tagged w/ Theatre
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A new revival of the initially-flopped Sondheim-Furth musical "Merrily We Roll Along" aims to fix the mistakes of the original. The Encores! production at the New York City center is aiming to help audiences rediscover the musical beyond its beloved torch song, "Not a Day Goes By."A new revival of the initially-flopped Sondheim-Furth musical "Merrily We Roll... more
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Creators of NBC's "Smash" describe how they researched and coordinated with Broadway veterans to create the world of the modern musical.Creators of NBC's "Smash" describe how they researched and coordinated... more
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2012 audio interview with 'Smash' TV star Brian d'Arcy James, conducted by Mr. Media, Bob Andelman. http://www.mrmedia.com/?p=38852012 audio interview with 'Smash' TV star Brian d'Arcy James, conducted... more
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Video interview with Lauren Field and Gaetano Rodriguez, co-creators of Trek The Musical, performed by Accio Actors. Conducted by Mr. Media, Bob Andelman. http://www.mrmedia.com/?p=3743Video interview with Lauren Field and Gaetano Rodriguez, co-creators of Trek The... more
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http://www.youtube.com/user/WillowCreekPictures
Since 1947, the Edinburgh Festival Cavalcade has taken place in Edinburgh to signal the start of the Fringe Festival. The cavalcade is a parade made up from the performers of the Fringe in addition to local community groups and marching bands which includes the cast of the world renowned Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The event takes place at the beginning of August annually and atracts many thousands of visitors visiting Scotland and local families and groups of friends. Despite occuring every year since it's inception, for the first time in it's history, the cavalcade did not take place in 2011 due to a lack of funding to support the event. Hopefully, the event will return in the future. Rumours have been around stating that the cavalcade may now become a two year event which would be possible with current funding available for staging the event.
I have always been a spectator to the event and so I wanted to try and gain an opportunity to film the event on the ground. To achieve this, I approached cavalcade Director, David Todd firstly in 2008 to seek permission to shoot the event. He gladly accepted and I took along my Hi8 camera to record the event. It wasn't until the following summer that David got in contact with me again to record the event a second time of the parade to take place during August, 2009.
My aim was to create a better video of the event than the one I produced in 2008 so I decided that using multi cameras might cover the event in more detail. I've been a member of the Edinburgh Cine & Video Society since 2006 so I posted an ad at the club to see if anyone would like to help collaborate with me on the project as a Camera Operator. The response was good initially where I managed to get together a team of five to record the event.
To gain the best coverage, I put together a very rough diagram of where I wanted to position cameras. One of the members of the team, Peter Dick wanted to try out his new HDV camera at a height so he ended up filming the parade from the Crags in Holyrood Park which produced some excellent results. I particularly enjoyed the shots of the Scottish Parliament in the background and the marching bands seen from afar.
Two of the Camera Operators were positioned on the ground within the parade route which included me. When I arrived a couple of hours before the event, me and Bob Bell, another ECVS member picked up some orange high visibility vests to alert people that we were filming. I quite liked having this as it made me feel more professional. Getting close to performers during filming was a good idea where between us we managed to gain some interesting, comical shots of the performers. Bob Bell managed to capture some shots of the crowds waving and smiling which added a community feel to the video. I especially liked his sneaky shot of a woman singing Batman where she obvisouly seems oblivious to the fact that she's being filmed, only to realize that she is at the last moment.
I enjoyed one of my shots where I weaved in between the Massed Pipes and Drums which I think adds excitement to the video. Another memorable moment for me was filming the Swiss Army band which were kind enough to march in a circle around a roundabout in order for a badly placed crowd to see some action. They loved the band for giving them a photo opportunity. Being able to follow the bands behind them worked well too for giving the audience an unsual look at the performers in my opinion. Bob managed to get a shot of the pipers by using a monopod lifted high in the air which created an interesting look. I found that when filming the bands, you have to be on your feet, watching out for where they are marching to and you have to make sure you don't get hit by a drum major's mace. Another of my shots which worked well was a pan shot on the ground of Royal Air Force Pipes and Drums which added another different perspective to the video. I also found that Chinese Dragons are easy to get tangled up in when filming!
There were two other Camera Operators who filmed the event really for fun which were Ann Sutherland and Jim Close, also members of the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society. Their cameras could only film footage in the 4:3 format so I never used any of the footage from their cameras. Their footage wasn't useable anyway in comparison with the footage from the other three cameras as their positions were within the crowds and the shots weren't very glamarous.
