Vote for Comment of the Week

As usual, voting closes Friday at noon.

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Carrie Cracknell Adds a 21st-Century Flavor to Ibs...":

I wish this article had been more explicit about what the director plans on doing to connect the feminist issues in the play to today's audiences. I agree that the themes in "A Doll's House" are still very relevant today, but that Nora leaving her husband and children doesn't quite have the same impact nowadays. Even if Cracknell directs the play with those thoughts in mind, how different can it really be? The article mentions Nora using her sexuality to influence the men around her and the hyper-sexualized tarantella scene, but both of those elements are already very much present in the text itself. I would definitely like to see this production to know how the director approached her goal of making "A Doll's House" more relevant to today's women. 

Student #2  has left a new comment on your post "Did a Studio Lengthen Margot Robbie’s Legs for The...":

I don't think I'm as strongly opposed to this as many people on the blog. In something like a magazine shoot or an interview, I do feel opposed to the amount of photoshopping used, especially when it's at the point of completely distorting someone's body. But The Wolf of Wall Street isn't meant to be showing the audience Margot Robbie, its showing us a character. Lena Dunham talks all the time about techniques she uses when filming Girls to distort herself and make herself look heavier and her body more awkward. This isn't about the woman's body, its about the character. The film is meant to capture a very specific world and honestly, as an audience member its unlikely that her legs looking microscopically longer than they already do is going to impact your own body image. In situations where media is aiming to capture real women, I do think there should be more of an effort towards actually having women look like themselves. But this is for a piece of art, and the standards are therefore different. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Can art ever compete with football?":

While I think this is an interesting point to bring up, the tone of the article comes across, to me at least, as an arts writer whining about the perks of being a sports writer. Some of the comments in the article point out the differences between the NFL, which is a 501(c)(6) organization, and a 501(c)(3) arts organization, namely the latter being able to solicit tax-deductible donations and the former is ineligible for foundation grant-type things.

Rather than a productive, "What are we as an industry going to DO about the ubiquitousness of football compared to the relative jargon-sounding arts world", the article feels to me as if it's saying, "Why does everyone like football instead of the arts! I want to write about a popular thing and have it also be arts related and look at these bone-headed editors who don't UNDERSTAND ART AND CULTURE!."

I understand how frustrating inequity can be, but perhaps we as an industry should look to football and other professional sports for ideas about self-promotion. Sports fans seem to dig a good underdog story, and there seems to be enough meat here to spin this as one.

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "If portrait video is wrong, these artists don't wa...":

I really appreciate how though out the artists have been in developing their project. They have found exquisite venues, adapted a projection system to fit their needs, and they even thought to let the front rows have pillows so they don’t have to “crane their necks”. It sounds like a really cool project and I would love to see it in person. I like that they make it clear they aren’t trying to change the world of cinema but rather provide a new opportunity or paradigm. I also love the images of the project; the scale is overwhelming and the color is so vibrant. I was also surprised at first that they are using a film projector rather than a digital projector but it’s really impressive that they have committed to that format. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Legalized Impairment and What Employers Can Do Abo...":

While marijuana is legal in Washington and Colorado, and the legal ramifications of showing up to work high is a grey area, I believe that it's a respect thing. Being high while doing your job isn't just disrespectful to your profession, but it's dangerous. Studies have shown that driving under the influence of marijuana is dangerous to both yourself driving and the other motorists on the road. That being said, if you really value your job, you shouldn't show up stoned. Furthermore, while I support marijuana being recreationally legal, I also support it just being that: recreational. Something you can do in your free time, and not while you're working. You can't smoke cigarettes while you're working (albeit because of different reasons), but it's on the same lines. You're not getting paid to be stoned.

