#NFTRW Podcast

Year Number Three

A couple of years ago friends asked me to build them a Sukkah for their porch.  I grabbed a couple of students to help out and on one long Sunday we cranked out a structure.  It was built to break down and store, using 10 panels that bolt together.  I was going to use 1x3, but it turned out that 2x3 was less than half the cost of 1x6, so the framing feels a little beefy.

My favorite detail was the sunset windows.  It was a totally on the fly design decision and it really came out neat.  My friend and her kids covered the middle windows with tissue paper to create a stained glass feel - way cool.

This is year three for this assembly.  After all that time and two winters storing outside under a tarp there's really been minimal degradation.  I'm really amazed the plastic tarps have held up, and the fact that the tissue paper has lasted that long is amazing.  If you look at the righthand roof panel you can see the one damaged piece.  Last year one of the rafters cracked so we had to scab on an extension this time.  Also, some of the pieces seemed like they didn't manage to stay dry and so we've got a little mold on a couple of pieces.  We're hoping a little bleach will walk that back.

I wonder how many more years it'll last.

Week Two - Win!

Vote for Comment of the Week

Here are this week's contenders:

Student #1: has left a new comment on your post "In Memoriam: Tayneshia Jefferson":

I remember first reading this article a couple of weeks ago and really appreciating this lovely tribute to Tayneshia. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Stage Management Mentoring Project with Tayneshia during the USITT conference in Milwaukee earlier this year. It was so amazing to be able to meet her friends and current and former colleagues from all over the country. That week was when it became clear to me just how much of an impact Tayneshia had made on the personal and professional lives of so many people in our industry. I will never forget the night when she introduced me to all of her friends and was so excited that we were all in one place that she had to take a picture of all of us together. Tayneshia's involvement with USITT has really inspired me and I hope to continue my involvement with the organization, this year and beyond, in her honor. 

Student #2: has left a new comment on your post "Stagehands Union, State Settle Indiana Fair Fines":

It's interesting to see this issue come to light over a year after it happened. I'm glad that the news did not ignore this as its important these issues are not taken lightly and swept under the rug. That being said there is no excuse that this tragic event happened in the first place. In order for this to happen someone did not do their job properly! Whether this was faulty engineering, faulty rigging, or even the wrong management call not to evacuate in time, there really is no excuse for this type of thing to happen. As the people who design and build this kind of stuff we are responsible for making sure EVERYTHING is on point. Managers should be making calls to cancel or evacuate with safety as the number one priority, NOT trying to see that the show goes on! Clearly many things went wrong at the Indiana state fair and I wish the article reported more specifics. Despite this tragedy we can learn from it and I think more training is certainly the way to go in this situation. This is simply the only way to prevent this type of thing from happening again.  

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "MOOCs and the Future of Arts Education":

MOOCs! I think that philosophically MOOCs can be fantastic -- for someone who wants to learn something for the pure joy of learning, this is a perfect opportunity. For more regulated courses for credit…It think there are a lot of problems that need to be worked out. An online course like that just doesn't have the weight that a physically attended course has. You also don't get the same mental stimulation that comes with interacting with others personally in the course. On the other hand, if it's taken seriously it seems like it could be just as effective. It really depends on the student. Making education available to anyone and everyone, for free, is absolutely fantastic. I think it's good to challenge our current educational system and really make people think about what we're doing, what works, and what needs to be done. Arts on a new platform? Definitely something that needs to happen in order to keep up with changing times. Nothing can ever replace meeting with people in person and interacting creatively with one another…but, there are some positive outcomes of living and working in the digital world too. I think a great example is YouTube -- so much amazing art, particularly in entertainment and music, comes out of collaborations on YouTube. One is able to play in a band with folks from all corners of the world, sharing ideas and art, without ever meeting in real life. However, you still need to play music with people in real life -- there's just something there that can't be emulated with technology and it's so important. I think there is huge potential for the arts in MOOCs, but we have to be careful not to loose other facets of it, rather just enhance it with this new platform.

