Grading

I've talked before about the down side to giving homework: doing all the grading.  I think I've talked before about the down side of grading: wherein the grader spends more time making sure all the parts of the assignment were actually done as opposed to giving genuine feedback on the work that is there.  A lot of the time that verges into the world of "did or did not follow instructions."  When you get to the point where in a college class you are reviewing compliance with the instructions, that's pretty far down the down side.

Of course all of that assumes they've actually managed to turn in the work.

Head --> desk.

Worth a Look

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

Golden Ears

Sound & Communications:John Mayberry introduced us to "Silver Ears" in our October Isseu ("Integrator's POV," page 34).  At that time, he mentioned that "there appears to be roughly one true Golden Ear out of a hundred pretenders."  Here, he speaks with one of the real ones.

Posted by David at 4/03/2012 12:58:00 PM

SAG-AFTRA: 3 Big Challenges for the Merged Union

backstage.com: The new mega-union is going to be tested in battle—and sooner than most people realize. In an instant last Friday, SAG’s James Cagney Boardroom exploded with applause, joy, gratitude and relief – and became SAG-AFTRA’s James Cagney Boardroom. The vote was resounding: AFTRA members voted 86 percent Yes and SAG members – who had voted down merger twice in the last 13 years – gave a stunning 82 percent thumbs up. The turnout was high as well (52 percent and 53 percent, respectively). Monday morning brought the reality that even harder work lay ahead. Integrating a 600-person staff is tough. But leave aside cardkeys and org charts. The new union is going to be tested in battle – and sooner than most people realize.

Posted by David at 4/05/2012 01:26:00 PM

Everything You Need To Know About Innovation You Learned In Grade School

Fast Company: “I wish someone had told me how important my sixth-grade science class was going to be in leadership," says Scott Roen, VP of Digital Marketing and Innovation at American Express. Sixth grade was when he learned about the scientific method and how to develop and test a hypothesis. Roen believes hypothesis testing is critical to innovation because, “by definition, innovation is new, it hasn’t been done before, and the outcomes are unknown. The key is to test your hypothesis and get your learning as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Posted by David at 4/04/2012 02:37:00 PM  

More legal action for 'Spidey'

Variety: Looks like litigation is the most tenacious baddie battling Spider-Man these days: An actor and stunt performer who appeared in "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has begun proceedings for legal action against the producers of the Broadway musical. In a series of filings with the New York State Supreme Court, Richard Kobak, who performs under the name Joshua Kobak, alleges he was injured while performing in the show, and has petitioned "Spider-Man" producer 8 Legged Prods. to produce documents and other information relating to the injuries and to the computer program and apparatuses that control the show's aerial stunts.

Posted by David at 4/08/2012 04:01:00 PM  

Moving Orchestras Out of Sight, Maybe Even Out of the Theater

NYTimes.com: The latest experiment in New York theater is taking place in a tiny, L-shaped third-floor room with water-stained ceilings and dirty gray carpeting that served for decades as a dumping ground for old props. At 8:05 p.m. on a recent Saturday, seven musicians, squeezed nearly knee to knee there in the Lucille Lortel Theater, struck the opening chords to the musical “Carrie,” as the actors stepped onstage two floors below.

Posted by David at 4/03/2012 01:16:00 PM

Vote For Comment of the Week

This week's comment contenders.  Vote in the comments for this post...

Comment #1: on your post "High Schools Across the Country Vie to 'Make a Mus...":

What I think other people who have commented on this article thus far have missed (or at least, not talked about) the fact that the focus of this program is to build long-lasting theatre programs in schools which otherwise couldn't or wouldn't have them! The reason the kids are getting involved is not actually as important as the fact that they want to get involved and are getting the opportunity to do so. I admire that the "Make a Musical" project is founded on the ideas of education and long-term sustainability of educational programs. NBC and its co-sponsors are really paying it forward here. All kids should be given the opportunity to learn about and participate in the arts in elementary, junior high, and high school, not just kids who live in wealthier areas or who can afford to go to a private school or transport themselves to an arts magnet high school. I was also pleased that there is beginning to be some focus within the program on the technical aspects, so that kids who want to be a part of theatre but don't feel comfortable or aren't ready to be onstage can still be involved and find out if there is a career in the industry that would be right for them. I think this is a fantastic idea and that NBC and others involve seem to really have their hearts in the right place here.

