Carnegie Mellon University – Associate Professor of Acting Position

Carnegie Mellon University, School of Drama, a professional BFA acting conservatory program, seeks a full time Acting teacher at the level of Associate Professor (Tenure Track).

Ideally, applicants should have at least five years teaching experience plus substantial professional acting/directing credentials.  Candidates should be able to teach a range of acting styles and methodologies and support collaborative interactions between faculty, staff and students.  This position is Pittsburgh based.

The search will remain open until the position is filled. The start date for the hire is August 2013.

Please send cover letter, detailed CV, teaching philosophy, and list of three references by November 1, 2012 to: Search Chair, Barbara Mackenzie-Wood, Raymond W. Smith Professor of Drama, School of Drama, Purnell Center for the Arts, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, 5000 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Inquiries by email to drama-relations@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-2068. www.drama.cmu.edu

Carnegie Mellon University is an AA/EOE employer.

Another Melissa Concert

The Post Gazette said "Without question, it was the gayest Melissa Etheridge concert ever."

I would concur.  Mrs. TANBI and I went to see Melissa at the Pittsburgh Pride festival last weekend.

The show was general admission and there were no seats.  A little bit my feat still hurt.  Doors were at 6:00.  The plan was there would be a DJ until 8:45 and then Melissa for 90 minutes and then another DJ until midnight.  When we got there, one of the lighting guys we know said that the end of the show was scheduled for 2am - ouch.

What really happened was that there was a DJ until around 8:45 and then there was some talking, and then some drag, and then an opening act, and then time for setup.  Melissa didn't get on until easily 9:30ish.

We didn't come in at doors open.  When we got downtown there was already a line to get in so we decided to get something to eat.  It was fun looking at people and trying to guess if they were there for Pride, one of the theatres, the ArtsFest, or the Pirate game.  I think we got in a little before 7:00.  Right off we managed to weave out way up to maybe 25 feet back.  Sometime a little later I got particularly aggressive and we moved up to maybe 12 feet.  By the time Melissa started her set we were probably 4 or 5 bodies back.  I was a little disappointed to see that they'd put up barriers to keep the crowd 4 feet from the stage.

I didn't shoot many pictures.  Several concerts ago I decided I'd rather watch the show first hand than watch it through a viewfinder.  If you don't keep the camera ready all the time you normally don't get the best shots and that being ready keeps me from really enjoying the show.  So these are camera phone shots.  I learned a little about my phone camera - mostly I am trying to remember which way it thinks is down so the pictures don't need as much editing (also learned that stage lighting tends to wash things out and that the front camera has not nearly the resolution of the rear).

Since taking pictures wasn't keeping me from enjoying things there'd inevitably be something else.  In this particular case that thing was a drunk or altered middle aged lesbian woman with some boundary issues and a propensity to should "sign my dick!"  She had a balloon wrapped around her arm she was having people sign.  It was cute for the first 10 minutes.

The PG wasn't wrong. The show was definitely a little different because of it being a pride event.  Mostly I think is was about things that weren't the set list: things she said and things she improvised.  The set list was pretty good.  I don't think we got to hear anything from the next album but there were tunes from the whole catalog.  It was great to hear Silent Legacy and Meet me in the Back.  I still miss The Angels and Giant and Secret Agent but there isn't time for everything (and I suspect there are other reasons aside from time in play).

I've got a better version of this pic from a prior concert...

Maybe it would have been better with the rear facing camera - but then I wouldn't have been able to aim.  Someday I will have to make a list of all the shows so I can keep track.

The show ended around midnight with Like the Way I Do.  Kind of astoundingly a bunch of people left right after their curtain call, which turned out to be before the encore.  So for the very last song I got to move up even closer, but no handshake due to the configuration.  After that we got ourselves some water and soda and took our aching feet to the car. 

I don't know if the late DJ went past 2am.

Denver Art Museum

Mrs. TANBI and I were recently in Denver for a wedding. On the last day, before we made the trek out to the airport we visited the Denver Art Museum. I have to say this is one of the coolest buildings I had seen in quite some time. At first glance I couldn't figure out how there were going to get any exhibition space.

It certainly isn't conventional.

But unconventional makes for some truly special gallery spaces.  I would never have thought that such odd spacial configurations would be so interesting, but they absolutely are.

The curator/designers have pretty free reign to subdivide the spaces, decide to present things true to the wall or true to the world, and how much space to use for art and how mach space to just leave.  It must be fascinating to plan.

It's not just the gallery spaces that are compelling, the circulation spaces are just as impressive.

