Postcard from Alaska, Part One

Art Works: Last week I was in Alaska as part of the Rasmuson Foundation’s annual Grantmakers Tour. It was quite a trip, both exhaustive and exhausting. We had non-stop 12-hour days, which allowed us to learn and see a lot. We were exposed to every conceivable aspect of Alaska, particularly the Native cultures there. It was really a total education and immersion into their culture, their situation, and their issues.

7 Symptoms of Procrastination and How to Fight Them

Lifehack: We all do it to some degree or another; put off for tomorrow what we know should be done today. Postpone the inevitable pain for the current moment of pleasure. But we know that even if we can manage to put it out of our minds for the present, it will eventually come around and bite us on the butt and disturb our external calm demeanor.

Meet the LED Volleyball-Basketball-Tennis Court of the Future

Gizmodo: Painted lines? Where we're going we don't need any painted lines. We'll have reconfigurable LED lines, because this is the future we're talking about, and those little lights are almost cheap enough to use everywhere, including beneath our sneakered feet.

Mini Plays Dealing With Gay Marriage Head to NYC

Backstage: A collection of nine short plays by playwrights including Neil LaBute, Doug Wright, Paul Rudnick and Moises Kaufman that all deal with gay marriage will be making its off-Broadway debut next month.

Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Elaine Paige, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines Explore Life's Follies

Playbill.com: The Kennedy Center's critically acclaimed production of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical Follies, which played its final performance at the Washington, DC, venue June 19, officially opens at Broadway's Marquis Theatre Sept. 12 following previews that began Aug. 7.

The travails of a Honduran immigrant in Pittsburgh inspires the play 'Camino'

Post Gazette: The heart of a new Pittsburgh play called "Camino" is invisible.He flits in and out of scenes, and converses with other characters in the production by the Hiawatha Project, a Pittsburgh theater company. His unfinished journey is central to the plot, but the character Camino -- an injured bird cared for by an imprisoned illegal immigrant -- will not grace the stage during his namesake play's run Friday through Sept. 24 at the Dance Alloy Studio Theater in Friendship.Nor will Milton Mejia, the 23-year-old Honduran immigrant whose story inspired the play.

Nature inspires new MOMIX piece 'Botanica'

Post Gazette: MOMIX founder and artistic director Moses Pendleton nurtures two passions: theater and the great outdoors.Both intertwine in "Botanica," which the company will stage Friday and Saturday at the Byham Theater, Downtown, to open the Pittsburgh Dance Council's 2011-12 season. The performance will mark the Connecticut-based group's return to Pittsburgh for the first time in several years. "Baseball," a multimedia salute to the sport, was one of its last works here, Mr. Pendleton said.

Momix dance draws inspiration from the plant world

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Most people think of hobbies as providing a contrast with or a break from working. Moses Pendleton takes a more holistic approach. He is the founder and artistic director of the Momix dance company and an avid gardener. In "Botanica," Pendleton has made a hybrid of two of his favorite activities -- a dance about plants.

Learn the Arduino Platform By Reading Comic Strip

Gizmodo: Arduino, the tinkerer's delight that powers everything from embeddable clothing at the MIT Media Lab to DIY robots, requires some basic instruction in order to be used properly. What better way than a comic? Jody Culkin has done just that.

S.F. Opera's 'Heart of a Soldier' falters

San Jose Mercury News: With dark orchestral colors and quickening pulse, the final moments of "Heart of a Soldier" are unnerving. We know it's coming -- the destruction of the World Trade Center's south tower on September 11, 2001. A bagpiper's funereal song fills War Memorial Opera House and we see a man and a woman on their knees, coating their arms with fallen ash, attempting to stay physically connected to the hero whose death they are especially mourning, a man named Rick Rescorla.

A 9/11 Reflection: When the Curtain Came Down on the American Heart

Playbill.com: Is there anyone more insignificant — or more vital — than a theatre person in a time of national tragedy? A decade after the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York City, Playbill.com's Robert Simonson talks to industry people and reflects on who we were when America changed forever.

Musicals The Hollow and Boy Detective Get World-Premiere Openings in VA Sept. 11

Playbill.com: Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, will do something unprecedented in American regional theatre, as far as any research can tell: On Sept. 11, the Tony Award-honored company will open two world-premiere musicals on the same day — The Boy Detective Fails in the afternoon and The Hollow in the evening.

‘Newsies,’ Reimagined by Harvey Fierstein, at the Paper Mill Playhouse

NYTimes.com: THE 1992 Disney movie “Newsies,” inspired by the 1899 newsboy strike against the publishing tycoons Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, was hardly a box-office smash.

The play's the thing for investing

The Independent: With the current volatile state of the stock market, some investors are turning to other forms of investment. For example, most West End theatre productions are funded by angel investors, often investing relatively small amounts such as £500 to £10,000. A successful production can pay the investor back many times. Judy Craymer, producer of Mamma Mia!, is now the 38th richest music millionaire in the UK, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. She is worth £62m since remortgaging her home to finance her idea of a musical based around Abba's hits.

