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

The Fall and Rise of Private Funding for Theatre

AMERICAN THEATRE: Corporate giving to theatres, long in decline due to shifts in attention toward social and political causes, has plummeted in recent years. Meanwhile the Trump administration and its enablers in Congress seem intent on decimating federal funding of the arts. For many theatres, then, the last best hope remains support from private foundations. Any cuts there feel like stab wounds, deadly enough to prompt a Shakespearean “Et tu?”

 

AI set to revive French playwright centuries after sudden death on stage

The Independent: What might 17th-century French playwright Molière have penned next, had he not tragically collapsed on stage while acting in on of his own plays. This tantalising question has finally been addressed thanks to a unique collaboration between French scholars, artists, and an artificial intelligence firm.

 

Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine Support AI-Generated Voice Usage

Nerdist: AI usage has been a hot-button topic for as long as it has been around. Mixed reviews over the use of AI-generated celebrity voices has left a bad taste in plenty of mouths, including that of Zelda WilliamsOpens in a new tab. On the contrary, others view it as innovative. Actors Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine are in full support of the technology, both licensing their voices to AI audio company ElevenLabs.

 

Jessica Thompson — Mastering, Restoration, and Preservation Engineer

SoundGirls.org: For more than two decades, Jessica Thompson has dedicated her career to the art and science of sound. As a mastering, restoration, and preservation engineer and founder of Jessica Thompson Audio, she has spent over ten years helping artists, labels, and archives bring recordings to life with precision, empathy, and deep musical understanding.

 

Laurie Metcalf and Other Steppenwolf Members on 50 Years of ‘Freedom Onstage’

The New York Times: In 1978, the actress Amy Morton ushered for a production of Lanford Wilson’s play “Fifth of July” that a scrappy theater company called the Steppenwolf — founded by Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry, friends from high school, and their friend Terry Kinney — took to the St. Nicholas Theater in Chicago.

 

Worth a Look

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

What Happened to the U.S. Nonprofit Theatre Movement?

AMERICAN THEATRE: Following interviews with 13 people who participate in the leadership of some of the country’s most influential professional nonprofit organizations, I thought it wise to consult with a group of people who know quite a bit about all this, but are not currently themselves helping to run theatres. All are sharp observers of the field, as I believe this chapter demonstrates. I was curious to see what they thought of what artistic leaders had told me in my interviews, and how these different perspectives might help us draw some conclusions and perhaps come closer to answering the question I posed at the beginning: Are we going to make it?

 

Hollywood Commission Launches Online Anti-Harassment Resources Hub

variety.com: The Hollywood Commission has released new online resources designed to simplify and support anti-harassment practices, particularly for independent and low-budget productions, as part of its “Respect on Set” initiative.

 

The Spanish Quarantine Island Residency Where Artists Disconnect—and Phones Are Banned

Colossal: Dubbed “purgatory for artists,” Quarantine is dedicated to finding freedom through constraint. The intensive residency program takes its name from its venue: an 18th-century lazaretto off the coast of Menorca, Spain.

 

Smoking Bans in Music Venues: How They Changed the Concert Business

www.billboard.com: When Bruce Finkelman opened the Empty Bottle in 1993, he smoked cigarettes, like many of his customers. It was part of his vision for the Chicago rock club: “The small, dark, smoky jazz room or rock ‘n’ roll club. Dingy. That really romantic view of the door opening up and smoke billowing out.” But like every other venue in Chicago and just about everywhere else, Empty Bottle has been smoke-free for decades — and Finkelman, now a non-smoking marathon runner, can’t imagine it any other way. “Even if I smell smoke,” the club’s owner says today, “I’m like, ‘Ugh.'”

 

It’s Time to Move Beyond the Colonial Narrative

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Narrative is a powerful tool. It enlightens, ignites critical thought, and invites reflection. However, narrative can also divide us, harm us, and manipulate us into believing false truths. The way narrative can be weaponized against the most marginalized in our communities is not a surprising revelation stemming from recent presidential elections, but rather it is something I have experienced my entire life as a Native person.

 

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

South Park Takes Security Seriously Amid Rising Threats

www.hollywoodreporter.com: The last time a security guard was spotted at South Park‘s production offices in Marina del Rey was when Eric Cartman got deputized in 1998’s “Chickenlover” episode and started pulling over tricycles and ticketing cows. Respect mah authoritah!

 

AFM 2025: Immigration Anxiety Shadows Indy Film Market

www.hollywoodreporter.com: For many international executives landing at LAX this week, attending the American Film Market isn’t just about closing presales or packaging their next feature — it’s about getting into the country in the first place.

