Free Amazon scriptwriting app lets scribes pitch directly to Amazon Studios

Ars Technica: While a variety of free and low-priced scriptwriting apps are available across all major computing OSes and Web browsers, only one has launched with a built-in capability to send a finished script directly to a movie or television studio.

Carrie-Anne Moss on Jessica Jones’ Girl Power in Front of and Behind the Camera

The Mary Sue: If you consider yourself a feminist and a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, chances are you’re pretty damn psyched to see Jessica Jones, which begins streaming November 20 on Netflix. Surely a part of that excitement comes from the fact that this is a Marvel series with a female lead (Krysten Ritter) and showrunner (Melissa Rosenberg). But how girl-powered is the series actually, both in terms of plot and crew members?

IAAPA Announces 2015 Brass Ring Awardees

InPark Magazine: The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) presented the IAAPA Brass Ring Awards on November 18 during IAAPA Attractions Expo 2015 in Orlando, Florida. The awards were presented to amusement parks, water parks, zoos, aquariums, museums, family entertainment centers (FECs), and suppliers from around the world to honor excellence in food and beverage, games and retail, human resources, live entertainment, marketing, new products, and family entertainment centers.

Ticket Buying by Touch

Shubert Ticketing Blog: On a regular basis, we at Shubert do research into our customers. This research can be simple surveys on their experience buying tickets, finding ticket buyers at the box office and getting their input on a new website feature, or one-on-one user interviews about Broadway and ticket-buying in general.

Que Onda? with Virginia Grise

HowlRound: The first poem I ever read publicly was in the juvenile detention center in Austin, Texas. Over fifteen years later this has continued to have a lasting impact on my work: prisons, both literal and metaphorical, the boxes people try to put us in, and state violence are tropes that recur in my writing. Writing, in part, is my attempt to liberate myself from confinement, conventional rules, norms, and structures, an attempt to imagine freedom.

ASC Announces Television Nominees

Below the Line: The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) announced the television nominees for its 30th annual outstanding achievement awards. Winners will be announced on Feb. 14, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

The nominees were picked by a blue ribbon jury of ASC active members that voted on submissions.

‘Mad Men’s’ Costume Designer Janie Bryant Reflects on Fashion

Variety: My love of fashion and TV/film started as early as I can remember. My mother got me hooked on movies. When I was young, she would take dresses for my dolls. I made my first dress when I was 8 … and haven’t stopped.

I didn’t immediately think about fashion as a career, but I finally got my degree in fashion design. After school, I moved to Paris to follow my dream of becoming a designer. That didn’t really work out at the time, so I ended up moving to New York after four months in Europe. There, I worked as an assistant designer in the fashion district. One night, I met a costume designer at a party, and knew exactly what turn I wanted my career to take.

I was on a mission: I wanted to be a costume designer.

'Miss Saigon' Returning to Broadway

The New York Times: “Miss Saigon” is helicoptering back to Broadway.

Cameron Mackintosh, the storied British producer best known for bringing the megahits “Cats,” “Les Misérables” and “The Phantom of the Opera” to New York, said on Thursday that he planned to present a revival of “Miss Saigon” on Broadway in the spring of 2017.

Back In The Director's Chair With Mark Clayton Southers

90.5 WESA: After a life threatening car crash last May award-winning theater director Mark Clayton Southers has returned to work. His production of August Wilson’s play “The Piano Lesson” runs through Saturday at the downtown center bearing the late Pittsburgh playwright’s name. Mark, along with his wife Neicy, joined Essential Pittsburgh’s Paul Guggenheimer to talk about how the accident and road to recovery have changed him.

SUNY white- and black-only signs may lead to new public art guidelines

Inside Higher Ed: Almost three months after a racially charged art project stirred controversy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, administrators, faculty members and students are still deliberating whether to adopt guidelines for public art on campus.

At the root of the debate is a series of signs reading “White Only” and “Black Only” that appeared mysteriously and suddenly around campus in September, eliciting fear and shock from students. After it became clear a graduate art student named Ashley Powell had posted the signs as part of a project for her Urban Spaces class, the whole episode took on a new dimension.

