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NEA News | Releases New Report on Artists’ Use of Technology as a Creative Medium

The National Endowment for the Arts announces the release of the report Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium, the result of a two-year field scan, an initiative of the Arts Endowment in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The field scan and report explore the multi-faceted practices of artists who engage with digital technologies in both the creative and functional aspects of their work. The report also looks at the training and exhibition infrastructure that tech-centered artists have developed to pursue their creative practices and diagnoses a critical need for funding to advance the field. Here’s a video of the work of 3-Legged Dog on Designer, Writer, and Director Kevin Cunningham’ work on Losing Something and its work with technology:

Read More »NEA News | Releases New Report on Artists’ Use of Technology as a Creative Medium

Lisa Burger, National Theatre Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive to Step Down in Summer 2022

 

Lisa Burger. Photo by James Bellorini Photography

The National Theatre has announced today that Lisa Burger, Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive, will step down in Summer 2022. Burger’s career at the National Theatre has spanned 20 years. She joined the NT as Finance Director in 2001, before becoming Chief Operating Officer in 2010. Burger took on the role of Executive Director in 2015 and became Joint Chief Executive alongside Director Rufus Norris in 2019.Read More »Lisa Burger, National Theatre Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive to Step Down in Summer 2022

Black Theatre United Hosts Industry-Wide Commercial Theatre Summit

As Black Theatre United (BTU) marks its first year since the organization’s creation, the Founding Members announce they held a three-month Commercial Theatre Summit from March to June 2021 to establish industry-wide standards around Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Accessibility & Belonging (EDIAB) with a focus on Black individuals in theatre as we move into the future.Read More »Black Theatre United Hosts Industry-Wide Commercial Theatre Summit

PROLIGHTS Tick All the Right Boxes for the Stamford Shakespeare Company

Founded in 1968, the amateur Stamford Shakespeare Company has been putting on performances of Shakespeare’s classics for audiences of all ages for over 50 years. Since 1977 the Stamford Shakespeare Company has called the beautiful Tolethorpe Hall home, with their concrete-stepped amphitheater, allowing them to recreate the Shakespearian magic in a similar environment to the original performance spaces.Read More »PROLIGHTS Tick All the Right Boxes for the Stamford Shakespeare Company

Staging Concepts Sets the Stage for the Opening of “The Shell” in San Diego

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park is the San Diego Symphony’s brand new venue

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park (a.k.a. “The Shell”), the San Diego Symphony’s brand new, cutting-edge venue will be the first permanent, year-round waterfront concert and events venue in the nation operated by a symphony orchestra. As concertgoers eagerly return to live events, the facility anticipates swaths of people flocking to attend the array of events scheduled to take place along San Diego Bay in Embarcadero Marina Park South.Read More »Staging Concepts Sets the Stage for the Opening of “The Shell” in San Diego

Robert Juliat SpotMe for Czech Republic’s Brno City Theatre

Pretty Woman – hard-edge beams and strong backlight are the order of the day for this upbeat production. Photo Credit: ©Tino Kratochvil

The largest performance space of Brno City Theatre (Městské divadlo Brno), The Music Theatre, is a 680-seat venue that hosts a program of current musicals and large-scale drama. It was built in 2004 as the best technically equipped theatre in Europe. To maintain these modern standards, technical manager, David Kachlíř, recently added a Robert Juliat SpotMe tracking device to the venue’s lighting inventory, thereby increasing its existing complement of Robert Juliat products of three RJ Ginger followspots, Dalis 864 colored footlights and a number of RJ 600 and 700 series profiles. The RJ SpotMe device was supplied by Prague-based Prolight s.r.o., Robert Juliat’s exclusive distributor for the Czech Republic, as part of an improvement initiative to future-proof the theatre.

SpotMe is Robert Juliat’s award-winning server that produces real-time tracking information with no emitters or cameras on stage or performers. It uses feedback from sensors mounted on a tripod and followspot to coordinate moving lights with the movement initiated by a followspot and its operator – a perfect combination of high technology and human control in lighting design and operation.Read More »Robert Juliat SpotMe for Czech Republic’s Brno City Theatre

NEA Offers Relief Funds to Help Arts and Culture Sector Recover from Pandemic

NEA Opens Doors to Applications for American Rescue Plan Funding

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is announcing two programs to distribute American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds. These programs are open to nonprofit arts and culture organizations and local arts agencies, regardless of whether they have received NEA funding in the past. This is a change from previous emergency funding requirements at the NEA and significantly expands access to federal funds for the arts and culture sector. The NEA encourages applications from first-time applicants, and will offer workshops, question-and-answer sessions, and other resources for those new to federal funding.Read More »NEA Offers Relief Funds to Help Arts and Culture Sector Recover from Pandemic

Costume Industry Coalition (CIC) Marks its One Year Anniversary

One year ago today, Costume Industry Coalition was launched to advocate for the survival of the custom costume industry in New York City. They can’t thank you enough for sharing in our journey. Here’s a video from the CIC looking back at the year.

You can also read and learn more about the CIC in this article from the June 2021 issue of Stage Directions, Industry Advocates, the Costume Industry Coalition.

Read More »Costume Industry Coalition (CIC) Marks its One Year Anniversary

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