All the different planes and the lighting and the levels are just wonderful.  It almost seems like the space should be an architecture museum.  In one of the nooks they created a space for visitor feedback and some kid had filled out a card that said "the museum itself is art."  Bullseye.

One of the floors has an outdoor space as well.

There wasn't anything on display when we were there, but just like inside the space is compelling even without art on display.

Even nicer with something to look at in the background.

We did see some art pieces we liked.  Mrs. TANBI was particularly fond of a piece by Vance Kirkland:

I was intrigued by a piece by Lia Cook:

The Kirkland piece is all dots.  Mrs. TANBI loves dots.  The Cook is a tapestry done like ASCII art, or really more like a newspaper photo.  It really changes character when you get closer.  Probably not a great piece to own if you have cats though :-(

One piece gave me a chance to use a new panorama function on my phone camera (I had of course really needed the app the day before and hadn't had it).

This really shows some of the strength of the place, a huge piece in a dynamic environment.  Really cool.

The museum has free wi-fi and QR codes on the art labels linked to video and other pieces by the artist.  I thought it was a very nice use of technology.

I'm glad I got to see all of it!

The Great 2012 Email Purge

70.

That's the very best I could do. After a top to bottom culling of email the best I could manage was seventy emails.

I have a fairly decent email management regiment. At the end of every day I try to go home with an empty inbox. I've got a "ToDo" folder and a "FollowUp" folder. Before being filed pretty much anything that can't be solved immediately winds up in one of those. Over time some other folders have popped up. There's a "reference" folder and "things to buy."

It makes for a fairly good system. Most of the time I don't lose things I need and don't have too much to wade through in order to get my job done.

Every now and then I'll dump the entire "to do" folder into my inbox and re-triage. I find that there's some real satisfaction to being able to delete or file a message without ever doing anything aside from setting it aside. About a week ago I supersized this effort. With the end of the year I took every message in every holding folder and replaced them in the inbox.

It was hundreds of messages. Some still needed action, some had been mooted, and some needed another solution. I have this questionable habit of emailing myself things. I keep sites that look like they have use for classes, items that might make good personal projects, things I just think are cool, whatever. This has always made for a lot of email chaff. This time around I decided that instead of archiving these things with email I would try to use Evernote and Pinterest.

Of course now my Evernote and Pinterest are a disorganized mess. But you can't have everything I suppose.

Just like the work emails that had been mooted, many of the things I was saving turned out to not be there either. Either the sites had been reorganized or the merchandise had been discontinued or who knows why. One of the tools I used to use to email myself was an option through the StunmbleUpon toolbar. The folks there must have changed how their software works because most of those links were dead. I wound up having to infer what I had saved and search for it. It wasn't the most successful project.

Of course there was another problem trying to deal with all the email: it kept coming. Every time I thought I had a shot at completing the chore Outlook would beep again.

Still, 70 isn't so bad. More than half that number are emails from active projects, probably half of those are part of that unfortunate trickle that just... wouldn't... stop. There's still some pretty fossilized stuff in there like a half dozen messages from iTunes explaining how to unlock files I bought ages ago. The oldest email is from 2009. I guess maybe I ought to do those things or be done with them.

Maybe next spring.

Some Crit Extras

A couple of loose ends from the Spring 2012 Semester Reviews cycle.

 Early Reviews:

There were a couple of folks that had to blow town early for their summer gigs. We did their reviews on the final Thursday of class.

First up is Sophomore TD Daniel:

 

... he had to run off to Asia to help work on a themed environment project.

Next is Grad1 TD Luke...

 

... he had to wing off to New Mexico to build operas.

The Giant Ipad:

For quite some time now I have thought that the new way to fill out crit presentations should be projections.  We've had some projection content before, but not like this...

... Jackson has upped the bar for the future.  Let's hope it is a persistent positive influence.

Senior Session:

The seniors did a really cool integrated photo collage...

... They all did their own presentation after, but did the composite display on the top of the boards.  They had a compilation video too.  All in all pretty cool.

In Town Showcase:

For the third year running we did a DP Showcase here in Pittsburgh the Saturday before graduation...

...  This year there were chicken fingers.  If you are in Pittsburgh next year you should come by.

Contrivance Project:

Kevin's last TD4 project this year was just sort of "Make something that does something."  Dale did this:



I think it's pretty cool.  I wonder if he calibrated it if he could make a really cool clock out of it.

Spring 2012 Senior Crit

We changed up the schedule this year.  There was at least one Senior dawdling in LA so I put them on the last day, and the numbers worked out that the last day could be a half day.  So just like that we had "Senior Afternoon."

