Worth a Look

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

This Year’s Gender & Period Count: The Best Numbers Yet

AMERICAN THEATRE: When we tallied this season’s Top 10 and Top 20 Most-Produced lists, we were heartened by the percentages: 8 of the 11 most-produced plays in the coming season are written by women, while 11 of the 20 most-produced playwrights are women. These are by far the best numbers in terms of gender parity we’ve ever seen on these lists, which each year offer a telling snapshot of the U.S. theatre field’s priorities and tastes. There are also a historic number of people of color on the playwrights’ list, making this a year in which we feel like we can genuinely report good news of positive trends toward better and fairer representation of the nation’s demographics on our stages.

Posted by David at 9/25/2018 12:13:00 PM

Class Might Be Invisible, But Theatres Shouldn't Ignore It

Exeunt Magazine: There’s been quite a few articles recently about the dearth of working class artists in theatre (mainly written by middle class writers, for publications with a large middle class readership). And while plenty of interesting points have been raised, the overarching theme seems to be how difficult it is to carve out a career if you don’t have the brass. This is, if you’ll excuse the pun, bang on the money (I have to work full time alongside my playwriting). That said, I think that by focusing solely on cash, we’re actually losing sight of the other barriers working class artists face.

Posted by David at 9/25/2018 12:08:00 PM

Why Are Two Casts Performing One Show Simultaneously?

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Craig Lucas' new play I Was Most Alive with You at Playwrights Horizons is about a family coping with a series of calamities that recall the biblical story of Job. But ask Sabrina Dennison to describe the show and she declares it's "complicated." She says this in American Sign Language (ASL) because that is her first language, but she doesn't use the traditional sign of wiggling her index fingers while crossing her arms. Instead, she wiggles all ten digits -- that's how complicated it's been.

Posted by David at 9/24/2018 11:48:00 AM

Wildfire smoke costs famed Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The Seattle Times: The famed Oregon Shakespeare Festival that attracts tourists from around the world said Tuesday that it lost $2 million this summer because wildfire smoke forced it to cancel more than two dozen outdoor performances. The organization will have an indoor venue next season for smoky days as an alternate to its award-winning outdoor theater and will shift its outdoor season back a week to avoid the worst of the wildfire season, said Julie Cortez, the festival’s spokeswoman.

Posted by David at 9/27/2018 12:08:00 PM

#MeToo Survivors Still Suffer in the Aftermath (Column)

Variety: How much has the past year of #MeToo revelations actually changed the entertainment industry?

In the year since the Harvey Weinstein allegations first broke, the most prominent narrative has been that Hollywood is undergoing a domino effect of downfalls, with one powerful man after another toppling into oblivion as their abusive pasts come back to haunt them. To a certain extent, that’s been true.

Posted by David at 9/26/2018 11:56:00 AM

We Might Have a Podcast Thing Happening

Worth a Look

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

#MeToo anniversary: 8 insiders share their stories, one year later

www.usatoday.com: Sexual misconduct survivors shed light on abuses in Hollywood in October 2017 and the world took notice — the stories of a few were quickly echoed and amplified by millions who catapulted the #MeToo viral hashtag into a cultural movement.

Ahead of the one-year anniversary, USA TODAY wants to continue the conversation by sharing the voices of people who have experienced sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry.

Posted by David at 9/20/2018 11:40:00 AM

Senate passes copyright bill to end 140-year protection for old songs

Ars Technica: For the last decade, the Congressional debate over copyright law has been in a stalemate. Content companies have pushed for stronger protections, but their efforts have been stopped by a coalition of technology companies and digital rights groups.

Posted by David at 9/20/2018 11:37:00 AM

7 Women of Theatre History You Should Know: Part Five

The Interval: I find it so heartening to learn about the accomplishments of women in theatre history, so with the fifth installment of “7 Women of Theatre History You Should Know,” I’m pleased to showcase seven more women who shaped the theatre landscape as we know it today. Some overcame gender or race discrimination but persevered at a time when the field was not welcoming. Some founded theatre companies, or created iconic design elements, or wrote pieces from a perspective not often shown on the Broadway stage. As I have previously noted, reading about one woman leads to another woman, and another, and another.

