classifies under the Jacobean and other styles."

1970s Theatre… Now Online

ATW: "Beginning today, thanks to a collaboration between the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, audiences across the country will have the opportunity to hear “This is Broadway,” more than 70 vintage interviews with Broadway luminaries circa 1977. These short radio features have not been available publicly since their original broadcasts 32 years ago. Even the program’s hosts, Isobel Robins and Richard Seff hadn’t heard them in years."

Landru Design Releases New Vectorworks Plug-ins

iSquint | Entertainment Lighting News & Review: "While working in Vectorworks, do you have trouble rendering and display soft goods such as curtains or designing commonly used items? Landru Design, a lighting design firm out of Nashville TN has just releases two new Plug-ins for Vectorworks to help folks that use Vectorworks to design and develop 3D rendering of sets and lights."

‘Hair’ Closes for One Day So Cast Can Attend National Equality March

NYTimes.com: "Playwrights and producers have used scathing commentary, heartbreaking drama and sharp satire to score political points about war, torture, presidents, AIDS, race relations and women’s rights with New York theater audiences. Now the Broadway musical “Hair” is expanding the concept of stage activism by taking to the streets and urging audiences to follow. The producers canceled a Sunday matinee so that the cast and crew could attend and perform at a march for gay rights in Washington on Oct. 11."

WGA East ups digital media ante

Hollywood Reporter: "As part of its Writers Guild 2.0 organizing effort, the WGA East has signed 11 new companies that create content for digital media. The writers at these companies will become WGAE members.
Inroads into digital media are a priority for the guild, and its initiative includes seminars, a job training program and an organizational push."

Australia's Bovell hits the big time

Variety: "LONDON Australian theater has never been big in London -- or New York for that matter. But, suddenly, playwright Andrew Bovell has three major productions opening within months of each other in the world's twin theater capitals."

Filmmaking incentives losing glamour in cash-strapped states

latimes.com: "More than 40 states offer tax breaks for movie and TV production, drawing business away from Southern California. But in the face of budget crises, several states are having second thoughts."

Arts foundation layoffs imperil federal funding

Starbulletin.com: "Leaders from arts organizations across the state say the loss of 10 employees — about one-third the staff — at the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts would be a destructive move that jeopardizes not just arts programs, but the economy and education as well."

LDI2009 Adds Classes in wysiwyg and Vivien Software

Live Design: "Cast Lighting’s award-winning wysiwyg and Vivien software training has been added to the LDInstitute at LDI2009. Attendees must bring their own laptops and have WYG R24 or Vivien 2010 downloaded in advance in order to take these classes."

In Memoriam: Harry Donovan, 1943-2009

PLSN: "Harry Donovan, one of the world’s foremost rigging experts and author of Entertainment Rigging, died Sept. 23 after an ongoing battle with cancer. Donovan, 66, was both an engineer and one of the entertainment industry’s most experienced and respected riggers, a unique combination. He devoted his career to studying the art and science of rigging."

ZFX and Stage Technologies Announce Strategic Alliance

PLSN: "ZFX Flying Effects and Las Vegas-based Stage Technologies have announced a strategic alliance to offer automated solutions for productions that require complex flying sequences.
ZFX will add Stage Technologies’ hoists and control systems to its roster of complete flying services. ZFX also named Joe Champelli, who has considerable experience in automation and machinery design, as its general manager."

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

Here are the top five comment generating posts of the past week...

'Lion King' Costumes Headed to Smithsonian

Backstage: "Producers of 'The Lion King' musical are donating two of the Broadway show's elaborate costume pieces to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History."

Posted by David at 9/26/2009 04:57:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Business Card Alternatives For the Real World

WebWorkerDaily: "So you’re a web worker, but you still meet people in meatspace that you want to network with, and making them type an email into their phone or handing them a plain jane business card either feels awkward or isn’t getting results."

Posted by David at 9/26/2009 04:59:00 PM <-- Comments Here

I-Phone Revisited

Ramblings of a Techie: "When I posted my article listing some apps for the I-Phone I did not realise how popular the story would be. since then I have been reminded of a couple of applications that I missed. So I thought I would add a few more."