Comment #2: on your post "Richard Dare: Paradise Lost: Can We Keep Nonprofit...":

What a fascinating read that was. And as sad as it is to say, I completely agree with what mr. Dare is saying. Art has become way too focused on begging for money, the fuel it needs to keep producing results. Grants and donations are certainly important, but they have crossed a dangerousness and become crucial, as the article says. There are few things worse than having to rely on something inconsistent such as donations; even in the case of theatres with a subscriber base and annual donors, those checks are no guarantee (as seen when the pittsburgh public quickly changed their season a few years back after the announcement of their originally planned shows almost lost them half their subscribers). Not-for-profit means that any extra money earned on top of operational costs (including salaries) gets pooled back into the company and goes towards keeping it afloat. The model itself isn't broken, just its sources. No one is coming close to even breaking even anymore, and the art is going to suffer. So what do we do? No one seems to know exactly, but it's clear that knocking on more doors and sending more postcards and emails won't save us in the long run. We have to find another way.

Comment #3: on your post "Neil Young Trademarks New Audio Format":

I watched the All Things D video and enjoyed Bob Lefsetz's commentary on it, but I think that some of Mr. Young's reasoning is flawed.

His 100% right now is ludicrously too high for the consumer. It makes sense to record at 192/24 if you're going to edit that content with plugins that alter audio on a per-sample basis and gain something from the increased resolution, but there's plenty of evidence that after a song is mastered, most consumers can't hear any improvement above 44.1/16 (CD quality), and nobody can hear the difference between 96k and 192k. Yes, we can all hear the difference between a 128mbps MP3 and a 44.1/16 WAV file under proper conditions, and, as it turns out, the current hardware (iPods included) can play 48/16.

The problem lies in distribution, not hardware. Apple is getting better at this with iTunes plus and a transition to Apple lossless (another format that makes format no longer the weakest link). As for "some rich guy" and Mr. Young's personal goal, Apple, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, and the labels are the people who need to drive this, and they'll only do that if the consumer demands it... but Spotify already does this with improved audio quality with the paid service, and iTunes is getting there.

So Mr. Young probably won't be successful, but if his efforts raise consumer awareness, then they're worthwhile.

Comment #4: on your post "Supermodel Sara Ziff Forms Model Alliance to Save ...":

I really liked this article for many reasons, one of them being that I recognized the name Sara Ziff from her documentary "Picture Me". The issues that she brings up in that movie and the issues that are being brought up in this article are really important to discuss and the treatment of models really does range.
Sara is definitely luckier than most models in that she can make money and support herself (although at this point she is probably doing better than merely supporting herself). Nowadays, models have difficulty coming by the right jobs or being exposed to the right opportunities. Being a model means doing other sorts of labor on the side and scrambling to find a job and to make the right connections. Models are also frequent on the runways but I feel that they are becoming less frequent in magazines like Vogue or Elle, which have decided to use actors or comedians for their models. This is done so that the public can connect with these people and the actors are more recognizable because of films or TV. It was stated before that girls that aspire to be models are caught in this place where they don't know the model and make assumptions for how they should look on a daily basis. I think that with the actors or musicians etc... the public understands that it is ok to be other shapes, sizes, and colors.
Sara Ziff, as well as the other models didn't even know about the protection that they have access to through their union. I feel that sometimes, the disunity in this line of business is the reason. In theater, we rely on the connections that we get and the relationships that we have. Through this type of work, models have the relationships with the designers, with agents, etc... just not with each other.

