Non-Equity Jeff Awards Honors Chicago Theatre

Stage Directions: "At its 38th annual celebration of Chicago’s non-union theatre scene, the Jeff Awards honored 27 award recipients for excellence Monday evening at the Park West. The event, emceed by Circle Theatre’s Kevin Bellie for the second consecutive year, featured production numbers by the nominated musicals and presentation of awards, two of which were delivered by robots. The robots, created for Sideshow Theatre Company’s “Heddatron,” earned their creators an award for Robot Design and Engineering in the Artistic Specialization category, shared with Izumi Inaba, who received an award for makeup design for “Cats” at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre in association with Michael James.

What is the ultimate impossible experiment?

io9: "There's an old psychological theory that it takes 10000 hours of practice to become an expert in a field...and some argue that it's only practice, not natural talent, that makes you an expert. But that theory is completely untestable.

Spider-Man's Pay Dispute With Fired Director Julie Taymor is Musical's Latest Drama

The Daily Beast: "Nearly seven months after it first went into previews, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is finally scheduled to open on Broadway on June 14. But the opening-night gala may not be the only place producer Michael Cohl has to get dressed up for. He may also be headed to court.
The reason? A nasty, escalating dispute with fired director Julie Taymor over what she’s owed for her work on the show.

Who will replace Des McAnuff at Stratford?

The Globe and Mail: "On Saturday afternoon, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival announced that Des McAnuff’s contract as artistic director had been extended by one, final year to 2013, and, within hours, the speculation had started.
Who will succeed this internationally acclaimed, but controversial director as head of the largest, most overanalyzed theatre company in the country?

Daniel Radcliffe Welcomes Middle Schoolers to Majestic Theatre

Backstage: "'One day I will be a Broadway star,' said a small girl standing on a big stage. 'But for now I'm just a student at MS57.'
She was one of the many middle school students who had the opportunity to perform at the Majestic Theatre on Monday, thanks to a program put together by the Shubert Foundation and Music Theatre International. Public school students from Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn performed numbers from such musicals as 'Guys and Dolls Jr.,' 'High School Musical Jr.,' 'Once on This Island Jr.,' 'Annie Jr.,' and 'Aladdin Jr.'

McAnuff to exit Stratford

Variety: "Des McAnuff, the Tony-winning director of 'Jersey Boys,' will step down from his position as artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival after the 2013 season.
McAnuff announced his decision Saturday to extend his contract for a sixth year, but to depart after that time.

City Theatre's Momentum Festival: 'POP!' 'South Side Stories' and more

Post Gazette: "Momentum returned to City Theatre after a two-year absence with a couple of readings that had local flavor: 'POP!' a musical with a hint of Pittsburgh about Andy Warhol and 'South Side Stories,' a project that begins high on the Slopes and ends in the Flats, where City resides.

THE LEADING MEN: Two of the Mormon Boys — Josh Gad and Rory O'Malley

Playbill.com: "What are the chances of colleges roommates ending up being fellow Tony nominees in the same Broadway hit? Ask Josh Gad and Rory O'Malley.

Gary Griffin returns to Stratford in 2012

WBEZ: "Veteran director Gary Griffin will return in 2012 to the world-renowned Stratford Festival in Canada to stage the musical, 42nd Street. The return engagement is all the sweeter because next year is the 60th anniversary of the Stratford Festival, and Griffin will be the sole participating Chicago artist.

“The Daily Rind”, a Better Way to Plan the Day

A. King in Society: "For years my task and schedule management lived across various apps — OmniFocus, Basecamp, Google Calendar, and others (and more recently, as I pared down my “productivity” tools, a simple combination of The Hit List + iCal.) But mapping out what to do throughout my day in a reliable way has always been a problem. Really understanding how little time there was and seeing patterns in time usage proved next to impossible, despite all the technology at my fingertips.
I think I’ve found a better way.

Design and Performance Specifications

Technical Direction Tidbits: "One of my PM class lectures discussed design specifications and that the buyer assumes the risk because they have specified the equipment. On the other side, if the buyer defines the performance desired, the contractor assumes more risk. An IT example was given where all of the IT parts were specified, but perhaps the system as a whole didn’t work well because of unforeseen conflicts.

DeWalt's Impressive Toughsystem Takes On The Systainer

Tool-Rank.com: "I have been battling with the idea of purchasing a few Systainers so that I can use them with a hand truck to get my tools on and off the jobsite easier for a few years now, but the pricing always kept me away. Then out came the L-Boxx from Sortimo, and it popped into my mind as a possible solution. The L-Boxx then became the front runner when Bosch made them more readily available here in the States. However, now it looks like DeWalt's Toughsystem is the ideal storage/transport system for my needs.

TV Dinner Theater: Parodies of Old Sitcoms Draw Blood, Crowds

WSJ.com: "There wasn't an empty table at the Cock 'n Bull restaurant on a recent Saturday night as diners sat back to enjoy a theatrical homage to 'Gilligan's Island,' the 1960s TV sitcom.

