Pittsburgh CLO plays 'Christmas Carol' for 22nd year

TribLIVE: Tim Hartman figures he has spent the equivalent of four years on stage in productions of “A Christmas Carol.”
Jeff Howell has played Bob Cratchit in all but three of Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera's 22 productions of the Charles Dickens classic, and Terry Wickline has played the twin roles of Mrs. Fezziwig and Scrooge's housekeeper, Mrs. Dilbert, every year since joining the cast in 2000.

Connecticut High School Cancels Student Production of 'Rent'

NYTimes.com: The principal of Trumbull High School in Trumbull, Conn., has become the latest administrator to cancel a drama club production of the musical “Rent,” which deals frankly with sexuality, drug use, HIV and love in the lives of straight and gay characters.

How to Have a Happy Fight Call: A Guide for Directors, Stage Managers, and Fight Captains

HowlRound: The time has come. The punches have been knapped and all the falls are safe. Now it is time to work those fights until we know them in our bones. Fight call is upon us. You excited about it? I am.
Before we start swinging at each other, a few tips, tricks, and reminders

Entertainment Law Update Podcast #46 – Top Ten Stories of 2013

Law Offices of Gordon P. Firemark: In this episode of Entertainment Law Update, Entertainment lawyers Gordon Firemark Tamera Bennett and Peter Kaufman review the ten most significant cases and controversies in the entertainment industry for 2013, and forecast what we’ll be seeing in 2014..

Stage flight: 'Peter Pan' cast at Playhouse soars with harness system

The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com: Peter Pan always says the trick to flying is thinking happy thoughts. But at the Des Moines Community Playhouse, where he’ll be flying for the rest of the month, happy thoughts go only so far.
The rest of the magic comes from a big guy backstage who holds the other end of Peter’s hidden cable and jumps off a 6-foot ladder. When he goes down, Peter goes up.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Better Ladders - Safer Work

Theatre Safety Blog: You've all seen it - the late night infomercial for the Little Giant Ladder. You may even have one for getting to some of those difficult to reach places. This year at LDI, these guys outdid themselves BIGTIME. They introduced a extensible A-Frame ladder with a safety cage work platform at the top.

Mandy Greenfield to Become Artistic Director of Williamstown Theater Festival

NYTimes.com: The Williamstown Theater Festival, a leading summertime destination for New York actors, directors, and writers to collaborate on ambitious productions, has chosen an Off Broadway leader as its new artistic director. Mandy Greenfield, the artistic producer of Manhattan Theater Club, will succeed Jenny Gersten beginning in September, the festival announced on Wednesday.

DualSaw Dual Blade Reciprocating Saw

Uncrate: Whether you're tearing something down, or building something up, there are few tools more handy than a reciprocating saw — and the DualSaw Dual Blade Reciprocating Saw ($200) takes your standard reciprocating saw and turns it up to 11.

BOSCH GLM 100 C LASER MEASURE

www.blessthisstuff.com: One for the handyman...Bosch have released a measuring tool that transfers and documents your measuring results directly to a PC, tablet PC or Smartphone. The innovative Bosch GLM 100 C has integrated Bluetooth that syncs with an included app, simply take a photo of the jobsite, enter the distance you want to measure into the photo, and perform the desired measurement and have it displayed directly in the picture.

Unpaid internships: Banning them will only build a bigger wall between school and work.

www.slate.com: With unemployment sky-high, working-class wages in long-term stagnation, and climate change spiraling out of control, America’s social reformers have hit upon a strange cause: the plight of the aspiring young professional doing an unpaid internship. A June court ruling that an unpaid intern on the film Black Swan was owed back pay has given the movement substantial momentum, and Labor Day saw the launch of the Fair Pay Campaign, a move to ban unpaid internships in the United States. And indeed, many current internships would seem to violate the rules laid out in the Fair Labor Standards Act, including that the experience be “similar to training which would be given in an educational environment” and that the “employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern.”

