AES Europe 2023 Delivers Immersive Experience to Sold-Out Audience in Finland

LightSoundJournal.com: The Audio Engineering Society, celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2023, maxed out the capacity of the venue for the recent 154th AES International Convention, held at Aalto University, Espoo, Helsinki, Finland, May 13-15. AES Europe 2023 delivered over 140 sessions to near 450 participants, who came from over 30 countries to learn from world-leading audio experts and experience the latest audio technologies and techniques.

‘They don’t know the rules’: actors hit back at theatregoers phoning, drinking and fighting

Theatre | The Guardian: Punch-ups in the stalls. Drunken audience members singing and shouting over songs. Theatregoers filming performances – or just watching something else on their phones instead. These are just some of the examples of bad behaviour recently reported in theatres. What on earth is it like for actors to contend with such unruliness?

Review: Billy Porter Delivers Dynamic Concert, Feels the Hometown Love at Heinz Hall

onstagepittsburgh.com: The sparkling talent and dedicated drive were always there, pushing against walls of denial and prejudice. Then along came some dynamite named Lola, and Billy Porter became the unstoppable force he was always meant to be.

Writers Guild asks members not to attend 2023 Tony Awards

www.broadwaynews.com: On May 27, an email to members of the Writers Guilds of America East and West (collectively referred to as the WGA) asked union members to refrain from attending the 76th annual Tony Awards in person as the nationwide WGA strike continues.

No “Problem” With Hari: A Preview of Hari Kondabolu at the Den Theatre

Newcity Stage: While nearly everyone shut down their lives during the COVID-19 epidemic, comedian Hari Kondabolu found his life was opening new doors he never expected. He and his wife had a surprise pregnancy that turned their lives upside down, and living that adventure inspired him to create his latest one-hour special, “Vacation Baby,” which he regards as his most personal material ever.

Musical Theatre for Dummies

New York Theater: The “For Dummies” book series began thirty years ago by offering step-by-step practical and unintimidating guides to computer programming geared to intimidated novices. The first title, in 1991, was “DOS For Dummies” (as in Disk Operating System.) “Windows for Dummies” has sold some 15 million copies. The series clearly has branched out since then, because now we have “Musical Theatre for Dummies” (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 395 pages), which is written by Seth Rudetsky.

Announcing the 2023 Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominees -

www.intermissionmagazine.ca: Announced earlier today, the 2023 Dora Award nominations recognize the achievements of more than 140 eligible productions, with a total of 228 nominations across seven divisions. In addition to the nominees for the professional theatre, independent theatre, dance, opera, musical theatre, theatre for young audiences, and touring divisions, the press conference also revealed this year’s recipient of the Province of Ontario’s Pauline McGibbon Award, Samantha McCue.

The Museum Consultant's Calendar Trick

ExhibiTricks: The Museum Exhibit Design Blog: Sometimes when I'm speaking with a new consulting client, our perceptions of the time needed to complete project tasks on-site at their museum are very different. Usually, my contact will express that there is "no way" we will complete all the activities I've proposed to happen at their museum in the time allotted. It doesn't matter whether the time involved is two days or two weeks.

“Every Brilliant Thing” at Kinetic Theater Company

The Pittsburgh Tatler: In the minutes before the show Every Brilliant Thing proper begins, actor Marcus Weiss darts among the audience handing out yellow post-it notes. Mine says “995. Bubble wrap”; my theater-going partner has “2. Water fights.” On the walls around us there are more post-its: “Free parking on Sundays”; “Sand between my toes”; “Fresh cup of coffee”; “Cats watch out the window and chirp at the birds.”

Excerpt: "Shakespeare without a Life" by Margreta de Grazia

Folger Shakespeare Library: Did Shakespeare give much thought to how his works would survive after his death? Margreta de Grazia argues that, judging from his poetry, he did. “Posterity looms large in the Sonnets from their onset,” she writes in Shakespeare without a Life, a new book published in April by Oxford University Press. De Grazia’s account of the development of the “idea” of Shakespeare is based on the 2018 Oxford Wells Shakespeare Lectures. Read the full excerpt below.

