Wednesday, March 27, 2019
EU's Copyright Directive Passes Despite Widespread Protests -- But It's Not Law Yet
Steve Lieberman – From raves to rave reviews
Like the knack LeBron has for three -pointers and Yo Yo Ma has for the cello. The undisputed master of the giant lighting rigs that transform EDM (Electronic Dance Music) festivals into stunning visual delights, he defines their scale in programmer’s terms. “It’s not uncommon for us to use 70,000 parameters (fixture attributes) on a big show – that’s 136 universes of DMX.”
'Us': The Meaning of the Costumes, Kym Barrett Interview
Prolight + Sound 2019: Immersive Technology Forum Extended to Four Days
Surviving Post-Truth Politics: The Theater of Ivo van Hove
None of his shows are more effective in putting across this point than Network. Adapted by Lee Hall from Paddy Chayefsky’s script for the 1976 movie that won Peter Finch a posthumous Academy Award for his role as anchorman Howard Beale, Network paints a bleak picture of a media-saturated culture where spectacle, ratings and profit trump truth, authenticity and traditional journalistic ethics.
Rise TV Period Dramas Creates Bigger Need for History Consultants
Writers Guild Plans for Expiration: ‘There Will Be Difficult Moments’
ETC brings light to Tree of Codes
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Consent in the Spotlight
USITT Announces New Fund-Raising Campaign
Using Art To Tackle Air Pollution: A Story From A Nairobi Slum
While air pollution respects no boundaries and affects almost all of us, it impacts some populations more than others. Deaths attributed to air pollution are ten times more likely in low and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. Sources of outdoor air pollution include industry, traffic, and agriculture. Sources of indoor air pollution are mostly cooking and heating using solid fuels (including wood and charcoal).
Financing Theatre: Public Funding And Freedom Of Art
Transforming The Traditional World Of Kabuki With Kinoshita-Kabuki
Then there are the distinctive standardized movements; classic poses (mie) expressing certain emotions; the precisely choreographed fights and swordplay (tachimawari); and styles of acting (kata), which are passed down through the generations of each family of performers.
Dear White Critics: I ‘Doubt’ You Meant to be Ableist…
For Parents Working In Theater, Raising A Family Is No Child’s Play
When Marni Penning landed a part in Studio Theatre’s “Admissions,” she took solace in the fact that the schedule of rehearsals would allow her to drop off and pick her six-and-half-year-old son at his school in Falls Church.
But once the performances began, there was a tradeoff.
The Creative Climate Movement
What I Learned About Gender Parity and Racial Diversity from Running a Global Participatory Initiative
‘Eurydice’ in Stereo, with English and American Sign Language
"I’ve always felt American Sign Language is not only a beautiful language, but it’s inherently theatrical," said Lisa Mallette, executive artistic director for City Lights Theater Company in San Jose. "I'm one of those people that, if I'm at a conference and they have an interpreter off to the side, I can't take my eyes off of the interpreter."
'Sorry -- Love You': Asian Americans on 'RuPaul's Drag Race'
Architects who don't pay interns "shouldn't get prestigious commissions" like the Serpentine Pavilion
Studios Spurn WGA Request to Ban Non-Franchised Talent Agents
Monday, March 25, 2019
Encouraging New Voices in Theatre Criticism
The Color Purple; who gets to play gay?
LED FAQs (Part 2): LED Lifetime
So rather than measuring an LED’s life by when the emitter completely burns out, LED users have decided that once an LED device drops below some threshold – usually (but not always) 70% brightness – the LED can be considered a “burn-out.” This brightness threshold is generally expressed as ‘L70’ in specifications.
White Actors Suing 'Hamilton' for Discrimination? Supreme Court Hears Warning
What it’s like to run the show at Medieval Times.
Ridley Scott’s Alien Adapted Into Epic High School Play
Well, this year, one New Jersey high school proved that in space no one can hear you scoff.
"St. John Passion" And The Passionate Journey of Resonance Works
Trump budget eliminates culture funding for a third year in a row.
For the third time in as many years, the White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which supports PBS and NPR — and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
“Brave Space” by Chicago-based Aloft Circus Arts (at Iron City Circus Arts on the South Side)
The show starts with a “floof” of white parachute fabric in the air (I think “floof” is a technical term for this company, which already tells you something about their vibe and aesthetic). That “floof” is the signal to the audience to enter the space and surround the pool of fabric that has now settled on the floor.
Why music affects your productivity
Whether we listen to sad music after a painful breakup or upbeat music on our graduation day, music often plays a significant role in our most memorable life events.