Comment #5: on your post "The Price of Cool: Berlin's Struggling Artists Dem...":

What surprised me some here is not so much André Schmitz's accusations against the authors of "Der Kulturinfarkt: Von allem zu viel und überall das Gleiche" but that he claimed arts budgets should be INCREASED when public funds run low. ... Preach on, Brother Schmitz. Maybe someone over here will listen...

Luke has a point. As soon as you're paid for it, are you still an avante garde artist?

It's fine to want these things, but to demand government funding because you believe you deserve it seems inconsistent with a previous artistic view many of these arts organizations tout. As the article points out, now Berlin wants its cake and to eat it, too.

What this article doesn't seem to attempt is to identify who these groups are and what they do. Their names aren't particularly helpful, whether they're in German or English. This article could have helped its international readers by perhaps explaining more about these groups for those who're unfamiliar.  

Dinos In Spring

I feel like I have taken this picture about 1000 times now.  What with the install and then the snow and then the repair and now with the onset of spring; it's been in my viewfinder a whole lot of times.

I will say I think that the sun early in the day in the spring looks real nice, and the green coming in adds a lot too.  Sooner or later those bushes in the foreground may really start to obscure things, but that might look cool too.

In this photo you can just barely see the steel stands on the Steg.  The greenery really helps hide the fact that it's feet don't quite touch the ground.

A little I am counting down days until we have to strike the pieces.  Because of some rules governing the public display of art on campus they can only be out for six months.  So some time in June we'll have to pull them - if the Parasaur doesn't pitch over before then.

Anyone got an idea where their next home should be?

Out With the Old

If I could just get the momentum up there certainly is a lot to put on the blog.  Like the other day a package arrived at our house with no packing slip.  It wasn't something we ordered, and we can't figure out where it came from.  It was however something we needed.

Odd?  We think so too.

The mailbox for our new house is actually toward the back of the house on the side.  To me this seems inconvenient, but the postman doesn't seem to care.  He comes up to one neighbor, then skirts around our house and through our backyard to the other neighbor.  I guess it makes sense to him.  The point is, that with no mailbox out front we also wound up having no house numbers.  During the construction we had deliveries coming to the house and we needed something, so I did this:

It's clear, high up and easy to see from the street.  For a very long time it sat right next to the building permit for the renovation.

So, it basically remained that way for the better part of a year.  We went to Lowes to look for options but didn't really like any so we didn't do anything.  Really the only people that didn't like it was the pizza delivery guys, and I think that's because we haven't settled on one place, so its always a new guy.  The Chinese food delivery folks have no problem finding us.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the mystery package.  No label, no delivery address label even; just a box sitting on the floor of our front stoop.  So we open it up and amazingly discover: house numbers.  Which leads me to this question:

Did you buy us house numbers?

The package sat in our foyer for a couple of weeks and then finally I folded and decided that since we had them, and since what we were using was a sheet of paper taped to a window, and (probably most importantly) since I already had a hammer drill and tapcons, that I would put them up.

So there they are.  We've been speculating where they came from.  I posted the question to my twitter and facebook to no avail.  Mrs. TANBI called her family and got no closer to knowing.  Could it be that area vendors got together and decided to solve the problem for us?  Maybe other folks on the street decided the office supply solution was just a little less than and pulling down property values.  Seeing as how the numbers came out a little off center vertically my pet theory is that someone at this address on another street ordered them and then though they weren't useable but didn't want them to go to waste.  A little bit I feel that way too, but this is still a much better placeholder than what we had.  So for the meantime, out with the old, and in with the new.

If you have any information to help clear up this mystery please shoot me a note.

Worth a Look

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

Digital Drama: The technology transforming theatre

BBC News: "Vidiots, they sometimes call us," admits Timothy Bird. Some people in the theatre industry don't take kindly to the innovations that Mr Bird and his team at Knifedge are introducing to the stage. Innovations like a computer-generated avatar sword-fighting an actor live on stage in his most recent show Pippin, transporting the audience to the world of a computer game.