State of arts slowly fading

Adelaide Now: NO concert hall. No ensemble theatre. A famous drama school sinking under the weight of "managerialism".The pleasure Emeritus Professor Michael Morley feels at becoming the 2011 recipient of the Premier's Lifetime Achievement Award is tinged with a sense of triste that the arts to which he has devoted his life have left their heyday far behind.

Executive director of OSF retiring

DailyTidings.com: Paul Nicholson of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival will leave the regional theater powerhouse after 17 years as its executive director in December 2012, the OSF announced Friday."You hit a point in your life when you say it's time," Nicholson said in an interview before the announcement. "For me it happened in the last year. I didn't want to someday retire and have people say, 'Thank God he's gone.'" The OSF board has hired Stamford, Conn.-based Management Consultants for the Arts to begin the search for a new executive director.

Vanities- Neither director Joe Warik nor his capable cast compensate for the emptiness of the first two acts

Pittsburgh City Paper: South Park Theatre has chosen a really weak play, Jack Heifner's Vanities. Neither director Joe Warik nor his capable cast compensates for the emptiness of the first two acts. The title may refer to the shallowness of the three women whose lives are glimpsed over 20 years. Until the third act, such shallowness is reinforced by unimaginative writing, trivial dialogue and an absence of character development. If this is supposed to be a satire, you might expect something clever or funny. Forget that: Heifner didn't write enough to make it clear. Finally, things do become somewhat interesting, if only in contrast to the preceding dreariness.

The REP launches a season of firsts with A Child's Guide to Heresy

Pittsburgh City Paper: Point Park's professional theater company, the REP, has staged plenty of world premieres. In 2009, for instance, it debuted Thom Thomas's drama A Moon to Dance By, starring stage icon Jane Alexander, later produced at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse. And it's staged several world premieres by Pittsburgh's own Tammy Ryan, whose works have been produced across the country.

A New Brain I'm happy to report that the evening is just about as enjoyable as can be.

Pittsburgh City Paper: Not long after composer/lyricist William Finn won the 1992 Tony Award for his musical Falsettos, he collapsed. Diagnosed with an "arteriovenous malformation" -- a screwed-up artery/vein connection -- Finn underwent risky brain surgery. During his recovery, he later said, the music poured out of him. He turned those songs into the 1998 show A New Brain, a musical about a composer who collapses because of an "arteriovenous malformation."

Guthrie Much Ado, with Daniel Gerroll, Dearbhla Molloy, Bill McCallum, Peter Michael Goetz, Begins Sept. 10

Playbill.com: The Guthrie Theater's production of William Shakespeare's romantic comedy Much Ado About Nothing begins performances Sept. 10 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage. Directed by Joe Dowling, performances are scheduled to continue through Nov. 5. Opening night is Sept. 16.

Math and the Actor

Matt Gray: So ‘artist’ aside, what does math have to do with actors, especially training actors? I just left a 14 year run of training exclusively at ‘conservatory’ drama schools. In each iteration of ‘conservatory’, the faculty seemed (with only a few exceptions) emphatic that students needed fewer ”distractions” from their discipline.

Taper visits 'Clybourne Park'

Variety: The 2012 season at Center Theater Group's Mark Taper Forum will kick off with a production of "Clybourne Park" that could make a subsequent jump to Broadway, if all the pieces fall into place. According to CTG, Lincoln Center Theater, Scott Rudin and Stuart Thompson are considering moving the L.A. theater's production of the 2011 Pulitzer winner to the Main Stem, should a Gotham theater become available. The Lincoln Center camp emphasized that plans are still in the very early stages.

‘The Select (The Sun Also Rises)' and Its Sound Effects

NYTimes.com: IN a game of Six Degrees of Ernest Hemingway it might take a while to get to David Lee Roth, the founding frontman for the rock band Van Halen. But Papa Hemingway and Diamond Dave are united in virility at the New York Theater Workshop, where Mr. Roth’s arena-size yelps are among the atmospheric audio effects in “The Select (The Sun Also Rises),” a show based on Hemingway’s 1926 novel.

A poetic play about Iran

The Boston Globe: In the mid-1970s, Cahill spent 10 months teaching English to young women in the Shah’s Iran. Watching the Green Revolution led her to read about the modern history of the country and its tortured relations with the United States. “I started connecting the information I was gathering with my own memories, and out of that came this play,’’ she says.

Stage Left mostly succeeds with tales from the campaign trail

chicagotribune.com: Smart, fleet-footed and firing enough enthusiastic F-bombs to feel true-to-life, Beau Willimon's 2008 behind-the-scenes look at wheeling and dealing on a presidential campaign is savvy enough to understand what audiences want to see. The maneuvering and double-dealing. The battle stories shared over drinks and loosened neckties. Sex with an underage intern.

Wendy Wasserstein, 'Lost' And Found

NPR: From the late 1970s until her death in 2006 at age 55, playwright Wendy Wasserstein was a force in New York theater. She won the Pulitzer, the Tony and many other awards for writing about her generation of educated, successful women struggling to balance their professional and family lives.