Posted by David at 9/25/2009 12:29:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Is 90 minutes the right length for a show? Not so fast.

chicagotribune.com: "Within the last week, I've twice found myself complaining about running time. I thought 'Mistakes Were Made,' the hugely entertaining Craig Wright play at A Red Orchid Theatre, needed to lose about 15 minutes. And I thought 'Stoop Stories,' the artful solo show by Dael Orlandersmith at the Goodman Theatre, needed to add at least that much.
Which would mean both shows would clock in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Was I positing some kind of ideal length for a show?"

Posted by David at 9/25/2009 12:28:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Help Wanted sign during G-20, in Pittsburgh

gigapan: "Carnegie Mellon University freshman Sarah Ceurvorst and other students created this huge sign near the CMU track."

Posted by David at 9/25/2009 11:19:00 AM <-- Comments Here

Long-term Projects: Moving Past the Distractions

WebWorkerDaily: "When I sit down at my computer each morning, I always have plenty of emails asking me to work on short-term projects: a connection that has to be made today, a round of revisions that needs to be made immediately, a phone call that really ought to have happened last night, etc. Because of how immediate all of these requests are, it’s easy to get lost in them and let my long-term projects fall by the wayside."

Posted by David at 9/26/2009 05:00:00 PM <-- Comments Here

SURG Applications

SURG Spring 2010 Poster

Stratford's 'Macbeth,' 'Julius Caesar' disappoint, but 'Three Sisters' soars

Post Gazette: "It was Shakespeare who inspired the establishment of this theater festival in Western Ontario farm country in 1953 and who has sustained it ever since.
I have made the trek on and off for more than 30 years primarily to see his plays staged in Stratford's legendary style -- one without peer in North America. So, when productions don't meet expectations, it's a genuine letdown."

Kidd Pivot takes dance beyond the present

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The source of creativity is usually something of a mystery and seems to differ from artist to artist.
For Crystal Pite, the founder of Kidd Pivot dance company, creation is 'always a sort of play between instinct and intellect. I generally start from instinct and then wrangle the material into something that can be understood.'"

Geffen Playhouse embraces bad reviews for 'Alpacas'

Los Angeles Times: "The Geffen Playhouse is attempting to turn some bad reviews for its production of 'Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas' into marketing gold.
In an advertisement appearing in the Sunday Arts & Books section of the Los Angeles Times, the theater company runs quotes from reviews, including from The Times and Variety critics, both of whom panned the movie-industry satire in their respective pages."

George S. Kaufman’s Plays Retain Their Sparkle

NYTimes.com: "AMONG the celebrated witticisms once witticized by the great George S. Kaufman is that snappy line about the short shelf life of a certain brand of comedy. “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” he observed glumly after the humbling experience of having a new musical bomb in Philadelphia. After it had already bombed in Long Branch, N.J."

Lemon Andersen’s ‘County of Kings’ - A Long Journey Home

NYTimes.com: "ONE September morning Lemon Andersen, a 34-year-old poet and actor, returned to the Brooklyn housing complex where he grew up in a close-knit Puerto Rican community ravaged by drugs and disease. He does not really like to go back there, he said, but it behooves him now that he is a professional memoirist with a one-man show, “County of Kings,” starting a six-week run at the Public Theater on Tuesday."

Stamos, Gershon say hello to 'Bye Bye Birdie'

Post Gazette: "When John Stamos heard he'd be starring opposite Gina Gershon on Broadway this fall, he was beyond psyched.
Not because he was intrigued to meet and work with Gershon on a revival of 'Bye Bye Birdie,' although he was. Not because both had built up impressive Broadway credits, although they have."

Following the wake of 'August: Osage County'

Variety: "Even though it’s a follow-up to a play that swept essentially every legit award there is, 'Superior Donuts' isn’t necessarily a slam-dunk for Broadway.
Playwright Tracy Letts’ latest outing, about the owner of a run-down Chicago donut shop and the young employee he hires, follows the success of Letts’ 'August: Osage County,' the family epic that nabbed the 2008 Tony and Pulitzer (among other kudos), launching a national tour and a stint at London’s National Theater."

