Even With $100 Million Weekends, Women Can't Win in Showbiz

WIRED: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 just made $101 million at the box office. At the same time that Katniss Everdeen racked up those numbers—below projections, but still an astronomical figure—Jessica Jones became a critical darling on Netflix. It was a great weekend to be a female badass. Unless, of course, you were a female badass who happened to work in Hollywood.

City Theatrical Named Manufacturer of the Year

Stage Directions: City Theatrical was recognized by NJBIZ Magazine and the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program for its resilience in bouncing back from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy, which poured 39” of water into its 40,000 sq. ft. Carlstadt manufacturing facility, damaging or destroying every piece of manufacturing equipment.

NFTRW Weekly Top Five

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

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.

Posted by David at 23 Comments here

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.

Posted by David at 22 Comments here

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."

Posted by David at 16 Comments here

‘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.

Posted by David at 16 Comments here

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.

Posted by David at 15 Comments here

Suspension Bridges of Disbelief

Hackaday: Suspension bridges are far and away the target of choice in America’s action blockbusters. In just the past three years, the Golden Gate Bridge has been destroyed by a Kaiju, Godzilla, a Skynet-initiated nuclear blast, and a tsunami. Americans don’t build real bridges anymore, or maintain the ones that we have, but we sure love to blow them up in movies.

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.