Director Anna Condo: "Cosmetic Surgery is Ruining Cinema"

Women and Hollywood: Casting is key. Without great characters, there can be no great story. And without great actresses, there can be no great films.
I remember clearly the day I watched an actress "act." I could not help but think something felt funny. Off. The more I watched her, the more I could hear her think. It wasn't what she was saying (her lines) or doing (her gestures). It was the woman behind the character that I was seeing and hearing. She was thinking, Was she pretty in this shot? Was she going to get a lot of praise for her performance? Was she going to win an award? Was she going to grace every magazine cover? This was what I saw and heard.

How Dr. Freddie Fu and staff keep patients en pointe

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In 1983 the leading soloist crumpled to the floor in the midst of a Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre performance at the Benedum Center. As the other dancers continued to swirl in George Balanchine's "Square Dance" all around her, she made several efforts to stand, but couldn't. The audience held its collective breath. Only after several tries was she able to get up and hop into the wings on one leg. Shari Little had torn her Achilles tendon, a devastating injury for most dancers. The other performers finished the ballet without her -- a real-life scenario reminiscent of the movie "The Red Shoes."

I want to dip everything in this magic hydrocoating water paint

sploid.gizmodo.com: Everything I own, everything I will buy, every fiber of my body, everything in this world should be dipped into water paint. The hydrocoating process is popular in weapons and helmets but really deserves to be shmeared all over the world.

'Crucifer of Blood' brings Holmes to Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre

TribLIVE: Director Matt Torney ranks Sherlock Holmes as one of the first superhero characters.
Holmes may not deck himself out in a mask or cape like Batman or Superman, but he does have a super-power — his intellect and reasoning, Torney says.
“He has this enormous brain. … Holmes' reasoning power cuts through chaos,” Torney says. “He is extraordinary, in no way an ordinary man. If you could see what he sees, you could be a great detective.”

The 11 Most Popular Apps for Collaboration and Productivity

Corporate Tech Decisions: The key to finding good collaborative apps is understanding how you need to communicate with others. If contacts are separated by distance, a videoconferencing app will make it easy to meet at any moment, regardless if everyone is in their respected offices or not. With a project management app or inter-company social media app, employees can have quick, real-time conversation and content sharing that mimics more social products and websites for added convenience and efficiency.

2013 Appy Special: 13 Pro Smart Tool-belts for Your Smart Device

Corporate Tech Decisions: 2013 has been a mobile-centric year. From new tablet developments to the growing popularity of smart gear, catering to your mobile lifestyle has been never been so important. But, with all the availability of apps in the market, finding quality apps that are relevant to you can seem like a challenge — more specifically a potential waste of time.

League of Chicago Theatres Names New Executive Committee and Board Members

Stage Directions: The League of Chicago Theatres has elected new executive committee members and appointed four new members to the Board of Directors. The Executive Committee includes Board Chair Kate Lipuma, Executive Director, Writers Theatre; Vice Chair Rachel Kraft, Executive Director, Lookingglass Theatre Company; Treasurer Heather Schmucker, Associate Producer, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; and Secretary Dan McArdle, Managing Director, The Neo-Futurists. Elected by members of the League, newly-elected Board Members include Brittany Barnes, Managing Director, Pavement Group; Peter Handler, Program Director, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; Bill Melamed, Chief Marketing and Development Officer, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; and Regina Taylor, Artistic Collective, Goodman Theatre.

A New Play Brings the Deepwater Horizon Disaster to the Stage

NYTimes.com: “Spill,” a new play based on interviews with dozens of people affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion in 2010, will have its premiere production this spring in the state that was at the center of the environmental disaster. The drama, which features some 30 real-life characters speaking in the verbatim style of the documentary-like “Laramie Project” plays, will run March 12 through 30, at the Swine Palace theater on the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge, the theater and the play’s creators announced on Sunday.

Perspective: Meeting The Challenges Of The Gig

Pro Sound Web: As a sound engineer working in the concert and corporate event markets, I’ve found it useful to identify my primary (most important) audience for every gig.
Is it the band that hired me? The band manager? The promoter? The people buying tickets to the show? The people that own the venue? The sound company I’m working for?

'Heathers' Musical Will Play Off Broadway in March

NYTimes.com: A musical adaptation of the film “Heathers,” the 1989 dark comedy about high school mean girls that added “what’s your damage?” and other memorable lines to the teen lexicon, will have an Off Broadway commercial run this spring, the producers announced on Tuesday.