Industry Theatre Newsroom Page 108

Actors' Equity announced that it has reached an agreement for a new New England Area Theatres (NEAT) agreement for Boston-area theatres. The new contract includes a 28 percent increase to minimum salaries. 

LMDA is pleased to announced the recipients of its 2017-18 grants and awards programs, as well as the opening of the application period for 2018-19 grants and awards cycle.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing has come on board as a co-producer and investor of brand new Elvis Presley stage musical HEARTBREAK HOTEL.

In this episode: Broadway show shoe designer Phil LaDuca began his career singing and dancing on Broadway with choreographers like Agnus De Mille. Now choreographers like Jerry Mitchell are calling him to design shoes for singers and dancers. Phil LaDuca is a definition of having a second act in life that is just as grand as the first, and the term my 'LaDucas' has become a noun. After a reconstructive knee surgery he took his eye for beauty and experience onstage and created the most sought after shoe on stage and screen. Since dance has changed from the days of 'bring out the chorus girls', Phil thought that shoes should change with it. He brought his idea to the big companies and they said dancers don't have ideas and the rest is history. With accolades like a Drama Desk awards and thanks from dancers who say he's saved their legs and careers, it's the thought of a child getting inspired from a performer in his shoes that keeps him on pointe.

Eight outstanding educators from schools and performing arts centers around the U.S. will work one-on-one with Broadway greats at the 9th Annual FREDDIE G FELLOWSHIP July 11th - 14th. The event has once again been underwritten by Myrna and Freddie ("G") Gershon, Co-Chairman of the global theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI). The four days of classes and activities honor instructors and teachers who are working to make a difference for their students and communities through the process of staging musical theatre productions in their schools and educational theatre groups. In addition to the all-expense paid visit to New York, each of the teachers' schools receives $5,000 from Freddie and Myrna. The teachers are empowered to identify and select how their respective school's theatre program can best utilize the funds.

The Shubert Foundation has awarded a record total of $30 million to 533 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the United States. This marks the 36th consecutive year that the Foundation has increased its giving.

The Drama League (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Artistic Director) announced today that Mia Rovegno and Mia Walker have been named this year's recipients of The Drama League's Directing Fellowship in Film and Television, which gives early- and mid-career theater directors their first opportunities to shadow on professional film and television projects. Ms. Rovegno and Ms. Walker will receive financial support, travel allowances, expert mentors, and a shadow directing assignment as part of their fellowship.

Lon Chaney, the 'Man of A Thousand Faces', story comes to life in new musical titled A Thousand Faces. The musical takes us from Lon's childhood as the son of deaf parents, through his stage career and tumultuous life with songstress wife Cleva who attempts suicide backstage which drives Lon to try the new industry of movies where he rises to fame as the pioneering silent film star of the original PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Sam Scalamoni (Elf, Disney's Beauty and the Beast) directs.

Mary McColl, Executive Director of Actors' Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers, released the following statement after the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Janus v. AFSCME. 

Lon Chaney, the 'Man of A Thousand Faces', story comes to life in new musical titled A Thousand Faces. The musical takes us from Lon's childhood as the son of deaf parents, through his stage career and tumultuous life with songstress wife Cleva who attempts suicide backstage which drives Lon to try the new industry of movies where he rises to fame as the pioneering silent film star of the original PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Sam Scalamoni (Elf, Disney's Beauty and the Beast) directs.

LMDA has announced that Bob White received the G.E. Lessing Award for Career Achievement at the 2018 LMDA Annual Conference in Toronto on June 22nd.

Richard Hope and Mark Hawkins have taken over the roles of Arthur Kipps and The Actor in The Woman in Black. The second longest-running play in the West End is going into their 30th year at the Fortune Theatre, where we met the actors to discuss the show, fear, and ghosts.

