Worth A Look

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

Writers Guild East Blasts Proposed Anti-Union ‘Right to Work’ Legislation

Variety: The Writers Guild of America East has blasted proposed federal legislation that would allow workers to opt out of paying union dues.

The new bill, H.R. 744, was introduced this week by Reps. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Joe Wilson (R-SC), would extend “right to work” to all states nationwide.

“One of the strange perennial rituals of Beltway Washington is the introduction of legislation to destroy the only effective voice American workers have on the job,” said WGA East President Michael Winship and Executive Director Lowell Petersson.

Posted by David at 2/03/2017 05:46:00 PM

Still in transition: DC theaters, seeking leaders of color

New Pittsburgh Courier: Who would have bet that the country would have elected a Black president before any of Washington’s biggest theater troupes had an artistic or executive director of color?

“It’s not necessarily from any ill will, but more from ignorance,” says Jennifer L. Nelson, who led the now-defunct African Continuum Theatre Company until 2006 and is a resident director with the rapidly evolving Mosaic Theater Company. “And a lack of inclination to change.”

Posted by David at 2/01/2017 12:25:00 PM

SAG-AFTRA Draws More Than 500 to Videogame Strike Rally

Variety: SAG-AFTRA drew more than 500 supporters Thursday to a spirited rally as its video game strike moves into its fourth month.

“We are not going to stop until we have a fair contract for our members,” said David White, SAG-AFTRA national executive director. “This is not just about money. It’s about fair working conditions and secondary compensation.”

Posted by David at 2/03/2017 05:52:00 PM

More Than Booth

HowlRound: Part 1: Why Every Theatre in America Should Have an Active Shooter Plan
Real tragedy lies in the fact that out of all of the moments, and milestones that have occurred in American theatres, perhaps the most noteworthy occurred on a spring evening in 1865 during a performance of Our American Cousin. Despite the centuries of breathtaking performances and soul-revealing cultural revolutions that have characterized theatre history, schoolchildren’s first exposure to theatres historically is as the setting for Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Between the passage of time and the cringe-worthy, “But how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” jokes, it is easy to relegate the concept of real-life theatre gun violence to a time when horse-and-buggy was the favored mode of transportation.

Posted by David at 1/30/2017 10:55:00 AM

An Interactive Visualization of Every Line in Hamilton

polygraph.cool: When I first heard of Hamilton, I was doubtful ("a hip-hop musical?"). But from the moment I sat down to listen the whole way through, I was done for.

I was obsessed. I had the soundtrack on repeat for months, it was all I listened to in my waking hours. I listened so much I had favorite lines and favorite songs. I analyzed the lyrics; I reveled in the layers of complexity, the double entredres, the clever word plays.

Then my obsession hit a peak; I kept wondering, what would a visualization of Hamilton look like? I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Posted by David at 1/30/2017 10:49:00 AM

Worth a Look

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

Love or Money: How About Both?

AMERICAN THEATRE: Art has always been done more for love than money. Actor Hilary Swank revealed in an October 2016 interview with Chelsea Handler that she was paid no more than $3,000 for her Oscar-winning role in Boys Don’t Cry. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) minimum to receive health insurance then was $5,000, which meant she had an Academy Award but no health insurance.

Posted by David at 1/25/2017 01:04:00 PM

Who Killed Teatro ZinZanni?

Theater - The Stranger: Teatro ZinZanni is a very successful operation. The quirky combo of modern cirque, cabaret, and five-course dinner service has been in Seattle for 18 years. According to their promotional literature, the organization has generated nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars in "economic activity" in that time, and draws an annual average of 60,000 patrons. And that's not including the San Francisco branch of ZinZanni, which opened on April Fools' Day, 2000.