‘Midnight Rider’ Case: First AD Hillary Schwartz Denied Shortened Sentence
Latest Data Shows Increase to U.S. Economy from Arts and Cultural Sector
Writers Guild Makes Concession in Agent Talks
WGA West executive director David Young said Wednesday that it had made a “significant move” toward reaching a deal with the Association of Talent Agents for a revamped franchise agreement on how agents represent writers.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
NFTRW Weekly Top Five
Here are the top five comment generating posts of the past week:
Guy Spends Three Years Making an Ultra-Realistic LED Candle That Even Puffs Smoke When Blown Out
gizmodo.com: Candle technology hasn’t changed much in thousands of years—you add fire to a wax-soaked wick, and it provides light for hours. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it doesn’t need an upgrade. So of course someone on the internet spent three years redesigning the candle from the ground up with digital guts—while managing to preserve its old-school usability.Backstage theatre workers 'pushed to breaking point due to lack of work-life balance'
News | The Stage: Backstage theatre workers are being “pushed to breaking point” due to a lack of work-life balance, with a “regular expectation to work 15-hour days”, industry bodies have warned. Unions BECTU and Equity and professional associations for stage managers and lighting and sound practitioners have argued that “excessively long working hours” are leading to “burnout and serious mental health issues”.Subtle Differences in Costumes, Design, Music for Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’
Variety: “Us,” Jordan Peele’s second outing as a director, following his 2017 critical and box office success “Get Out,” revisits similar psychological horror-thriller territory. But this time the stakes are, well, doubled. In the new film, to be released by Universal on March 21, Adelaide Wilson, played by Lupita Nyong’o, returns to her childhood beachside home with her husband (Winston Duke) and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). Suddenly they find themselves clawing to stay alive, as four people who look just like them seem hell-bent on killing them.Creating Stage Blood Recipes
Dramatics Magazine: Zombie Prom! Macbeth! Carrie! Sweeney Todd! These shows run the gamut of setting, theme, and tone, but they have one thing in common: the need for spectacularly bloody stage effects. In my experience, audiences love blood and guts. But with all the places to use blood onstage, you could easily spend hundreds of dollars on blood makeup alone.USITT Will Bring All Facets of Technical Production to Louisville
Stage Directions: Record Attendance Expected as Live Entertainment Industry’s Backstage Takes Center Stage USITT’s 59th Annual Conference & Stage Expo will bring more than 5,000 members of the technical production and live entertainment industry and plenty of action to the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, March 20-23, 2019.
Friday, March 22, 2019
“A Doll’s House Part 2” at Pittsburgh Public Theater
The Pittsburgh Tatler: A large – one might venture to say, deliberately oversized – dark blue door dominates the elegantly curved wall of the Helmer home in the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production of Lucas Hnath’s deservedly much-acclaimed A Doll’s House Part 2.
Of course it does. That’s a famous theater-history door, a famous 19th-century “Woman Question” door: it’s the door that slammed behind Nora after she walked out on a marriage that had infantilized her and robbed her of autonomy and self-actualization.
A Hong Kong Take On An American Classic: In Conversation With Tim Yip And Septime Webre
The Theatre Times: Half-way through his second season as Hong Kong Ballet’s artistic director, Septime Webre is preparing what is by far his most ambitious show to date – his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, The Great Gatsby. To help him, he has brought in Tim Yip, one of Hong Kong’s most successful cultural exports, to design the production’s set and costumes.
Backstage with Quantum Theatre’s T.J. Parker-Young
Backstage | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: Quantum produces in a new location each show, typically spaces not traditionally used for theater. How is this job different with this company?
Every site is a restart with its own challenges and complications; how to create the most comfortable patron experience within the limitations of the space. I look at the capabilities of the site, and every possible aspect has to be thought out every time we move a show.
Saturday Night Live Embroiled in Pumpkin-Fucking Plagiarism Scandal
jezebel.com: A New York sketch comedy troupe is accusing SNL writers of cribbing their pumpkin orgy material and giving the world not one, but two sketches exploring the hilarity inherent in the idea of putting a dick in a pumpkin.
'The Jungle' playwrights found hope amid a refugee camp of 28,000. Now they've re-created the experience onstage
Datebook: Looking back on it now, Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson – the playwrights whose inventive hit play “The Jungle” opens at the Curran on March 26, following its sellout runs in London and New York – aren’t quite sure why they decided to go to Calais in September 2015 to visit the sprawling refugee camp that had erupted earlier that year atop a degraded landfill site on France’s northern coast.
Christina Ham Talks The Blues And Black Women With Dominic-Madori Davis
The Theatre Times: They were pronounced dead on the scene.
Sunday morning, September 15th, 1968, 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins pampered herself in the bathroom of her church. Her and three other young girls, 11-year old Denise McNair, and 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson stared at their black faces in the mirror. They played with their kinky wooly hair, unassuming and unsuspecting of the 19 sticks of dynamite which rested underneath their feet.