Posted by David at 9/19/2018 04:27:00 PM

Art on a Damaged Planet: the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening

 HowlRound Theatre Commons: From June 8 to 10 2018, HowlRound, in partnership with Chantal Bilodeau (The Arctic Cycle), Elizabeth Doud (Climakaze Miami/Fundarte), and Roberta Levitow (Theatre Without Borders), hosted Theatre in the Age of Climate Change, one of four convenings selected as part of the HowlRound Challenge. This effort brought together a collection of artists, activists, scientists, and educators working at the intersection of climate change and performing arts for three days of reflection, strategizing, and sharing. Much of the convening is archived on HowlRound TV.

Posted by David at 9/17/2018 11:47:00 AM

Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts

Entertainment Central Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh has produced many amazing firsts including the Salk polio vaccine, the Ferris wheel, and first movie theater. The city has continued to generate new firsts including those of the arts and entertainment variety since 2004 with the first Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts. Since then the Festival has also occurred in 2008 and 2013, attracting over a million visitors to each one.

Posted by David at 9/20/2018 11:37:00 AM

Worth a Look

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

I’m Still a Terrorist in Hollywood’s Eyes, Years After 9/11

www.vulture.com: This week, we observe the 17th anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11, as well as the beginning of a new fall TV season. As unconnected as those are for most Americans, they are totally intertwined for me, and many other MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) actors. I moved to Hollywood a few months after 9/11. One of my first TV roles was on a TV pilot called Homeland Security, where I actually played one of the 9/11 hijackers in flight school. I had a handful of lines, including, “Is okay, I don’t need to land.” At the time, I was happy to be working, and I didn’t mind playing such a one-dimensional character because I hoped and expected I would eventually play more complex non-terrorist roles. But in the last 17 years, nearly every MENA role I’ve played or auditioned for was in some way informed by 9/11.

Posted by David at 9/14/2018 12:24:00 PM 

When Damage Is Done

AMERICAN THEATRE: Since October 2017, when the #MeToo movement broke as a national story and the subsequent Time’s Up movement against sexual harassment and predation has only grown in moral force, one thing was clear: Theatre would not be spared. Since last fall a number of theatre artists have been accused of sexual harassment, and in some cases lost jobs over it, including playwright Israel Horovitz and Lee Trull, former director of new play development manager of Dallas Theater Center. Others were accused but still retained their jobs while their companies conducted investigations, such as Michael Halberstam, artistic director of Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe, Ill., and currently Thomas Schumacher, the head of Disney Theatrical Group.

Posted by David at 9/10/2018 02:02:00 PM

 

Foreign Actors On Mexico's Theater Stage Stir Resentment Behind The Scenes

NPR: At the Metropolitan Theatrical Awards in Mexico City, actresses in sequined floor length gowns and actors in tuxedos ranging from the debonair to the eccentric, walk the red carpet striking poses for photographers on a recent Tuesday evening at the historic Teatro de la Ciudad.
It is an unusual place for tensions over immigration and cultural identity.

Posted by David at 9/10/2018 02:07:00 PM

 

'Designing Women' Creator on Les Moonves: Not All Harassment Is Sexual

Hollywood Reporter: This is not the article you might be expecting about Les Moonves. It’s not going to be wise or inspiring. It’s going to be petty and punishing. In spite of my proper Southern mother’s admonition to always be gracious, I am all out of grace when it comes to Mr. Moonves. In fact, like a lot of women in Hollywood, I am happy to dance on his professional grave. And not just any dance — this will be the Macarena, the rumba, the cha-cha and the Moonwalk. You get the idea.

Posted by David at 9/12/2018 12:00:00 PM

 

‘Oklahoma!,’ Still Okay?

AMERICAN THEATRE: “Country’s a-changin’, got to change with it!”
So Oklahoma!’s Curly tells her true love Laurey moments after she accepts her adorably flustered proposal. Wait, did I just write “her” for Curly? If you’re in Ashland, Ore., yes, ma’am—that’s the correct pronoun. Bill Rauch’s current staging of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic has found a new way to make the heart beat faster and the eye tear up: Curly and Laurey’s romance now blazes brightly in a nation torn between LGBTQ rights and bigoted backlash. Their pure love is echoed in the comical affair between roper Will Parker and his randy sweetheart, Ado Andy (originally Annie), now “just a boy who cain’t say no.”