The Post Production stage was a challenging one. The three cameras were quite different from each other, one shooting HDV and the other two SD where Bob's Canon's video quality was superior to my P2 HVX200 I managed to borrow with permission from my college lecturer from Jewel & Esk College, Gerard Lohan. When placing some of the clips on the timeline, Peter's HDV footage played back at slow motion and featured a flickering motion. After a few days of frustration, I managed to set the correct frame field options for rendering within Sony Vegas and produce a good mpeg 2 video master mixing SD with HDV. At the time of producing the video, I was using the Platinum version of Sony Vegas which doesn't support 16:9 export! Sadly, this video should have been exported as 16:9 so I've been left with a letterboxed 16:9 video unfortunately with no option to create a proper 16:9 version. It happens. Having multiple coverage made it easier to cut the marching band segments to music as I could use a high angle shot followed by footage from the ground. I used some crossfading techniques to create the illusion that the shots occurred during the same march when in reality, the footage was taken from various different parts.
The music overlaid over the community floats section of the video was composed by Kevin MacLeod from incomptech.com, well known for providing royalty free music online licensed under the creative commons license. In addition to the video quality difference between the cameras me and Bob had, the sound quality was different too where it was much more muffled on my HVX200 and the video was softer. To compensate, I had to carry out some colour correction and adjust the sound levels although for my footage, the sound recorded just wasn't high enough in comparison with Bob's onboard microphone.
Looking back the day, it was interesting to film some of the Harley Davidson motorcycles prior to the start of the parade. Maybe in the future, I could think about recording some vox pops with some of the participants and carry out an interview with the cavalcade director to add some insight into the event. I chose not to include commentary in the video so that the viewer could enjoy the music more without interruption. I'm not sure if it needs a bit commentary in some places, I think I was right to choose not to for the marching bands. The captions seemed to work well with telling the audience about the group without spoiling the music.
Some interesting facts about the day; Bob Bell had an interesting discussion with a retired police officer he used to work with and he also spoke with a woman from the states which made for some interesting conversation. I was also offered some cheese from a member of the crowd which was delicious. There were a few other crews about on the day where I spoke to some of the photographers although even today, I'm unsure of who they were working for.
Let me know your own thoughts and opinions after viewing the video and post your comments here. If you have any suggestions for future projects too then don't be afraid to tell me them.
Article written by Alan Andrew Taylor, © 2011 Willow Creek Pictures
You are free to distribute this article under creative commons 3.0 attribution non commercially through other social media links, just ensure that you give me a credit.http://www.youtube.com/user/WillowCreekPictures
Since 1947, the Edinburgh Festival... more
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I haven't been involved in the theatre scene for over 20 years, except for a very brief stint with a local civic theatre which left much to be desired. On a whim,I googled live theatre on-line and was delighted with the thousands of opportunities to see live theatre being streamed. Many theatres are geared for streaming live and produced with that idea as part of the live production. I knew I missed the boat yet again. The article attached is enthusiastic about on-line production. Do a search and find your favorite theatre or subscribe to the National Theatre in London and get realy top notch acting.
http://kathrynjones.tv/live-streaming-theatre/I haven't been involved in the theatre scene for over 20 years, except for a very... more
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In Neil Patrick Harris's fabulous opening sequence of last night’s Tony Awards called 'Theatre...it's not just for gays any more' the straight babe Brooke Shields had a significant part to play. But as suspected she totally FAILS to remember her lines.In Neil Patrick Harris's fabulous opening sequence of last night’s Tony... more
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Cosby Show Actress Clarice Taylor Dies
By Rennie Dyball and Debra Lewis-Boothman
Wednesday June 01, 2011 12:00 PM EDT
Cosby Show Actress Clarice Taylor Dies
G. Paul Burnett/AP
Clarice Taylor, who played Bill Cosby's mother on The Cosby Show, died on Monday at age 93, her rep tells PEOPLE.
She succumbed to heart failure and was surrounded by family when she passed.
Taylor earned an Emmy nomination in 1986 for her recurring role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable's mother, Anna Huxtable, on the long-running sitcom.
A performer on stage, radio, TV and film for over five decades, the actress was a member of the New York stage group, the Negro Ensemble Company, and helped to pave the way for African-American actors in the early 1960s.
Her own big break came that decade when she landed the role of Harriet, David's grandmother, on Sesame Street. She also starred alongside Liza Minelli in 1970's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon and played Grady's Cousin Emma on Sanford and Son.
Taylor is survived by her two sons, William and James, and her five grandchildren.
