Little Lemon: A Case for Reimagining the University Season

HowlRound: Most university theater departments produce an annual season of plays. Generally, as my experience has suggested, these departments establish that the purpose of producing these plays is twofold: 1) to serve the growth of students in preparation for advanced study and/or entry into the profession, and 2) to serve their audience. Each individual department has its own specialties and interests, however, most departments likely return to those two guiding principles.

Stage Right's 'La Befana' musical tells Italian Christmas tale

TribLIVE: An original musical that looks at the traditional Christmas story from a different perspective will usher in Christmas week at Greensburg Garden and Civic Center. “La Befana: A Christmas Musical,” written by Stage Right artistic director Tony Marino, is based on an old-world Italian legend coinciding with the Jan. 6 religious celebration of Epiphany, known as La Befana or Twelfth Night.

Theaters’ Surefire Hit - Sale of Air Rights

NYTimes.com: Putting money into a Broadway play has always been a risky proposition. But the owners of landmark playhouses in Manhattan’s theater district have one sure moneymaker on their hands: the air above their roofs.

Putting On Pinstripes - Costume Design for Broadway's Bronx Bombers

Tyranny of Style: Ruth. Berra. Mantle. DiMaggio. Gehrig. Jeter. The New York Yankees have never had a shortage of star players, or controversy. Bronx Bombers is a new American play from the team behind Broadway's Lombardi that follows beloved icon Yogi Berra and his wife Carmen through a century of the team's trials and triumphs, bringing generations of Yankee greats together on one stage.

Did You Miss LDI2013 and/or Us?

iSquint.net: Say WHAAAAAA. Yes, after over half a year from posting here, there is FINALLY a new post on iSquint! I want to say thanks to everyone that wrote, tweeted, facebooked and so on about the love of the site and the vast hole it left in everyone’s day. I didn’t mean to leave you Argentina… There are only so many hours in a day and while #SleepIsForTheWeak, the body cannot function without it for so long. Then of course there is family time, beer-thirty and those gigs now and then. In the end, something has to give and the site was one of them.

Ganttify Turns Your Google Calendar or Trello Board into a Gantt Chart

lifehacker.com: It's easy to use Google Calendar as your project management tool, but if you want a more traditional project management view, take a look at new webapp Ganttify. It connects to your Google Calendar, Trello, or Basecamp account to instantly serve up your events in a Gantt chart.

Why do the Rich Support the Arts?

Aaron Gervais, composer: Why exactly do rich people give money to the arts? If you think about it, the two are strange bedfellows: wealth usually begets conservatism while the arts tilt overwhelmingly liberal. Granted, there are certainly rich liberals, but I think there’s more to it than that—after all, some of the biggest arts donors in the USA are also some of the biggest backers of the Tea Party, and red states are significantly more philanthropic than blue ones. Why would conservatives give money to liberal causes like art?

‘Playwrights,’ With Rajiv Joseph and Tarell Alvin McCraney, on PBS

NYTimes.com: Capturing the creative process in a documentary is next to impossible, and “Playwright: From Page to Stage,” on Monday on PBS’s “Independent Lens,” doesn’t succeed any better than previous efforts. But the film, which follows two young playwrights as they have new works produced in prominent regional theaters (culminating, for one, in a Broadway run), does have a few candid moments that go deeper than we’re used to seeing.

Connecticut School's Production of 'Rent' Is Back On

NYTimes.com: After a petition drive and social media campaign by students at Trumbull High School in Trumbull, Conn., the principal said on Monday that he was reversing himself and allowing its production of the musical “Rent” to go forward in March as originally planned. The principal, Marc Guarino, said in an interview that he and the student Thespian Society had developed ideas that satisfied his concern that the production be accompanied by an educational component.

Annie Dorsen’s ‘A Piece of Work’ at BAM

NYTimes.com: Woe to the reporter who seeks to track Annie Dorsen’s speech patterns. The same combination of speed, breadth and complexity that makes her a thrilling conversationalist means any note taker faces a Sisyphean task.

Charles Isherwood’s Standout Shows of the Year

NYTimes.com: Reflecting on the highlights of my year in theatergoing, I was often brought up short by a sense of renewed surprise. How odd, really, that a production of a play by Bertolt Brecht — a genius of 20th-century theater, yes, but often about as much fun as a doctor’s visit in production — provided more giddy fun than most Broadway musicals. The idea of listening in on eight hours of a phone conversation could hardly sound more tedious, but the show derived from that very source was among the most inspired and imaginative I saw this year. Herewith, in alphabetical order, are the shows that gave me the most pleasure, often by catching me off guard.