Creede actors invading, invigorating Denver stages

The Denver Post: "In 1967, a dozen student actors from the University of Kansas came to Creede and saved this dying old mining town by starting a professional, seasonal theater company on the boarded-up Main Street. Today, the Creede Repertory Theatre is the largest employer in Mineral County.
And now, they're coming to Denver like a gold rush.

Broadway's jumbled year: Critic's Notebook

latimes.com: "Broadway has had a good year by most accounts. Box-office receipts have just been tallied, and it turns out that this has been the highest grossing season on record. Attendance is up, and artistic moods have justifiably brightened. A broad spectrum of drama, old and new (some of it genuinely challenging), has helped counterbalance the commercial froth. And 'The Book of Mormon,' which has the Tony for best musical in the bag, has given New York its first runaway hit in some time that actually received stellar reviews.

Sondheim's 'Follies' is still here, still dazzling

Post Gazette: "The chorus girls of yesteryear never leave the stage in the new Kennedy Center revival of 'Follies,' Stephen Sondheim's 1971 meditation on love lost and the entertainment that went with it.
Throughout Eric Schaeffer's new Kennedy Center production, chorus girls in full Ziegfeld regalia -- sequins! headpieces! more sequins! -- loiter in the background, looking bored as they walk from stage left to stage right. They wear the costumes of an exuberant past and the listlessness of the has-beens they will become.

Public Theater expertly exploits snob appeal of 'God of Carnage'

Post Gazette: "For some reason, the French find misanthropy funny. Moliere had Paris chuckling in 1666 with 'The Misanthrope.'
Now France's latest darling of the stage, Yasmina Reza, mines the same subject for laughs with 'God of Carnage,' the closing production of the Pittsburgh Public Theater's season.

'Out of This Furnace' returns on a smaller production scale

'Out of This Furnace' returns on a smaller production scale: "On June 8, the Unseam'd Shakespeare Company returns one of its most popular productions to the stage.
When Unseam'd Shakespeare Company first performed 'Out of This Furnace' in 2008 as part of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary celebration, it played to sold-out houses.
'My favorite thing was that 60 percent of the audience were not theatergoers,' says Marci Woodruff, who again will direct the production.

Arts groups can revise directions with personnel changes

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Changes in top management at arts organizations often bring more than a change in personnel.
As they search for a successor to those jobs at the top, boards and search committees use the hunt to look at where an organization is going, how its needs have changed and what its future should look like.
'The world changes, and an institution has to change with it,' says Lee Foster, chairman of the board of trustees of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the chairman of the board of the L.B. Foster Co.

Review: 'God of Carnage' ratchets up tension, comedy

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "If playwright Yasmina Reza invites you over for an intimate evening get-together, you might want to think twice.
The social encounters she depicts in 'Life X 3' and 'Art,' as well as 'God of Carnage,' which Pittsburgh Public Theater is now performing, begin well but have a way of going sour fast.
Reza enjoys prying up the thin veneer of social conventions and civilized behavior to explore the dark, uncivilized and barely suppressed behaviors that are just waiting to escape when we drop our guard.

Getcha Head in the Game: Lysistrata Jones, Set on a Basketball Court, Opens in NYC

Playbill.com: "Lysistrata Jones, the new Douglas Carter Beane-Lewis Flinn musical that rips a page out of Aristophanes' ancient comedy about women withholding sex in protest of war, bounds onto a Greenwich Village basketball court, opening June 5 following previews from May 15 in its New York City premiere.

10 Tips to Be Assertive Rather than Aggressive

Focus.com: "When I train leaders I often get the distinct impression that they define assertiveness and aggressiveness as the same thing. I've found that assertiveness is the ability to ask for what you need while aggressiveness refers more to doing things without regard to how they affect others. In the world of leadership and workplace politics assertiveness is a highly desirable characteristic. It enables leaders to ask for what they need and make their position clear without being a jerk.

Creating a Sustainable Rep Plot – Mitigating the risk of Early Adoption

iSquint.net: "It’s hard to compare the market available to a university theater over 5 years ago to the state of LED technology today. But in an important way the situation is the same, the market for new, better lighting instruments is always evolving. How do you know when to jump in? How can we mitigate the risks of adoption?

St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn Facing a Nomadic Future

NYTimes.com: "St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Brooklyn theater whose versatile and cavernous playing space has become a magnet for New York and overseas acting troupes, is now confronting a likely fate that its leaders had worked years to avoid: homelessness.

World Record-Breaking Rube Goldberg Machine

Clothes Before Hoes: "University students comprising the purdue society of professional engineers (PSPE) rube goldberg team have set a new world record for the largest rube goldberg machine ever created.

Universities: Teaching Theater as a Profession

TIME: "Just as they graduate accountants, doctors, mathematicians and lawyers, U.S. universities are now turning out working professionals for the theater.