Clarice Taylor (right) in a 1987 episode of The Cosby Show
APCosby Show Actress Clarice Taylor Dies
By Rennie Dyball and Debra Lewis-Boothman... more
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New York City- MTWorks and playwright David Stallings use theatre as a tool to speak out against censorship which is again in the forefront of the news with the "revised" version of Huckleberry Finn. A magical and dark fictional look into the dangers and consequences of caging innocence, THE FAMILY SHAKESPEARE, a play inspired by the true story of the Bowdler family (publishers of the Complete Censored Works of William Shakespeare, and whose family name later replaced "expurgation" and "castration of text" with "bowdlerization") delves into the psyche of a family who thinks has the right to cross out and modify words with the supposed aim to protect youth and purity.
Written by award-winning playwright and MTWorks' Artistic Director David Stallings and directed by founding member Antonio Miniño. THE FAMILY SHAKESPEARE will play a 3-week limited engagement at the June Havoc Theatre (312 West 36th Street, 1st Floor, Abingdon Arts Complex, Midtown). Performances begin Wednesday, April 13th through Saturday, April 30th .
Henrietta has always been enraptured by the works of William Shakespeare. When she dangerously invites an innocent boy into her magical world, she discovers her family has not only censored the Bard, but also kept her from one of his most scandalous tales. Will their actions crush her imagination, make it spin out of control, or will they join her in a land of Ophelias, Calibans and Kings?
The cast includes Eric C. Bailey, Sarah Chaney, Jason Emanuel, Diánna Martin, Frankie Seratch, Peter B. Schmitz, Corey Tazmania* (NJ Rep’s The Housewives of Mannheim) and Cotton Wright* (Flux Theatre Ensemble’s Pretty Theft & Angel Eaters).
THE FAMILY SHAKESPEARE plays the following schedule through Saturday, April 30th:
Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7pm
Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm
Tuesday performances are followed by a talk-back.
Tickets are $18 and are now available online at www.MTWorks.org or by calling 212-352-3101. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theatre’s Box Office 30min prior to the show.
For more information visit www.mtworks.orgNew York City- MTWorks and playwright David Stallings use theatre as a tool to speak... more
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The lights of life seem to shine most brilliantly when they illuminate adventure. Don Quixote, man of La Mancha, is a man who is fed up with the cheap track lighting of reality. He seeks the bright big time lights of knight errantry. A world he discovers through total immersion in the realm of renaissance literature. Who’s to say if he has what it takes? Does it take the man or his mind to make a knight errant?
To read the full article: http://www.forgetthebox.net/mag/arts/sunday-theatrics/the-man-of-la-macha-don-quixote-at-centaur-theatre.phpThe lights of life seem to shine most brilliantly when they illuminate adventure. Don... more
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I was fortunate enough to catch an advance screening of "The Tourist" starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Here is my off-the-cuff review of the movie, which opens in wide release on December 10, 2010.I was fortunate enough to catch an advance screening of "The Tourist"... more
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respect spontaneity, praise transparency, un-judge joy, overcome strangeness, override distance, contemplate detail, respect awkwardness, celebrate interaction, legitimise humanity, un-fear honesty, expect simplicity, greet abnormality, predict a smile, "possibilize other behaviours"...respect spontaneity, praise transparency, un-judge joy, overcome strangeness, override... more
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'An Evening with the stars' is a unique one-night only event with Kevin Spacey, Sir Ian McKellen and Damien Lewis in support of children’s charity Friendship Works. An Evening with the Stars on Sunday 28th November 2010 at the Almeida Theatre, London.
Leading lights from Hollywood and the West End stage are performing their personal choice of theatre, poetry on the theme of childhood in the intimate setting of London’s famous Almeida Theatre, a very special show in support of charity Friendship Works – the UK’s oldest children’s mentoring charity. Friendship Works supports children from disadvantaged and vulnerable backgrounds in London providing them with long-term adult volunteer mentors. Their mentors commit to taking the children for a half a day a week for a minimum of two years.
The event sponsored by T. Rowe Price, Open Magazine and Courvoisier will begin with a glamorous cocktail reception at the theatre, followed by the show which will feature Helen McCrory, Bill Paters, Jonathan Pryce, Richard Stilgoe, Tim Pigott-Smith & Dame Eileen Atkins. The event will be a unique insight into each performer’s own childhood, and how their personal experience of friendship and mentoring shaped their lives. Kevin Spacey says “I’m a huge believer that friendship works. That’s all a child needs – someone to believe in them to carve out a better life for themselves and become a productive member of society.”
Tickets to the event on the 28th November are £49.50, but can be purchased for £42.50 - which includes the cocktail reception and show - simply visit http://www.almeida.co.uk/production_details/production_details.aspx?code=106 and enter "open mag offer " when prompted.
Artists are correct but may change for reasons beyond the organisers control.'An Evening with the stars' is a unique one-night only event with Kevin... more
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