 

The journey into the unknown: Tools for creative leaders

Fast Company: How do you say yes when you have no idea how to deliver? My cofounders and I built Moment Factory by saying yes to projects most people thought were impossible. Long before the technology existed, we designed interactive concerts, illuminated night walks through forests, and towering LED installations in airports. Every project started with the same challenge: Finding the path to make the impossible possible.

 

Pepperdine University Museum Director Resigns After Censorship Scandal

news.artnet.com: Andrea Gyorody, the director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, has resigned after an outcry following the school’s censorship of two works in a show there. The exhibition, “Hold My Hand In Yours,” which Gyorody curated, was closed early after the university, in Malibu, California, deemed two artworks to be “political.”

 

The 59th Carnegie International Aims to be the Most Far-Reaching and More Collaborative Than Ever

Pittsburgh Magazine: A New York-based artist is premiering an immersive animation show at the Kamin Science Center’s Buhl Planetarium and Observatory that will take audiences on a journey that begins from the seabeds of the Caribbean.

 

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🎭Troupes ponder future of Pittsburgh theater

wesa.fm: For the roughly 200 actors, playwrights and other behind-the-scenes talent who gathered at the O’Reilly Theater for a Theater Artists Town Hall on the matter this past Monday, stage work is their passion and their livelihood. One attendee told me before the event he expected “fireworks.”

 

Anime Studios Are Finally Fighting Back Against AI Slop

www.inverse.com: Back when generative AI first reared its ugly head, there was a panic that the average viewer wouldn’t be able to identify it. But now, years into the rise of OpenAI, Grok, Midjourney, and the myriad other AI agents, anyone who has spent time online can identify a specific “AI look”: weirdly flat lighting, nonsense text, and often a strange yellowish tinge.

 

Amanda Parker on tech use in theatre

www.thestage.co.uk: Typically, we bridle against change: innovators attract criticism in their lifetime, only for ideas to become standard practice later. Edward Gordon Craig’s ideas to make stage performances a three-dimensional experience – replacing flat backdrops with moving, built designs and lighting – may have been anathema then, but are the origin story of modern theatre staging now.

 

Boo! How Artists Have Envisioned Ghosts Throughout the Centuries

news.artnet.com: People have believed in ghosts since time immemorial. Our enduring fascination with these spooky spectres has seen them haunt all manner of popular media, from folklore to film, and art. But, trapped between our earthly realm and whatever awaits, ghosts are often felt as an intangible presence. Only sometimes are sightings reported, so how best to represent the supernatural?

 

Everything to Know About Yondr Pouches: Why Broadway and Beyond Are Locking Phones

www.broadwayworld.com: As smartphone habits become harder to break, some live events are taking matters into their own hands — quite literally. Enter the Yondr pouch, a locking case that keeps your phone with you, but sealed shut, to prevent recording, texting, and scrolling during performances. The system has been increasingly visible on Broadway and across the live-entertainment industry.

 

Worth a Look

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

Broadway Actors to Receive 3 Percent Pay Increase With New Contract

Playbill: On October 18, following weeks of tense negotiations that also included the threat of a strike, the actors-stage managers union Actors' Equity Association and the Broadway League came to an agreement on the details of a new Broadway work contract. On October 22, details of the new three-year Production Contract were released to Equity's membership, who have until October 30 to vote on whether or not to adopt the new contract.

 

CBS, MTV, BET hit hardest as Paramount layoffs begin- Fast Company

www.fastcompany.com: The entertainment giant began cutting around 1,000 workers on Wednesday, with twice that many pink slips expected in the days to come. In a memo to staff, new Paramount CEO David Ellison characterized the reductions, which will ultimately shrink the company by 10%, as a necessary step for the company’s long-term growth.

 

'Task' Dialect Coach Susanne Sulby on Teaching the Delco Accent

variety.com: Throughout “Task,” the seven-episode crime thriller that concluded on HBO on Oct. 19, viewers were re-introduced to the specific Delaware County, Pa. accent that they’d perhaps first heard in HBO’s 2021 hit “Mare of Easttown,” from creator Brad Ingelsby. On “Mare,” southeastern Pennsylvanians were generally pleased with the way that Kate Winslet, Jean Smart and especially Evan Peters bravely tackled the sounds of the region.

 

White House Movie Theater Demolished in President Trump Ballroom Build

www.hollywoodreporter.com: The White House family theater, which has held movie screenings for Presidents, their families and other invited guests for decades, is among the structures removed from the East Wing as part of President Trump’s $300 million ballroom project.

 

‘We want to use this as a launchpad’: can A24 also conquer the world of theater?

US theater | The Guardian: On a recent Saturday night in downtown Manhattan, a sold-out crowd at the Cherry Lane Theatre delighted in one of the most bizarre sights in recent New York stage memory: comedian Natalie Palamides, dressed as if in split screen – her left side bedecked in Y2K girl signifiers (butterfly clips, low-rise jeans), her right in bro clothes (cargo pants, flannel) – barreling across the stage and tangling with … herself.

