Monday has rolled around once again and some states that have been open are talking about closing down again due to COVID-19, but where does that leave the live events industry, one has to wonder. Some events with proper social distancing are starting to pop up, but few and far between, so it's time to kick off another week of online training and streaming as the internet serves as the gateway to the outside world for many of us. Check here to see what's on the docket for the week of Monday, July 27, 2020.
Training & Webcasts:
• July 27-28: Light for Life: A global conversation about the impact of light on the lives of humans, plants, and animals. For this free collaborative webinar series, the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) has facilitated 17 session over the course of two days, with 15 partner organizations from around the world. Each organization has curated their own webinar in the series shaping the discussion of “Light for Life” with unique perspectives from all seven continents. Registration closes Saturday, July 25. Register Here.
• July 27 @ 7pm Eastern: USITT: Automation: Electricity and Motors: This webinar is the next in a series building upon the automation basics presented by John "Jack" Miller. In this session, he will cover basic electricity fundamentals and the topic of motors, the different types of motors, how they work, and how we use them in stage automation. Free for USITT members; $10 for non-members. Register Here.
• July 27 @ 10am Central: Martin Professional Training Sessions: Incorporating Martin MAC Encore and ELP Into Modern Lighting Design with Paul Collison: An in-depth look at the versatility of the Martin MAC Encore and ELP fixtures in lighting design for events, theatre, broadcast, fashion and other applications. Register Here.
Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:
• Tuesday, July 28: @ 1pm Central: ETC: Dave Cunningham and Gordon Pearlman are two of the most important pioneers of theatrical lighting control over the past 45 years. Steve Terry, ETC’s director of standards & industry relations, sits down with the two icons to discuss their early history and the stories of how their biggest control console milestones happened. Register Here.
• Tuesday, July 28 @ 5:30pm Eastern: Dance/NYC: #ArtistsAreNecessaryWorkers Conversation Series: What's Next for Festivals? Join Dance/NYC in a discussion on the festival model, its significant role in dance presentation and its viability moving forward, with Pamela Tatge, executive & artistic director, Jacob's Pillow; Karesia Batan, executive director, Queensboro Dance Festival; Stanford Makishi, vice president for programming, New York City Center; and Denise Roberts Hurlin, founding director, Dancers Responding to AIDS. Watch Here.
• July 29 @ 6am Eastern: CAST Software: Design Technology Trends and Their Application in Live Performance: Lighting designer John Rayment —who used wysiwyg to previsualise the Sydney 2000 Olympic Ceremonies—talks about the experiences, the lessons, and the actual application of technologies in live performances. Register Here.
• Wednesday, July 29: KCRW Presents AMP Music Summit Summer 2020: Another day of incredible talks to celebrate heroic qualities of artists, executives and thought leaders from music, storytelling, technology, law, and culture. Register Here.
• Wednesday, July 29 @ 1pm Central: Harman Professional Training Sessions: System Engineer Skills for the Mix Engineer with Cookie Hoff and Pooch Van Druten: This webinar will provide front of house mixers with some of the skills and knowledge of a systems engineer, with the goal of improving your mixes and ensuring more consistent results from venue to venue. Register Here.
• Wednesday, July 29 @ 3:30pm Eastern (8:30pm UK): Theatre Complicité: In Conversation with Simon McBurney, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno and Nitin Sawhney: Ways of Listening: The last of the free lockdown talks inspired by The Encounter, Simon McBurney is joined by legendary pioneers Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, and Nitin Sawhney to explore the act of listening. We hear all the time. Our ears, even in sleep, unlike our eyes, are never closed. But listening is an act of conscious concentration which, in the words of John Berger, '...salvages meaning...' from the words and world around us. So how can we listen amidst the roar of these unceasingly cacophonous times, and could listening, ultimately, change the way we live? Register Here. Space is limited
• Thursday, July 30 @ 1pm Eastern: Ahead Of The Curve: From video games to content creation, XR environments to VR experiences, live events to fixed installations. Unreal engine provides the tool sets you need to succeed and create worlds without limitations. Geoff Platt interviews Patrick Wambold from Epic Games to discuss the endless possibilities of what you can create and do within Unreal Engine. Now is the time to put your creative thinking caps on, and bring your questions to the table for one of the most advanced real time rendering solutions available. Watch Here.
