Can theatre save Europe?

guardian.co.uk: Even three years later, the idea of 43 Germans – actors, technicians, etc – landing in Rennes for three weeks is not something the National Theatre of Brittany can forget. "The regulars were wondering what was going on," says François Le Pillouër, director of the TNB. "All the markings had been dubbed into German. Some spectators said it reminded them of the old days … Seriously though, there was a mad energy running throughout the theatre. We had never seen anything like it."

Press Release: CMU Drama Students Explore Theatrical Boundaries in "Playground: Festival of Independent Student Work"

Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama will present its ninth annual “Playground: A Festival of Independent Student Work” in and around the Purnell Center for the Arts Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 2-4.
The festival opens at 6 p.m., Feb. 2 with musical performances, new plays, lighting and art installations, murals, multimedia projects and other dramatic presentations in the Purnell Center lobby.

'Spring Awakening' tells the age-old story of youth

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Asked why he included "Spring Awakening" among his season selections, Pittsburgh Musical Theater founding director Ken Gargaro answers with his head and his heart.
"First of all: the title. It's a recognizable title and I thought it was a modern, popular piece that was a work of art," he says, knowing that it's easier to sell seats for a familiar, recent Broadway hit.

Review: Solo performer's work lights up 'Night'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: The opening-night audience gave Daniel Beaty's "Through the Night" a warm and enthusiastic reception.
Beaty wrote, directed and performed this one-man drama that looks at the stories of six black males struggling to fulfill their hopes for a better life.
He's an engaging and creative performer who uses only his talent, his voice and his posture and gestures to bring the show's numerous characters -- both male and female -- to life.

Young singers tackle two 'children's' operas

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: The explorations and self-discovery of youth have extra dimensions for singers. They have to learn how to fit convincingly into a wide range of characters, with the flexibility to master different musical styles, and often singing in a foreign language.

Creativity shines through despite tight staging in Kuntu's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

Post Gazette: When August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" erupted on Broadway in October 1984, the American theater discovered a new star playwright. But Pittsburgh had met him earlier, first as young Freddie Kittel, then under his new name, well before the first version of "Jitney" premiered here in 1982, launching his 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle.

Stage and screen share symbiotic bond

Post Gazette: For decades Broadway producers regarded Hollywood as the agent of death. They fought to delay film adaptations of "West Side Story," "Hello, Dolly!" "The Wiz" and other shows for fear that those movies would decimate ticket sales for the Broadway originals and their national tours.

Daniel Beaty is a tour de force in 'Through the Night'

Post Gazette: As the hopeful American motto has it, "e pluribus unum" -- "out of many, one."
That's just how "Through the Night" proceeds, establishing its many characters and meandering along, only gradually revealing the bonds between them, aiming toward a final midnight when their trials will narrow to a poignant focus. Will they make it through the night?

Stuff To Ponder: Active Interpretation of Culture

Butts In the Seats: There are numerous television stations, radio shows and newspaper columns featuring people with high levels of expertise talking about sports, yet thousands of people feel no reservation about expressing a contrary opinion loudly in public places and in blog posts. They can hold opposite opinions about games and players from those of their close friends and still remain close. They are not intimidated by those with greater expertise or by the prospect of hurting their personal relationships.
But have you ever been afraid to express your opinion about an artist or arts experience you have had for fear of either appearing elitist to the people around you, even close friends? Or on the other side of the coin, been afraid of appearing insufficiently knowledgeable? Why is that? Feeling unable to discuss these topics, of course, creates a vicious cycle where people continue to feel they can’t discuss these things.

The Conversation After The Show

2AMt: When a theater is only open to the public for 15 minutes before and after a performance—and is otherwise closed and locked, with the public let in and, if necessary, kicked out—the question arises of how to make the performing arts a conversation, a participatory activity more articulated than active listening. Here’s a simple story of how that engagement happened, in a town of 7,000 people, in a way that I have rarely seen elsewhere.

SDC Wins Arbitration Against Spider-Man for Employment Bonds

Stage Directions: SDC has prevailed in arbitration against Producers of Spider-Man concerning the Producers’ refusal to post the required bonds for the employment of Director Philip W. McKinley and Choreographer Chase Brock.
Arbitrator Carol Wittenberg has just released her ruling that the Spider-Man producers are bound by the grievance and arbitration provision of the Collectively Bargained Agreement and violated the Agreement when they failed to post security bonds for both Chase Brock and Phillip W. McKinley. In addition, Ms. Wittenberg granted SDC’s request for pre-judgment interest.

SDCF Masters of the Stage - Directing Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Theatre - April, 2001

American Theatre Wing: In 2001, Michael Lupu, senior dramaturg for the Guthrie Theatre, provided directors at the "Directing Shakespeare Symposium" with a brief lesson he called "Shakespeare 101." In this twenty-minute discussion Lupu talks about audience expectations in the Elizabethan period, the history of Shakespeare's company "Lord Chamberlain's Men," and how the shifting of Shakespeare's theatre midway through his career may have affected his writing.

