Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti in the Broadway production of Once.

Director John Tiffany and Adapter Enda Walsh share how they kept the fragile spirit of a musical alive on Broadway

Yorkshire director John Tiffany is clearly passionate about Once—but when his agent first mentioned the project, Tiffany was unfamiliar with the film. Fortunately, a friend of his had seen it. “He got very excited when the title, Once, was mentioned. He knew the music, and said, ‘You’re going to love it.’ So I went home that evening and downloaded the music, and absolutely adored it. The next day, I watched the film, and adored it. As soon as I saw it, I got very excited about turning it into a piece of theatre.”

Your theatre can't just process tickets...

Ticket systems need to do more—without costing more

Patrons need to be so much more than patrons now, don’t they? They need to be advertisements, they need to be philanthropic support, they need to be consistent attendees. We are exiting the era of the ticketing system. The dawn of the “customer relationship management” system or CRM, is upon us.

A comparison matrix of some of the features of popular CRM packages.

As part of Clayton Lord's article on CRM software packages for theaters in the May issue of SD, we didn't have room to include this comparison chart in the print issue. But thanks to the infinite power of the web, we can print it here! Enjoy!

Liviu Ciulei

Learning to see through another designer's eyes can make even mundane frontlight extraordinary

On October 24, 2011 the theatre world lost an amazing visionary when Liviu Ciulei passed away in Munich at the age of 88. Former artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis he spent much of his later life as an educator working with the graduate students at New York University. That was where I met him in 2003 when I lit a production of Horvath’s Caroline and Kasimir for the NYU Grad Acting department.

Sorry if you're seeing this! I'll have the video portion of the June Ed  Note posted here in just a couple days, so check back soon to watch!

SD Editor Jacob Coakley

Stage Directions offers a lot more than just the print version...

I got a homemade blue ribbon when I read my first book by myself. (The Spooky Old Tree, by Stan and Jan Berenstein, as I recall…) When I first read Twitter all I got was a look of incomprehension. What the heck was this?

The periaktoi units in one apartment configuration, surrounding a bookshelf…

The designers for The Real Thing went Greek to simulate '80s London

A lot has been written about cutting-edge stage technology and how stagecraft today is different from yesteryears’—but sometimes the classics are exactly what you need. For a recent production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, a semi-autobiographical play about theatre and the theatre scene in early 1980s London, the creative team at the Salem Theater Company in Salem, Mass., used ancient technology to make the 15-foot-square stage accommodate the numerous locations that this script requires with smoothly choreographed scene changes.

Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard made their names in the rock ‘n’ roll world, but have worked on the score for Ghost the Musical for six years. It wasn’t that big a stretch for them, either. Ballard has past experience with films, and Stewart was weaned on show tunes thanks to his father's musical obsession. (The latter also scored, no joke, the 2004 Austrian musical version of Barbarella.) Here’s more from their interview that we didn’t have room for in print.

Every actor plays their own instrument in Once—which meant a lot more wireless mics in play on the stage.

Clive Goodwin keeps the aural balance for this unconventional movie-turned-musical

Yes, Once is another movie being made into a Broadway musical, but unlike most film-to-stage transfers, the Oscar-winning film was a cult hit rather than a blockbuster. Featuring songs (including the Academy Award-winning “Falling Slowly”) by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, Once shares the story of a Czech immigrant who encourages an Irish busker to pursue his artistic dreams and to collaborate with her. The Broadway production of Once shines with outstanding leads (Cristin Milioti as Girl and Steve Kazee as Guy) and an ensemble cast of 12 that acts, sings and plays their instruments in a pub setting. It really feels more like a play with songs rather than a musical.

New chairs from Bertolini Inc. sit on platforms from Staging Concepts in the Black Box Theatre at Indiana Wesleyan University.

There’s a few common themes when it comes to upgrading a theatre’s seats

You know that old saying that you spend a third of your life in bed, sleeping? Well your audience spends most of their time in your theatre sitting—so it behooves you to pay attention to the seats those butts are sitting in.

Wenger’s Diva Shell at Folsom Lake College

Creative solutions and options for enhancing revenue with improvements in your theatre’s flooring, seating or staging

Sure the play’s the thing. No question … however … it helps to have flooring that responds to performers in general and dancers in particular and a seating situation that maximizes the amount of bodies that can see said “thing” in addition to being comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

Once a year we like to turn to those that support SD and seek out trends, new ideas, and get an update on what’s available. As usual, we weren’t disappointed. Read on.

Crystal Fox in How We Got On by Idris Goodwin.

The Humana Festival may be a major milestone for a new play—but there’s plenty of work to be done before and after.

Every new play follows a unique path in getting from a playwright’s head to the stage… and the path doesn’t always end there, either. More and more theatre practitioners are realizing that a play keeps growing, often in really important ways, through two or three productions. Of course, when one of those productions goes up at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, you’ve really got a chance to learn exactly what kind of play you’ve wrought. I chatted with a few of the playwrights at the Humana Fest about what their journey to (and after) the Fest looked like.

At the recent Humana Festival for New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Gwydion Suilebhan caught up with Greg Kotis, the playwright behind Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards. Here's quick snippet of Greg talking about how his play speaks to the current moment...

At the recent Humana Festival for New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Gwydion Suilebhan caught up with Idris Goodwin, the playwright behind How We Got On, which debuted at the Fest. Idris is putting new writing on hold to help this play find the largest audience it can. Here's Idris talking about how it reflects our culture today.

At the recent Humana Festival for New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Gwydion Suilebhan caught up with Mona Mansour, the playwright behind The Hour of Feeling, which premiered at this year's Fest.. Here's quick snippet of Mona talking about how her play speaks to contemporary America.