Worth a Look

Here are a few articles from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:

If portrait video is wrong, these artists don't want to be right

The Verge: Portrait videos are a touchy subject. As the logic goes, our eyes are side by side, not stacked on top of one another, making tall and skinny videos something subconsciously unsettling. In a very popular YouTube video two years ago, puppet comedy group Glove and Boots went so far as to call anything shot vertically "crap," while referring to frequent portrait shooters as sufferers of "vertical video syndrome."

Posted by David at 2/22/2014 03:21:00 PM

“Happy Birthday” copyright defense: Those “words” and “text” are ours

Ars Technica: There may be no song more widely sung in America than "Happy Birthday," but it isn't free to sing. Warner/Chappell music licensing, which has long claimed copyright to the words, typically dings filmmakers and TV producers a few thousand bucks for a "synchronization license" any time the song is used in video. Warner reported that by the 1990s the "Happy Birthday" licensing enterprise was pulling in upwards of $2 million annually.

Posted by David at 2/17/2014 01:32:00 PM

Legalized Impairment and What Employers Can Do About It

Occupational Health & Safety: Nov. 6, 2012 may someday become known as the day the drug war went up in smoke. Why? That's the day voters in Colorado and Washington state decided to legalize marijuana use, and not just for medicinal purposes. They voted to legalize marijuana for so-called recreational use. The pro-legalization of marijuana movement signaled that at least four more states (Alaska, Arizona, California, and Oregon) may pass similar legislation this year, and as 2013 came to a close, 20 states plus the District of Columbia already had legalized medical marijuana. New York's governor welcomed the new year by announcing that he intended to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes by executive order, thus bypassing voters and legislators.

Posted by David at 2/18/2014 02:46:00 PM

A New Approach to Othello: Shakespeare's Dark Lady

HowlRound: In March 2014, Amberley Publishing is releasing Shakespeare’s Dark Lady, my biography of the feminist poet Amelia Bassano Lanier, in which I claim that she was not only the “dark lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets but a major co-author of his plays. Five years younger than Shakespeare, she came from a family of Venetian Jews who worked as Queen Elizabeth’s recorder troupe; for a decade was mistress to Lord Hunsdon, the man in charge of the English theater, who later became Patron of the Chamberlain’s Men. She became the first woman in England to publish a book of original poetry with the publication in 1611 of her collection Salve Deus, a religious satire that has odd resemblances to the Shakespearean romances. What is unusual is that this radical research is being supported by a number of Shakespeare and theater scholars.

Posted by David at 2/17/2014 01:30:00 PM

Feminist of the Day: Olivia Wilde

Women and Hollywood: Need a reminder of the awesome and awful power of Hollywood?
In a panel called the "State of Female Justice," actress Olivia Wilde shares a story about being recognized while "on a camel in Senegal" by "the guy who was helping me not fall off my camel." "You're Doctor Thirteen [Wilde's character] on House," she recalls him saying.
That moment led her to realize that "We have to do a better job of representing different lifestyles and women in empowered roles because literally everyone is seeing this stuff that we [in Hollywood] put out. So we have to be more responsible for what we do put out."

Posted by David at 2/22/2014 03:22:00 PM

Greenpage Crosspost

Vote for Comment of the Week

Voting closes Friday at noon.

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Inside The Video Game Industry's Culture Of Crunch...":

I know people say this sounds familiar and are referring to theater. But, as far as I know, in most theaters crunch time is just tech week and no one moves a shows opening up. That is one thing that I never like, when management thinks they are making a good decision because it'll make more money and that their employees will be fine. If the video game industry had crunch time just a week or two before manufacturing, then I wouldn't say anything as long as the devs knew what they were getting into. But planning and thinking its ok to do with your employees all them time, just no. That is what causes burn out. People need to rest and relax. They need a life. They are not mindless machines. Like Sarah said, this is about budgeting. Plan time accordingly. That means when the devs tell the execs their timeline, that is their timeline. They aren't just goofing off and taking extra time! 