Spider-Man Producers Sue Taymor and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society for Conspiracy

Stage Directions: The producers of the musical SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark today filed an answer and countersuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Tuesday against Julie Taymor and her company, LOH, Inc. The producers’ answer responds to the complaint that Taymor and LOH filed on November 8, 2011, in which they assert that the current version of the musical infringes Taymor’s alleged copyrights and also raise certain contractual and state law claims, including a claim seeking to bar the producers from bringing SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark to non-Broadway venues.

Ownership Mentality: Art Gallery Prohibits Sketching

Techdirt: I've always been a bit baffled by No Photography signs in museums and art galleries. Presumably they exist to make the exhibits more exclusive and attractive, but that misses the point of why people visit museums: they want to see these things in person, which is a vastly different experience from simply knowing what they look like. Nobody has ever seen a photo of a dinosaur skeleton or Michelangelo's David and thought "oh good, now I don't need to go see that for real."

10 Takeaways from TEDxBroadway

Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: I had high expectations for the first ever TEDxBroadway, but we were blown away by the presentations given by our big-brained speakers. It was an exciting and inspiring day and all of us were so thankful to each and every presenter, and especially to each and every audience member who gave up a day's worth of work and $100 to focus on what Broadway could be in twenty years.

SAG-AFTRA merger means some union dues will rise as others fall

latimes.com: The proposed merger between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists will bring higher dues for some actors and lower dues for others, depending on which labor group they already belong to before the marriage.

The End of Public Domain?

Dvorak News Blog: Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

Tyro Technics: Young Designer To Watch, Anthony Mattana

Live Design: Anthony Mattana, Sound Designer and Composer
Home base: Brooklyn, NY
Current project(s): A workshop with The Deconstructive Theatre Project: The Orpheus Variations; Execution of Justice at New School University

Rave Promoters Paid Millions to L.A. Coliseum Union Workers Under the Table and in Cash, Sources Say

Los Angeles News - The Informer: More than $2.5 million in cash was paid to union hands who worked concerts, mostly controversial raves, at the publicly run L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena, according to sources and documents obtained by the Weekly.
On Tuesday lawyers for the Coliseum planned to amend the body's lawsuit against the rave promoters and its former managers to include allegations that this money was misappropriated, according to a statement.

Scene Shop Supervisor

Harvard University - Job details: The Scene Shop Supervisor directly supervises scenic craftsmen and casual laborers in the construction and installation phases of each production according to plans produced by and within guidelines set by the technical director. Manages the maintenance and operation of equipment related to the construction of scenery as well as that relating to the facility itself. Manages budgets relating to inventories, supplies, tooling, and repairs, as well as cost estimating for pertinent improvement projects. Assists in the planning of shop work flow, and advises on technical and procedural solutions to construction problems.

IATSE, Teamsters focus on health care

Variety: With healthcare costs expected to dominate, Hollywood's below-the-line unions have set March 5 as a start date for contract negotiations with the congloms -- less than four months before the current master contract ends July 31.
The first round of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers should last for several weeks. The unions -- the West Coast locals of the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees and Local 399 of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters -- are expected to negotiate jointly on healthcare and retirement issues while holding separate bargaining on the remainder of their contracts.
Reps for IATSE, the Teamsters and the AMPTP had no comment on the negotiations.

Tax Break Bill Gives Incentives for Broadway Shows

Gapers Block Mechanics | Chicago: Part of the recently passed "Tax Break Bill," or SB 397, includes the Live Theater Production Tax Credit Act. This act will give any for-profit production that does a long run or a pre-Broadway run in Illinois up to $2 million in tax credits for one fiscal year.
The only other state that has a similar tax credit for theatrical productions is Louisiana, although New York City also has a tax exemptions for theatrical productions.

Daniel Renner to Join TDF as Director of Education

Stage Directions: Theatre Development Fund (TDF), the not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts, has named Daniel Renner to the position of Director of Education. Mr. Renner, who is one of the country’s leading theatre arts educators, is currently the Dean of the National Theatre Conservatory and Director of Education for the Denver Center of the Performing Arts. He will begin his duties full-time with TDF this May and will consult with the organization until then.

ETCP examinations at USITT 2012

LSi Online News: The ETCP examinations will be given at USITT's Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Long Beach, CA. All three examinations will be given at the same time and are scheduled for the morning of Saturday, 31 March. Candidates who wish to take more than one exam should contact ETCP. Interested applicants must submit their application, along with supporting materials and fee, to the ETCP office no later than 1 March 2012.

University Job: Assistant Professor (Technical Director/Production Manager), University of Texas, Arlington

academickeys: Serve as the departmental technical director for seasonal productions; fulfill duties as production coordinator; supervise Scenic Studio Supervisor and work/study students; and, teach Stagecraft, Practicum Lab and other courses or design assignments, as workload will allow.

University Job: Technical Theatre Director, Chipola College

academickeys: Design and manage technical aspects of theatre productions; instruct, supervise and evaluate students involved in stagecraft, lighting, sound, audio and other technical operations; supervise volunteers, guest artists and contract employees involved in set design and construction; electrical, lighting and sound board operations; set dressing; fly wall/scene change activities; skilled crafts; and, other technical aspects of theatre productions. Participate on College committees, as needed.