In the process, they are providing the plant resources, talent, and even the theatergoing community to sustain a revived regional repertory theater. In turn, the multiplying regional theaters — 25 at last count — are creating an expanding job market for drama school graduates.

Momentum festival bounces back with 'POP!'

Post Gazette: "The Momentum new play festival that City Theatre has used to develop works from concept to readings to full productions is back with a 'POP!' after two years on the sidelines.
'When the economy was going south, we were smartly frugal and cut our budget way back. Sadly, Momentum had to go, only it was never meant to be anything but a temporary hiatus,' said artistic director Tracy Brigden.

CLO's '9 to 5' is still a lively romp through the workplace

Post Gazette: "Entertaining Broadway-tested diversions from the workaday world come few and far between, so '9 to 5: The Musical' arrives like cool breeze amid a heatwave -- or more to the point in this circa-1979 story, like a newly minted answering machine to a beleaguered secretary.

REP's season features three world premieres

Post Gazette: "The REP, Point Park University's professional theater company, will produce three world premieres and one Pittsburgh premiere in the 2011-12 season.

'King Hedley II' lays out tale of survival in 1980s Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "For Mark Southers and the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, Friday's opening of 'King Hedley II' finds them entering the final stretch of a long-held promise.
In 2003, Southers, the company's founder and producing artistic director, embarked on a mission to produce all 10 of the plays in August Wilson's Pittsburgh cycle in the order in which they appeared on Broadway.

'Out of This Furnace' returns on a smaller production scale

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "On June 8, the Unseam'd Shakespeare Company returns one of its most popular productions to the stage.
When Unseam'd Shakespeare Company first performed 'Out of This Furnace' in 2008 as part of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary celebration, it played to sold-out houses.
'My favorite thing was that 60 percent of the audience were not theatergoers,' says Marci Woodruff, who again will direct the production.

Pittsburgh Public Theater's God of Carnage, With Deirdre Madigan and Ted Koch, Opens June 3

Playbill.com: "God of Carnage, the production that concludes Pittsburgh Public Theater's 2010-11 season, makes its Pittsburgh premiere, officially opening June 3 at PPT's O'Reilly Theater.

Guy Laliberté Guides Cirque du Soleil

NYTimes.com: "WITH a wolfish grin, mangled pinky and a bald head shaped like a bullet, Guy Laliberté, a co-founder and the owner of Cirque du Soleil, looks like a man with a plan for world domination. Appearances, in this case, do not deceive.

Welcome to the Real World: The Office is Like High School

College Candy: "When I sat in the back row of my college lecture classes, wearing sweats and a free homecoming t-shirt, I day dreamed abotu office life. How I would waltz into the office in the latest J.Crew line, exchange pleasantries with my co-workers, and eat lunch with a charming male co-worker who plays footsie with me at company meetings.
And then I got a job that popped my J.Crew bubble.

SDCF Masters of the Stage - 2003 Symposium: New Writers, New Worlds - June, 2003

American Theatre Wing: "At its 2003 Directing Symposium, SDCF hosted a panel moderated by Mary Catherine Burke and featuring directors Christopher Ashley, Jo Bonney, Susan Einhorn, Leah Gardiner, David Warren and Les Waters and playwrights Jorge Cortiñas and David Henry Hwang to discuss expanding diversity among writers, directors and subject matter of new plays. The discussion encompasses the artist's responsibility to creating diversity in theater, the producer's responsibility to take on diverse projects, and the difficulty of taking pieces out of development and into production in commercial or not-for-profit venues.

The School for Scandal: storm in an 18th-century teacup

The Guardian: "I've just opened my production of The School for Scandal at the Barbican, and it seems the critics are up in arms. Five-star reviews or one star. 'Highly theatrical, provocative and intelligent, the show is unmissable,' reads one, while another says, 'Watching this School for Scandal is like witnessing a group of louts spray-painting an elegant old building with graffiti. It's time Deborah Warner was served with the theatrical equivalent of an Asbo.'

The School for Scandal's Deborah Warner: no mother of reinvention

guardian.co.uk: "It's good to find Deborah Warner responding to the critics in such a cool, rational manner: a welcome contrast to the vituperative rancour one sometimes gets from anguished directors. All the same, I think her argument rests on some highly questionable assumptions.

Theater Talkback: Anything But Theater! (At Least for a Night or Two)

NYTimes.com: "I stayed home and watched “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” last night and I don’t care who knows it.
I understand that this is not the most dramatic statement one could make. It doesn’t hold a candle to “I am Jean Valjean” or “At last my right arm is complete again.” But given my career, especially over eight years at the American Theater Wing, such a declaration seems to surprise many people, who apparently imagine me at the theater every night.

SAG-AFTRA Merger Committee to Meet June 17-19

Backstage: "The SAG-AFTRA merger process, which has moved forward in preliminary stages over the last five months, now shifts into higher gear: the first meeting of the unions' joint merger committee is scheduled for June 17-19, SAG and AFTRA confirmed in a statement exclusive to THR.