'Wicked' still delivers value for the money

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Despite a lackluster economy and soaring unemployment the musical "Wicked" is still defying gravity. On its third pass through Pittsburgh as a presentation of PNC Broadway Across America — Pittsburgh the show has already sold all but a few tickets for its four-week run at the Benedum Center, Downtown. The Broadway production continues to sell out most performances, eight years after its debut. The two national tours and four international companies have similar success. It doesn't take an economic genius to see why.

What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation

Fast Company: President Obama is expected, without delay, to sign into law the first large-scale reform to U.S. patent laws in 60 years. It brings U.S. law into line with most international practices, and is designed to quash patent trolling, cut red tape, and spur innovation.

Did Jim Henson Infringe on a Recently Approved Patent?

Techdirt: Recently on Techdirt, we highlighted a number of ways the US patent system could be fixed. One of the proposals on the list was allowing for input from those who are skilled in the art behind a patent application. Under this system, a person or company working within the industry surrounding a patent application could review it and submit their reasoning behind whether the proposal is obvious and not patentable or original and patentable. This public input would help patent examiners decide on the final patent-ability of an application.

Why Is Television Losing Women Writers? Veteran Producers Weigh In

AOLTV: As the fall TV season approaches, it's worth taking a closer look at the people who have created and written the scripted fare you'll see. In the 2006-2007 television season, 35 percent of the writers of broadcast network, prime-time programs were women, according to an annual study by San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. In the 2010-2011 season, that number had dropped by more than half, to 15 percent. What happened?

Is Policing Plagiarism At A University As Counterproductive As Trying To Stop Copyright Infringement?

Techdirt: We've talked in the past about how multiple studies have shown that greater enforcement efforts to stop copyright infringement aren't particularly effective. One of the reasons for this is that they tend to piss off and anger the biggest fans, which has significant ripple effects and unintended consequences. A few months ago, there was an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which I'm finally getting around to writing about, all about one NYU CS professor's experience in trying to catch and deal with cheaters on tests.

Company Theater: An intimate experience

Variety: When a pair of twentysomething thesps launched the Company Theater in Toronto's vibrant scene of established playhouses in 2004 -- with no permanent home nor the promise of regular seasons -- it seemed an audacious move. But the resounding critical raves that greeted Company's inaugural show, the first Canadian production of 1961 Irish classic "A Whistle in the Dark," proved that co-founders Allan Hawco and Philip Riccio had hit an idea that resonated with auds and, especially, the thesp community -- an intimate live theater experience that puts the acting process at the forefront.

Electric Company Theater: Brings edge to theater scene

Variety: Is it theater, or is it art? Is it a live performance, or is it a cinematic experience? Electric Company Theater brings a distinct edge to Vancouver's live entertainment scene with its experimental approach to productions, pushing aside conventional boundaries while keeping audiences engaged -- often to the extent that they become part of the show.

Cirque du Soleil: A global sensation

Variety: Even by the Cirque du Soleil's overachieving standards, this has been an exceptionally busy year.The innovative Montreal-based circus is premiering three shows in North America in the space of six months, a first for the Cirque. "Zarkana," written and directed by Montreal filmmaker Francois Girard, made its bow at Radio City Music Hall in late June, and is off to Madrid and then the fabled Kremlin Theater in Moscow.

Neil LaBute and Theresa Rebeck want to write a play for you, live

latimes.com: Neil LaBute and Theresa Rebeck want to write a play for you. And on Tuesday, they’ll be doing just that -- writing a play, together, in real time in front of you on Culture Monster.

Conservatory Hour

First Conservatory Hour of the year!

The topic of the day:

THE GOOD PERSON OF SETZUAN: “Intents and Insights”

Hear from the director and the production team about their plans for this upcoming production.

4:30 in the Chosky Theatre

Anyone registered for this course: Be sure you check in with me and get your name checked off for attendance.

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon University To Receive Gift From William S. Dietrich II

Carnegie Mellon University: Businessman, scholar, philanthropist and longtime Carnegie Mellon University trustee William S. Dietrich II has announced a plan to provide a record-breaking gift of a $265 million fund to support CMU — the largest gift in CMU's history and one of the 10 largest by an individual to a private higher education institution in the United States.

The tale of CMU donor William Dietrich centers on family and education

Post Gazette: Bill Dietrich sometimes watched his mother make three breakfasts for his father, who let each one go cold on the coffee table as he worked furiously on his company's finances. Her devotion also saved her son from the principal when he exploded a firecracker in a pencil sharpener and later in life helped keep his dreams alive about jumping from rural Conneaut Lake High School to Princeton University.

CMU gets $265 million gift from William S. Dietrich

Post Gazette: A philanthropist and former steel executive is giving Carnegie Mellon University $265 million, its biggest gift ever and one of the 10 largest by an individual to private higher education in the United States, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has learned.