University Job: Contract Faculty Position/Production Stage Manager and Teacher, Ball State University

academickeys: Contract faculty position available August 17, 2012, in stage management. Responsibilities: teaching courses in stage management, design awareness, stagecraft, and other related theatre courses at the undergraduate level; training and supervising all student stage managers within the department’s undergraduate Production Option and working in collaboration with theatre and dance faculty, staff, and students in facilitating the production program at Ball State University, including two dance concerts per season.

University Job: Technical Director, Lecturer in Theatre Arts, Baylor University

Academic Keys: M.F.A. in technical direction required. Share technical direction responsibilities for an 8-show season. Teach undergraduate courses in basic scenic construction and technical theatre practices. Knowledge of CAD, Vectorworks, and competence at computer drafting is essential. Co-supervise student workers in scene shop, as well as a staff shop foreman and assistant technical director.

After 320 years, Paris theatre's stage hands demand égalité

The Independent: The most prestigious theatre company in France, the Comédie Française, has been thrown into confusion over a 332-year-old pay agreement.
The classical theatre company has cancelled its published programme after backstage staff called an indefinite strike against a pay and bonus system which has been unchanged since 1680.

Catch Me If You Can Tour Will Launch As Non-Equity This Fall

Playbill.com: The first national tour of the Tony Award-nominated musical Catch Me If You Can, based on the Dreamworks film about a charming young con-man on the run for money and adventure, will hit the road in a non-Equity production this fall.

'Phantom of the Opera' epitaph: We did well to survive six years

Las Vegas Sun: In Twitter-speak, it was hashtag-buzzkill.
The information from Scott Zeiger to the “Phantom -- the Las Vegas Spectacular” team was imparted in halves. The co-CEO of BASE Entertainment called a backstage meeting of the company that stages and stars in the Venetian spectacle after the performance Jan. 10.

College Majors That Are Useless

Yahoo! Education: If you're considering going back to school in hopes that you'll graduate to more opportunities, there are certain degrees that you might want to avoid.
Consider the National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) 2012 Job Outlook study, which surveyed almost 1,000 employers on their future hiring plans. Many areas of study, such as fashion design and the performing arts, didn't even make the list.

'Wit,' Starring Cynthia Nixon, Took the Long Road to Broadway

WSJ.com: "Wit," a drama about a poetry professor with stage-four ovarian cancer, opened off-Broadway in 1998 and quickly began racking up accolades. It picked up numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, and was soon was being staged around the country.

Live Design Expands Master Classes Brand, Announces BMC Dates

Live Design: Live Design has announced changes and additions to its burgeoning Master Classes franchise, adding several new events to the calendar, new venues, and price structures for its existing events, and other exciting features.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Cirque du Soleil's Ovo: How to make costumes that look like bugs

LA Weekly: "I was always fascinated by insects since I was a child. I would go into my backyard and look under rocks, to see what the insects were doing," says costumer Liz Vandal, whose first assignment for Cirque du Soleil is Ovo, a show about the insect universe.

Posted by David at 1/21/2012 11:14:00 AM <-- Comments Here

This Guy Didn't Know He Shot Himself in the Head with a Nail Gun

Gizmodo: Dante Autullo is a tough guy. He's also, according to his wife, a very accident prone guy. So when he accidentally hit his head with a nail gun and only saw a scratch, he didn't think anything of it... EVEN THOUGH HE HAD A FREAKING NAIL LODGED IN HIS BRAIN.

Posted by David at 1/22/2012 04:59:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Why I Won’t Hire You

Golem Technologies: I will be very honest with you in this post. Most interview articles only show obvious mistakes, as if most people don’t know showing up late is bad form. I will tell you the things I didn’t really know about until I was the one interviewing, and interviewing for a variety of positions and person-types. No interview prep article ever prepared me in the right way for how interviewers really think. That is what I will be sharing with you today.
When you first walk in to my office, I am expecting you to be one of the 99%+ people who I know I won’t hire in the first 5 minutes. I am hoping I will be proven wrong, because I really want to hire you and be done interviewing. Unfortunately, most people looking for jobs don’t deserve them. Here are the most common ways I know you don’t deserve any job I have to offer.

Posted by David at 1/19/2012 05:03:00 PM <-- Comments Here

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: This guy cleans up on Broadway.

Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: Bruce Barish and his wife Sarah could be the busiest couple on Broadway. What do they do? Well, you know how most theater folk are night owls? Well, these two can't be . . . because if they slept in, 80% of Broadway would be naked.

Posted by David at 1/22/2012 05:03:00 PM <-- Comments Here

Follow-up to Indiana State Fair Stage Canopy Collapse

TheatreFace: Following the weather-induced collapse last summer of the stage canopy at the Ind..., the Indiana State Legislature announced today that a Senate Bill was authored that addresses the need to have outdoor entertainment structures inspected before use. The bill was passed and forwarded to the House for consideration.

