Worth a Look

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

Ideas abound at public meeting held to save August Wilson Center

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Maybe there are performers, some known nationally who have helped stage works by August Wilson over the years, who would be moved to donate money to help save a cultural center bearing the Pittsburgh-born playwright's name.
Or perhaps some local pro sports figures with millions of dollars in personal wealth could be compelled to get behind a community cause.
For nearly three hours Friday, a Pittsburgh Public Schools committee considered those and other ways the district could acquire and preserve the now-dormant August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

Posted by David at 2/06/2014 02:52:00 PM

Broadway Expands Its Green Practices to Theaters Across the U.S.

EcoWatch: If you had the pleasure of taking in a Broadway performance in the past five years, you also witnessed sustainability taking center stage.
The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) celebrates five years of greening productions this week by launching an initiative to bring sustainable practices to theaters across the country. In collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the BGA says its online Theatre Greening Advisor is the most comprehensive theater greening information database available.
The organizations want to provide environmentally preferable options to producers, theater owners, designers, managers and design shops in the same way that the BGA brought them to Broadway in New York City.

Posted by David at 2/05/2014 12:34:00 PM

After Complaints, 'Millie' Gets Thoroughly Modern Makeover for Dalton School

NYTimes.com: Leaders of the Dalton School, one of Manhattan’s top private schools, this month canceled a student production of the musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” over concerns about the show’s use of Asian stereotypes and a subplot involving a white slavery ring in China, planning to replace it with a revue of the show’s songs instead.

Posted by David at 2/04/2014 01:32:00 PM

FENCES

McCarter Theatre Center: Join us for an exciting conversation between Tony Award-winning actor and Fences director Phylicia Rashad and special guest moderator Melissa Harris-Perry, professor of Political Science at Tulane University, MSNBC host, columnist for The Nation, and author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.

Posted by David at 2/03/2014 12:09:00 PM

Don’t Get Screwed: The Contract Provisions Every Creative Needs to Know

99U: Four months later, the job still wasn’t finished, and my friend still wasn’t paid half of what he was owed. The founders were constantly changing their minds about what they wanted, sending my friend additional “specs” long after he had started the work. Eventually, realizing that he had already spent more time than it was worth, my friend wrote the project off, never collecting the rest of his fee.

Posted by David at 2/08/2014 03:41:00 PM

Ellipses...

Let's try this again.  It's been quite a while...  I didn't see the evolution/creationism debate.  Somehow I don't think it will change any minds...  I am right tired of the cold.  It'd be nice to be able to go out without a base layer again...  My original Slingbox has (I think) officially shit the bed.  Long live the new Slingbox (once it gets here)...  I pretty much thought it had fallen apart for Chris Christie last week.  Now I just wish MSNBC would take the story out of high rotation...  Do you know anyone that needs an MFA in Technical Direction?  Send them my way...  A little bit I think Pittsburgh ought to be embarrassed about losing the August Wilson Center...  The Superbowl didn't turn out to be something to write home about, either the game or the ads...  Tomorrow I am doing attributed blocks in CAD class.  I am a fan of attributed blocks...  Mrs. TANBI and I have to pick an executor, trustee, and guardian.  Something tells me these won't be the last decisions...  Also with the cold I have had pretty much enough with the snow too...  Today marks my officially being replaced as precollege dp coordinator...  Unloading those few items I listed on Craigslist isn't going all that well...  The winter olympics started tonight.  I've got my fingers crossed they come off alright...  All things being equal we're less than 21 days away from a big event...  The truck, the truck doesn't sound well.  I think it has something to do with the power steering...  It seems like the NFTRW Podcast is petering out.  Just aren't finding people to go on camera.  It's too bad really...  We got a new Roku to avoid renting a new cable box.  So now there's a Roku in the guest room...  The Lego movie comes out this weekend, but I can't go until friends get back from Orlando...  I think maybe chat is over.  I don't run AIM anymore and pretty much never chat over Skype...  I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use the leaf blower to clear snow off the car until now...

Vote for Comment of the Week

Voting closes Friday noon.