 

Worth a Look

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

Look Back on the Original Broadway Production of Chess

Playbill: Chess is currently back on the boards, as it readies to open its first ever Broadway revival, led by a trio of young stars: Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele, and Nicholas Christopher. It is also playing at the Imperial Theatre, the same theatre where the show first ran in 1988. But how did a show about a board game, which only had 68 performances on Broadway, become a cult classic?

 

Sorry, But You Can’t Copyright AI — One Filmmaker Just Found Out the Hard Way

No Film School: There is an old biblical saying, "You reap what you sow," which essentially means you get out of the world what you put in. So excuse me while I pile onto an AI filmmaker, who posted on Twitter that their prompts were being stolen by the outside world.

 

Ireland’s basic income scheme for artists points at how governments could help sectors in crisis

theconversation.com: The Irish government has announced that a pilot scheme providing artists and creatives with a weekly stipend of €325 (£283) will be made permanent. The scheme, which was first introduced in 2022, was launched in an attempt to mitigate the growing financial instability many in the creative industries face.

 

Why I left the Kennedy Center

DC Theater Arts: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has always been a part of my life. Growing up just outside of Washington, D.C., in the 2000s, I always saw its large marble building as integral to my city’s landscape, just as much as the Washington Monument. I came of age in the building, seeing Theater for Young Audiences as a kid, national tours of Broadway musicals as a middle schooler, and music concerts as a high schooler.

 

Experiential entertainment is having a gold rush but commercial success is far from certain

Business | The Guardian: When the first ever stage adaptation of the global book and film franchise The Hunger Games opens its doors in London next week, fans paying up to £200 have been promised an “electrifying” and “immersive” experience.

 

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The NEA At 60, Through The Eyes Of Past Chairs

Butts In the Seats: Last week, the Arts Management program at American University released a series of video interviews with the former chairs of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) on the occasion of the NEA’s 60th anniversary. These chairs are Jane Alexander, Bill Ivey, Dana Gioia, Jane Chu, Rocco Landesman, Maria Rosario Jackson.

 

OpenAI’s Sora Video App Is Jaw-Dropping (for Better and Worse)

The New York Times: The app we used was not TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, the current leaders of short-form video. It was Sora, a smartphone app made by OpenAI that lets people create such videos entirely from artificial intelligence. Sora’s underlying technology debuted last year, but its latest version — which is faster and more powerful and can incorporate your likeness if you upload images of your face — was released on an invitation-only basis this week.

 

Bread and Puppet Theater forges ahead in uncertain times

NPR: Generations of peacenik Americans first saw Bread and Puppet Theater during anti-war protests. Giant white birds on rods soared high over marchers against U.S. military actions in Vietnam, Central America, Iraq and Gaza. Performers milled on the street with bobbing paper mache heads of Uncle Sam and other caricatures.

 

Meet the Experimental Collective Reimagining Set Design for the Contemporary Stage

Architectural Digest: It’s hard to think of a more iconic exchange in the history of theater than the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet. Those legendary lines. That stolen kiss. It’s been performed countless times the world over. And it was for that reason that Andrew Moerdyk, Kimie Nishikawa, and Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, founders of the Brooklyn-based scenic design studio dots, hoped to reinvent it, when tapped by director Sam Gold for the Circle in the Square Theatre’s recent Broadway adaptation.

 

Malfunctioning drones rain fireballs on fleeing crowd

AV Magazine: A pyrodrone show went disastrously wrong when spectators were showered with fireballs. The incident, which took place in Liuyang, China, saw people flee for cover in panic as sparks rained down.

Worth a Look

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

IATSE ratifies first-of-its-kind contract with AICP for commercial workers

Reel 360 News: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has ratified a first-of-its-kind contract with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) covering Production Department Workers on TV commercials.

 

Exclusive: Broadway Green Alliance establishes inaugural board of directors and advisory council

www.broadwaynews.com: Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) has established an advisory council and a board of directors. This announcement marks the first formal governing bodies of the 17-year-old industry initiative dedicated to educating, motivating and inspiring the theater community to implement environmentally friendlier practices.

 

IATSE on President Trump Movie Tariff Announcement: ‘U.S. Needs Balanced Federal Response to Return Film and TV Jobs’

IATSE: IATSE continues to pursue all policy measures that can be implemented to return and maintain U.S. film and television jobs, while not disadvantaging our Canadian members. Federal policymakers must act to level the playing field and make the U.S. film and television industry more competitive on the global stage. IATSE is engaging with the Trump administration and Congress to advocate for policies that result in those stated goals.

