Looks like a quiet Friday in terms on online training, so take a well-deserved break and relax to gear up for Monday when there's a lot to look forward to. In the meantime sit back and enjoy Alvin Ailey's Love Stories or a few more operas on The Met's Nightly Streams, a treasure trove of high notes. Here's what's on offer over the weekend of August 7-8-9, 2020 and into next week when things ramp up again.
Training & Webcasts:
• Saturday, August 8 @ 9:30am Central: OISTAT: Designers On Design: The Expression Of National Elements In Set Design: Featuring Bian Wentong, a stage designer and professor and master instructor in the Central Academy of Drama in China; hosted by Dinesh Yadav. Register Here.
Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:
• Monday, August 10 @ 7am Central: Harman Professional Learning Sessions: Mixing the Mainstage with Raphael Williams, FOH Engineer for Stormzy: Ed Jackson will interview Raphael Williams about his career to date, from his beginnings mixing sound in houses of worship to mixing front of house for Stormzy at the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage in 2019 with the Soundcraft Vi2000. Register Here.
• Monday, August 10 @ 3:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse: Hanging Hardware I: An overview of the most common pieces of hanging hardware used in the industry. • Identify the correct names of hardware items • Walk-through the correct use and common mis-use of various connectors • Review the concepts of design factor and working load limit • Feature a chance to ask questions about specific examples from your venue For those who took the Design Factor class, this will be further information on specific pieces of hardware discussed in that class. Participation in the Design Factor class IS NOT a prerequisite to attend this class. Instructor: Ed Leahy. Register Here.
• Monday, August 10 @ 7pm Eastern: USITT: Props Paperwork: Using off-the-Shelf Software to Manage Show Files: Explore, examine, and demystify some lesser-known features of MS Office and Google Software. Creating forms, sheets, labels, work orders, and show books all from a single source is the focus. The goal is to limit keystrokes and data entry and focus on information manipulation. Presented by Larry Heyman. FREE for USITT members; $10 for non-members. Register Here.
• Tuesday, August 11 @ 11am Central: Martin Professional Learning Sessions: Transitioning from Touring To Corporate with Matt Mills: Matt will detail his own journey from touring with high-profile acts to jumping into the corporate lighting design arena, including examples of workflow differences between the two disciplines. Register Here.
• Tuesday, August 11 @ 2pm Eastern: CAST Software: wysiwyg R45 Webinar: R45 delivers a range of new features and improvements, including the ability to Relocate and Clone Fixtures, Rigging Points Spreadsheets, and a new Sketch View Style.This webinar will introduce and guide you through new features and improvements. Register Here.
• Tuesday, August 11 @ 3:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse: Hanging Hardware II:This class is a follow up to the Hanging Hardware class, where time did not allow some items to be covered. We will review the proper use of less common hardware and pick up where the first Hanging Hardware class left off. • Identify the correct names of hardware items • Walk-through the correct use and common mis-use of various connectors • Review the concepts of design factor and working load limit • Prerequisite: Hanging Hardware. Instructor: Ed Leahy. Register Here.
• Wednesday, August 12 @ 3:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse: Truss Use and Inspection: Truss plays a vital role in nearly every segment of the entertainment industry, but is widely misused and misunderstood. This class is designed to give users a basic understanding of how truss works and how to work with it in a safe manner. Instructor: Ed Leahy. Register Here.
• Thursday, August 13 @ 11am Central: Martin Professional Learning Sessions: Programming Essentials: Workflow and Views with Benny Kirkham: Different projects require different approaches and workflows. In this webinar, Benny will explain his role as a lighting programmer in several past productions and describe how the needs of the show dictated his approach. Register Here.
• Thursday, August 13 @ 1pm Eastern: Ahead Of The Curve: Demands And Requirements For Creative Audio Visual Design And Integration: Geoffrey Platt interviews Sean McChesney from Electrosonic to dive into AV design, integration, and creating experiences for some of the most high-tech companies in the world today. Watch on Facebook, or Register Here.
An Important Conversation:
• Live Design and USITT co-hosted "A Conversation On Diversity And Anti-Racism In Entertainment Design," on Friday, July 10, 2020. Moderated by David Stewart, production manager for Disney Parks Live Entertainment, and an important voice in the ongoing quest to increase diversity in our industry, the full panel for this important discussion includes lighting designers Rachael Blackwell, Porsche McGovern, and Xavier Pierce, lighting/projection designer Roma Flowers, lighting designer/event coordinator Ebony Madry, and production manager Lawrence Bennett. Watch Below.
Special Events Coming Up:
• Themed Entertainment Creative Workshop Series: Sponsored by The Bezark Company. This is an unprecedented, multi-disciplinary, accelerated workshop series developed and led by some of the best minds in Themed Entertainment. Details Here.
For Your Viewing Enjoyment:
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre: Love Stories: This three-part ballet was created in 2004 and features choreography by the dynamic Judith Jamison, hip-hop pioneer Rennie Harris, and modern dance maverick Robert Battle. Love Stories was inspired by Sankofa, the Akan word which means "go back" (Sanko) and "take" (fa). Costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Al Crawford. Through August 13. Watch Here.
trailer:
• 7pm Eastern: The Metropolitan Opera Nightly Streams: Madama Butterfly: Week 21 continues on August 7 with Wagner's Parsifal; August 8 with Handel's Agrippina, and August 9 with Mozart's Don Giovanni. Watch Here.
• 3pm Eastern: Cirque du Soleil Behind The Curtain of Toruk, The First Flight, inspired by James Cameron's Avatar. See how Avatar went from screen to stage. Watch Here.
• Old Vic Jekyll & Hyde: London’s stately Old Vic has been around for more than 200 years, most recently under the stewardship of director Matthew Warchus. This week, the company shares director/choreographer Drew McOnie’s 2016 dance thriller Jekyll & Hyde, designed by Soutra Gilmour, lighting by Richard Howell, sound by Sebastian Frost. (stream available for one week) Watch Here.
• Disney's Tangled: A musical adaptation of the animated film, Tangled, cerated for Disney cruise ships that tells the story of Rapunzel. The creative team includes Tony Award-winning costume designer Paloma Young, master puppet designer Michael Curry, set designer Bradley Kaye, lighting designer Japhy Weideman, projection designer Aaron Rhyne, and sound designer Cricket S. Myers. Watch Here
Plus: A look at the set designs for Tangled.
• Broadway Bares: Zoom In: Don't miss the first online version of Broadway Bares, the signature sensational striptease produced by and benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Although this year’s in-person 30th anniversary celebration, originally set for June 21, was postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual evening will live on digitally through this streamed sizzling striptease featuring NYC’s hottest dancers. Watch Here.
Training When You Want It:
• Elation Professional Online Learning Center: Provides lighting professionals with easy-to-access learning options, the new resource site is full of free educational and training material. Watch Here.
• The Elation Hour: A series of interviews with leading designers from film/TV, theatre, concerts, corporate events, festivals, and more... Watch here.
• Scott Parker: A lot of training videos to choose from, from his Stage Seminars to a book review of Richard Pilbrow's Stage Lighting Design. Watch Here and Here (Stage Seminars)
• Lighting designer Mike Woods: Online training videos. Watch Here.
• Ross Video: Ross Live | 2020: A weekly series of presentations, podcasts, and product launches designed to highlight best practices across a range of live production environments. Watch Here.
• MA Lighting grandMA3 onPC command wing XT: A new member of its grandMA3 onPC solutions range: the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT. With the grandMA3 onPC software pre-installed on a built-in MA motherboard, the grandMA3 onPC command wing XT offers MA3 power with onPC flexibility– just add up to four touchscreen monitors, and it's ready to go! Watch Here.
• GLP 10 Out Of 10 With Tom Campbell: This is the extended 10 Out Of 10 interview featuring revolutionary LD Tom Campbell, who has extensive portfolio including The Hunna, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Zeds Dead, John Grant, and Bullet For My Valentine and many more!. Watch Here.
