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Stage Directions

The 15th Edition of the Prague Quadrennial Will Take Place June 8–18, 2023

The 15th edition of the Prague Quadrennial will take place June 8 to 18, 2023 and the main venue is the Pražská Tržnice. Here’s a video from PQ with the announcement of the theme, which took place on Tuesday, June 23, 2021. The theme for the 15th PQ is RARE: art springing out of ideas, materials, artistic approaches, and design practices that connect to the human level from within your environment, with its genius loci and unique situation. By this theme, the PQ responds to the changes in all areas of human life that the pandemic situation has accelerated and the physical experience has become rare. They call on performance designers, scenographers, and performance practitioners to use their RARE imagination and creativity to help them envision what the world and theatre could look like in the post-pandemic future.

Read More »The 15th Edition of the Prague Quadrennial Will Take Place June 8–18, 2023

Cory Pattak and CHAUVET Professional Ovation Fixtures Light Tuacahn Amphitheatre

Like anyone who enters Tuacahn Amphitheatre for the first time, Cory Pattak was awed by the surroundings when he arrived there in 2017 to light a production of Newsies. Located at the mouth of Padre Canyon in southwestern Utah, with its towering sandstone cliffs dotted with sage brush and yuca trees, the setting offers a quintessential image of the American West in all its rugged, untamed beauty.Read More »Cory Pattak and CHAUVET Professional Ovation Fixtures Light Tuacahn Amphitheatre

Shure and Sensaphonics Promote Hearing Safety as Theater, Live Music, and Events Return

Musicians Can Protect Their Hearing by Embracing a “New Normal” for Return to Live Events Stage Monitoring

The first hearing test establishes a baseline that all future hearing exams are compared against to determine if any loss has occurred.

As theater and live music returns, Shure and Sensaphonics and Shure offer tips for musicians to “retrain the brain” after time away. As performers and audio engineers at theaters, concert halls, and live event venues worldwide start the ‘check one… check one-two…’ — they are finding some significant changes and opportunities in post-hiatus live music.Read More »Shure and Sensaphonics Promote Hearing Safety as Theater, Live Music, and Events Return

Broadway Stage Management Symposium’s Free SM Tech Friday Program | Roam

Coming this Friday, June 25, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. EDT from the Broadway Stage Management Symposium is another in their great, Free series, SM Tech Friday with exploration of organizational tool Roam. Join BSMS Founder, Matthew Stern and R.J. Nestor, business coach, musician, and writer as they take a deep dive into this organizational tool. Roam is a powerful organizational and note-taking program with numerous possibilities to transform the way we take notes & communicate as a team. You’ll learn more about Roam as Nestor demos the many ways Roam can help stage managers and everyone in our theater industry: designers, technicians, production managers, directors, etc…Read More »Broadway Stage Management Symposium’s Free SM Tech Friday Program | Roam

Stage Directions to Merge into PLSN Magazine

June 21, 2021—Timeless Communications, publisher of Projection, Lights and Staging News (PLSN); Front of House (FOH); and Stage Directions (SD) magazines, is looking beyond the pandemic to a strong future for the industry and its publications. To that end, they today announced that Stage Directions magazine will merge into PLSN magazine. This will both expand the comprehensive coverage offered by PLSN, the industry’s indisputable leading publication and will better reflect today’s entertainment technology business sector.Read More »Stage Directions to Merge into PLSN Magazine

AAPAC Releases Expanded Diversity Report for New York City’s 2018-19 Theatre Season

The Visibility Report: Racial Representation on New York City Stages finds inequity in arts funding between largest theatre companies and theatres of color. Gains in diversity came from non-profit sector while Broadway remained stagnant or declined.

A graph from the AAPAC’s The Visibility Report: Racial Representation on New York City Stages

 

The Obie Award-winning Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) released its 10th annual report today, The Visibility Report: Racial Representation on New York City Stages, covering employment statistics by race for all shows that opened on Broadway and at the 18 largest non-profit theatre companies in the 2018-19 New York season—the last full season before the COVID-19 pandemic. The report tracks actors, playwrights, composers, librettists, lyricists, directors, artistic directors and—new to the report this year—designers, Broadway producers, general managers, and board members at the non-profit theatre companies. It is the only publicly available report of its kind.Read More »AAPAC Releases Expanded Diversity Report for New York City’s 2018-19 Theatre Season

The Hot Wing King, by Katori Hall Honored with 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Drama

We at Stage Directions send our sincere congratulations to Playwright, Katori Hall for her being awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Hot Wing King. The play is a funny, deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition. From the Pulitzer Prize announcement – For a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life, Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000). Here’s a trailer of The Hot Wing King from NY’s Signature Theatre:

Read More »The Hot Wing King, by Katori Hall Honored with 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Drama

PLACES PLEASE PROJECT Looks to Provide Rental Assistance to NYC Theater Workers

Places Please Project aims to provide $500,000 in rental relief to New York City-based theater workers who have been out of work for over a year and are struggling to pay rent. Led by board members Lilli Cooper, Kyle Jarrow, Andrew Lippa, Annie Schiffmann, and Kara Unterberg, this new nonprofit fund aims to give away $500,000 in rental relief to New York City-based artists, designers, technicians, musicians, and administrators by April 2022.Read More »PLACES PLEASE PROJECT Looks to Provide Rental Assistance to NYC Theater Workers

Harvey Fierstein Donates $2.5 Million to New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

The gift will establish the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab for students and teachers

The Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab logo. Artwork by James McMullan (New York Public Library)

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts announced today that it will establish the Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab, creating a new dedicated educational space in the building, thanks to a $2.5 million donation from theatre legend Harvey Fierstein. Fierstein has also named the Library for the Performing Arts as a beneficiary of the Harvey Fierstein Trust, securing his legacy as a major supporter of the library’s ongoing efforts in documenting, collecting, and preserving the performing arts, and inspiring the next generation of artists.Read More »Harvey Fierstein Donates $2.5 Million to New York Public Library for the Performing Arts