Student #1  has left a new comment on your post "NBC Will Air a Live Version of Peter Pan in Less T...": 

I had a good laugh reading this article, and while The Sound of Music may not be considered successful among theatre-folk, I have to disagree with the negative attitude toward live broadcasting of musicals and plays. Yes, NBC casted a "star" as the lead role, and maybe she wasn't what everyone wanted her to be as Maria. However, how far off is this idea of "casting a star" from what is going on in nearly every production on Broadway? Not far at all. Most people I talked to absolutely loved getting to watch a live performance of a musical while sitting in their living rooms on a Thursday night. Of course, as people heavily involved in theatre, we are going to really critique the performance, but most people do not have the same perspectives we have. In reality, The Sound of Music Live attracted an insane amount of viewers, and all of those viewers were exposed to theatre through their living rooms. For people who either physically or financially cannot take themselves or their children to the theatre, this NBC broadcast is a brilliant alternative. Also, by broadcasting live theatre to millions of Americans, NBC is actually promoting our industry, no matter how much Underwood couldn't act or sing or dance. The point is, NBC is acknowledging the difficult task of mounting a theatrical production, and they are embracing it for the whole world to see. Maybe we should embrace it, too. 

Student #2  has left a new comment on your post "Directing, Creative Freedom, and Vandalism": 

I really enjoyed this article, I think that the relationship between director and playwright is very interesting. The author of this made solid points, and was especially justified in his stance as a director himself. The first of his numbered points was one of the strongest and most significant to me. Here, the author explains that there is a difference between the collaboration of a director and a playwright and a director violating contract by changing the script. This article made me think about the general attitude towards writers in relation to a director. When I think about movies, credit typically seems to be given more to the director than to the screenwriter, at least as far of who the attention is on. With plays I think there may be more of a balance. I'm not really sure if there are implications of this, but I guess it relates to this attitude that the director should get complete creative control and is therefore justified in whatever he choses to take. It's interesting when the playwright is the primary artist who's work is being interpreted in the first place. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "How 'Noise-scapes' Are Affecting Us": 

This article is PROOF that a loud working environment is detrimental to the quality of your work. The old saying "you need to be quiet I cant think straight" must be true! I think everyone can take a valuable lessen from this article and reconsider polluting a work environment with noise. I know sometimes I can be just as guilty as anyone else but that being said Studio 33 is a WORK environment, 95% of the time I am in the studio trying to concentrate it is extremely loud. I hope most of the class reads this article and we can all agree on some house rules in regards to being loud and obnoxious while people are trying to get through stressful work. I would never have even considered that loud noise would make you physically uncomfortable but after reading the article and thinking about it the more it starts to make sense. While noise level has somewhat of a factor in distracting people I think any noise at all can play a large part in this as well. Why? Think about it... if someone is carrying out a reasonable "indoor voice" conversation but you sit close enough you hear what there talking about. Then all you can concentrate on is what food they think is better and why instead of where your next line should go. At the very least when I have to crank my music so loud to cover up people shouting about something or another from one side of the room to the other... We have a problem! 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Stratasys creates world's first color multi-materi...": 

So this is really interesting to me because the other day in my film class we talked about animation. Not just any animation, but a new type of animation that uses color 3D printing. The example from class specifically was the movie ParaNorman. It was a fairly recent stop motion animation film...but if you watch it, you'd never peg it for stop motion. The reason for this is, in older stop motion, and really any stop motion before this film, the animators had one of two options for moving the characters. Some animators made models that could morph and move. The problem was, there was little consistency and it took forever to get the models just right to take the next shot. The other (and more popular option in professional stop motion, as well as the most recent) is a system in which each character has a skeleton with removable parts. But up until ParaNorman, each character would have around 800 different faces. That sounds like a lot, but think of how many separate frames there are between two different faces, and the number of combinations of faces (smiling to sad, happy to bored, quizzical to amused, yadda yadda). ParaNorman animators decided to use a new piece of technology (color 3d printing) to print over 2000 faces for each character AND have all the skin tones match because they were computer generated (before, artists had to paint each of the 800 faces, and thus the paint was simple because it had to stay consistent). This meant the frame to frame resolution was immense and all of the effects were very cohesive. This 3D printer could provide another layer to that animation process, allowing more lifelike skin qualities or other options that animators still do by hand. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "Antipermanence: An Argument for Increased Infrastr...": 