Broadway's 2010-11 Season Grossed Over $1 Billion

Playbill.com: "The Broadway League has released end-of-season statistics for the 2010-2011 season, which began May 24, 2010, and ended May 29, 2011, and included 42 new shows (14 musicals, 25 plays and 3 special productions).

Audio Theater Tour describes plays for the visually impaired

WBEZ: "Theaters talk about accessibility all the time. Sometimes it means affordability; sometimes it means clarity; and sometimes it means removing physical obstacles: providing ramps for wheelchair access and signed performances for people with hearing impairments.
Rarely, though, does a theater talk about providing access to people who are blind. It may seem an overwhelming task to describe what the set looks like, what the actors look like, how the movements ebb and flow. But it is possible--in fact, Victory Gardens, Steppenwolf and Broadway in Chicago all provide audio description--and now a pair of Chicago actors has created a service that will offer audio description of a single performance at any Chicago theater for free.

Republicans Make Good on Arts and Public Broadcasting Veto Threats

ThinkProgress: "A couple weeks back, I noted that a number of Republican governors were looking to entirely eliminate their states’ spending on the arts and public broadcasting. Over the long weekend, a number of them made good on those threats.

Getting a tattoo? If you’re in the media you need to get the copyright too!

The Law Offices of Gordon P. Firemark: "Things just got more complicated for on-camera folks who have tattoos, body art or other adornments.
In the movie Hangover II, Ed Helms’ character wakes up with a replica of Mike Tyson’s facial, tribal-art inspired tattoo, created by a tattoo artist from Missouri, and comedy ensues.. but not for the film’s producers, who failed to get the proper clearances from the owner of the copyrighted design.
The tattoo artist in question has registered the copyright, and filed a lawsuit for damages and an injunction.

The many resurrections of Jesus Christ Superstar

The Globe and Mail: "It’s a testament to the power of Jesus Christ Superstar that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s creation is being staged at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, which isn’t exactly known for rock operas.
This year, the festival is flexing its repertory muscles, mixing the Bard’s works with productions as varied as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Michel Tremblay’s Hosanna and Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. But of any show on the slate, it’s Superstar that is closest to the heart of Des McAnuff, Stratford’s artistic director.

Talawa theatre company: the fights of our lives

The Guardian: "Ask Yvonne Brewster how much the theatre industry has changed in 60 years, and the founder of Britain's most high-profile black theatre company says: 'Darling, when I started out, people would rub my skin to see if the colour came off.' Rose Bruford, the influential drama tutor, told Brewster (her first black female student) that she should 'never expect to work'. She did, of course, and in 1972 put on a London production of CLR James's The Black Jacobins, a play about Haiti in the 18th century, only to find her sold-out venue burnt down. 'The Jamaican government were funding this grand production that picked up terrific steam with audiences across London. After a few weeks, there were queues of people around the block in Cricklewood. The next night, the venue was mysteriously set on fire.'

Opera Stars, Fearing Radiation, Skip Japan Tour

Backstage: "Two of the biggest stars of New York's Metropolitan Opera have bowed out of a Japan tour, citing fears of radioactive contamination and sending the company scrambling to find last-minute stand-ins.

Stage preview: '9 to 5' has fun on the job

Post Gazette: "Diana DeGarmo laughs and giggles as she talks about laughing and giggling the handful of times she's been in the presence of Dolly Parton, who originated the role of Doralee Rhodes that Ms. DeGarmo now plays in '9 to 5: The Musical.'

Schenley, Hampton and Woodland Hills capture Best Musical Kelly awards

Post Gazette: "Luke Halferty of Central Catholic and Kirsten Hoover of North Hills were crowned the best actor and actress winners Saturday night at the Gene Kelly Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theatre. Winning the Kellys means their next act is competing for the National High School Musical Theater Awards in New York.
'I think 'oy vey' is the proper phrase,' Luke said, accepting the award for his role as Tevye in 'Fiddler on the Roof.'

Clothes make the character in 'God of Carnage'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Creating the costumes for a contemporary play is a lot harder than it appears.
'The work is a lot more complicated and detailed than people imagine,' says Ted Pappas, who serves as director and costumer for the Pittsburgh Public Theater production of 'God of Carnage' that begins Sunday at the O'Reilly Theater, Downtown.

Central Catholic, North Hills students win top Kelly honors

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Central Catholic High School student Luke Halferty and North Hills High School student Kirstin Hoover won the 2011 Gene Kelly Awards for best actor and best actress Saturday night.
The awards recognized Halferty for his performance of Tevye in 'Fiddler on the Roof' and Hoover for her performance as Nanette in 'No, No, Nanette.'

City College Backing for New Haarlem Arts Theater

NYTimes.com: "In a bid to broaden its theater program and to bring additional polished, diverse theater uptown, City College of New York is lending critical support to an effort to open a new professional theater in residence uptown at Aaron Davis Hall.