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "Fears of the Artist Sustain a Dysfunctional System...":

This was an interesting article to read in tandem with the one about the Minnesota Dance Theater's board. It seems there's a growing discontent with both sides of the NFP art world. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that theater artists need to stop feeling beholden to producers and artistic directors, but, given that the author also wants to empower the artist class by changing the way poverty is glamorized if you're an artist, I wonder if he has any thoughts on how that can be achieved. There isn't room in the arts world for every artist to be self-producing all of their own work. Indeed, that would have a lot of one-person shows, which I feel would end up limiting the power of artists even more. Perhaps there's a way to create some kind of confederation or co-op of producing artists. That introduces a whole other host of managerial issues, but there must be a way for disenfranchised artists to organize in some meaningful way. I look forward to seeing how this conversation continues. 

Student #3  has left a new comment on your post "RE/P Files:The Coming Of Age For The Once-Maverick...":

I think that this article is incredibly awesome. For me the idea of how the audio business has changed since the 80s. I think the years of the Grateful Dead Wall of Sound are totally insane. I always say that I think I was born in the wrong decade, the only way I'll ever experience the sound of these systems and their beauty is through crappy youtube videos and DVDs. That makes me sad. BUT there will be a day where I have the opportunity to design a super awesome rock show designed to sound like an 80s concert and I can guarantee that I will use some of the vintage equipment as long as I can get my hands on it, its a long shot but a man can pray you know. 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "How LED Streetlights Will Change Cinema (And Make ...":

I am pleased to find Geoff Manaugh hits on a few interesting points in his article, from both pro and con sides of Los Angeles switching from high-pressure sodium streetlights to blue-tinted LEDs. I would argue the switch to blue-tinted LEDs would not necessarily make cities look better, but simply different. At least not Los Angeles, or more correctly, my memories of the many years I spent in Los Angeles, a number of those years living downtown close to where the comparison photos were taken. Based on the photo comps in the article, the sodium lights pick up more of the general haze of the city, while the LEDs give a crisp and clear look. Now, hard to say for sure, as the photos were obviously not taken at the same time, and there could have been more smog and/or cloud cover in the sodium light photo. But let us assume they were taken at the same time and compare as such. I quite like the sodium blur, unlike any city I have yet to experience. The LED look is antiseptic. Of course this is merely my opinion, admittedly based on romantic nostalgia. And truth be told, I would have to vote for the LEDs, as they are more environmentally friendly. However, why can they not be tinted yellow??? I love Manaugh’s ponder that city lighting schemes could be subject to historic preservation laws. He also brings up an interesting point with blue leading to disrupted circadian rhythms. This all makes me wonder if I would have fallen in love with Los Angeles if the city had been blue when we first met. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "What Makes an Artist Qualified to Tell a Story?":

I am actually impressed by this article because it has changed my views and understanding of a qualified artistic perspective. Growing up, I have heard many times that white people are just unable to understand the suffering of black people. And if I presented this article to many of my family members, they would still sneer.

The way that the article presents perspective is really interesting because I would assume that I a person would need to go through a historical experience or at least have some contact with it. But, they way that she presents it shows that someone can relate even if that haven't and has the right to create what they have experienced like any other person who has experienced it first hand.

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Move Over Product Design, UX Is The Future

Co.Design | business + design: For decades, the most successful businesses thrived on product innovation as the natural strategy to increase revenues, market share, and loyalty. Fast forward to 2014: today’s product innovations, and the growth they create, are often incremental, narrow, and fleeting. Take TVs or PCs--every competitor quickly matches the latest features, speed, brightness. As a result, companies are finding that returns from product efforts are harder to rely on. Among the Global Innovation 1000, R&D spending rose 5.8% last year, yet revenue for those companies increased less than 1%. Global competition and technological diffusion mean that competitors quickly catch up with most improvements, while the transparency of digital and social media also prompts consumers to quickly switch allegiance with each new alluring offer.
Enter: the experience.

