Stage Review: 'Recruiting Officer' is 18th-century satire that speaks to modern times

Post Gazette: "Art is long, they say, while life is short. George Farquhar's 'The Recruiting Officer,' a topical comedy about soldiers and civilians set in 1704 England and now staged at the University of Pittsburgh, may not be art. But it certainly meets the 'long' criterion, not just in conventional romantic skirmishes and foppish follies, but also where you might least expect, in the topical satire."

COST OF CLASS STRUGGLE

NY Post: "The musical, which will open in the fall of 2008 at the Imperial Theatre, is budgeted at $18.5 million, making it one of the most expensive non-Disney musicals ever."

Updated Google Earth Extension for AutoCAD available on Autdoesk Labs

Daily Autocad: "An updated version of the Google Earth Extension for AutoCAD is now available on Autodesk Labs. You can publish your 3D models into Google Earth."

'Dancin' gets Rialto revival

Variety: "Bob Fosse's 1978 dance-ical 'Dancin' ' gets its first Rialto revival in spring 2009, with helmer Graciela Daniele working with Ann Reinking, among others, to re-create Fosse moves."

Greensburg Civic Theatre revisits 'The Fantasticks'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "The longest running off-Broadway musical, 'The Fantasticks,' comes to Greensburg Garden and Civic Theatre this weekend for three performances."

Thomas stars in classic 'Twelve Angry Men'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Six nights a week, Thomas, an actor with an increasingly large number of Broadway stage credits, appears as Juror No. 8 in the Roundabout Theater Company's national touring production of 'Twelve Angry Men.'"

Purchase Behind the Scenes Raffle Tickets

Projection, Lights and Staging News: "Only two weeks remain to purchase Behind the Scenes raffle tickets online for the “Broadway Chopper” and other prizes. If you're not attending LDI you can still show your support for Behind the Scenes and purchase raffle tickets by visiting www.estafoundation.org/bts/events/LDI2007_Raffle.htm."

The Master Builder: The impeccable craft and enduring genius of playwright Arthur Miller, as explained by Tony Kushner

The Austin Chronicle: "'Arthur Miller's was a great voice, one of the principal voices, raised in opposition, calling for resistance, offering critical scrutiny and lamentation – in other words, he was politically progressive, as politically progressive is best defined in these dark times.'"

Political theater

The Tartan Online: "Robert Myers, an associate professor of English and creative writing at the American University of Beirut, delivered his lecture, “Playing with History: Political Theatre in Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East,” in the Richard Rauh Theater in the Purnell Center last Thursday. “This afternoon, what I’d like to talk about is contemporary political and historical theater,” Myers said. “It’s broad and I’m trying to trace the contours, so bear with me if it seems a bit general or if I stumble into an area I don’t know that much about.”"

Studios Drop Key Issue in Writers Talks

Backstage: "Seeking to remove a big stumbling block in stalled contract talks with Hollywood screenwriters, studio executives on Tuesday dropped a proposal to overhaul residual payments -- a key, decades-old source of writers' income."

League to Implement Final Offer to Stagehands

Backstage: "The League of American Theatres and Producers declared an impasse in their negotiations with the Broadway stagehands and will begin unilaterally implementing portions of their final offer to the union, league executive director Charlotte St. Martin announced Tuesday night."

Stagebus Review: German 'Start Up' starts here, heads west

Post Gazette:



"Perhaps in retaliation for our having just sent a joint American-German production from Pitt to Stuttgart, GTA's Road Theater USA trundled into town by bus yesterday with its first post-NYC, one-night stand on a country-wide, seven-week tour of 'Start Up,' an ironic, loosely-structured German-American comedy about some Germans traveling the U.S. by bus and doing something like what seems to be going on in the play."

Broadway's Standoff Has Union Facing New Economics, Technology

Bloomberg.com: "There was no Broadway shutdown last week, and unless the warring parties breach their temporary truce, none will occur this week. But there's also no contract between producers and stagehands and the union has punched up the tension level, calling a strike vote for next Sunday."

Hollywood Studios, Writers Seem to Be Closer on Residuals

WSJ.com: "In what could be a step toward hammering out a new contract between the Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America, the association representing the studios withdrew a contentious proposal to restructure the so-called residual payment system that many writers depend on to supplement their income."

Disney to Overhaul California Adventure

Marketplace from American Public Media: "The Walt Disney Co. will do a major overhaul of its disappointing California Adventure theme park to add more attractions based on Pixar animated movies and draw closer ties to Walt Disney, the company said Wednesday."

Rialto union raises stakes

Variety: "Broadway producers locked in a negotiations impasse with the Rialto stagehands union are getting tough. The producers are implementing some of the terms of their last, best offer without the agreement of the union, Local One."

Producers Impose Rules; Broadway Closer to Strike

New York Times: "Broadway producers and theater owners announced yesterday that they were imposing portions of their final contract offer on the stagehands beginning Monday."

Suzan-Lori Parks 356 Days/365 Plays Enters Final Weeks in NYC

Playbill News: "In 2002 Suzan-Lori Parks conceptualized writing one play a day for an entire year – the result was the play cycle 356 Days/365 Plays in which some plays are no more than a page long, while others are more fully realized. The grass roots play cycle is currently being produced nationwide by over 600 participating theatres."

The Gullah/Geechee Nation's Queen Quet and local performers stage a show about a unique slice of African-American heritage.

Pittsburgh City Paper - : "Queen Quet is chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, a culture occupying parts of South Carolina and Georgia and tracing its roots to Africa. The nation's forebears -- slaves who lived in relative isolation along the coastal Sea Islands -- maintained a considerable amount of African culture. On Oct. 13-14, Queen Quet (a.k.a. Marquetta Goodwine) visits Pittsburgh with I'll Fly Away to Freedom, an original group performance incorporating music, dance, history and the uniquely rhythmic hybrid that is the Gullah/Geeche language."

Australia's Circus Oz goes somewhere over the rainbow.

Pittsburgh City Paper - Pittsburgh: "'Running away to join the circus' was once an act of dissidence -- a step toward a life of sawdust and carnies, riding the rails and living on the wrong side of the tracks in a shadowy subculture. In recent years, however, the circus has become a valid career path, the tinsel replaced by 24-carat gold. Companies like Cirque de Soleil have brought legitimacy to the freak show with sold-out, big-budget Vegas productions; a Google search for training institutions generates thousands of hits. What was once a down-and-dirty, back-alley affair is now a squeaky-clean enterprise fit for the average suburbanite."