If it seems like a bit of chaos swirling everywhere, there's nothing like focusing on something serious to calm the nerves and steady ourselves. On Wednesday, August 12, you can check in with Ed Leahy on truss, listen to Joe Lamond of NAMM, or get some divine inspiration from Stand on lighting houses of worship. Another busy day online as the week continues to grab our attention and keep us focused in these troubling times! And if you are in LA, hop in your car and participate in ONE VOICE: A Day For Action.
Training & Webcasts:
• 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.
• August 12 @ 3pm Pacific: SoundBroker's Mastermind RoundTable Invitation: Joe Lamond, president and CEO of NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) will discuss what NAMM is doing to assist in bringing us together as an industry and ideas in order to survive these difficult times including the lobby efforts of Congress and the latest updates affecting all of us. Part of an ongoing weekly series on Zoom. Register Here.
• August 12 @ 5pm Eastern: Strand Lighting: Broadcast Lighting for the House of Worship: Learn the basics from the camera’s perspective by using a few well-placed lighting fixtures and careful color selection. Learn how the right planning can bring your architectural and stage lighting looks to broadcast quality without compromising the service. Register Here.
• August 12 @ 5:30-8:30pm Pacific: ONE VOICE: A Day For Action in Los Angeles: Make your voice heard in this caravan of cars to support live events. For information: [email protected]
Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:
• 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.
• Sunday, August 16 @ 7pm Eastern: 4Wall Entertainment Sunday Roundtable: Featuring some of the top design educators in the country: Mark Stanley, associate professor. Boston University College of Fine Arts; M.L. Geiger, arts professor, NYU TISCH School of the Arts; Dave Grill, co-director of the Theatre Design/Technology Program, Purchase College; and Lap-Chi Chu, head of lighting, UCLA. Watch 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.
For Your Viewing Enjoyment:
• August 12 @ 7pm Eastern: Brave New World Rep: The Plantation: Claire Beckman moves Anton Chekhov's 1904 tragicomedy The Cherry Orchard, in which aristocratic indecision and malaise water the roots of an encroaching bourgeoisie, to the fraught post–Civil War social landscape of 1870 Virginia. Brooklyn’s Brave New World Repertory Theatre mounted the play four years ago in an immersive, site-specific production at the Admiral's House on Governors Island. Now the company presents a Zoom reconstruction, directed by Tai Thompson, to mark the third anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Reservations are required and a donation of $10 is suggested, a portion of which will go toward bail bonds for Black Lives Matter protesters. Reservations Here.
• 7pm Eastern: The Metropolitan Opera Nightly Streams: Week 22 of operas from the archives. Watch Here.
• Zoo Nation/The Kate Prince Company: The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, presented by The Roundhouse and The Royal Opera House: The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party taps into the heady imagination of Lewis Carroll’s much-loved world, exploring its unique characters and wondering what has made them the way they are. The show was commissioned by The Royal Ballet to complement the now-classic large-scale Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, uniting ballet and hip-hop under one tradition of excellent storytelling through dance. Set and costume design by Ben Stones, lighting design by Andy Murrell, Sound design by Martin Adams and Thomas Thompson.Thru August 14. Watch Here.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 & Webcasts When You Want:
• History In The Making: Steve Terry In Conversation With Dave Cunningham and Gordon Pearlman... A time machine talk about the advent of computer-controlled lighting consoles. Watch Here.
• 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