So I saw Les Mis last week.

If the title of this week's blog didn't already clue you in, I had a good time.

This was the first time I've ever seen Les Mis, in any iteration. This is pretty atrociously late, considering how many times I've had to play songs from this musical for auditions as an accompanist (too many), and how many community theater productions with friends and/or students in it I've missed (also too many), and how many times people gasp in…

Last week I read this report on NPR about the growth of something they took to calling "hacker scouts." In short, the report described a wave of scouting groups--like boy scouts and girl scouts, with merit badges and everything--focused less on outdoor activities and more on do-it-yourself electronics, robotics, crafting and computing. The idea, according to the…

The National Guild for Community Arts Education has posted the videos from their Fall 2012 Conference in Dallas, Texas. This was a gathering of experts in getting arts programs organized, recognized, funded, and operational. This is a great resource for anyone that couldn't attend, or did attend and couldn't get to all the sessions that they wanted to (isn't that always the case?). The session videos can be found here:…

“Without a plan, there's no attack. Without attack, no victory.” –One Crazy Summer

It’s true. That quote is from a cheesy 80s movie. But it’s also true that without any sort of plan you can’t chart a course for your action. And you need both a plan and action in order to make and measure your progress. As a playwright I’ve been using workplans for the past 2 years to help me chart my work for the year. And while I prepare my 2013 playwriting workplan I thought I’d add…

Collaboration. To collaborate.

According to Merriam-Webster:

Definition of COLLABORATE

So, in addition to being Christmas, Dec. 25 was also the day the Les Misérables movie came out. And yes, I was sitting in the theatre on opening day, waiting to be blown away. I both was, and wasn't.

First off, the fact I was in the movie theatre itself was a minor miracle. I love Les Mis, I…

As we come up on the 111^th anniversary of the Iroquois Theatre Fire, it serves to remind us that fires in theatres are all too frequent of an occurrence. This year alone has seen numerous theatre structure fires that, fortunately, didn’t take any lives, but were non-the-less damaging to…

I think I’m raising a dramaturg.

Every day, I look at what my 8 year old son is doing, and every day, I’m stunned. It started in toddlerhood with some damned good drawings of Looney Tunes and Super Mario characters, then moved on to freehand drawings of logos--the “blue p head” of the 70s era Public Broadcasting System logo was a particular favorite of his--and then into more complex drawings of dinosaurs and Pokemon. So okay, he’s an artist,…

So here is what you've got... 25 or so 3rd and 4th graders putting on a production at a school. All of the parents are there to see their child shine like a star, video phones and ipads out ready to capture the moment of a lifetime. The problem is and has always been, you tend to be watching a silent film as you can never hear them. Now the situation I am in now is that we are running about 21 wireless Shure body mics for each student. They are not the best quality, and half of them don't…

Times passes. Listen.

That’s a line that runs through Dylan Thomas’ radio play, Under Milk Wood. It’s also a good mantra when you’re working on a script.

We start with the words, the dialogue. We hear them as we type, we read them back to see if they sound all right, we move on. But there comes a point where we need to hear other voices, actors and directors and dramaturgs navigating the landscapes we’ve…

It's that time of year again... time to hire. Time to post, time to read resumes, to interview, contact references, and (God willing) hire someone.

This year the process is a little different - in that I only have a position for part of the season and am getting to the game late. (I thought I had someone lined up for the job, but that…

"Networking."

Few words can cause shudders of horror and disgust to run down my spine quite like that verb. The word invokes impressions of forced interactions where you can't shake the feeling that everyone is wanting something from you, or you're trying to get something from someone.

There's this thought that to make it in the acting business, you HAVE to "network." It's all about who you know, and what and where they can get you,…

My upper-level classes are all project based. I've written before about why I think project-based learning is important and the best choice for the kinds of material I teach ("It Depends," "Learning by Doing," "…

Top Ten lists can be fun, except when the list is not someplace you want to find yourself. Each Year OSHA posts information about the most commonly cited violations in the workplace. Admittedly, the majority of the citations came from outside our industry, but this year we, the entertainment industry, were caught in the fray, too. Incidents like the Canopy Collapse at the Indiana State Fair…

I am a high school TV Productions and Drama teacher and I am also working on my doctorate of computer science in emerging media with a concentration in theater technology. I chose this concentration because it only makes sense with what I do. Now I am trying to work on research and a dissertation topic.

I have become fascinated with projection designs while researching the tech theater world. I did not know much about it until recently when I decided to make my theater and studio…

I’m in submission mode. There are three submission packets I’m working on getting out this week. As in tomorrow. Two of them allow playwrights to send in the full script, but the third…the third is asking for a 10 page sample of the script.

Now, I was just going to send in the first 10 pages of the script because someone once told me starting at the beginning of the play was the best way to avoid confusion. Meaning that dropping a reader into the middle of the narrative for 10 pages…

My first response to this question usually starts like this... "Uhhh... well.... I do sound for 90% of the productions at ASF..."

One would think with as many times as I've had to answer this question... (which is the one that comes after: "Where do you work?") that I'd have a better response.

But I don't.

There are few times where I am as reminded of how intangible sound design is... not only as a design element, but as a concept.

A good friend of mine used to…

or, put in a slightly nicer way: “Perfect is the enemy of Good.”

In theater (and life), a constant drive and want to improve is important. We work hard to hone our craft, to become stronger performers, stronger writers, stronger designers. We rehearse hours and hours perfecting our show, we take classes and workshops to sharpen our skills, we spend long hours wrestling with cable and punching the stupid computer to get our light and sound designs…

Theatre for Young Audiences conference at PlayhouseSquare in Cleveland, Ohio is now open for business.

More information and registration at:…

Hey TF's,

My 10-year-old got himself into a children's production at a local community theatre that doesn't typically do children's plays. As I watch and learn, I'm realizing that this is a huge fundraiser for the theatre. It's an hour long, they pack it full of kids (who have lots of family members who come and thus it sells out), and it's easy and quick. The production value is low-budget and low-brow, but everybody has fun and the theatre can buy that new moving light…