Forecast For Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Drama Desk-winner for solo performance, this one-man show, Georgie: My Adventures With George Rose, is now streaming online thru July 18. It's the moving story of a young actor named Ed Dixon, who wrote and stars in the show, which tells the story of her being on tour with the late, two-time Tony Award-winning character actor George Rose, the star of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, My Fair Lady, The Pirates of Penzance, and 17 other Broadway plays and musicals. The creative team includes director/set designer Eric Schaeffer, director/set design, and lighting by Chris Lee. Buy tickets here

Webcasts & Special Events:

Thru May 29: The virtual 2021 National Design Portfolio ReviewDesign disciplines include costumes, lighting, media & projection, scenic, and sound, with participation by 10 universities from across the country. Also this week are showcases by Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Design Showcase East, NYU/Tisch Design Show, and Yale School of Drama Showcase. A wonderful way to get in touch with the next generation of designers

 Thru May 31: 4Wall 2nd Annual Virtual Vendor Showcase: This year 4Wall presents two full days of live product demos, new product releases, and never-before-seen videos made by 40+ vendors! The full schedule of events will be released in the coming weeks. Register Here.

May 26 @ 2pm Eastern: Bill Sapsis Remote Training: EasternHemp Houses (and all the joys of working in one): Guest Eddie Raymond. There are still active hemp houses out there and we thought it would be fun to have a look at them, even if you’ve never been in a hemp house. You might just walk into one while out on a tour one day and it would be cool if you knew what you were looking at. Register Here.

• May 26 @ 1pm Pacific: SIGGRAPH 2021: An Artist's Guide To Perception-Bending Narratives: Academy Award-nominee Erick Oh (“Opera”, “Namoo”) will discuss how he uses various mediums to tell stories through animation, from traditional to VR, followed by one-on-one Q&A. Register Here.

Looking Ahead, Register In Advance:

May 27 @ 2:30pm Eastern: Chicago Flyhouse Free Training: 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. Topics include: • A brief history of truss-making • Truss terminology • Understanding manufacturer load tables • Truss inspections – frequent and annual • Truss loading – cantilevers, rules of thumb. While truss is used in the creation of outdoor structures, this class is not about those structures. We may touch on some situations relating to stage roofs or other structures, but the focus of this class will be more on the truss itself. Instructor: Ed Leahy. Register Here.

May 27 @ 5pm Eastern: Rosco on Clubhouse: Chad Tiller and Jay Duckworth: Chad chats with Jay about his career, the props biz, and what oddities might creep out of the Prop Master's Cabinet of Curiosities! Listen Here.

New Webcasts & Podcasts:

• Light Talk with The Lumen Brothers: Episode 216: Art, Science, and Smoothies-Lighting Your Live Production For The Camera: The Lumen Brothers (and Sistah!) interview lighting designers Jim Moody and Jeff Ravitz about their new book: Lighting for Televised Live Events, Making Your Live Production Look Great for the Eye and the Camera.Join Anne, Jim, Jeff, Steve, and David, as they pontificate about: Jim sipping smoothies and recording from the high seas; How Jim and Jeff got involved with video broadcast lighting; How theatrical lighting and video cameras co-exist; Consideration of lighting angles for the camera; Target foot-candle levels; Training your eye; Factors for deciding on lighting levels; Dealing with upstage LED video screens; Learning the technical data about cameras; Consideration of the wide range of home monitors; Great Bill Klages quotes; Co-authoring processes; Years of professional partnership leads to one voice; Writing for designers, not technicians; Video lighting with LEDs; Challenging productions; Advice for students and young professionals; and Finding the best Matzo Ball in LA. Listen Here.

• GLP: 10 Out Of 10: Alex Reardon: This week's guest on GLP's 10 Out Of 10 is Alex Reardon , Lighting Designer, Creative Producer, and President at Silent House Studios. Alex's extensive career has seen him design for artists such as Tears For Fears, Nick Jonas, John Legend and The Dixie Chicks, amongst many others. Watch below:

• 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.

Peter and The Starcatcher

• 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.

Images courtesy of Ken Billington

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.