The Slippery Slope of Creeping Scope

FreelanceFolder: "Uncontrolled scope creep costs you money.
When a client asks you to do something that wasn’t part of the original agreement it’s called scope creep.
Some scope creep is relatively minor and doesn’t really make much difference to your freelancing business. Doing a little bit of extra work for a client can be a good way to build up some good will."

The Indie Theatre Ghetto

a poor player: "I thought the most interesting aspect of this graphic was the fact that, while 77% of OOB theatre practitioners are white, only 45% of the population of New York City is white. And just as striking are the figures below it: while 27% of NYC’s population is Black/African American, only 5% of OOB theatre people are Black/African American. Although not in this graphic, the numbers for the Hispanic community mirror those of the African American numbers."

Women Directors React to the Bigelow Win

Women & Hollywood: "It’s still sinking in — the big Bigelow win — and I wanted to hear what other folks thought, so I reached out to women directors around the world at all levels of their careers and asked them what they thought and what it means for them. Thanks to everyone who responded. If other still want to respond, I’d be happy to add. I would love to get the reactions of the women who have been nominated previously and I am working on that — if you know Lina Wertmuller, or Sofia Copolla and can contact them (I already have a feeler out to Jane Campion), please email me — I’ll let you know if I hear from them."

Lumber prices at their highest in years

The Hardware Aisle: "If you're about to start any projects that are going to require lumber, like say a framing walls or a building a pull-down attic staircase, you might want to hold off a bit."

SETC 2010 Podcast

TACT: "The following presentation is not exactly a podcast, because we were not sitting in front of microphones mixing our voices to create a clean sound. Rather, we recorded our presentation live at SETC during our presentation “What Are We Doing?: Re-thinking the Theatre Arts Curriculum.”"

Special Offer on A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting Book

iSquint.net: "More SETC fun and excitement! Steve Shelley was ablaze in his lime green shirt and hat while at SETC, (Southeast Theatre Conference), informing students and educators the benefits of his Field Templates and Soft Symbols drafting library’s."

Awards for Costume and Set Designers

NYTimes.com: "The veteran Broadway and film costume designer Albert Wolsky, who has two Academy Awards to his credit for “All That Jazz” and “Bugsy,” will receive the T.D.F./Irene Sharaff lifetime achievement award next month at a ceremony that will honor several other designers as well. The Theater Development Fund, the not-for-profit group that runs TKTS and has an extensive collection of costumes for rent, announced the recipients of the design awards on Tuesday."

Gap Store Completely Turned Upside-Down

Jezebel: "To announce the arrival of the Gap's 'Sprize' customer-loyalty program (and probably to shock passersby into noticing), a Gap in Vancouver was completely flipped upside-down, in line with Sprize's motto 'shopping turned on its head.'"

"Work Expands to the Time Allowed"

Lifehacker: "Yesterday I found a copy of Parkinson's Law for $1 at a library book sale. This book is best known for it's opening line: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

Phantom of Opera sequel opens amid phan disquiet

Reuters: "The sequel to 'Phantom of the Opera', one of the biggest musicals of all time, opens in London on Tuesday amid disquiet among die-hard 'phans' who have been posting opinions online since previews began two weeks ago."

Ken Takemoto: East West Players' Mr. Fix-It

latimes.com: "To understand why East West Players loves Ken Takemoto, ask about 'the duck.' The fake fowl -- a Rube Goldbergian contraption he created for a 2008revival of 'Pippin' -- shows just how clever, conscientious and cheap the 75-year-old prop master can be."

Phantom Sequel Argues That 'Love Never Dies'

NPR: "When last we saw the evil genius behind the mask, he had mysteriously disappeared from his lair underneath the Paris Opera. But he's back."

'Time' tells Wells tale with wit

Post Gazette: "It's a tricky business, time -- especially those fluid categories of past, present and future, flowing into each other before you can pin them down.
Even the past doesn't stay past, not when you inhabit it in your imagination or visit it via some sort of physical contraption, but of course that takes imagination, too."

PNC Broadway Across America

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "For Paul Organisak, putting together the PNC Broadway Across America -- Pittsburgh season is all about balance.
So, he's particularly proud of the lineup for the 2010-11 season that includes seven subscriber-series shows and four non-subscriber presentations chosen to appeal to a wide variety of tastes and interests."

Artists invited to design ballet pointe shoes

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre is inviting local professional artists to turn pointe shoes into works of art as part of the company's 40th anniversary presentation of 'Swan Lake.'"

Colleagues on the Maestro

Variety: "Who but Andrew, you know? Let's not even discuss the relative value, the revelations, the nearly mystical musical journey of this score of 'Love Never Dies.'"

Transatlantic transfers on stage

Variety: "Broadway auds and producers often swoon over Brit productions so, as gambles go, trans-Atlantic transfers of prestige projects would seem to be a solid bet. And, of course, it's always cheaper to remount an existing production, right?"