Posted by David at 1/25/2017 01:10:00 PM

56 State Arts Agencies Face the Death of the NEA

Clyde Fitch Report: On Jan. 3, 2017, I sent an individual email to leaders and selected staff of all US state arts agencies — 56 in total, counting 50 states and six territories. Their contact information is easy to find via the website of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), which provides an interactive map as well as links to websites, social media and superb data, research and analysis. The subject of the email was straightforward. We’re in new and frightening political waters.

Posted by David at 1/24/2017 01:27:00 PM

An Interview with Madeleine George

THE INTERVAL: Here are some things that I learned about playwright Madeleine George within the first ten minutes of being in her apartment: she likes puns, she is of the “why tell a joke once when you can tell it twice” school of thought, she knows a good Nazi reference and isn’t afraid to use it, she and partner Lisa Kron have to move because they have more books than wall space, she has a painting of an egg that she bought in Moscow, she has been to Moscow, and she has a highly neurotic dog (the mental state of the dog could not be independently confirmed as he was currently in Michigan).

Posted by David at 1/27/2017 01:09:00 PM

No more nerds, sex bombs: Female animators draw away clichés

New Pittsburgh Courier: The California Institute of the Arts was created partly by Walt Disney’s desire to bring more top-flight animators into the profession. And it has during its 47 years, though for a long time almost all were men.

Now, nearly three-quarters of CalArts’ more than 250 animation students are women, and there’s a new goal: ensure that when they land jobs, they get to draw female characters reflective of the real world and not just the nerds, sex bombs, tomboys or ugly villains who proliferate now.

Posted by David at 1/23/2017 06:25:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

Dramaturgy of the Duels in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s "Hamilton"

The Theatre Times: Two men face off in Weehawken, NJ just before dawn. They hold muzzle-loaded flintlock pistols, primitive firearms by today’s standard. The moment determining life or death will be that instant that triggers are pulled. Once that mechanism is engaged, flint will strike steel, creating a spark that then ignites powder, which in turn propels a lead ball towards their opponent. This lethal action provides some sense of justice over an insult and satisfies the honor of both combatants.

Posted by David at 1/18/2017 02:30:00 PM

Two trans actors from Mosaic's Charm tell their Truth

DC Theatre Scene: Mosaic Theatre’s current production, Charm by Phillip Dawkins, is inspired by the true story of Chicago trans icon Miss Gloria Allen, who teaches etiquette classes to youth at the Center on Halsted, an LGBT community center on Chicago’s northside.

The production already garnered a great deal of press when they announced a change in casting close to the start of rehearsals – swapping out cisgender KenYatta Rogers for the trans actress B’Ellana Duquesne in the role of Mama based on Gloria Allen. The move was made after a great deal of conversation between the artists and feedback from the transgender community, arguing that a trans role should be filled with a transgender actor.

Posted by David at 1/17/2017 02:10:00 PM

Why Unrest is Gold for Creatives

99U: In an era of upheaval and crisis, creative expression takes on new urgency. Writer Mike Sager calls upon his own formative teenage experience in 1969 that led him to begin using his stories to question authority. For those creatives feeling discontent in these fractious times, it’s a reminder that the simmering feeling of anger can be best used to issue a call to action and serve as a tool for change.

Posted by David at 1/19/2017 12:55:00 PM

Dr. Charlotte Canning on Internationalism and US Theatre

HowlRound: We tend to think of the middle of the twentieth century as a litany of horrors, from the trenches of the First World War and the atrocities of the Second to the fear of nuclear annihilation that came with the early decades of the Cold War. However, as Dr. Charlotte Canning of the University of Texas at Austin chronicles in her new book, On the Performance Front: US Theatre and Internationalism, there were also plenty of theatre artists during this time who believed that they could bring about a better future by sharing their work with the world.

Posted by David at 1/17/2017 02:08:00 PM

Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus To End 'The Greatest Show On Earth'

The Two-Way : NPR: After its nearly century and a half run, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus plans to shut down "The Greatest Show On Earth."

The historic American spectacle will deliver its final show in May, says Kenneth Feld, the chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, the producer of Ringling.