I think that only large non-profit theatres are broken. The smaller ones tend to be more about doing theatre and making people happy, so they care less about making money. No one gets paid in non-profit theatre, so it is hard to imagine that any non-profit theatres want to make money. I mean, sure you can stock up the organizations bank account and pretend to make money, but you personally aren't getting any money. It is weirdly relevant to my situation right now. Recently, my loal community non-profit theatre started worrying about money problems. The last show we put on didn't draw that large of a crowd, so we didn't make as much as we usually do on ticket sales. Of course there was plenty to cover the cost of putting the show on, but we had to draw from our savings in order to donate the usual amount of money that we give to charities every year. This really concerned some of the Board members for some reason. I mean, non-profit means that all of the money goes back to the community, but we have about $35,000 in the bank just in case we don't get any audience at all for a show (That is about how much it costs us to put on a show including space rental). What they don't realize is that we will always get an audience. Even if the show is something like Will Rogers Follies, which is the show that didn't draw much, we have a couple hundred loyal audience members that come out no matter what the show is because they enjoy the atmosphere of our theatre. Also, we are pretty much professional quality without anyone getting paid. Time and time again, people find our theatre group, come see a show, and then talk about how they felt like they had just seen a Broadway production for a 10th of the cost. Sure, non-profit theatre is dying a little from the fact that the people who were around when it was big are getting older, but that doesn't mean people don't go at all. Broadway is the big thing again and the younger generation doesn't realize that there are wonderful community and non-profit theatres putting on beautiful pieces of artwork just because they love what they do. 

Worth a Look

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

Having Gone Largely Unnoticed In The 'Game Of Thrones' Series, It's Now Impossible To Take Your Eyes Off It

Smatterist: You’re probably a big fan of Game of Thrones and you may have even watched the series at least a dozen times in anticipation of the new season. But through all those viewings, did you ever notice the attention to detail that goes into the show? For example, the costumes. Have you ever really looked at the intricate designs on all of them? You probably haven’t, but after seeing these, you won’t be able to ignore them.

Posted by David at 1/29/2014 12:52:00 PM

Off-Broadway comedy funded by travel industry

Yahoo News: A new off-Broadway comedy about a pair of travel agents and their wacky clientele's demands has an unusual source of funding.
It's underwritten by the very industry it portrays.
"Craving for Travel" is the brainchild of Jim Strong, who owns a $40 million-a-year luxury travel company in Dallas and wrote two self-published books with the same name as the play. Strong's co-sponsors for the show include Viking and Holland America cruise lines, Travel + Leisure magazine and the Four Seasons hotel chain.

Posted by David at 1/29/2014 12:50:00 PM

A Dancer & Health Insurance

FROM THE GREEN ROOM: Dance/USA's e-Journal: I have been without health insurance for one year, three months, and 10 days as of today. I am 27 years old, physically active, have no chronic health problems that require treatment or medication. I don’t smoke. I only drink on occasion (and then in moderation), and as a freelance dancer and part-time non-profit administrator in New York, I make about $22,000 a year after taxes. I am at once exactly the kind of person the Affordable Care Act was written for, and exactly the kind of person they are afraid won’t sign up.

Posted by David at 1/29/2014 12:47:00 PM

5 Tech Tools Every Director in the Musical Theatre Industry Should Be Using

Theatrical Writes: I’ve hit that age where frightening stuff like, “When I was a kid we just had to make plans and stick to them. No fancy SMS’n for us! And we liked it,” starts coming out of my brain and then mouth and generally bumming out my kid. Never mind that I’ve become a texting machine, am constantly online and embrace any new tech gadget that promises to make my life easier.

