Stage Directions

The PLASA Awards for Innovation took place at the PLASA Show 2019. The Awards recognize and reward pioneering product designs and the people behind them and are widely respected as they are independently judged by a team of industry experts with a variety of specialist backgrounds.
This year saw 36 entries for the Awards, with the judges selecting seven winners and one Gold Award winner.

The University Resident Theatre Association (URTA) is pleased to announce the first recipients of the Excellence Awards in Undergraduate Training. The awards recognize outstanding work of undergraduate instructors, coaches, mentors, as well as institutions, for excellence in the training and preparation of undergraduate theatre artists.

The 2019 National Conference on Outdoor Theatre is being held at The Santa Fe Opera Oct. 1-3, 2019! Be sure to Register by September 20 for this unique event!
All meals and tours included! All are welcome! You need not be an SETC member to attend!
This exploratory and inspirational conference will feature dynamic programming:

Updated Infrastructure Allowed Sound Designers John Shivers and David Patridge to Unveil Their Most Sophisticated Design Ever for America’s Oldest and Largest Outdoor Musical Theatre

When The Muny, St. Louis’ beloved theatre institution, opened its 101^st season, it also unveiled the completion of Phase 1 of its multi-million dollar renovation. With a newly rebuilt state-of-the-art stage, orchestra pit, light bridge, stage towers, and an air circulation system, America’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre was now equipped with the latest in stage technology. Here is a video recap of the 2019 season at The Muny. See and Hear the shows:
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Grosh Backdrops & Projections announces the winners of its inaugural Grosh Cares Grants for the Performing Arts program. Recipients of this prize exemplified distinct imagination in their productions; inspiring scenic designs, and a passion for the arts. Young Shakespeareans, a community theatre in Los Angeles, CA received the Grand Prize, Central Middle School in Kansas City, KS was the Runner Up, and McCluer High School in Florissant, MO was awarded Third Place.

In a recent production of the Alan Menken-Jack Feldman Tony Award winning musical Newsies at Pittsburgh’s State Theatre Center for the Arts, lighting designer Amanda Frazier helped call forth the play’s historic context by accentuating its evocative scenic elements with a vivid lighting design that featured CHAUVET Professional fixtures supplied by Vincent Lighting.

Adding to its schedule of optional paid workshops, Take1 Insurance and the Event Safety Alliance announced that Entertainment Rigging Services Director Ethan Gilson will lead a two-day Entertainment Rigging Workshop at the 2019 Event Safety Summit. Hosted in conjunction with Columbus McKinnon Entertainment Technology, the workshop will delve into basic and advanced practices of entertainment rigging in order to increase attendees’ value within the professional rigging marketplace, ultimately helping them to work safer and more efficiently.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts has installed a new DiGiCo SD7T Quantum console in its main Ordway Music Theater, continuing its strategic reliance on DiGiCo SD-Range technology that began when the Center opened in 2009 with a D5 Live desk in the same venue. The installation was just in time for the opening of what is the most ambitious iteration yet of the Tony Award-winning musical 42nd Street, which ran at the Ordway’s Music Theater venue July 23 through August 11. Here's a trailer for the Ordway's original production of 42nd Street:
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Caruth Auditorium, a classical concert hall at the heart of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, has benefited from a new stage lighting system from Vari-Lite and Strand, Signify entertainment lighting brands. The system has delivered improved light quality, color capability and quiet operation, plus major reductions in operational costs.

From the beginning, Mackie has been a valued partner of the Women's Audio Mission. “Mackie supported us and helped us equip our very first studio, which was a tiny 800 square foot space in a warehouse,” recalls founder & executive director Terri Winston. “Every time we’ve grown, they’ve supported us, helped us get each room up to snuff, and made it fabulous. We have Mackie consoles here that we’ve had for 20 years-and they never break. In 20 years, I haven’t had to recap a Mackie console. Think of how many versions of software you’ve gone through and how many computers you’ve had that won’t even boot up anymore. But you plug in a Mackie console, and it works.”