Posted by David at 1/22/2012 05:01:00 PM <-- Comments Here

10 Questions for a Broadway Pro: This guy cleans up on Broadway.

Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: Bruce Barish and his wife Sarah could be the busiest couple on Broadway. What do they do? Well, you know how most theater folk are night owls? Well, these two can't be . . . because if they slept in, 80% of Broadway would be naked.

Follow-up to Indiana State Fair Stage Canopy Collapse

TheatreFace: Following the weather-induced collapse last summer of the stage canopy at the Ind..., the Indiana State Legislature announced today that a Senate Bill was authored that addresses the need to have outdoor entertainment structures inspected before use. The bill was passed and forwarded to the House for consideration.

San Francisco

HowlRound: There’s an old (and annoying) line about how if you’re smart and ambitious you move to New York, if you’re ambitious but not smart you move to LA, and if you’re smart but not ambitious you move to San Francisco. Sixteen years ago I arrived here by accident in someone else’s car, and since then I’ve found myself often engaged in the examination of the kind of ambition that we have in this city.

This Guy Didn't Know He Shot Himself in the Head with a Nail Gun

Gizmodo: Dante Autullo is a tough guy. He's also, according to his wife, a very accident prone guy. So when he accidentally hit his head with a nail gun and only saw a scratch, he didn't think anything of it... EVEN THOUGH HE HAD A FREAKING NAIL LODGED IN HIS BRAIN.

Five Best Online Meeting Services

Lifehacker: If you work at a company with employees in offices around the globe, or you work in a small company but want to collaborate with a contractor who works from home or vendor across the country, you need a service that will let you connect with your team, share documents, collaborate on them, and in some cases even share your screen or webcam with them. Here are five of the best services to conduct productive online meetings, based on your nominations.

Can Women Write Good Plays?

2AMt: I’m 22 years old, a student at NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program. I’m sitting in a coffee shop, surrounded by friends. The topic of conversation is how a teacher admitted that he couldn’t name a female playwright he liked. I don’t know if this story is true. I don’t care since I don’t have a class with him.

Key SAG Rule to Survive Merger

The Hollywood Reporter: SAG’s Global Rule 1, which requires members to work only under a union contract, will be retained in a merged SAG-AFTRA, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Opponents of merger had raised the possibility that this would not be the case, since AFTRA has no analogous rule.

SAG Merger Skeptics Retain Law Firm

The Hollywood Reporter: Declaring themselves “hesitant” to support the proposed merger of SAG and AFTRA, a group of unnamed SAG actors posted a statement saying that they have retained a local law firm “to represent us in our legal quest to compel SAG to conduct a feasibility/impact study [regarding the effect of merger on the SAG pension and health plan] and publicly announce the results of the study prior to the merger referendum vote.”

Theatre company to call time on the rule of Blanchett and Upton

www.smh.com.au: ''IT'S been an interesting experiment but enough is enough.''
This was the thinking behind the Sydney Theatre Company deciding to end the reign of Cate Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton, as co-artistic directors running the company next year.
It is believed the decision by the couple and the STC board was mutual.

'Flashdance' national tour to start here

Post Gazette: Oh, what a feeling: "Flashdance -- The Musical," the stage adaptation of the movie that was shot in Pittsburgh, will open on Broadway in the fall, then launch its national tour at Heinz Hall on New Year's Day 2013.
Casting and additional cities for the touring company, coming here as part of the PNC Broadway Across America -- Pittsburgh series, will be announced in the coming months.

'Flashdance' heads to Pittsburgh stage

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Flashdance -- The Musical" will launch its national tour in Pittsburgh on Jan. 1, 2013.
The show will be presented at Heinz Hall as a presentation of the PNC Broadway Across America -- Pittsburgh series.
The musical follows Alex Owens, a working-class girl from Pittsburgh who spends her days working at a steel mill, her evenings performing as a dancer at a local bar and dreams of becoming a student at a prestigious dance academy.

Some performers seek different career path after last dance

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Change might be inevitable. Sometimes, it's even predictable, but managing the transition and adjusting to it emotionally can be challenging.
Dancers retire anywhere from age 20 to 45, says Terrence S. Orr, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's artistic director.

Costumes help set the mood in 'As You Like It'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: For anyone who doubts that we need another production of "As You Like It," Gabriel Berry has a ready answer.
"It's January in Pittsburgh," Berry says. "This is a chance to get to the countryside and watch the flowers bloom."
Berry is the costume designer for "As You Like It," which began previews Thursday at the O'Reilly Theater, Downtown.

Nominations Open for PA Tech Awards

TECHBurgher: The PA Tech Awards 2012 announced the opening call for nominations for the annual gala that celebrates and honors the brightest technology leaders and innovators from across the state. Set for Friday March 30, 2012 at Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg, the PA Tech Awards brings together hundreds of attendees from companies large and small for what promises to be the networking event of the year.

