Stage review: Quantum's 'Inside Passage' presents one woman's powerful search for family and self

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Old family snapshots, personal memories and a search for the differing truths behind them might seem common fodder for a poem, but for a play? Sounds more like therapy than theater — but not in the thoughtful, comic heart and hands of playwright Gab Cody.

Inclusion and the Unknown: Pittsburgh Fringe Festival 2018

Pittsburgh in the Round: I’m sitting at a coffee shop in the North Side, typing away at first draft of my coverage for the 2017 Fringe Festival, which (for me) began with Joey Buchecker’s Betsy Carmichael’s Bingo Palace. I think about Roger Ebert’s old maxim: when in doubt, write what you saw. It’s a good rule to live by as a critic, because there are times when you become overwhelmed by a show, or in this case a series of shows, and your only recourse is to succumb to experience.

50 High Schools Rise Above 1,000 Applicants to Claim NBC's R.I.S.E. America Grants

Breaking Character: 50 high schools have risen above 1,000 applicants to claim NBC’s R.I.S.E. America grants. The program – inspired by the network’s upcoming drama “Rise” about a high school theatre department and its effects on a small town – is awarding half million dollars to high school theatre programs across the country.

Igniting Creativity with CLO's SPARK Festival

Pittsburgh in the Round: Mention the CLO to most Pittsburghers’, and they think of the series of Broadway Musicals presented during the summer months at the Benedum. Some people will mention the CLO Cabaret at Theatre Square. A few folks who are in the know will speak of its training program, the CLO Academy. Theatre insiders will bring up the CLO’s reputation as an original producer and co-producer of musicals such as An American in Paris, Kinky Boots and On Your Feet. While these are Broadway-sized shows, the CLO is also instrumental in developing small musicals.

What Is An Inclusion Rider? Explaining Frances McDormand’s Oscars Speech

www.fastcompany.com: During her acceptance speech for Best Actress at last night’s Oscars, Frances McDormand dropped two words that left most people scratching their heads: inclusion rider.

The light stuff: High speed projection mapping taken to the next mind-blowing level

newatlas.com: Researchers from the University of Tokyo have made an incredible advance in the field of real-time projection mapping, creating a new system that can simulate the way light reflects off a nonexistent three-dimensional structure. The result is stunningly realistic dynamic projection that heralds a new generation of trippy performance art.

Event Recap: 33rd Annual Hoist School & Staging School

Mountain NEWs: Mountain Productions’ 33rd Annual Hoist School and our annual Staging School kicked off last Monday morning with a class full of the next industry professionals. Dozens of students from three continents came together for a legendary week of hands-on training, education and fun.

Visual Thinking in Meeting Facilitation

ThoughtForm, Inc.: So a quick glance at the internet will tell you that meetings may be the most hated thing in any workplace today. People think they are inefficient, they’re boring, they’re a waste of time… I don’t think there is anything worse than going to a meeting. Maybe someone not bringing donuts to that meeting, but that’s about it.

Hufflepuffs Are Actually Great, and Allow the Cast of the Play Puffs to Explain Why

io9.gizmodo.com: Everyone knows the four houses of Hogwarts: Braves, Snakes, Smarts, and Puffs. What? That’s not what you call them? The Harry Potter satire Puffs, or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic does and it’s funnier than anything you’d find in the Weasley’s joke shop. The off-Broadway comedy focuses on that underserved demographic of the world of wizards, and the cast and creators have some emotionally resonant things to say about it.

Theatre is a part of the community building. Selling it is the Job!

footlights.click: There is no short supply of great theatre in Los Angeles. Better than great, brilliant! Earth shaking, soul transforming, awe inspiring theatre! I’m not just talking about Hamilton. Nor is it limited to The Center Theatre Group, The Geffen, or the other regional theaters here is southern California. Los Angeles is home to somewhere around 300 intimate theatre companies. And while many of these produce great theatre there are a dozen or so that consistently produce exceptional world class theatre.

Tartans Go to the Theater in Second Act of Athletics-Drama Collaboration

www.cmu.edu/news: More than 150 Carnegie Mellon University student-athletes enjoyed the School of Drama's production of "The Drowsy Chaperone" Feb. 27 at CMU's Philip Chosky Theater. Earlier this semester, drama students attended a men's and women's basketball doubleheader against NYU.

"Yemaya–The Queen Of Seas" At The Wrocław Puppet Theatre

The Theatre Times: “A long, long time ago…or maybe not so long ago…in fact, quite recently, there was a boy named Omar”–this is how Jolanta Góralczyk (as the National Conscience) opens Yemaya–Królowa Mórz [Yemaya–The Queen Of Seas], the Wrocław Puppet Theatre production about the refugee crisis aimed at audiences six years old and above. Throughout the next hour, children will build a relationship with Omar (the phenomenal Agata Kucińska) and experience a colorful adventure. Many of their parents and minders (and the current author) will struggle to hold their tears as they see a father (Igor Kujawski) waiting on a shore for his son who was taken by the sea.

Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds Unanimously Elects New Leadership

www.broadwayworld.com: The Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (COBUG) on Wednesday elected Laura Penn of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and D. Joseph Hartnett of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) to be Co-Chairs. They replace longtime Chair Anthony DePaulo of IATSE, who is retiring this week. Additionally, Lawrence Paone, President of the Treasurers & Ticketsellers Union, IATSE Local 751, was elected Secretary-Treasurer.

What It's Like to Be a Cirque du Soleil Safety Diver in "O"

Sport Diver: My dive students don’t look like other Open Water Diver hopefuls. For starters, they show up wearing sequins. And they never assemble their own gear.

That’s because my newbies are trapeze artists and other acrobatic performers working in O, the water-themed Cirque du Soleil show performed five nights a week in Las Vegas.

Creativity is a distinct mental state that you can train

Big Think: A few weeks ago I published an article on ways to implement creative change based on Jennifer Mueller’s new book, Creative Change: Why We Resist It…How We Can Embrace It. Mueller argues that while we generally honor creativity as a driving factor in business and life, most of us default to the status quo when making decisions.

Pro-Tips For Painting Pretty Patinas

Rosco Spectrum: Aged metal – it’s a technique we scenic artists create all the time, and each of us has 4-6 recipes in our paint-stained pockets that we’re ready to pull out at any time. But sometimes, the set design lets us make that oxidized metal pretty!

olafur eliasson's reality projector turns former theater into an abstract film

www.designboom.com: from now through august 2018, filling the vast 13,500 square-foot theater gallery at los angeles’ marciano art foundation is ‘reality projector’ — an abstract, three-dimensional film-based installation devised by olafur eliasson. the seemingly simple, yet highly complex artwork integrates projected light into the existing architecture of the space to create a dynamic shadow play. driven by an interest in perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self, eliasson seeks to engage the broader public sphere through this careful architectural intervention.

So ... Will Hollywood Finally Learn This Lesson, or Nah?

www.theroot.com: When writer/director Jordan Peele won his best original screenplay Oscar for 2017's biggest hit Get Out, I cheered. When cast members of 2018's biggest hit so far, Marvel’s Black Panther, walked the red carpet at the 90th Academy Awards, I swooned. And when I looked out at the sea of (mostly) white people attending the Oscars I wondered, did Hollywood learn anything over the past year?

City Theatre narrows search for artistic leader as it names six-play season for 2018-19

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: City Theatre has been running full-steam ahead without an artistic director, but that will change in the coming months. The search to replace Tracy Brigden, who left in June, is being whittled down at the same time the South Side company announces its upcoming season of two world premieres and four regional premieres.

David Arquette and others sign #AskMoreOfHim open letter ahead of Oscars.

slate.com: Ahead of the 90th Academy Awards, men in the film industry and beyond are joining a new campaign to fight sexism and sexual misconduct. David Arquette, Justin Baldoni, David Schwimmer, Don McPherson, and Matt McGorry are among the signees of an open letter in support of #AskMoreOfHim, a movement that encourages men to promote women’s rights and to help end sexual harassment and violence.

Diversity at the Oscars: The good and the bad

Salon.com: With the spotlight on Hollywood at the Academy Awards on Sunday night, the annual awards show that has historically had problems with diversity took a step forward.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

Actors Should Be Allowed To Be Parents Too

The Theatre Times: Acting, as the cliché goes, is child’s play. All that dressing up and pretending to be someone else. For those of us who do “normal” jobs, the idea of the theatre actor’s life sounds like a brilliant return to student life. You don’t have to get up early in the morning to commute to an office. Instead, you drink coffee and try to learn things off by heart during the day while in the evening, you do a couple of hours of intense work, then get drunk afterward. And then after a few months, you get to “rest” until the next job comes along.

Posted by David at 2/26/2018 11:33:00 AM

Watch these robots measure and saw wood

Boing Boing: People who need custom furniture in the future may be able to feed the design into a program and then have robot-assisted carpentry do the rest.

Posted by David at 3/02/2018 12:17:00 PM

Oscar-Nominated Costume Designers on Their Use of Color

Variety: People who need custom furniture in the future may be able to feed the design into a program and then have robot-assisted carpentry do the rest.

Posted by David at 3/02/2018 12:18:00 PM

Watch how ILM created Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s opening space battle

The Verge: Star Wars: The Last Jedi scored a handful of Academy Award nominations this year, including one for best Visual Effects. As it did last year with Rogue One, Industrial Light and Magic has released a pair of behind-the-scenes clips that showcase how the film’s special effects came together.