Feld announced the news on the company website Saturday night, citing declining ticket sales — which dipped even lower as the company retired its touring elephants.

Posted by David at 1/16/2017 02:01:00 PM

Worth a Look

This week there were EIGHTEEN articles on the Greenpage I thought might be worth your time, and FWIW the kids did decent picks this week too.  Here are a couple in a similar vein, but (although I rarely say this) you might just want to check out the site this week...

What Can Theatre Do? A Post-Election Colloquy

AMERICAN THEATRE: "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are," Brecht once wrote. We asked a wide cross section of the nation's playwrights and artistic directors—those who write plays and those who program them—how they are planning or intending to respond to the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency as theatre artists and leaders, and what they think theatre can do to shape and direct the national conversation.

Posted by David at 11/30/2016 01:18:00 PM

What Can Theatre Do? A Post-Election Colloquy, Part 2

AMERICAN THEATRE: We received so many substantive responses to our field-wide query of playwrights and artistic directors about their response to the recent election that we made this a two-part effort. The questions we asked them all were: What are you hoping or intending to do in response to the election? And what can theatre do to shape or direct the national conversation?

Posted by David at 12/02/2016 02:54:00 PM

In wake of the election, Chicago's theater leaders ponder: What now?

Chicago Tribune: What will the role of theater be in the age of Donald Trump? Following the election earlier this month, free hugs were offered, potlucks were held and doors were opened at Chicago theaters. A few companies gave out free tickets to weekend performances. And all the shows have continued to go on.

The Tribune asked a number of theater artistic directors what the responsibilities of creative communities will be in a nation that will soon be headed by a man who created a Twitter storm demanding an apology from the performers in the Broadway production of "Hamilton" after a curtain speech directed to Vice President-elect Mike Pence. All interviews have been edited and condensed.

Posted by David at 12/01/2016 03:57:00 PM

Washington is in line for a huge shipment of political theater

The Washington Post: In its guise as a company town, Washington is the nation’s hub for lawmaking, rulemaking and policymaking. Now, Arena Stage is mounting a major effort to make plays about all those things that Washington has been making.

Arena’s artistic director, Molly Smith, announced Tuesday that the organization will devote a considerable chunk of its energies over the next 10 years to commissioning and, in many cases, producing new works that focus on the ideas and people shaping American policy and politics.

Posted by David at 12/01/2016 03:55:00 PM

Art is not an escape — it’s our most powerful weapon against apathy

Salon.com: The opening passage in Zadie Smith’s brilliant new novel, “Swing Time,” deals with two mysteries. First, the protagonist is wrestling with despair and distress from some public defeat and humiliation, unknown to the reader. Acting as an invitation, the assumption is that should the reader continue reading, eventually the details of whatever scandal has harmed her reputation will emerge. The second mystery is one of beauty, and forever insolvable. It is mystery of the power of art.

Posted by David at 11/28/2016 01:40:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

American Theatre Artists: Don’t Throw Away Your Shot

AMERICAN THEATRE: On Friday night, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence walked into the Richard Rodgers Theatre for a performance of Hamilton and was booed by the audience. These were the boos heard round the world, including by President-Elect Donald Trump, who tweeted multiple times about the incident

Posted by David at 11/23/2016 12:00:00 PM

“Pop!”-Up Theater Extends Venues and Audience Experiences

urban excavations: “I wanted people to just be able to happen upon it and see something weird and go: what was that?” Dramaturg Kelly Kerwin reflected recently on her temporary “pop up” performance festival. POP! comes at a pivotal career stage, and was funded by the Bly Creative Capacity Grant, a two-year-old initiative hosted by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

Posted by David at 11/21/2016 01:18:00 PM

ACTRA Backs SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike

Variety: The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists has backed SAG-AFTRA’s month-long strike against video game companies. “All of ACTRA’s 23,000 members from across Canada stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers at SAG-AFTRA as they take job action until they can negotiate a reasonable deal for their Interactive Media Agreement,” said ACTRA President Ferne Downey in a statement issued Tuesday