Good Housekeeping Puts on a Show to Celebrate Women

NYTimes.com: "Good Housekeeping? As in the magazine? Indeed. Executives there are producing a show, to be staged at the New York City Center, that will pay tribute to the achievements of women who have inspired, informed, educated, captivated and sometimes infuriated Americans during the last 125 years."

8th Women Playwrights Conference in Mumbai

London Theatre Blog: "Mumbai this month saw the conveying of the 8th International Women Playwright’s International Conference. The event brought together many of the leading female playwrights, directors, actors and producers from around the world. The conference not only highlighted the outstanding contribution made by women from around the world to theatre but also by being held only a year on from the Mumbai massacres, beautifully illustrated theatre’s capacity to celebrate both liberty and tolerance (two of the themes for this year’s festival) and transcend cultural and religious divisions."

Organize and Execute Your Collaborative Projects With Google Apps

MakeUseOf: "If your project needs to have the cooperation of two or more people, here is your free solution. For personal project/task management, I recommend you have a look at GTD and the many applications that support implementing the GTD methodology."

The Truth About Attracting Younger Audiences

Arts Marketing: "In the past few weeks, I have served on a couple of panels and delivered a few speeches about attracting younger audiences. In doing so I found that many people harbor some misconceptions about attracting younger audiences. I understand that younger audiences are a sexy topic to funders and board members, but there are a few things we all need to think about before launching our assault on the Gen X'ers and Millenials."

Lawrence Lessig scares a room of liberals

Boing Boing: "I should say upfront that I'm a big fan of Lawrence Lessig's causes and his presentation techniques. My favorite might be his 2007 tour de force at TED about John Philips Sousa, Jesus singing 'I Will Survive,' and the joys and dangers of remix culture. A few days back he spoke at TEDxNYED about what conservatives can teach the free culture movement."

Ben Cameron on the Artistic Reformation

Theatre Ideas: "Cameron compares the current situation in the arts to the Protestant Reformation, which was driven by technology (the printing press) and fueled by the question of who was allowed to practice. And while Cameron acknowledges that the Reformation didn't eliminate the traditional church (i.e., the existing arts institutions, which bafflingly he refers to as the only opportunity for 'economic dignity' for the artist -- really?), it did lead to a revolution in all aspects of society."

SketchUp Shop Class Coming Soon

Popular Woodworking: "Along with updating the look of the magazine, we've been busy working on some new ways to share knowledge. We're big fans of the free modeling program SketchUp and in the next week or so you'll have the chance to join me in a two-part online class. And a few weeks after the classes are available online, you'll be able to purchase them on DVD. Later this year, we'll have more 'Shop Classes' available on a number of topics, by some of the best teachers around."

Why You Still Need Business Cards

WebWorkerDaily: "As a web worker, I handle most of my communications online. My first contact with many of my clients is via email or, sometimes, phone. But I still have a big box of business cards sitting on my desk, and I think they come in handy. I’m willing to pay to get professional business cards printed regularly."

No love lost for Lloyd Webber's Phantom sequel Love Never Dies

The Australian: "OPENING night is still four days away but Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to The Phantom of the Opera is already threatening to stake an unwanted claim to theatre history."

Moore: Shadow Theatre is in for the fight for its life

The Denver Post: "For Shadow Theatre, the uncomfortable question now becomes not whether the state's only black company can survive . . . but should it — at least in its present form?
Saddled with debt, infested with infighting and now again seeking new artistic and executive leadership, the late founder Jeffrey Nickelson's dream is proving to be unsustainable, done in by petty bickering, staggering costs and audience abandonment."

PNC Broadway Across America series lines up revivals, 2 new musicals

Post Gazette: "A season without the Rockettes needs a touch of magic. So the PNC Broadway Across America -- Pittsburgh Series is flying in Mary Poppins for more than two weeks in January as part of its 2010-11 season."

Pittsburgh CLO building a presence on Broadway

Post Gazette: "If Van Kaplan is whistling a happy tune these days, he's probably multitasking. It's a busy time for the Pittsburgh CLO and its executive director, what with piling on frequent-flier miles to audition actors for the summer season and check on the company's Broadway investments.
Yes, Broadway.
'If you stand in the middle of 46th Street and look in either direction this spring, you'll see our shows,' said Mr. Kaplan, taking a breather recently in the lobby of Pittsburgh's Westin William Penn."

Pittsburgh season offers range of shows

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "For Paul Organisak, putting together the PNC Broadway Across America -- Pittsburgh season is all about balance.
So, he's particularly proud of the lineup for the 2010-11 season that includes seven subscriber-series shows and four non-subscriber presentations chosen to appeal to a wide variety of tastes and interests."

