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AI and Dynamite

This quandary of good and bad came to my mind when following the conversations raging around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Will AI become this generation’s dynamite? We now have companies producing AI programs to do just about anything and everything. Then, a whole new crop of companies are developing products to detect content created by AI, mainly to prevent cheating and unmask deepfakes. Many in Hollywood are warning actors who are thinking of being scanned and whose imagery can be turned into digital avatars. Tom Hanks said his career could go on forever with the advent of AI. Is that what we really want? Nothing against Hanks, but is that acting, is that a human creating art?

PROLIGHTS shines for Kazakh State Theatre

One of the most respected theatres in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakh State Academic Musical Drama Theatre, has upgraded its performance credentials with a new venue and an extensive new lighting rig, including 32 fixtures from Italian manufacturer, PROLIGHTS. The extensive new lighting system was installed as part of a major sound and lighting upgrade, provided by leading entertainment technology consultant, and PROLIGHTS’ partner for Kazakhstan, Samat Show Technic.Read More »PROLIGHTS shines for Kazakh State Theatre

Amadeus Austrian Music Awards Take Place in Historic Setting with the Latest Technology from GLP

The Amadeus Austrian Music Awards were presented for the 23rd time recently. The ceremony took place in the historic Volkstheater in Vienna, which, with its lavish interior, offered a wonderful setting for both the live and TV audience. However, it was precisely this historical backdrop that presented Lighting Designer Manfred Nikitser and his team with a number of technical lighting challenges. FUSION X-PAR 12 Z, impression S350, impression X5, and impression FR10 Bars from GLP helped them to do justice to the special features of the location and the staging itself.Read More »Amadeus Austrian Music Awards Take Place in Historic Setting with the Latest Technology from GLP

‘My Mother’s Courage’ in Madrid Lit with Astera AX3 LightDrops

Photos by Lucia Romero

My Mother’s Courage is a bold new theatrical co-production by Teatro de la Abadia in Madrid, Ur Teatro Company and Palma de Mallorca’s Teatro Principal in Spain, recounting a gripping multi-layered narrative based on Jewish Hungarian-born George Tabori’s true story recalling how his mother Elsa Tabori escaped from Auschwitz and the Nazis during the Second World War using her wits and determination.Read More »‘My Mother’s Courage’ in Madrid Lit with Astera AX3 LightDrops

NAMM Foundation Opens Scholarship Opportunities to Support Career Growth

The NAMM Foundation announces that three award programs are now open for application. These programs offer support to attend The NAMM Show for college students exploring careers in music, college faculty creating innovative music business curricula, and mid-career music business professionals striving for career advancement. Information about applying is available at nammfoundation.org.Read More »NAMM Foundation Opens Scholarship Opportunities to Support Career Growth

2023 Tony Award Winners

Some beautiful design work was nominated for the 76th Annual TONY Awards this year and selecting winners was surely a difficult task. However, winners were indeed announced at the celebration of Broadway’s incredible season of work. Here is the list of the Tony Award worthy designs for 2023 with the winners highlighted.

Student Designers Appraise Elation Lighting on Yale’s Carlotta Festival

A scene from ‘Furlough’s Paradise’ with a lighting design by Yichen Zhou. The Carlotta Festival, David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, 2023. Photo © T. Charles Erickson.

In partnership with dry-hire rental house Main Light, Elation Professional provided Fuze MAX™ series moving head luminaires to David Geffen School of Drama at Yale for use on the school’s annual Carlotta Festival, which showcases plays written, directed, acted and designed by students. The Carlotta Festival features three fully produced new plays by graduating playwrights performed in rotating repertory. The plays presented in this year’s festival, which ran May 5–12 at the Iseman Theatre, included littleboy/littleman by Rudi Goblen (directed by Jacob Basri); Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne (directed by Leyla Levi); and Color Boy by Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel (directed by Jecamiah M. Ybañez). Read More »Student Designers Appraise Elation Lighting on Yale’s Carlotta Festival

Eurovision Song Contest 2023

PLSN presents the lighting and video solutions provided by CT and Ayrton for the recent Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, England.

Music Matters Productions 20th Anniversary

Learn more about Music Matters Productions, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary in business this year. From a middle school music education business, MMP has grown by leaps and bounds from small stages in the Atlanta, GA area to supporting festivals, productions, and tours across the U.S. 

Stage Directions Callboard, June 2023

The Howell Binkley Fellowship Program announced their third Fellow for 2023, Amara McNeil; and a 2023 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre will be presented to Production Supervisor and Production Stage Manager Lisa Dawn Cave. We also look at the Tony design nominations and present the news of appointments and promotions at the Washington National Opera (WNO).

Bob Fosse’s ‘Dancin’’

Adrienne Gurman writes about the lighting design for Broadway’s Bob Fosse’s ‘Dancin,” which opened at the Music Box Theatre with a lighting design by David Grill and lighting services provided by PRG.