Posted by David at 11/25/2016 12:00:00 PM

Judge Allows Bid to Free "We Shall Overcome" From Copyright

Hollywood Reporter: A group of plaintiffs have overcome the first major hurdle in a lawsuit that aims to establish that the unofficial anthem to the Civil Rights Movement is not really under copyright protection. On Monday, a New York federal judge rejected a publisher's bid to dismiss, ruling that the plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that lyrics in the first verse of "We Shall Overcome" were copied from material in the public domain and that there's been a fraud on the U.S. Copyright Office.

Posted by David at 11/23/2016 12:00:00 PM

A New Model of Female Producers: The WP Lab

HowlRound: We are the five producers of the 2014–2016 WP Lab, a two-year residency offered by WP Theater (formerly known as Women’s Project Theater) in New York to 15 female-identifying playwrights, directors, and producers. The Lab was established in 1983 for directors; it expanded to include playwrights in 1994 and again for producers in 2006. It provides professional and artistic development through mentorship, networking among Lab members and within the larger theater community, entrepreneurial and leadership training—and perhaps most importantly—tangible resources for the development and production of bold new work for the stage.

Posted by David at 11/21/2016 01:11:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

'There's a real humiliation I feel': the struggle for fair wages off-Broadway

Stage | The Guardian: For many of us, there’s a time before you know the amount actors are being paid to perform off-Broadway, and then there’s the time after. The first, more innocent life is full of breezy trips to wonderful shows, the occasional standing ovation, a flush of pleasure when an old favorite wins an award. How happy everyone is at the curtain call! How delighted we all are to have come together for art, for entertainment, for something beautiful!

Your life after is a bit less breezy. I remember when someone first told me that actors in a show I had seen were taking home less than $500 a week. These were the bright lights of the theatre; I was at a prestigious venue; I had paid more than $100 to be there. What the hell?

Posted by David at 11/15/2016 03:27:00 PM

Calling Out Arts Organizations: This is Our Fault

Clyde Fitch Report: Here is a quote:

The world is a complicated place, and there’s a lot of division between people. The performing arts tend to unify people in a way nothing else does.

I understand that blame is rarely a productive place to start. Casting aspersions is easy compared to doing the actual work. I also recognize that there is a difference between casting blame and taking ownership. I’m unsure how to get us to do the latter without also doing the former. And productivity will be what I do next week. But right here and right now there is a point I can’t shake:

I blame nonprofit and regional theaters for the election of President Trump.

Posted by David at 11/14/2016 06:10:00 PM

Pregnancy Prompted Closing of ‘Shuffle Along.’ Should Insurance Pay?

The New York Times: Audra McDonald’s pregnancy was a surprise. But was it an accident, an illness or neither?

That is the question the producers of the Broadway musical “Shuffle Along” are asking a court to decide as it demands that an insurance company, Lloyd’s of London, compensate the show for what it says were more than $12 million in damages. The show closed in July, four months after performances began, when Ms. McDonald, who was 45 at the time, became pregnant, and the producers decided they could not continue once she went on maternity leave.

Posted by David at 11/17/2016 01:44:00 PM

This Disney Drone Light Show Looks Like a Beautiful Alien Invasion

sploid.gizmodo.com: Drones are all the rage, but Disney has taken it to the next level with this synchronized drone light show. Disney was given special permission earlier this month from the Federal Aviation Administration to use drones in its theme parks. I guess we finally know what it was for.