Writing a Résumé That Shouts ‘Hire Me’

NYTimes.com: "IT’S tempting to think of a résumé as a low-maintenance aspect of your job search. Just list where you worked, what you did and where you went to school, attach that to each application and press the button."

Man or mouse: has Equity lost its bite?

guardian.co.uk: "Equity has been complaining for many years now about the backstage conditions in West End venues. But does anything change? Does it heck. And you can rest assured that those very same actors who'll be moaning about the union's impotence to represent their – our – interests, will be the very ones who long ago lapsed their membership."

Stratford festival finishes 2009 with surplus

CBC News: "'Once again, this festival faced a year of daunting economic challenge. Once again, we rose to that challenge and surmounted it. Our 2009 season was a resounding success by any measure: artistic, critical and financial,' said Richard Rooney, chair of the festival board, said in a statement Saturday."

San Francisco State and Other Institutions Struggle for Arts Funds

NYTimes.com: "When San Francisco State University’s theater arts department commissioned Mark Jackson to adapt and direct a production of “Romeo and Juliet,” he came up with the unusual idea of creating a version of the tragedy for 14 actors, all cast in the role of Juliet. But because of budget cuts at the university, less money is available for items that affect the look of a production, like sets, lights and costumes. So to save on wardrobe, Mr. Jackson has had to readjust his core creative concept: now he has just eight actors for his new show, “Juliet.”"

Projections Onstage in Shows Like ‘Sondheim on Sondheim’

NYTimes.com: "AT “The Orphans’ Home Cycle” titles and dates move across the screen like “Star Wars” credits taking a detour. At “Fela!” newspaper headlines like “Fela Declares Self ‘Black Power Man’ ” pop up on a screen. Even at “Safe Home,” a low-budget, bare-bones production that opened Off Broadway this year, scene changes were announced with 1950s newsreel footage."

John Turturro, in Italy, Breathes Life Into Folk Tales

NYTimes.com: "FROM a stony redoubt on a stage in the Piccolo Teatro Strehler, John Turturro smiles faintly and presses the palms of his hands together between his knees. Mr. Turturro — born in Queens, living in Brooklyn — is playing an unscrupulous innkeeper in “Fiabe italiane” (“Italian Folk Tales”), a powerfully imagined parable he also directs and has freely adapted from fables collected by Italo Calvino, Giambattista Basile and Giuseppe Pitrè."

‘Boys in the Band’ Influenced Kushner and Other Playwrights

NYTimes.com: "MART CROWLEY’s play “The Boys in the Band” opened off Broadway on April 14, 1968, and instantly made theater history: It was, as Clive Barnes wrote in his review in The New York Times, “by far the frankest treatment of homosexuality I have ever seen on the stage.”"

Twyla Tharp Returns to Broadway With ‘Come Fly Away’

NYTimes.com: "TWYLA THARP opened the door of her Upper West Side penthouse on a snowy morning wearing an emerald-colored sweatshirt, its hood pulled firmly over her silver hair. Ms. Tharp’s no-nonsense way of looking out at the world becomes less intimidating the better you know her. On this particular morning, with her enormous eyes magnified and peering intently behind round glasses, she had the air of a cute green owl about to rob a bank."

With ‘Behanding,’ Martin McDonagh Is Not Mellowing With Age

NYTimes.com: "FOUR years ago Martin McDonagh, the celebrated playwright whose flamboyantly gruesome dark comedies have brought smashed skulls, child murder and other carefully calibrated outrages to Broadway, shocked the theater world in an entirely new way."

Lloyd Webber redefined musical theater

Variety: "Sometimes it's a little hard to believe Andrew Lloyd Webber is just one person. The composer behind 'Cats,' 'Evita,' 'The Phantom of the Opera,' 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Sunset Boulevard' is sometimes credited with putting the boffo back in Broadway's B.O. He has also won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, six Tonys and three Grammys, including one for the recording of his challenging 'Requiem' Mass. Maybe Andrew is one composer, Lloyd is another and Webber is the one who eats and sleeps."

Kelly Critic Review: "Beauty and the Beast" at Vincentian Academy

Post Gazette: "Opening night for Vincentian High School's 'Beauty and the Beast' (Feb. 19-27) was packed with eager patrons waiting to be dazzled by a beloved Disney classic. The curtains opened to reveal a humble set, the setting mainly simple painted sheets that slide on rollers. However, the audiences' expectations were met when the ensemble entered with high energy to sing their first number."

Off Broadway Ensembles Can Be Hits, With Limits

NYTimes.com: "For the third time this season, the Off Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons has received rave reviews for a production, “Clybourne Park,” and has added performances to meet audience demand. What Playwrights doesn’t have are tiny casts led by movie stars, the formula that many Broadway producers consider essential for a play to make money in an era of high ticket prices and stiff competition."