The "flipped classroom" is a fantastic idea. We need to keep trying new things in education, keep pushing, and keep being creative. I love the idea of teachers as partners in learning; I think this has huge potential. I could see this being incredibly effective for all sorts of learners as well -- instead of forcing a child who learns better visually instead of aurally to learn aurally, a child can really learn by the best method for them, creating more effective and productive school time and letting kids just plain learn rather than learn the system. 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Study: Poets, Painters, Performers Report High Job...":

The term "artist" is arguably ubiquitous at this point, but it's hard to argue that the pursuit of making your art your life career is one chosen out of passion and the pursuit of happiness, not one of monetary greed and parental piety. Some artists do pursue the industry for fame and fortune, but they'd be foolish if they believed they would undoubtedly succeed in their ventures and base their lives on said premise. Most artists look upon their craft as something that makes them happy. And with the time we spend on our jobs, a happy job will be incredibly important to a happy life. (Ask any of the 8-to-7 guys in their fancy 4x4x4 cubicles over there!) But back to the ubiquity- I think many people can argue that their job is an art in and of itself, whether it's their theatrical devotion or their passion for technological presentation. A guy programming video games is an artist, in a different way from a film actor, but their both contributing their knowledge in a way that they deem is artistic. But they're happy doing what they do, and maybe that's what matters to them.

I'd also argue that happiness can't be measured on a one-dimensional, linear scale. Sure, this guy says he's an 8, but that's dependent on his upbringing and experiences. Perhaps childhoods in the UK for those surveyed were spectacularly artistic, and as adults their lives cannot compare. Maybe the Swiss had the worst, most stressful primary school experiences ever so as adults they found their lives rich and full of happiness. Who knows? (I don't.) Additionally, the article seems to presume that many artists have more of a choice in what they want to do, often meaning they are self-employed. Artistic endeavors are hard to control, so that makes sense, but what about the artists that do work for a large company, with rules and strict deadlines? And what about the IT guys who are freelances and determine their own schedules and duties?  

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Wobbling on the Political Lines (in six inch heels...":

This article pinpoints a very important fact about feminism: it is not a unique, one-mind body of angry, ugly, men-hating, bitter lesbians (that's how the stereotype goes, right?). Feminism is composed of as many facets and aspects as there are women. There are feminists in bikinis and heels and other in hijabs, some in hot pink and others in all black. The article does a great job of explaining how those different factions interact, sometimes with some conflict, but often with the same interests in mind. I find it sad when women are afraid to say that they are feminists because of the nasty connotation associated with the word.

What matters is the actual goal of feminism: establishing equality between men and women in every aspect of our lives. The keyword here is equality. Too often I read articles calling for female superiority; that makes me uncomfortable because they claim to be feminists, when really they are disillusioned and misguided. Making men the enemies of feminism is just about the best way to perpetuate gender inequality. This article focuses on body issues and societal expectations, and there is a lot to be said about that on the men’s side of the picture too, but I won’t go into detail about this right now. All I will say is that men and women must work together to give women a status equal to that of men all over the world as well as to get rid of the unfair societal pressure set upon both genders.

Initiatives like the one described in this article are great; getting young girls to talk about their femininity, sexuality, and the conflict in their lives that stems from those two things is a brave, beautiful endeavor. Theater and the arts in general are the perfect vehicle for crafting and carrying a powerful message like this one.

I think that Edell was wrong and shouldn’t have changed the girls’ costume, but I respect her decision, because I understand that feminism comes in so many different shapes and colors, and if mine isn’t quite like hers, that’s ok. What is important is that the girls took away from the experience a sense of empowerment, of respect for (all) others and greater knowledge about what they like and who they want to be. Because that, to me, is what feminism is about.

Worth a Look

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

Stagehands Union, State Settle Indiana Fair Fines

ABC News: A stagehands union that was fined $11,500 after seven people were killed when rigging collapsed onto a crowd at the Indiana State Fair has reached a settlement with the state absolving it of the penalty. The union must implement a new safety training program as part of the agreement, which was signed Monday by Indiana's deputy labor commissioner and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 30's business manager.

