Worth a Look

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

‘An Unbelievable Mess’: Artists Are Stymied by Trump Travel Bans

The New York Times: The travel bans — along with escalating costs and delays in the always-fraught visa application process — represent a looming crisis for the American performing arts sector, as many overseas musicians, theater companies and others face new and seemingly insurmountable obstacles to travel. Some, assessing the risks, are electing to avoid coming here altogether, according to talent agents and the American promoters and producers who are now contemplating holes in their calendars.

 

Seized, subverted, shuttered: a year in Trump’s assault on the Kennedy Center

US news | The Guardian: The Brentano String Quartet had finished their performance when a special guest dropped in backstage: the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “We thanked her for everything she had done for our country,” recalls violinist Mark Steinberg. “It was a nice moment.”

 

Relational Dynamics in Theatrical Partnerships

AMERICAN THEATRE: In this moment of collective upheaval, the existing hierarchies within theatrical practice are reaching their shelf life and it’s time to unearth alternatives. It’s becoming difficult to build deep and meaningful relationships when resources are scarce and we’re all fighting for the same donors, investors, and audiences.

 

A Look at Black Broadway, 1820 – 2026

New York Theater: For every well-known showcase of Black Broadway – “Porgy and Bess,” 1935; “A Raisin in the Sun” 1959; last year’s “Purpose,” winner of both the Tony and Pulitzer — there are little-remembered milestones ranging over the past two centuries. The gallery below, in honor of Black History Month (which several federal agencies now have banned employees from celebrating), samples the history of theater by, for and with Black Americans, taken from collections at the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the Museum of the City of New York

 

Shakespeare and Italy

Folger Shakespeare Library: The Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics got us thinking about Shakespeare and Italy. Shakespeare’s plays are well stocked with merchants of Venice, gentlemen of Verona, and other Italian characters. One-third of his plays are based, or partially based, in Italy. Florence, Milan, Padua, Rome, Sicily, Venice, Verona—these Italian settings play a crucial part in his plots, making them characters in their own right.

 

Worth a Look

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

Celebrating Black History Month

IATSE: As we observe Black History Month, we reaffirm a simple truth: Black history is American history! The story of our nation and of the labor movement cannot be told without the contributions, sacrifices, and leadership of Black workers who fought to expand opportunity, dignity, and democracy for all.

 

An Open Letter to Richard Grenell

by Emil J Kang: You said something on PBS NewsHour that I want to take seriously: “We cannot have arts institutions that lose money.” You are responding to real pressures. I’ve spent thirty years in this sector. I’ve sat in rooms where we discussed debt reserves, union contracts, and ticket revenue that could not cover costs. I’ve felt the anxiety you’re responding to. It’s real. But the conclusion you’ve drawn from it reflects a misunderstanding of what you’ve inherited.

 

Kennedy Center was always in the political spotlight but not like this

Los Angeles Times: Last Tuesday, Philip Glass withdrew the delayed premiere in June of his latest symphony, No. 15. Originally meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2022, it is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but the composer decided the values of the current Kennedy Center were “in direct conflict to the message of the symphony,” which is inspired by Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address.

 

Judge Kacsmaryk Compares Drag To Blackface, Allows College Campus Drag Ban In Texas

www.erininthemorning.com: On Saturday, Jan. 17, far-right judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued one of his most extreme rulings yet, finding that West Texas A&M can ban drag performances on campus. In reaching that conclusion, Kacsmaryk discarded long-standing First Amendment precedent and made demeaning assertions about drag itself, including a comparison to “blackface.”

 

To cry or not to cry: how moving the audience to tears can backfire

theconversation.com: “One must have a heart of stone not to read about the death of little Nell without laughing” was Oscar Wilde’s notorious response to the emotional onslaught of Charles Dickens’s 1841 novel, The Old Curiosity Shop. Having watched two films in two weeks about the death of a child, it offers a clue as to why I cried in only one.

 

Worth a Look

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City Theatre will not merge with Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater

triblive.com: Last August, three major local theater companies — City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater and Pittsburgh CLO — announced they were considering the possibility of a merger. Today, the companies revealed that such a union is not in the cards — or, at least, not for all three.

 

Trump Offers Bonds to Hollywood While Again Threatening Tariffs

variety.com: President Trump renewed his threat to tariff films made overseas on Monday, but also suggested that he would offer “low-interest bonds” to help stimulate domestic production. In an interview with the New York Post, the president did not explain his proposal but indicated he is still considering the decline in production.

 

Met Opera director and designers order names stripped from 'Carmen'

AP News: In a dispute of operatic proportions, the production team of Bizet’s “Carmen” at the Metropolitan Opera ordered their names stripped from programs over a restaging decision, and the company intends to bring back sets of a retired 2009 version.

 

It’s ICE Out of Minnesota Day, and Twin Cities Theatres Are Part of It

AMERICAN THEATRE: As people in Minneapolis and nationwide grieve the murder of Renee Nicole Good, and both activists and ordinary citizens struggle to resist and recover from targeted raids by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of Somali, Southeast Asian, and Latine immigrants in the Twin Cities, advocacy is coming in many forms, including the artistic.

 

Five Fronts in Trump’s Culture War

The New York Times: In his first term, President Trump took issue with some actors, arts funding and the media. In his second, he has hit the accelerator. Changing what Americans see and hear at their national museums, their performance spaces and on television is now at the core of his agenda. Mr. Trump views it as an effort to return to a lost vision of national greatness, one that seeks to “remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage.” Critics regard it as a nostalgic, reductive whitewashing. Here are five areas where the Trump administration has tried to reshape American culture.