Costume Designers Guild Announces Awards Nominees

Below the Line: The Costume Designers Guild announced the nominees for the 14th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards. The winners will be revealed at the awards gala hosted by award-winning film and television actress, Jane Lynch, with Lacoste as presenting sponsor and Disaronno as supporting sponsor on Feb. 21 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Honorary awards will be announced next week.

Parts of a Cigar, Cigarette, Pipe and Matchbook

Prop Agenda: Theatre and films seem to have an awful lot of tobacco smoking in it, so it can be useful to the props person to be able to identify the parts and anatomy of common smoking devices. Cigars, cigarettes and pipes have endless variations of shapes and styles and have evolved much throughout history, but they do have parts that have remained somewhat consistent over time.

'Spider-Man' Producers File Nasty Countersuit Against Julie Taymor

Hollywood Reporter: In a filing today in New York federal court, Michael Cohl's 8 Legged Productions alleges that Taymor failed to live up to her obligations by declaring that "she could not and would not do that she was contracted to do, thereby causing significant unneccessary expense, delay and other harm."

Cirque du Soleil's Ovo: How to make costumes that look like bugs

LA Weekly: "I was always fascinated by insects since I was a child. I would go into my backyard and look under rocks, to see what the insects were doing," says costumer Liz Vandal, whose first assignment for Cirque du Soleil is Ovo, a show about the insect universe.

Productivity Made Simple: The Key to GTD

Lifehack: At this point you already know what the main elements of productivity are and where to start with GTD. This is all great, but we’re still lacking one important piece of information…
What the hell to do with all this stuff?!

Prepare to Ace Your Job Interview with This Interview One-Sheeter

lifehacker: As you know, preparation is the key to doing well on a job interview and hirers tend to ask the same kinds of questions. This job interview one-sheeter is like a CliffsNotes for getting your strategic answers together.

Job Search Tips That Will Get You a Job in 2012

Wise Bread: Unemployment has dipped to 8.6%, but there are still quite a number of people who are searching for jobs. Even among my circle of friends, I see that some of them are still facing layoffs or are struggling to find jobs. There really is a trick to job hunting, and interviewing is a skill you can pick up. Make sure you're not doing the wrong things by reading a roundup of the best job search tips we've featured in the past, and use those to get your dream job in 2012!

Stage role for TED

Variety: This week, Broadway types are just as likely to be talking about holograms and genomics as they are about ticketing and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" lawsuits.
TEDxBroadway, a day-long conference organized by a trio of legiters, aims to get theater folk thinking ahead -- way, way ahead: The theme of the Jan. 23 event is "What Can Broadway Be in 20 Years?"
It's an unusual confab for the small, close-knit industry, which usually focuses more on day-to-day concerns of putting up and running a show. It's also an event that could make waves precisely because the community of Broadway movers and shakers is relatively small.

Theater Notes: Pittsburgh Westinghouse picked for musical theater project

Post gazette: Pittsburgh Westinghouse 6-12 has been chosen to participate in the "Make a Musical" Junior Theater Project, which aims to create sustainable musical theater programs in underserved middle and high schools. The initial 20-city program is being launched by NBC (which will premiere the pilot "Smash," about the making of a Broadway musical, on Feb. 6) and Music Theatre International.

'Creative Clash!' brings titans of tech and art together to plan the future

POP City: Pittsburgh Technology Council is billing "Creative Clash!" as "The future of creativity, technology and a new innovation community in Pittsburgh." As the first event of PTC's new Creative Technology Network, in partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Jan. 26 presentation, panel discussion and reception will bring together some heavy hitters in the tech/arts community

Cue the Water! Pittsburgh, the Setting of "Flashdance" Movie, Will Launch Musical's National Tour in 2013

Playbill.com: Flashdance – The Musical, the stage adaptation of the 1983 pop-filled hit film, is aiming for a Broadway launch in fall 2012, but its producers have already announced a second company for a national tour that will kick off in early 2013.

The Toxic Avenger, With New Musical Glow, Opens at the Alley Theatre Jan. 20

Playbill.com: A new incarnation of the Off-Broadway sci-fi rock musical The Toxic Avenger, starring Tony Award nominee Constantine Maroulis as a nerd turned radioactive super hero, officially opens Jan. 20 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, TX.

Mike Garl New President of Tomcat

Stage Directions: TOMCAT, a market leader in the fabrication of aluminum truss, structural components and custom stages for the entertainment, audiovisual, exhibition and worship industries and a brand of The Vitec Group, is pleased to announce that Mike Garl has joined the TOMCAT team as president and general manager. Garl, who joins TOMCAT from James Thomas Engineering, where he was previously the president and managing partner, will be responsible for all the day-to-day activities at TOMCAT.

MTV's New Crusade: Helping Students Battle College Debt With A Facebook App

Fast Company: To combat the staggering growth of college debt, MTV has launched a Facebook-powered campaign centered on college affordability. The star of the campaign is My College Dollars, a Facebook financial affordability app for the college-curious and those at risk of dropping out. In addition to hosting star-studded videos and basic application information, the app automatically alerts users to eligible scholarships based on their Facebook profile data.

Hate When Companies Don’t Provide Feedback On Job Applications? StartWire Is For You.