Posted by David at 2/13/2014 02:02:00 PM

What Makes an Artist Qualified to Tell a Story?

HowlRound: When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with mythology. Greek, Roman, Indian, Norse, you name it…I loved them all, more so than your standard fairy tales. I loved the epic nature of the stories that were so magical but also so obviously written (or orally shared through time) to speak to universal truths about the human condition. They were remarkably similar from culture to culture, and transcended the boundaries of time. In the seventh grade, we were assigned the task of writing a myth, and I wrote one with the Norse gods, explaining how Norway got its jagged coast. I have it to this day, with the red A+ prominently displayed at the top, not as a reminder of my twelve-year-old genius (note heavy sarcasm), but a reminder that no matter where you’re from, you can tell a story about another person if you focus on the universality of the tale and their experience, and not the specificity of their race. I believe my teacher assigned this task to teach us just that…no matter the color, gender, or year that a character belongs to, their humanity makes their story equally worthy of being told.

Posted by David at 2/13/2014 02:01:00 PM

A Message From Flea

RHCP News: When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song Give It Away at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums, and guitar would be pre-recorded. I understand the NFL's stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the t.v. viewers. There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period.

Posted by David at 2/11/2014 12:49:00 PM

The Show Goes On

St. Louis Magazine - January 2014 - St. Louis, Missouri: Ron Himes stands next to a photographer at the back of Harris-Stowe State University’s Emerson Performance Center. A social-media consultant and Harris-Stowe’s facilities manager look on as the photographer snaps pictures. The venue is significantly smaller than the 470-seat Grandel Theatre, where his theater company, The Black Rep, performed for two decades. Here, shows are scheduled around basketball games and other events, so the photographer tries to work quickly.

Posted by David at 2/15/2014 03:39:00 PM

How 82,529 Hats Became a Video Screen For Super Bowl XLVIII

Show content from Live Design Magazine: On Sunday, 82,529 fans descended on MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, NJ, for what would be the most watched television event in history, to the tune of 111.5 million viewers. As the fans took their seats before the Super Bowl began, they were given a bag of goodies to help combat the expected cold temperatures, despite the balmy 49 degree kick-off temperature. In the bag of goodies, under the gloves, hand warmers, tissues, lip balm, and scarf, was a small black beanie in a bag with a warning label on the package telling fans not to open the bag until instructed to do so by the stadium announcer. Most fans followed instructions, but I had an idea what was in the bag and couldn’t resist opening it early. Most fans didn’t notice, at first, the three small LEDs and the infrared receiver mounted to the front of that hat, cleverly hidden within the logo of the Pepsi Halftime Show. Most fans didn’t realize that they would soon be a part of the largest human video screen ever created.

Posted by David at 2/13/2014 01:59:00 PM

Vote for Comment of the Week

voting closes Friday at noon.

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Is A Ticket A Contract?":

I think a ticket is a contract. But I think that it is a contract on both sides. The theatre, by selling someone a ticket, agrees to hold a seat for an audience member. That is their end of the contract. The audience member is expected to conform to the rules of the theatre and to not disturb other patrons, or they will be asked to leave. That is the agreement they make when they desire to go to the theatre. The no-refund policy is a little more vague. It is true that the audience doesn't agree to that until after buying the ticket. But most often the box office will inform them of this before they buy a ticket. And it is pretty much common knowledge that you will not receive a refund if you buy a ticket. So even though it is not an official contract, a ticket really is one. Because the audience expects something of the theatre, and the theatre expects something of the audience. And by buying that ticket an agreement is made. 