'Kristina' - At Carnegie Hall, Swedes Coming to America, Grandly

NYTimes.com: "If the moribund music-theater genre facetiously nicknamed poperetta has any chance of a resurgence on Broadway, it could come somewhere down the road from an American production of the bombastic Swedish epic “Kristina.”"

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"

Long-term Projects: Moving Past the Distractions

WebWorkerDaily: "When I sit down at my computer each morning, I always have plenty of emails asking me to work on short-term projects: a connection that has to be made today, a round of revisions that needs to be made immediately, a phone call that really ought to have happened last night, etc. Because of how immediate all of these requests are, it’s easy to get lost in them and let my long-term projects fall by the wayside."

No sleep till Brooklyn…

Backstage at BackstageJobs.com: "Despite Broadway In Chicago’s attempts to make themselves the head of Chicago theatre, with everyone else merely “Off-Broadway In Chicago,” Chicago theatre is not what you will find in the touring houses here, any more than you would find a Chicago-style hot dog under a pile of ketchup."

Business Card Alternatives For the Real World

WebWorkerDaily: "So you’re a web worker, but you still meet people in meatspace that you want to network with, and making them type an email into their phone or handing them a plain jane business card either feels awkward or isn’t getting results."

Easily find Ribbon Commands

The CAD Geek Blog: "As illustrated by my blogging frequency, the last several weeks have been incredibly busy. During that time I had the chance to speak with a large number of AutoCAD (and its many vertical flavors like Civil 3D) users, and answer some of their burning questions. As you might imagine, I fielded a diverse range of questions, many of which I intend to use as inspiration for a number of upcoming blog posts. Certainly one of my most asked questions was some derivative of “Where can I find ___ command in AutoCAD 2010?”"

ABBA Duo Turn Swedish Epic Into Windy Oratorio: Jeremy Gerard

Bloomberg.com: "After flopping on Broadway with “Chess” (but before their “Mamma Mia!” megahit) the Swedish song-writing duo behind ABBA went Baroque with “Kristina,” a hit in Malmo, Sweden."

Penn State New Musical Fest to Stage 'Dani Girl'

Yahoo! News: "The Penn State New Musical Theatre Festival, recently re-branded as the NU.MUSICAL Festival, will resurface Dec. 12 with two performances of Dani Girl, a musical by composer Michael Kooman and lyricist Christopher Diamond."

'Lion King' Costumes Headed to Smithsonian

Backstage: "Producers of 'The Lion King' musical are donating two of the Broadway show's elaborate costume pieces to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History."

Studiocraft - Refrigerator Drawing

Enterprising student and I are having trouble with the Multi-line text function. We can type, but whenever we hit enter, the cursor simply opens a new text box. If we press any thing to get out of that, everything is deleted. For the time being we wrote our names and quotes with the line tool.

Thank you for you time.

You get out of MTEXT by either clicking outside the box or clicking the “OK” on the toolbar. Hitting enter will do a line feed or re-invoke the command.

You could just use DTEXT

Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' a tale of two heartbreaks

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Russian literature is rich with exploration of fate's cruelty. One broken heart usually is enough for a good story, but the opera 'Eugene Onegin' goes one better, or rather worse, with two broken hearts.
Pittsburgh Opera will open its season with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' on Saturday at the Benedum Center, Downtown. The show repeats Tuesday and Oct. 2 and 4."

Hamlet: 66 And Counting

Steve On Broadway (SOB): "There are precious few plays that have graced a Broadway stage as many times as William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
While it's not known precisely when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, historians believe The Bard wrote this play circa 1601, and it's known that the work was mounted in New York City as early as the following century."

5 Shows I want to see at the NYMF.

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "I've got a soft spot in my heart for The New York Musical Theatre Festival.
The NYMF was our midwife on Altar Boyz, and without her, it would have been an even tougher birth than it was."