Posted by David at 2/26/2018 11:34:00 AM

DEAR EVAN HANSEN Set Designer David Korins Reveals Secrets From the Set

www.broadwayworld.com: David Korins, the award-winning production designer behind shows like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and Grease! Live, shared a set secret from Dear Evan Hansen today on his Instagram page. Ever wonder what Evan keeps in his headboard? Now you can find out!

Posted by David at 2/26/2018 11:26:00 AM

Equity's code should be applauded, but it is respect for the arts that will provoke change

WhatsOnStage.com: The theatre union Equity has just released a sensible report, called Agenda for Change, which seeks to use the Harvey Weinstein moment and the #MeToo campaign to establish, once and for all, safe spaces for its 43,000 members to work in, free of sexual and other harassment, bullying and abuse.

ETC Students Create Collaborative Virtual Reality Experience

www.cmu.edu/news: A team at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center is working to make virtual classroom field trips a reality.

"Most VR experiences today are quite isolating and I feel that collaborative experiences could help solve this problem," said ETC student Sharan Shodhan, a producer on Project Voyage.

No, You’re Not Left-Brained or Right-Brained

The Creativity Post: At the fictional Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry in the Harry Potter series, students are sorted into different school houses by a magic hat based on their personalities. Similarly, in elementary school, a teacher may have declared one side of your brain stronger than the other based on your personality. If you’re a creative or artistic type, you would have been identified as right-brained. If you’re an analytical or mathematical type, you would have been identified as left-brained.

Working with X-Laser Products and Avolites Consoles

Jim On Light: I just saw a pretty cool series of videos on the X-Laser product line and the Avolites Titan interface that was worthy of showing — laser light has been something operated by laser operators for a long time, but as of recently, frankly, LDs are integrating their rig with coherent light. It’s not new, but a few companies have been making some very easy to interface products.

All the world's a stage, and screen, as part of Tull Family Theater's mission

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The Tull Family Theater in Sewickley recently celebrated its first anniversary, underscoring a mission to expand classic, STEM and cultural programming in the coming months.

“I think that our biggest accomplishment has been how quickly this theater has become part of the lives of the people around here,” said Carolina Pais-Barreto Thor, executive director.

Disability Community Deserves More Visibility in Hollywood

Variety: Diversity and inclusion are two important cultural topics gaining attention and focus by employers nationwide, including Hollywood. And yet, disability is almost always overlooked in this conversation. This award season, in looking across the many films and television shows honored, why are there so few that represent our country’s most diverse population — the disability community?

Laser Rotary Adapter Gets You Rolling

Hackaday: Laser cutters are becoming more garage-accessible with overseas imports, but plenty of us still need to drop in on the college campus or makerspace to get our cuts. Having a laser onsite is a nice touch, but having a rotary axis is almost unheard of. These nifty add-ons enable your laser to cut and engrave radially symmetric parts. Their pricetags usually fall in the hundred-to-thousand dollar price range, so while that might stop us there’s nothing holding us back from building our own!

Watch a virtual reality Haptx glove in action

Boing Boing: This Ready Player One fan, who wasn't an admirer of virtual reality, test drives the Seattle-based Haptx haptic glove. The experience converts him into a VR "believer." The Haptx glove isn't yet on the market, but according to their press release, will be available to "select customers" this year.

Black Panther film sets are influenced by Zaha Hadid, says designer

www.dezeen.com: The afrofuturist architecture featured in hit movie Black Panther is an unexpected blend of Zaha Hadid and Buckingham Palace, according to designer Hannah Beachler.

The Awesomeness of 'Black Panther': Union Made

AFL-CIO: Wow, the "Black Panther" movie was awesome, wasn't it? And while we could spend hours about how great an action movie it is or how beautiful it looks or the social implications of the themes and representation of African culture, let's take a few minutes to look behind the scenes at the work it took to bring a movie like "Black Panther" to life, work done by union members.

Oscar-Nominated Costume Designers on Their Use of Color

Variety: People who need custom furniture in the future may be able to feed the design into a program and then have robot-assisted carpentry do the rest.

Watch these robots measure and saw wood

Boing Boing: People who need custom furniture in the future may be able to feed the design into a program and then have robot-assisted carpentry do the rest.

Public's new artistic director sweeps in with three Tony nominees and updated classics for 2018-19

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Marya Sea Kaminski officially will step into the role of Pittsburgh Public Theater artistic director on Aug. 1, but she is making her presence known even before she steps up to the plate.

Four of the six plays announced Tuesday for the Public’s 2018-19 season are by women, and another, “The Tempest,” is adapted by Ms. Kaminski. The female-centric version of the Bard’s final play, which she also directs, will have an original score and the title storm may just include a wintry mix familiar to Pittsburghers.