Ben Brantley’s Theater Favorites for 2013

NYTimes.com: Only a few months ago, I would have had to forage frantically to come up with a list of even five best-list-worthy shows from 2013. Now suddenly I’m spoiled for choice. First of all, any year is a fat year that includes productions like John Tiffany’s interpretation of Tennessee Williams’s “Glass Menagerie” and the Shakespeare’s Globe “Twelfth Night.” Those revivals, combined, account for roughly six of the richest, most satisfying hours of my theatergoing life.

Technical Ear Training: Mastering The Art Of The Invisible

Pro Sound Web: Timothy Ryan describes his job as “dealing with the invisible.” As an assistant professor of audio production in the Webster University School of Communications in St. Louis, he knows his students face a unique set of challenges in their training.
“Lighting is visible, costumes are visible, scenery or sets in a movie are visible, but sound is the invisible 300-pound gorilla in the room,” says Ryan. “Developing stable internal reference points is the only way to deal with it.”

"Six by Sondheim" Keeps Up HBO's Track Record for Great Documentaries

Balder and Dash | Roger Ebert: "Six By Sondheim" runs a tight, efficient 87 minutes. Mixing interview footage with performances of the titular number of songs, "Six by Sondheim" is a love letter to the greatest living American composer, Stephen Sondheim. This is the man who gave Mama Rose her turn, Mrs. Lovett her pie filling, and every Jet on NYC's West Side a mission statement. If you are familiar with these characters, and love them as I do, "Six by Sondheim" will play like a little slice of HBO broadcasting heaven. If not, this excellent documentary provides all the juicy details you'll need to become a lifelong fan.

PICT presents the Pittsburgh premiere of The Crucifer of Blood

Pop Filter Hot Pick: Why you should go: Fans of Sherlock Holmes and The Wicker Man do not want to miss the latest production presented by Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre (PICT). During the month of December, PICT invites you to take in some "Holmes" for the holidays.
Marking the culminating production of its 2013 season, PICT is presenting the much buzzed about Pittsburgh premiere of The Crucifer of Blood. Running December 4th through December 21st, the dramatic Sherlock Holmes-style adventure will provide the perfect melange of intrigue, mystery, danger, travel and suspicion needed to spice up your holiday festivities.

Pittsburgh's father of professional ballet — and of Point Park's dance program — retires

Dance + Live Performance | Pittsburgh City Paper: When Nicolas Petrov assumed the directorship of the Pittsburgh Playhouse's ballet school, in 1967, no one could have foreseen that within a few years, the Yugoslavian-born dancer and choreographer would forever alter the Pittsburgh dance landscape by founding two of its major institutions: Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Point Park University's renowned dance department.

Checking In: WyldBlue Entertainment

InPark Magazine: WyldBlue Entertainment is a leading international creative consulting, project management, design development and production company that specializes in all disciplines of leisure entertainment, production and e-media. We strive to create magical guest experiences that not only tell a great story, but make the most of safety, the environment and culture, while improving the quality of life. Fresh, clever and inventive, WyldBlue excels in project design development, project management and operations.

Fountain Of Youth: 2013 Young Designer to Watch, Jeremy Lechterman, Lighting & Production Designer

Concerts content from Live Design Magazine: “Everything we put on stage should come from a place of honesty and truth, even if it’s an illusion. It should be grounded in a concrete idea and a belief, not just ‘because we can.’” Also, “Live life to the fullest; it’s the only one you’re going to have.”

A Year of Living Theatrically: Performance

KQED Public Media for Northern CA: Rob Handel's play A Maze is appropriately mazelike in itself, with several seemingly separate stories that gradually wind together into one: the abducted girl who becomes a media sensation after decades in captivity, the one-hit-wonder rock stars trying to rekindle their creative spark after rehab, the reclusive graphic novelist who insists he's just channeling the story in his books, and the fantastical parable about a king building an endless maze around his castle to protect his family.

Whoa, This 3D-Printed Headdress Should Be The Next Predator

gizmodo.com: The complex stylings of this tribal-heritage-meets-Predator polyamide headdress were designed by creative multi-hyphenate Joshua Harker, then 3D-printed for a high-tech, high-fashion catwalk strut in London.