In Response to People Who Don't Believe Me

Dramaturgy in H[ollywoo]D: "When I was college, I had the extreme pleasure (*Note of Sarcasm*) of taking a Statistics class for Humanities majors. I never understood why Humanities majors needed to take statistics, but I was told it was for research purposes. I didn't believe it until I started looking at what research opportunities were available out here."

'Love' under way as film crews roll into Pittsburgh

Post Gazette: "The following story first ran on July 31, but it bears repeating as it speaks to the state of Hollywood's attraction to Western Pennsylvania, including the new CBS show 'Three Rivers,' which is set in Pittsburgh and recently filmed scenes here.
Since this story ran, the filming of 'Unstoppable' has started elsewhere in Pennsylvania;'Love and Other Drugs' began shooting in Pittsburgh on Monday; and 'The Next Three Days' is scheduled to roll Oct. 3. Since this story first appeared, Judy Greer, Gabriel Macht, Hank Azaria and Oliver Platt were added to the 'Love' cast."

I-Phone Revisited

Ramblings of a Techie: "When I posted my article listing some apps for the I-Phone I did not realise how popular the story would be. since then I have been reminded of a couple of applications that I missed. So I thought I would add a few more."

Is 90 minutes the right length for a show? Not so fast.

chicagotribune.com: "Within the last week, I've twice found myself complaining about running time. I thought 'Mistakes Were Made,' the hugely entertaining Craig Wright play at A Red Orchid Theatre, needed to lose about 15 minutes. And I thought 'Stoop Stories,' the artful solo show by Dael Orlandersmith at the Goodman Theatre, needed to add at least that much.
Which would mean both shows would clock in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Was I positing some kind of ideal length for a show?"

Mike Hodge Elected SAG New York President

Backstage: "Mike Hodge has been elected president of the Screen Actors Guild's New York division. Hodge succeeds Sam Freed, who did not seek re-election. 'I am thrilled,' said Hodge. 'We absolutely have a mandate to work and build for our members.'"

SAG Elects Ken Howard as National President

Backstage: "Members of the Screen Actors Guild have elected Ken Howard as their new president, the guild announced this evening."

Help Wanted sign during G-20, in Pittsburgh

gigapan: "Carnegie Mellon University freshman Sarah Ceurvorst and other students created this huge sign near the CMU track."

Rendell urged to scrap arts-tax plan

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Pittsburgh and Philadelphia cultural groups on Wednesday met with Gov. Ed Rendell and legislative leaders of both parties to convince them to drop a budget proposal that would levy the state sales tax on music, dance, theater and museum admissions."

Fabric Printing with Citra-Solv

Instructables: "Any photograph, image or design that looks good in black and white is a great candidate for printing with Citra-Solv. It's permanent, can be washed in the washer, takes about 2 minutes to do and it's cheap and easy."

Stop the World -- It's Dicey and Paprika

Post Gazette: "What better way to celebrate the departure of all those schedule-snarling, suit-wearing, smooth-talking world leaders than by attending a post-G-20 blowout at Your Inner Vagabond in Lawrenceville?
The live musical comedy show, called 'Stop the World -- We're Here,' stars the glittery Dicey Stewart and a brassy babe named Paprika LaRue."

Mother Russian for 'Onegin' soprano

Post Gazette: "When Russian soprano Anna Samuil makes her local debut Saturday as Tatiana, the heroine of Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin,' she will be singing in her mother tongue."

In Belarus, Theater as Activism

NYTimes.com: "Welcome to the world of the Volny Teatr, or the Belarus Free Theater, the only unregistered — and therefore independent — dramatic collective in this nation of 10 million on Europe’s edge, which President Aleksandr Lukashenko has ruled since 1994."

Autodesk and Parallels Team to Support Mac Virtualization for AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Autodesk Inventor Professional, 3ds Max and Revit Software

Autodesk :: Investor Relations :: News Release: "Autodesk will now support use of AutoCAD software, AutoCAD LT software, Autodesk Inventor Professional software, Autodesk 3ds Max software, Autodesk 3ds Max Design software and the Autodesk Revit software platform for building information modeling (BIM) on Mac OS X via Parallels Desktop. Autodesk added official support for these products on the Mac via Boot Camp earlier this year."

