A recent production of The Brothers Karamozov in Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, in their Mason Gross PAC.

A building is built, and it’s a perfectly good building. And then someone comes along, and wants to put a play on in it. When a building or a room wasn’t designed for live production there are essentially two ways to approach converting it to a theatre: convert the space to a temporary theatre for each show, or transform it completely into a new theatre space. Both approaches have their drawbacks, and both require work. Still, don’t underestimate the rewards to be had from either approach.

The Point Source Production Spigot Adaptor

SUTTON, U.K.—Hire and Sales company, Point Source Productions Ltd, has released a c-clamp spigot adaptor that allows a c-clamp, complete with wing nut and washers, to be slotted into a secure fixing, which is mounted on a standard spigot fixing.  Lighting instruments can then simply inserted into the lighting stand to present an immediate solution to stand-mounted light without wasting time removing the clamp.

The Shure X2U XLR-USB adapter

NILES, IL—Shure Incorporated is now shipping their X2u XLR-to-USB Signal Adapter. The X2u Adapter is a modular accessory that connects any XLR microphone to a computer to create better-than-CD quality recordings. The X2u mimics the design of Shure’s SM57 and SM58 microphones and is available by itself or in bundles with either the SM57 or SM58 microphones.

Martin P3-100 System Controller

AARHUS, Denmark—Martin Professional’s P3-100 System Controller for LED screens lets designers treat LED screens like lighting instruments: brightness, image position, image rotation, etc. can be adjusted and changed instantly, independently from the video source. The P3-100 is not a media server but an interface between the source and the screen.

Raúl Esparza and Anne Hathaway in the Public Theater production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare in the Park

Raúl Esparza Gets Into Character

Raúl Esparza is one of Broadway’s brightest major stars, an actor unafraid to take on a plethora of roles. The 39 year-old Miami native started in community theatre in his Florida hometown before studying at NYU. He then migrated to Chicago, where he worked with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and later joined the national tour of Evita in 1999 before landing at the Great White Way. He soon was snaring choice parts, including leads in Sunday In The Park With George and Merrily We Roll Along (at the Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Celebration), along with starring roles in Taboo, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Company, The Homecoming and Speed-the-Plow. He also recently co-starred with Anne Hathaway in Twelfth Night as part of the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in Central Park.

In the TheatreFace.com Makeup Group, Christa Whittaker wrote in asking for help for her production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Our Cogsworth and Lumière are both dark-skinned black men. My assistant and I are experimenting with looks that will give the right effect with the costume, but won't make them look like rejects from a minstrel show or a tin man. Does anyone have any hints or suggestions?

One possible effect of gel/filter combination, through a gobo in this case. Note the various hues present through one fixture as a result of filter color combination.

Some may wonder how they could subsist on a woeful budget, but many do it every day.

In the contemporary live theatre, every dollar counts—and that was even true before our recent turn of economic events. Regardless of artistic merit, finances determine the production of a play or continuation of an existing production more than any other single factor.

In tech world, this often means that we have to challenge ourselves to find creative and inexpensive solutions to problems at which other—larger—companies might simply throw money. This often means fabricating our own solution to an existing problem or locating the right equipment to solve such problems as onstage flame—often outlawed—without actually igniting a fire. Creative solutions can include anything from mixing lighting color filters for a specific effect to building one’s own homemade lighting console.

Texas H.B. 2649 has come and gone, but not without its lessons to learn. 

H.B. 2649—a Texas bill that threatened to essentially outlaw lighting design as a profession—may have stalled out in the Texas House of Representatives, and it may never garner passage in such a way that our industry will feel direct impact, but that doesn’t mean that we dodged any kind of bullet at all. I don’t care what field we each may count ourselves as pursuing; we as an industry have received notice of both our vulnerability and our strength.

New books, DVDs and CDs

In Stripping Gypsy, author Noralee Frankel has managed to wade through everything known about stripper-author-writer Gypsy Rose Lee—and what we thought we knew—and has produced the most three-dimensional view of this unique performer. However, while Gypsy's energy and wit were phenomenal, Frankel's dry (and sometimes outright clunky) academic prose isn’t up to that standard, particularly in the first third of the book. Those familiar with Gypsy's famous (if fictionalized) autobiography and son's Erik Preminger’s book will find this new work more enlightening, if not nearly as entertaining. [$27.95, Oxford University Press]

Available Light Produced Dead City by Sheila Callaghan in 2008

Directed by Matt Slaybaugh, Time and a Few Words was an Available Light original

Available Light Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, is a nomadic theatre that exclusively produces topical new work, with four regional premieres in the past 18 months and one world premiere. In uncertain economic times every performance is “Pay What You Want”—and they ended the season in the black. I brought Artistic Director Matt Slaybaugh online to TheatreFace.com for a live chat about how he makes it work. Here’s an excerpt where Slaybaugh talks about the Pay What You Want Model, and fields some questions from online members.

Anne Hathaway, as Viola, disguised as Cesario, duels with Sir Andrew Aguecheek, played by Hamish Linklater.

Anne Hathaway’s seemingly spontaneous song-and-dance number with Hugh Jackman garnered more buzz than many of the awards given away at this year’s Oscar ceremony, but Hathaway’s performance was no surprise to those who knew her when. Born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, Hathaway grew up in New Jersey, singing in the U.S. High School Honors Chorus.