No Longer at the NEA, Yosi Sergant Is Back Among the Artists

Fast Company: "After an appointment to a high-profile federal position that was truncated by a conservative takedown, Yosi Sergant was back in his element last night: In this case, a former Big Lots in Hollywood. White-hot fluorescent lighting radiated over hundreds of revelers at Manifest Equality, where Sergant had helped to corral 400 art pieces for sale by artists like Robbie Conal, Tim Biskup, and Ron English to benefit the Courage Campaign, a California-based equal rights network."

The money behind making movies

Marketplace From American Public Media: "The Academy Awards, as you probably know, are Sunday. There are 10 movies up for Best Picture. And come Monday morning, there is going to be much crowing and advertising by the studio that produced the winner. But, y'know what? Oscars aren't everything. When Hollywood gets right down to it, money is. And while there is a certain clarity to the Academy Awards, a win is, after all, a win. There is nothing so clear cut about the economics of making movies."

MIT Media Lab Complex ready to illuminate

CNET News: "The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday officially opened the doors to its MIT Media Lab Complex, the school's most famous interdisciplinary program.
The new building, designed by architect Fumihiko Maki and his Maki and Associates firm, broke ground in 2007. But the Media Lab's quest for expansion has actually been 12 years in the making, according to Adele Naude Santos, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning."

Students' complaints

ControlBooth: "You don't need movers, you don't need source fours, you don't need the state of the art board. Take this time to learn to light with crap, because if you can make crap look good now, when you do get access to fancier toys later in life you will know what to do with them. The principles are all the same. If you give fancy equipment to someone who has never learned to light something, you tend to end up with a truss of gimmicks and a show that looks like something the local DJ hauled in from the back of his minivan."

Lights! Glamour! Pittsburgh! Join the Oscar Party with the Pittsburgh Film Office

Pittsburgh Art + Technology: "Did you know that Pittsburgh is one of the top 10 places in the country to film a movie?
“Lights! Glamour! Action!” ™ will be held on Sunday, March 7, 2010 at theAugust Wilson Center for African American Culture.
Pittsburgh will turn on the glitz and glamour while celebrating Oscar™ night! The evening includes a red carpet entrance, silent auction, a VIP champagne reception, gourmet food stations, the premiere of the “Pittsburgh Stars” video and the LIVE Oscar™ telecast on the BIG SCREEN!"

Movies No Longer Making A Powerful Impact On Fashion

Jezebel: "'Fashion and film used to feed off each other.' So says Eugenia Paulicelli, curator of the exhibit Fashion + Film: The 1960s Revisited (which opens at the CUNY Graduate Center next week) in today's New York Times. So what happened?"

Call for Stage Designers: Submit Works for U.S. National Exhibit for Prague 2011

Scenography: "Out with the retrospective — and in with the cutting edge. That, in a nutshell, will be the curatorial approach for the U.S. national pavilion currently being organized by a group of leading U.S. theatre designers for the 12th Prague Quadrennial (PQ), which will run for 10 days in June 2011 in the Czech Republic."

How David Rockwell's Oscar Set Makes Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin Funnier [Exclusive]

Fast Company: "At a rehearsal for the opening number of Sunday night's Oscar show at the Kodak Theatre, tiny, plain-clothed dancers pranced over glossy laser-cut laminate in what felt like a sparkly, white-on-white dream sequence. '5-6-7-8!' Seated in the audience, architect David Rockwell was dressed in black jeans, Asics running shoes and a black Academy zip-up, surveying his latest spectacle. 'It's going to be terrifying all over again,' he said, over the syncopated four-counts. 'Which I love.'"

How to make a deer butt

Props: "In a previous post, we saw a deer butt which Natalie had built several years ago make a reappearance in a current production of A Lie of the Mind. I asked her to share how she constructed it."

Theatre Design Specialist - March, 2010

American Theatre Wing: "Theatre Design Specialist Roger Morgan talks about how his education in scenic and lighting design and backstage experience helped determine his focus in the field of architecture. He works on new designs as well as restorations, fully evaluating the existing damage and work required. For the Nederlander Theatre, left in 'grungy' condition that suited the long-running musical Rent which closed in 2008, Morgan referred back to historical records and photos. Morgan paid close attention to the original architectural details and interior lighting, and gave the theatre a fresh exterior highlighting the arches and original brick as well as a new marquee."

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro. Volume 2: A Marketing Director

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "I got some great response from the first edition of 10 Qs for a Bway Pro, so I thought I'd roll out Volume 2 this week.
Last week we talked about advertising . . . this week, we explore the more ambiguous world of marketing with none other than that Broadway Marketing Guru, Hugh Hysell."

Walken Seeks Lost Hand in Lurid Comedy ‘Spokane’

Bloomberg.com: "Even if, like me, you are no great fan of the Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, you will find “A Behanding in Spokane,” in which Christopher Walken makes a triumphant return to the Broadway stage, insane yet also fiendishly funny."