Posted by David at 3/29/2012 03:11:00 AM 

Minnesota Theater Alliance Presents National Conference on Sustainable Practices in Theatre

Stage Directions: Concerned about how “Green” (or not) your theatre is? The Minnesota Theater Alliance and the Twin Cities Sustainable Theatres Group are presenting "Sustainability in Theater Conference,” a national conference on sustainable practices for the performing arts. The conference will be hosted by Brave New Workshop. In a nice touch, you can attend without traveling there and incurring all sorts of carbon debt. There will be a live Webcast through QwikCast and online collaboration through Google+ Hangouts On Air.

Posted by David at 3/29/2012 03:08:00 AM 

No Entry

Out West Arts: Last week the Spring for Music Festival, an annual New York-based concert series at Carnegie Hall celebrating adventurous programming by North American orchestras, announced a contest to pick the best English-language culture blogger in North America. The contest involves bloggers writing responses to a series of prompts while a panel of judges and the voting public slowly whittles away the dross to determine a virtual champion. As a member of the likely target audience for this endeavor, I wasn’t particularly taken with the idea for several reasons. Chief among these was the first writing prompt. To wit: “New York has long been considered the cultural capital of America. Is it still? If not, where?”

Posted by David at 3/28/2012 02:49:00 AM 

The Importance of Beginning: the Changing Relationship of Artists, Organizations, and Communities

HowlRound: We’re living through a major shift in the way people make and consume culture, one that we can’t yet see the end of. Theater institutions must respond to this change or face increasing irrelevance. So, what is essential to theater-making and what can be discarded? What is the particular value of live performance? And, if you’re an artistic director who wants to shift your relationship with your audience, where should you start?

Posted by David at 3/30/2012 03:36:00 AM

The State of (New) Play in DC, Part V

Gwydion Suilebhan: I don’t know what it’s like to be a playwright in New York; I’ve never done it. (And I don’t intend to.) I sometimes think all the competition must make it stressful. (Then again, that’s what I think about life in New York in general.) I imagine always being the fifth playwright in line for a three-play opportunity, or burning the midnight oil all the time to try to meet the right people, or worrying about making ends meet in a demanding financial environment. Of course, New York also sometimes seems like the land of plenty: opportunities, collaborators, shows to see, and so on. I’m sure it comes with more than its fair share of benefits, or we wouldn’t have so many playwrights living there.

Posted by David at 3/28/2012 02:47:00 AM

Vote for Comment of the Week

I do a newsletter version of the Greenpage.  It has the Weekly Top 5 from over there and the Worth a Look posts from here, plus the newsquiz I give in may class.  Recently I added another feature: The Comment of the Week.  To get out of taking the newsquiz, students can instead do five substantive comments on Greenpage articles.  For comment of the week I pick what I think are the top five and then a few faculty pick the winner.  The student with the comment of the week gets a certificate.

Since there is so little going on over here I've decided to let the readers here in on the Comment of the Week selection.  If you have an opinion, leave it in the comments here.

This week's candidates (bonus comment this week):

Comment #1: on your post "Make Our Garden Grow, apropos the Arts Blogger Cha...":

I think it's a bit more than coincidental to find two articles (this one, and "No Entry" - posted directly above this one) written for the same contest, on the same topic, with essentially the same message. I think I agree. The discussion of culture shouldn't be focused around what city is "the cultural capital of America." Rather, we should all be exploring how culture can be spread around the country (and the world).

Picking a winner isn't going to help anything. Recognizing what arts / cultural programs work where and why might help, because then we could start to apply those tactics to other cities, ranging from the size of New York or LA to my hometown, Greenfield Ohio (which is severely lacking in culture indeed).

Comment #2: on your post "Digital Drama: The technology transforming theatre...":

As the very wise Larry Shea once told me after a pretty brutal design presentation, "Yes, Media design can be distracting, but it is our job to try and not make that so." This really stuck with me. I was at one time very much anti-media, and still kind of am, but I have had a slight change of heart thanks to shows like Suddenly Last Summer and Mad Forest. I felt that the media was used very effectively in these and actually added to the show rather than being distracting or seeming like an afterthought. I have seen a clip of the Sunday in the Park with George work and it turns that show into one like no other. Once again though, I cannot make up my mind on the subject...

