Stage Review: New Works week 3

Post Gazette: "Week 3 of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival brings something I've never seen at the festival before -- a group of thematically linked plays. All have to do with death and, more specifically, how love saves those who are left behind. More impressively, all are smart and well-written."

Stage Review: Rage of Stage Players do time warp

Post Gazette: "On either stage or screen, 'Rocky Horror' is all about sexual and aesthetic transgression, mocking the conventional with a comic version of deviance. My own first memory of it is going with my 12-year-old son and his friend to the long-running late-night showings at the Kings Court in Oakland, toting squirt guns, toast and other gear for the prescribed audience participation."

PSO musicians approve 3-year contract

PostGazette: "Musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra ratified a three-year contract yesterday that calls for a modest raise in salaries and includes language for such issues as keeping the number of musicians at 99. The agreement came in time for the gala concert last night that welcomes the orchestra's new music director, Manfred Honeck."

Warhol hires curator

PostGazette: "The Andy Warhol Museum has appointed New Castle native Eric C. Shiner to be the first Milton Fine Curator of Art effective Oct. 1. The position was made possible by a $1.5 million gift from The Fine Foundation in September 2007."

Our American Identity

Gasp!: "“Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being,' wrote Thomas Carlyle. With government confidence at historically low levels, it is vital that artists and writers step in to act as witnesses. We have the unique ability to remind people of their humanity. We don't need to be spokespeople for them. Instead, we can inspire people to lead themselves."

[title of show] to Close On Broadway in October

Playbill News: "[title of show] — the new musical that would rather be nine people's favorite thing than 100 people's ninth favorite thing — will play its final performance at the Lyceum Theatre Oct. 12, the producers announced Sept. 19."

Dolly Parton's 9 to 5: The Musical Opens in L.A. Sept. 20

Playbill News: "Multiple Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Allison Janney stars as Violet Newstead, the super-efficient office manager who joins her co-workers — the frazzled divorcee Judy Bernly, played by Stephanie J. Block, and the sexy executive secretary Doralee Rhodes, played by Megan Hilty, to turn the tables on their boss, the 'sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical, bigot' Franklin Hart, Jr., played by two-time Tony Award nominee Marc Kudisch."

N.Y. festival downplays biz buzz

Variety: "The New York Musical Theater Festival, which last week began its fifth annual outing, now has on its list of alums a Broadway show, another aiming for the Rialto this spring and several that have been produced Off Broadway."

New energy at Seattle's Intiman

Variety: "When the opportunity came to join Sher at Intiman, Daniels hesitated. She had a job she liked teaching at Cornish College and was able to pick her own directing projects. Intiman would mean higher budgets, higher stakes.She deliberated, but not for long. 'I generally find if there's something I'm terrified of, it's something I should do,' Daniels says."

Chicago hosts 'The Century' test

Variety: "The Goodman Theater isn't calling the tuner 'The Turn of the Century' a Broadway tryout. But with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (the 'Jersey Boys' writing team), producer Elizabeth I. McCann attached, director Tommy Tune and stars Jeff Daniels and Rachel York, can New York be far behind?"

L.A. takes center stage for new musical theater

Boston.com: "Better known as the home to Hollywood movies, Los Angeles is fast starting to beat to the sound of new musical stage productions that debut here then dance their way to Broadway.
When Dolly Parton's '9 to 5: The Musical' gets its world premiere on Saturday, it will be the fourth musical in as many years to open in Tinseltown before The Great White Way."

Americans stay away, Stratford cuts staff

TheStar.com: "What general director Antoni Cimolino called 'a perfect storm' of rising fuel prices, a weakening U.S. dollar and an uncertain economy have combined to find the festival facing red ink for the first time in its recent history."

'Unite' Wins Majority of Open SAG Seats

Backstage: "An upstart group of actors said Thursday it won a majority of Hollywood seats up for re-election on the national board of the Screen Actors Guild, a shake-up that could dislodge the logjam in contract talks with the movie studios."

Sondheim Flop Survivor Finds Laughs on Road to Musical `Ruin'

Bloomberg.com: Arts and Culture: "``The Road to Ruin'' may sound like a new musical about mortgage banking.
Instead, it's a satire inspired by a 1928 silent movie about an innocent 15-year-old girl corrupted by chewing gum, cigarettes, liquor and betrayal. William Zeffiro's show opened last night as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, with a casting bonus."

Should You Live Blog/Twitter A College Class?

Techdirt: "It's quite common these days for people to 'live blog' or 'live Twitter' different conferences or events they're attending, filling in others what's happening in near real time. However, what happens when someone does that in a college class? Already, there are some professors struggling with the fact that students use the internet during class, but they're not at all happy about the idea that they might not just be using the internet to surf around -- but to report to others what's happening inside the classroom. The issue is discussed in detail by Mark Glaser in his latest MediaShift column after an NYU professor told her students to stop blogging or Twittering things about her class."

Spotlight on Alumni

Carnegie Mellon University: "While you're scanning the red carpet for your favorite stars during The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, be sure to keep an eye out for Carnegie Mellon alumni among the nominees."

Critics Mostly Find Musical Tale As Worst Of Times

Steve On Broadway (SOB): "Last spring, London had its inglorious over-the-top literary-derived flop with Gone With The Wind - The Musical. Apparently, now it's Broadway's turn, as critics gleefully dug and twisted their knives into A Tale Of Two Cities - The Musical, which opened last evening at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre."

The Week in Tools: Toolmonger Top 5

Toolmonger: "It’s been a busy week here at Toolmonger. If you’ve been spending time in the shop — you should! — and you haven’t had a chance to keep up with Toolmonger this week, we suggest you start with these posts, which our readers helped to select"

Back to Basics: Procrastination - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Stepcase Lifehack: "There is a positive side to procrastination, but it’s important not to confuse procrastination at its best with everyday garden-variety procrastination. Sometimes — sometimes! — procrastination gives us the time we need to sort through a thorny issue or to generate ideas. In those rare instances, we should embrace procrastination — even as we push it away the rest of the time."

Congressional Arts Report Card 2008

Arts Action Fund: Advocates for the arts have a chance to Vote smART on November 4, when candidates
for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate will face the voters. This election season provides a watershed opportunity to send to Congress pro-arts lawmakers who realize the value of the arts in fueling creativity and innovation, educating our children, enriching lives, and strengthening communities. Despite the recent gains for cultural funding supported by legislators on both sides of the aisle, the challenge remains to help create a sustainable majority of cultural allies who recognize the impact that relatively modest federal funding has on their districts, states, and the country at large.