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Mandela Musical - A new musical about Nelson Mandela has been announced as part of the Young Vic’s summer to autumn season. The London theatre has also announced a series of events called Taking Part 25 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the theatre’s engagement programme.
Mandela, which tells the story of the South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, will run from 28 November to 4 February. It has a book by Laiona Michelle, music and lyrics by Greg Dean Borowsky and Shaun Borowsky, and is directed by Schele Williams with choreography by Gregory Maqoma.

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Olivier Awards - A stage adaptation of Life of Pi and a revival of the musical Cabaret were the big winners at last Sunday's Olivier Awards. It was a celebratory night for theatre at the Royal Albert Hall as the stage industry celebrated a year in which performances resumed after lockdown.
Cabaret stars Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley won acting prizes while the show was named best musical revival. Life of Pi, based on the Booker Prize-winning novel, was named best new play and scooped several technical prizes. Cabaret's success at the first Ol
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Grammy Awards - Olivia Rodrigo, Silk Sonic and jazz musician Jon Batiste shared the top honours at the 64th Grammy Awards. Batiste's soul record We Are won album of the year, while Rodrigo won best new artist and best pop album. Silk Sonic's soul throwback anthem Leave The Door Open took home both the record and song of the year prizes.
Apart from the awards, the ceremony saw a tribute to Foo Fighters star Taylor Hawkins, and a video plea from Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky. In a pre-taped message, he urged musicians to "fill the silence" left by Russian bomb

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UK - Backup has joined forces with Big Drop, brewers of alcohol-free beer, to generate wider awareness and increased funding for the live events/entertainment technical supply chain.
“We’re all painfully aware of the devastation that the pandemic caused to our industry around the globe,” says John Simpson, Backup chairman. “The generous response to Backup’s fund-raising efforts over the past two years has been phenomenal, and we’ve been able to offer help to our colleagues in the UK who were and still are in desperate need, both financially and for the impact the situa

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Germany - GFR (Gesellschaft für Regelungstechnik und Energieeinsparung) has been part of Bosch Building Technologies since 2019 and is changing its name to Bosch Building Automation effective 1 April.
The company’s portfolio comprises complete automation solutions for the operation of buildings on a sustainable basis and related services with a comprehensive range of hardware and software. “We are achieving strong growth with connected building automation and energy efficiency solutions that are planned and implemented on a highly customized basis in close cooperation with ou

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South Korea - JYP Entertainment, one of the biggest record labels and music production businesses in South Korea, has discovered and produced some of the most popular and successful K-pop artists such as Stray Kids, ITZY, TWICE and NiziU.
It was founded in 1997 by South Korean singer-songwriter Park Jin-Young (named after his stage name, J. Y. Park). JYP’s first girl group, Wonder Girls, became a commercial success and was the first South Korean group to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009 when their song Nobody charted at No. 76.
Over the last couple of years, JYP

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USA - ESTA has announced the North American Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (NATEAC) as the newest addition to its community. The association is to be the new host of the quadrennial conference, the fifth iteration of which will take place July 2024 in New York.
Created by Bill Sapsis of Sapsis Rigging, NATEAC was first produced in 2008. Since then, it has been bringing together the architects, engineers, consultants, and manufacturers who are responsible for designing, building, and renovating theatres. NATEAC also facilitates communication between those groups an

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UK - Crewing platform Entourage Pro (EP) has launched its free to use and join freelance production crew resource. The service connects and sources freelance production crew and underpins traditional word-of-mouth methods for finding work and sourcing crew.
Partnered by major manufacturers of production technology including Robe, Avolites, Yamaha, d&b audiotechnik, MDG, Chainmaster and Marshall, EP is an online network of crew that has already secured thousands of members from over 60 countries around the world.
Initial uptake is being extended by EP’s partnership with

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In the Dark - COVID-19’s impact on the UK’s theatre industry has been widely understated in public discourse due to an "ongoing devaluation of the live arts", according to a report. Freelancers in the Dark is a research project undertaken between July 2020 and March 2022, funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s Economic and Social Research Council. It investigated the economic, cultural and social impact of COVID-19 on theatre’s freelance workforce and was led by Holly Maples at the University of Essex, in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University and Quee

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USA - Theatre Projects has announced two additions to their team in North America - Peter Wilson and Thomas Bukovac. Both have joined the firm as associates.
A licensed architect, Peter is an accomplished venue designer who previously worked at architectural firms such as Gensler and Barton Myers Associates. He is passionate about designing theatres and says he’s “thrilled to share my knowledge with new clients and new colleagues, and to learn as much as possible from each of them in turn.” His past projects include the renovation of the Madrid Theatre for the City of Los An

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USA - Rosco Laboratories continued their long-time support of the charity with a cheque presentation at USITT 2022, reflecting sales of Roscolux #359 Medium Violet.
Henry Cowen, live entertainment sales manager - North America, presented the cheque on behalf of Rosco, saying, “I am truly honoured to able to present this donation to our friends at Behind the Scenes this year. The work you do is so important to the industry we all call family, particularly in the past two years when so many of our colleagues and their families were negatively impacted by the pandemic. I speak for

