Sunday, March 22, 2015

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from the last three weeks of the Greenpage that might be worth your time...

‘Midnight Rider’ First AD Hillary Schwartz Guilty; Gets 10 Years Probation

Deadline: Midnight Rider’s first assistant director Hillary Schwartz was found guilty of criminal trespass and involuntary manslaughter today and will receive 10 years probation and no prison time. Under terms of the deal, she cannot be a director or assistant director, but she can be a producer in a capacity other than overseeing the safety of others. She also was slapped with a $5,000 fine.
 

Essential Pittsburgh: An August Wilson Protégé on How He Learned What He Learned

90.5 WESA: August Wilson is well known for his 20th century cycle of works about the black experience in America. But now an additional play written shortly before Wilson’s death is debuting in Pittsburgh. Actor Eugene Lee and Director Todd Kreidler, Wilson’s friend and protégé, explain what “How I Learned What I Learned” reveals about the playwright’s life as a poet in the Hill District.

A Call For R/evolution

FROM THE GREEN ROOM: Dance/USA's e-Journal: Sarah Austin’s recent controversial piece, “Is American Modern Dance a Pyramid Scheme?” is a symptom of a larger cultural, socio-economic shift that continues to affect both the arts and education. This is a shift in the perceived and broadcasted value of learning, experience, and critical thinking. Austin’s article arrived on the heals of related pieces about writing and theater programs. Clearly there is work to be done inside of arts programs, on the parts of students, administrators, and faculty, but there are larger issues at play. I may not agree with all of Austin’s points, but I applaud her bravery in stepping on a hornets’ nest and stirring us all to swarm. A lively dialogue happened on Facebook here, here, and I’m sure on many other “walls” as well.
 

Equity Fires Back at L.A. Theater Critics

Backstage: The Actors’ Equity Association is engaged in an increasingly heated debate with critics of its minimum-wage proposal. The union has used its Twitter handle to promote its 99-seat reform plan and push back against what it calls falsehoods, including one rumor that Executive Director Mary McColl was “approaching grantors requesting that they not make grants to 99 seat companies.”

The Reality of Six-Figure Debt on an Actor’s Salary

MagnifyMoney: Freddy Arsenault is a Broadway actor with six figures of student loan debt, thanks to the MFA acting program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Among actors, Arsenault is one of the “lucky ones”. According to Actors Equity Association, the professional theatre actors union, fewer than 15 percent of due paying members are able to secure work in any given week and only 17,000 of 40,000 members work in a given year. Of those jobs, only a select few carry the prestige and paycheck of a Broadway show.

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