Audio Engineering From A Musical Perspective

ProSoundWeb: Musical instruments are the product of engineering, each one an expression of the level of technological sophistication achieved by the era and culture in which they were conceived. Many are also works of craftsmanship, of artistry, even works of art in their own right. Over time the musical instrument can become a visible representation of the technique and physical interaction provided by the musician, as wear patterns emerge from playing.

The Problem With Broadway Revivals: They Revive Gender Stereotypes, Too

The New York Times: Billy Bigelow hits Julie Jordan. Henry Higgins molds Eliza Doolittle. Fred tames Lilli. And Edward rescues Vivian.

Amid a national reckoning with sexual harassment and misconduct, Broadway is mounting a cluster of musicals this season and next that, some theatergoers already contend, romanticize problematic relationships between women and men.

The Religion of Black Panther's Jabari Tribe Raises Questions About Cultural Appropriation

io9.gizmodo.com: The moment you first lay eyes on Black Panther’s Wakanda, you can immediately see the care and attention to detail that went into realizing the fictional nation’s diverse array of cultures. They blend elements of the fantastical with actual African iconography, languages, and tradition. But certain religious aspects have raised eyebrows.

How Annihilation’s visual effects artists created those terrifying mutant creatures

The Verge: The last time director Alex Garland and visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst worked together, they created Alicia Vikander’s Ava, the robot star of Ex Machina. For their follow-up collaboration, Annihilation, they had a much bigger set of challenges. Garland’s newest film is a heady mind-trip that explores humanity’s self-destructive impulses, but it’s also a walking tour of the gorgeous and the grotesque. The story of Lena (Natalie Portman), a biologist who joins a group of women to explore an area of coastal America that’s rapidly mutating due to an alien contaminant, Annihilation is full of improbably beautiful biological mashups, shimmering landscapes, and human-plant hybrids.

Quite a Custom Backdrop for Mamma Mia

Stage Directions: The recent production of Mamma Mia at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre had a panoramic, curved sky design from the creative mind of scenic designer, Jason Sherwood. The drop measures 30-feet tall and 80 linear feet long and consists of 2,400 sq. ft. of layered voile and gauze fabrics. Atomic Designs built the custom piece, take a look at this time-lapse video of it being painted.

Stage review: 'The Bodyguard' delivers hit songs with a big, bold bang

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: You hear the word “overblown” bandied about when it comes to the movie and the live show of “The Bodyguard,” as if that’s necessarily a bad thing.

Does the musical subscribe to the big bang theory of sound and staging? Unabashedly. Do the songs invite you to party as if it’s the ’90s? Absolutely.

Reminder: "Dressing Up" as a Latinx for Acting Work Is Not OK

The Mary Sue: A word of advice to any aspiring actors out there who come to Hollywood and are looking for additional acting training: Stay far away from Lesly Kahn and Co. Not only does Ms. Kahn not know what she’s talking about when talking about the industry in which she supposedly works, but she apparently loves to sprinkle all of her classes with a light dusting of racist comments.

The Last Jedi Quietly Killed Another Star Wars Tradition You Might Have Missed

io9.gizmodo.com: The Last Jedi takes aim at some of the most deeply-held establishments and tenets of the Star Wars saga, laying the ground for a new generation to build something different in their place. That’s all heady stuff, but it also broke another Star Wars tradition that was a bit easier to miss: It’s the first film in the main saga not to use the infamous “Wilhelm scream.”

From Blackface to Bad Scripts, Former 'Token' Black Actors Open Up About Hollywood Racism

Colorlines: Hollywood casting practices force many Black actors into portraying caricatures at some point in their careers. The Undefeated talked to eight thespians who played “token” Black characters on predominantly White ’90s television shows for an article published yesterday (February 26).

“For some of the most visible Black actors coming of age in the 1990s, it’s clear that along with the triumphs came isolation, blatant racial stereotyping and biased casting calls,” journalist Keith Murphy writes in the introduction.

Lifetime's 'UnReal' showrunner talks MeToo and how she creates a safe environment

Business Insider: It might seem like season three of Lifetime's "UnReal" — which shows a main character coming to terms with a sexual assault that happened when she was 12 — was a direct result of the #MeToo movement. But it wasn't.

Love-struck hero or creepy harasser? Suddenly we’re seeing our favorite rom-coms in a new light.

The Washington Post: Two years ago, film critic Sara Stewart sat down to re-watch “Sixteen Candles,” one of her favorite 1980s John Hughes comedies. She was mortified. One scene, played for laughs — the ostensible hero gifting his drunk girlfriend to another boy — seemed like a manual for rape. Stewart wrote a column about the offensive aspects of the movie, and was met with vitriol. Readers accused her of being humorless, of ruining something beloved.

“But if I wrote that column now,” she speculates, “I feel like people might be in agreement with me.”