The Hobbit movies were awful, and now we know why

The Verge: Like a lot of people, I loved Peter Jackson's original Lord of the Rings trilogy (although we can all admit Return of the King didn't quite know when to leave the party). So I was pretty surprised when Jackson took over from Guillermo del Toro to make the Hobbit trilogy, and the first film turned out to be such a boring mess. Even more so when The Desolation of Smaug rolled around, and the problems somehow seemed to get even worse. In what can only be described as the most honest promotional video of all time, we find out why: the movies were made completely on the fly, without a script or nearly any advanced planning.

What If I'm Attacked at Work? A Crew Primer, Part 1

JOL: In Paris last Friday, 13 November 2015, a few jihadi cowards stormed into Le Bataclan and murdered scores of people with AK-47’s. At FOH, the house lighting tech, Nathalie Jardin, took rounds and died form her injuries. Merchandiser Nick Alexander died from his gunshots onsite. They were just at work, doing what they loved, making the almighty dollar, but mostly digging the journey that we call Entertainment.

Billy Porter Leaves the Land of Lola After 1,000 Performances in Broadway's Kinky Boots

Playbill.com: Billy Porter, who earned the Tony Award for his portrayal of unstoppable drag performer Lola in the Tony-winning hit musical Kinky Boots, ends his acclaimed run in the Broadway production Nov. 20 after more than 1,000 performances in the role.

Good Kids at Pitt Stages

Pittsburgh City Paper: Playwright Naomi Iizuka tackles a difficult subject with grace, honesty and even a sense of poetry in Good Kids. The University of Pittsburgh Department of Theatre Arts does full justice to the 2014 one-act with a solid ensemble directed by Kimberly Griffin and Lisa Jackson-Shebetta in the intimate Henry Heymann Theatre.

Contemporary Choreographers largely hits home

Pittsburgh City Paper: Stylistic variety was on tap for Point Park University’s Contemporary Dance Company’s annual Contemporary Choreographers program. The Nov. 12 matinee kicked off with Israeli-born choreographer Ori Flomin’s new work “The Way Out.”

Why Most Internships Are Actually Illegal

Viral Viral Videos: Being an an unpaid intern while still in college might be exciting at first, but the novelty of making copies and getting people who don’t respect you coffee everyday wears off really quick. Actually, most people don’t realize that many internships aren’t just scams, but are actually illegal under the terms set by the department of labor.

A Servant to Two Masters at the Public

Pittsburgh City Paper: Obviously, I’m just not in the right rhythm for Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production of A Servant to Two Masters, a 45 played at 33⅓. The 1746 commedia dell’arte classic, here in a 1999 Brit-speak adaptation set in 1965 Venice, conjures not a distinctive Italian comedy but a mélange more reminiscent of Chef Boyardee. Not that that’s a bad thing.

Fund established to support programming at August Wilson Center

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The August Wilson Legacy Fund has been established to support programming at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

The fund was announced Tuesday at a celebration of the efforts of community groups, foundations and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to revitalize the Downtown Pittsburgh building.

The Piano Lesson at Pittsburgh Playwrights

Pittsburgh City Paper: First performed in 1987, and set in 1936, in the Hill District, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson is the fourth installment in the Pittsburgh native’s epic, 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle. It’s also the first play staged at the newly retooled August Wilson Center, so the warmth and enthusiasm with which the audience greeted this new Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Co. production is unsurprising; the director, Playwrights artistic director Mark Clayton Southers, is himself a protégé of Wilson.

When A Top Tier Performing Position Isn’t The Goal of Your Education

Butts In the Seats: Last month I pondered if there was any worth in giving up a little time in the conservatory/university training of arts students in favor of providing instruction/experiences in career management. Instead of graduating and then seeking out instruction in accounting, contracting and self promotion, etc., they would have a base in those skills but may need to seek out “finishing” training in their discipline.

Sunset Baby at City Theatre

Pittsburgh City Paper: Dominique Morisseau is a playwright in love with the English language. Her Sunset Baby, making its Pittsburgh debut at City Theatre, is an aural feast of words.

We open in a very sketchy apartment somewhere in Brooklyn where Nina, a young African-American woman, is getting ready to leave for work (which includes getting a gun from a kitchen drawer). Then the doorbell rings and in walks her father, Kenyatta.