The Clear-Com CC-300 and CC-400 Headsets

The new Clear-Com CC-300 (single-ear) and CC-400 (dual-ear) headsets are designed to offer extra comfort, better performance and more flexibility for users who employ intercoms for long hours. They are compatible with Clear-Com’s wide range of wired and wireless intercoms. The CC-300 and CC-400 headsets’ microphone booms can be rotated 300 degrees, allowing the microphone to be worn on the right or left side of the head. Users can also make the headsets larger or smaller by manipulating the slide adjustments on either side of the headband. In addition, the enclosed headphones have very soft padding and a slight rotation to provide a better fit.

Countryman H6 Headset Mic

Countryman’s H6 Headset mic comes in both omni or directional versions, and features a new double-sealed connector with exceptional moisture resistance, three sensitivity options and a slim and almost indestructible, field-replaceable detachable cable. The ultra-low profile capsule is a mere 2.5mm (0.1-inches) in diameter, comes in four color options and can locate on either side of the lightweight, comfortable headframe. The H6 interfaces to nearly all wireless transmitters, digital recorders or XLR mic inputs with phantom power. Video tour after the jump!

The Avolites Media Ais-T Media Server

The Avolies AiS-T is the first dedicated Ai media server from Avolites Media. The AiS-T media server is designed to streamline workflow with the Avolites Media Ai software. Ais-T performs smooth playback of multilayer 4k resolution content with up to 6 full 1080p HD outputs arranged in a timeline timecode sequencer. Users can build and create their show in a 3D Stage Visualizer and use the mapping capabilities to allow rapid, precise mapping and warping onto any 3D surface. Tightly integrated support for 3D displays, LEDs, moving lights and other visual elements allow designers to merge video and lighting with unprecedented control.

Ben Nye’s new Ultimate F/X Palette bring 18 different shades for special effects together. (The picture is of a prototype, color selection is not yet finalized.)

Ben Nye has updated their F/X Creme Series to include such effects-ready colors as Vein, Bruise, Dried Blood and Fresh Cut to help simplify a makeup artists task. The new colors come in an ultra-rich, micro-processed new formula being praised for it’s “in the skin” effects, as opposed to sitting on top of the skin. Ben Nye’s new Ultimate F/X Palette brings together 18 of the most useful effects shades for a variety of burns, contusions and character work. Ben Nye has also released a Zombie Wheel kit as part of their line of professional wheels of commonly used shades for a specific effect. Artists can select the “undead” foundation of your choice (Death Flesh or Cadaver Grey, for example), add Zombie Wheel colors and quickly create a professional zombie look.

The ETC Source Four LED with a Lustr+ color engine.

The ETC Source Four LED packages ETC’s exclusive Selador LED x7 Color System in a bright fixture that is shaped and sized like a Source Four, producing a sharp, clean beam of focusable light or a smooth wash, to give extra versatility to almost all lighting projects. The luminaire will be available in three versions: Lustr+, Daylight, and Tungsten. According to manufacturer testing the fixtures achieve 30-40 lumens-per-watt.

A screen shot of the ViSi Remote Control App

The new Harman Soundcraft ViSi Remote iPad app enables a single iPad to control multiple consoles from the Soundcraft Vi Series and Soundcraft Si Compact range on one wireless network. The Soundcraft ViSi Remote app allows users to roam around in a venue and not only adjust input channel levels and mutes, but also adjust aux send levels and matrix sends, and level and graphic EQ settings on bus outputs.

An Osram Ostar Stage LED

Osram Ostar Stage LED’s are designed to make stage lights brighter and more compact, with a flatter profile, narrow beam angle and higher luminance. It is only 1.23 mm high (approximately ¼ of the usual height for LED’s) and uses a flat glass cover with anti-reflective coating. The glass cover on the new LEDs has been optimized for injection of the light into lens systems, with its etendue (the emission angle/area ratio of the emitting light surface to the projected light surface) designed to enable a very narrow beam of light (+/- 9°) to be produced. This beam is smaller by a factor of 2 than those of spotlights using plastic-encapsulated LEDs. This bundling of the light also increases the luminance of the spotlight by a factor of 2.

Rosco’s Flamex Barrier FR, a fire retardant paint product

Rosco’s Flamex Barrier FR is a fire retardant paint product. It is a zero-VOC, water based, vinyl-acrylic, intumescent paint that provides a Class A fire retardant rating when properly applied to many of the common materials used in scenery, props and staging. It has been designed to meet the stringent requirements of commercial building codes and is suitable for use on scenic elements installed downstage of the fire-curtain, on touring shows/exhibitions, in museums or other public spaces and in any situation that will face a higher level of scrutiny for flame-retardancy.

A section of color of Gerriets Optiblack Projection Screen

Gerriets International’s new Optiblack rear projection screen has a nearly black, high-contrast surface designed to yield flawless projected images and seamless edge-blending in live events and other applications where ambient light levels are a factor. Optiblack combines a wide viewing angle, excellent picture contrast, and image brightness and is so dark and unobtrusive when not in use that it virtually disappears into the background. Optiblack meets NFPA 701 and DIN 4102 B1 flame retardancy standards, as do all other Gerriets projection screens.

The Philips Selecon PLCyc LED Luminaires

The Philips Selecon PLCyc LED luminaire is a cyc light designed to deliver smooth and even color in a compact, lightweight design, while using only 150 watts to illuminate drops up to 16 feet high. Each PLCyc LED luminaire can replace the equivalent of a traditional 4-color, 500W per circuit Cyc light, and with the Powercon cabling system, the PLCyc can light a typical cyclorama from a single 20 amp circuit. More info and a video tour after the jump.