Posted by David at 9/15/2013 01:00:00 PM

Wobbling on the Political Lines (in six inch heels): Creating Feminist Theater with Girls

HowlRound: Does a feminist activist theater performance automatically imply a left-leaning, patriarchy-smashing, liberal, “bra-burning” political event? What happens when teenage girls and adult women collaborate and discover that their political beliefs about feminism today teeter precariously on a squiggly line? In response to the HowlRound thread investigating the if and how artists of different political beliefs make and experience theater, I present a case study of a troupe of women who entered a theater process seemingly sharing ideals and political values under a banner of “feminism.” I share the creation process of BodyVOX!, a feminist-activist production written and performed by nine teenage girls, and co-directed by Fordham professor Aimee Cox and myself in New York in May 2013. We discovered through our process that a unified, feminist call to action might be as challenging (and painful) as running a marathon in six-inch heels. - See more at: http://www.howlround.com/wobbling-on-the-political-lines-in-6-inch-heels-creating-feminist-theater-with-girls#sthash.D13kq9Vu.dpuf

Posted by David at 9/12/2013 11:25:00 PM   

MOOCs and the Future of Arts Education

Createquity.: In the simplest of terms, a MOOC is an online mechanism for teaching and learning that (metaphorically) blows the walls off the traditional classroom, and the gates off the traditional campus. In a MOOC, the instructor still stands at “the front of the room” and delivers content, but the audience has expanded to hundreds of thousands of people. And most of those people haven’t had to go through an arduous admissions process or, better yet, pay a nickel to get in the (virtual) door. It’s important to pause here and stress what a MOOC is not. The online course you took for credit three years ago? Not open to everyone and probably didn’t have enrollment surpassing 100; not a MOOC. The free webinar your local funder hosted about a new grant program? While informative, it was not a sequential, structured course offering, therefore not a MOOC. The free course material, including videotaped lectures, course notes and reading lists you happily lap up on MIT Open CourseWare or Open Yale Courses? The content may be fascinating, but as it is posted in bulk without a registration process, live instructor, or formal assessment systems, it is also not a MOOC.

Posted by David at 9/12/2013 10:30:00 PM

Too Much Theater? The New Marathons

HowlRound: At a time when commercial theater is moving increasingly toward productions of ninety minutes with no intermission, adventurous theater artists seem to be experimenting with elaborate works of moment and circumstance, requiring endurance. “They’re a badge of courage,” said director Whit McLaughlin, artistic director of New Paradise Laboratories, a theater company based in Philadelphia known for its noodling.

Posted by David at 9/10/2013 05:52:00 PM

Unpaid Internships Must Be Destroyed

The Nib — Medium

Posted by David at 9/09/2013 05:40:00 PM

News From the Real World 9-12-13

Custom Theatre Scenery Fabrication

This year's crop from the Google search above...

1. Showman Fabricators
2. Big Vision
3. Stage House
4. Just For Show
5. United Scenic
6. SGA Production Services
7. The Shop @ ShowReady
8. Dynamic Drape & Decor
9. Cinema Verde/Flat-Washer, Inc.
10. FG|PG
11. DaVinci Fusion
12. Veritas Scenic
13. Destinations by Design
14. Ravenswood Studio, Inc.
15. Mystic Scenic Studios, Inc.
16. Pizzazz Scenic
17. John Murray Productions
18. Blueprint Studios
19. Hudson Scenic Studio
20. Southwest Scenic Group
21. CBS Design and Fabrication Services
22. Tribal Scenery
23. Creative Engineering
24. Barnacle Bros.
25. Chicago Scenic Studios
26. Global Scenic Services
27. The Work Room
28. StageRight, Inc.
29. Vision Scenery
30. Geneva Productions
31. Rocket Science
32. Michigan Scenic Studio
33. Dynamic Scenery & Supply
34. Production Design Associates
35. Bartha
36. Vinegar Hill Studios
37. Upstaging
38. 717 Designs
39. IDF Studio Scenery
40. Mendenhall Productions
41. Blue Skies Consulting LLC
42. Daedalus Design & Production Inc.
43. Stage II Design & Production
44. 1220 Exhibits, Inc.
45. ACME Scenery Company
46. Danko Productions
47. Aries Custom Works, Inc.
48. Malone Design/Fabrication
49. Chisel 3D
50. Attraction & Entertainment Solutions, Inc.