PICT plays the 'Race' card with Mamet drama

Post Gazette: Behind the closed doors of a law office, four people confront the issues of race, gender and class in a raw dialogue, punctuated with words never heard in polite company, that could only be by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet. The law firm partners, one black, one white, are deciding whether to take the case of a wealthy white man accused of raping an African-American woman.

Fall Arts Preview / Stage: Premieres Abound

Post Gazette: City Theatre has just announced casting that will have hearts of TV fans fluttering. Luke Macfarlane, who played Scotty Wandell on ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" and has been on Broadway this year in "The Normal Heart," will take on the title role in the world premiere of "Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir." Keith Bunin's play is about a young singer's final performance in 1958 Greenwich Village, and features music by Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein and the Gershwins. The play runs in the South Side theater's Hamburg Studio Stage in November.

Fall Arts Preview / Dance: Fast and Furious

Post Gazette: After several seasons of smaller local companies pushing the artistic envelope, the big ones are stepping up to the plate this year.

'A Child's Guide to Heresy' offers fantasy, no special meanings

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Don't go to Kendrew Lascelles' play "A Child's Guide to Heresy" in search of deep allegorical meanings or hidden social agendas. "It's just a story. I wrote it purely as an entertainment," Lascelles says. "It's a fairy story for adults." Lascelles' play will have its world premiere on Friday, as the first production of the 2011-12 season of The REP, Point Park University's professional theater company.

Major UK Festival to Celebrate Shakespeare

Backstage: More than a million tickets for an international festival celebrating William Shakespeare as "the world's playwright" will go on sale next month. Organizers of the World Shakespeare Festival said Tuesday it will include 70 productions and exhibitions involving thousands of international artists.

Hollywood Pushes California Legislature For Filming Incentive Extension

Backstage: A coalition of Hollywood unions, moguls and lobbying groups are pushing the California state legislature to extend a five-year, $500-million tax credit to promote filming of TV shows and movies in the state. But the measure is getting push-back from some who feel the benefit to the entertainment industry is coming at the expense of college students, the sick and the poor, all of whom have seen government services cut as California faces a budget crunch.

'The Book of Mormon' to Land in Chicago

Backstage: There's hope for folks frustrated about not being able to get tickets to Broadway's "The Book of Mormon" — go West.Producers of the Tony Award-winning musical say they will launch a new company originating in Chicago beginning in December 2012

2011 HPA Awards Nominees Announced

Below the Line: The Hollywood Post Alliance announced the nominees for the 2011 HPA Awards. The awards recognize the achievements of those individuals who work behind the scenes, with ingenuity and creativity, to create motion pictures, commercials and television programming.

PLASA Launches Safety in Entertainment Website

Theatre Safety Blog: PLASA announces the launch of the Entertainment Industry Safety Initiative website, now live at www.safetyinentertainment.org. The site is designed to raise awareness of safety in the live event production industry among companies and individuals by providing information and resources regarding safe work practices, record keeping, accident reporting, and more. The site currently focuses on codes and regulations in the United States, but will be expanded to cover other countries in the future.

Need a free mobile task manager? Try Wunderlist

Mobile Technology News: For all of the advances smartphones have brought us, task management apps still have room for improvement. This weekend, gadget guru Ryan Block tweeted out the same, pointing out that current apps are too heavy, too light or missing features. I replied with my current tool of choice, Wunderlist, not realizing that the app was just about to get an overhaul on the Android platform.

Jonas Hassen Khemiri, the Playwright Behind ‘Invasion!’

NYTimes.com: IF Caryl Churchill, Franz Kafka and Ali G were to goof around one night and play their music too loud until the Department of Homeland Security came knocking on their door, they might emerge (eventually) the next morning holding something like the script to “Invasion!” In that play — Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s blistering dark comedy, which opens at the Flea Theater on Tuesday — one character’s harmless memories of his Lebanese uncle, Abulkasem, morph into a genre- and language-scrambling fantasia on fear, confusion and the Other. Along the way the evasive Abulkasem re-emerges as everyone from a world-renowned terrorist to a female avant-garde theater director to a “super pro pimp” at a singles bar.

Theater Talkback: When a Bare Stage Fills The Theater

NYTimes.com: Theatergoers, especially the kind who regard Broadway as Mecca, expect their seats to come with a breathtaking view. I mean of scenic scenery that gives its own spectacular performance, regardless of what’s happening in front of it. Not for nothing is the longest-running musical ever on Broadway, “The Phantom of the Opera,” a major eye-filler, replete with fat Belle Époque designs, the occasional falling chandelier and a stage-crossing gondola.

National Theater Offers Hits, Including ‘War Horse’

NYTimes.com: WHEN artists at the National Theater here began creating their World War I drama “War Horse” five years ago, they placed cardboard boxes over the heads of actors to imagine stand-ins for the show’s horse puppets, which were still being designed. “The whole thing looked a little nuts,” Nicholas Hytner, who was producing the work as artistic director of the National, recalled recently. “We had no idea what we were going to get.”