A return to Laramie

Berkeley Rep Blog: "It is hard to imagine that more than 10 years have passed since Matthew Shepard’s life was taken with hate in Laramie, Wyoming."

'Oleanna' Will Allow Audiences to "Take a Side" Following Broadway Previews

Yahoo! News: "The Broadway premiere of David Mamet's Oleanna, starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, has announced a series of talkbacks following preview performances of the contentious drama.
Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt) stages the Broadway production, which played to acclaim in Los Angeles last June. Previews begin Sept. 29 at the Golden Theatre. Opening is Oct. 11."

White House Honor

Carnegie Mellon University: "The G-20 Summit week concludes Sept. 25, with Carnegie Mellon Professor Gregory Lehane directing First Lady Michelle Obama's concert for the spouses of G-20 leaders — a responsibility undertaken at the special request of the White House."

Stomp makes garbage sound good

The Tartan Online: "The international hit Stomp premiered at the Benedum Center in downtown Pittsburgh last Tuesday. The show has just entered its 16th season off Broadway, making it one of the longest-running international productions to date."

Performing Arts Groups Concerned About Sales Tax

WDUQNews: "A key component of Friday’s budget deal has members of Pennsylvania’s performing arts communities rankled.
Over the course of the summer, Governor Ed Rendell insisted lawmakers should close sales tax loopholes to help overcome a 3.2 billion dollar deficit. During the last day of budget negotiations, leaders agreed to remove the exemption for live theatrical and musical performances."

Theatre Factory's 'Romance' offers fun, challenging show

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "To say that Scott Calhoon has his hands full with Theatre Factory's production of 'Weird Romance' is an understatement.
The off-beat musical by composers Alan Menken and David Spencer ('Little Shop of Horrors,' 'Aladdin,' 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'The Little Mermaid') features its share of challenges for Calhoon, who serves as both director and set designer for the show that launches the Trafford theater company's 15th season."

'Church' a perfect fit for 'M*A*S*H' actor

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "At age 76, William Christopher sees no reason to stop acting or wearing a clerical collar.
Christopher, most widely and enduringly known for his role as Father Mulcahy in the long-running television series 'M*A*S*H,' is happily on the road playing Lutheran minister E.L. Gunderson in the musical comedy 'Church Basement Ladies.'
The show stops Saturday and Sunday for four performances at the Byham Theater, Downtown."

Bellevue native Paul McGill goes from Broadway to the big screen

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "For actor Paul McGill, shooting some of the scenes in the movie 'Fame' brought on a severe case of deja vu.
While playing Kevin, a dance student at the Performing Arts High School, McGill spent two weeks acting in scenes shot in New York City's Professional Performing Arts High School, where he had been a student."

Passion to perform drives arts students

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Those who remember the 1980 movie 'Fame' might imagine professional performing-arts schools as a place where kids flood into the streets to pirouette atop car hoods or burst into song vowing:
'I'm gonna make it to heaven/Light up the sky like a flame, fame/I'm gonna live forever/Baby remember my name ...'
What actually goes on inside a performing-arts high school program and the students' ambitions are somewhat different."

Dorner troupe uncoils with joy

Post Gazette: "Austrian choreographer and filmmaker Willi Dorner has been making an Internet/YouTube name for himself with sculptural concoctions using human bodies. Usually his dancers perform in a colorful and casual array of T-shirts, sweats, hoodies and tennis shoes. They are placed in a jigsaw puzzle of rounded, Henry Moore-esque proportions -- butt to butt, topsy turvy, feet in the air, all askew -- and usually tucked away in angular urban corners of the street like human sausages."

Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre's season features Foster, Pinter, the Bard

Post Gazette: "Stephen Foster and Harold Pinter are the most unlikely of bedfellows, but they are teamed up to open and close the 2010 regular season of the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre.
Sandwiched in between is Shakespeare.
PICT's annual holiday show will be an English chestnut, the 1915 'Hobson's Choice,' directed by Christopher Newton, long-time artistic director of Canada's Shaw Festival"

Production Assistants Needed

Craigslist: "We will be conducting a large scale photography shoot just outside Pittsburgh 7 days a week from October 5-20. We are looking for hard-working individuals to assist our photographers and GPS surveyors."

