Social Media Strategy Presentation

24 Usable Hours: "I updated the social media strategy presentation for my Artistic Director/Managing Director/senior staff, incorporating more of the research findings, and corrected a few formatting issues. The meeting date’s been set: Jan 25! Of course, the marketing office has already been moving forward: finally launched the Yale Rep Facebook page."

Spring Course

99- 234 Environment Today: Water and Energy

3.0 units

The "Environment Today" is a new course being offered at CMU this spring that will bring students together for three days to discuss real-world environmental problems and solutions that will face our planet for generations to come.

The 3-unit course will be a weekend course from Friday, March 26 to Sunday, March 28. The meeting times will be Friday 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm / Saturday 8:30 am - 6:30 pm / Sunday 8:30 am - 1:00 pm.

The themes will be 'Water' and 'Energy.' The course will provide students with an understanding of environmental problems from a variety of perspectives. Problems will be discussed by professors and professionals with a range of backgrounds. The course should give students an understanding of the economic, cultural, and technological limitations that are preventing solutions to water and energy problems from being widely implemented, and an understanding of the economic, social, and technological potential to address these problems.

See more details here: https://enr-apps.as.cmu.edu/open/SOC/SOCServlet?CourseNo=99234&SEMESTER=S10&Formname=Course_Detail

Shaw labour negotiations on temporary hold

Niagara Advance - Ontario, CA: "Despite a temporary impasse in labour negotiations, Shaw Festival management and union employees are working together with the common goal of ensuring the season's productions open on time, says Festival public relations director Odette Yazbeck."

The Enlightening Bridge Between Art And Work

NPR: "If a Martian came to Earth and tried to understand what human beings do just from reading most literature published today, he would come away with the extraordinary impression that we basically spend our time falling in love, squabbling with our families, and occasionally murdering one another. But of course, what we really do is go to work"

The Blizzard Casts Its Pall on Fashion Week

NewYork Magazine: "Tomorrow, Fashion Week officially kicks off its last season in the Bryant Park tents, which means the white wall of snow falling outside our office right now could not have come at a worse time. Designers and Fashion Week organizers usually scramble to polish runway samples and fit models down to the very last minute before shows. But with so many flight cancellations and so few cars on Manhattan streets right now, many shows won't go on quite as planned."

Runaway Production: Why I’m Filming in Bangkok

Big Hollywood: "I am sitting in my hotel room in Bangkok on a Sunday afternoon; taking a break from prepping a film that will star Djimon Hounsou and be directed by the Steven Spielberg of Thailand, Prachya Pinkaew. Prachya is famous for Om Bak, Chocolat and Tom Yung Goon, three of the highest grossing films in the history of the country. You may be wondering why I am in Thailand and not somewhere in the United States. Why am I in a country 9,000 miles away from home when I could be shooting this movie anywhere in America including Los Angeles."

Tomcat Launches More “Did You Know” Series

Stage Directions: "Tomcat USA, Inc. has released new episodes in its ongoing educational “Did U Know” podcast video series and has expanded its training seminar Tomcat U."

USITT Planning a Star-Studded 50th Celebration

Stage Directions: "USITT is planning a stellar line-up of special speakers and session presenters for its 50th Annual Conference in 2010. USITT, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, connects performing arts design and technology communities to ensure a vibrant dialogue among practitioners, educators, and students. Speakers include Sally Struthers, Dr. Joel E. Rubin, the founder of USITT, Oscar Brockett and legendary lighting designer Jennifer Tipton."

Season Announcement

Mark Your Calendar!
(again)

The 2010/2011 School of Drama
Lab Review Season Announcement

Friday February 19th at 4:00pm
in the Purnell Center lobby

Trespass

TRESPASS is Future Tenant's performance residency series, which allows performance groups of all genres to spend a week at FT developing, rehearsing, and performing their original work at no cost. Applications are solicited periodically throughout the year, and applicants are interviewed
to further discuss their projects. Selected performers are then provided
with staff support, marketing, technical assistance, and a 50/50 split of the box office proceeds from their performances.


Available spring 2010 Trespass residency weeks:

March 1-7

March 8-14

March 15-21

Application at link:

http://futuretenant.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=KDDQLWTZKps%3d&tabid=396

Internship

Internships are currently available in the areas of Costume Design, Scenic Design, and Lighting and Sound Design at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre. Since 1945 we have provided internship opportunities to qualified individuals seeking careers in technical theatre and design. This paid internship program is designed to provide participants with an opportunity to design up to 6 productions under the supervision of Resident Designers and professional staff members. It is a tremendous opportunity for those individuals looking to build their portfolio and gain excellent on the job training before entering a graduate program or seeking permanent employment.

I hope you will forward this email to students that may be nearing graduation and might consider this opportunity to build upon their formal educational experiences in preparation for a career in the theatre.

For more information regarding our Internship Program, please visit our website at http://www.kazoocivic.com/internships/.

NFTRW Weekly Top 5

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

5 Bad Work at Home Habits: Are You Guilty?

FreelanceFolder: "Isn’t working at home great? That’s why so many of us are either already doing it, or dreaming about doing it. We know it’s just the thing for creative types who don’t like structure and hierarchy. Working at home has its perks.
However, working at home also brings many temptations that can sabotage our productivity, creativity, sanity, happiness and even our health.
Below are what I consider to be the five most common pitfalls of working at home, why they’re bad for us, and how we can avoid or overcome them."