TechCrunch: If you’ve ever been on the job search, you know how frustrating and time consuming it is to manage the process. (If not, just ask one of the more than 13 million people in the U.S. currently there.) You spend untold hours filling out the right forms and fields, adding more action verbs to your resume, etc., and you fire off the application. Then comes the infuriation: Your prospective employer doesn’t respond, so you send a follow-up. Nothing. And another follow-up. Still nothing.

Playbill goes Boffo with its brand.

Ken Davenport - Opinions from a Broadway Producer: The battle of the Broadway websites just got real, yo.
Playbill.com could sit back and stay fat on its yellow striped cover and trademarked font and still have more traffic than the 405 in LA.
But no . . . ever since young Turk-ish Blake Ross took the reins years ago, Playbill has been operatin' like a startup, adding new features left and right and all the way 'round.

Beyond the Bechdel Test

2AMt: Soon after I wrote this Forum Theatre post on the Bechdel Test, the question arose: what might be a similar test for LGBT characters? Being both gay and up for the challenge, I gave it a try. Here it is:
The Test – Does the movie have?
1. An identifiable LGBT character
2. Who has a conversation with someone else*
3. About something other than sexuality

6 Tips to Avoid IRS Audits for Freelancers

freelanceswitch: No one actually knows for sure what the logic behind the IRS audit red flag is. Over the years, accountants have seen commonalities within their client base and have noticed trends in businesses that seem to be audited more often than others. This article isn’t meant to scare you; it’s meant to encourage you to keep solid books.

Conference peers 20 years into Broadway's future

Yahoo! News: What will Broadway be like in 20 years?
Will people still come to see shows in 2032? Will actors still be performing live? Will Times Square still be the crossroads of the world? Will "The Phantom of the Opera" still be open?
Those and many other questions will likely be mulled over Monday at the inaugural TEDxBroadway, a one-day conference bringing together producers, marketers, entrepreneurs, economists and artists. All will try to imagine what Broadway will be like in two decades.

The Legal Fight Over Karaoke is Getting Loud

Hollywood Reporter: Two weeks ago, KTS Karaoke, a CD and DVD manufacturing giant was fed up by the suggestion that it might owe $1.28 billion for 6,715 acts of alleged song infringement. The company decided to drag Sony/ATV Music Publishing into a California federal court for being an aggressive nuisance in the karaoke marketplace.

‘War Horse’ Stage and Screen Versions Help Each Other

NYTimes.com: FOR decades Broadway producers regarded Hollywood as the agent of death. They fought to delay film adaptations of “West Side Story,” “Hello, Dolly!,” “The Wiz” and other shows for fear that those movies would decimate ticket sales for the Broadway originals and their national tours. But this winter producers of the hit Broadway play “War Horse” have been cheering Steven Spielberg’s new screen version, while those on the musical “Rock of Ages” have been helping rush the movie version (starring Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin) toward a June release.

Who Owns My Ticket?

NYTimes.com: AT this moment, all over the United States, consumers are buying tickets to games, concerts and other live events under the impression that they have the right to give away, donate or resell the tickets they purchase. They assume that they can do so whenever and with whomever they wish and (as long as they don’t violate the few remaining laws against scalping) at whatever price they choose.

Public Theater adds a ragtime score and a turn-of-the-century backdrop to 'As You Like It'

Post Gazette: Shakespeare and ragtime, a match made in the mind of Pittsburgh Public Theater chief Ted Pappas, was established with an original score by Michael Moricz and unleashed by the company in the form of a jaunty "As You Like It."

Monologuist Mike Daisey takes on technology and a corporate giant in 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs'

Post Gazette: Mike Daisey's "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" is a story of love, loss and discovery. Technophiles, prepare to be both fascinated and disheartened.
Mr. Daisey will be performing the piece Saturday at the Byham Theater during a brief break in its run at New York City's Public Theater.

Review: Attack Theatre has devilishly good time with 'Soldier's Tale'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: A classic fable was freshly told with uncommon brilliance Wednesday evening when Attack Theatre and seven Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians teamed up to present Igor Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale."

Mike Daisey examines the love affair, cost of high-tech communications

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Since 1997, Mike Daisey has been telling his stories on five continents and in theaters, large and small.
"I'm a monologist. I tell stories for a living," he says in a phone interview. "I tell stories on stage in a primal form. I don't speak as an actor."
He has performed one or another of his 15 monologues in prestigious locations that include the Public Theater in New York City and remote islands in the South Pacific.

As You Like It, With Gretchen Egolf, Christian Conn, Begins Jan. 19 at the Pittsburgh Public

Playbill.com: Pittsburgh Public Theater continues its season with a new production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, beginning Jan. 19, prior to an official opening Jan. 27, at the O'Reilly Theater.

Working in the Theatre - The Playwrights' Voice 2012 - January, 2012

American Theatre Wing: Playwrights Lydia R. Diamond, David Henry Hwang and Suzan-Lori Parks discuss their work and other American playwrights and how they influenced them; the moment each was aware they wanted to be writers; their process; experiencing their work on Broadway for the first time; and the role mentors played in their lives and their role as mentors.