• Elation Virtual At Home Demos: Overview of the key features and unique benefits of some of Elation’s newest lighting products, a demonstration that gives lighting pros an opportunity to assess if a luminaire is right for their needs. Products showcased include the Fuze Spot™, Fuze Pendant™, Fuze Profile™, Fuze SFX™, Smarty Max™, Artiste Van Gogh™, Artiste Monet™, Dartz 360™, CW Profile HP™ and WW Profile HP™ ellipsoidals, along with the Magma Prime™ hazer from Magmatic atmospheric effects. Watch Here.
• Strand Lighting: Theatre Systems Design Basics. Presented by Bobby Harrell. Watch Here.
• frame.work videos are now online, a conference for video professionals. Watch Here.
• 4Wall Entertainment: Archives for Sunday Roundtables and Thursday Tales From The Road. Watch Here.
• ETC Story Q&A with Tom Littrell: thoughts from Outreach and Training Specialist Tom Littrell on LEDs. Read Here.
• Unreal Interactive Demo. Watch Here.
• Opera America – live streams.
• ETC On Headset: The Billington Files
• TDF Stages, list of streaming performances updated daily.
Podcasts:
• Artistic Finance Podcast: Ethan Steimel interviews Cricket S Myers on her journey from being a Physics major to becoming a sound designer in LA. She has also designed on Broadway and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Sound Design of a Play for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. That nomination holds historical significance in that it was the first time a woman was nominated in that category. For Bengal Tiger she also won The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design of a Play. Listen Here.
• Light Talk With The Lumen Brothers: Caribbean Dreaming: The Lumen Brothers welcome their good friend and LiveDesignOnline guru and LDI creative director, Ellen Lampert-Greaux. Join Brackley, David, Ellen, Stan, and Steve as they discuss: Cruising around Tierra del Fuego in the Light Talk Catamaran; Letter from Campbell (our youngest fan); A meal for Toffee; Ellen's octopus story; The history of LDI; Steve reveals the secret password for LDI; The Earthquake at the Infomart; The Donner Party on their way to LDI Reno; The Hall of Fog; Blowing up cars in Reno; BAM years; Living as an ExPat; Ellen's detour; Organizing how to run a film festival without a cinema; "Octopus on a Stick"; Ellen's views on the future of the Entertainment Industry; and Expanding revenue streams in a post Covid world. Listen Here.
• In 1 Podcast: Changing the Landscape – Episode 2: It’s Not That We Don’t Exist: Perception of the Unknown: In this episode, the first of two parts, Steve Jones, former director of production at the Apollo Theatre in New York City, sits down with LD Alan C. Edwards to tell us where he came from. Beginning with his origins in Flint, Michigan where he started taking part in theatre activities in grade school, Steve started taking theatre seriously after a sports injury sidelined him for the remainder of his college career. He walks us through his experiences in applying for grad schools, leaving Flint, MI, and his first big-time job in New York City at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Listen Here.
• Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast: Leadership Under Covid: Kevin Poyck just had his legs under him as CEO and president of Signify’s Americas Market Group when the outbreak threw his business into chaos. He shares his thoughts on virtual offices, managing at a distance, and the shape of post-pandemic normalcy. What really brought him to our show today was a recent study at Boston University that confirmed how effective a new Signify UVC lamp really is, which leads to a vintage Philips UV disinfection manual and the modern rush for germicidal lamps. It’s time for us all to turn a page as we proceed out of our current crisis. Listen Here.
• Technically Speaking, USITT Podcast: TECHnically Speaking: Jess Moody: A chat with Long island NY-based lighting designer and programmer, Jess Moody, on her passion for concert lighting and extensive experience in lighting for dance and theatre. Listen Here.
• LD At Large With Chris Lose: Recent episodes include Michael Berger, Seth Robinson, and Rob Koenig. Listen Here.
• The Evolution of Special Effects With John Canning of Digital Domain: Tyler Gates and Sophia Moshasha catch up with John Canning, executive producer at Digital Domain, to talk about how animation and special effects in media production have evolved to become higher quality, less costly, and easier to achieve with immersive technology. Listen Here.
Industry Resources:
• USITT Women In Theatre Network