Inside the 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' stormtrooper dressing room

www.wired.co.uk: When costume designer Michael Kaplan (Blade Runner, Star Trek) was looking for a way to update the stormtroopers for The Force Awakens, his inspiration came partly from the phone in his pocket. "With time, I think, simplification occurs," says Kaplan."Because the stormtroopers are hard and white and plasticky, my thoughts did go to Apple."

Massive LED Star Lights Up Malaysia

The Creators Project: A star has landed in Penang, Malaysia. Built from steel cables and over 500 meters of LED light, artist Jun Hao Ong's latest site-specific installation, The Star, traverses a four-story cement building to illuminate the 2015 Urban Xchange public art festival. Steel rods fan out from the sculpture’s spherical center, piercing through the building’s foundation in an acute interconnected network of light.

'Small Engine Repair' at Barebones Black Box Theater has plot fueled by real-life drama

TribLIVE: Barebones Productions' new black-box theater space in Braddock is the perfect setting for John Pollono's “Small Engine Repair.”

The darkly comic drama takes place in an out-of-the-way shop where Frank fixes lawnmowers, snow blowers and other machinery.

The performance space is in an area behind what was once the showroom at Superior Motors car dealership, across the street from the Edgar Thompson Steel Works in Braddock.

3 Tips for Mastering Business Card Etiquette Rules

Envato Tuts+ Business Article: One of the most important aspects of professional networking events is the exchange of business cards that takes place among participants. Yet, many entrepreneurs and freelancers attending these events don’t know how to give out business cards successfully, so as to leave a positive impression along with their card.

Quantum Theatre's 'Chickens' scratches under surface of relationships

TribLIVE: Playwright Paul Kruse thinks chickens don't get the respect they deserve.

“They are helpless and a bit dumb, but (together) they make up a ‘flock mind,' ” Kruse says.

That's why he included a flock of four fowl along with six human characters in his drama “Chickens in the Yard,” which Quantum Theatre is producing in collaboration with the Hatch Arts Collective, a Pittsburgh-based multi-disciplinary theatrical organization.

Diamond Hotend Opens the Color Gamut for 3D Printing

Hackaday: It’s safe to say we’ve hit a bit of a plateau with hobby based 3D printers using FDM technology. Print quality is pretty high, they’re about as fast as they’re going to get, and compared to commercial machines they’re a pretty good bang for your buck. So what’s next? What about printing in color?

“Sunset Baby” at City Theatre

The Pittsburgh Tatler: Fatherhood is “complicated,” Kenyatta Shakur (Keith Randolph Smith) confesses to a video camera at the beginning of Dominique Morisseau’s new play Sunset Baby. We don’t know it at the moment, but his confession isn’t for us; it’s for his daughter, Nina (Joniece Abbott-Pratt), from whom he has been estranged most of her life.

‘The Lion King’ Releases Virtual Reality Video of ‘Circle of Life’

Variety: Broadway’s “The Lion King” will release a virtual reality video of the show’s opening number, “Circle of Life,” on a handful of digital platforms tomorrow morning, aiming to capitalize on the growing momentum of VR to turn consumer heads toward the 18-year-old production.

Want to be a Theatre Major?

OnStage: Seniors in high school: Majoring in theatre is the ultimate dream for some- you’re training to do what you love, you’re learning new things to improve your performance, and most importantly you meet people that are just like you. It’s no secret that having a career in theatre is incredibly difficult to pursue. You’ll be hearing “no” all the time, and sometimes you won’t hear from anyone at all. So why are we so adamant to take on this career that cannot guarantee us a future? After an entire year of being a theatre major, here are some things I learned to keep me going.

TEA Announces 2016 Thea Award Recipients

InPark Magazine: “This year’s international slate of projects named for TEA Thea Awards reflects the delivery of story, media, content and experience with ever more sophisticated technology and tools,” said Steve Birket (Birket Engineering), president of theThemed Entertainment Association (TEA).

15th Annual 24 Hour Plays on Broadway Celebrates Arts in Schools

Backstage: New York City’s largest arts education organization celebrated its efforts Nov. 16 with one of the craziest artistic endeavors you’ve ever heard of: staging six fully produced short plays in just 24 hours.

