Painting While Pregnant

Guild of Scenic Artists: As an industrial hygienist, I am frequently asked by women what precautions they can take at work to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy. It should come as no surprise that many of these women are artists. Perhaps no other profession is so widely all-encompassing in terms of production materials and the variety of “products” a worker can be asked to produce. And for these women, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I don’t have a magic, comprehensive list of products or chemicals for you to use, that will allow you rock-solid confidence in their non-toxicity. The good news is that you do have the power to protect yourself and your baby, using a lot of common sense, a little bit of systematic planning, and knowledge, which will empower you to make deliberate decisions about the work environment and materials you accept.

Sound Designer Peter Hylenski on his Design for Frozen the Musical

Stage Directions: Grammy, Tony, and Olivier Award-nominated sound designer Peter Hylenski (Frozen, King Kong, Motown, Rock of Ages) used a variety of products from Waves Audio for Disney’s Frozen the Musical at the St. James Theater on Broadway, including Waves plugins, SoundGrid, and MultiRack. He detailed how the technologies helped him with sound effects and the illusion of voices approaching from a distance along with sound reinforcement.

ESTA’s Above & Beyond Award Recipients

Stage Directions: The Entertainment Services and Technology Association’s (ESTA’s) Technical Standards Program (TSP) announces the 2018 recipients of the annual Above & Beyond Awards. These awards are peer to peer, designed to allow Technical Standards Program volunteers to recognize other outstanding volunteers.

Making work with 'real' people

Exeunt Magazine: When you’re making a project with a group of real people (n.b. actors are also real people but for the purposes of this article… you know what I mean) you’re doing it not only for the benefit of the wider community, but also for the benefit of the people you’re working with. You’re asking a group of people from a background estranged from the theatre to make a show, be in it, have their mates see it, and probably talk about something that is probably quite traumatic to them. How the fuck do you get people to do that? And, more importantly, why would you want to?

Exploring the Network: OSC Connections

et cetera...: This is the second article explaining Open Sound Control (OSC) in a series titled Exploring the Network written by field service engineer and programmer Sam Smallman. In today’s article we will explore connecting two devices together and communicating via OSC. Whilst this article could be thought of as a guide, its aim is to be more educational in content allowing us to examine the different details necessary to implement such a system.

Update: Local 802 Will File Grievance Against BE MORE CHILL for Reinstating Orchestrator in Pit

www.broadwayworld.com: As BroadwayWorld has been reporting this week, conflict as has arisen at Be More Chill, as Local 802, the union for professional musicians, banned orchestrator Charlie Rosen from performing in the show's pit. Catch up on his story here.

Today, Local 802 has released a letter about the ordeal

Review Roundup: Did Critics Make a Match in Yiddish FIDDLER ON THE ROOF?

www.broadwayworld.com: The critically-acclaimed National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish opens tonight at Stage 42 (422 W 42nd St.) for a limited engagement through June 30, 2019.

The unprecedented success of this Yiddish language production of Fiddler - which is accompanied with English and Russian supertitles was presented by NYTF at the Museum of Jewish Heritage (36 Battery Place) and extended and sold out four times following its premiere there on July 4, 2018. It ran through December 30, 2018.

Writers Guild Sends Hollywood Agents Proposed Code of Conduct

Variety: Leaders of the Writers Guild of America have sent Hollywood talent agencies a proposed “Code of Conduct” with tough new restrictions on how they operate as agents for writer clients.

The WGA made the disclosure Thursday night in an email to its 12,000 members, a day after announcing that it will hold a March 25 vote on the new rules — which would effectively end all packaging deals, in which agencies receive both upfront and backend fees, and bar agencies from any financial interest in any entity or individual “engaged in the production or distribution of motion pictures.”

The Color Orange: History & Meaning of This Culturally Important Hue

mymodernmet.com: Orange is a color that provokes an immediate reaction. What is it about the color orange that makes it so effective? In some cultures, it’s considered a sacred hue, while in others it’s a symbol of royalty. Bold and dynamic, orange is used to signal danger while at the same time create a sensation of excitement.