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "You’re Reading Romeo & Juliet Wrong. You’re Suppos...":

I like the fact that people are thinking critically about Romeo and Juliet, but I have to point out that the prologue says that they are "A pair of star-cross'd lovers." Shakespeare himself says that they are lovers at the very beginning of the play before any characters are even introduced; and you can't argue with the exact wording of the script when you are interpreting it.
I also don't think that we are supposed to think about the relationship between Romeo and Juliet much anyway. The play is really about the consequences of having family feuds. The audience is supposed to see the tragedy that these two kids had to kill themselves to stay together because of the fighting going on between their families. Paris's whole monologue at the end is talking about how they must never fight again in remembrance of what these kids had to do. Their relationship is irrelevant; and both houses are out of heirs. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Permission to Fail":

I think this would be a great article for anyone in our Basic Design class to read. This line in particular resonates with what I think one of the main intentions of our Basic Design class may be:
"the purpose of the contemporary art school is not so much to teach students how to make art as to show them how to be artists." Throughout the year, I know that some of us have at times felt frustrated with design projects. Sometimes, it can be hard to understand what the purpose of our projects are which can make working on them confusing and challenging. But going into this semester, I have been better able to understand that this class is not so much about practical techniques as it is about teaching us how to think in order to prepare us for learning to be designers. 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Life-size Titanic replica planned for Chinese them...":

This article is actually kind of disturbing to me. I feel like people sometimes forget that the sinking of the Titanic was a horrible tragedy where 1,500 people died, not just a James Cameron film. I feel like this really speaks to the effect that movies can have on our collective understanding of events. Because of this movie, the first thing people think of when they think of the Titanic is romance, not tragedy. They think of two people falling in love, not 1,500 dying in freezing water. This seems like a perfect example of this- the fact that someone thought this would be an appropriate theme park attraction seems incredibly disrespectful and disturbing. It would be like someone 100 years from now making a theme park attraction imitating 9/11- the event will no longer have the same terrible emotional connection to the people at that time, but that doesn't mean it will ever be appropriate to make light of those people's deaths. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Climate Science’s Challenge to Artists":

A noble gesture. It looks like the drive to change public opinion about the climate's endangerment is becoming more resourceful in its employment of idea-changers. Malpede suggests that a conceivable way to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis is through art– to tug at the heartstrings of the public and inspire a movement to change climate policy. What I would add to that discussion, and would tell Ms. Malpede herself, is not to insult the intelligence of the theatre-going community. She cites the Greek tragedians enough, and their use of drama to create a forum for social and political change, but they did so through metaphorical drama, not literal interpretation. It is apparent that the general public is fed up on global warming, being shouted at by the truth-tellers and feeling manipulated by those who would have us remain ignorant. Who is going to want to go to the theatre to watch a play about climate control? I haven't seen these plays, but from the sound of it, something tells me Sniffley is unnecessary. And stupid. An audience can sympathize and digest information without it being spelled out for them. Why does dance affect us so if there are no words spoken? Why can we sit and observe, and feel something, without being told how to feel? My proposal: find a more accessible vehicle. Trust your audience will understand your analogy. If your theatre is inspirational-- not condescending and contrived-- people will want to contribute to your cause. Level with your viewers.

Worth a Look

Here are a few articles from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:

Ideas abound at public meeting held to save August Wilson Center

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Maybe there are performers, some known nationally who have helped stage works by August Wilson over the years, who would be moved to donate money to help save a cultural center bearing the Pittsburgh-born playwright's name.
Or perhaps some local pro sports figures with millions of dollars in personal wealth could be compelled to get behind a community cause.
For nearly three hours Friday, a Pittsburgh Public Schools committee considered those and other ways the district could acquire and preserve the now-dormant August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

Posted by David at 2/06/2014 02:52:00 PM

Broadway Expands Its Green Practices to Theaters Across the U.S.

EcoWatch: If you had the pleasure of taking in a Broadway performance in the past five years, you also witnessed sustainability taking center stage.
The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) celebrates five years of greening productions this week by launching an initiative to bring sustainable practices to theaters across the country. In collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the BGA says its online Theatre Greening Advisor is the most comprehensive theater greening information database available.
The organizations want to provide environmentally preferable options to producers, theater owners, designers, managers and design shops in the same way that the BGA brought them to Broadway in New York City.