Week Two - 21 Point Favorite

Ellipses...

Mrs. TANBI turned on the air.  Let's all thank Mrs. TANBI...  Just as the Presidential address started tonight I found myself thinking of Rosanne Rosannadanna...  The infographic resumes do seem to be getting better each year...  Today I said "trying to discover the resonant frequency of my apathy."  That might be the single navel-gazingiest phrase ever uttered by anyone, anywhere...  Every night I wait until 11:30 for the daily shop report.  Every night it doesn't come...  I think I'm putting "Blacklist" on the watch list for the fall.  It's looking more and more likely that Ray Donovan is dropping to a future binge.  Now I just need to decide what to do with the last batch of "Leverage" on the DVR...  Social media should have parent/physician accounts where someone can see everything but you can't see them...  So far, not being Option Coordinator has been fairly relaxing...  I've become a regular patron of smoothies with spinach, carrots, banana, strawberry, and yogurt...  The kindle app seemed to download a new book all on its own today.  Guess I've got something new to read...  Not every international disaster that winds up having the Russians come to the rescue.  Talk about a new world order...  First week of Fantasy Football was disappointing.  First week of actual football pretty disappointing too...  Got a nice surprise check in the mail today.  Surprise checks are the best checks...  It occurs to me that I'm gonna wind up on another search committee this year...  As someone who has been into Doctor Who for more than 30 years I am surprisingly unexcited by the 50th anniversary...  Should I be a fair weather Pirates fan?  Not sure my inner Cub fan will stand for that...  A little bit I think Congress ought to authorize action anyway, even with a diplomatic solution underway.  Got to keep the pressure on...  If I upgrade my phone it would totally be a vanity thing.  My current phone does more than what I need just fine...  I ran out of Spiderman, about to run out of Transformers...

Comment of the Week

Vote for comment of the week...

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Solidarity is For Miley Cyrus: The Racial Implicat...":

"About how they can expect to be exploited by even their supposed sisters-in-arms. You wanna be down with black folk? With black women? Start by treating us like human beings, not like fucking pokemon"

This is a very compelling point, often we see caucasian performers trying to take on the "urban vibe" with their performance trying to fit in with the black community by attempting to mimic their performance practices. What they should be doing is trying to collaborate. Look at the rock and roll band Jackyl. They frequently perform with rapper DMX neither of them attempt to mimic the other they just combine their two styles for a unique performance and they both have a ball with it.
There seems to be this misconception that if your going to rap or perform Hip Hop you need to sag your pants, have golden teeth and have plenty of loose women around you all the time. Linkin park has integrated rap and even hip hop but still kept their punk rock feel.

I am not going to touch on the feminism side of this argument because I feel I can not give an appropriate opinion to the manner but as a counter argument I will say this. Hip hop is a style and for a person to take on the hip hop style does not necessarily mean they are trying to mimic or mock the black community and style. Its just a matter of taking a style like hip hop and making it your own.

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "Arianna Huffington: Burnout- The Disease of our Ge...":

I think part of the problem is, as the article points out, for so many people now their main source of diversion or "personal time" is also screen based. Pocket technology has become the main recreational activity in our culture. I had an office job for the first time in my life this summer. I've never spent so much time sitting in front of a screen in my life (seriously, I think I doubled my per-vita screen time in three months), nor do I want to again. What was most shocking to me, however, was that when the break bell rang, most of my co-workers spent their 15 minutes of freedom on Facebook, either on their phones or their computers. As David Roberts is quoted in the article, "It's doing things to [our] brain[s]." Finding other ways to engage your body and mind are not only essential to personal health, but to discovering new ways to be better at your job. If all we do, every day, at and away from work, is fuss with the minor accomplishments that technology can offer, we are doomed to mediocrity. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Why you won’t see or hear the ‘I have a dream’ spe...":

I appreciate the respect with which this article was written. I completely agree with the author in that King's wishes for his words and likeness to be protected are legitimate and understandable, but that not being able to access records of such an important moment in history is detrimental to future generations being able to recognize and appreciate the gravity of the event. It seems like "Fair Use" allows for the speech to be shown and read in full in classrooms, which is great, but what about those of us who aren't in grade school anymore? There's a line between protecting the work and its author while allowing the public to access the work, and restricting access to the work so much that it can't be remembered and appreciated in full by all who wish to. I understand King's estate wanting to protect his work and likeness, but I am appalled by the fact that the estate received $700,000 for a memorial to be built in King's honor. It seems like the strict copyright rules and the fees charged by the estate are making it extremely difficult for King's life and work to be fully appreciated and shared with the public.

