Lighting designer Jason Lyons gives keynote speech at ETC CUE 2011. Photo by Mike Nicolai

ETC is throwing their second, bi-annual CUE end-user even this year from July 23-25. The convention/summer camp for ETC users takes place in Madison, Wisc., at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center and will include networking, mini-courses on everything from console programming to hybrid-rig and LED smarts, to career tips. Keynote speakers include Tony Award-winning lighting designer Don Holder and ETC’s CEO Fred Foster. And yeah, just to refresh your memory, the last time they held one of these things, they introduced the LED Source Four. Just saying. Registration deadline is July 1. Details about how to register and a video about the event after the jump.

Steve Olson, Operations Coordinator with the Historic Theatre Group, stands atop the Electro-Voice XLC127DVX line array in the State Theatre in downtown Minneapolis

The Hennepin Theatre Trust and the Historic Theatre Group operate three historic theatres in downtown Minneapolis. Two of those theatres (the Pantages, built in 1916, with 1,000 seats and the State, built in 1921, with 2,000 seats) recently had their audio systems upgraded. The Pantages Theatre’s audio system was based on Electro-Voice XLC127 line arrays that had been regularly upgraded since their initial installation in 2002, but with a 120-degree coverage pattern, the speakers weren’t ideal for the narrow Pantages. The Historic Theatre Group purchased a new system built around Electro-Voice’s XLD91 line arrays, which offer 90-degree coverage, from Metro Sound and Lighting. They installed the new system at the Pantages and took the XLC127DVX system from the Pantages and moved it into the wider State, where it was paired with new TG series amplifiers and X-Line subwoofers.

On June 2, during the university’s graduation ceremony, Carnegie Mellon awarded Jules Fisher with an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree. The degree recognized Fisher for his leadership and his work as “a mentor and advocate of numerous young designers, extending opportunities to generations of Carnegie Mellon students.” Carnegie Mellon was Fisher’s alma mater.

Monty Rains

Monty Rains has been named the chief operating officer for PixelFlex, an LED video solutions company. Rains most recently served as vice president of corporate development for a private equity-funded digital learning company based in Birmingham, Ala. Over the past 30 years, he has held a variety of executive positions with leading companies from venture-funded start-ups to Fortune 30 companies.

Riedel’s new space will house sales personnel, inventory and a training center.

Riedel Communications, makers of real-time video, audio, data and—perhaps most familiarly—intercom networks has opened a new office in Burbank, Calif. The new office will provide a larger space for sales personnel and inventory, and will also include a training room offering hands-on interaction with Riedel’s gear.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will soon have a new, purpose-built production center

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival received a $400,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust to help fund the construction of a new “production center” in nearby Talent, Ore. The new 64,000 square-foot facility will be the first purpose-built production center for Oregon Shakes, and they have a lot of goals for it. They will use it for scenery, props and costume construction and storage, relieving them of leasing space in multiple nearby towns and for locating non-production facilities (a box office call center and design offices) off campus. The new space will also allow them to vacate their current production building so they can create the new Hay-Patton Rehearsal Center.

The 2013 Sallie B. Goodman Artists’ Retreat runs until June 19.

Now till June 19, the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, N.J., is hosting 10 artists as part of their 2013 Sallie B. Goodman Artists’ Retreat. The artists are given a “supportive environment” for 10 days to “work at their own pace on whatever inspires them.” The artists being supported this year are: George Brant, Jade King Carroll, Samuel D. Hunter, Ken Ludwig, Emily Mann, Lynn Nottage, Nicole Ari Parker, Heather Raffo, David “Tom” Thompson, and Kathleen Tolan.

The  UPAF raise more than $11 million for arts orgs in their last campaign.

The United Performing Arts Fund—the organization that just announced they raised $11 million in 2012-2013 for Southeastern Wisconsin arts orgs—has announced the application process and eligibility requirements for how they’ll give that money away in their 2013 Affiliate program. Arts orgs have to be based in Southeastern Wisconsin and fulfill some other requirements, including having a principal objective to “employ and pay professional artists.” Full details after the jump.

Voleine Amilcar will manage publicity for all of Berkeley Rep’s many endeavors.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre has named Voleine Amilcar as their new director of public relations. Amilcar will be responsible for publicizing all aspects of Berkeley Rep’s programming, including its season of plays, special events, the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, its Ground Floor play development program and more. Before coming to Berkeley Rep Amilcar was the associate director of communications for San Francisco’s Independent Television Service for six years.

TKTS is celebrating its 40^th with appearances by Harvey Fierstein, the cast of Forbidden Broadway and more.

TKTS is turning 40! Well, OK, the booth in Times Square is turning 40. The iconic booth (first in its truss and canvas form and now under the red steps) revolutionized Broadway (and then national) ticket sales when it began offering same-day discounted tickets on June 25, 1973. To celebrate, TKTS’ parent organization, the Theatre Development Fund, is hosting a celebration Wednesday, June 26 from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. The celebration will include appearances by Harvey Fierstein (who wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots, among other theatrical feats), Broadway performer Julie Halston MC’ing a karaoke tribute to Broadway songs of the past 40 years, the cast of Forbidden Broadway will perform a special tribute to TKTS written by the show’s creator, Gerard Alessandrini and TDF volunteers dressed in apparel from the TDF Costume Collection. More details about the celebration are below.