Revealing Subtle Warmth With Bastard Ambers

Rosco Spectrum: Adam Murdoch was the Lighting Designer for “Henry V” and “Julius Caesar” in Stripped-Back Shakespeare at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). “Stripped-Back” meant no set, no costume designer, and no sound designer – which meant that all of the responsibility for setting the story’s time & place fell squarely on Murdoch’s lighting design. Below, Adam share’s how he maximized the lighting of the productions to fill the void left by the other minimized production-elements and how he put all of the various flavors of Bastard Amber to work warming his stage.

Attack Theatre’s "Remainder l Northside"

Pittsburgh City Paper: By odd coincidence, Remainder l Northside was the second evening-length show I’ve seen this year that was based on in-depth interaction with everyday North Siders. But while City of Asylum’s fine spoken-word-with-music piece Stoop Is a Verb dug into cultural specifics about the North Side’s many neighborhoods, Remainder’s universality was grounded in its origins in local classrooms and children’s workshops.

More Evidence Of How Copyright Makes Culture Disappear In A Giant Black Hole

Techdirt: That giant gaping hole on the right side of the graph should be pretty distressing. It counters the totally false narrative by certain legacy copyright system supporters that copyright is necessary to get books published and also that without copyright, no one would bother to sell the works, because they could just be copied by others. But, more importantly, it shows how much important culture is totally locked up because of copyright law -- unable to be published by those who'd like to offer them, and not worth it for the copyright holders to actually publish.

Costuming The Dressmaker

Clothes on Film: Twenty-five years ago, costume designer Margot Wilson was a student living in Paris when she picked up a roll of red, moire silk fabric during a shopping trip to Milan. She didn’t know why, or what for; she wasn’t even a costume designer then, just a talented young fashion grad from East Sydney Tech on a six-month scholarship to France. When it was time to go home, she took the beautiful roll of fabric back down under with her.

Following Two Sold-Out Engagements, Oz-Based The Woodsman Will Return Off-Broadway

Playbill.com: Producers have announced that The Woodsman, the untold story of Oz's Tinman and the woman he loved, will receive a new Off-Broadway staging at New World Stages in January 2016. The production returns following two acclaimed and sold-out engagements at 59E59 Theaters.

The Woodsman will begin performances Jan. 27, 2016, with an official opening night set for Feb. 7, 2016.

We Asked Party Planners: What Is the Most Ridiculous Request You’ve Ever Gotten?

Vanity Fair: “Tattooing on a plane is as difficult as it sounds.”

That’s what Bang Bang, the tattoo artist famous for his work on Rihanna, Cara Delevingne, and Katy Perry, told us when we asked about the most ridiculous request he’d ever received. But it wasn’t any of those names who made him fly to Panama for an impulse tattoo session, rather a young pop star whose identity you can probably guess by now.

Wiz Live! Producers Promise Stage Bombshell Will Be Next

Playbill.com: Producers of NBC-TV's The Wiz Live! said Nov. 17 that their next project will be the promised stage adaptation of the Marilyn Monroe-inspired musical Bombshell, which was born from the NBC series "Smash."

Following the success of the one-night-only June 8 Broadway concert staging of Bombshell, Universal Stage Productions had announced that the property was in development as a full-length stage musical.

Adriana Baer vacates Profile's top spot

Oregon ArtsWatch: The artistic director of an American theater company these days has to wear a lot of different hats: curator, conceptualizer, craftsperson, but also administrator, personnel manager, fundraiser, budget ninja. It isn’t any wonder the job can weigh on a person.

But for Profile Theatre’s Adriana Baer, the problem isn’t the weight, it’s the balance.

Barebones in overdrive; Quantum stages coop

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: On the nights Patrick Jordan can’t sleep, he searches the Internet for a script that strikes a barebones chord. He found one in “Small Engine Repair.”

Mr. Jordan isn’t getting much sleep these days as his new black box theater continues to grow in Braddock, and he gets ready to star in “Small Engine Repair,” opening Thursday.