Posted by David at 11/16/2016 06:31:00 PM

Harry Potter Kept A Quarter Of The U.K.’s Top Actors Paid

FiveThirtyEight: Harry Potter is of the most consequential cultural phenomena in the history of pop culture. It catapulted several 12-year-olds into international stardom.1 It made an indelible mark on the history of the international box office by proving that franchises could be longer than trilogies and still be highly rated international box-office smashes. It launched a franchise — the stock-juicing, legacy-setting, empire-building fuel that keeps a studio relevant these days — for Warner Brothers. It is singlehandedly responsible for people across the Eastern Seaboard saying, “Let’s go to Orlando’s Islands of Adventure.” It paid dozens of British actors’ rents for a decade.

Posted by David at 11/15/2016 06:14:00 PM 

Bonus Article:

Tony Awards, Carnegie Mellon Open Submissions for Theatre Education Award

www.cmu.edu/news: The Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University will recognize a deserving teacher with the “Excellence in Theatre Education Award” for the third year in a row.

Now through Feb. 10, 2017, submissions are accepted online for K-12 theatre educators at an accredited institution or recognized community theatre organization. Anyone — from students and school administrators, to friends, neighbors and family — can submit a worthy teacher for consideration. He or she must be a teacher whose position is dedicated to and/or includes aspects of theatre education. Submissions can be made at www.TonyAwards.com/EducationAward.

Posted by David at 11/16/2016 06:25:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

Guns Onstage are a Model for Guns Offstage

HowlRound: If we told artists they could not have guns onstage or in movies, they would be furious at such an egregious suppression of the freedom of speech and expression. Imagine Annie Get Your Gun without guns. How would Annie come to the realization, “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun,” as she sings in Act I? In Chicago, Roxie Hart can’t reinvent her story if she can’t show how “We Both Reached for the Gun.” Playwrights as diverse as Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, and Suzan-Lori Parks all include guns onstage. Guns have a place onstage and in the movies without a doubt; however, the performance industry strictly regulates firearms.

Posted by David at 11/08/2016 03:38:00 PM

Special Report: Where Things Stand

Pro Sound Web: The much-discussed auction of the 600 MHz frequency band is happening in the U.S., and it may well affect present wireless systems as well as related issues such as frequency planning/coordination.

It’s important for everyone who works with creating the content that will stream on the mobile devices when the spectrum is cleared to understand the present situation and to be planning for the transition to different frequency bands.

Posted by David at 11/08/2016 03:41:00 PM

An Animator's Quest for Better Female Characters

The Mary Sue: Astrid should have been chief in How to Train Your Dragon 2.

If you’d been at DreamWorks Animation during the making of that movie, you might have heard that in the hallways–as I would excitedly start ranting about it to almost anyone who’d listen.

I worked there from 2009 to 2014 as an effects animator: about the farthest one could get from making creative decisions. And while making water break the laws of physics was creative work, I wasn’t exactly calling the shots.

But I did get to send in notes. And oh, did I send in notes.

Posted by David at 11/07/2016 01:23:00 PM

Hollywood Studios Beat Lawsuit Over PG and PG-13 Films Featuring Smoking

Hollywood Reporter: The Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theatre Owners have come out victorious in a lawsuit that insisted that tobacco imagery in films rated G, PG or PG-13 causes 200,000 children every year to become cigarette smokers and 64,000 people to die as a result. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed an attempt led by a California father of two to hold major film studios and theater owners legally responsible.

Posted by David at 11/11/2016 02:48:00 PM

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ Editor Anne Coates on Why So Many Great Editors Are Female

Variety: At venerable Pinewood Studios west of London, a fledgling Anne Coates hoped editing experience would serve as a stepping stone to directing. No surprise, the industry proved even more resistant back in the 1950s to female occupants of the canvas chair than today.

But the cutting room has always welcomed a woman’s firm hand, whether old school “cutting neg” or manipulating top-of-the-line digital equipment. The would-be helmer soon became a celebrated doyenne of the world editing community, subject of academic analysis of the “Anne Coates style,” a concept about which she claims to have no clue.

Posted by David at 11/11/2016 02:52:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

Accord Reached in Battle Over ‘The Great Comet’

The New York Times: An uneasy peace has broken out on West 45th Street.