Music gear I/O dock for iPad

Boing Boing: "In Gweek 002, Rob, Joel, and I talked about digital musical instruments and some of the music making apps available on the iPad. I complained bitterly about the crappy output of the headphone jack, and Joel rightly upbraided me for even trying to use it. I just found out about this $200 iPad dock from Alesis that allows you to connect all kinds of audio gear to it.

Miter-Cut Steel Tube

Toolmonger: "I keep a ton of 1″ mild-steel square tube in the shop, ’cause it’s pretty much the basic building block for most home fabrication projects. And I’ve spent waaaay too much time either cutting and notching tube to close up ends or making ugly corners. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to be able to miter the corners like you would a piece of wood? You can, it seems, with the Evolution Rage 3.

Comparing college costs: There ought to be a better way—and there is!

Slate Magazine: "The thinking behind the initiative is that a car is a huge purchase, and American consumers deserve as much and as comprehensible information about it as possible. But for an even bigger expense—a college education—prospective consumers lack such a clear, clean accounting. Forget about labeling cars. We should be labeling schools.

Kansas Arts Commission vetoed by Governor

Createquity.: "Well, it’s happened. After initially eliminating the agency via executive order, only to be defied by the Kansas state legislature which restored $689,000 in appropriations, Governor Sam Brownback has vetoed funding for the Kansas Arts Commission. Although this action does not formally eliminate the agency — it still exists in theory, just with no money or staff — it likely means that the KAC will lose its federal match from the National Endowment for the Arts and become the only one of 50 states and several minor territories without a functioning state arts council.

Criss launches 'Starship'

Variety: "The four-man team behind Starkid Prods. has amassed an unusually large fan base for a group of young creatives who self-produce stage musicals. Their YouTube channel has logged some 60 million views, and the cast recording of their latest show, 'Starship,' hit No. 1 on the Billboard cast album chart.

'From Here to Eternity' to be stage musical

Variety: "'From Here to Eternity,' James Jones' 1951 novel about the attack on Pearl Harbor that was turned into the celebrated movie, is to become a stage tuner produced by Tim Rice and Lee Menzies, opening in 2012.

Playground fight leads to high drama, comedy in 'The God of Carnage'

Post Gazette: "'It's the grand finale,' says artistic director Ted Pappas, asked how 'The God of Carnage' fits into the 'royal' theme for the 2010-11 season of his Pittsburgh Public Theater, where it's now in previews.
He says he particularly chose it for this slot. Along with the play's having won 'every major award known to man,' he calls the playwright, France's Yasmina Reza, 'a great, significant writer' whose plays are an 'uninhibited celebration of the theater.'

Playhouse Jr. adds survivor stories to 'Anne Frank' preview

Post Gazette: "Playhouse Jr. will close its 62nd season with a new adaptation of 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' featuring discussions with local Holocaust survivors following select performances at the Rauh Theatre of the Pittsburgh Playhouse.
The Tony-winning adaptation, getting its Pittsburgh debut with Point Park University's youth theatre company, opens Friday and runs through June 12 with the Holocaust survivors speaking after the 2 p.m. performances on June 5 and 12.

'9 to 5' still works because of characters

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Though she was not to know it then, the role of Doralee Rhodes was one that Diana De Garmo began training for at birth.
Doralee Rhodes is the smart, sweet and well-endowed secretary made famous by Dolly Parton in the 1980 movie '9 to 5.'

Personality Test: Director-choreographer Jeff Calhoun

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Jeff Calhoun is a Broadway director and choreographer whose credits include work on musical revivals -- 'Big River,' 'Bells Are Ringing,' 'Annie Get Your Gun' and 'Grease' -- and new musicals, such as 'Grey Gardens,' 'Brooklyn' and 'The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public.'

David Mamet Talks About His Shift to the Right

NYTimes.com: "While reading your new book, “The Secret Knowledge,” I thought, My God, in crucifying liberals, this guy is going to infuriate a huge chunk of the people who pay money to see plays. Are you concerned that you’re alienating your public?
I’ve been alienating my public since I was 20 years old. When “American Buffalo” came out on Broadway, people would storm out and say, “How dare he use that kind of language!” Of course I’m alienating the public! That’s what they pay me for.

Worst PPT Slide Contest Winners

InFocus: "Our 'What Not to Present' contest was epic! Many thanks to all of you kind folks that submitted entries and spread the word about it. Many amazingly horrendous slides were sent in from all around the world. We laughed. We cried. We cringed.

10 business e-mails you shouldn’t send

The Best Article Every day: "Imagine a tiny boat afloat on a thrashing sea, water pouring through a gaping hole in the hull.
A sailor is frantically bailing dark, angry water, but no matter how much he scoops, the water line never seems to recede — more waves just pummel him in the face like a particularly insecure middle-school bully.
That, my friends, is our metaphor for the average worker’s e-mail inbox.