Posted by David at 9/10/2018 02:05:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

British Independent Film Awards Launches ‘Unconscious Bias’ Training

Variety: With awards nominee lists under increasing scrutiny, the British Independent Film Awards is launching a first-of-its-kind “unconscious bias” training program. All BIFA voting members, including juries, committees and the board, will complete the training ahead of this year’s awards.

Posted by David at 9/05/2018 12:00:00 PM

How Heathers: High School Edition is helping difficult discourse on teen issues in Johnson County, Kansas (and how it can help you, too).

Breaking Character: The importance of having discussions about mental health, violence, and bullying in our community and communities around the United States became clear when three students in Johnson County, Kansas took their own lives in January of 2018. In the previous year, eight Johnson County teens did the same. This is a subject that is very difficult to discuss between local students and adults alike.

Posted by David at 9/07/2018 12:55:00 PM

ASTC at 35

theatreconsultants.org: This year, ASTC celebrates 35 years since its founding in 1983. What was created as a small group of twelve men following a meeting in New York has grown into an organization with over 70 members. Here, we reflect on where we began and who we are today in conversation with a few members who’ve been active for more than a quarter century.

Posted by David at 9/06/2018 12:28:00 PM

Speakin' yinzer n'at: 'One Dollar' actors say they find no language barrier in our unusual dialect

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Picture, if you can, Pittsburgh Dad as Henry Higgins.

No “rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain” nonsense here. With “One Dollar” shooting in Western Pennsylvania since spring, it has been more like, “hangin’ aroun’ Dahntahn.”

The yinzer patois is a wonderful, terrible thing.

Posted by David at 9/04/2018 01:20:00 PM

Plays for Labor Day. In praise of theater about unions, workers and workplaces.

New York Theater: It was while attending the current revival of Lillian Hellman’s 1936 play “Days to Come,” which is set during a strike at a brush factory in Ohio, that I suddenly wondered: Where are the American plays about unions, or workers, or even just workplaces?

Posted by David at 9/04/2018 01:12:00 PM

Worth a Look

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

Jeff Awards Scrap Gender-Binary Acting Categories, Proceed to Nominate Two-Thirds Men

Chicago magazine | Arts & Culture August 2018: The Joseph Jefferson Awards, honoring the best theater in Chicago as deemed by a volunteer committee, made the inclusive move this year to eliminate the gender binary in its performance categories. No longer will the nominations be divided into actors and actresses; instead, each category for principal and supporting role will consist of one pool — representing all genders, with at least 10 nominees and two winners.

Posted by David at 8/30/2018 11:27:00 AM

How an auction for a wireless frequency is affecting high school and amateur theaters

www.marketplace.org: About four years ago, the Federal Communications Commission decided that a specific slice of the radio spectrum would be reallocated for use in internet broadband services. The aim was to make mobile broadband services faster. The FCC then auctioned off this spectrum to a number of broadband companies that include T-Mobile, Comcast and Dish TV.

Posted by David at 8/28/2018 10:48:00 AM

Crews With Disabilities Want More Inclusion

Variety: Hollywood, aiming for more diversity, hopes inclusion riders will help broaden the composition of behind-the-camera crews. But so far, people with disabilities — who comprise nearly 20% of the population — have been left out of the conversation.

Posted by David at 8/30/2018 11:29:00 AM

Equity + Norwegian Cruise Line Partnership: Changing Times?

Backstage: Earlier this year, a dazzling new cruise ship made its rounds of the United States’ coastal cities, wowing eager onlookers and curious travelers. The ship’s maiden voyage also represented a notable victory in recruiting for the nation’s union of stage actors. While Norwegian Cruise Line debuted its much-anticipated Norwegian Bliss cruise ship in New York City, Actors’ Equity trumpeted its contract agreement for workers on the docked vessel. The three-day contract is the first full Equity cast agreement of its kind between the union and a cruise line.