Follow Spot/Sound

Craigslist: "The Theatre Factory is looking for someone to run follow spot/sound"

Production Assistant Needed 10/8-10/10

Craigslist: "A medical mystery show will be filming in and around the Pittsburgh area from October 8th-10th. We are looking for a PA"

2009 IT Award Winners Announced

Backstage: "The winners of the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were announced last night at New World Stages in a ceremony honoring the best of Off-Off-Broadway, hosted by Julie Halston. The award for outstanding ensemble went to the cast '(Not) Just a Day Like Any Other.' Jeff Grow took home the award for outstanding solo performance for his role in 'Creating Illusion.'"

Behind the Curtain of a Customizable Theater

Wired: "The Dallas Arts District Theater was a magnificent piece of crap. Affectionately dubbed the Shed, the junky, corrugated-steel construction looked more warehouse than Koolhaus, but it was basic enough that wild-eyed visionaries would routinely rip out and rearrange seats to fit whatever the current show demanded. Then, in 2005, the Shed was torn down."

Showtime, Spielberg team on series

Variety: "Showtime and Steven Spielberg want to put on a show about putting on a Broadway show.
DreamWorks TV and Showtime are in the early stages of developing a scripted series that will chronicle the development of an original Broadway musical, from its creative inception through its opening night. The intention is to then mount the tuner on the Main Stem after the series airs."

PhotoLapse Makes Time-Lapse Movie Creation a Snap

Lifehacker: "PhotoLapse is a tiny and portable application for stitching together images into a time-lapse video. Point it at a folder full of pictures, and you're mostly done.
All your time-lapse options are displayed in a single pane when you launch the 158k application."

Art and life

Backstage at BackstageJobs.com: "In the 72 hours between 10pm Thursday (when I got home from a show) and 10pm Sunday (when I expect to get home from a show), I will have spent 35 hours traveling to, traveling from, or being in a theatre. And this is an easy 3 day period compared to many. Some days are 14-16 hours in the theatre.
These are hours not spent with my family. These are hours not available to spend with my family. This is what is required to work in theatre."

A Challenge: Chicago-Theater-A-Day

Theater For The Future: "So perhaps you haven’t heard yet:
The TCG National Conference is coming to Chicago in 269 days (as of this post).
At the recent host committee planning session at the League of Chicago Theatres for Chicago’s contribution to the festivities (many many cool events, opportunities, and ideas are in the works for all sizes of theaters, and we’ll need your help putting them together) someone made a pretty simple observation: 269 is approximately the number of active theaters in Chicago.
So someone else threw out the idea: What if we created a youtube channel, and featured a video of a Chicago Theater each day until the conference?"

Tips from the Trenches: Getting Things Done

Web Worker Daily: "In your quest for better efficiency, you’ve probably read books like “Getting Things Done” and “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” and tried to implement the strategies contained within them. Yet you know you can do better in managing your day and being more efficient.
For this post, instead of quoting yet more theories from books, I asked some experts and fellow Twitter users to share their real life tips for getting things done."

Playbill Turns 125

Steve On Broadway (SOB): "When it comes to Broadway, I rarely if ever buy souvenirs.
Yet there is one prized possession -- aside from memories of the performances themselves -- I proudly take home from each show: my essential Playbill.
Today, the venerable Playbill organization turns 125 years old."

Master the "Why Hire Me" Story to Land a Job

Lifehacker: "So you've finally landed that job interview. Now it's time to seal the deal with a killer interview. How? For one, try mastering your 'Why hire me' story."

Laser-Accurate microphone captures 'pure sound'

DVICE: "Related Sections: Future Tech
Laser-Accurate microphone captures 'pure sound'
There are good microphones, and there are bad microphones, but pretty much all of them are limited by the nature of the technology — specifically, the diaphragm that moves in response to air. The structure of that diaphragm will affect the sound that's recorded, even if that influence is minute. There's simply no way around it."