Equity asks gay performers whether it is safe to be 'out'

The Stage: Gay performers’ experiences of working in the entertainment sector are being put under the spotlight, following concerns the industry may not be safe for artists who are open about their sexuality.
A new Equity survey will ask gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members a series of questions about working in the profession, including whether or not they are ‘out’, what the positive or negative aspects of this have been and whether they have ever experienced homophobia in their careers.

Angry Birds theme park opens in China

CNNGo.com: Angry Birds addicts around the world may still be committed to the ultimate destruction of the game's irritating porcine rogues, but at a real-life Angry Birds theme park (愤怒的小鸟), Chinese gamers are already knocking over actual green pigs.

Theatre Audio? There's an app for that.

Stage Directions: There’s a new wave of technology coming into theatres and its making use of that thing in your hand you usually play “Angry Birds” on—you know, when you’re not texting.
Dale Sandberg, senior project manager of QSC, explains that “apps” is a generic name for iOS and Droid programs that control various pieces of equipment. But he offers a bit of caution for those who think they are the end all/be all: “They are only as good as their WiFi, Bluetooth, or whatever connection and the products that they are controlling. Do not assume that because an app is running that the control will work or be instantaneous.”

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

These are the top five comment generating posts of the past week:

Do Artists Need Math?

Wired.com: Perhaps that isn’t the best title, but it will do. Really the question is about art students that have to take remedial math. First, let it be known that I like to try and keep up with news about Louisiana and higher education. Why? Because I want to be the first to know if they are going to cancel our physics program. You have to stay alert.

Posted by David at 9/05/2011 05:56:00 PM <-- comments here

Five Best Note Taking Applications

LifeHacker: Whether you're headed back to school this fall or you just want a better way to keep your notes, memos, and other tidbits of information organized, you have a number of applications to choose from. Some of them just help you get your thoughts down quickly, others sync with online services that organize your notes for you.

Posted by David at 9/04/2011 06:56:00 PM <-- comments here

Stage Ninja?

TheatreFace: Backstage Blacks, Ninjawear, Crew-be-Gone, Shield of Invisibility . . . what do you call it? Whether working a truss spot at the latest world tour of the world’s greatest band or sneaking around backstage at the local community theatre, black clothes are de rigueur. But do we really need it, all the time? Yeah, yeah, what if you stick your arm out where it doesn’t belong, or you don’t get your sorry butt off the stage before the drape opens, then it helps to be a little less noticeable. You’ll still get yelled at by the Stage Manager or the Director, but at least you weren’t wearing white after Labor Day. Oh, the tragedy!

Posted by David at 9/01/2011 12:32:00 PM <-- comments here

Beating the Meetings Monster - improve effectiveness at work

LifeHack: Do you spend too much time in meetings? If so, you are in good company. One of the most common complaints of office workers is that their productivity is hampered by too many unproductive meetings. Ineffective meetings lead to frustration. They waste the time of the participants and they undermine the effectiveness of the whole organization.

Posted by David at 9/06/2011 12:14:00 PM <-- comments here

This is what the patent for a dinosaur suit looks like

I09: ON-ART Corp., Tokyo ("a top artistic structure airbrush paint production company in Japan") have just been granted their US patent (7,997,991 B2) for a "Costume suit of large size animal."

Posted by David at 9/04/2011 06:55:00 PM <-- comments here

London 2012: Shakespeare Festival leads cultural events

BBC News: The World Shakespeare Festival is the "trump card" putting "art at the heart of the Olympics", the head of the Cultural Olympiad has said.
Ruth Mackenzie said the event, which is part of the London 2012 Festival - will put "culture back up there with sport" during next year's Games in London.
It will include thousands of performers in 70 productions, with global artists acting in their own languages.

Vectorworks Launches New Version with Online Events

Stage Directions: Vectorworks is releasing the newest version of their drafting software with a big online event. It starts with a virtual keynote from CEO Sean Flaherty on 9/13 and continues with feature specific presentations—including some for their entertainment design package.

Awesome Art Cars at Burning Man: Steampunk Octopus, and Playa Dalek

Boing Boing: Video director and funny guy Mark Day shares two wonderful short films from Burning Man 2011. First, artist Duane Flatmo's steampunk-styled El Pulpo Mechanico, which Mark describes as "One of the most impressive mutant vehicles on show at Burning Man in 2011." And below, Dalek Invasion Playa 2011!

Beating the Meetings Monster - improve effectiveness at work

LifeHack: Do you spend too much time in meetings? If so, you are in good company. One of the most common complaints of office workers is that their productivity is hampered by too many unproductive meetings. Ineffective meetings lead to frustration. They waste the time of the participants and they undermine the effectiveness of the whole organization.

Miss Saigon, My Wonderful Day, Anna Deavere Smith, Ghost-Writer Among 2011 Barrymore Nominees - Playbill.com

Playbill.com: Resident presentations of Miss Saigon, My Wonderful Day, The Threepenny Opera, In the Next Room and Let Me Down Easy are among productions nominated for 2011 Barrymore Awards in Philadelphia, the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia announced on Sept. 6. Tony Award winner Terrence McNally was named a Barrymore "distinguished artist."