Stephen King says creative differences are solved, musical written with Mellencamp is ready

Yahoo! News: "Horror writer Stephen King's first play, 'The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,' featuring haunting melodies by rocker John Mellencamp, is finally ready for the stage.
The musical was originally scheduled for its debut at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in 2009, but was postponed. It's now set to open next April at the Alliance.
Mellencamp and the play's director weren't getting along, King said Tuesday at the Alliance's season preview presentation. The new director is Susan Booth, the company's artistic director.

The future is micro: how small theatres are becoming cradles of innovation

guardian.co.uk: "Keep It Local is the title of a debate that just took place at the New Wolsey in Ipswich, to kick off the Pulse festival, a 10-day extravaganza of new work from a wide range of artists and companies, many of whom have links with the east of England. The question is whether the streets of London are paved with gold for artists, and organisers hope to identify the role regional theatre can play in nurturing innovative new work and developing companies. It's a timely debate, because there appears to be some kind of shift happening: a change in the places new and often non-text-based or devised work is being made and seen.

Bono on 'Spider-Man': 'I Promise It's Not Been Canceled'

Backstage: "Despite all the technical glitches, cast injuries and opening-night delays, Bono said the Broadway musical 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' is still a firm go for a June 14 opening.
The U2 frontman -- who composed the production's music with bandmate the Edge -- told reporters Wednesday night that the show will most definitely go on.

AGMA Files Unfair Labor Charges Against City Opera

Backstage: "The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union representing New York City Opera's singers and production personnel, filed unfair labor practice charges against City Opera on Thursday. The guild alleges City Opera and artistic director George Steel broke the National Labor Relation Act's requirement to bargain with AGMA in good faith.

Music, relationships make 'Taffetas' appealing

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "A musical revue like 'The Taffetas' might sound easy enough to produce to the average theatergoer whose role is to sit back and enjoy the toe-tapping tunes from the 1950s.
From the perspective of the director's chair, it's a little more than that.
Joe Milliren of Irwin, who directs Apple Hill Playhouse's second show of its 2011 season, says the premise of the show is simple: A girl group of four sisters makes their television debut on a musical variety show.

Dance Alloy, Kelly-Strayhorn explore possible merger

Post Gazette: "Longtime Pittsburgh modern and dance theater company Dance Alloy Theater and the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty have each established reputations as amalgamators of talents and artistic visions. They may be combining some of these visions in the future with the announcement Tuesday that the arts hubs are exploring a possible merger.

Lucky Guy's Luck Runs Out; Musical Will Close May 29

Playbill.com: "Lucky Guy, the country-fried musical comedy about a singer who dreams of Nashville stardom, will close prematurely on May 29, just ten days after opening May 19 at Off-Broadway's Little Shubert Theatre. Previews began April 28.

Yasmina Reza on ‘How You Talk the Game’

NYTimes.com: "Yasmina Reza is one of the world’s most successful playwrights, but she wears her fame with discomfort. She can talk at length about her red leather Prada coat. She can relate stories with biting humor about her year on the road shadowing Nicolas Sarkozy in his 2007 campaign for the French presidency. But ask her about herself, and the anxiety of the writerly persona takes over.

Autodesk 123D. Pt 4: Autodesk is Taking on Google

CAD Insider: "Autodesk chose Maker Faire - the annual gathering of inventor, hobbyists and craftspeople - for the public debut of 123D, its consumer design software. I didn’t know what to expect at Maker faire. Maybe Autodesk did not know either. The consumer market is fairly new territory.

Set Design Intern- David Korins Design

The Producer's Perspective Classifieds: "We are looking for some great interns to start in June. Interns generally work 3-5 days a week. Responsibilities include (but are not limited to) model making, drafting, research, shopping, on set production assistance, scene breakdowns & various administrative duties. This is a really exciting design company that works on Broadway, Off Broadway & Regional theater, as well as in TV, Film, Concerts & Commercials. It is a great opportunity for anyone looking to learn more about design as a career, and to gain hands-on experience.

King Lear: My quest to build the perfect production of Shakespeare's harrowing play.

Slate Magazine: "Thackeray found King Lear boring. Tolstoy was no great fan. Samuel Johnson dreaded rereading the play—he recoiled from the death of Lear's youngest daughter, Cordelia. (Johnson preferred playwright Nahum Tate's sentimental rewrite of Lear, published in 1681, which inserted a happy ending and supplanted Shakespeare's version onstage for more than a century.) Nineteenth-century essayist Charles Lamb declared that staging Lear 'has nothing in it but what is painful and disgusting,' concluding, 'The Lear of Shakespeare cannot be acted.' Nearly two centuries later, Harold Bloom concurred: 'You shouldn't even go and see somebody try and act the part,' the scholar said, 'because it's unactable… I've never seen a Lear that worked.' Beginning with a vain, irrational king rejecting both his favorite child and his most faithful servant on a whim, ending with a mad, uncrowned derelict dying of a broken heart—with a detour wherein another foolish old man's eyes are gouged out—King Lear is a shocking spectacle of two families eating themselves alive.

