Theater News

UC College-Conservatory of Music Dean Stanley E. Romanstein has announced the addition of Kevin Lawson to the college’s roster of distinguished performing and media arts faculty members. An award-winning theater and television professional, Lawson’s appointment as Assistant Professor of Lighting Design and Technology begins on Aug. 15, 2021.

Lawson’s early career was spent in theater, working as an assistant/associate and lighting designer in regional, off-Broadway and Broadway theaters. After a serendipitous career shift to broadcast television, he has spent most of the last 21 years as a lighting designer, lighting director, and/or programmer on more than 200 televised productions.Read More »Lighting Designer Kevin Lawson Joins UC College-Conservatory of Music’s Faculty

“Time is very long for those who wait,” wrote Shakespeare. The bard penned these words more than four centuries (and a couple of pandemics) ago. But those deprived of the joy of live theatre during the coronavirus lockdown, know all too well the excruciating anguish of which he wrote.

Among this group are patrons of the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Just before the pandemic, they were eagerly awaiting its production of Shakespeare in Love. They continued to wait for over a year. Happily, now at least a small number of them have been able to enjoy a live performance of the classic romantic comedy.Read More »Mountview Theatre’s Shakespeare in Love Gets Varied Looks from Adam King and CHAUVET Professional

For the next 90 days, the Event Safety Alliance will offer the online Event Safety Access Training (ESAT) course free of charge, enabling live event professionals to complete the training for free. The ESAT course developed by the Event Safety Alliance provides comprehensive core safety skills training for live event professionals. The ESAT course has been underwritten for 90 days, ending on August 1, 2021.Read More »Event Safety Alliance Offers Free ESAT Training

In a land of theater excellence, Aistenok Irkutsk Regional Puppet Theater occupies a prominent place among Russian puppet theaters. The marionette masters in the Siberian city of Irkutsk recently worked with Light Power Design (LPD) to upgrade its stage lighting and chose low noise, low heat Elation Professional LED luminaires along with Magmatic atmospheric effects.Read More »Elation LED Upgrade for Russia’s Aistenok Puppet Theater

The first Virtual Showlight event, which was held on Tuesday May 25, 2021, proved to be a real success story. With the full Showlight postponed due to the pandemic, VSL 2021 turned trial into triumph when it threw open its virtual doors to an online audience in excess of 430 delegates. Students, educational establishments, venues and, of course, lighting designers from all genres of the industry – theatre, film and TV, architectural and events, and more – attended from almost 50 countries, and many have since returned to re-watch the Papers through Hubilo’s On Demand service.Read More »Virtual Showlight 2021 Proves a Success in Reality

In life, Malcolm Ewen, the long-time production stage manager at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and a decades-long member of the board of Season of Concern, was a tireless advocate for Chicago’s theater community. In addition to his distinguished career at Steppenwolf his leadership presence was felt from The Goodman Theatre in Chicago to Weston Playhouse in Vermont. Read More »Steppenwolf Stage Manager Malcolm Ewen’s Spirit Lives on via New Fund at Season of Concern Supporting Chicago Theater Artists

A new book about the techniques and unique issues of lighting design for live events and productions being shot for broadcast, webcast or IMAG, has been published by Routledge and their media technology division, Focal Press. This would be a good reference book for theater lighting designers who are often lighting productions for streaming or capture to have on hand.

Lighting for Televised Live Events: Making Your Live Production Look Great for the Eye and the Camera unlocks the science, art, philosophies, and language of creating lighting for live entertainment and presentations that work for the television camera as well as for the live audience. The authors, Jeff Ravitz and James L. Moody, each have extensive lighting design credits in both live and televised production and have brought their experience and insights to the book in an attempt to explain the common denominators between live and televised presentation lighting.Read More »Jeff Ravitz & James L. Moody’s Lighting for Televised Live Events Book Debuts

Founded in February 1840, Britain’s first purpose built teacher’s college opened. Known today as the University of Chester, the highly-regarded university welcomes some 15,000 students from every continent, save Antarctica. The energy and broad educational mission of the university is reflected in the busy main performance space in its School of Arts and Media. One of four such spaces at the university, this facility hosts myriad productions that can include a traditional theatrical performance, a live music concert, and a lecture or conference covering endless topics, sometimes all in the same day. Read More »University of Chester School of Arts and Media Expands Possibilities With CHAUVET Professional

Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color has recently updated its website to include a contact database for stage managers of color who… Read More »Broadway & Beyond: Access for Stage Managers of Color Creates Hiring Database

Lift The Curtain-End Unpaid Internships an organization whose goal is to end unpaid internships in the theater industry is hosting another USITT Conversation. Lift The Curtain has assembled a group of panelists, with backgrounds in advocacy, business, and law to have a discussion on empowering emerging theater professional, understand financial and labor practices in our industry, and how we can advocate for a more equitable theater community. This FREE webinar will take place on Thursday, June 10, 2021, at 4:00 p.m. EDT. Be sure to pre-register to be reminded when it goes live and join them for a conversation about theater’s dependency on unpaid internships.Read More »Lift The Curtain & USITT | Breaking the Business of Unpaid Internships Webinar, June 10

The San Francisco Opera utilized a complement of Ayrton Perseo-S fixtures in Lighting Designer, Jax Messenger’s rig when it brought opera back to town in a COVID-safe outdoor production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville at Marin Center in San Rafael, CA. Ayrton Perseo is a compact, multi-function luminaire with an IP65 enclosure rating.Read More »San Francisco Opera Stages The Barber of Seville Outdoors with Ayrton Perseo-S Fixtures

Creative Stage Lighting Co., Inc. is pleased to announce that it has made two additions to its staff. CSL has hired Mark McKinney for the position of Vice President, where he will be responsible for Creative Stage Lighting’s sales efforts, customer experience, and operations. McKinney brings extensive sales and operations experience to Creative Stage Lighting. “Mark’s gift of building powerful sales teams and establishing lifetime relationships with clients will ground CSL and prepare us for the recovery of the industry and for many years into the future,” says Dan Studnicky, Marketing Director for Creative Stage Lighting.Read More »Creative Stage Lighting Adds McKinney and Badgley to Staff