Do Artists Need Math?

Wired.com: Perhaps that isn’t the best title, but it will do. Really the question is about art students that have to take remedial math. First, let it be known that I like to try and keep up with news about Louisiana and higher education. Why? Because I want to be the first to know if they are going to cancel our physics program. You have to stay alert.

Attack Theatre involves audience in 'What?'

Post Gazette: People typically don't get to know the tricks behind a magician's wizardry or the secret ingredients at the heart of a superb meal. But Attack Theatre -- dubbed Pittsburgh's modern dance chameleon for its unpredictable, ever-evolving performance aesthetic -- will let audiences in on the steps behind the choreography with its 16th season opener, "What?"

REP takes on the challenge of 'A Child's Guide to Heresy'

Post Gazette: Kendrew Lascelles' novel "A Child's Guide to Heresy" is a sweeping tale of religion and the occult in 13th-century England, in which a young boy becomes a pawn in a bishop's devilish plans. It moves from a humble home to a cathedral's inner sanctum to a conjurer's lair.

BROADWAY FALL PREVIEW 2011: From Follies to Porgy and Bess, With Drama and Comedy in Between

Playbill.com: Good times and bum times. They're both represented in the plays and musicals that make up the fall 2011 Broadway season. Here's a look at what Frank Langella, Audra McDonald, Samuel L. Jackson, David Henry Hwang, Alan Rickman and more are doing in the weeks ahead.

Photographer Joan Marcus Captures Theatre History, One Click at a Time

Playbill.com: Most of the world sees Broadway through the eyes of Joan Marcus. Since the early 1990s, Marcus has been the preeminent photographer who shoots the production photos you see in papers, magazines and on websites.
"I may take hundreds of pictures for each show," says Marcus, "but what I look for is the ones that tell the story of the play."

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Pittsburgh City Paper: It's still a great play, one of my favorites, and I salute any company with the guts to produce it … which The Summer Company has, under the direction of T. J. Fierno, with John E. Lane, Jr., and Anne Brannen as George and Martha, and Matt Robinson and Lisa Cummins as their victims … er, guests.

Casting Directors Reach Labor Deal

The Hollywood Reporter: After a week of negotiations between the studios and unionized freelance casting directors, they’ve reached a deal. However, details of the agreement were not available.

But What’s The Audience For?

HowlRound: So, after a quiet cry in my studio, I realized that my artistic faith demanded that I question why it is that mainstream American theater has such a strong tendency to limit the audience’s role, to feed them a performance without demanding (or even leaving an opening for) any vision on their part, to create work that is only marginally different from what that audience might see at the movies. And, eventually, I began to wonder if the linear nature of traditional American theater-making is partially at fault and if my way of working as an artist isn’t contributing to this problem.

Heinz Hall marks 40 years

PostGazette: It started life in 1927, billed in a newspaper ad as "a Temple of Cinema" dedicated to "the advancement of the art of silent drama."
Forty-three years later, the faded rococo movie palace that had been Loew's Penn Theatre -- the largest in the state, seating 4,000 people -- was rescued from the wrecking ball by one of Pittsburgh's solid citizens and became Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, where the art was anything but silent.

From barre to bar: Dancers Julia Erickson and Aaron Ingley create snack

PostGazette: While principal dancer Julia Erickson was rehearsing the dual role of Odette/Odile for Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's spring 2010 production of "Swan Lake," she wound up uncovering a third role for herself -- food bar entrepreneur.
"In rehearsing for this, I needed some quick energy," said Ms. Erickson, 32, a Seattle native who has performed with PBT for 10 seasons.

A 'Wicked' success: Broadway musical still going strong after eight years

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: The splendiferous Emerald City rises again, and, once more, flying monkeys soar as "Wicked" returns for a third stay at the Benedum Center as a presentation of PNC Broadway Across America -- Pittsburgh.
The show has proved wildly popular on Broadway where it still plays to full houses eight years after its debut and on the road where it has broken box-office records in every city that the national tour has played.
Those who have seen it know why.

Record Biz Braces for Legal Battles Over Copyright Law

Rolling Stone Music: Starting in two years, the rights to classic albums by some of rock's biggest acts, including Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town, Billy Joel's 52nd Street and the Eagles' The Long Run, could revert back to those artists. The change threatens to upend the music business – putting more cash in musicians' pockets and less in those of the labels. "It's something I've thought about on and off for a while, and it got put on the back burner because it wasn't timely," says Eagles singer and drummer Don Henley, who founded the Recording Artists Coalition, which advocates for artists' rights. "And now the time has come."

Casting directors and studios reach new agreement

latimes.com: Hollywood's casting directors have reached an agreement with the studios on a new contract.
Teamsters Local 399, which represents casting directors who work in movies and TV shows, secured a new contract on Friday after four days of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the union said.

Five Best Note Taking Applications

LifeHacker: Whether you're headed back to school this fall or you just want a better way to keep your notes, memos, and other tidbits of information organized, you have a number of applications to choose from. Some of them just help you get your thoughts down quickly, others sync with online services that organize your notes for you.

