Thursday, June 30, 2005

There is a website offering Shakespeare marked up in XML. It may be useful for a computer analysis of the texts, or for customizing the format of a script.

this posted by David August at 1:37 PM - 0 comments -  

Thursday, June 23, 2005

This applies to Characters as well as People:
We are what we repeatedly do.
-Aristotle

this posted by David August at 11:38 AM - 0 comments -  

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Following up on my previous post, Center Theatre Group's cut back in new play development continues to have fall-out:
In the four weeks since Center Theatre Group's new artistic director Michael Ritchie announced that he would eliminate most of the company's formal programs for developing new plays - including the annual New Work Festival as currently constituted and labs for Latino, Asian, black and disabled writers - his actions have been the talk of the theater community.
One CTG board member, Stephen Liu, a surgeon and founder and chairman of InterBusiness Bank in the City of Industry, resigned two weeks ago, in part because CTG was not as focused in the ethnic communities as I wanted, he said. I wanted them to be more diversified
(from Los Angeles Times).

this posted by David August at 2:20 PM - 0 comments -  

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Sometimes at an audition we're asked to tell them something about ourselves (e.g., Second City Touring Company auditions). Usually the auditors are seeking something brief. I think it's possible that we are best served if we share something that is a safe piece of trivia that no one expects but then it's pretty easy to remember, like what is always said about Adam Curry, the inventor of podcasting: that he was once an MTV VJ. It is unrelated to his podcasting contributions, but follows him wherever he is discussed. Seth Godin pointed out the marketing value of an oxymoron such as this, and finding the best piece of non-acting related trivia about ourselves may help us book more work.

this posted by David August at 4:17 PM - 0 comments -  

The 59th annual Tony Awards will be presented tonight at 8 PM ET/PT on CBS.

this posted by David August at 12:27 AM - 0 comments -  

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, discusses how TV may not come in 30-minute chunks in the future (from The Long Tail blog).

this posted by David August at 3:39 PM - 0 comments -  

Thursday, June 02, 2005

The Long Tail and Entertainment:
For too long we've viewed the economics of the entertainment industry through the lens of hits and stars, studios and networks. Just as we are recognizing that the Long Tail is a huge and growing market that was hidden by the scarcity economics of the old distribution systems, we're starting to realize the nature of the goods, the participants and the incentives in this new market are also different
(from The Long Tail).

this posted by David August at 12:12 PM - 0 comments -