The unusually ugly who-gets-how-much-credit-for-a-big-Broadway-musical battle was officially resolved on Wednesday, when the commercial producers of “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” agreed to revise the show’s Playbill to give more specific credit to Ars Nova, the nonprofit theater that commissioned the show.

Posted by David at 11/02/2016 05:40:00 PM

SAG-AFTRA Draws Hundreds to Warner Bros. Strike Picket

Variety: SAG-AFTRA drew several hundred supporters to picket Warner Bros. in Burbank, California, for Thursday, the second demonstration since the performers union went on strike against video game companies on Oct. 21.

The union drew more than 100 supporters on Oct. 24 at Electronic Arts in Playa del Rey, California, to back the strike. SAG-AFTRA launched the strike by voice actors against EA, Warner Bros., and nine other video game makers after negotiations cratered over the key issues of secondary compensation (residuals) and transparency for voice actors — meaning that the union wants companies to stop being able to hire without identifying the game.

Posted by David at 11/04/2016 02:54:00 PM

Mila Kunis Pens Essay Blasting Gender Bias

The Mary Sue: Mila Kunis is done with the objectifying, sexist bull-hickey in Hollywood. Kunis posted an essay on Medium titled, “You’ll Never Work In This Town Again…” The title references a threat she received after refusing to pose semi-naked on the cover of a magazine for film promotion. The actress says this was the first time she had said “no” in her career and, as we know, she did “work in this town again, and again, and again.”

Posted by David at 11/03/2016 04:43:00 PM

Here's What Happened When an Actor Tried to Publicize a Racist Casting Call

jezebel.com: Hollywood is in the business of representation. Actors pretend to be others, directors control artistic images, PR departments manage their clients’ images, and agents—if Entourage’s totally convincing portrayals are to be believed—claw each others’ eyes out to represent actors. But Hollywood also fairly regularly fails to represent the lives and the interests of anyone who is not a straight cis white man, most visibly, in casting notices and choices.

Posted by David at 11/03/2016 04:40:00 PM

The NHRA vs The IATSE

Racing Junkie: What is the IATSE? It stands for...International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees. They include, but are not limited to...(as the above photo shows) Cameramen, Audio, and Visual people for the, TV and Film industry.


And they have alleged, to the National Labor Relations Board, that the NHRA is trying to block Union representation, of the NHRA TV production Employees. They have also, asked the NLRB to, oversee a secret ballot, of the NHRA Crew Members, to elect, Union Representatives to negotiate with the NHRA.

Posted by David at 11/04/2016 03:04:00 PM

Worth a look

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

Three Words Lead to a Battle Over ‘Great Comet’ on Broadway

The New York Times: Five years ago, the small nonprofit theater company Ars Nova commissioned an up-and-coming composer to write his wacky dream project, a musical adaptation of one dramatic section of “War and Peace.”

On Tuesday night, that musical, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” now a $14 million show starring the best-selling recording artist Josh Groban, had its first preview performance at the Imperial Theater — a major moment for Ars Nova, which has never before seen a project it birthed transfer to Broadway.

But the leadership of Ars Nova was not allowed to be there.

Posted by David at 10/27/2016 03:44:00 PM

AFL-CIO Backs SAG-AFTRA Strike Against Video Game Companies

Variety: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has issued a strong statement of support for the six-day-old SAG-AFTRA voice actors strike against video game companies.

“The AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA voice-over and motion-capture performers who are on strike after failed negotiations with eleven video game employers,” Trumka said. “Performers deserve a modern contract that offers the protections necessary to work in today’s video game industry.”

Posted by David at 10/28/2016 02:34:00 PM

‘Midnight Rider’ Filmmakers Fault CSX in Lawsuit with Insurer

Variety: Film Allman, the production company behind “Midnight Rider,” is faulting CSX Corp. for failing to slow a train that plowed through the set of the movie on Feb. 20, 2014, killing camera assistant Sarah Jones and injuring eight others.

