Monday, September 26, 2016

Worth a Look

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

Want to Be an Artist? Be Passionate and Realistic About Your Career

NEA: I almost didn’t become an artist. Throughout school, I acted but never envisioned it as a vocation. As a Sri Lankan woman immigrant, I didn’t have role models who looked like me out there in public. My own experience didn’t give me the courage to pursue theater as a profession. When I was playing a supporting role as a bag lady in an eighth-grade production, the director pulled me aside and said, “You have talent. Stick with it. You have such an expressive face.” I was flattered but wondered, Then why did you cast me as the bag lady?



When A Tree Falls in Athens and Rises in Camelot, Whose Design Is It Anyway?

Arts Integrity Initiative: There’s a very large tree that has been traveling around the Dallas-Fort Worth region in Texas. There’s no need to worry, as the tree hasn’t acquired independent mobility and become sentient, but rather, it has made major appearances in two theatrical productions in the area in a short span of time. Designed originally by Bob Lavallee for the Trinity Shakespeare Festival production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Texas Christian University, it just finished a run center stage in Camelot at Lyric Stage.


How “N*W*C” Became Drama Non Grata On A California State Campus

Arts Integrity Initiative: To start at the end, or at least where we are today: Michele Roberge, executive director of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on the campus of California State University, has resigned, effective yesterday. Why? Because the school’s president, Jane Close Conoley, insisted upon the cancelation of Roberge’s booking of the comedy N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk, a show that has toured extensively for more than a decade to performing arts centers on and off college campuses. In fact, it played to a sold out house of more than 1,000 seats last year at the Carpenter Center. When Conoley raised a red flag earlier this year, Roberge made it known that if Conoley forced the cancelation, she would resign on principle. And so when the axe fell, she did.


It Only Takes Six Seconds To Hear The World’s Most Sampled Song

FiveThirtyEight: Fans know that when a new Beyoncé, Kanye or Diplo track drops, it will likely contain a musical sample — an instrumental or vocal nugget from a song of yesteryear. That nugget will be rearranged, looped or otherwise given new context. Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” for example, didn’t just introduce us to an unusual dance style; its sped-up sampling of an 1972 R&B hit reintroduced the world to Timmy Thomas and the distinctive beat of “Why Can’t We Live Together.”


If You Build A Censorship Machine, They Will Come

Electronic Frontier Foundation: If you have the power to censor other people’s speech, special interests will try to co-opt that power for their own purposes. That’s a lesson the Motion Picture Association of America is learning this year. And it’s one that Internet intermediaries, and the special interests who want to regulate them, need to keep in mind.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Worth a Look

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

Stagehands at ZACH Theatre ask city to step into wage fight

Austin Monitor: Although they’re used to being behind the scenes, the stagehands from ZACH Theatre are going public with their requests for more equitable pay.

On Sept. 1, representatives of the stagehands asked City Council to put stipulations on cultural organizations like ZACH Theatre requiring that they pay fair and stable wages. This is the first campaign for a newly forming stagehand’s union at the theater. At the heart of their fight, they say, is Austin’s creative community’s struggle to secure a stable living so it can afford to stay in the rapidly growing city.


Mark Bly in conversation with Katalin Trencsényi: "Questioning Spirit”—Dramaturgy in America

The Theatre Times: Mark Bly is an American dramaturg, editor, and lecturer. He was the chair of the Playwriting Program at the Yale School of Drama from 1992-2004, while being the associate artistic director at the Yale Rep. He taught dramaturgy at Yale and was the director of the MFA Playwriting Program at Hunter College from 2011-2013, and is currently adjunct professor in the MFA Playwriting Program at Fordham/Primary Stages. Over the past thirty-five years, he has served as a dramaturg, director of new play development, and associate artistic director at venues such as the Arena Stage, the Alley Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, the Seattle Rep, theYale Rep and on Broadway, dramaturging and producing over two hundred plays.


Theater Director at Cal State-Long Beach Quits After Racially Charged Play Is Canceled

The Ticker - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education: Michele Roberge resigned this week as theater director at California State University at Long Beach after 14 years in the post, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports. Her resignation followed a disagreement with administrators over whether the university’s performing-arts center should host the racially charged play N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk.


From the Executive Director: Dirty Words

Theatre Bay Area: Early in the spring, conversations began to circulate around a local upcoming production of The Mikado by Lamplighters Music Theatre. In the past few years the Gilbert and Sullivan favorite has become a touchstone for protest and controversy. A Seattle production in 2014 inflamed and bitterly divided the city's artistic community, drawing attention from the national press.