Posted by David at 2/01/2014 03:59:00 PM

The Russian Broadway Community Responds to Russian Anti-Gay Propoganda Law

fbomb: Anybody who has been paying even a modicum of attention to the 2014 Winter Olympics knows about the outrage caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to sign into law an act prohibiting the promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships to minors. The law isn’t only disappointing from a basic human rights perspective, but specifically worrisome for gay Olympians, who fear they may face discrimination or even arrest while participating in the games. Activists all over the world have made their feelings about this situation known — from American LGBTQ groups to Sweden to, now, even the Broadway community.

Posted by David at 1/28/2014 01:14:00 PM

Vote for Comment of the Week

Voting closes Friday noon...

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Your Employees Want the Negative Feedback You Hate...":

I think that, more than positive or negative, when I'm doing a job I want honest feedback. While I think these studies are useful in determining what people need, I disagree fundamentally with the notion that "Constructive" feedback is negative. No one can do a job perfectly, but presumably we all try our (mostly) best, so why are we making criticism such a bad or "negative" thing? I feel like the danger of studies like these is that the take home message for managers etc. will be "these are the ratios of positive/negative feedback we should be giving" instead of "How can we reinvent the giving and receiving of feedback so that value judgments aren't as easily applied?" 

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "7 Things You Need To Do To Avoid Mental Burnout":

Overall, a good article in that it reminds us to be aware of the signs/symptoms of mental burnout, and thereby take actions to mitigate stress. However, the meditation suggestion in number three is glaringly over-simplified. A lot of people – myself included – have tried meditation numerous times without success. Also, taking one full hour out of every day for meditation alone is a lot when it already seems like there are frequently not enough hours in the day of a life of a student at CMU for adequate sleep. If I have to choose between exercise or meditation, I believe exercise is more effective, especially since you can simulate a type of meditative state while doing something simple like stretching or taking advantage of the trails in Schenley Park. My biggest hurdle is shutting off my brain from all of the tasks I need to complete for the week/month/semester before attempting sleep. Something that has recently helped me came from the book, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. In order to cultivate lucidity in dreams (something I have only infrequently been able to achieve), the book suggests experiencing waking life as a dream. The concept is that once in dream state, you may then be able to focus concentration by simulating the concentration necessary to function in the waking world, and thereby achieve lucidity. The other side of this is that before bed, it can help to view the aspects/situations of the day that are still troubling as the transitory elements of a dream. Believe it or not, this little trick has helped me quiet my mind before sleep. And a restful sleep can be one of the most important factors to regenerate our bodies and brains from burnout. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Housing for Artists in Arts District Set to Break ...":

I love the concept of having 39 artists living together under one roof. Typically in art districts housing is somewhat limited and if its available it is often over priced. The Floora Street lofts with provide housing to people of the same mindset and common interests. The environment of this building would be incredible for all these creative minds coming together could create some amazing art. I would love to live in this kind of housing at some point in my life. This idea is so unique and I just love the concept overall. I wonder if the demand is going to be great enough to get 39 "artists." It sounds like its hard to define what they consider to be an artist. Super creative concept and I would love to live there. 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Equity National Tours Explained ":

I was unaware of the way touring contracts work in juxtaposition to Broadway contracts. 10 different types of touring contracts? It does seem like the money is in touring because your earnings are more easily put towards living which is what it should be. It doesn't make sense to me that Newsies and Kinky Boots National Tour Company Members are making significantly less than Book of Mormon members. Kinky Boots is a Tony Award winning musical and Newsies is a Disney musical. Tier C and D? Those company members are working extremely hard and deserve more. 

Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "8 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Just Rely On SpellChec...":

It is funny how many people don't care to learn how to spell correctly nowadays, especially now that iPhones will guess the word that you are trying to write for you as soon as you start typing a few letters. SpellCheck does catch when you have sentence fragments or the wrong tense verb. I know I only use it as a quick flag while I'm writing to let me know if there is a word spelled wrong and then I make myself retype the whole word all over again without the aide of anything to make sure that I know how to spell it. When I finish the whole paper, I then go through and proof read for the extra words and fragments and such. SpellCheck is the doom of our written language I'm a afraid. Same with ChatSpeak. ChatSpeak ruins the English language for everyone by leaving out letters and abbreviating words into things that don't make sense. I know it is useful because it is faster to type, but that doesn't mean you should use it anywhere outside of texting or online chatting. I write out full words and sentences with correct punctuation whenever I type or text just so that I don't get thrown into the illiterate pile of people. There are elementary school kids that write in ChatSpeak because they are use to texting and such. My mom is constantly asking me to translate from ChatSpeak into normal English for her so that she can write out the real word for them. It is getting ridiculous.