Toots, Twyla, Paulo Szot Loses His Nose: Great N.Y. Weekend

Bloomberg.com: "Based on a story by that Russian barrel of laughs, Gogol, Dmitri Shostakovich’s “The Nose” concerns the puzzling loss of an organ in the days before Freud was around to help figure it all out."

Can theatre beat the BNP?

guardian.co.uk: "Two weeks ago I attended the launch rally of Expose the BNP, a campaign that aims to equip journalists with the tools to report effectively on the British National Party. During the question-and-answer session, Ranjit Atwal of the Broadway, a small arts venue in BNP heartland Barking, stood up to tell us about a politically-inspired festival they're curating in April, called Spin the Election. The programme will include A Day at the Racists, a new play by Anders Lustgarten that opened this week at the Finborough Theatre in south London."

Wisdom of the crowd: interactive theatre is where it's at

guardian.co.uk: "Five years ago I wrote a piece for the Guardian arts pages about one-to-one performance. At the time these interactive performances in which it was just you and an artist – or, in one memorable case, just me, the artist and a very large, very dead pig – seemed as if they were merely an interesting sidestreet off the main theatrical highway. Not any longer. This week the British Council is hosting a raft of British artists and companies – including Tim Crouch, Melanie Wilson, Coney, Blast Theory, Stoke Newington International Airport with their Live Art Speed Dating and Duncan Speakman, amongst others – in a showcase of interactive performance at the Tokyo Performing Arts Market."

Sound and video crew help needed for feature

Craigslist: "We are looking for crew help and especially sound help for a SAG Ultra-low busget film"

Cho snags Blackburn Prize

Variety: "Julia Cho has picked up the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the kudo handed out annually to a femme playwright, for her play 'The Language Archive.'"

Tracy Brigden takes a surprising step into Public Theater territory for 'The Price'

Post Gazette: "Does Hertz get cozy with Avis? Or UPMC with West Penn?
No. So it's notable that Arthur Miller's 'The Price,' starting previews tonight at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in the Cultural District, is being directed by Tracy Brigden, artistic director of City Theatre on the South Side."

'Henry and Mudge' teaches big friends new tricks

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "A popular series of children's books about a boy and his big dog will come alive on five Pittsburgh-area stages during the next two weeks, as 'Henry and Mudge' comes to town."

Songs of Matthew Sweet Flavor Boy-Meets-Boy Musical, Girlfriend, at Berkeley Rep

Playbill.com: "Ryder Bach and Jason Hite, along with a live band on Berkeley Repertory Theatre's intimate Thrust Stage, will appear in the world premiere of Girlfriend, the musical inspired by the '90s pop album by Matthew Sweet, April 9-May 9 in California."

How OK Go Built the Craziest Rube Goldberg Machine Yet

Gizmodo: "OK Go's new music video for 'This Too Shall Pass' is four minutes of pure Rube Goldberg insanity. And as these behind-the-scenes videos show, it was every bit as monumental an undertaking as you'd expect"

Actors and Overhead Projectors

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Blog: "Brandon is manipulating a puppet on an overhead projector as Kasey looks on, laughing, and Millie diligently watches the screen. It is a literally “behind-the-scenes” look at Dog & Pony’s The Twins Would Like To Say, which I co-directed and co-wrote with Devon de Mayo, and which opened on Sunday."

UK National Exhibition 2011

Scenography: "Entry is open to any practitioner wishing to exhibit, but exhibitors must be (or become) members of either the SBTD, Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) or Society of Theatre Consultants (STC). Designs submitted for the exhibition must have been realised in performance in the past four years, 2007–2011."

West End theatres infested with mice and fleas, survey finds

guardian.co.uk: "Any West End theatre wanting to mount a production of Cinderella, the Pied Piper of Hamelin or the Nutcracker Suite won't have far to look for the furry co-stars: according to a whisker-twitchingly gruesome survey by the actors' union Equity, three-quarters of theatreland is infested with mice, rats and fleas."

A Noise Within repertory company raises $10 million for new home in Pasadena

Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times: "For once, there's a bit of good news when it comes to a theater and money. A Noise Within, the classical repertory company based in Glendale, has passed the $10-million mark -- more than a month ahead of schedule -- in its capital campaign to bring in $13.3 million for its new home in Pasadena. The organization had hoped to reach the fundraising milestone in time for a planned April groundbreaking."

Shadow Theatre director quits amid rift

The Denver Post: "Keith Hatten announced his resignation Tuesday night as Shadow Theatre Company's second artistic director. He claims he was being undermined by the family of his predecessorand that he's owed $21,700 in back pay."

Carnegie Mellon Actor Senior Showcase Performances THIS FRIDAY!

CMU Drama School Blog - post-gazette.com: "Before they were stars they were the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama class of 2010. Join the School of Drama for two select performances of the actor's Senior Showcase 2010!"