Academy Launches 5-Year Diversity Initiative

Women and Hollywood: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body behind the Academy Awards, is launching a new initiative to encourage more diversity in Hollywood called A2020.

On Saturday, Spike Lee accepted an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles. But he wasn't in the mood to kiss the Academy's ass so much as light a fire under it. "It's easier to be the president of the United States as a black person than to be the head of a studio," said Lee. The director continued, "We can talk, you know, yabba, yabba, yabba, but we need to have some serious discussion about diversity, and get some flave up in here!"

Publisher Claims The Diary of Anne Frank Was Co-Written by Her Father

Flavorwire: The Anne Frank Fonds has announced it intends to re-file their copyright of Anne Frank’s famous diary, adding Anne’s father Otto Frank (who incidentally established the Anne Frank Fonds in 1963) as a co-author of the book.

Why is this happening? Because The Diary of Anne Frank was supposed to enter the public domain on January, 1, 2016.

The New Playwright Problem

HowlRound: For years I have listened to dialogue surrounding the difficulties of making a living as a professional playwright; about how rare it is for a new play to be produced; about the simple odds working against a new playwright: X number of new writers, and only Y number of theatres in the country that produce new work. We, as an industry, speak all the time about ways to get a new play onto a literary manager’s desk, and about the real struggle for playwrights awaiting their first production.

Theater Hall of Fame Inducts 8 New Members Tonight!

Breaking Character: Tonight marks the 2015 Theater Hall of Fame Ceremony, held at 7:30pm at Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre and hosted by Estelle Parsons. The ceremony will be followed by a late supper at The Palm.

This year’s inductees are playwright Tony Kushner, songwriting partners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, director Julie Taymor, director Robert Falls, actor Stacy Keach, lighting designer Ken Billington, Broadway publicist Merle Debuskey and, posthumously, actor Roger Rees.

On the Rights of Playwrights and White Tears

AMERICAN THEATRE: Last week, Clarion University in Pennsylvania was forced to cancel its planned production of Lloyd Suh’s Jesus in India. The reason: casting. Three of the characters were written as Indians, and the predominantly white school had cast two white actors and one mixed-race actor in the roles.

Holiday Magic: A CHRISTMAS CAROL How You've Never Seen It Before

Breaking Character: A Christmas Carol is one of the most frequently adapted pieces of literature. The book was written by Charles Dickens in 1843 and by 1844, lots of theatres in London decided to turn it into a play because it was so popular. One of the first movie versions was a silent movie that came out in 1910 over 100 years ago! Since then there have been lots of other movie/TV versions—Muppet version, Jim Carrey/Disney version, a musical version called Scrooge, etc. And there have been lots of stage versions too, which was one of the reasons why I was so intrigued by this new version by Patrick Barlow and why we decided to do the world premier at Delaware Theatre Company.

We Are All the Road Crew

Observer: Behind virtually every band you see on stage, there are unseen men and women who wrestle with monitor mixes, tune drumheads, carry un-carryable bass amps, argue with impossible promoters, scramble to find change for someone buying a baseball hat, negotiate with hotel clerks who don’t speak their language, change money and change money back, drive thousands of miles through the night, drive thousands of miles through the snow, drive thousands of miles through the rain.

Cancellation of College Production of 'Jesus in India' Over Casting of White Actors Prompts Debate

The New York Times: The cancellation of a college production of Lloyd Suh’s play “Jesus in India” over the casting of white actors as Indian characters has prompted a war of words over diversity in theater, with Mr. Suh arguing that the production could send a “dehumanizing” message to minority students and the school countering that the student actors on its rural, predominantly white campus were being “punished for their race.”

The Best Place To Put Subwoofers Is… ?

Pro Sound Web: “Subwoofers should be located on the floor if at all possible.” This is one of those classic bits of audio “conventional wisdom.” I hear it from system operators on nearly every project.

But is it true?

Contender – Production Designer Adam Stockhausen, Bridge of Spies

Below the Line: In the Cold War-era Bridge of Spies, an American lawyer, James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is recruited by the CIA to help rescue a pilot arrested and detained by the Soviet Union. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film is filled with stunning and scenic production design by Adam Stockhausen, known for his work on 12 Years a Slave (2013), which was nominated for an Academy Award and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), which won an Academy Award.