Posted by David at 8/30/2018 11:28:00 AM

On Harassment Policies for Critics in the Age of #MeToo

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Following the outing of serial abusers Al Chase and Israel Horowitz, the New England theatre community has started taking a closer look at its inclusion and harassment policies. These recent events have led to a greater concern for implementation of best practices on an individual, company, and community-wide level, such as our local theatre service organization StageSource’s Line Drawn Summit in June. New England is buzzing with the potential for positive change.

Posted by David at 8/27/2018 10:48:00 AM

Worth a Look

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

New study finds no significant improvement in film inclusion over past decade

ThinkProgress: The numbers are in. The numbers are abysmal. The most appalling findings are detailed helpfully in all-caps, like a presidential missive about how YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES: “NO PROGRESS FOR FEMALES ON SCREEN IN FILM IN OVER A DECADE.”

Posted by David at 8/01/2018 01:29:00 PM

Study: Allowing smartphones in class lowers grades–even for students who don’t use them

Big Think: Students who use smartphones during lectures are less able to retain course material over the long term, new research suggests.

The study, published in the journal Educational Psychology, also showed that students performed worse on exams even when they didn’t use smartphones or laptops during class but attended lectures in which they were allowed.

Posted by David at 7/30/2018 10:11:00 AM

Hollywood Should Let Women Fail Upwards Too

The Mary Sue: In a recent study done by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, they uncovered a frightening reality: there has only been minimal change in representation both in front of and behind the camera. Both are important, but representation onscreen is more visible and often gets more attention, so let’s talk for a moment about representation behind the camera, where things are sorely, sorely lacking.

Posted by David at 8/02/2018 12:35:00 PM

Evangeline Lilly Refused to Do Nudity on Lost After Shooting One Scene Left Her 'Crying My Eyes Out'

themuse.jezebel.com: In the first five minutes of a recent episode of The Lost Boys podcast, Evangeline Lilly says she would describe starring on the TV show Lost as her destiny. “I would say it was my destiny because it certainly wasn’t my agenda,” she told host Jacob Stolworthy (who is also a writer for the Independent). She wasn’t trying to be an actress at the time, she explains—but in a way, when she got the role of Kate Austin, she felt like she had to.

Posted by David at 8/01/2018 01:27:00 PM

Sign-language interpreter gets national attention

AXS: Live music is something everyone should be able to experience, and one sign-language interpreter is getting attention for making sure...

Posted by David at 7/30/2018 10:07:00 AM

31 for 31

This is post 31 in 31 days.  So there's that.  Nice to set out a goal and meet it.  That seems to happen less often now than in the past.  I only had one real miss.  The day got away from me once and I wound up posting after midnight.  There was one real punt - maybe two - posts that were pretty much just photographs.  At least four of the posts were essentially freebies: keeping up with the "Worth a Look" posts culled from the Greenpage.  Still, 31 for 31, that's nice.

This is post 3701 for the blog since its inception.  That's no small potatoes either.  Many, many of those are also "Worth a Look" and going back there were easily dozens if not hundreds of "shorties" posts: daily aggregations of Twitter posts.  I really miss those.  I've been looking for a way to use IFTTT to create my own Twitter to Blogger daily aggregator but alas to date there's no joy.  It likely includes some kind of Goggle Docs middle step:

1. For every tweet make a new entry in the doc
2. Each day create a Blogger post from the new doc data

The problem is I don't know how to get IFTTT to recognize new information from old.  I don't want to wind up having to do any of it manually.  That would defeat the purpose.

The run of posts have identified at least 3 unique readers, well two if you don't count Mrs. TANBI.  And FWIW Mrs. TANBI tells me that even though the site is in her RSS that the posts are TLDR for her.  So: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FRITZ AND ETHAN for reading.  I hope it is interesting.  The Blogger Stats page for the blog says that pretty much all days have more than 20 views, with many days topping 100.  So also: thanks to all of you that are reading that aren't Fritz or Ethan.

I really wish the reticence that has been a posting inhibitor for me wasn't.  I do have a lot to say, but it isn't worth this.  If you haven't read that, you should.  If after reading it you systematically delete all of your social media accounts I won't begrudge you that.  Don't forget your LinkedIn, and your MySpace, and your Pinterest, and...  It is amazing the number of online things that became social sites.  I guess there really is money to be made from social networks.