An Ideal LED Retrofit Solution For Fiber Optic Illuminators

Rosco Spectrum: The Aronoff Center is a performing arts center in downtown Cincinnati comprised of three multi-purpose auditoriums. The largest venue, Procter & Gamble Hall, features a beautiful fiber optic star ceiling that was recently upgraded with LED illuminators. Theatre Consultants Collaborative (TCC) worked alongside Vincent Lighting Systems and The Black Tank to conceive and implement the theater’s new fiber optic lighting system using nearly one-hundred Rosco Pica Cube™ 4C fixtures. Below, Paul Sanow from TCC explains how and why they used the Pica Cubes as fiber optic illuminators to create a bright and colorful starlight effect.

No Where to Go but up

Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama: When Carnegie Mellon School of Drama alumnus Rob Marshall (A 1982) talks about the success of his latest big screen musical, “Mary Poppins Returns,” he doesn’t linger on the positive reviews, awards and honors — although there are many — he instead mentions the impact on those who experience it.

“I have seen how it has transformed people’s lives. They have told me it has helped them deal with loss. It has given much needed feeling, a lift, a sense of joy,” Marshall explains. “I wanted to send the message of this film out into the world now. A message of hope and light in a dark time. This is the moment that we all needed [Mary Poppins] to return!”

Cinema Audio Society Awards - Below the Line

Below the Line: Held at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) 55th Annual Awards show certainly took its place as a show for the ages. Accolades were given in seven categories for outstanding sound in motion picture and television, as well as a student award and recognition of two products for production and post.

The Met to hire all-black chorus for 'Porgy and Bess,' per estate mandate

chicago.suntimes.com: The Metropolitan Opera will hire an all-black outside chorus next season for its first presentation in nearly three decades of the Gershwins’ “Porgy and Bess,” which opens the season on Sept. 23.

Performances of “Porgy and Bess,” which premiered in 1935, are licensed by the Gershwin family, which specifies an all-black cast.

Is It Time for Academy to Honor Stunt Work With Oscars?

Variety: Every movie nominated this year for a best picture Oscar employed a stunt coordinator. Yet not one of these individuals will have the opportunity to receive Academy Award recognition.

The Oscars acknowledge categories ranging across multiple disciplines that support a film’s story and visual dynamics. But the stunt department’s contributions remain unsung. This might be due to misperceptions about what stunt performers actually do these days.

Writers May Face Choice Between WGA, Agents in Franchise Pact Talks

Variety: The Writers Guild of America and the major talent agencies are seven weeks away from a deadline that could force film and TV writers to choose between their agents and their union. This is a battle that has been brewing for a year but few in the industry saw coming until a few weeks ago.

Digital Content Projection Mapped onto The Bushnell Performing Arts Center Facade by UConn Students

Stage Directions: The beautiful neoclassical walls, columns and pediment in the courtyard at The Bushnell lent themselves to the dynamic and colorful graphics and animations created by the UConn students. The Bushnell has been a gathering place for arts, education and community activities in Greater Hartford for almost 90 years. ATD Audio Visual, a full-service event production and rental company in the Bronx, NY, serving as technical partner, selected the Christie Spyder X80 multi-window processor to facilitate this project.

LD Michael Berger Brings Live Action to Love Actually

Stage Directions: California based lighting designer, Michael Berger, recently took on the unusual commission of lighting a special musical stage production of the BAFTA award winning (and Golden Globe nominated) feel good movie, Love Actually, using a number of fixtures from the GLP portfolio.

“An Octoroon” at Kinetic Theatre Company

The Pittsburgh Tatler: An Octoroon is a 21st-century refraction of Boucicault’s play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, an African-American playwright whose plays often center on questions of how historical representations of race continue to wield social power and cultural influence. For example, in his 2010 play Neighbors, he used blackface minstrelsy to explore questions of black identity, pride, shame, and self-loathing.

Update: Local 802 Responds to Dispute with BE MORE CHILL Orchestrator

www.broadwayworld.com: Be More Chill officially began its Broadway run last week, and while the show is already celebrating an exciting milestone, conflict as has arisen between the show and Local 802, the union for professional musicians. As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, Orchestrator Charlie Rosen took to Facebook to explain why the union has prevented him from performing in the pit as Guitar 2 & Ukulele.

Many Magic Moments at Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s New Liberty Magic

Entertainment Central Pittsburgh: “Brilliant” is what Simon Cowell called magician Eric Jones after seeing him smash his buzzer button with a hammer and pull out a card that another judge had just picked. That trick pushed Eric Jones to become a Top 12 semi-finalist on Season 12 of the NBC competition show “America’s Got Talent.” Jones is the opening magician of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s newest attraction, Liberty Magic.