Comment #3: on your post "IATSE leaders says they'll protect health and pens...":

While I'm glad to know that IATSE stands up for the rights of its union members, this article was extremely unclear as to exactly what the entire situation was, whether it involved IATSE on a national level or just Local 33 in California, or just the West Coast, etc. Contract renegotiations are always a messy and tricky process when it comes to the unions and studios, and I'm glad to see IATSE standing up for the benefits its members deserve. A deficit of $300 million is a scary thought though, and I'm worried to see that IATSE members might suffer because the organization is in such debt. I am curious to see what strategies they will take to try to close this gap, and I hope they'll be effective. The industry cannot afford for IATSE to collapse, and IATSE's members deserve to be well taken care of. Hopefully those two things can both happen.

Comment #4: on your post "The Maverick as Inspiration":

“Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full.”

Comment #5: on your post "Automation in art":

I was never so much aware of how awe inspired I am by automation than I have been after getting a glimpse of automation at this school- and to see that such technology is being steered towards kinetic art is really something else. It not only requires a great deal of knowledge, precision, and intelligence, but you also have to have an artistic purpose- a message, and concept in creating this piece. That combination of skill, both conceptually and mathematically is what blows me away.

Comment #6: on your post "City's 'Tigers' explores depression theme":

This play sends a great message. Depression and other mental disorders are just beginning to be acceptable, both to have and to discuss. I read an article once that compared depression to more physical diseases. When you have cancer, people support you, celebrate with you when go into remission, etc. A lot of times, a depressed person isn't really socially allowed to talk about it, so they go through the hard times alone and also celebrate alone when they beat part of it. I think an important thing this play conveys is that depression isn't a weakness and it isn't just "being sad", but an actual, diagnosed disease. I hope this play does start conversations among people who wouldn't otherwise talk or think much about it. I know an old lady that died recently, and in the months before her death, she was diagnosed with severe depression, that had supposedly gone untreated her entire life. For most of her life, it wasn't an acceptable thing to talk about, or go to a doctor for. I think that has changed, but needs to continue changing, and this play is a great spark for that.

USITT Ellipses...

Long Beach sure has changed a bunch since we were last there, at least right around the expo center...  We redid our booth top to bottom this year.  That was sure a big TV...  I did the knot tying session again.  Feels like maybe it is time to freshen it up some...  It costs $130 to go from Long Beach to the Valley in a cab.  It only costs $400 to go from Pittsburgh to LA in a plane.  There's something wrong there I think...  There certainly are a few prospective graduate costume designers out there in the world...  Chicago Flyhouse had some t-shirts that, well, they weren't at all subtle...  We took the CMU Booze & Schmooze way way way offsite, but I think it was well worth it...  Even though there's been a whole lot of step up from commercial entities within the institute, it still isn't the folks I was hoping to see...  Note to self, when volunteering to cover someone else's meeting, get the meeting time first, else you will find yourself standing in front of a group at the first meeting of the day...  It seems like possibly several of the Stage Management types that go to the conference don't really get to enjoy the conference...  The largest component of my contribution to the "Rigging Without a Grid" session appears to have been comic relief...  I visited an office that had like a dozen former students working in it...  The demographic of the commission leadership sure has shifted...  Lots of schools expanding their presence from a table to a double table, or even to a 10x10...  With no supervision I tend to overdo it at the BBQ restaurant...  Every year at the CMU Reception I know more people and every year at the Yale Reception I know less people...  Renting A/V gear doesn't get you electricity, it also doesn't get your TV from the dock to your booth...  The Super Shuttle doesn't leave the airport until it's full...  Seemed like every time I bought a soda it got a little more expensive...  I went to a session about giving technical assignments.  It made me feel pretty good about my assignments...  A decade ago I had to buy sunglasses at the Long Beach USITT, and then I had to buy sunglasses again this time...  I forgot to have lunch at the aquarium...  Didn't get to play cards this time...