Posted by David at 2/05/2014 12:34:00 PM

After Complaints, 'Millie' Gets Thoroughly Modern Makeover for Dalton School

NYTimes.com: Leaders of the Dalton School, one of Manhattan’s top private schools, this month canceled a student production of the musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” over concerns about the show’s use of Asian stereotypes and a subplot involving a white slavery ring in China, planning to replace it with a revue of the show’s songs instead.

Posted by David at 2/04/2014 01:32:00 PM

FENCES

McCarter Theatre Center: Join us for an exciting conversation between Tony Award-winning actor and Fences director Phylicia Rashad and special guest moderator Melissa Harris-Perry, professor of Political Science at Tulane University, MSNBC host, columnist for The Nation, and author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.

Posted by David at 2/03/2014 12:09:00 PM

Don’t Get Screwed: The Contract Provisions Every Creative Needs to Know

99U: Four months later, the job still wasn’t finished, and my friend still wasn’t paid half of what he was owed. The founders were constantly changing their minds about what they wanted, sending my friend additional “specs” long after he had started the work. Eventually, realizing that he had already spent more time than it was worth, my friend wrote the project off, never collecting the rest of his fee.

Posted by David at 2/08/2014 03:41:00 PM

Ellipses...

Let's try this again.  It's been quite a while...  I didn't see the evolution/creationism debate.  Somehow I don't think it will change any minds...  I am right tired of the cold.  It'd be nice to be able to go out without a base layer again...  My original Slingbox has (I think) officially shit the bed.  Long live the new Slingbox (once it gets here)...  I pretty much thought it had fallen apart for Chris Christie last week.  Now I just wish MSNBC would take the story out of high rotation...  Do you know anyone that needs an MFA in Technical Direction?  Send them my way...  A little bit I think Pittsburgh ought to be embarrassed about losing the August Wilson Center...  The Superbowl didn't turn out to be something to write home about, either the game or the ads...  Tomorrow I am doing attributed blocks in CAD class.  I am a fan of attributed blocks...  Mrs. TANBI and I have to pick an executor, trustee, and guardian.  Something tells me these won't be the last decisions...  Also with the cold I have had pretty much enough with the snow too...  Today marks my officially being replaced as precollege dp coordinator...  Unloading those few items I listed on Craigslist isn't going all that well...  The winter olympics started tonight.  I've got my fingers crossed they come off alright...  All things being equal we're less than 21 days away from a big event...  The truck, the truck doesn't sound well.  I think it has something to do with the power steering...  It seems like the NFTRW Podcast is petering out.  Just aren't finding people to go on camera.  It's too bad really...  We got a new Roku to avoid renting a new cable box.  So now there's a Roku in the guest room...  The Lego movie comes out this weekend, but I can't go until friends get back from Orlando...  I think maybe chat is over.  I don't run AIM anymore and pretty much never chat over Skype...  I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use the leaf blower to clear snow off the car until now...

Vote for Comment of the Week

Voting closes Friday noon.

Student #1  has left a new comment on your post "NBC Will Air a Live Version of Peter Pan in Less T...": 

I had a good laugh reading this article, and while The Sound of Music may not be considered successful among theatre-folk, I have to disagree with the negative attitude toward live broadcasting of musicals and plays. Yes, NBC casted a "star" as the lead role, and maybe she wasn't what everyone wanted her to be as Maria. However, how far off is this idea of "casting a star" from what is going on in nearly every production on Broadway? Not far at all. Most people I talked to absolutely loved getting to watch a live performance of a musical while sitting in their living rooms on a Thursday night. Of course, as people heavily involved in theatre, we are going to really critique the performance, but most people do not have the same perspectives we have. In reality, The Sound of Music Live attracted an insane amount of viewers, and all of those viewers were exposed to theatre through their living rooms. For people who either physically or financially cannot take themselves or their children to the theatre, this NBC broadcast is a brilliant alternative. Also, by broadcasting live theatre to millions of Americans, NBC is actually promoting our industry, no matter how much Underwood couldn't act or sing or dance. The point is, NBC is acknowledging the difficult task of mounting a theatrical production, and they are embracing it for the whole world to see. Maybe we should embrace it, too. 