Worth a Look

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

Guthrie Theater furloughs most of its full-time employees for a week

Star Tribune: The Guthrie Theater is furloughing most of its full-time staff for a week during January, a theater official confirmed Tuesday. The Guthrie has about 120 full-time employees, a figure that swells when productions are up on its three stages.
The theater’s employees have had forced time off “a couple of times” since the Guthrie moved into its new riverfront complex in June 2006, said Trish Santini, director of external relations.

Posted by David at 1/22/2014 05:07:00 PM

“How I Met Your Mother” Puts White Characters In Asian “Yellowface”

www.thefrisky.com: Last night’s episode of CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” is under fire for the racist decision to depict three of its white characters in “yellowface” — that is, dressing up like they are Asian, in this case Japanese in this case Chinese. Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders both dressed in kimonos Chinese gowns, their hair pinned up geisha-style, and ate using chopsticks; Radnor wore a silk jacket and a long Fu Manchu mustache. There were fans, references to Shanghai and jokes about noodles.

Posted by David at 1/22/2014 05:15:00 PM 

Your Employees Want the Negative Feedback You Hate to Give

Jack Zenger , and Joseph Folkman - Harvard Business Review: Would you rather hear positive feedback about your performance or suggestions for improvement?
For the last two weeks, we’ve been compiling data on this question, and on people’s general attitudes toward feedback, both positive and corrective. So far we’ve collected it from 899 individuals, 49% from the U.S. and the remainder from abroad. Before we tell you what we found, we suggest you take the same assessement here so you can put our findings within your own personal context.

Posted by David at 1/25/2014 03:46:00 PM

Equity National Tours Explained

Backstage: The acting community is in an uproar since the audition postings for the upcoming “Kinky Boots” and “Newsies” national tours at the end of December. Many assumed that these tours would employ actors on Production Contracts, with pay equivalent to Broadway plus per diem. Instead, “Newsies” was posted as a Tier C contract and “Kinky Boots” as Tier D.

Posted by David at 1/23/2014 01:31:00 PM

Housing for Artists in Arts District Set to Break Ground in May

FrontRow: It has been six months since the Flora Street Lofts, the privately-backed housing development slated to plop subsidized artist housing at the doorstep of pricey Museum Tower in the heart of the Dallas Arts District, received approval for $5 million in state housing credits. Today, project developers met with the Dallas City Council’s economic development committee to talk about tapping into the Downtown Connection/City Center TIF to obtain an additional $2 million in city funding which would go towards building out the development’s parking garage. It’s all part of the finishing touches on the funding plan (laid out here) that push Flora Street Lofts towards its May construction date. Nearby venues, museums, and event organizers will also be happy with the news that garage may add some additional reduced rate public use parking spaces to the district.

Posted by David at 1/24/2014 11:21:00 AM

Comment of the Week

Vote for comment of the week - open through Friday noon.

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Operation Smile’s 15-Hour Job Interview: Unpaid Ca...":

I understand how this interview process would yield more results when looking for specific traits for a position. At the same time, however, I would hate interviewing for this company. I like to be extremely prepared for an interview. I research what the job duties entail and prepare myself accordingly to put my best foot forward with those details in mind. A certain level of adaptability is most likely expected and definitely a trait that is sought after when looking at an entry level candidate but to spring something this massive on a person with out any prior knowledge seems unfair. Maybe don't tell them exactly what they will be doing but at least give them an idea by saying you will be working in a team and will be utilizing these sets of skills. This interview method does show a lot of merit and i can see how this would give potential employer a much better overview on the candidate just maybe give them a bit more information upfront. 