Hugo

Prop Agenda: I saw the film Hugo last month. Have you seen it yet? A large portion of the plot revolved around an old automaton shaped like a metal man. When the characters managed to repair the automaton, it drew a picture on its own. While that was cool, it became even cooler when I later found out that this automaton was created without CGI or visual effects. The prop makers actually built an automaton that could draw an entire picture with a pen and ink.

Work Smart: Overcoming Consensus

Fast Company: How do you make everyone happy in a creative project with multiple constituencies? You can't. And trying to please everyone will result in a mediocre outcome. Here's my advice for how to avoid becoming burdened by consensus.

Why I Won’t Hire You

Golem Technologies: I will be very honest with you in this post. Most interview articles only show obvious mistakes, as if most people don’t know showing up late is bad form. I will tell you the things I didn’t really know about until I was the one interviewing, and interviewing for a variety of positions and person-types. No interview prep article ever prepared me in the right way for how interviewers really think. That is what I will be sharing with you today.
When you first walk in to my office, I am expecting you to be one of the 99%+ people who I know I won’t hire in the first 5 minutes. I am hoping I will be proven wrong, because I really want to hire you and be done interviewing. Unfortunately, most people looking for jobs don’t deserve them. Here are the most common ways I know you don’t deserve any job I have to offer.

Lepage launches new epic

Variety: Thirteen legit orgs around the world have commissioned a new 12-hour, four-part stage outing from prominent theater and opera helmer Robert Lepage.
"Jeux de Cartes (Playing Cards)" will play each of the venues (collectively called the 360° Network), all of which are capable of staging productions in the round.

‘Smash’ on NBC, About Broadway, With Katharine McPhee

NYTimes.com: DECADES before his elaborate film productions like “E.T.” and “Saving Private Ryan,” Steven Spielberg cut his teeth as a high school stage manager in Phoenix, feeding lines to forgetful actors in “Guys and Dolls” and trying to keep the members of a large “Brigadoon” cast from turning into bumper cars. Backstage drama provided the first adrenaline rush of his career, he said, and always struck him as good material. So much so that, a few years ago, Mr. Spielberg began shopping around a television series set on Broadway, but he met with rejection from HBO (where he made “Band of Brothers”) and the broadcast networks.

'Peter and the Starcatcher' Will Land on Broadway in March

NYTimes.com: Peter Pan is coming back to Broadway – though not the flying, singing Peter who audiences know well. Rick Elice’s play “Peter and the Starcatcher,” which had a well-reviewed Off Broadway run at New York Theater Workshop last spring, will begin preview performances at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on March 28 and open on April 15, the producers of the show said on Thursday.

‘Spider-Man’ Producers Sue Taymor for Breach

NYTimes.com: Using caustic private e-mails as weapons, the producers of the popular Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” marshaled a muscular counteroffensive in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday against a lawsuit by Julie Taymor, the $75 million show’s former director. In it they essentially seek to erase Ms. Taymor from the “Spider-Man” universe going forward.

Should theatre leave more to the imagination?

guardian.co.uk: Ordinarily, the prospect of Rupert Goold tackling CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as he will do in Kensington Gardens this summer, would be a lip-smacking one. From the hellish industrial kitchen of his Macbeth to the tawdry glitz of his Las Vegas Merchant, the places Goold creates are always vivid, inventive and full of high-definition detail. So who better to create the grand landscapes of Narnia, Lewis's fantastical world within a wardrobe?

National Theatre claims victory over Spielberg in War Horse race

guardian.co.uk: Given the choice between a hit West End play and a successful Hollywood blockbuster, most producers would doubtless plump for the latter. However, artistic director Nicholas Hytner has claimed that War Horse will prove more profitable for the National Theatre than it will for Steven Spielberg's studio.

'Alexander' returns to Kidsworks stage

MakeShop Announces Micro Grant Opportunity

Pittsburgh Art + Technology: The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, with funding from the Grable Foundation and support from The Sprout Fund and The Pittsburgh Foundation, will provide “Maker” micro grants to organizations who work with children and youth.

Local playwright Tammy Ryan's still developing play, 'Lindsey's Oyster,' among the 8 productions staged at IUP during the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

Post Gazette: Festival, they call it.
Not the festival, and certainly not a festival, but just Festival, as in, "we do it this way at Festival." It's a noun, sometimes an adjective and maybe even a verb, subsuming everything -- a life-form of its own.
The fuller name is KCACTF, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Pausch Bridge continues professor’s creative legacy

SmartPlanet: Just as Randy Pausch’s work bridged art and science, the memorial Pausch Bridge connects the Purnell Center for the Arts and the Gates Center for Computer Science on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University. The 230 foot long bridge incorporates more than 7,000 LED lights and runs through 11 lighting sequences, five of which are newly designed by interdisciplinary teams of students.