 

Worth a Look

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

Williamstown Theatre Festival Cancels Summer 2026 Programming

Playbill: Massachusetts' Williamstown Theatre Festival will not present programming in summer 2026. The summer theatre company will resume in 2027. The company says it will use the intervening time "to activate a new phase of artistic research, development, and year-round engagement," aimed at creating a sustainable model of newly year-round programming, with the annual summer Festival as a cornerstone.

 

New President of NYC Musicians' Union on Broadway Strike, AI and More

www.hollywoodreporter.com: Dan Point has taken over the leadership of the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, the union for Broadway and New York City musicians, months after the union was set to go on strike.

 

Enter ‘Stage Right:’ Central Ohio home to nation’s only conservative theater company

NBC4 WCMH-TV: If all the world’s a stage, Robert Cooperman feels half of it is missing its spotlight. “Artists will look at society or an issue in our culture and say, ‘I don’t like that,’ and they might write a play about it. … Why can’t people who are more conservative do that?” Cooperman said. “When we do it, it’s considered political. And when the other side does it, it’s considered art.”

 

Statutory Damages: The Fuel of Copyright-based Censorship

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Imagine every post online came with a bounty of up to $150,000 paid to anyone who finds it violates opaque government rules—all out of the pocket of the platform. Smaller sites could be snuffed out, and big platforms would avoid crippling liability by aggressively blocking, taking down, and penalizing speech that even possibly violates these rules. In turn, users would self-censor, and opportunists would turn accusations into a profitable business.

 

Metropolitan Opera Announces Layoffs, Salary Cuts & Postponement of a New Production

OperaWire: The company’s General manager Peter Gelb told the New York Times that he was forced to take these steps due to concerns with the Saudi Arabia deal, under which the Saudis agreed to subsidize the Met in exchange for the company performing at the Royal Diriyah Opera House near Riyadh three weeks each winter. He added that although he remained confident that the deal would happen, his decision to make cuts was due to concerns about the future of the Saudi arrangement.

 

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A look at some of the worst fires in bars, nightclubs and music venues

PBS News: A fire at a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in the early hours of New Year's Day has left dozens of people presumed dead and around 100 injured, according to authorities.

 

Get to Know AFL-CIO's Affiliates: Theatrical Stage Employees

AFL-CIO: This is the next post in our series that will take a deeper look at each of our affiliates. The series will run weekly until we've covered all 64 of our affiliates. Next up is Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

 

How U.S. Immigration Policies and Uncertainties Are Affecting Dance Artists

Dance Magazine: If you ask a U.S. immigration expert what’s changed over the past year for performing artists, you’ll get 14 bullet points linked to text-heavy web pages. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. “With the new regime in the U.S., new challenge­s have arisen,” says Matthew Covey, executive director of Tamizdat, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that facilitates and advocates for international mobility and cultural exchange.

 

How to stay productive as the world burns

Fast Company: If it seems impossible to focus on work—or anything else, for that matter—amid all this troubling news, you’re not alone. Plenty of research in recent years has shown that Americans are overwhelmed by the state of politics and feel a heightened sense of anxiety over the news cycle. There’s also clear evidence that doomscrolling and constantly absorbing negative media can interfere with our physical and mental health.

 

Shakespeare and America

www.folger.edu/blogs: Shakespeare is everywhere in America—on our stages, on our screens, and in our everyday conversations. This year, as America commemorates the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, we’re exploring the larger-than-life role played by an English playwright from more than 400 years ago in American entertainment, education, and history.

 

Worth a Look

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

TCG Fall Forum 2025: Navigating the Long Arc of Change

AMERICAN THEATRE: Change—how to navigate it thoughtfully, how to ignite it courageously, and how to fund it sustainably—was a major topic of discussion at this year’s Theatre Communications Group (TCG) Fall Forum on Governance, Leadership for the Long Arc.

 

As the DEI Pulls Back, Top Female Producers Stand Their Ground

www.thewrap.com: With the Trump Administration targeting DEI programs set up in the wake of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter and Hollywood studios backpedaling from commitments for more representation, it is now up to producers and creatives to take up the work of changing the entertainment industry’s status quo.

 

5 Biggest Music Sustainability Stories of 2025: Merch, Festivals, More

www.billboard.com: On a federal policy level, 2025 was a nightmare year for the environment. The Trump administration’s proposals have included the rollback of protections on millions of acres of wetlands and streams; the allowance of new oil and gas drilling across 1.3 billion acres of U.S. coastal waters; the pausing of the expansion of clean energy infrastructure; withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord for the second time; and more.

 

Pittsburgh expert recalls new Hollywood free-expression group's roots

90.5 WESA: The relaunch of Hollywood’s 1940s-era Committee for the First Amendment made national headlines in early October. One person thrilled to hear the news was Kathy M. Newman, a professor of English and media studies at Carnegie Mellon University. Newman has studied the original committee, and in fact is writing a book about its long and perhaps surprising artistic legacy.

 

Tom Stoppard Made Us All Smarter

AMERICAN THEATRE: Being in the rehearsal room with Tom was like a mashup of a sports event and a colloquium: You got smarter and you got faster as time went along. The reason we who had the privilege of working with him loved it so much is that his plays demand the highest level of collaboration from everyone involved. Although, like Henry in The Real Thing, Stoppard believed that “words are sacred. They demand respect,” he also understood that a playscript is the springboard by which other artists can dive into the pool.

 

Worth a Look

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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.

 

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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.