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "Stuff To Ponder: What Is The Definition of Emergen...":

When the polar vortex hit the midwest and the east coast, I did not even think about the repercussions it would have on the theatre industry. It is interesting, because you would think that bad weather would constitute more people wanting to attend the theatre, since there is not much to do in the winter months. However, when the weather is so bad that people cannot leave their houses without getting frost bite, it is a whole different story. This article brings up two points which I think are important to discuss: emergency disaster plans and refunds on tickets. First and foremost, it is definitely important for theatre companies to develop solid and well-known disaster plans. Often, I can imagine theatre companies may become preoccupied with other issues, such as ticket refunds, and forget that they have a building and people to protect in the event of a disaster. With that said, dealing with refunds in the event of extreme weather can also be tricky. No matter what a company decides on their refund policy, they should definitely be making it known to their customers upon purchase of tickets in the first place. 

Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "'Spider-Man' Not a Flop, Broadway Restaurateur Dec...":

I would not call Spider-Man a flop. What I would call it is a show that was unable to reach its full potential that was eaten alive by the press. Having seen the show twice there I can truthfully say that there is something very fascinating about the production. This would be the innovative design of the show. From the costumes to scenery to even the effects the way each departmental element worked together with the cast to create the world of the play was amazing. Even the interactions between the actors and scenery during a scene change was beautiful. However, the direction, choreography, book, music, and lyrics could use some more work. With some more time and the press not down the production's throats I think many more people would not consider it a flop. It also bothers me that the majority of people who refer to it as one have not seen the show, and have only heard of it from accidents on the news. To this I say that you cannot truly critique a work unless you have seen that work. 

Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Create A Fake Artist's Portfolio In Seconds":

I really like the ideas Sures Kumar is bringing up with this project. The idea that we can teach computers to make our lives easier is nothing new. The ideas that "A man is only as good as his word" and that we can be defined as people by what we have done in the past, have also been around for a very long time. Pro-folio is a logical next step. I really like pro-folio as an art piece because it talks about something that is weird and removed from our daily lives, and yet by it's existence becomes something very very important to our daily lives. The article says "there's nothing any of us can do about it[machines generate artificial identities]". I'm not sure I agree with that. I think that although we may not know how yet, this is a problem that humanity will both create and solve at the same time. In some ways there are already ways to protect ones work. A simple signature has been used for a very long time. A self portrait is something that no one can every really claim as their own. I have faith that humanity will be able to find ways of protecting the truth behind who did what somehow. In all likelihoods it will be with the help of the very same technologies that are causing this problem in the first place. 

Student #5  has left a new comment on your post "9 Things Every Musician Needs To Know About The So...":

I couldn't agree with this article more. As a young sound guy I can say that i have only had to deal with this few times but when I have it gave me a pretty good understanding to what this author is saying. To start off I have to say that I agree with Philip that this can be applied for any "house" person. In the few times that I have had this problem I would have to say that 4 out of every 5 times the problem hasn't even been with musicians. I think however that it is often the worst when you see some young band acting like they're the Led Zeppelin of the 2000s. They walk in thinking that you know nothing about what you're getting paid to do and treat you like so. One group of people that may be even worse than a bigheaded musician is the friends and family of the talent. One memory of this was when I was mixing a Battle of the Bands event. For this particular show we only had one day to rehearse 20+ bands. With a rehearsal schedule like this i was left doing a lot of fine tuning for the show and I can honestly say that within the first 30 seconds of every set I would get some mother, father, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc. come up and ask if I could turn up their respective friend. Its times like those that really make me angry. can't these people just wait 1 damn minute before making uneducated requests on how I should mix the show.

Ellipses...