The company, owned by director Randall Miller and producer Jody Savin, are making the claims as part of its lawsuit against New York Marine, the insurer which is refusing to pay for losses on the grounds that they were incurred as a result of a criminal act.

Posted by David at 10/26/2016 05:16:00 PM

The haunted hotel that breeds engineers 

Technology: The Gravesend Inn: A Haunted Hotel is an attraction built every year by entertainment technology students at CUNY in Brooklyn, NY. Instead of scaring the audience, it's meant to inspire high school students to go to college and study technology.

Posted by David at 10/26/2016 05:28:00 PM

Shakespeare's 'Henry VI': Christopher Marlowe Officially Credited As Co-Author

The Two-Way : NPR: Oxford University Press has announced that its new edition of the complete works of William Shakespeare will credit Christopher Marlowe as a co-author on the three Henry VI plays.

Despite years of controversy about the authorship of some of Shakespeare's work, this is the first time a major publishing house has formally named Marlowe as a co-author.

Posted by David at 10/25/2016 05:41:00 PM

Worth A Look

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

‘Midnight Rider’ Filmmakers Cite New Evidence to Bolster Case

Variety: “Midnight Rider” director Randall Miller and producer Jody Savin’s Film Allman are pointing to a newly discovered email to show that they were not expressly denied permission to shoot on a CSX trestle on Feb. 20, 2014, when a train plowed through their shooting location and killed a camera assistant, Sarah Jones, and injured eight others.

Posted by David at 10/20/2016 04:32:00 PM

Hollywood Takes on Fan Fiction

Reason.com In 1974 a carpet layer from Michigan spent $2,000 to build a replica of the Starship Enterprise bridge and made Paragon's Paragon, one of the first serious Star Trek fan movies. In 1985, a fan convinced George Takei, who played Sulu on the original series, to reprise the role in Yorktown: A Time to Heal. In subsequent years, putting original cast members in fan productions became increasingly common, with Walter Koenig (Chekov) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) starring in the feature-length Star Trek: Of Gods and Men in 2007. For decades these efforts were largely welcome.

Posted by David at 10/21/2016 10:48:00 AM

Computers Are Learning To Write Songs By Listening To All Of Them

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: In May, Google research scientist Douglas Eck left his Silicon Valley office to spend a few days at Moogfest, a gathering for music, art, and technology enthusiasts deep in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains. Eck told the festival's music-savvy attendees about his team’s new ideas about how to teach computers to help musicians write music—generate harmonies, create transitions in a song, and elaborate on a recurring theme. Someday, the machine could learn to write a song all on its own.

Posted by David at 10/18/2016 12:37:00 PM

'Trump-Emboldened,' 'Racist' Crowds Feed An Exodus At The Second City In Chicago

Chicagoist: At least four performers and three members of management have exited famed improv institution The Second City within the last several day—in part due to racist remarks made by audiences who feel bolstered by Donald Trump’s rhetoric, some involved parties said.

Former ETC player Peter Kim, 33, confirmed his departure with WBBM on Thursday.

“I really think [Trump] gave people carte blanche to act and behave hateful,” he told CBS Chicago.

Posted by David at 10/17/2016 10:08:00 AM

Podcast: Technology’s Role in Inclusivity and Accessibility In The Arts

AMT Lab @ CMU: Art is for everyone. At least, it should be. Across the country, arts organizations are thinking more and more about what they can be doing to make sure their art and spaces are accessible for all types of people, including the physically and mentally disabled. Many of them are employing technology in order to do so. The use of audio guides, sensory friendly performances and beacons are increasingly becoming the norm in the arts. There are a select few arts institutions leading the way towards inclusivity, many of them led at some point by Danielle Linzer.

Posted by David at 10/17/2016 10:06:00 AM