Jeff Awards committee, Steppenwolf, and others condemn abuse alleged in Reader investigation of Profiles Theatre

Bleader | Chicago Reader: Theater communities in Chicago and across the country reacted swiftly to the publication of this week's Reader cover story—"At Profiles Theatre, the drama—and abuse—is real"—condemning the alleged abuses at the north-side storefront theater and standing behind a group that has emerged to protect non-Equity theater professionals.

The Business of Show Biz: Mind Your Own Beeswax

Theatre Bay Area: Hmm. How do I say this? I love you very much, but you’ve got to mind your own business. What time of day your castmate eats or what music she listens to on her headphones while putting on makeup is simply none of your beeswax. That her (neither noisy nor invasive) process is distracting to you simply means your focus is scattered. Concentrate on your process; learn what works for you in order to be prepared to take the stage. Do those things and leave everyone else out of it.

Women of ‘Hamilton’ at Heart of Hit Broadway Musical

Variety: If you haven’t seen “Hamilton” yet, it’s easy to believe that the blockbuster musical is all about the men. Actors easily outnumber actresses among its leads and featured players, and the guys — Lin-Manuel Miranda, of course, but also director Thomas Kail and actors Daveed Diggs and Christopher Jackson — have all put in appearances on late-night TV in recent weeks. Five of its actors are nominated for this year’s Tony Awards.

5 Crucial Steps To Paying Off Your Student Loans Before Your 30s

www.lifehack.org: Student loan debt is a national problem. As of January 2016, total US student loan debt was over $1.2 trillion, and market analysts have warned about how this expanding student loan debt has become a bubble. That bubble bursting could have serious consequences for the US economy, as banks and the government could be crushed under a pile of insolvent student loans.

An Interview with Natasha Katz

THE INTERVAL: “Do you want to meet a genius?” And because I am a rational and inquisitive person, I say, “Yes. Yes, I do.” I am led to a turban-clad woman and come to the rational conclusion that I’m meeting the apparition of Diana Vreeland. This is probably a good time to point out that this meeting takes place at the John Barrett Salon with John Barrett as the ambassador to genius. The turban-clad woman is actually the very real (and with very wet hair) Natasha Katz. The Natasha Katz who has designed lighting for over fifty Broadway shows, who has won five Tony Awards

Prime Movers

Stage Directions: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or in the case of theatre: The designer or the manufacturer? Designers and directors are always pushing for new effects, new looks, new possibilities; but would they even know those possibilities existed without manufacturers inventing new tricks? We asked lighting and special effects companies how they’re responding to designers to help them create beautifully subtle looks—or blast the back row into the stratosphere—and what the current “must-have” effect is.

Incredible Model-Making Tutorials from a Master Modeler

makezine.com: As one of the commenters exclaims on David Neat’s blog of modeling tips: “I feel like I’ve just discovered the Holy Grail of modeling sites!” David’s simple, plain WordPress blog betrays the amount and quality of the content found there. David writes about and teaches model-making and this site gathers the materials from his books, courses, and lectures.

New York City's Great Post-It War Ended With An Epic Mic Drop

The Frisky: New York City’s bustling Canal Street has been embroiled in a case of office savagery that will go down in the annals of history as “The Great Post-it Wars of 2016.” The battle saw a variety of media and creative agencies pitting themselves against each other to see who could create the best large-scale Post-it mural. Even though it started as a fun bit of office fluff to relieve some of the stress of fast-paced agency life, the #PostItWars quickly grew into something else entirely.

'Matilda' actor embraces gender flip for role, working with kids

TribLIVE: David Abeles has discovered it's fun to be bad. He plays Agatha Trunchbull, headmistress of Crunchen Hall, who rules with an iron fist and lives by the school's motto: “Children are maggots.” “She is a monster,” Abeles says. The actor is performing in the national touring company of “Matilda the Musical,” which runs from May 31 to June 12 the Benedum Center, Downtown, as a joint presentation of PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera.

Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro Warns of "Major Problem" in the Field

Hollywood Reporter: Considered among the greatest cinematographers of all time, Vittorio Storaro identified what he sees as a “major problem” in cinematography today as he attracted a starstruck crowd and earned an enthusiastic standing ovation Friday evening at Cine Gear Expo, where he screened his latest work, Woody Allen’s Cafe Society. He stated that a trend that has emerged with the use of digital cameras is that “people want to work faster or show that they can use less light, but they don’t look for the proper light the scene needs.

