A production of Les Misérables at Valley Christian High School in San Jose, Calif., the Southwest area winner in the 2009 High School Honors Program.

LAS VEGAS-Stage Directions is now accepting nominations for their annual High School Theatre Honors Program. The program honors outstanding theatre programs across the U.S. and Canada. Theatre administrators, teachers, students and fans are encouraged to nominate spectacular high school theatre programs here .

CHICAGO-Victory Gardens has a new curriculum at its renamed and redesigned Professional Training Center at Victory Gardens. The Center now offers a comprehensive and progressive programming and curricula for its Adult Training Center and the brand new Youth Training Center. The Professional Training Center philosophy and curriculum were redesigned by a Victory Gardens team, led by Director of Arts Education and Training Robert Cornelius.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC-The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) and the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts will hold the UNCSA Southeast Regional Entertainment Technology Conference September 30 through October 2, 2010 on the University of North Carolina School of the Arts campus in Winston-Salem, NC. The event is a three-day conference presented by Cirque du Soleil and their business partners (Stage Technologies, Coolux, Vari-Lite and Meyer Sound), and will include demonstrations and workshops covering the use of cutting edge technologies in Cirque du Soleil productions.

Rachel Walshe, the inaugural recipient of The Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists.

CHICAGO—The Theatre School at DePaul University has named Rachel Walshe the inaugural recipient of The Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists. The award is a cash prize of $30,000 granted to a recent alumnus or alumna from DePaul University in Music or Theatre. The prize’s intended purpose is to advance the award recipient’s professional career by giving them the freedom to engage in their intended artistic pursuits.

Joe Aldridge (shown here) took office as President of USITT on July 1.

SYRACUSE, NY—Joe Aldridge of Las Vegas, Nevada took office as President of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT) on July 1. Aldridge has toured Japan with Siegfried and Roy, helped stage Oedipus at Colonus in Greece, taken plays to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and been artistic director for Shakespeare Under the Stars in Wimberley, Texas. Those experiences are just part of what Joe Aldridge brings to the job of leading USITT into its second half century. He has also been with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, not continuously, since the 1970s, serving first as technical director and, most recently, helping create and nurture the Entertainment Engineering and Design Program, a joint effort of the colleges of Fine Arts and Engineering.

NEW WINDSOR, NY—Production Resource Group (PRG) will join the educational partnership in Owensboro, Kentucky of the RiverPark Center, Brescia University, Kentucky Wesleyan College and Owensboro Community and Technical College. The three academic institutions and the acclaimed RiverPark Center have banded together to create a one-of-a-kind Bachelor of Theatre Arts degree, which will allow enrolled students to participate in courses at each of the contributing institutions.  The program will offer opportunities for students to receive both the creative and technical foundation for future careers in today’s entertainment industry.

Large SED views are now available in the Wybron Gel Swatch Library HD

COLORADO SPRINGS—Wybron, Inc. has released its new Gel Swatch Library HD, its first app developed exclusively for the iPad. Gel Swatch Library HD provides a larger, higher-definition platform to choose, compare and organize gel colors for any size project. Gel Swatch Library HD offers a number of improvements and new features over the original Gel Swatch Library, including a new Projects feature. This allows users to assign gel colors to multiple project folders, create notes for each of those gels, rearrange, add and delete within the folder and then email the entire project as a PDF with color swatches, codes, names and notes intact.

So I was chatting with someone online the other day, and they were looking for summer study options for lighting and sound design -- but had some serious restrictions. They're college age (just finished second year), but their local college doesn't offer summer classes. They're not near any summer stock troupes, so they can't intern. They are working with their local community theatre, but they've been doing that for the past 4 years -- so they've kind of reached the end of what they can learn in that venue. So--what would you recommend for their own personal training and education this summer? 

DIX HILLS, NY— Four-time Tony-winning producer, Stewart F. Lane, will direct the new musical A Moment In Time at Five Towns College this summer. The show utilizes songs by John Denver to tell the story of a marine in Afghanistan who, moments before a battle, recalls a safer, happier place. Lane’s directing credis include productions of The Foreigner, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Golden Age, Frankenstein, Final Appeal with Chazz Palminteri and Stephen Baldwin and In the Wings with Shannon Doherty.  His playwriting credits include In the Wings and If It Was Easy, which was nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association’s New Play Award.

PORTLAND, OR—Portland Actors Conservatory has announced this year’s instructors, program offerings and scholarships for its Summer on Stage programs. A new series of weeklong intensives for upper level acting students will be taught by Michelle Kopper Seymour of Vanport Square Studio in addition to the traditional camps taught by Andrea White and Melissa Whitney. Also, the Conservatory plans to award $1,500 in need-based scholarships for Summer on Stage students.