The Theatrical Sound Designers And Composers Association (TSDCA) have released a statement on Women+ In Sound Design for Broadway and theatres across the country. The group is calling on producers on Broadway and theaters across the country to strive for greater gender parity when hiring sound designers. Read the statement below:

For the third consecutive year, people around the Broadway community are coming together to play a round of golf. The 3rd Annual Broadway Golf Outing will take place on Monday August 13, 2018 at 12:15pm.

More than 40 years after its creation, Dan Goggin and Robert Lorick's musical, Johnny Manhattan, had its world premiere in Goggin's home state, Michigan. Featuring a book and lyrics by Lorick, music by Goggin, and directed and choreographed by Mark Martino, Johnny Manhattan played a successful engagement at the Meadow Brook Theater (Rochester Hills, MI) in September 2017. Performance rights for the new musical are now available through Samuel French, the world's premier theatrical publishing and licensing company.

The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) today announces that Amy E. Witting's Anne Page Hates Fun and Mary Elizabeth Hamilton's 16 Winters or the Bear's Tale are the first two winners of 'Shakespeare's New Contemporaries,' an international playwriting competition designed to create a modern canon of companion pieces for each of Shakespeare's 38 plays.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the TRU 2018 Tony Award Benefit Party on Saturday, June 10, 2018 starting at 7pm at Jack Doyle's Pub and Restaurant, 240 W. 35th St., NYC. Tickets are $70 ($55 for TRU Members or $140 for a Party/Membership combo) and can be purchased at https://truonline.org/events/tony-party-2018/.

New Theatre Magazine (NTM), an independent print publication founded by Kathryn Lynn Morgen, announces their Pilot Issue and Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of the first 80-page issue showcasing contributions from artists, playwrights, dramaturgs, stage designers, technicians, directors, actors, producers, and crew members across the US & UK.

Samuel French, the world's premier theatrical publishing and licensing company, is pleased to announce the addition of thirteen new plays to the Agatha Christie Collection. Now including 25 titles, the Collection is a unique set of plays all written by or with the direct involvement of the famous mystery writer and dramatist.

Malloree Hill, Gabriella Garcia, Aurora Heimbach, and Molly Wheaton will lead an industry reading of Samuel by Alexis Roblan, directed by Madeline O'Hara, on Sunday, May 27, at 3p at Manhattan Theatre Club Studios (311 W 43rd St, 8th floor, Studio B). Jillian Lebling, Patrick Merveille, and Lynita Spivey complete the cast.

Today, The Collaborator Party, headed by theatrical sound designers Lindsay Jones and John Gromada, announced that their event will return for its fourth year in New York City, after three years of the now legendary sold-out parties across the country. The Collaborator Party is the official Tony night party for the entire theatre community. This year, the main party will be held June 10, 2018 at Houston Hall (222 W. Houston St. in New York City) from 7pm-11pm EDT, with additional parties taking place simultaneously in Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. A full video invitation for this year's event can be viewed at https://youtu.be/3hpjMkxngZM or http://www.collaboratorparty.com.

A new venue has been announced for the invited staged reading of Steve Monarque's THAT'S LIFE, a full-length play with music, directed by Mel Johnson Jr.

Over 400 guests including current and past New York City high school students, and the performing arts professional mentors who have participated in TDF Open Doors, the theatre arts mentoring program that TDF founded in 1998 with playwright Wendy Wasserstein, will attend this year's graduation at 5:30pm on Monday, June 4 at The Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College (524 West 59th Street, NYC).  

A new venue has been announced for the invited staged reading of Steve Monarque's THAT'S LIFE, a full-length play with music, directed by Mel Johnson Jr.

The 13th annual Shubert Foundation/Music Theatre International Broadway Junior Student Finale will take place on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street). The event will be hosted by Kelvin Moon Loh and Vasthy Mompoint, stars from Broadway's new hit, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, The Broadway Musical. The Shubert Foundation / MTI Broadway Junior partnership is a groundbreaking musical theatre mentorship program that helps public schools affect school culture change through building sustainable theatre education programs. Hundreds of participating students will share musical numbers from their fully produced school shows at the Finale. For many, their first musical theatre experience performing will be on Broadway.