I'm pretty sure there won't be 30 posts in August.  But I will try to make it more than four crossposts.

Worth a Look

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

IATSE Reaches Deal on New 3-Year Contract With Studios

Variety: Negotiators for the West Coast members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — Hollywood’s key below-the-line union — have reached a three-year tentative agreement with studios and networks.

Posted by David at 7/27/2018 01:55:00 PM 

Judge Dismisses ‘Shape of Water’ Copyright Suit

Variety: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the “The Shape of Water,” the winner of this year’s Oscar for best picture, borrowed heavily from a 1969 play about a dolphin held captive in a military lab.

Posted by David at 7/26/2018 02:53:00 PM

‘Insatiable’ Accused of Fat Shaming; Petition Calls for Cancellation

Variety: A woman’s petition to cancel Netflix’s upcoming dark comedy series “Insatiable” gathered more than 118,000 signatures on Change.org on Tuesday. Signatories have decried the project as a “tone-deaf” venture that encourages “fat shaming.”

Posted by David at 7/25/2018 12:09:00 PM

AIDS and Los Angeles Theatre

@ This Stage: The AIDS virus was not readily apparent to the Los Angele theater community in the early 1980s. On June 5, 1981, UCLA-based immunologist Dr. Michael Gottlieb published a report put out by the Centers for Disease Control, noting the unusual cases of five men who had contracted a form of pneumonia normally found only in those with severely weakened immune systems.

Posted by David at 7/24/2018 12:36:00 PM

Why I Fought the Sexist Gear Community (And Won)

Pitchfork: Last week, I signed an online petition and inadvertently opened a pandora’s box of misogyny. The protest was raised over a guitar effects preset called the “Pussy Melter,” released by TC Electronic in collaboration with the guitarist Satchel, whose band Steel Panther is often referred to as a hair-metal parody act.

Posted by David at 7/23/2018 12:54:00 PM

About the Money

If you are like me you get a handful of emails every day from political candidates asking for money.  I get emails from the DNCC, from Senators - almost never my Senators, from Congressmen - almost never my Congressmen; I even get emails occasionally from people running in other parties.  I must be on a whole lot of mailing lists.

First things first: I can't afford to give a meaningful amount of money.  Even in this booming economy things have yet to trickle down to my family in such a way that we can spend money this way.  Any dollar that I send to a candidate is one that is being diverted from something my family needs.  I can send a couple of bucks to a couple of folks, but all things being equal even if I wanted to support all of these candidacies I couldn't.  Occasionally I wonder if the fundraisers have some kind of closed loop feedback where they can tell who has already given.  I would assume they do, but my inbox would suggest otherwise.

Second, and this is perhaps a more salient point, I am under the impression you don't need my money.  There was no end of press around Citizen's United.  All that reporting drove home the idea that there was now a virtually unlimited source of funding out there from mega wealthy donors and corporations (and I guess from foreign governments funneling through third parties).

Why are you even asking me for my $50 when there's someone out there to give you 100 or 1000 times that amount and that can now do so legally?  Are the candidates soliciting my money just really bad at identifying high value donors?

I thought what you now needed from me was door knocking.  I thought you needed people to do registration drives.  I thought you needed people to drive voters to the polls on election day.  I thought the issue was no longer money, that it was all about turnout.  I guess I can see how money could drive turnout, but then we're back to what are you going to do with my $50 that you couldn't do with some mega-wealthy donor's $50,000.

Asking for these small donations can't be free either.  Sending an email is fairly cheap I guess, but you have to pay the firm that is sending the email and that can't come cheap.  I guess the ROI on such things must be positive or they would stop, but again wouldn't the resources be better allocated chasing huge donations than thousands of small donations?

I dug deep on the last round and was rewarded with losses across the board, and that view was against the backdrop of what I understand was the highest earning campaign in history.  I just can't get past the idea that it is no longer about the money - and every solicitation I get suggests to me that the candidates I would hope to elect haven't figured that out yet.  That can't be a good thing.