Hillary Clinton’s Nomination: Powerful Women in Hollywood React

Variety: Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday night by becoming the first woman to clinch the presidential nomination of a major political party. To reflect on this barrier-breaking moment, Variety surveyed top players in the entertainment and media industry about what it means to them.

Who's Afraid of Feminist Fairy Tale Theater?

The Creators Project: A sadomasochistic, genderfluid Queen named Gregory; barf made out of Skittles; and casual references to benzodiazepines: finally, a fairy tale we can all relate to. The Coward is the latest invention of Maddy Campbell, an NYU Tisch alum who both wrote and stars in the play, which premiered at the historic East Village performance venue WOW Café Theatre on April 30. Directed by co-actor Matt Phillips, and produced by Wednesday Derrico and Experimental Bitch Presents, The Coward stands as an over-the-top, in-your-face revision of what modern fairy tales can and should be.

National Maker Faire Kicks Off the Summer of Making

National Maker Faire Kicks Off the Summer of Making: When President Obama hosted the first White House Maker Faire in 2014 and declared it a success, what had been a mini event became of national importance. Set this year for June 18-19, the second annual National Maker Faire takes place at the University of District Columbia as part of the president’s proclaimed National Week of Making, a seven-day celebration June 17-23 that officially launches an entire season — we’re calling it the Summer of Making.

School Theatre: Needed now more than ever

OnStage: I have been going back and forth about this column. What I settled on was to open a discussion about how musical theatre can be inspiring on many different levels for different kids and how to discuss them with school administrators. Hopefully, after reading this post, you can go on here and comment with a success story or two of yours and share it so that we may begin to amass a thread of success stories that performing arts administrators, teachers, and specialists can use as examples in defense of their programs across the country. I believe at the end of a school year it is nice to hear some positive stories.

What It Means to Be Trans in the Theatre

Playbill: “You know this thing about pronouns,” Kate Bornstein says with a sigh. “Is it the pronouns we want to know or the identity? I would rather people know me and then, from that, extrapolate. [Then] they would understand why I use ‘she’ or ‘they’. Growing up, I learned how to act. I learned how to pretend to be boy. That was acting!”

Whose Story to Tell? Akron, Ohio Relates to the Indigenous Amazon

HowlRound: In Death of a Man the New World Performance Lab explores Akron Ohio’s complicated history and relationship with its number one industry: rubber. The show is set at the turn of the century, when the “mad search for natural rubber began” and the booming industry gave Akron it’s infamous nickname “the Rubber City.”

More from FootLights!

Footlights: For months, in some cases years, an army of artists individually and in small groups have been planning for their participation in the 2016 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Starting on June 9th, and continuing through the 26th, nearly 300 different productions will be mounted in some 30 different venues, mostly within a few blocks of legendary Theatre Row near the intersection of Wilcox and Santa Monica Blvd.

This Is The World’s Ugliest Color

collegecandy.com: Different colors can create innumerous associations, but only one color has the power to “minimize appeal” and “maximize perceived harm.” Researchers have pinpointed the world’s ugliest color – and it’s been described as ‘dirty,” tar,” and even “death.” Pantone 448 C, also called “opaque couché,” may appear awful, but this color actually has an important mission to do.

CMU Celebrates 70th Annual Tony Awards, June 12

www.cmu.edu/news: Carnegie Mellon University's Renée Elise Goldsberry is not going to miss her shot.

Goldsberry, a 1993 graduate, was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role for the musical "Hamilton." She is one of seven CMU alumni who have been nominated for eight Tony Awards this year.

The 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by James Corden, will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. EDT, Sunday, June 12, from the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

Before his final bow, a Kennedy Center veteran hands out one last backstage pass

The Washington Post: Mickey Berra tells of drinking Scotch with Princess Margaret, smoking a stogy with George Burns, placing a football bet for Elizabeth Taylor, and shooting the breeze with James Brown. He remembers the challenge of getting Willie Nelson’s 21-ton touring bus on stage for the Kennedy Center Honors, cutting a trapdoor into the Opera House stage for the tour of “Les Miserables” and flying a helicopter onstage for “Miss Saigon.” A Kennedy Center stagehand who stepped right out of Central Casting, Berra lets these and a host of other stories fly during a gossipy, witty and always entertaining backstage tour, one of the last the 45-year veteran will give before retiring next month.