Should Our Funds for the Arts Pay for Cultural Democracy?
HowlRound Theatre Commons: Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to discredit cultural democracy; I am convinced that access to the arts and the stimulus towards personal creativity are basic human rights and needs. This is, instead, an attempt to analyze my growing uneasiness when I read yet another arts fund, council, or ministry in Western Europe is opening a strand for “everyday creativity.”
The Presence Of Others In A World Without Boundaries: An Interview With teamLab
The Theatre Times: teamLab, founded by Toshiyuki Inoko and several of his friends in 2001, is an art collective, an interdisciplinary group of ultratechnologists whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, design and the natural world. teamLab aims to explore a new relationship between humans and nature, and between oneself and the world through art.
Love is a Battlefield in "A Doll's House, Part 2"
Pittsburgh in the Round: Within the first few minutes of the Pittsburgh Public’s production of Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 –directed by Ted Pappas, former Public artistic director in a return engagement–it is very clear that when Nora Helmer slammed the door on her husband and children, she took Ibsen out the door with her.
Yngvild Aspeli’s "Ashes": Puppets That Haunt And Kindle
The Theatre Times: When does desire give way to fixation, compulsion, addiction? In Yngvild Aspeli’s exquisite show Ashes, these tendencies are at the root of two seemingly opposed pursuits: creation and destruction. Ashes is a production of Aspeli’s company Plexus Polaire which uses emotive, nearly life-size puppets to tell a haunting story about obsession and inherited trauma. Two stories actually.
Post-Industrial "Lear" Enlivens Carrie Furnace
Pittsburgh in the Round: Quiet no longer, the Carrie Furnaces National Historical Landmark is the the site of intriguing and inspired events.
As the Rivers of Steel Heritage Site website says, “While production may have stopped on the site in 1982, the era of Carrie as an artistic muse was just beginning.” When Pittsburgh’s steel industry waned, the blast furnaces were stopped after 125 years of production.
Inside Game of Thrones: A Story in Prosthetics
BTS (HBO) - YouTube: Game of Thrones Prosthetics Designer Barrie Gower reflects on bringing the realm to life for the final season.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
A Funny Thing Happened On Her Way to 'Kiss Me, Kate'
Theatre Development Fund – TDF: "This may be my first time on Broadway, but a lot has led me to here," says Stephanie Styles, the 27-year-old triple threat playing Lois in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Cole Porter's musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate. A Houston native who's been performing professionally since her teens, Styles was originally poised to make her Broadway debut five years ago when she was cast in a revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring James Corden. But when the British funnyman landed The Late Late Show, the production was postponed indefinitely .
Guy Spends Three Years Making an Ultra-Realistic LED Candle That Even Puffs Smoke When Blown Out
gizmodo.com: Candle technology hasn’t changed much in thousands of years—you add fire to a wax-soaked wick, and it provides light for hours. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it doesn’t need an upgrade. So of course someone on the internet spent three years redesigning the candle from the ground up with digital guts—while managing to preserve its old-school usability.
Samantha Bee Animates the #MeToo Movement
The Mary Sue: Samantha Bee knows we’ve talked a lot about the #MeToo movement. That’s why, rather than have a panel or interview of talking heads, she gave us a great animated video about the sexual harassment faced by female animators who have been trying to break into the industry. These badass, “fed the fuck up,” self-described geeky women took on Chris Savino, an animator who’d worked with both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network who was accused of sexual harassment, and wound up emerging victorious.
Theatre Of The Real And Embracing The Politics Of The Current Moment: Heidi Schreck’s "What The Constitution Means To Me"
The Theatre Times: In March, after an extremely well-reviewed Off-Broadway run, Heidi Schreck’s play What The Constitution Means To Me will make its Broadway premiere in The Hayes Theatre. As this breathtakingly vulnerable and informative piece of autobiographical theatre moves to a larger stage and on to the radar of a larger New York theatre-going audience, it is crucial to look at why this play is so important in the current socio-political and artistic moment. The play is a (nearly) one-woman account of an adolescent––now Obie winning actress, television writer, and producer––Schreck’s participation in speech competitions on the United States Constitution in American Legion Halls across the country; a feat she undertook as a result of her mother being a high school debate coach. Schreck was so dominant that she was able to pay her entire college tuition with the money she won from the competitions.
Pittsburgh and Harlem dance companies join forces at August Wilson Cultural Center
Dance | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: When the curtains open on Stanton Welch’s "Orange," three couples stand, their backs to the audience. It’s a striking first look, with stage lights bouncing off lush orange costumes, reflected in the deep, rust-colored backdrop. Statuesque dancers begin to move in short, almost mechanical jolts, softening with the touch of their partner.
