Worth a Look

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

SAG-AFTRA and Studios to Resume Negotiations on April 27

www.hollywoodreporter.com: After the writers’ union wrapped a surprise deal with studios and streamers over the weekend, SAG-AFTRA announced that it will return to the bargaining table by the end of the month. The performers’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers resume negotiations on April 27

 

Intimacy coordinators' next chapter

NPR: Almost a decade after the height of the #MeToo movement, intimacy coordinators are a fixture on film sets. As of this year, the job is now covered by SAG-AFTRA, the labor union that represents actors.

 

Inside Chicago's innovative Steppenwolf Theatre Company as it marks 50 years

PBS News: Steppenwolf Theatre Company has long been one of the nation’s most influential ensemble companies. It's known for the actors it has launched and the groundbreaking work it has produced. It’s marking its 50th season at a moment of real uncertainty for theaters.

 

The V&A catalogue row shows China’s censorship now travels through cultural supply chains

theconversation.com: When people think about censorship, they often imagine an obvious ban: a book prohibited, an exhibition closed, or a speaker silenced. But the recent revelation that London’s Victoria and Albert Museum changed exhibition catalogues at the request of its Chinese printer points to something subtler.

 

How to Embrace the Dramaturgy of Creative Caption Design

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Captions play an important role in the accessibility of theatrical productions for all audience members, particularly those who are d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHOH), neurodivergent, and/or living with sensory processing disorders. Secondary to their use as an accessibility tool, captions are an important visual element of a theatrical production and should be approached with the same thought, artistry, and attention as design elements like lighting and projections. This is where the concept of creative captions come in.

 

Worth a Look

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

Step Up This Season: Behind the Scenes Spring & Summer Mental Health Trainings

Live Design Online: This spring and beyond, the Behind the Scenes Mental Health Initiative is offering a fresh schedule of virtual trainings, giving industry professionals renewed opportunities to build skills that support safer, healthier workplaces. These virtual sessions equip participants to recognize and respond when colleagues are facing mental health or substance use challenges or experiencing bullying and harassment.

 

Pittsburgh theater tries mergers, camps to weather change

www.publicsource.org: Pittsburgh actor Tim Hartman has watched those changes closely during more than four decades performing with companies including Pittsburgh Public Theater, City Theatre Company and Pittsburgh CLO. Since his professional debut at the 1983 Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival he said, the theater community has had to adapt to shifting audiences, rising production costs and a more uncertain economic landscape.

 

Seats Left Empty on Smithsonian Board as Strain With White House Persists

The New York Times: A month after the terms of two Smithsonian trustees ended, their replacements have yet to be named as the traditional process of filling its governing Board of Regents has slowed in the wake of President Trump’s efforts to gain control of the institution. John Fahey and the board’s chairwoman, Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey, left the 17-member panel on March 2,

 

Chicago Theaters Cut Ties With Jeff Awards After Director Accused Of Abuse Honored

blockclubchicago.org: More than a dozen Chicago theaters are cutting ties with a prestigious group that has recognized local productions with recommendations and awards since the 1960s, after it honored an artistic director accused of emotionally abusing and harassing an actor during rehearsals years ago.

 

The house that streaming built: Inside Netflix House Dallas

www.creativereview.co.uk: In the newly opened Netflix House Dallas, the passive engagement of streaming is replaced by active participation. There’s no algorithm at work here; no autoplay or second-screen scrolling. Instead, this live experience represents an expansion into relatively new territory for the brand: specifically, a free-to-enter, 100,000-square-foot experiment in immersive, IRL storytelling.

 

Worth a Look

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

Are Chicago’s theater awards broken? The Jeffs face growing backlash

WBEZ Chicago: A week after “boos” rained down in a ceremony honoring some of Chicago’s top storefront theater companies, the Joseph Jefferson Awards — known conversationally as “the Jeffs” and akin to the local Tonys — are facing backlash.

 

Kennedy Center begins layoffs, rocking institution ahead of two-year closure

The Washington Post: The Kennedy Center began layoffs on Thursday, initiating the first wave of anticipated cuts tied to President Donald Trump’s plan to shut down the institution for two years. Multiple departments were affected — including programming, development, advertising, marketing and the office of the president — according to multiple people at the center who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters.

 

This Piece May Not Be Fed Into Any LLM or Other AI Software for Any Reason Whatsoever

HowlRound Theatre Commons: I recently heard that a large theatre organization screened plays for a competition by feeding them into a large language model (LLM). Then, I read two more accounts on a playwriting forum about other theatres that did this for marketing or public relations purposes. A couple of months ago, this happened to me firsthand. I learned that a theatre put a draft of my new play into an LLM to generate marketing materials. I expressed my concern to the theatre immediately, and I corresponded with a lawyer at the Dramatists Guild of America who gave me language that I could incorporate into my plays moving forward.

 

South Africa's Market Theatre hits 50

NPR: When it first started in the 1970s, South Africa's Market Theatre staged plays considered to be so subversive that it became a regular target of the apartheid government's zealous censors. Even the fact that its audiences were made up of Black and white South Africans mingling together was unheard of in a city where the law separated areas and people by race.

 

‘The Book of Mormon’ Is Sorry if You Were Offended for 15 Years

The New York Times: No one involved knew what to expect as the musical with the bizarre title prepared for its arrival on Broadway in 2011. There had been no tryout. Two of its authors, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of “South Park” fame, were newcomers to the theater, except that, as teenagers, Parker played Sammy Fong in “Flower Drum Song” and Stone played Danny Zuko in “Grease.”