Stage Directions

Grayson County College’s Art and Communications Center has purchased 10 Prism Projection Reveal Color Wash Reveal CW fixture – Stage Directions

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Grayson County College’s Art and Communications Center in Denison, Texas has purchased 10 Prism Projection Reveal Color Wash Reveal CW fixtures for the newly-renovated, 1,000-seat Cruce Stark Auditorium and the new, more intimate 50-foot-by-50-foot Black Box Theater.  The latter space features a fully-flexible seating system by Staging Concepts that can accommodate up to 150 people depending on the configuration.  The Cruce Stark Auditorium and Black Box Theater are used as classrooms and for theatre and music performances; they are also available for community events and outside rentals.

Read the full article at Stage Directions.

A-ha! Program: Think It, Do It – 2010 Recipients

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NEW YORK—MetLife Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) have announced the third round of recipients for the A-ha! Program: Think It, Do It, which encourages TCG member theatres to think and act creatively. Six theatres were awarded grants, totaling $225,000, to either research and develop new production ideas or experiment and implement innovative concepts in the theatre field. The total award amount is a 50 percent increase from last year’s total of $150,000.

“In light of these uncertain economic times—when many arts organizations are wary of taking risks or seeking to create work through unproven methods—the A-ha! Program is a beacon to draw our member theatres to experimentation,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. “This program allows them to strive for new ways of thinking and development and testing new models, without having to shoulder all the financial responsibility.”

The A-ha! Program has two components: Think It grants ($25,000), which give theatre professionals the time and space for research and development, and Do It grants ($50,000), which support the implementation and testing of new ideas. The program aims to discover and disseminate best practices that can benefit the field by supporting risk-taking, reflection, experimentation and the development of creative strategies in theatres.

“MetLife Foundation is proud to continue its partnership with TCG to support not-for-profit theatres seeking new ways to create and develop work and practices that strengthen local communities and the field in general,” said Dennis White, president and CEO, MetLife Foundation. “We believe the A-ha! Program is essential to participants in building models of creative strategy.”

The 2010 A-ha! Program recipients are:

Think It

  • Pillsbury House Theatre (Minneapolis, Minn.) will develop its transformation into a Cultural Community Hub. The project will focus on assessment and metrics planning that will define and measure organizational success.
  • Curious Theatre Company (Denver, Colo.) will explore innovative opportunities for reinventing the resident artistic company model for the 21st century American theatre, by re-centering artists within producing organizations.
  • Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles, Calif.) plans to conduct focus groups and interviews with students, academic administrators and theatres to explore an internship model that pairs graduate students in arts administration with Los Angeles theatres.

Do It

  • Southern Rep (New Orleans, La.) will establish Youth Onstage New Orleans, LA (YO NOLA) as a pilot program to bring the arts to the underserved population at a New Orleans elementary school, via a student-run theatre company. This program includes mentoring, workshops and building life skills.
  • Northlight Theatre (Skokie, Ill.) is building Northlight On Campus, a two-year, comprehensive residency program in one underserved suburban middle school featuring after-school drama programs, artist visits, student matinees and a commissioned play for students.
  • Dad’s Garage Theatre Company (Atlanta, Ga.) will create their first season of online content in tandem with their live work. This ongoing initiative will be self-sustaining and will redefine them from a theatre company to a creative company.

The process and progress of these recipients will be chronicled on the TCG website, www.tcg.org, and the A-ha! blog, http://aha.tcg.org/.

The grant applications were reviewed by an independent national panel of theatre and technology professionals comprised of Polly Carl, director of artistic development, Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Chicago, Ill.); Brad Carlin, development director, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center & board member/consultant, Salvage Vanguard Theater (New Braunfels, Texas); Ian Garrett, executive director, The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (Los Angeles, Calif.); Thomas O. Kriegsmann, president, ArKtype (New York, N.Y.) and Marilyn Tokuda, arts education director, East West Players (Los Angeles, Calif.).

For more information about the MetLife Foundation, please visit its web site at www.metlife.org.