Creating Stage Blood Recipes
Dramatics Magazine: Zombie Prom! Macbeth! Carrie! Sweeney Todd! These shows run the gamut of setting, theme, and tone, but they have one thing in common: the need for spectacularly bloody stage effects. In my experience, audiences love blood and guts. But with all the places to use blood onstage, you could easily spend hundreds of dollars on blood makeup alone.
Corporations Are Co-Opting Right-to-Repair
WIRED: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
As an advocate, organizer, and campaigner for preschool access, tax fairness, plastic pollution and other causes for the last 14 years, I’ve heard this saying many times. You tell it to your volunteers when it looks like your movement has hit a wall or when it looks like your opposition has the upper hand, and you want to show your teammates that many people have faced obstacles before, and overcome them.
It’s time to start caring about “VR cinema,” and SXSW’s stunners are proof
Ars Technica: You may love, hate, or shrug at the idea of virtual reality, but one niche is still unequivocally devoted to the format: film festivals. The reasons aren't all great.
Because VR usually requires one-at-a-time kiosks, it invites long lines (which film festivals love for photo-op reasons). These films also favor brief, 10-15 minute presentations, which are the bread-and-butter of the indie filmmaking world. And the concept reeks of exclusivity—of the sense that, if you wanna see experimental VR fare, you need to get to Sundance, Cannes, or SXSW to strap in and trip out.
All the World's Shakespeare's Stage! Breaking Down Musicals Based on Shakespeare
www.broadwayworld.com: In honor of Kiss Me, Kate's opening on Broadway tonight, we're breaking down some of Broadway's biggest hits influenced by theatre's biggest playwright: William Shakespeare! The Bard's work is as pervasive as ever and unstoppable even in song.
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's new leader envisions another chapter of liberation
Datebook: Darryl V. Jones might be brimming with fresh ideas for the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, but he grounds them in a timeless source: the company’s namesake.
As LHT’s new acting artistic director — his position is still on a trial basis, though he hopes it will become permanent — Jones envisions the theater’s future as a new chapter in African American liberation, the same project to which Hansberry’s career was devoted.
Inside One Night for One Drop 2019
www.cirquefascination.com: How do you raise $1,117,155 in one night to support water initiatives in vulnerable communities? By auctioning off six precious and bespoke items, including a McLaren 570S Spider, a limited-edition Audemars Piguet timepiece and a voyage on the largest private residential yacht on the planet.
George Lucas Super Live Adventure and its connections to Marvel Universe Live!
Control Geek: For someone who really was never much of a comic book fan, it’s pretty strange that I’ve now seen Marvel Universe Live! three times. Why did I see this show so many times? Because it’s a spectacular and remarkable technical achievement. I’m on sabbatical this semester working on a bunch of articles about the evolution of live show technology and its impact on current story telling techniques, and Marvel Universe Live!, I think is a show technology milestone in a long line of shows, and belleweather for the future.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
A Blueprint For Successful UV Effects
Rosco Spectrum: When the Idaho State University Theatre Department decided to produce Three Days of Rain, by Richard Greenberg inside our small, flexible black box theater, we settled on concept, color palettes and a corner configuration relatively quickly. The Director, Stefan Espinosa, wanted to utilize the concept of a semi skeletal set as a way to reference the decay of time.
‘PJ Masks Live: Save theDay’ will play at Broadway In Chicago’s Cadillac Palace for three days in June
www.chicagolandmusicaltheatre.com: Broadway In Chicago, Entertainment One (eOne) and Round Room are pleased to announce the brand new tour of PJ MASKS LIVE: SAVE THE DAY! will play at Broadway In Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre (151 W. Randolph) for a limited three-day engagement from June 7 to June 9, 2019. Tickets will go on sale March 15, 2019.
Based on eOne’s top-rated animated series, airing daily on Disney Junior, PJ MASKS LIVE: SAVE THE DAY! features preschoolers’ favorite pre-school superheroes and familiar songs from the popular show along with brand new music and a whole new adventure.
Backstage theatre workers 'pushed to breaking point due to lack of work-life balance'
News | The Stage: Backstage theatre workers are being “pushed to breaking point” due to a lack of work-life balance, with a “regular expectation to work 15-hour days”, industry bodies have warned.
Unions BECTU and Equity and professional associations for stage managers and lighting and sound practitioners have argued that “excessively long working hours” are leading to “burnout and serious mental health issues”.
TAIT #HerStory
info.taittowers.com: We're celebrating Women's History Month with our anunal #herstory and featuring a handful of our very own world-class women. Meet Jess, Inga, Sabrina and Katie - four women with varying skill sets innovating the extraordinary!