The students provided a nice buffet, they bought me a present, ran a compilation video, and set up a very cohesive set of crit boards.  I can't wait for the Picasa facial recognition to take a stab at these.

The video proves that college is real different now than when I went.  Now you pretty much have to assume that whatever you are doing, saying, or wearing, someone is recording it.  Spooky; but a lot of laughs.

So, the roll call:

Graduating PM/SM Brooke...

... off to be a Houston job seeker.

Graduating TD Charlie...

... probably LA bound.

Graduating PM/SM Chris...

... spent the semester managing Anne.

Graduating PM/SM David...

... is probably hoping the video doesn't go up on YouTube.

Graduating Senior Ethan...

... spending the summer in Aspen and then looking for West Coast theatre work.

Graduating PM/SM Hannah...

... already starting to think about Grad School.

Graduating PM/SM/TD Katherine...

... has decided she probably doesn't want to PM, SM, or TD.

Graduating PM/SM Liz...

... off to Seattle with an SM gig in her pocket.

Congrats to all the graduating students.  Great work all around!

Spring 2012 PTM Thesis Presentations

iPhone photos on Thesis day.  I've taken better pictures.

The morning session started with Brian's thesis: "What Note?"  The title is actually longer but I think I like just the opening bit.

The point of this thesis was to examine the nature and distribution methods for rehearsal and production notes in an effort to figure out how to get better response rates from production teams.

The second PTM presentation of the day was Calvin's "Better Production Meetings."  It has a subtitle too, but again, the long titles don't seem to me to help the projects.

This project was about applying contemporary business theory concerning meetings to theatrical production meetings.  With the Basic PTM class I feel like I eat and breathe this stuff.

After lunch we were treated to Devorah's presentation "A Study of" NSFW "Content in Production."  Her title is WAY longer than that.  While I was editing with her I just switched to using "NSFW" as shorthand.

This thesis is an investigation of how various theatre school production departments handle "sensitive" content in their productions.  It left me wondering how theatre schools handle sensitive content in their classrooms.

Last up was Tom's project thesis.

Tom has been working on an Arduino based, "off the shelf" 110V 20A automation axis - actuator and control.  It's not quite there yet, but if he finishes it the thing could be a very interesting club in the bag for many small theatre TDs.

Congrats to all on their presentations.

Monday Semester Reviews

The weekend is behind us and we're back for more semester reviews.

Monday AM Session:

First up is PM/SM/Sound Designer Becca...

... I guess we're going to find if that combination of programs actually works.

Next up is PM/SM Brian...

... Brian has been our resident TEDx expert.

Moving along to Grad1 PM/SM Jamila...

... Thanks to Tina for the photograph.  When it came time I could not find my subject.

Rounding out the morning is TD Tiffany...

... Tiffany is going to Aspen for the summer.  I can think of worse places.

Monday PM Session:

The afternoon kicks off with Ariel...

... She has one of those masks that made my face sweat.

Next up is PM/SM Jessica...

... Eagle eyed TANBI readers have seen that ear before.

We finish up the standard crits with TD Wyatt...

... Thanks this time to Sean for the photography as Wyatt had escaped.

Friday Semester Reviews

And we're on to the second day of  semester reviews.

Friday AM Session:

We begin with Sophomore PM/SM AJ...

... This session had a bumper crop of AJ's.

Next up Junior PM/SM/Mathematician Brian...

... Brian started to explain Discreet Maths and then stopped.

Moving along to TD/Lighting Technologist Robert...

... I think I saw that nameplate last time around.

Then we have Junior TD Sonia...

... Sonia wanted to make sure we all knew about books.

Rounding out the morning is Tim...

... That's a Disney Badge in the frame.

Friday PM Session:

Session starts with Grad1 PM/SM Cat...

... all her paperwork appears to be a little slanted.

We finish up with Junior PM/SM Devrie...

... Absolutely killing that Camo jacket.

Day One Semester Reviews

Delinquent at posting photos.  Delinquent in so many things...

Thursday AM Session:

Dale starts us off with his Baron Munchhausen contrivance...

... Dale also starts us off with Crit Camo.

Next up is program splitter Sophie...

... diligently trying to split a Scene Design and Production Management track.

Next comes the top half of Taylor...

... Grad2 PM/SM in Crit Camo.

Rounding out the AM Session is Zoe...

... Undergrad Sophomore PM/SM with a jaunty pose.

Thursday PM Session:

We begin with Jake and his sand-wheel contrivance...

... if I am not mistaken those are his wedding shoes.

On to Matt...

... who very much wanted to update his pose.

Moving on to Meg...

... sporting some upper body Camo.

And finishing out the day with Shannon...

... I think there's something on her foot.