Visual Effects Society Slams Hollywood Over Working Conditions

Backstage: "Pointing a finger at the troubling business climate that has plagued the VFX industry for years, the Visual Effects Society sent out an open letter to the entertainment industry Tuesday, charging the VFX workers don't receive proper credit, benefits or working conditions.

Watch Them Make a Movie

Carnegie Mellon University: "A trio of alumni from the class of 2004 are shooting a micro-budget feature film in New York this summer.
And you get to experience the process.
Written and directed by Seth Fisher (A'04), the filmmakers are blogging every step of making Passing Harold Blumenthal.
Set in New York City, the comedy follows a family as it deals with a famous uncle's death.
Alexander Cendese (A'04) joined on as producer and Marie Lynn Wagner (A'04) is serving as production designer.

Stage: Fresh starts, great finishes

Post Gazette: "Summer in the city is a hot time for theater far and wide, with the Pittsburgh CLO and Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre beginning their seasons and City Theatre finishing up with the premiere of a commissioned comedy by Eric Simonson and Jeffrey Hatcher.

Simonson-Hatcher team returns with premiere of screwball comedy 'Louder Faster' at City Theatre

Post Gazette: "The irony of a play about a celebrated collaborator written by collaborators was just part of the appeal that led to the re-teaming of Eric Simonson and Jeffrey Hatcher. The resulting play, 'Louder Faster,' brought the playwrights into the world of 1930s screwball comedies a la the late, great George S. Kaufman.

Arts Centers and Real Estate: Sustainable Business Model?

Createquity.: "“Sustainability” and “community development” are ideals that many arts organizations strive to uphold. They want to stand on their own two feet financially, and they also want to play a role in revitalizing communities that have been abandoned by urban sprawl. Some arts centers, such as the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and Playhouse Square in Cleveland, are accomplishing both of these goals with one activity: non-arts related real estate investments. We know from many, many studies (like this one from The Reinvestment Fund and another from the Center for Creative Community Development) that there is a strong connection between arts activities and real estate values. Is this the sustainable business model we’ve been looking for?

Yale opens up image library, starts with 250,000 free images

Boing Boing: "Yale is making high-resolution images from its cultural collections available on a free, open access basis. They've started by uploading 250,000 images, with lots more to follow. The collection includes 'a small limestone stela with hieroglyphic inscription from the Peabody Museum of Natural History, a Mozart sonata in the composer's own hand from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, a 15th-century Javanese gold kris handle from the Indo-Pacific collection of Yale University Art Gallery and a watercolor by William Blake.'

Why We Over-Complicate GTD and What To Do About It

Lifehack.orgt: "So many people after reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done walk away with the attitude that everything outlined in it is “common sense”. The ideas in the book are simple, so simple in fact that we sometimes “fake ourselves out” into thinking that there just has to be something more to it. This can’t possibly be as easy as writing everything down and putting it in places and lists that we trust and we know that we will continually review. There’s got to be more.

Broadway Producers Slammed for Using Taped Music

Backstage: "A coalition of Broadway composers and musicians and representatives from the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School said Monday they have teamed up with the non-profit Council for Living Music to launch a nationwide campaign called 'Save Live Music On Broadway.'

Playhouse Jr. launches season with 'Mr. Aviation!'

Post Gazette: "Playhouse Jr. opens its 62nd season with a local angle that soars, the world premiere of 'Pittsburgh's Mr. Aviation!,' and finishes on a more serious note.

Here are your 2011 Gene Kelly Award nominees

Post Gazette: "Nominees for the 2011 Gene Kelly for Excellence in High School Musical Theater were announced today. There are 29 Allegheny County schools participating in the Kellys, a presentation of Pittsburgh CLO and the University of Pittsburgh. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony May 28 at the Benedum Center.

Simonson-Hatcher team returns with premiere of screwball comedy 'Louder Faster' at City Theatre

Post Gazette: "The irony of a play about a celebrated collaborator written by collaborators was just part of the appeal that led to the re-teaming of Eric Simonson and Jeffrey Hatcher. The resulting play, 'Louder Faster,' brought the playwrights into the world of 1930s screwball comedies a la the late, great George S. Kaufman.

newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival adds a new venue to its annual showcase

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Success doesn't breed stagnation at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater. After two years of successful contemporary dance festivals, the theater simply could have repeated a proven formula this year.
Instead, the 2011 newMoves Contemporary Dance Festival will add new elements, including a full-length piece and performances at a second venue.

Summer fun: Theater season offers new works, fresh approaches

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The summer theater season offers new works and fresh approaches to old favorites.