Posted by David at 2/10/2010 05:46:00 PM <-- Comments here

CMU raises tuition 2.98%

Post Gazette: "Carnegie Mellon University today announced a 2.98 percent tuition increase for the 2010-11 school year, meaning undergraduates will pay from $39,222 to $41,500, depending on the year of study."

Posted by David at 2/13/2010 06:20:00 PM <-- Comments here

Actress's Performance a Bit Robotic... Literally

Blog Stage: "You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.
According to AFP, a South Korean-developed robot 'actress' has been performing the title role in 'Robot Princess and the Seven Dwarfs.'
The five-foot-two inch tall Eve Robot 3 (EveR-3) was developed by South Korea's state-run KITECH in 2006. The android speaks in both Korean and English, and exhibit 16 different facial expressions."

Posted by David at 2/14/2010 10:59:00 AM <-- Comments here

Gay plays go wide

Variety: "Gay characters in legit works have gone through several distinct phases. After centuries of invisibility, they moved centerstage in then-shocking works like 'Tea and Sympathy' and 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.' Then there were out-and-proud pieces like 'Torch Song Trilogy' and 'Angels in America' (subtitled 'A Gay Fantasia on National Themes'), in which characters grappled with their sexual identity but often came to positive conclusions.'Next Fall,' which opens March 11 at the Helen Hayes Theater, represents a case study of a major shift."

Posted by David at 2/13/2010 06:23:00 PM <-- Comments here

'Love' postpones preview

Variety: "The first West End preview of 'Love Never Dies,' Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to 'The Phantom of the Opera,' has been canceled.
Originally skedded to begin performances at the Adelphi Theater on Feb. 20, the first preview will now take place on Monday, Feb. 22. No show was skedded for Feb. 21, which is a Sunday, when the majority of London legit offerings are dark."

Posted by David at 2/12/2010 01:27:00 PM <-- Comments here

Conservatory Hour

Yes, we are actually having Conservatory Hour next week. Not only that, it will be from 4:30 until 6:00pm because we have three productions to discuss:

Critiques of:

Dead Man’s Cell Phone

Bellhammer

The Beast of Skitter Creek

Monday, Feb. 15 in the Checco Studio A

Pittsburgh Opera's 2010-11 season to include five productions

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Pittsburgh Opera will present five operas, spanning 300 years, during the 2010-11 season.
The four productions being performed at the Benedum Center, Downtown, will be divided between two early 19th-century operas and two 20th-century operas.
The fifth production will feature the company's resident singers performing an 18th-century baroque opera at the Creative and Performing Art School, Downtown."

2010 is performance year for Bavarian town's Passion play

Post Gazette: "Talk about an expensive medical bill.
In 1633, the Bavarian town of Oberammergau fell ill with the plague, and residents are still paying the costs of being healed.
In the midst of the Thirty Years' War, the Black Death swept across Europe. And as the plague moved into Bavaria, the residents of Oberammergau made a pact with God: Spare us, and we'll put on the Passion play once a decade.
The first performance was in 1634, and this year marks the 41st plague-free production."

Actress's Performance a Bit Robotic... Literally

Blog Stage: "You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.
According to AFP, a South Korean-developed robot 'actress' has been performing the title role in 'Robot Princess and the Seven Dwarfs.'
The five-foot-two inch tall Eve Robot 3 (EveR-3) was developed by South Korea's state-run KITECH in 2006. The android speaks in both Korean and English, and exhibit 16 different facial expressions."

Hitting Broadway, Punching and Slapping

NYTimes.com: "LOSING control and making it seem real is one of the most difficult challenges an actor can face. Those who succeed are generally seasoned artists like Geoffrey Rush, who portrayed the traumatized pianist in the film “Shine” or Vanessa Redgrave, who played the morphine-addicted mother in the 2003 Broadway revival of “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” Children, lacking both life experience and training, can have a harder time — which is why the role of Helen Keller, the blind and deaf 6-year-old-turning-7-year-old at the heart of William Gibson’s play “The Miracle Worker,” is one of the most difficult in drama; the character must be chiefly expressed through physical action."

The Director Arin Arbus and Her Woodbourne Prison Project

NYTimes.com: "AT 31, Arin Arbus, the associate artistic director of Theater for a New Audience, is already something of an Off Broadway luminary. She made her Off Broadway directing debut last year with a critically acclaimed production of “Othello,” which the theater plans to revive commercially next season. And her latest production, “Measure for Measure,” which features Jefferson Mays, Rocco Sisto and Elisabeth Waterston, opens at the Duke on Sunday."

Italian opera premiere casts a 'Love Spell'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "When Valentine's Day passes, Jonathan Eaton starts a new hunt for the next romantic opera to present with Opera Theater. After recent productions of 'Porgy and Bess' and 'Lost in the Stars,' he's found himself with a more-obscure opera to champion.
Opera Theater will present Italo Montemezzi's 'L'Incantesimo' (The Love Spell) Friday through Sunday at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. Although Opera Theater productions are usually sung in English, this opera will be performed in Italian with projected English subtitles."

Review: 'Buried Child's' Gothic horror is slow to unveil

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "When it comes to mythic drama, you can't get more Gothic than Sam Shepard's 'Buried Child'.
The 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, which is being performed through Feb. 21 by The Rep, Point Park University's professional theater company, is filled with dark themes and darker secrets."