Headed back into the Polar Vortex.  Can't wait...  We are down to two cats - from five.  It's different...  Mrs. TANBI had her baby shower.  Fun was had by all...  I owe like a TON of blog posts: Scottsdale, First Night, Home Improvements, Cats, FCEs.  After all these years you'd think I would be better at this...  The new ER at Magee is pretty slick...  We had a closet clean out last week.  Maybe too early for spring cleaning, but just as effective...  Turns out the recycling guys will take broken down bundled cardboard.  Learn something new every day...  The schedule I wound up with for the Spring semester is the oddest one I have had yet...  The truck is making a sound like "I'm old."  That can't be good...  Last week NPR said the way to deal with back pain is: get over it.  Sounds like a tough sell to me...  Dear Amazon, if as a Prime member I have a registry shouldn't people buying my gifts get the free two day shipping?  Just a thought...  Been binge watching DS9 on Netflix.  They really hit their stride there in the middle...  Watched Jack Reacher the other night.  Nice for watching the Pittsburgh locations...  Who would have thought that itsPeg would know the folks from Cope, Inc?  Worlds collide...  Next week is Playground, or as we in Technical Direction know it "Navigator Training"...  I think the Newspage comments this week were better than most of last semester.  Maybe poking people does make a difference...  Not that anyone is asking, but in my opinion Jos A Bank and Men's Warehouse shouldn't be allowed to merge...  Do you watch Morning Joe on MSNBC?  I discovered it though the MSNBC Roku app.  Pretty good show and even better with minimal commercials...  Today I talked fairly randomly for more than an hour about excel.  I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad thing...  Got quoted in an online article today and now I feel like I need to email some apologies.  Be careful what you tweet.  There might actually be people listening...

Worth a Look

Here are some of last week's Greenpage articles that might be worth your time...

Stuff To Ponder: What Is The Definition of Emergency?

Butts In the Seats: This last week I have gotten some real lessons in the importance of disaster planning.
During the quiet of the holidays I started a conversation with some colleagues about how we would handle inclement weather on performance days. Everyone keeps telling me how they try to shy away from scheduling shows in January because the weather is so bad. With that in mind, I wanted to have a plan for how we would proceed before the need arose.
Since we present a number of touring shows, we would be in a position of needing to pay artists per our contract unless the weather is so bad a state of emergency is declared. In that case, we would issue refunds to the ticket buyers.

Posted by David at 1/15/2014 01:03:00 PM

Meryl Streep's Feminist Tribute to Emma Thompson

The New Yorker: Forget the Oscars. We already have a winner for best award-show speech of the season, and it’s a tie: Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson. On Tuesday night, at the National Board of Review gala, Streep, whose speeches are perfect, delivered a humdinger of a tribute to Emma Thompson, who was receiving the best-actress honor, for “Saving Mr. Banks.” (The ceremony was untelevised, but Bennett Marcus, at Vanity Fair, provided a transcript.) With her customary self-satirizing loopiness, Streep took the stage wearing a “Prize Winner” hat (swag from the producers of “Nebraska”) and remarked, “What? Oh, I’m not the prize winner. That’s so weird.” By the end, she was lionizing Thompson in verse—because Meryl Streep writes poetry—in “an ode to Emma”

Posted by David at 1/13/2014 02:16:00 PM

Actors Jam Meeting to Seek Higher Pay for Tours

NYTimes.com: More than 350 Actors’ Equity members packed a union hall and overflow room on Friday to demonstrate visibly their concern about lower salaries for musical theater performers on national tours, a source of intensifying frustration that has led Equity leaders to schedule a town hall meeting with members on Jan. 27.

Posted by David at 1/14/2014 02:19:00 PM

Helen Kelly: The Hobbit Dispute

Scoop News: Hostility to unions in the film industry is not new and although SAG have made major strides with Warner Bros since that time, the same hostility has been evident many years later and closer to home. We say this occurred last year when Peter Jackson would refer, contemptuously, to the members of Actors Equity seeking to negotiate terms and conditions for performers working on the making of the film The Hobbit as the “Equity 200”.

Posted by David at 1/14/2014 02:23:00 PM

Create A Fake Artist's Portfolio In Seconds

Co.Design | business + design: Just type your name, and Pro-Folio will create your own website full of stolen art. But it’s not just a great prank; it’s the future of identity.

Posted by David at 1/13/2014 02:24:00 PM

Happy New Year!