Worth a Look

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

Designers - sign up to By Design Day 2012

PLASA: By Design Day, the annual fundraising day for Light Relief in the UK and Behind the Scenes in the US and Canada, takes place this year on Tuesday April 24 on both sides of the Atlantic.

Posted by David at 3/20/2012 12:10:00 PM 

Context is everything.

2AMt: In the rush to parse statements and assign blame this weekend, it seems like we’re missing the point. This isn’t–or shouldn’t be–an attack on Mike Daisey’s art or his ability. What’s on the stage–and on the page, in this case–is a dynamic, compelling, electric piece of theatre. Download it and read it, or go see it if you’re near a production of it. If you want to produce it, use that Creative Commons license as creatively as Cody Daigle did and open your audience up to a larger conversation.

Posted by David at 3/21/2012 02:28:00 PM

Mac Wellman: Pushing Boundaries

HowlRound: When I had just left college and moved back to New York, I had the great fortune of meeting Mac Wellman. He was something of an idol of mine, having read his plays as an undergraduate. I couldn’t believe that he was willing to meet me and talk about theater. We met at Lupe’s, a small Mexican restaurant, one that he still frequents, and talked for a couple of hours. From that day forward, he turned from idol to mentor, as he spurred me in the pursuit of my own work as a director. Over the years I’ve had the chance to direct several of Mac’s plays including Fnu Lnu, The Fez, Description Beggared; or the Allegory of Whiteness, and Bellagio. Each play presents a distinct theatrical world, strange and familiar, odd and funny. His roots in poetry shine through in his carefully selected words that are evocative and playful.

Posted by David at 3/22/2012 04:42:00 PM

Are women getting any closer to equality in theatre?

guardian.co.uk: In her 1970 book review of Eva Figes' Patriarchal Attitudes: Women in Society, Rebecca West poked fun at male repression of women in the workplace: "Once Freud and his disciples got a female on the analytic couch and found traces of intellectual activity, they attempted to persuade her that she … was seeking in work a substitute for the male sexual organ." West – who briefly trained as an actor – had personal experience of discrimination in the performing arts. In the 1920s, having already made her name as a novelist, essayist and journalist, she wrote a play and sent it to theatre managers. After 14 copies were "lost" (three of them by the then manager of the Birmingham Rep), she gave up. How, I wonder, would she have responded to the statistics compiled by Sphinx Theatre Company showing that women – 52% of the population – make up just 35% of actors, 17% of theatre writers, 23% of theatre directors and 9% of film directors?

Posted by David at 3/20/2012 11:48:00 AM

Chasing Yale

Stage Directions: There is a very ugly, smelly disease among many, many people in our industry right now, and it’s called OMG WHAT IF I DON’T GET INTO YALE Syndrome. The symptoms of this disease are basically sweats and bad attitude about not getting into one of the “top” places to study Entertainment in some form or another.
I have three friends right now who whine about their degrees, and how they’ll never “make it big” because they didn’t get their degree from Yale. Or Northwestern. Or they didn’t study with Ming Cho Lee, so how on EARTH will they ever get their genius recognized? The perception seems to be that there is just a small cadre of schools who really matter, and if you study there, you are guaranteed a spot on America’s Next Top Designer (which I just invented and you may buy rights from me directly) or you get to star in your own sitcom, called Another Actor Makes It Big. This is a particularly pernicious fantasy. (Who wouldn’t want to take the chance at actually succeeding in the fashion that it seems people who go to Yale succeed?) But it is a fantasy all the same.

Posted by David at 3/20/2012 11:47:00 AM

 

USITT Wednesday

Three meetings today at USITT:  Technical Production Leadership session, Rigging Without A Grid, & Knots.  Here's what I finally came up with for the Rigging Without a Grid session:

The "10 things" slides were supposed to be sort of a gameshow.

Riggingwithwiregrid-DJBb