Clearing the Air About Disposable Dust Masks

Occupational Health & Safety: The president of Chicago's Trauma Risk Management Research Institute has history with Chernobyl and has invented an "emergency bra," with two cups that can separated and strapped on over the faces of two people to act as air-filtering masks. The RAD EBra model comes with a radiation sensor insert. The manufacturer can also take any bra provided by a customer and perform alterations to turn it into an EBra. This a true bit of trivia; I know because, out of curiosity, I bought one! I've debated about the political correctness of using it for employee respirator training.

Meet the 'house man' who makes Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre tick

StarTribune.com: Dave Marietta was 7 years old when his sister told him to get a load of the little girl visiting his grandparents upstairs at their duplex near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.

Excited at the prospect of a new playmate, he went up to check her out. There she was, someone about his size, but with wrinkles. She was chomping a stogie, swilling cheap whiskey, cleaning up at poker and cursing enough to singe a lad’s ear off.

“How ya doin’, kid?” she said.

This was no child, but Ann Rice Leslie, a little-person star of the vaudeville circuit who played a Munchkin in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Find The City’s Arts & Cultural Events On New Arts Council Website

90.5 WESA: The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council is launching a website they hope will be the go-to source to find all arts and cultural events in the city.

Arts organizations can post gallery openings, theater and dance performances and other cultural events to the new site – Artsburgh. Users can scroll through the calendar or create a profile to distinguish what types of events are most important to them.

The Unsettling Nature of Agency

HowlRound: Responsibility is about action. It is about choice. So in the case of interactive forms of theatre, how can the range of choices we offer participants shed light on their choices in real life? How do we as theatre artists illuminate a spectator’s personal agency in an ethical way, without being didactic or self-righteous?

Color Conscious Directing: Three More Questions to Ask

HowlRound: Since I first wrote about color-conscious casting, I’ve learned—by directing my own productions as well as casting plays that I did not direct—that color-conscious casting doesn’t guarantee a color-conscious production. Diverse casting is a cause; a more challenging and/or inclusive conversation is not inherently an effect.

To recap, I believe that “color-conscious” casting means casting a production with a lens for how race factors into the story of the play. It’s treated as an additional given in the fabric of the production. For me, “color-blind” casting doesn’t work because audiences are not blind to how diverse casting changes their view of the story. I think sometimes, during casting, we put blinders on and then forget to take them off when we enter the rehearsal room.

Director's guide to a Tony-winning show as it goes on tour

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Director Darko Tresnjak began his first journey to Broadway seven years ago, so forgive him if he doesn’t remember early details about “The Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.” He’s too focused on the now.

The show that went on to win 2014 Tony Awards for best musical and best director is a bit of a blur as it approaches Pittsburgh on its national tour, which began Sept. 19. “Gentleman’s Guide” gives its regards to Broadway in January but soon sets sail for foreign shores in addition to the North American tour.

Visualizing Ballet Movements with E-Traces

Hackaday: When we think of wearable technologies, ballet shoes aren’t the first devices that come to mind. In fact, the E-Traces pointé shoes by [Lesia Trubat] may be the first ever “connected ballet shoe.” This project captures the movement and pressure of the dancer’s feet and provides this data to a phone over Bluetooth.

Allegheny County may remove provision to fund public art projects

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Allegheny County Council on Tuesday is expected to consider removing a requirement for public art funding from a 2005 law that has never been enforced.

It requires a set-aside for public art of 2 percent of county spending on construction or capital improvements to county-owned buildings, parks or public facilities. Council’s public works committee approved revising the law at its meeting Thursday night.

Frick reopens car museum, debuts new facilities

TribLIVE: After two years of fundraising, planning and construction, Frick Art & Historical Museum will celebrate the opening of three new facilities on Nov. 21.

Architects from Schwart/Silver and Associates in Boston and Loysen + Kreuthmeier in Pittsburgh have expanded and transformed the Henry Clay Frick family's historic carriage house into a white and welcoming home not just for its collection of period vehicles, but for visitors and students who attend classes, meetings and other events at the Frick.