How to Decide What to Include in Your Portfolio

FreelanceSwitch: "Remember when you graduated from school or first decided to become a freelancer? You likely didn’t have much work to show and had to scramble to fill your portfolio. If you now have a few years under your belt, you’ve probably started to build up quite a collection of finished pieces.
The importance of having a professional portfolio website has been discussed on FreelanceSwitch – it is essential for the modern freelancer. But how do you decide what to include in your portfolio?"

New, Edgy 'Tosca' By Metropolitan Opera Draws Boos

NPR: "Most serious opera lovers know what they like and like what they know. Many saw something they didn't like or care to know last night at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a new interpretation of Tosca, Giacomo Puccini's beloved warhorse.
The Met staged a production of the opera as re-imagined by Swiss director Luc Bondy who evidently left out some of the traditional features opera goers associate with Tosca while creating post-modern sets, all of which proved too much for many in the audience."

So many images

Props: "Check out the Ephemera Assemblyman blog. If you look at the right column and scroll down, you will see one heading labeled “resources”, and another labeled “images.” Each link points to even more vintage images. I’ve been looking at them for hours, and still have barely cracked the surface. Have fun!"

I – Phone apps for Theatre

Ramblings of a Techie: "I recently got a Apple I-Phone 3gs 16gB so I have decided to see what software applications are available for the entertainment industry. so below is a list with links and a brief summary. and were I have used it personally what I think of the app."

A Multicolored Script

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Blog: "Greetings from the basement of Steppenwolf Theatre! I am Karyn, the 2009-2010 Downstairs Stage Management Apprentice. I am currently working on Fake, the new play written and directed by ensemble member Eric Simonson. This is the first world premier show I have ever worked on, and it is quite a change of pace for me!"

Harold Prince and Susan Stroman Bringing ‘Paradise’ to Broadway

NYTimes.com: "Harold Prince and Susan Stroman are planning a return to Broadway with a musical that they say will convey the grandeur and mystery of 19th-century Europe and the Middle East and feature several well-known performers, with a modest (for Broadway) budget."

'Bring It On' set for stage adaptation

Variety: "A squad of Broadway creatives are bringing 'Bring It On: The Musical' to the stage in a tuner version aimed toward a regional developmental staging in early 2011 ahead of a national tour."

Beyond the spotlight: How to carve out a career backstage

The Independent: "Purists may question the increasing blandness of the West End, but for the army of creative technicians working backstage on everything from lighting or props to set design and costume, the rapid growth of opportunities in anything from musical theatre to the Fringe is worth celebrating."

Internship

Will Joyce Theater Be Home for Union Stagehands?

Playbill News: "Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Sept. 14 requesting an NLRB-supervised election of the Joyce Theater stagehands to certify Local One as their collective bargaining agent."

A.C.T. Offers Valet Bike Parking on Bike to the Theatre Nights

Stage Directions: "American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), in partnership with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), is providing a greener alternative to theatre transportation. For each production of the season, A.C.T. will host a Bike to the Theatre Night, during which the SFBC will offer free valet bike parking for all patrons who cycle to the theatre. Valet bike parking is available one hour prior to showtime. Bicycles will be attended throughout the evening. Patrons are asked to please bring their own locks."

ZFX Launches Automation

Stage Directions: "ZFX Flying Effects has formed a strategic alliance with Stage Technologies, based in Las Vegas, Nevada, to offer automated solutions for productions that require more complex flying sequences. ZFX will add award-winning products from Stage Technologies, including hoists and control systems, to its roster of complete flying services."

Artists no longer mavericks at society's fringe

The Age: "SHAKESPEARE wrote in Measure for Measure that 'Truth is truth to the end of reckoning.' Shakespeare was a man who knew a thing or two. So what is the truth of Australian theatre? It's in decline. It's been in steady decline for most of the past two decades and, for some reason, policymakers cannot see it, and the industry and its audience have chosen to ignore it. Theatre in this country has, for too long, been trapped in a limited reality, a white middle-class sport both on stage and in the auditorium, comfortable in its homogeny, creatively self-referential and, it seems, almost determinedly culturally unrepresentative."