For more info about TCG, please visit www.tcg.org.

via Stage Directions.

Green Theatre Showcase

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Reprinted from Stage Directions: “St. Norbert College Hosts Green Theatre Showcase” by Vicki, February 9, 2010

DEPERE, WI—St. Norbert College is open their doors March 23 for an exhibit and discussion on the new green theatre movement. From 3:00 PM until 8:00 PM in the lobby of Walter Theatre on the St. Norbert’s campus manufacturers will be on hand to discuss their latest innovations on greening up theatre.

Green Theatre has become a big topic, especially with all the energy and resources that go into a single production. School districts have begun making grant money available for environmentally projects as well, but theatre sometimes are at a loss on how to green their processes enough to qualify for the funds. The Green Theatre Showcase aims to answer some of these questions for theatres looking to go green.

Representatives of ETC, Strong, Rosco, Altman, Color Kinetics, Prism Projection, Martin and probably more manufacturers will be on hand to address how their products fit into the green movement, including such products as Low VOC paints & coatings, LED lighting fixtures, modern HID followspots to replace aging incandescent units, or products for any other area of a theatre.

There will be a product presentation at 5:30 PM. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. Attendees will also receive a CD containing information on the featured products.

Registration for the Green Theatre Showcase is requested, but not required.

The showcase will take place:

Saturday, March 23

3:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

St. Norbert College

Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts

Walter Theatre

315 3rd Street DePere, WI 54115

For more info, contact Doug MacDonald and Brian Hatfield at DesignLab Wisconsin, 800-43-DESLB x301 and x302 or e-mail them at wisales@dlabwi.com , or visit www.dlabwi.com.

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Go to the Green Theater Initiative

Green LDI & Aquila’s “Enemy”

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LDI

Got a nice email from Annie Jacobs over at Showman Fabricators yesterday about their effort to add some green to this year’s LDI. “Showman Fabricators has teamed up with LDI to try to bring the issues of sustainability in our industry to the forefront,” Jacob wrote.

You can check out info on this year’s greener LDI here.

Aquila Theatre presents a Green Tour

I’ve been working on a piece for Jacob Coakley over at Stage Directions about Aquila Theatre’s upcoming touring production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. I’ve spoken with both Peter Meineck, the company’s AD, as well as their Production Manager Nate Terracio. I’ve been very impressed with both of them and their honest, holistic approach to the idea of greening a touring production to the best of their ability. Look for the piece in SD soon, and keep an eye on Aquila’s tour — they might be bringing Enemy to your town. If they do, I’d check it out. 

Go to EcoTheater

When you look at the Green Theatre Initiative in Stage Directions…

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I also suggest you take a look on the article about keeping up your lighting Inventory on page 16. Keeping Up Appearances by Brent Steiner talks about how to maintain your old lights in good working order. Why is this important in terms of sustainability? First of all it will save you money on new inventory or major repairs to existing inventory. Second of all a well maintained light is a more efficient light and if you’re optics are clean and properly focused you’ll increase efficacy, meaning you’ll get more punch out of the front of the light. Third you’ll increase the safety; a short in a connector or carbon build up could hurt an electrician, start a fire or even case issues back at the rack (again getting to the issue of major repairs). Small investments of time could save you lots of money on inventory, lamps and energy, all things that we want to be conserving in theater production. It also gives you a good idea of what to do with the lights and parts you can’t use and longer (a hint, most all of lights, especially old ones, are recyclable).

I would also point you towards the idea of sharing inventory with local venues. An inventory sharing program could save you even more if managed right as then you have a greater investment in the condition of your inventory and more hands to help keep it up… as well as less things to break and get stored in the attic.

And don’t forget to check out the Article about GTI, Green Support by Mike Lawler, on page 30.  You can see Mike and Gideon’s recent work here in our Archives and link to their projects.

Links:

Stage Directions October 2008 Edition

Keeping Up Appearances by Brent Steiner

Green Support  by Mike Lawler (about Gideon)

Mike Lawle’rs EcoTheater Blog

Green Theater Initaitive (Gideon’s Organization)