 

Santa Fe: The Hollywood Insider's Guide to the Capital of Tamalewood

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Beautifully lit desert-to-mountain landscapes, authentic Western sets, and early adoption of production tax incentives have long made “Tamalewood,” as New Mexico has been dubbed, a favorite Hollywood backdrop. While Albuquerque boasts a Netflix production hub, Santa Fe continues to grow its infrastructure.

 

DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter Says 'There Is Still So Much to Do'

www.hollywoodreporter.com: “It is no secret that our industry, which is no stranger to rapid change, is experiencing a period of massive transition,” Glatter wrote. “The industry contraction from the dual strikes has led to significant unemployment for our members and all industry workers. AI presents both incredible opportunities and concerning unknowns.

 

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Workers Bear the Burden of Des Moines Metro Opera’s Ambitions

www.broadwayworld.com: It sounds like boot camp. An 89.5 hour workweek. Back to back 14 hour days. Overtime pay a rarity (and lack thereof legally sanctioned). Working in a warehouse where temperatures exceeded 100. Bullying. An open pit with no proper safety barriers. An employee so depleted and delirious that a doctor asked whether they were a victim of human trafficking. People in tears. Others too stressed to sleep. Dozens of employees sharing a single kitchen, with one stove and one refrigerator.

 

IATSE on President Trump Movie Tariff Announcement: ‘U.S. Needs Balanced Federal Response to Return Film and TV Jobs’

IATSE: IATSE continues to pursue all policy measures that can be implemented to return and maintain U.S. film and television jobs, while not disadvantaging our Canadian members. Federal policymakers must act to level the playing field and make the U.S. film and television industry more competitive on the global stage. IATSE is engaging with the Trump administration and Congress to advocate for policies that result in those stated goals.

 

What's at Stake for Live Nation/Ticketmaster? Billions - Plus its Entire Business Model

TicketNews: Two historic cases now threaten Live Nation and Ticketmaster from different directions: the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit filed in 2024, which seeks remedies up to a full corporate break-up, and the FTC’s consumer-protection and BOTS Act lawsuit filed this week, which targets deceptive fees and resale practices. Together, they put Live Nation’s vertically integrated empire — and the fee-heavy ticketing system fans have railed against for years — in serious jeopardy.

 

Michigan anti-porn bill would criminalize ASMR, written erotica, and nonsexual depictions of trans people

reason.com: An "Anticorruption of Public Morals Act" sounds like something out of the Victorian era. But far from the brainchild of Comstock-era Progressive scold, it's a new bill in Michigan. Introduced September 11 by state Rep. Josh Schriver (R–Oxford), the act would ban the online distribution of material "that corrupts the public morals."

 

Taylor Swift Lawsuit Dismissed: Judge Rules Lyrics Didn't Copy Poems

www.billboard.com: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming Taylor Swift stole lyrics for 15 of her songs from a self-published Florida poet, ruling the accuser was trying to claim ownership over basic ideas and “common words.”

 

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

Louisville Will Be New Home for International Thespian Festival Beginning in 2027

Playbill: After five years at Indiana University in Bloomington, ITF has outgrown its current venue. Following a search guided by six criteria—mission alignment, safety, accessibility, walkability, affordability, and capacity for growth—Louisville emerged as the next home.

 

Ticketmaster Under Fire: FTC Lawsuit Over Hidden Fees, DOJ Antitrust Case Explained

www.ticketnews.com: Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment are facing an unprecedented one-two punch from U.S. regulators. In one case filed this week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – along with seven states – accuses Ticketmaster of deceiving consumers with hidden fees and by tacitly enabling scalpers to snag tickets en masse[1].

 

Broadway Climate Summit will debut during Climate Week NYC

www.broadwaynews.com: The inaugural Broadway Climate Summit will take place on Sept. 22. Co-founded by Climate Imaginarium, Earth Era Studios, OneUpAction International and 6th Fest, the summit will be part of the roster of events for Climate Week NYC, the largest climate symposium in the world. Broadway Climate Summit will take place at Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and Ripley-Grier Studios in Manhattan between 10:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.

 

'Cultural coffin': Pittsburgh's thespians and universities react to theater woes

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The three Pittsburgh theater companies exploring a possible merger to help keep the lights on in the face of sharply rising costs have postponed a decision until next year.

 

Remembering Lavina Jadhwani 1983–2025

Chicago Reader: avina Jadhwani built what was by any measure an admirable career on Chicago stages and beyond. Locally, she directed for a range of companies large and small, including Silk Road Rising (now Silk Road Cultural Center), Writers Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and Rasaka Theatre Company. Nationally, her productions could be seen at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Asolo Repertory Theatre in Florida, and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Her adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol also graced the Guthrie stage every year starting in 2021 and returns this season.