Five Lessons The Grateful Dead Can Teach Live Theatre

HowlRound: I have enjoyed the Grateful Dead since I first listened to the Workingman’s Dead album in high school, but I couldn’t call myself a fan, not compared to my cousin Bobby, who’s a tie-dyed Deadhead. “They’ve been one of the constants throughout my life,” he said recently, when he invited me to a Dead and Company concert (three of the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead, plus John Mayer) at Madison Square Garden. In return I invited him to a play at Playwrights Horizons. We both enjoyed both events, but I found the concert eye opening: more than 10,000 people of all ages coming from around the country for a four-hour event. Has that happened for live, legitimate theatre since Ancient Greece?

Playwright defends withdrawing work from Clarion

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The author who last week nixed a planned Clarion University performance of his play “Jesus in India” issued late Friday a statement defending his position that “people of color are not simply replaceable” with whites, even as the school continued to decry the cancellation as a stunning example of a decision based on skin color.

Teaching, Learning, and Making Theatre in a Time of Crisis

OnStage: It’s been a difficult week. From terror in Paris, Beirut, and Baghdad to racial tensions at the University of Missouri and other college campuses nationwide…it’s been a difficult week. When things get this hard and this stressful, I think back to a question someone asked me once when I was an undergraduate. “Why,” they asked, “when there are people starving, and terrorists, and police brutality, and injustice, and racism, and political upheavals, and homeless people, and so many other terrible things, WHY would you think THEATRE is important?!?” My answer then is the same as my answer now. Theatre is important specifically BECAUSE of all of those things.

Dance review: Attack Theatre takes audiences into children's imaginations in 'Remainder | Northside'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Attack Theatre knows a thing or two about tapping into the pedestrian and making it performance worthy. Its latest creation, “Remainder | Northside,” which premiered Friday night at the New Hazlett Theater, is no exception.

As its title suggests, dancers’ muse was the people and places of Pittsburgh’s North Side. But this was no tribute to the landmarks and stadiums the neighborhood is known for. Instead, Attack dancers, under the direction of co-artistic directors Peter Kope and Michele de la Reza, spent 18 months engaging with children in North Side schools and youth groups, asking them about their lives, memories and aspirations.

11 Great Apps That Are Even Greater on the iPad Pro

gizmodo.com: So you’ve got a brand spanking new iPad Pro. You’re probably going to want to take advantage of the 12.9-inch display, the four speakers, and the souped up A9x processor. We’ve made a list of the coolest, most beautiful apps you can get, whether you’re a designer or just someone who appreciates big screens.

Concert Industry Plans Changes in Response to Attacks

www.nytimes.com: The music concert industry is starting to impose new security measures after performances were canceled in Paris and throughout Europe by U2, the Foo Fighters and other acts in the aftermath of the attacks at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.

Live Nation, the global concert giant, said on Saturday that it would increase security at its venues, and other industry representatives are expected to do the same.

Stylebook snapshot: Carnegie Mellon professor brings design experience from stage, screen to classroom

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: What do the movies “The Walk,” “Steve Jobs” and “Slumdog Millionaire” have in common? They all feature the work of designer Suttirat Larlarb, an associate professor of costume design in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.

Her work doesn’t stop on the big screen. She’s also contributed to projects on Broadway, and was the only non-British person on the creative team for the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. But no matter the project, her mission is the same: design pieces that authentically enhance characters and the worlds they live in.

From “I Have to…” to “I Get to…”

ChurchProduction.com: After a week of constant challenges, feeling very under appreciated, and just ready to “throw in the towel,” I asked my seven year old daughter, “Do you think daddy does a good job at his work?” She responded with, “Oh yeah! You’re cool!” After chuckling, I asked her why she thought I was cool. Her answers left me speechless. She proceeded to tell me all of the things I used to know about myself and my career, but have somehow forgotten along the way. Her answers were so innocent, un-tainted, real, and I loved it.

CMU students fund scholarship for future undergrads

TribLIVE: Four music students at Carnegie Mellon University are proving you don't have to be wealthy to be benefactors. They're raising money to fund a scholarship they've started that will benefit incoming, first-term freshmen.