This is what the patent for a dinosaur suit looks like

I09: ON-ART Corp., Tokyo ("a top artistic structure airbrush paint production company in Japan") have just been granted their US patent (7,997,991 B2) for a "Costume suit of large size animal."

Shows Like ‘Sister Act’ and ‘Priscilla’ Struggle on Broadway

NYTimes.com: The new Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” has been setting box office records, and this has been the best summer yet for the long-running hits “Wicked” and “The Lion King.” But this blockbuster bounty has not trickled down to everything on Broadway; several major musicals have struggled to fill seats during an especially lucrative time of the year, with some shows closing, while others are bracing for the traditionally slow-selling fall.

Looking back at the cultural impact of 9/11

Salon.com: The second entry in our slide show series about pop culture after 9/11 covers three years, 2002-2004. It was a dense and lively period that saw movies, TV, music, literature and comics shifting out of a numb, somewhat disconnected state and becoming more reactive, then provocative, and by 2004 -- an election year -- combative.

ALL AN ACT: Notes on John Cusack and the art of being yourself > Press Play

IndieWire: I was almost 12 when I saw John Cusack on the street and thought he was Lloyd Dobler. I was with my best friend Lisa and we were waiting to cross the street in New York City. We saw a black trench coat. A tall man waving his arm impatiently on 8th and Broadway. We saw a short, nervous woman with long brown hair beside him and thought she was Diane Court from Say Anything. We couldn’t believe our eyes, but we wanted to believe them. Say Anything had come out the year before and Lisa loved it more than I did. Quoted from it. Played the song that defined the movie. Had the poster of Say Anything, of Lloyd Dobler, on her bedroom door, with Lloyd holding his boombox above his head. His sonic heart blasting into song. Like Lloyd, Cusack was wearing a trench, baggy cargo pants, and high tops that night, but what came first, the clothes or the movie? The character or the actor? Cusack himself had admitted, “Usually I do everything in reverse. I practice something in movies and then I try it in real life.” But all of us do that.

Locked-out IATSE Local 58 stage technicians to begin picketing St. Lawrence Centre on Labour Day

INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 58: The union that represents the recently locked-out stage technicians at Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts will begin picketing on Monday, September 5, which is Labour Day. The picketing coincides with the first performance to be held at the Centre since management initiated the lock-out on August 13.

Irene Wipes Out Williamstown Theatre Festival Props

iBerkshires.com: On Aug. 28, the final day of the 2011 season, just as the company was carefully closing up the shop for the winter, Mother Nature, in the form of Tropical Storm Irene, paid a seriously unwelcome visit to the festival's new storage space and scenery shop in the Blackinton Mill in North Adams.

Zambelli flame show to heat up holiday weekend

Post Gazette: Pittsburghers have a reputation for being fireworks connoisseurs.
So, when Zambelli Fireworks puts on a first-of-a-kind display Saturday night -- a full-length flame show along the Allegheny River -- it expects it to be a huge success.
That is, if the weather cooperates.

PLSN Announces LDI2011 Student Reporter Search

iSquint.net: PLSN Magazine with sponsorship by CHAUVET, is in search for a PLSN Student Reporter for the 2011 LDI Show in Orlando Florida. One student will be chosen to attend the 2011 LDI Trade Show and cover the floor. The PLSN Student Reporter will be on the floor each day of the show providing video interviews, product demonstrations, updating the industry of news and happenings around the event.

Following Houston Run, Toxic Avenger May Spread Its Goo On Broadway

Playbill.com: The Toxic Avenger, the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway musical about an unlikely superhero in New Jersey that played over 300 performances at Off-Broadway's New World Stages, may be headed to Broadway.

The Show Must Go On

TheatreFace: My friends at the Weston Playhouse this week have been suffering through a heartbreaking scenario: the very weekend they opened the world premier musical, Saint Ex, about the life of the author of the book, The Little Prince (a production which was, by all accounts, simply stellar), Hurricane Irene tore through Vermont, causing the West River—running immediately behind the playhouse—to overtop its banks and flood the theatre.

U.K. Fringe yields transfers

Variety: In a year in which many of the bigger names of the Edinburgh Intl. Festival Fringe -- including Simon Callow, Julian Sands, Marc Almond and Art Malik -- tackled serious subjects such as sexuality and immigration, the fest yielded a pair of award-winners, one from the U.S. and one from Berlin, that will have future life in Gotham.

When the Color Is Primary

NYTimes.com: BLOOD. Cherry. Brick. Sangria. With so many shades of red on the color spectrum, what’s a poster designer to do with a show called simply “Red”? Almost 30 regional theaters faced this question when they put John Logan’s drama, about the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko, on their 2011-12 schedule. (The show was a hit on Broadway last year, winning six Tony Awards including best play.)

‘The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’ in Cambridge, Mass.