How I Made My First Music Video Set for Whitesnake
Han Painted Designs: Building my own set from scratch was one of the most daunting project I’ve ever completed. Building it for my first celebrity client — even more daunting. I loved the process, I hated the process, but overall it was a total success. So here’s how I did, what it meant to me, and all those things.
AVENUE Q Will Host Special Events in Honor of World Puppetry Day
www.broadwayworld.com: Avenue Q - the Tony Award winning Best Musical set to end its 15+ year run in NYC this spring - will celebrate WORLD PUPPETRY DAY on Thursday, March 21, 2019 with a one-night-only roster of special events, including a special ticket price for any patron who brings a puppet to the show AND a Puppet Dance Party after the 8 p.m. performance at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street), it has been announced by Avenue Q producers Kevin McCollum and Robyn Goodman.
Wick Editor: Create Animations with Coding
AMT Lab @ CMU: Wick Editor is a free, online and open-sourced creation suite for people to make digital frame-by-frame animations, games and art. Inspired by Adobe Flash, the software was created and is led by CMU alumni, Zach Rispoli and Luca Damasco. Unlike traditional animation software which only provides download versions, Wick Editor has no download requirement and is available for all users for free.
Seattle’s Intersections Festival shows how comedy is evolving
The Seattle Times: When Olympia’s El Sanchez first started out as a comedian a decade ago, comedy was not a friendly place to be as a transgender, nonbinary, queer, mixed-race, Latinx child of a Mexican immigrant.
Sanchez, who uses the pronouns “they” and “them,” said they would routinely be in green rooms where other comedians and producers would make racist, homophobic and sexist jokes and comments. Sanchez was asked not to do comedy sets with “gay stuff” or “girl stuff” and asked to make their work “more relatable to men.”
Sound Designer Ken Travis Continues to Dazzle Broadway Audiences with Big, Cinematic Sound DPA Microphones
ETNow.com: For the past 15 years, Ken Travis has been impressing theatre audiences with his innovative sound designs for some of Broadway’s biggest productions and national tours. With a distinguished Broadway resume that includes Newsies, Jekyll & Hyde, Scandalous, A Christmas Story, Memphis, Barefoot in the Park and Steel Magnolias, Travis continues to rely on a selection of microphones from DPA Microphones to create a big, cinematic sound with the flexibility to capture all of the grandeur of the great white way.
The Development Of Israeli Theater–A Brief Overview
The Theatre Times: In comparison with West European theater, Hebrew theater is young: only a century separates the Moscow première of the first professional Hebrew production on October 8th, 1918, and any of over 50 current theater events that can be attended nightly in Tel Aviv, Israel’s theater capital. The almost total lack of theater traditions in Judaism, other than the inherent theatricality in religious services, until the turn of the 20th century and the ensuing quantitative as well as qualitative proliferation of shows, demonstrates a strong link between Israeli reality and universal theatricality.
David Henry Hwang On Theater, Trump, And Asian-American Identity
The Theatre Times: American writers don’t get much bigger than David Henry Hwang. The award-winning playwright’s best-known works, which include FOB, M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, and Chinglish, are some of the most acclaimed works in the modern theatrical canon. Indeed, Hwang’s influence on the American dramatic arts has been so profound that a society was established in 2016 for the scholarly examination of his works.
Review Roundup: Were Critics So In Love With KISS ME, KATE On Broadway?
www.broadwayworld.com: In the constellation of musical comedy masterpieces, Kiss Me, Kate shines as perhaps Broadway's most sparkling achievement. This is the winner of the first-ever Tony Award for Best Musical, alive with onstage romance, backstage passion, comedy high and low, a hilarious dash of Shakespeare's Shrew, and the songwriting genius of Cole Porter at his stylish, sexy, sophisticated best, including "Too Darn Hot," "So In Love" and "Always True To You In My Fashion." Once again, Roundabout catapults you to musical comedy heaven, with a brand-new Kiss Me, Kate.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
USITT Will Bring All Facets of Technical Production to Louisville
Stage Directions: Record Attendance Expected as Live Entertainment Industry’s Backstage Takes Center Stage
USITT’s 59th Annual Conference & Stage Expo will bring more than 5,000 members of the technical production and live entertainment industry and plenty of action to the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, March 20-23, 2019.
Robert Barry Fleming Named Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville
Stage Directions: Robert Barry Fleming will join Actors Theatre of Louisville as Artistic Director. The appointment was announced Monday by Mac Thompson, President of the Board of Directors, and Managing Director Kevin E. Moore. Fleming comes to Louisville by way of Cleveland where he serves as Associate Artistic Director of Cleveland Play House; previously, he was the Director of Artistic Programming at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. His tenure at Actors Theatre begins June 1, 2019.