Aspen Santa Fe captivating crossover

Post Gazette: "There was a time when the difference between ballet and modern dance was as simple as the point and the flex of the feet. But Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, a rising young star of a company in the dance firmament, is the latest example in honing that once-large gap into a mere sliver of differentiation."

'Camelot,' 'Donuts' highlight PPT season

Post Gazette: "Two contemporary dramas back to back on the schedule lend a modern note to the Pittsburgh Public Theater's upcoming season that also features a trio of audience-pleasers."

Taylor Hicks puts heart and soul into Teen Angel in 'Grease'

Post Gazette: "From Alabama bars to Asian arenas, mall Easter Bunny to Broadway, unknown to mocking 'Saturday Night Live' skits, Taylor Hicks, that gray-haired, harmonica player of fickle 'American Idol' fame, has had an unlikely ride."

Pittsburgh Public Theater director jumps into second decade

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Ted Pappas intends to begin his second decade helming the Pittsburgh Public Theater the same way he began his first decade.
In 2000, Pappas began his tenure as producing artistic director by directing a production of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 'You Can't Take It With You.'
The 2010/11 season will begin with Pappas directing 'The Royal Family,' that Kaufman, a Pittsburgh native, wrote with Edna Ferber."

Review: Musical version of 'Time After Time' shows great promise

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "For the creative team of 'Time After Time,' the light at the end of the tunnel may well be bulbs on a New York theater marquee.
After years in development, 'Time After Time' opened its first fully staged production last week at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Oakland.
It's ably directed by Gabriel Barre and performed by the Conservatory Theatre Company of Point Park University with a cast of well-trained students enrolled in the university's Conservatory of Performing Arts."

Review: Prime Stage Theatre plays dramatize serious scenarios

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Prime Stage Theatre presented two wonderful plays this week, both of which effectively dramatized two serious scenarios: an abusive dating relationship, and the suffering of people with Lou Gehrig's disease."

Citrin, Garin and Nelson Will Pen Score for Sleepless in Seattle–The Musical

Playbill.com: "Producer David Shor, who is developing Sleepless in Seattle–The Musical for Broadway, announced March 3 that Michelle Citrin, Michael Garin and Josh Nelson will collaborate on the music and lyrics for the show, which is aiming for a Broadway bow on Valentine's Day 2011."

Celebrities Take On a New Theatrical Role - ‘Presenters’

NYTimes.com: "Elton John hasn’t seen the Broadway play “Next Fall,” but he has invested a six-figure sum in the $2 million production. Jay-Z, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, and their business partners have put $3 million into the Broadway musical “Fela!” And Lily Tomlin has just signed on as the lead promoter of a new one-man show off Broadway."

RoboThespian, the Acting Robot, Can Give Robert Pattinson A Run For His Money

Gizmodo: "He may have plastic boobs saggier than Dame Judi Dench, but as Wired points out, this RoboThespian 'shows more acting range than some Hollywood stars.' The British robot has been programmed to show off a variety of acting abilities."

What Fuels Your Productivity: Your Calendar or To-Do List?

Lifehacker: "When it comes to organizing your life, two schools of thought dominate: One says you should rely on a to-do list to stay on top of things; the other maintains the key to getting things done relies on a calendar."

Where is the Industry Heading – Edward Warren

iSquint.net: "This months interview for the continuing column, Where is the Industry Heading, I got a chance to talk with Edward Warren. Edward is a fellow lighting designer based in London, England and runs his own lighting design firm, Next Level Lights. You may know Ed from his twitter name, @edforever. Ed takes a a couple of moments to talk with me about technology and where he thinks the lighting industry is heading."

Project Gustav: Microsoft Research Updates MS Paint In a Huge Way

Gizmodo: "MS Paint may be beloved but it's also the butt of plenty of jokes about art skill. Project Gustav is Microsoft Research's answer: An artist-friendly GPU-intense multitouch-and-Wacom-tablet-based natural painting program."

Stage Lighting iPhone Apps

On Stage Lighting: "An up to date look at stage lighting iPhone apps and what they do.
July 2008 saw the start of stage lighting’s entry into the world of Apple’s iPhone apps – lighting themed software that you can use with the iPhone (or iPod Touch)."

Lights! Glamour! Pittsburgh!

PopCity: "Pittsburgh is one of the top 10 places in the country to shoot a movie.
The nonstop flow of work into the region generated an estimated economic impact last year of $104 million. That's nearly double the $60 million the region earned in 2008 and a stunt leap from the $18 million that trickled in in 2007 to hotel rooms, car rental agencies, restaurants and local businesses.
And the word on the street is that 2010 will be the biggest filmmaking year yet in Pittsburgh's history. Just call us Tinsel Town USA."