NYTimes.com: She never sings these particular lyrics. But Audra McDonald has every right to say, “Bess, you is my woman now.” That assertion is implicit in every aspect of her performance in “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” which opened on Wednesday night at the American Repertory Theater here, and it is made with a confidence and conviction that are otherwise lacking in this anxious and confused production.

Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Sound People

Pro Sound Web: This list of “effective habits” is distilled down from a much larger list as being the most important – based on my experience these 15 or so years in the business.
How these relate to you will depend of course on exactly what kind of work you are doing, but in general, they apply across the board, so to speak.

'Wicked' world: Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz reflects on his Oz with a twist show

Post Gazette: Much to his surprise, Stephen Schwartz discovered that the Japanese don't have a tradition for rhyming lyrics, which makes it impossible to translate lines like "It's obscene!/Like a froggy, ferny cabbage/The baby is unnaturally/Green!" And so far, he hasn't found an equivalent idiom in any language to represent the dual-meaning title "For Good."

Shakespeare's 'Merry Wives' head outdoors

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: That roving band of actors known as Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks returns for its seventh season with a production of the playwright's most farcical comedy "Merry Wives of Windsor."
"We like to do the comedies, and 'Merry Wives' is a very good show for women," says Jennifer Tober, company founder and artistic director.

Bonsoir Liliane!, Directed by Tommy Tune and Starring Liliane Montevecchi, Begins in Seattle Sept. 1

Playbill.com: Tony Award-winning director-choreographer Tommy Tune reunites with original Tony-winning Nine and Grand Hotel cast member Liliane Montevecchi for Bonsoir Liliane!, beginning Sept. 1 in Seattle, WA.

Team Iluminate on America's Got Talent

- John Huntington's Blog -: My friend Miral Kotb (NY Post article with her story here) invented the Iluminate wearable lighting system, which has been a part of many high-profile concerts and awards shows (great demo reel here). This summer, Miral dreamed up Team Iluminate and has been knocking out both the judges and the audience on America's Got Talent

Stage Ninja?

TheatreFace: Backstage Blacks, Ninjawear, Crew-be-Gone, Shield of Invisibility . . . what do you call it? Whether working a truss spot at the latest world tour of the world’s greatest band or sneaking around backstage at the local community theatre, black clothes are de rigueur. But do we really need it, all the time? Yeah, yeah, what if you stick your arm out where it doesn’t belong, or you don’t get your sorry butt off the stage before the drape opens, then it helps to be a little less noticeable. You’ll still get yelled at by the Stage Manager or the Director, but at least you weren’t wearing white after Labor Day. Oh, the tragedy!

How to Use LinkedIn to Increase Your Hirability

LifeHacker: LinkedIn is the social network of choice for hooking up with people and companies professionally; in fact, one survey found that 86% of companies that use social networks to recruit talent do so with LinkedIn. Just being on LinkedIn and participating in relevant groups has helped open up freelancing opportunities for me, and the service offers a great many features you may or may not know about that can help support your own networking, freelancing, or job search needs.

George Lee Andrews to Leave ‘Phantom’ After 23 Years

NYTimes.com: As the Guinness World Record holder for the most performances in the same Broadway show, George Lee Andrews thought he had seen it all during his 23 years in “The Phantom of the Opera,” including 12 different actors in the title role and the stunning metamorphosis of a once-seedy Times Square. Yet he was shocked in May when the powers that be at “Phantom” revealed that they were not extending his six-month contract, which had been renewed more than 40 times before.

Cicely Berry | A Matter of Voice

WSJ.com: To an observer with little experience in Romeo on the run or in parsing pentameter, it was all a bit of a mystery. But these actors couldn't seem to get enough. Of course, as the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for the past 42 years—her charges have included Sean Connery, Judi Dench, Peter Finch, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Irons—Ms. Berry, 85, has an unassailable track record.

PLASA CEO urges industry discussion

Audio Pro International: "Our collective strength and our ability to communicate is, therefore, more important than ever. In 2009 and 2010 we were left in no doubt as to the importance of our working relationships. Faced with difficult decisions, buyers thought very carefully about whom they did business with and what was important to them. Relationships are going to be absolutely key in the 12 months ahead, and I urge every member of our industry to come to PLASA in London between 11- 14 September, to talk to clients, contacts and suppliers."

100 Creatives: Jodi Bobrovsky

Art Attack: Jodi Bobrovsky is the properties manager at Stages Repertory Theatre and works with other local troupes as well. She is in charge of creating anything a production needs that isn't an outfit or a wall. In her case this has included suitcases, swords, books, wallets, keys, and an entire range of props based off Salvador Dali's work for Kira Oblensky's play Lobster Alice.

A group of recent CMU graduates take the New York International Fringe Festival by storm

Pittsburgh City Paper: Outside a small theater in New York City's East Village, on Aug. 18, a lined formed down the block to see PigPen Theatre Co.'s The Mountain Song at the 15th annual New York International Fringe Festival. Some didn't even have a ticket, but stood in the rain, hoping for no-shows. Waiting for the doors to open, you could hear the eager chatter about the show and its stars, seven 2011 graduates of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama.