Des McAnuff directed a modern version of Gounod's Faust at The Metropolitan Opera with sets by Robert Brill, costumes by Paul Tazewell. and lighting by Peter Mumford, set in the first half of the 20th century. Premiering in the 2011-2012 season, this production is part of The Met's 65th week of free streaming operas, in a series titled: Changing the Scene: Updated Settings for Classic Operas. Watch Here on Tuesday, June 8, 2021.
Faust trailer:
Training & Webcasts:
• June 8 @ 1pm Eastern: USITT: Best Practices In Online Inventory Management Using StageStock: StageStock is an inventory management app that enables you to collaboratively manage your inventory. In this session we will share best practices in cataloging inventory items, making reservations for upcoming productions, managing the check out and check in process, and enabling external users and organizations to use your inventory catalog. Speakers Sam Anderson and Jason McDaniel. Free. Register Here.
• June 8 @ 2:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse Free Training: Forces and Loads: This class is a review of some basic concepts from physics that affect rigging work. • Review Newton’s laws of motion and examine what they mean for rigging • Consider the types of forces that can be applied to a rig and what those situations look like • Learn how to visualize the forces in a system and then communicate that information to others • Calculate loads across a beam, such as a batten or a truss • Review mechanical advantage with pulleys Instructor: Ed Leahy. Register Here.
• June 8-9: Opera America: New Works Forum: Designed to advance the field’s commitment to racial justice in and through new work development, and it will be guided by four priorities: equity, inclusion, diversity, and power-sharing. The forum includes four online meetings, the third of which takes place June 8–9. Register Here.
Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:
• June10: frame:work: The entertainment screens industry community, founded by Laura Frank and friends, celebrates its first anniversary with two online social hours where you can join us as we plan the future of the organization, how and when we might gather in person, and reflect on the last year. Register here for the time zone best for you: 17:00 BST/London or 17:00 PDT/Los Angeles.
• June10 @ 7:30pm Eastern: Wingspace Virtual Salon #27, No More 10 out of 12s: Members of No More 10 out of 12s’ working group and colleagues discuss the detrimental practice and how it affects each design discipline in different, yet similar ways. Moderated by director Pirronne Yousefzadeh with panelists Regina García (scenic designer), Valérie Thérèse Bart (costume designer), Lap Chi Chu (lighting designer), Lindsay Jones (sound designer) and David Bengali (projection/video designer). Zoom. Register Here.
• June 14 @ 5:30pm Eastern: New York City Vectorworks Entertainment Online User Group Meeting: What We Want from Future Versions of Spotlight and Vision? Open discussion and conversation about user's needs and wants for future versions. What would simplify or speed up your workflow? Open to screen sharing with the group to illustrate ideas? We can do that. Have an idea for a tool or a PIO, let's hear it! Zoom Link.
• June 17 @ 2:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse Free Training: Design Factor and Hardware Selection: This session will highlight the role that Design Factor and Hardware Selection play in all entertainment industry work. • Understand the relationship of Breaking Strength, Design Factor and Working Load Limit • Why is hardware origin important? • Review the proper use of a variety of different hardware • Hardware Q&A Instructor: Ed Leahy. Register Here.
New Webcasts & Podcasts:
• GLP 10 Out Of 10: Jennifer Tipton: This week's guest on GLP's 10 Out Of 10 is award winning lighting designer Jennifer Tipton. With an amazing career across the genres of dance, opera and theatre, Jennifer is also the head of lighting design at Yale School of Drama. Watch below:
• Light Talk with The Lumen Brothers: Episode 217: The Spirituality of Projection - Interview with Wendall Harrington: In this episode of Light Talk, The Lumen Brothers interview The Godmother of Projection Design, Wendall Harrington.Join Wendall, Zak, Steve, and David as they pontificate about: Being the first projection designer on Broadway; "Stop Making Sense"; Trailblazing gender rights in the theatre; "They're Playing Our Song"; Video vs. Slide Projectors; Loving and missing Pani's; "The Who's Tommy"... behind the scenes; 2000 slides in 54 slide projectors; Balancing family and professional lives; Getting robbed of your femininity; Inspired mentors; Wise words from Sondheim; "The Wendall School"; Heading the Video Projection concentration at Yale; Visual story-telling; Theatre is afraid of the internet; Elevating the actor in a flat medium; and Do you really need projections in your show? Listen Here.
• USITT: TECHnically Speaking: 2021 YDMT Series: Martin Montaner, a technical supervisor and production manager who took home the 2021 KM Fabrics Technical Production Award. Listen Here.
• Artistic Finance: Learn the advantages of purchasing a home in NYC as theatrical designers, with set & garden designer Donyale Werle and lighting designer Beth Turomsha who talk about their experiences buying homes in New York City, what has happened since, and what they expect to do with their homes moving forward, and discuss factors that affect home purchases, including climate change, quality of life, and inequity. Listen Here.
• USITT: TECHnically Speaking: 2021 YDMT Series: Costume Designer Erin Barnett: Recipient of the 2021 Zelma H. Weisfeld Costume Design & Technology Award, Erin is currently a third-year MFA Costume Design student at Indiana University. She has worked as a costume designer and technician with Triad Stage, Jenny Wiley Theatre, GLOW Lyric Theatre, and Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre. On this episode, we chatted about her award win, favorite costume pieces she's created, and her passion for the industry and craft. Listen Here.
Archives:
• ETC's New Product Presentation, Keynote by Justin Townsend:
• AVO and ROBE: The creative team at Robe has been using Avolites Titan to create their shows and videos for years; Avo spoke to Robe about the brand new Timeline feature. Watch Below:
Conferences & Special Events:
• USITT21 Virtual Conference: The 2021 USITT Virtually Anywhere Conference was presented live March 8-12, 2021. The conference can now be accessed from virtually anywhere on demand. Available thru September 8, 2021. On Demand
Webcasts & Podcasts On Demand:
• Light Talk: Episode 208: The Devil's Triad: The Lumen Brothers talk about everything from Dimmer Doubling to Dr. Strangelove. Join Steve, Stan, and David as they pontificate about: Letters to Light Talk Central; The Beaver Junction Iditarod; "POE Anon"; Stan and Steve fight over Tungsten; What happened to ETC's Dimmer-Doubling?; Hitching your wagon to proprietary technology; Getting into the Worship Lighting industry; The Crippled Dragon 660; Deciding on scripts for educational theatre classes and productions; "Not dead, and under 30"; and Why can't DMX use just one wire? Listen Here.
• Geezers Of Gear Podcast: The Covid Crew Anniversary... yup 1 year to the day since our first! In March of 2020, we put together this small group of visionary leaders from the industry - and at the time - had NO idea what it was for. We just knew that we needed to talk through this, and hopefully, provide some guidance or insight to folks who were pretty shocked, anxious and stressed. We made some bold predictions (mostly WAY wrong) but we also said some things that really ring true, still today. It's been a hell of a year... and the gang reflects, listens back to some of our predictions, and continues to positively point north through the darkness. Brought to you by GearSource. Listen Here.
• Live Design's Plot Lines With Jeff Croiter: Tony-Award winning lighting designer Jeff Croiter shares and discusses the plots for his award-winning work for Peter and The Starcatcher. Hosted by KOI Award-winning LD/projection designer Roma Flowers. Q&A via live Zoom. Register Here to watch on demand.
• Casting Light Podcast: Host Jason Marin chats with DP Bill Berner on the serious business of lighting comedy. Berner talks about how he creates lighting for television, how the TV business works, and the protocols he works under on set during the pandemic. His nearly 40 years of experience on camera, first as a lighting designer and then as a director of photography, gives him insight into and informed opinions about nearly every aspect of the job. Listen Here.
• Artistic Finance Podcast: Taxes With Cory Pattak: This new episode features lighting designers Cory Pattak and Ethan Steimel discuss how to organize and itemize receipts for tax time. They go line by line through the actual list of itemized categories on their taxes. Once they make it through the 25 items, you can see it isn't as complicated as it seems. Listen Here.
• in 1: the podcast episode #104 Quarantine Happy Hour #8-UK Edition: Hopping over the Atlantic to chat with some amazing designers based in the UK. Before that, however, Howell Binkley’s long-time associates Ryan O’Gara and Amanda Zieve join us to talk about the newly created fellowship in Howell’s name and the upcoming March 1 deadline to apply. Then it’s on to the roundtable with lighting designer Tim Deiling, scenic & costume designer David Farley, lighting designer Lucy Carter, scenic designer Chiara Stephenson, and scenic designer Andrew Edwards. Hosted by Cory Pattak. Listen Here.
• ETC Study Hall: Steve Terry chats with Dave Cunningham on the details of developing the ETC Source Four:
• USITT: No More 10 Out of 12's- Why It's Time for Change: A discussion about the move for changing the traditional rehearsal known as the 10 of 12. Sound designer Lindsay Jones, scenic designer Regina Garcia, actor Rachel Spencer Hewitt, and stage manager Lisa Dawn Cave participate in this discussion. Watch Here.
• Tony Award-winning lighting designer Ken Billington, guest on the Artistic Finance podcast, discusses how he has managed his personal finances during more than sixty years of designing on Broadway and running a design studio. With over 100 Broadway shows to his credit, not to mention a slew of other shows from Las Vegas to SeaWorld and beyond. He has been nominated for nine Tony Awards for Best Lighting Design, and won for the musical Chicago. Thanks to Ethan Steimel for this interview with one of my favorite LDs. Listen Here.
• Featured podcast: Changing The Landscape: In 2020, a group of theatre designers, directors, actors, managers, and technicians, produced an open letter titled ‘We See You White American Theatre," and laid it square in the public eye. The letter detailed the many transgressions accumulated toward theatre-makers identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, by the predominantly white American theatre in the United States, and has reverberated through management structures, teaching institutions and theatre producing organizations at all levels prompting a new, thorough, unavoidable level of public conversation and accountability. Joining host Alan Edwards to discuss these topics: Award-winning scenic & costume designer and activist Clint Ramos; assistant dean and assistant professor adjunct in Theater Management for Yale School of Drama and general manager of Yale Repertory Theatre Kelvin Dinkins, Jr; and managing director of the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts at Northwestern University Al Heartley. Listen Here.