Businessman held on $1-million bail in supergraphic case

latimes.com: "In a dramatic escalation of the war against illegal supergraphics in Los Angeles, authorities have jailed a businessman accused of posting an eight-story movie advertisement on an office building at one of Hollywood's busiest intersections."

Downstage Center - Howard Sherman - March, 2010

American Theatre Wing: "Turnabout is fair play, as actor Richard Thomas is the guest host for a conversation with Howard Sherman, Executive Director of the American Theatre Wing. The longtime friends discuss the changes in the Wing since Sherman arrived in 2003, the unifying idea beyond the program expansion that has taken place since that time, and how ATW has evolved repeatedly over its 70 year history to meet the changing needs of the theatre community."

Theatrical Marketing Intern - DreamWorks Theatricals

The Producer's Perspective Classifieds: "Intern will have the opportunity to work in a theatrical production company with the marketing, sales, and producing teams; and interact with various outside theater offices. Responsibilities include market research & reports, sales analysis, administrative support, attending & taking notes in meetings, creating & maintaining filing systems, and supporting the marketing, sales, & producing teams in various assigned tasks."

"When I say Broadway, you say . . ." Survey Results revealed.

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "My staffers and I got into a discussion last week about what the word 'Broadway' meant to our ticket buyers. What sort of images did it conjure? What did they associate with it? In other words . . . what did the brand of Broadway actually mean?
We decided to find out."

Evil Plots, Bewitched King Gum Up Shakespeare Fantasy

Bloomberg.com: "Shakespeare’s last works are known as the Problem Plays because they veer uneasily from comedy to drama and back again. Bill Cain’s Bard-themed “Equivocation,” at the Manhattan Theatre Club, has problems of a different kind."

Ruthless Management, Vintage Melodrama Boost U.K. Theater

Bloomberg.com: "The stunning Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmunds, built in 1819, is the only surviving Regency-era theater in the U.K.
To go into its cream-colored foyer is to enter a realm of classical beauty and harmonious proportions. The blood-red decoration of the stalls and tiers in the auditorium and the sky-blue trompe l’oeil ceiling promise passion and artifice."

Musicals Like ‘Scottsboro Boys’ Strike a Somber Note

NYTimes.com: "The dream number from “The Scottsboro Boys,” the musical opening next Wednesday at the Vineyard Theater, is a nightmare: an imprisoned boy is forced to tap dance around an electric chair."

Bogus trend story of the week: The Wall Street Journal discovers a zillion playwrights writing for TV!

Slate Magazine: "The Wall Street Journal takes bogus trend story of the week honors with its Feb. 26 piece 'The Teleplay's the Thing: A Growing Number of Top Playwrights Are Migrating to TV.' After noting in the fifth paragraph that playwrights such as David Mamet and Theresa Rebeck 'have found a second home on TV before,' the Journal makes this sweeping statement:
But some in the TV world say that the traffic [of writers] from stage to TV has never been heavier than it is now—a result, in part, of the rise of more cable shows with literary aspirations and a TV marketplace that puts a premium on writers with original voices."

AFTRA Enters Joint Bargaining With SAG

Backstage: "Two of the major performers' unions have officially kissed and made up. At its Feb 27 meeting, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists' national board of directors voted to return to joint bargaining with the Screen Actors Guild on AFTRA's prime-time television contract."

2010 YD&T Award Winners Announced

SIghtlines: "Ten outstanding young people were selected from over 66 students nominated for the 2010 Awards for Young Designers & Technicians in the Performing Arts (YD&T). The winners will be honored during USITT's 50th Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Kansas City, Missouri, March 31 to April 3. The selection process included jury members drawn from USITT's ranks and representatives of the individuals and companies who sponsor the awards."

States Move to Revoke Charities’ Tax Exemptions

NYTimes.com: "In December, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl of Pittsburgh proposed a 1 percent tax on college tuitions to raise roughly $16 million that would help the city make pension payments. He shelved the plan when three large nonprofit organizations in the city — the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Highmark, a health care provider — agreed to make larger voluntary payments."

URTA Launches National Showcase Calendar

Stage Directions: "The University/Resident Theatre Association (URTA) has a new online service starting this month, the URTA National Showcase Calendar. With this new service, URTA provides a way of tracking the many school showcases produced each spring in New York City. The calendar listing of showcase productions will be available to MFA and BFA programs in acting, performance and musical theatre from across the nation. With the new URTA National Showcase Calendar, schools now have a way of managing showcase schedules and avoiding potential conflicts, ensuring that theatre professionals, casting agents and others can view all the talent on display."

