Here are a few posts from last week's Greenpage that might be worth your time...
EU rule could leave theatres dark
Letters | Stage | The Guardian: I am writing to you as the president of the Association of Lighting Designers, and as the Founder of Theatre Projects, an international theatre design company that for 60 years has been at the forefront of British theatre technology, responsible for the stage design of the National Theatre, and for over 1,500 theatre projects in 80 counties.
A Mass of Copyrighted Works Will Soon Enter the Public Domain
The Atlantic: The Great American Novel enters the public domain on January 1, 2019—quite literally. Not the concept, but the book by William Carlos Williams. It will be joined by hundreds of thousands of other books, musical scores, and films first published in the United States during 1923. It’s the first time since 1998 for a mass shift to the public domain of material protected under copyright. It’s also the beginning of a new annual tradition: For several decades from 2019 onward, each New Year’s Day will unleash a full year’s worth of works published 95 years earlier.
Charlie Douglass and his Laff Box invented the laugh track as we know it.
slate.com: Douglass was a mechanical engineer who had worked on radar for the Navy in World War II, so he knew his way around audio and electronics. In 1950, The Hank McCune Show, a mostly forgotten series from NBC, had used a rudimentary laugh track. But by 1953, Douglass had developed a better way to insert a laugh into a show. If you’ve ever watched an old sitcom, you’ve almost certainly heard his work.
Stage Managers And Human Reaction Time
TheatreArtLife: When I was first learning how to “be” a stage manager, I learned how to properly record blocking, how to lay out spike tape, and the best way to distribute a schedule. Nothing prepared me for having a direct impact on the physical well-being of my performers.
A Colorblind Make-up Artist Defies the Odds
Make-Up Artist Magazine: Being a make-up artist is a challenge. Being a colorblind make-up artist is a conquest.
Toby Derrig found out he was colorblind in first grade when he accidentally colored a Texas Longhorn green and almost got sent to the “time out chair” for messing around. That led to a doctor’s appointment where he was diagnosed with extreme deuteranopia. Derrig was colorblind.