Student #2  has left a new comment on your post "Directing, Creative Freedom, and Vandalism": 

I really enjoyed this article, I think that the relationship between director and playwright is very interesting. The author of this made solid points, and was especially justified in his stance as a director himself. The first of his numbered points was one of the strongest and most significant to me. Here, the author explains that there is a difference between the collaboration of a director and a playwright and a director violating contract by changing the script. This article made me think about the general attitude towards writers in relation to a director. When I think about movies, credit typically seems to be given more to the director than to the screenwriter, at least as far of who the attention is on. With plays I think there may be more of a balance. I'm not really sure if there are implications of this, but I guess it relates to this attitude that the director should get complete creative control and is therefore justified in whatever he choses to take. It's interesting when the playwright is the primary artist who's work is being interpreted in the first place. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "How 'Noise-scapes' Are Affecting Us": 

This article is PROOF that a loud working environment is detrimental to the quality of your work. The old saying "you need to be quiet I cant think straight" must be true! I think everyone can take a valuable lessen from this article and reconsider polluting a work environment with noise. I know sometimes I can be just as guilty as anyone else but that being said Studio 33 is a WORK environment, 95% of the time I am in the studio trying to concentrate it is extremely loud. I hope most of the class reads this article and we can all agree on some house rules in regards to being loud and obnoxious while people are trying to get through stressful work. I would never have even considered that loud noise would make you physically uncomfortable but after reading the article and thinking about it the more it starts to make sense. While noise level has somewhat of a factor in distracting people I think any noise at all can play a large part in this as well. Why? Think about it... if someone is carrying out a reasonable "indoor voice" conversation but you sit close enough you hear what there talking about. Then all you can concentrate on is what food they think is better and why instead of where your next line should go. At the very least when I have to crank my music so loud to cover up people shouting about something or another from one side of the room to the other... We have a problem! 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Stratasys creates world's first color multi-materi...": 

So this is really interesting to me because the other day in my film class we talked about animation. Not just any animation, but a new type of animation that uses color 3D printing. The example from class specifically was the movie ParaNorman. It was a fairly recent stop motion animation film...but if you watch it, you'd never peg it for stop motion. The reason for this is, in older stop motion, and really any stop motion before this film, the animators had one of two options for moving the characters. Some animators made models that could morph and move. The problem was, there was little consistency and it took forever to get the models just right to take the next shot. The other (and more popular option in professional stop motion, as well as the most recent) is a system in which each character has a skeleton with removable parts. But up until ParaNorman, each character would have around 800 different faces. That sounds like a lot, but think of how many separate frames there are between two different faces, and the number of combinations of faces (smiling to sad, happy to bored, quizzical to amused, yadda yadda). ParaNorman animators decided to use a new piece of technology (color 3d printing) to print over 2000 faces for each character AND have all the skin tones match because they were computer generated (before, artists had to paint each of the 800 faces, and thus the paint was simple because it had to stay consistent). This meant the frame to frame resolution was immense and all of the effects were very cohesive. This 3D printer could provide another layer to that animation process, allowing more lifelike skin qualities or other options that animators still do by hand. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Antipermanence: An Argument for Increased Infrastr...": 