Shining a New Light on The House of Dancing Water Show
Stage Directions: The world’s largest and most spectacular water-based show – The House of Dancing Water directed by Franco Dragone and staged in the purpose-built House of Dancing Water Theatre in Macau – has just added 63 new Robe moving lights to the theatre’s rig. The integrity, drama, and dynamics of Luc Lafortune’s original lighting design are all preserved as the concept works beautifully and timelessly to support the show narrative.
Deaf Actors and New Jokes Revitalize Romeo + Juliet
Theater - The Stranger: In ACT's production of Romeo + Juliet, Shakespeare's loveliest tale of woe, Romeo meets Juliet while she's doing the electric slide. I nearly stood up and walked out of the theater. The electric slide? Really, director John Langs?
But then I realized that I was failing to appreciate one of the play's lessons: Love finds you wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Who was I to paternalistically impose my judgment on a dance beloved by high schoolers? Anyway, the dance is the least important detail in this otherwise thrilling production.
Rehana Lew Mirza on Hatef**k and More
The Interval: Rehana Lew Mirza is a playwright, bookwriter, and filmmaker whose work often focuses on highlighting the South Asian experience. For many years, she and her sister co-ran their own theatre company, Desipina; she and her husband subsequently co-ran the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Her latest play Hatef**k, which was featured on the 2017 Kilroys List, is currently having its world premiere at WP Theater, co-produced by Colt Coeur. The play depicts the passionate, thorny relationship between a literature professor and a novelist accused of utilizing anti-Muslim stereotypes. She has also been working on the musical Bhangin’ It, a commission for La Jolla Playhouse, which just had a presentation in NYC. I recently spoke with Rehana about her experience working on Hatef**k, what it’s like to develop a new play and musical simultaneously, the community-building potential of theatre, and more.
Tamara Tunie and Laurie Klatscher spar and shine in The Roommate
Theater | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: It's summertime at a big old house in Iowa City when Sharon's new roommate arrives. Robyn is a chill hippie from the Bronx, white and bohemian, with boxes full of flowy, flowery getups and weed. Sharon is polite, friendly, and reserved, and though Black and originally from Illinois, she's settled comfortably into the Iowa lifestyle. Her house is very clean and gets plenty of sunlight. She does not listen to music and, though there's a cute new yoga studio in town, she has no plans to go.
The Art of Designing Black Hair for the Stage
Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Looking at Cookie Jordan's extensive New York City stage credits, it seems like she's the go-to hair and wig designer for productions with predominantly black casts. After all, her résumé includes Eclipsed, Once on This Island, Choir Boy, An Octoroon, Fairview, Sugar in Our Wounds and School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, which earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination. But Jordan will not be pigeonholed. "I did Sunday in the Park with George, too," she says. "Of course I can do Caucasian hair -- my training is in opera!"
Jessica Chastain Continues to ‘Balance the Scales’ For Gender Parity
Variety: Jessica Chastain‘s work for gender parity in Hollywood isn’t slowing down soon.
“I have noticed, of course, now that it’s in fashion there are other people that are jumping on board, and honestly, I don’t care what their motives are,” Chastain tells Variety. “Because at the end of the day, the more we focus on creating opportunities for everyone — I don’t care if some people are doing it because it’s the fashionable thing to do. It’s also the right thing to do.”
Subtle Differences in Costumes, Design, Music for Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’
Variety: “Us,” Jordan Peele’s second outing as a director, following his 2017 critical and box office success “Get Out,” revisits similar psychological horror-thriller territory. But this time the stakes are, well, doubled.
In the new film, to be released by Universal on March 21, Adelaide Wilson, played by Lupita Nyong’o, returns to her childhood beachside home with her husband (Winston Duke) and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex). Suddenly they find themselves clawing to stay alive, as four people who look just like them seem hell-bent on killing them.
A New Odd Couple in City Theatre's "The Roommate"
Pittsburgh in the Round: At City Theatre’s production of Jen Silverman’s The Roommate, the program cover is a sketch of a tipped over coffee cup, the spill spreading into the shape of a pot leaf. Before the show even starts, you already know this is no ordinary Bounty commercial.
Should You Invest in a 401(k) or Roth 401(k)?
twocents.lifehacker.com: As with a Roth IRA, the main considerations for a Roth 401(k) are your income and age. Roths are more valuable for people in lower income brackets (likely at the beginning of your career), because you invest after-tax money, which then grows tax-free. With a traditional 401(k), you’re contributing money before you pay taxes on it, so you have to pay up when you take disbursements in retirement.
Dual Perspectives on Dutch Masters – Catey Sullivan x Yasmin Mikhaiel
rescripted.org: Chicago has no shortage of incredible femme critics and Rescripted is thrilled to introduce the perspectives of two of the most incisive women writing on Chicago theatre. Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel is a former alumni of The Key and writer and Windy City Times, Scapi Mag, and Chicago Reader among others. Catey Sullivan has been reviewing theatre since 1992. She writes for the Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader and Crain’s Chicago.
