Worth a Look

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.

 

Worth a Look

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.

 

Worth a Look

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

🎭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.