Arena Stage Welcomes Steppenwolf's Polly Carl as Director of New Play Institute

Playbill.com: "Polly Carl is leaving Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago to join Arena Stage in Washington, DC, in the new position as director of the American Voices New Play Institute (AVNPI) beginning July 1.

The Path of ‘The Book of Mormon’ to Broadway

NYTimes.com: "IT was February 2010, and Scott Rudin, the prolific theater and film producer, felt something was wrong with “The Book of Mormon,” the new musical he was developing. A weeks-long workshop had just ended, he recalled, and the show’s main character was an unlikable prig, the tone was muddled, and some of the humor wasn’t worthy of his two star creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of the animated series “South Park.” Mr. Parker, usually the engine of ideas, felt stalled, and the musical just seemed to be drifting toward an Off Broadway run set for that summer, all three men said recently.

Chicago: America's theater capital?

Chicago Reader: "Surely no words ever written by any theater critic stirred more local buzz than Michael Billington's 2004 observation in London's Guardian that 'Chicago . . . [is] the current theatre capital of America.' It came like manna from heaven to the denizens of this no longer even second city, and they seized upon it. At last the flyover on the prairie—home to more bustling, inventive, hardscrabble theater than anyplace on earth—was getting its due.

Broadway Union Takes On ‘Priscilla’ Over Recorded Music

NYTimes.com: "In a bid to protect jobs, the Broadway musicians’ union is waging an unusually aggressive, political-style campaign against the new musical “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” in hopes of undercutting the use of recorded music during live theatrical performances.

MakerBot Is a New 3-D Printer

NYTimes.com: "“There’s nothing like working with plastic!” Marius Watz announced to an appreciative crowd at the start of a talk in Brooklyn recently. Mr. Watz, a Norwegian-born artist, was describing his work with MakerBot, a new consumer-grade, desktop-size 3-D printer. With some assembly and do-it-yourself tinkering, the MakerBot makes, or “prints,” three-dimensional objects from molten plastic, creating a piggy bank, say, or a Darth Vader head from a computer design at the touch of a button.

AFTRA Approves Committee to Work With SAG on Merger Plan

Backstage: "AFTRA moved Saturday towards merger with SAG, with the union's national board passing a resolution approving the appointment of a New Union Committee to work with the SAG Merger Task Force. SAG passed a similar resolution two weeks ago.

'War Horse,' 'Book of Mormon,' 'Anything Goes' Lead Outer Critics Winners

Backstage: "“War Horse,” “The Book of Mormon,” and “Anything Goes” led the 61st annual Outer Critics Circle Awards on Sunday with four wins each, including the awards for best new play, best new musical, and best revival, respectively.
The Outer Critics Circle Awards honor achievement on and off Broadway. “Other Desert Cities” won for outstanding new Off-Broadway play and “The Kid” for outstanding new Off-Broadway musical.

Hong Kong Academy to Offer Cantonese Opera Degree

Backstage: "A Hong Kong performing arts school will offer a Cantonese opera degree in the latest effort to preserve the traditional art form designated as a key cultural heritage.
The Academy for Performing Arts said its program will combine theory and practice to prepare students for Cantonese opera careers as performers, educators or arts administrators.

Supporting the Arts

Carnegie Mellon University: "Support the region’s arts and cultural organizations during PITTSBURGH IS ART Day of Giving, a 24-hour online donation match campaign, Wednesday, May 11. Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts and its Conflict Kitchen, Miller Gallery, Studio for Creative Inquiry and Waffle Shop are participating.

Poetry carries downsized 'Antony and Cleopatra'

Post Gazette: "Shakespeare loved the play of opposites, no more so than in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' a drama charged with the energy of competing themes -- Rome vs. Egypt, love vs. war, obligation vs. libido, man vs. woman.
His title characters are godlike creatures. Antony is Mars and Hercules, Cleopatra Venus and Isis. They embrace, part and embrace again in a world on the brink of modernity, a world where they are out of time. Their place in history elevates 'Antony and Cleopatra' into epic theater, perhaps the playwright's only true epic.

Arthur Laurents was a theater great, as well as a great theatrical character

Post Gazette: "As Stephen Sondheim is the first to point out, it's the book writers of musicals who always get it in the neck. If they're not ignored entirely (as in 'Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd' '), then they're usually held responsible for the work's shortcomings by critics, who tend to be more comfortable criticizing the story than the score.

'The Marvelous Wonderettes' a high-energy trip

Post Gazette: "If your car blasts the music of the 1950s and '60s and 'Forever Plaid' really floats your boat, 'The Marvelous Wonderettes' may be just the ticket to Cloud 9 on the nostalgia meter.
Roger Bean, whose other musicals include circa-1940s 'The Andrews Brothers' and 'Summer of Love,' has created a girl-group extravaganza of penny-candy colors, high energy and 33 songs from the oldies station songbook -- from 'All I Have to Do Is Dream' to 'You Don't Own Me' alphabetically, or as the plot goes, from 'Lipstick on Your Collar' to 'Respect.'