Monday, March 18, 2019
How to Follow Up with People After a Conference
hbr.org: Attending a conference is a whir of activity — flying to a destination, engaging in several days of nonstop networking, and coming home to an inbox that has spiraled out of control in your absence. Back at work, most of us immediately go into catch-up mode; the last thing on your mind is following up with the people you just met. That’s especially true if you’re an introvert and feel overtaxed by the whole process.
Sending Multiple Postcards
et cetera...: For the advanced users out there wanting to refine their knowledge on OSC, this latest installment of the Exploring the Network series is written specifically for you.
In my previous articles, I showed the makeup of an OSC packet; how we send one using the IP protocol, describing IP address, ports, and subnet masks and then in further detail spoke about communication protocols such as UDP & TCP. Today I will show you how to transmit and receive OSC from multiple devices.
SWAN Day 2019 Takes Flight -- Under New Leadership
www.clydefitchreport.com: Women have made waves of progress since the passage of the 19th Amendment nearly a century ago. Even so, it seems like the most recent movement is like a tsunami, crashing through society to wash away pervasive injustice, once and for all. In arts, culture and entertainment, just look at the list of winners at this year’s Oscars for powerful evidence. But women in the arts have fought hard for gender equality for some time. Back in 2008, for instance, the arts service organization WomenArts launched its first Support Women Artists Now (SWAN) Day, a worldwide empowerment event that is flying high now more than ever.
Another Crash, Another Arts Funding Downward Spiral?
www.clydefitchreport.com: Fool us twice?
A loan crisis occurs when too many banks make too many loans to too many unqualified borrowers. When these loans begin to default, the risk spreads into mutual funds, pension funds and corporations — causing some or even many of them to default or go bankrupt.
Shotoku to showcase innovative camera mounts at NAB Show
NewscastStudio: Shotoku USA will showcase a new line of “smart” products at the 2019 NAB Show.
SmartRail, a new generation of Shotoku’s rail-based camera systems, and the SmartPedVR robotic XY pedestal are two key new products that the company will spotlight at NAB.
SmartRail represents the latest generation of rail-based camera systems for floor or ceiling operation offering a wide range of cost-effective height column configurations.
Eliza Dushku slams NDA from CBS' $9.5M payout after claims of harassment
www.usatoday.com/story/life: Eliza Dushku is still upset about the sexual comments "Bull" star Michael Weatherly made about her on the set of the CBS legal drama and the culture that allowed it to happen.
In a new interview with Time, the actress, 38, says the non-disclosure agreement she signed as part of her $9.5 million settlement means she has to "talk in code" when she wants to discuss the situation.
Listen: Secrets of Sound Design with Gareth Owen
Variety: Broadway and West End sound designer Gareth Owen (“Come From Away,” “Summer,” “Diana”) gives listeners a peek behind the sound board on the latest episode of Stagecraft, Variety’s theater podcast. Good sound design, he explained, is more than just making sure audiences can hear every word that’s spoken or sung onstage.
Dubler turns your voice into a virtual MIDI controller
newatlas.com: Composers struck by a muse while out and about might use a smartphone or a dedicated recorder to jot down ideas. Maybe something comes of those gems and maybe not. Vochlea Music's goal in making the Dubler Studio Kit is to help musicians "release the stems of musical ideas trapped in their heads and get them straight into their production software – by simply using their voice."
Gig Gear Debuts New Health & Safety Training Initiative at USITT
Stage Directions: Gig Gear LLC — manufacturer of accessories designed for theatre techs and live entertainment production professionals — will officially announce its new personal health and safety awareness initiative “Safe and Sound” at next week’s USITT Expo in Louisville, KY, from March 20-23.
As the manufacturer of Gig Gloves, work gloves designed to protect the hands of theatre and live production professionals, the company saw the need to create an initiative that brings personal health, safety and wellness to the forefront of the theatre industry — as well as all production industries.
Performing Gitanidad (Romaniness) On Stage
HowlRound Theatre Commons: Romani actors and musicians playing Gitano (Romani) characters, as well as Gitano characters portrayed by others outside of the culture, have been present in Spanish theatre since their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula in the fifteenth century. This long tradition can be seen in the multiple forms of Gitano representation throughout history.
Theatre, as the “newspaper of the poor,” and dance, as an expressive form often prone to exoticization, became vehicles of performance for the Spanish Gitano identity, which was ultimately constructed as a celebration of Spanish identity. However, in many ways, an authentic image of the Romani culture remains hidden behind contemporary cultural veils; narratives of conflict, resistance, and negotiation all still need to be acknowledged in the Spanish Gitano theatrical practice.