• Thursday, July 30 @ 4pm Eastern: USITT: Returning to the University Rehearsal Room: The Stage Manager and the Production Process: Many universities are returning to in-person classes, and Theatre departments are moving back to in-person rehearsals. What is the stage manager's responsibility in the rehearsal room, and how does the SM team keep themselves safe while taking care of the production? How do the traditional job tasks of stage management translate to these nontraditional times? When, how and to whom should the student stage manager ask for help? Join a panel of Stage Management Faculty to discuss how the process can be productive and, more importantly, safe. Free for USITT members; $10 for non-members. 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.
• August 1 @ 9:30pm Eastern: Broadway Bares: Zoom In, the first-ever streamed edition of the frisky striptease spectacular, with favorite moments and numbers from Broadway Bares, as well as all-new, socially distanced performances from some of NYC's hottest dancers. As Bares creator Jerry Mitchell says, "You've got to Zoom In because it's sure to make your laptop tingle and your cell phone vibrate!" Zoom In Here.
For Your Viewing Enjoyment:
• Dance Theatre Of Harlem: Geoffery Holder's Dougla (1974 premiere, revived in 2018): In Trinidad, “Dougla” is the name given to people of African and South Asian descent. The late Geoffrey Holder – performer extraordinaire, visual artist, and choreographer – drew on his Trinidadian heritage to create his masterpiece ballet, Dougla, a marriage ceremony as pageant. A long-time company favorite, Dougla is performed with live music and all of its spectacle and glory. Original costume execution: Zelda Wynn; Costume reconstruction: Vernon Ross and Pamela Cummings; Original lighting design: Paul Sullivan; Revival lighting Design: Clifton Taylor. Watch Here.
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Blues Suite: The ballet that launched the sensational Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958. What is extraordinary is that Alvin Ailey was just 27 years old when Blues Suite premiered and it was only the sixth ballet that he had choreographed. Blues Suite is often documented as Alvin Ailey’s first masterpiece, where he had found his own miraculous voice as a creative artist presenting real people on the concert dance stage, defining his choreographic genius. Costumes redesigned by Normand Maxon; costumes for “Yancey Special” by Jose Coronado; sets and costumes: Ves Harper; lighting by Chenault Spence (original lighting by Nicola Cernovitch). Thru July 30. Watch Here
Watch Anytime:
• 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.
• Special Events Services: The Gray Room Sessions: Rig includes Elation DTW Bar 1000 variable white LED battens, Elation Cuepix Blinder WW2 lights with warm white 3,200K COB LED, and ADJ Z100 3K LED PAR. 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.
• Scott Parker: A lot of training videos to choose from. Watch Here.
Podcasts:
• 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 1: It’s Not That We Don’t Exist: A brand new mini-series entitled ‘Changing the Landscape: Examining Race in Theatrical Design.’ Guest hosted by lighting designer Alan Edwards, this multi-part series will ask the questions where are the theatrical designers of color in history? Why has the roster appeared to grow only recently? What are the challenges of going from grade school to professional? And is there anything that can be done? In this first episode, ‘It’s Not That We Don’t Exist’, Alan sits down with Cory to discuss the impetus of the mini-series and then talks with lighting designer Kathy Perkins who tells us about her path from Mobile, Alabama to the world of professional design, why she decided to document and write about Black theatre-makers, how she thinks schools can do better at recruiting and seeking out young Black students, and whether she believes there is a shortage of Black designers or just a perception problem. She is a great and knowledgable voice to kick off the series and we hope you’ll join us over the coming weeks as Alan speaks with educators and designers such as Toni-Leslie James, Steve Jones, Luqman Brown and more. (photo lighting designer Alan Edwards). 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: Featuring 2020 Barbizon Lighting Company Jonathan Resnick Lighting Award winner, Jasmine Lesane, a lighting designer & director dedicated to realizing visions through innovative design solutions, and a recent grad of Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama. 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