The rising cost of higher education and the burden of debt most students carry upon graduation is a national issue. Carnegie Mellon is an expensive university, where undergraduate tuition in the school of music for the 2015-16 academic year is $49,610.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Why is so much of design school a waste of time?

Dear Design Student — Medium: So here’s the secret that I didn’t put into practice until after I graduated: you’re a gold miner, not a customer, and if you don’t get good at mining for gold, you will never be a good designer. Especially once you make it past the first year or two of working, you spend less time wrestling with making things and more time listening to people in person, on the phone, in slack, in texts, in email, pretty much everywhere where they can find you. They are redundant, inarticulate, inefficient, vague, and inconsistent, and they are constantly going on and on about something. And god bless them.

Posted by David at 26 Comments Here

Two Shows High Schools Should Avoid Performing

OnStage: With the school year underway, it's a great time to see the incredible talent that's being fostered in our schools with their annual musicals. It's always fantastic to see schools take on bold and challenging work. But there is a point where things can go too far.

Here are two musicals that should not be gracing high school stages for a variety of reasons ranging from content to messages within the shows themselves.

Posted by David at 25 Comments Here

Why I Stayed

1839: I didn’t become aware of exactly how Pittsburgh I am until I went to college in upstate New York; a place where I was made aware of exactly how Pittsburgh I am by the endless questions about the genesis of my accent. An accent I wasn’t even aware of until I went to school.

Posted by David at 23 Comments Here

You're Not As Creative As You Think

Money Talking - WNYC: Everyone can be a creative genius. Right?

In the workplace, that's a dangerous proposition, according to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, CEO of Hogan Assessments and professor of Business Psychology at University College London. Describing an article he wrote for the Harvard Business Review, Chamorro told Money Talking host Charlie Herman that to some degree, creativity levels are hard to change. And that's a good thing.

"Most people, as much as they may not like hearing this, have average creativity," he said.

Posted by David at 21 Comments Here

Clarion University forced to cancel play over actors’ race

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Student actors and the stage crew at Clarion University arrived Tuesday evening for one of the final rehearsals before next week’s campus opening of “Jesus in India” only to learn the off-Broadway production they had spent months on had been canceled.

The reason they were given was race: theirs.

Three of the five characters in the production are Indian, but on the mostly white state university campus, two of those characters were to be played by white student actors and a third was being portrayed by a mixed-race student.

Posted by David at 13 Comments Here

Drama Presents William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”

www.cmu.edu/news: The Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama is bringing a literary classic to the stage beginning at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 19, with William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams. The show, directed by Associate Professor of Directing Caden Manson, will run through Dec. 5 in the Philip Chosky Theater in CMU’s Purnell Center for the Arts.

Are Streep, Witherspoon, Lawrence Working With Female Directors?

Flavorwire: Last month, Flavorwire interviewed director Allison Anders, and at the end of the chat she threw down a challenge for big-name Hollywood actresses who complain about the dearth of female directors and other women behind the scenes: “I hear a lot of actresses these days lamenting about roles for women and saying that more women should be behind the camera,” she said. “But when big stars say that and they haven’t worked with women directors, I wonder why they don’t demand a woman director… Women stars, we know that they can decide. Big stars can have director approval.”

Can lighting designer turned director help theaters break out of their silos?

The Washington Post: To tackle the direction of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, David Muse, the artistic head of Studio Theatre, had an illuminating thought: Why not ask a five-time Tony Award-winning lighting designer?

It’s rare for the person on the design team who allows us to “see” the production to be tapped to guide the entire operation. Theaters looking for new directors generally do not recruit from the ranks of lighting, costume, set or sound designers. Actors and choreographers sometimes shift into the director’s seat, but the skills of other specialists seem not to be considered so easily transferrable.

Why I Stayed

1839: I didn’t become aware of exactly how Pittsburgh I am until I went to college in upstate New York; a place where I was made aware of exactly how Pittsburgh I am by the endless questions about the genesis of my accent. An accent I wasn’t even aware of until I went to school.

Apply to Be 1 of B’way’s Young Professionals

Backstage: Applications are now being accepted for the 58-member Young Professional and Student Programs in “The Loft” as a part of TEDxBroadway.