Conductor Riccardo Muti is with the striking CSO musicians. But is he not a manager?
Chicago Tribune: “I’m with the musicians,” said Riccardo Muti on Tuesday, delighting the striking musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for whom he was offering unequivocal support.
Wait a minute. Isn’t Muti, the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and effectively its chief creative officer, actually a member of the orchestra’s management? Would you not expect him to side with the institution in a salary-and-benefit dispute rather than its unionized workers? If you were a board member, might you not argue that he has an ethical obligation to do so?
These Plays Are 2,500 Years Old. But They Speak to Us Now.
The New York Times: When it comes to misery, the families in Greek tragedies really take the cake.
The unhappy offspring of the houses of Atreus and Thebes are some of the oldest protagonists of world drama: They have relived their traumas onstage continually since the fifth century B.C., both in the original plays and in adaptations that draw psychological insights and contemporary relevance from the ancient texts. Throughout Germany this season, ambitious modern reinventions of plays by Sophocles and Aeschylus argue for the universality and timelessness of these works.
Sunday, March 17, 2019
NFTRW Weekly Top Five
Here are the top five comment generating posts of the past week:
How to Make Time to Work on Creative Projects
offspring.lifehacker.com: In 2017, I was making my living speaking and writing about productivity when my editor asked if I’d like to write a book that—like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The One Minute Manager—teaches a business lessons through stories. There was just one issue. When was I going to find the time between work and caring for my four young children?Should you listen to music while doing intellectual work? It depends on the music, the task, and your personality
Big Think: Given how many of us listen to music while studying or doing other cerebral work, you'd think psychology would have a set of clear answers as to whether the practice is likely to help or hinder performance. In fact, the research literature is rather a mess (not that that has deterred some enterprising individuals from making bold claims).High School Musicals: What Are the Top Shows for Schools?
www.broadwayworld.com: From Broadway superstars to Broadway super fans; Tony winners to Tony viewers- most lovers of the arts can trace their passion back to humble origins- their high school theatre programs. According to the 2018 EDTA High School Play survey, over 26,000 US high schools have a theatre program, which means that hundreds of thousands of teenagers are bit by the theatre bug every year.Hitting The Road: Touring Etiquette For The Uninitiated
ProSoundWeb: Going on a large-scale tour for the first time is a daunting experience. Thrown together in close quarters with a bunch of people you’ve never met before, the days are long, you’re away from home, and you’re never in one place for long before it’s time to load out and move on. On top of that there’s a whole touring etiquette that you may never have encountered before – ways of behavior that are instinctual to long-time roadies but which offer many potential pitfalls for the uninitiated.Should We Be Having Auditions Specifically for Dancers of Color?
Dance Magazine: Since they were first offered in 2016, the International Association of Blacks in Dance's ballet auditions for dancers of color have sparked much debate within the dance community. Some believe these auditions create valuable opportunities for dancers of color while others disagree, even going so far as calling them slightly racist.
Friday, March 15, 2019
“The Roommate” at City Theatre
The Pittsburgh Tatler: The detailed open-plan kitchen that greets you as you take your seat at City Theatre’s production of The Roommate might signal to you that you are about to watch a play that mostly lives in the “real world.” Alternatively, it might make you suspect that what’s on offer is more like a television sitcom. As it turns out, both of these impressions are correct: The Roommate is a play that seeks to explore very real dilemmas, but does so with a plot that has about as much credibility as an episode of, say, The Big Bang Theory.
MEIM Students Experience SXSW With a Little Help From Some Friends
www.cmu.edu/news: Twenty-five students in Carnegie Mellon University's Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) Program are taking part in South by Southwest Film, Interactive and Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, March 7-17, to learn about career options from peers, MEIM alumni, faculty, staff and industry professionals. MEIM is a joint degree program through CMU's Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and the College of Fine Arts.
'Games of Thrones' fan willing to pay $6.5 million for authentic props
Business Insider: Over the past eight years, the HBO series and original books by George R. R. Martin have inspired legions of superfans who are so obsessed with the stories that they buy huskies because they look like direwolves and accost cast members during intimate moments with their loved ones.
It may come as little surprise then, that one such passionate fan is planning to recreate some of the show's most iconic sets in his own backyard.
30 Female Playwrights You Should Know
Theatre Nerds: Throughout the years, women have written intriguing, provocative works for the stage. Composers such as Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Lambert have won Tony Awards for their musicals, whereas singer-songwriters such as Sara Bareilles and Cyndi Lauper have achieved crossover success with their musicals. With the plethora of authors in more niche circles, here’s a list of 30 more female playwrights we want you to know.
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