Artists are Salvaging Train Stations' Analog Departure Boards

Atlas Obscura: For years, noisy analog departure boards have been disappearing from Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. These boards, most remarkable for the flapping, clacking sound they make as their split-flap cards flip to reveal new information, are often called Solari boards, after the Italian company that invented them. New York Penn Station lost its original one around 2000. Boston replaced its board, which was breaking twice a day, the Globe reported, in 2008. New Haven and Baltimore took theirs out of commission in 2010.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Worth a Look

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

For its Next Act, Cirque Goes to China

www.cirquefascination.com: AFTER entertaining millions of people in dozens of countries over the years, China offers a new realm of possibilities for acrobatic dance troupe Cirque du Soleil.

During his visit to China earlier this month, Cirque du Soleil CEO Daniel Lamarre confirmed the entertainment company’s expansion plans in China. In April, Fosun, China’s leading investment group, joined American investment firm TPG to become one of Cirque du Soleil’s largest strategic partners in a deal that will facilitate its global business development.


Women to Watch

THE INTERVAL: Despite the dearth of women writing, directing, and designing on Broadway, there are a lot of fabulous women making theatre and changing the theatrical landscape beyond the Great White Way. We asked women who had been featured on The Interval, and those in the know in the theatre community, to recommend emerging female theatre artists who they’re excited by and who deserve more exposure and support. So here are 16 female writers, directors, designers, and producers who the theatre community should be watching






Scholar: Shakespeare Didn’t Coin Many of the Words Attributed to Him

Flavorwire: In addition to his insights and his memorable poetry, Shakespeare is widely credited with inventing many words and phrases that can’t be found further back in the historical record. But perhaps he’s been given too much credit as an originator of words and phrases. Dr. David McInnis, a Shakespeare lecturer at the University of Melbourne, says some of this fallacy is due to the Oxford English Dictionary’s early editors being “biased” towards Shakespeare, ignoring previous uses of certain phrases. Examples of phrases originally attributed to the Bard that can be found earlier include wild-goose chase and it’s Greek to me, according to McInnis’s research.


Missing Voices and Misogyny in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s All-Male Shrew

HowlRound: Perhaps the best place to preface a critique of Shakespeare Theatre Company’s all-male Taming of the Shrew is the end: Katherina (Kate) delivers her final speech with unflinching honesty, bemoaning that women “seek for rule, supremacy, and sway/ Whey they are bound to serve, love, and obey.” She implores Bianca and the Widow to join her, creating a silent, encapsulating snapshot: three women prostrate before their husbands, hands extended to be crushed beneath their companions’ feet. Regardless of the corseted actors’ gender identities, Shakespeare Theatre Company leaves audiences with a searing image of female submission to men—about as traditional an interpretation of Shakespeare’s play as one can find.


Feast your eyes on the 2016 incarnation of Burning Man

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Where the rows of tents and RVs end, a virtual outdoor museum begins. Stretching over two miles into the open desert, structures large and small rise from the pale dust: a cluster of lighthouses, the front half of a 747 airplane, a net of undulating lights. In every direction there’s something new to feast your eyes upon, or even climb or crawl into. At nightfall, the installations become illuminated or otherwise transform and present an entirely different landscape to explore.

Friday, September 09, 2016

Ellipses...

Does this game count or is it preseason?  Looks like it counts...  Don't think we'll be charging out to upgrade our phones...  Had one of those twitter posts today that I had to unpost.  Much more appropriate for the walled garden of my Facebook feed...  It is possible that Johnson could have spun his Aleppo gaffe into an explanation of Libertarian priorities.  Doesn't look like he will though...  TD 3 this year is turning out to be more like TD Seminar.  It is possible that is a good thing...  They're paying $200,000 per day to have the Liberty Bridge closed.  You'd think that would be a fairly strong motivator...  Haven't been in my car in longer than I can remember...  In other news, I really am not that fond of the bus...  Lots of Star Trek news today.  I'm not sure but I think the show is cool all of a sudden...  Our fantasy league commissioner may have dropped the ball a little.  The season started tonight, our draft is Saturday...  Lego sales have been so good that the Lego people have been trying to get people to buy less so they can keep up...  The whole school assembly that I thought was potentially problematic turned out to be just fine...  North Korea detonated a nuke yesterday.  So that makes me feel so much better about the state of the world...  What is it with my computer that it is so hitchy?  Is it time for a new computer?  I just don't get it...  I'm not sure that requiring apps will give us the freedom from the cable box we deserve...  Right now I think I would predict a 50% chance of the NFTRW Podcast happening this year...  I watched some of Trump last night.  I probably shouldn't do that...  I spend a whole lot of time sitting in a chair in the boy's room.  Parent tip: pick a comfortable chair...I wish the cable news shows would devote at least 50% of their time to something other than the election.  Or maybe I should just stop watching cable news... 

Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Ellipses...

The Five Thirty Eight did a post today that read, to me, like a horror story...  I'm liking my new office keyboard, but typos are on the increase...  First assignment was due today.  Almost everyone did it...  I'm on my own with the boy and my in-laws this week...  I really wish the AC wouldn't run so much...  Met the neighbor today, their basement took last week harder than ours...  The bus is really crowded at 10am...  Season Four of Orange is the New Black became very OZ-like...  I don't know when it happened, but the garage floor is almost completely visible...  Firefox on my laptop has become so, so, slow...  If you are keeping track I still haven't finished that room in the attic...  My work Twitter picked up a bunch of followers this week.  Could have something to do with that account suddenly following a bunch of people...  I have three syllabi to complete this semester, so far I have finished one.  Guests make finalizing schedules difficult...  The guy that come to do an estimate on grading the back yard hasn't sent me the bid.  I think I shouldn't hold my breath...  I wrote an IFTTT recipe today that could save me like an hour every week.  I'll keep you posted...  The lines for food on campus have been way too long this week...  My wife has told me I have to do fantasy football this season because I won last season...  I've been thinking a lot about getting to the next work plateau.  Not sure what to make of that...  The boy has the first prolonged cold I can remember.  His ability to produce snot is impressive...  I turned off a bunch of my Twitter 'bots.  I figure if they were annoying me they must have been annoying others - of course that assumes anyone was following that account in the first place...

Monday, September 05, 2016

Worth a Look

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

Broadway Plays Contradict #TonysSoDiverse

HowlRound: The 2016 Tony Awards Ceremony was a historic night when four actors of color won all of the best performance awards in a musical category. That, along with the slew of wins for Hamilton, reinforced the notion that “Diversity is the theme of the entire season.” Well, for musicals that is.


National Labor Relations Board Dings Opponents of AEA’s New Rules for 99-Seat Theaters; Appeal to be Filed

@ This Stage: In round one of a filing by plaintiffs in the Asner, et al versus Actors’ Equity Association against the national stage actors and stage manager’s union, Actors’ Equity Association, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dismissed the unfair labor practices complaint on August 30.

The filing with the NLRB was independent of the lawsuit, and has no bearing on the Motion to Dismiss (the lawsuit) filed by the union, in response to that lawsuit being filed and served. A hearing for that Motion has been set for mid-September.


Così Fan Tutte: racial and sexual abuse should shock audiences, not the titillation

theconversation.com: The new production of Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte’s classic opera Così Fan Tutte has attracted no shortage of controversy. After its premiere in Aix-en-Provence in France in July, the organisers of the Edinburgh International Festival wrote to all ticket holders offering a refund “due to the adult nature of some of the scenes” and its unsuitability for younger audiences.


“Seven Guitars” at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre

The Pittsburgh Tatler: Only in Pittsburgh.

Only here could a small, scrappy theater company stage a production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars in the very setting he had in mind when he wrote the play: the backyard of his childhood home on Bedford Ave. in the Hill district.

That home has sat tragically abandoned and decaying for decades. But rather recently, a local group, spearheaded by Wilson’s nephew Paul Ellis, began rehabilitating it and transforming it into the Daisy Wilson Artist Community, a center for artists and performers.

And, for just one more weekend, it plays a starring role in Mark Clayton Southers’s surehanded interpretation of the play.


PETA Has Lost Its Monkey's 'Next Friend' In Its Crazy Copyright Case

Techdirt: The ongoing saga that is the monkey selfie lawsuit has continued to move forward, with the lawyers for photographer David Slater filing their brief in response to PETA's. As you probably recall, PETA had teamed up with a primatologist named Antje Engelhardt claiming to be "next friends" for the Indonesian macaque monkey named Naruto, who is alleged to have taken the following selfie with David Slater's camera.