Lin-Manuel Miranda says the Tony Awards ‘should not be the be-all-end-all’ of access to this Broadway season

www.broadwaynews.com: On May 19, a crowd of Broadway fans gathered on 46th Street, outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre, for a special “Ham4Ham” mini-concert performance. Lin-Manuel Miranda announced this will be the first in a “Ham4Ham” series slated for this awards season.

Annaleigh Ashford, ‘Into the Woods’ among winners at 2023 Drama League Awards

www.broadwaynews.com: Winners of the 2023 Drama League Awards, celebrating achievement on Broadway and Off, have been announced. The 89th annual awards ceremony was held on May 19 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. Broadway productions from the 2022-2023 season swept in all seven categories.

Very funny 'Exclusion' tells serious story of anti-Asian bias, at Arena Stage

DC Theater Arts: Who gets to tell stories, and for what purpose? Those are the key questions animating Kenneth Lin’s Exclusion, now playing in a world premiere at Arena Stage. Lin’s well-crafted, simultaneously very funny and highly serious, script concerns two related stories. First is the story of pogroms and legislation targeting Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century, which lasted well into the 20th. Second is the story of how that history gets transformed into a commercially successful TV series by today’s entertainment industry.

Onstage in ‘An American Tail,’ a Family’s Jewishness Comes to the Fore

The New York Times: The 1986 animated feature film “An American Tail” begins with a mouse family, the Mousekewitzes, forced to flee their home after men on horseback (and accompanying cats) set fire to their village in Russia in 1885. They travel to the United States, because, Papa sings, “there are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese!”

Tara Nicole Hughes on How The Little Mermaid Brings Dance Under the Sea

Dance Magazine: Bringing Disney’s animated classics to live-action life has taken more than a dusting of pixie dust over the years. The latest adaptation, The Little Mermaid, may be the most extravagant yet: It features a star-studded cast that includes Halle Bailey (Ariel), Daveed Diggs (Sebastian), and Melissa McCarthy (Ursula). But the finished product has been a long time coming. After the pandemic forced a seven-month abandon-ship in the middle of shooting, the film will finally hit theaters on May 26.

The Mixbus Uses A Studer Vista X For Eurovision’s Music Mixes

LightSoundJournal.com: The final of the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Liverpool, UK, on May 13th and attracted a worldwide television audience of over 160 million people. Throughout the week-long extravaganza, music for all of the televised live shows and rehearsals was mixed on the Mixbus, a music and audio outside broadcast facility that now incorporates an Evertz Studer Vista X console.

1,403 exhibitors ready to turn up the volume at Prolight + Sound Guangzhou

LightSoundJournal.com: Opening this week from 22 – 25 May in Area A of the China Import and Export Fair Complex, the 21st Prolight + Sound Guangzhou (PLSG) is set to cater to market demand for advanced professional AV and entertainment technology. This edition is featuring 1,403 exhibitors, marking a 35% increase from last year, and even surpassing the pre-pandemic exhibitor numbers in 2019. With 13 thematic halls and the Y-channel demonstration area covering 130,000 sqm of exhibition space, the fair will once again serve as a hub for global collaboration and production.

City Theatre honors Tomé Cousin, Tacy Byham With Annual Robert Frankel Awards

onstagepittsburgh.com: Tacy Byham and Tomé Cousin were recipients of City Theatre’s annual Robert M. Frankel Awards today, May 20. The awards, bestowed since 1994, are named for the longtime City board leader and were established “to recognize artists and community members who have provided significant and substantial impact on the organization, field and Pittsburgh.”

New play highlights improbable friendship between boxer Gene Tunney and Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw

Chicago Sun-Times: Chicagoans endlessly parse their city’s best-known features: pizza and hot dogs, crime and weather, the blues and the Cubs. While other significant aspects of Chicago are too often simply ignored. Boxing, for instance. Chicago was a big boxing town. The top three heavyweight champions of the 20th century — Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali — all lived in Chicago.

“Parade” Comes to The White House to Honor Jewish American Heritage Month

The BroadwayBlog: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed Parade composer Jason Robert Brown and stars Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond to a White House event celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month, where they performed songs from the musical currently playing on Broadway at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (242 West 45th Street).