CalArts, NYU Tisch and Yale Band Together for Design Meeting Event

Stage Directions: "The graduate theatre design programs at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and Yale School of Drama will present the inaugural Design Meeting event at the Pope Auditorium at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, May 29-31, 2010. Design Meeting 2010 serves as an introduction of graduating MFA Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers to the professional theatre community through a project gallery and portfolio presentation"

How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive

Wired Magazine: "Your random tweets about Android apps and last night’s Glee are stifling the economic recovery. At least, that’s the buzz among efficiency mavens, who seem to spend all their time adding up microblogging’s fiscal toll. Last year, Nucleus Research warned that Facebook shaves 1.5 percent off total office productivity; a Morse survey estimated that on-the-job social networking costs British companies $2.2 billion a year."

NYU Business School Professor Has Mastered The Art Of Email Flaming

Deadspin: "A student at NYU's Stern School of Business sent a complaint email to a hard-headed professor about his class's lateness policy. The professor emailed back, eviscerated the student David Mamet-style, and now it's gone viral. Welcome to internet immorality."

Arts internships: chance of a lifetime or cut-price labour?

guardian.co.uk: "A young acquaintance of mine recently got her first paid job in theatre. She left university two and a half years ago and, since then, has worked part-time in a bar, while also undertaking a series of unpaid or expenses-only work experience placements and internships. Six, to be exact. Now approaching her mid-twenties, she has just got her first salaried employment in the arts. She counts herself lucky, even though it is only a part-time job. She knows people who have been working unpaid in theatres and companies even longer."

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

Here are the top five comment generating posts from the past week:

The Inspector General

Pittsburgh City Paper: "You may know the etymology of 'politics.' The word combines the Greek 'poli,' meaning 'many,' with 'tics,' which are blood-sucking insects.
I love that joke."

Posted by David at 2/25/2010 04:55:00 PM <-- Comments Here

9 Tips for Efficient Meetings

Productivity501: "Meetings can be one of the biggest time drains for you as an individual and for a business. A meeting with 7 people all making $20 per hour costs a business $140 per hour. If it is a once-per-week meeting and there are 15 minutes wasted at each meeting, the total yearly waste comes to over $1,800. I don’t know about you, but a one hour meeting with only 15 minutes wasted is actually a pretty good meeting, in my experience. Half of a meeting being wasted is more par for the course, and entire meetings that are unproductive is fairly common."

Posted by David at 2/26/2010 07:39:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Mind-Blowing : The Future of Architectural Visualization

FreshHome: "Traditional 3D visualization tools are limited to 2D display technology (computer monitors for instance). Zebra’s holographic images are unlike anything you have ever seen. The image literally “floats” in the air. You will be tempted to reach into the image with the expectation that you will touch the object being presented."

Posted by David at 2/28/2010 06:49:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Artists group protests NAC’s use of ‘offensive’ language

The Globe and Mail: "In response to objections from a group of disabled artists, the National Arts Centre has posted an explanation for a reference to “legless cripples” that appears in the NAC’s online promotional material for a just-opened play. But the Radical Disabled Artists Network is still waiting for an apology for language the artists consider offensive."

Posted by David at 2/28/2010 06:45:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Full immersion experience is way to go with shows

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "How much a critic should know, and when she should know it have always been hot topics.
Some like to keep themselves -- or like to claim they keep themselves -- distant from pre-performance chatter, gossip, background research and the reviews of fellow critics.
The reasoning is sound enough.
They prefer to judge the show they see on its merits alone."

Posted by David at 2/28/2010 07:22:00 PM <-- Comments Here

'Phantom' lives to 'Love' again

Variety: "The longest runner in Broadway history and London's second-longest after world record holder 'Les Miserables,' 'The Phantom of the Opera' has amassed global grosses of more than $2.63 billion. With box office revenues higher than for any film or stage play in history, including 'Titanic,' 'E.T.' and 'Star Wars,' it has been seen in 144 cities in 27 countries by more than 100 million people."

Posted by David at 2/26/2010 07:42:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Broadway Vocab 101. Words used to describe numbers.

PRODUCER’S PERSPECTIVE: "I threw out a word a few weeks ago that prompted a reader to pop me an email and ask, 'What the fiorello does XXXXX mean?'
So, in an attempt to prevent future emails like that from readers (and future bad musical-cussing puns from me), I thought I'd introduce a new feature on The Producer's Perspective, called Broadway Vocabulary."

Posted by David at 2/26/2010 07:38:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Nude Window Display at Chair and the Maiden Turns Heads

NYTimes.com: "One after the next, they trudged through the horizontal-blowing snow on Thursday, most focusing more on the icy sidewalk than on the body of a naked woman, who stood in a gallery window in Greenwich Village."
There was the occasional elongated stare, or, in at least one case, a mother breaking her prepubescent son out of his trance with a firm tug.
Then, not long after the nude woman, Megan Hanford, assumed her pose, a patrol car rolled toward the gallery, Chair and the Maiden. The police vehicle rolled slowly, paused for a moment, and then kept going.

Posted by David at 2/26/2010 07:38:00 PM <-- Comments Here