I think that only large non-profit theatres are broken. The smaller ones tend to be more about doing theatre and making people happy, so they care less about making money. No one gets paid in non-profit theatre, so it is hard to imagine that any non-profit theatres want to make money. I mean, sure you can stock up the organizations bank account and pretend to make money, but you personally aren't getting any money. It is weirdly relevant to my situation right now. Recently, my loal community non-profit theatre started worrying about money problems. The last show we put on didn't draw that large of a crowd, so we didn't make as much as we usually do on ticket sales. Of course there was plenty to cover the cost of putting the show on, but we had to draw from our savings in order to donate the usual amount of money that we give to charities every year. This really concerned some of the Board members for some reason. I mean, non-profit means that all of the money goes back to the community, but we have about $35,000 in the bank just in case we don't get any audience at all for a show (That is about how much it costs us to put on a show including space rental). What they don't realize is that we will always get an audience. Even if the show is something like Will Rogers Follies, which is the show that didn't draw much, we have a couple hundred loyal audience members that come out no matter what the show is because they enjoy the atmosphere of our theatre. Also, we are pretty much professional quality without anyone getting paid. Time and time again, people find our theatre group, come see a show, and then talk about how they felt like they had just seen a Broadway production for a 10th of the cost. Sure, non-profit theatre is dying a little from the fact that the people who were around when it was big are getting older, but that doesn't mean people don't go at all. Broadway is the big thing again and the younger generation doesn't realize that there are wonderful community and non-profit theatres putting on beautiful pieces of artwork just because they love what they do. 

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time:

Having Gone Largely Unnoticed In The 'Game Of Thrones' Series, It's Now Impossible To Take Your Eyes Off It

Smatterist: You’re probably a big fan of Game of Thrones and you may have even watched the series at least a dozen times in anticipation of the new season. But through all those viewings, did you ever notice the attention to detail that goes into the show? For example, the costumes. Have you ever really looked at the intricate designs on all of them? You probably haven’t, but after seeing these, you won’t be able to ignore them.

Posted by David at 1/29/2014 12:52:00 PM

Off-Broadway comedy funded by travel industry

Yahoo News: A new off-Broadway comedy about a pair of travel agents and their wacky clientele's demands has an unusual source of funding.
It's underwritten by the very industry it portrays.
"Craving for Travel" is the brainchild of Jim Strong, who owns a $40 million-a-year luxury travel company in Dallas and wrote two self-published books with the same name as the play. Strong's co-sponsors for the show include Viking and Holland America cruise lines, Travel + Leisure magazine and the Four Seasons hotel chain.

Posted by David at 1/29/2014 12:50:00 PM

A Dancer & Health Insurance

FROM THE GREEN ROOM: Dance/USA's e-Journal: I have been without health insurance for one year, three months, and 10 days as of today. I am 27 years old, physically active, have no chronic health problems that require treatment or medication. I don’t smoke. I only drink on occasion (and then in moderation), and as a freelance dancer and part-time non-profit administrator in New York, I make about $22,000 a year after taxes. I am at once exactly the kind of person the Affordable Care Act was written for, and exactly the kind of person they are afraid won’t sign up.

Posted by David at 1/29/2014 12:47:00 PM

5 Tech Tools Every Director in the Musical Theatre Industry Should Be Using

Theatrical Writes: I’ve hit that age where frightening stuff like, “When I was a kid we just had to make plans and stick to them. No fancy SMS’n for us! And we liked it,” starts coming out of my brain and then mouth and generally bumming out my kid. Never mind that I’ve become a texting machine, am constantly online and embrace any new tech gadget that promises to make my life easier.

Posted by David at 2/01/2014 03:59:00 PM

The Russian Broadway Community Responds to Russian Anti-Gay Propoganda Law

fbomb: Anybody who has been paying even a modicum of attention to the 2014 Winter Olympics knows about the outrage caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to sign into law an act prohibiting the promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships to minors. The law isn’t only disappointing from a basic human rights perspective, but specifically worrisome for gay Olympians, who fear they may face discrimination or even arrest while participating in the games. Activists all over the world have made their feelings about this situation known — from American LGBTQ groups to Sweden to, now, even the Broadway community.

Posted by David at 1/28/2014 01:14:00 PM