PLASA Focus, First Such U.S. Event, Opens February 22

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: PLASA Focus, the first in a new style of regional events, opens in February 22, 2012 at the Austin Renaissance Hotel, in Austin, Texas. It will showcase the industry's hottest technology, spotlight the region's exciting lighting designers and sound engineers, provide free training opportunities, and feature the dealers and distributors who make Austin a leading community in the live music market.

David Dower Speaks More About the Move to Emerson

Stage Directions: Last week Arena Stage and Emerson College announced Emerson College would become the new home to the research and documentation portions of the American Voices New Play Institute, forming the Center for the Theater Commons at Emerson College. David Dower, currently leader of the Institute at Arena, and Polly Carl, currently Director of the Institute, are also moving with the Institute, maintaining their current positions and responsibilities vis-à-vis the Institute/Commons. You can read more about the move in my post from last week. Dower and I spoke for about 30 minutes last Friday, and in that time he clarified the reasons behind the move, and related a stronger vision about what the move to Emerson means for the Commons and for himself.

Henry Hewes Design Awards Honors Best NYC Design of 2010-2011

Stage Directions: The American Theatre Wing and the Henry Hewes Design Awards committee have announced the winners of the 47th annual Henry Hewes Design Awards. From 86 artists representing 61 productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway during the 2010-2011 theatre season, four have been honored for their excellence in scenic design, costume design, lighting design and “notable effects,” which include sound, music, video, puppetry and other creative elements. The winners this year are: John Lee Beatty, scenic design, for his work on The Whipping Man at Manhattan Theatre Club (his seventh Hewes Award); William Ivey Long, costume design, for his work on The School for Lies at Classic Stage Company (his fourth Hewes Award); Jeff Croiter, lighting design, for his work on Peter and the Starcatcher at the NY Theatre Workshop; and David Rockwell (scenic design) and Batwin+Robin (projection design) won the Hewes Award for Notable Effects thanks to their work on The Normal Heart on Broadway.

SOPA Loses Steam With Hollywood Union Members

WebProNews: Obviously, some of the most voracious supporters of the oft-maligned protection acts working their way through the houses of government are members of the entertainment industry. You may know at least two of these associations better by their choice of acronyms: The MPAA and the RIAA. Clearly, these to entities have the most to lose in a non-SOPA protected world, at least if let spokespersons from each group tell it.

Diversity in the Booth

Stage Directions: Imagine that someone charges you with the task of hiring a Black production manager. Once you have successfully navigated the why’s, wherefores and “say whats?” that making such a charged request would elicit in our current socio-political climate, you would find that you had very few options before you. Your hiring pool would be extremely meager, albeit spectacularly talented. Your hiring pool would consist of two individuals: David Stewart, production manager and SM instructor for the University of Wisconsin–Madison; and Tayneshia Jefferson, production manager/stage management lecturer for Indiana University’s Department of Theatre and Drama. Us.

New Repertory Theatre’s production of ‘Art’ draws on local talents

The Boston Globe: Robert Walsh doesn’t break up fights; he usually starts them. David Remedios reads words but hears sound. Both men bring their talents to the New Repertory Theatre production of “Art,’’ which opens next Sunday at Watertown’s Arsenal Center for the Arts.

Online petition started for Super Bowl stagehands - 13 WTHR

Online petition started for Super Bowl stagehands - 13 WTHR: The NFL says for the first time in Super Bowl history, online protestors are calling for minimum wage and insurance protection for hundreds of halftime volunteers.

The online petition calls for the NFL "to offer 500 halftime workers at the Indianapolis Super Bowl minimum wage and protection if they are injured on the job," setting up Madonna's stage.

RSC's London home could be flatpack 975-seat theatre, says Michael Boyd

guardian.co.uk: The long-term future of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London is likely to be flatpack, albeit not something anyone would tackle alone with paper instructions and an Allen key.
Instead, this would be flatpack on an enormous scale: a 975-seat replica of its main auditorium in Stratford which could be constructed in London every time the RSC wanted to bring down its biggest productions.

NYC City Opera Reaches Tentative Deal With Union

Backstage: The New York City Opera and the union representing its orchestra have reached a tentative contract agreement.
A union spokesman said orchestra players would be casting their votes until 4 p.m. Thursday.
He did not release details.

Confessions of a Serial Intern

HowlRound: By all measures of intern metrics, my experiences as an intern at seven theater organizations in New York and Chicago have all been pretty wonderful. I’ve cultivated crucial relationships with artistic leaders in the new play world I have always aspired to play in. I have had significant insight into the structures and functions of a hefty handful of respected institutions. I’ve gained access to the work of writers that I would never have known about otherwise. I’ve improved my writing and communication skills, become savvy to industry politics, and gained an insider vocabulary that enhances my credibility as a serious theater practitioner. But the “dark side” of the internship has taught me not to speak up or make independent decisions, and demanded my gratitude for the privilege of having my intelligence and labor exploited. I’ve learned to accept whatever breadcrumbs I’m given. I’ve learned to apologize incessantly or, even better, shut my trap. I’ve become accustomed to working outside of the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, and gotten used to sucking up sexism. Internships have been responsible for eroding my sense of my own value.