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Changing the Narrative on Gun Control: Is Theater ...":

Like most people, I can go either way on gun control. Before this summer, I would have been completely against it. If you look at almost every situation in which a gun was discharged, there is a story behind the person carrying the gun. Perhaps there are mental issues, drugs, alcohol, etc. I wrote a paper on school shootings in high school, and my point was that in every situation, there were various factors at play. Art, music, video games, movies, drugs, bullying, etc were all involved in almost every occasion. In the Sandy Hook massacre, the perpetrator was noted to have personality disorders and rarely interacted with other students. There were most likely warning signs, such as his obsession with violent video games (Call of Duty) or his 500-name hit list. But no one pays attention to warning signs until after something happens. Instead, everyone focuses on the obvious. Guns can kill people; however, that is still false. The people behind the guns kill people. There is always a motive, and there are always warning signs. This summer, I learned of a family friend who killed two people. I started to question my beliefs on guns, but looking back on it, there were the same warning signs: suicide letters, alcohol, mental instability. Everyone just turned a blind eye. As for producing shows about gun control, I find it very ironic. The same industry that glorifies killings (action, shoot-em-up movies) is now trying to support gun control? I just don't understand. Even if there were plays about gun control, I doubt anyone will listen. As artists, we tend to believe that we create for the good of the world. We understand what is wrong, and we try to make it right through art. That doesn't mean audiences will want to listen. Some audiences might listen, but will they act? I have seen several people shield their eyes or leave rooms because an image on a computer or the television screen showed graphic images of rapes in the Congo, or of the Rwandan genocide, or of the Invisible Children in Sudan. Even if we show these things to people, I don't believe they will have the courage to stand up against these issues because they do not directly relate to our lives. I guess gun control can relate to many people in the United States, but again, we forget that man can do as much damage with a knife, his fists, and his feet. Personally, I don't think violence will ever stop. I think humans actually secretly enjoy it. If there was no violence, there would be nothing to protest/nothing to rally behind. There would be no one to deem wrong or right. No matter what we say, we live off of conflicts and violence. Peace is for the dreamers. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Starting a Small Business after College Graduation...":

This article is really frustrating for a number of reasons.

A) There's more to starting a business than simply obtaining credit. If they had framed it as "How to obtain credit for you small business" or as part of a larger series, then fine, but it doesn't even BEGIN to talk about a whole host of other issues, such as filing with the state, writing a business plan, various tax issues etc. Even if your small business is a freelance consulting firm of one, you still need to file with the state as an LLC (or S Corp or whatever), create a DBA name etc...

B) I'm not sure how many of us have checked our credit scores lately, but mine's not particularly fabulous, despite my 100% paid on time credit history. My debt-to-credit ratio is jacked because of student loans, and my average account history is a whopping 4 years (thanks to one 20 year old account I inherited..). It's not as easy as "proactively managing your credit."

B.1) They don't go into any other forms of funding but the traditional business loan route (except for the breezy, "it's EASY to get funding for your small business!!"). A typical college grad with $xx,xxx (at least) in student loan debt (which is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy fyi) can't just waltz into a bank and be like "can I have a couple hundred thousand dollars as a loan?" Where's the collateral!?

I'm not saying it's impossible for people to get funding without these things, but at least go into alternative methods of funding if you're going to target a demographic that is most likely coming out of school with a net worth significantly in the red. A lot of the people this article is geared towards probably (because of age, experience whatever) have very little of an idea about the nuts-and-bolts steps to actually getting a business off the ground.