A Screenshot from J.R. Clancy's iRigging App

SYRACUSE—J. R. Clancy has turned its popular rigging slide rule tool into a free iPhone app, specifically for installers and users of theatre stage rigging. The new app is called iRigging, and it delivers instant information about wire rope, batten loading, arbors, stage ropes, motors, fabrics, fleet angles, and more in English and metric units.

Interested in learning a little more about professional benefits the great schools in our December 2009 article offer their student directors? Here’s some additional 411.

The University of Iowa production of Tall Grass Gothic by Melanie Marnich, directed by Scott Pardue in the fall of 2006.

Choosing a college or university that will provide top-notch directing instruction means you’re essentially seeking well-roundedness. You want to earn your MA, BA or BFA within a strong academic structure, first and foremost—that means being exposed to all aspects of theatre training within a program’s curriculum. Yet you also want the chance to direct as much as possible—shaping work within a multitude of disciplines and material styles is essential. Here’s an inside glimpse at four well-respected programs—each equips student directors with perfectly blended skill sets of knowledge, immersion and exposure.

Scenic Designer Gary Smoot’s design for the Circle X Theatre Company production of Love Loves a Pornographer, by Jeff Goode. Directed by Jillian Armenante.

Getting directors and designers on the same page doesn’t have to be as roundabout as When Harry Met Sally...

Even Dear Abby would tell you that to ensure a successful first date, you should concentrate on asking lots of questions and doing more listening than talking. But when it comes to that “first date” between a director and a designer, do the same rules apply?

The new Wireworks MCAT5

NEW YORK—Wireworks is debuting its new MCAT5, the first-ever multipin-based, multi-channel CAT5e network cabling solution at AES. MCAT5 simplifies network cabling by eliminating individual cable runs; reducing the wear and tear on equipment by utilizing a sturdy multipin connector instead of the standard RJ45 connector and creating a rugged point-to-point secure connection. MCAT5 tails are configured to support six channels of 10/100/1000BASE-T signals and equipment requiring four pairs per RJ45.  Tails are also available to support 12 channels of 10/100BASE-T utilizing cable sharing technology.

The new JBL sub-compact line array speaker VT4886

NEW YORK—At AES, JBL Professional debuted the smallest system enclosures in their VerTec line array series, the VT4886 passive 3-way high-directivity line array element and its companion VT4883 cardioid-arrayable subwoofer. The speakers incorporate  innovative acoustical technologies and purpose-built transducers, and are specifically designed for standalone use or in conjunction with other existing VerTec models. Their size, along with some acoustic changes designed to help intelligibility in the vocal frequencies, signal JBL’s intention to enter the theatre market in a serious way.

The Da-Cappo DA15 Cardioid Earset Microphone

Hosa Technology is now shipping the Da-Cappo DA15 Cardioid Earset Microphone with Earbud Monitor. The capsule has a sensitivity rating of -51 dB and a maximum SPL rating of 130 dB. The back-electret condenser microphone provides off-axis rejection by using a front-facing capsule engineered to be positioned at the corner of the performer's mouth. As the microphone's cardioid polar pattern offers rejection at the rear of the capsule, the new DA15 provides isolation from surrounding noise. The earbud monitor is integrated into the DA15's ear cushion. It offers a frequency response of 20 Hz - 20 kHz with a sensitivity rating of 102 dB.

Purple Rose Theatre Company Artistic Director Guy Sanville and PRTC Executive Director Jeff Daniels in rehearsal for Escanaba at the Purple Rose.

Jeff Daniels talks about coming of age as an actor in Michigan and New York. 

Whether through films like Pleasantville, The Squid and the Whale and Welcome Home, Roxy Charmichael, or plays like God Of Carnage, Blackbird and Fifth Of July, Jeff Daniels has utilized his charm to great advantage while also diving into a plethora of diverse roles. Beyond his professional acting career, the Midwestern actor is also an established playwright and guitar player, and he founded the Purple Rose Theatre Company in his home town of Chelsea, Michigan in 1991. It has become a haven for young actors who benefit from a tutorial sculpted from three decades of personal experience, and where new plays and talent are cultivated outside of the popular poles of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Daniels draws no salary from the theatre, and says the people who work there—including Artistic Director Guy Sanville, Managing Director Alan Ribant and development director Casey Granton—”bleed purple.”

They Used to Mean Something. . .

OK, so this is how I won my last bar bet: the word “deadline” has roots in the American Civil War. The Andersonville, Ga., prison camp had a 15-foot high wall to keep prisoners in and a “deadline.” The deadline was a railing set 15 feet within the wall and marked the area the prisoners couldn’t pass beyond without getting shot.

Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Damian Davis) wards off Hovstad (Owen Young) & Aslaksen (Howard Crossley) in Aquila Theatre’s production of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People.

The green theatre movement often divides into two camps. First, there are those focused on introducing ecological themes into new work, or teasing out such themes in previously produced work in order to encourage environmental awareness; second is the more practical side of being green that comes from focusing on how to reduce energy, waste and toxicity in theatre production.

Working with a TD to remove the headaches before they happen. 

So the visionary director you’ve hired to shake up your theatre company’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace decides that she absolutely MUST have 50 video monitors on stage playing a steady stream of deconstructed clips from the movie to convey the narcissistic self-regard of the murderous old ladies. So who do you need to turn to make the directorial magic happen and not blow up your set budget in the process? An experienced technical director, or TD.

Guides for success on and off stage

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right,” goes the old saying, and so do the authors of this month’s round-up of recent how-to books.

Steve Shelley shares how to create even bands of light across the stage.

Fig. 5-18

When Steve Shelley walked into his first professional lighting gig it would be three years before he saw a cue from front of house. The hectic nature of his job gave him fodder for some outlandish stories (check out www.theatreface.com/steveshelley for some of them) and enough real-life experience with lighting and lighting paperwork to create Field Templates; SoftSymbols, a lighting symbol toolkit designed in Vectorworks; and write A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, a comprehensive guide to creating a lighting plot and the appropriate documentation for a theatrical production. He just finished writing the second edition of A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting and stopped by TheatreFace Nov. 11 to share his story and talk about what was in the new edition.