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Concert For Ukraine - Camila Cabello, Ed Sheeran and Snow Patrol will all play at next week's Concert For Ukraine, which will be broadcast on ITV and STV. Emeli Sande, Becky Hill, Gregory Porter and Chic are also in the line-up, with more acts to be confirmed. Tickets for the concert, which will take place at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, go on sale today.
Proceeds from the concert will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee's Ukraine Humanitarian appeal, which is providing food, water, shelter and medical assistance to refugees in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

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USA - The American Society of Theatre Consultants (ASTC) has announced Scott Crossfield as a new Fellow of the Society. Crossfield has a distinguished body of work in performing arts design. He has consulted on the design of over 600 performing arts venues. He had been an ASTC Board member and vice-president. He is a director at Theatre Projects having joined the company in 2007.
Christopher Ochocki has been admitted into membership of ASTC. Ochocki was approved by the ASTC Board of Directors after having met the requirements for membership including leadership experience as thea

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USA - On the show floor at USITT, Westview Productions presented a check to Behind the Scenes to honour their Pledge-a-Service commitment to the charity. Westview is an entertainment, energy, and immersive technology solutions firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Their project process encompasses all aspects of design that integrates with all construction trades to ensure a cohesive and seamless project experience.
On presentation of the cheque, Eric Bloom, president, stated, “Westview is honoured to be able support Behind the Scenes, and to be able to give back to the commu

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Ukraine Support - International dancers from companies including the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and English National Ballet are coming together for a fundraising gala in support of Ukraine. Directed by former Royal Ballet stars Ivan Putrov - who is Ukrainian born - and Alina Cojocaru, the charity gala will take place at the London Coliseum on 19 March. All participating dancers have donated their services for free, the English National Opera has waived its rental fee for the Coliseum and the chorus has volunteered to support the evening. Money raised by the event will go to the Di

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USA - InCord made their 2022 donation to Behind the Scenes on the show floor at USITT reflecting a percentage of profits from sales of their Theatrical Safety Netting Systems.
Joe Menhart, InCord’s theatre division sales manager, comments: “We are delighted to provide this needed support to BTS especially when so many more are still in need due to the ongoing global pandemic that is now stretching over two years. Our hearts go out to all those who benefit from the grants and resources provided by BTS.”
Todd Spencer accepted the cheque along with other members of the B

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Ukraine - Nearly 50 European cultural networks - representing thousands of theatres, arts festivals and venues - have pledged to receive and host Ukrainian artists and to stage performances and events in a show of support for the country. The organisations are urging policymakers across the continent to help them "actively support Ukrainian colleagues" by facilitating international collaboration.
In an open letter to national and European stakeholders, 49 networks and bodies have come together to declare that the "European cultural sector is united" in condemning Russia’s invasi

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UK - The Version 2 team at the Old Grain Store HQ will cross hands to show their support for International Women’s Day on Tuesday, 8 March.
The pose ties in with this year’s theme, Break the Bias, which promotes a world of gender equality, free of stereotypes and discrimination. The annual International Women’s Day event celebrates women’s achievements from political and economic to social and sport.
"Version 2 is especially proud to be ‘shining a light on women’s sport’ through partnerships with Saracens Women’s rugby and Saracens Mavericks netball

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UK - VDC Trading has promoted Herpreet Kaur Singh to the role of commercial director. She will now be responsible for the commercial aspect of the business for the whole of the UK and export and will oversee and assist the continuing growth of VDC and the Van Damme brand in multiple markets across the world.
Herpreet, who joined VDC in 2014, previously managed VDC’s export and customer services department. “I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to be able to expand my role in this way,” she says. “We have weathered an incredibly difficult time during the pandem

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UK - Peterborough-based technical production company Pearce Hire has received the accolade of Best Power Supplier at the recent Event Production Awards 2022.
The company specialises in temporary power and lighting systems for outdoor events on greenfield sites across the UK, including Royal Parks, stately home gardens and areas of outstanding natural beauty.
During the last two years, founder and managing director Shaun Pearce has campaigned for government support of the sector at local and national level, whilst working tirelessly to safeguard and future-proof the business

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Solidarity - All remaining performances of the Russian State Ballet of Siberia in the UK have been cancelled following the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Over the weekend, venues began to cancel planned performances by the company, with the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, the Royal and Derngate in Northampton and the New Theatre Peterborough, run by Selladoor, all pulling planned appearances by the company. Ambassador Theatre Group also cancelled performances planned at the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Bristol Hippodrome.
Now, Raymond Gubbay, which was producing the tour, has cancelled

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Reconnected - The organisers of the T in the Park and TRNSMT festivals have announced their newest event will be held in Edinburgh. The Connect Music Festival will take place at the Royal Highland Centre near Edinburgh Airport from 26 to 28 August. Promoters DF Concerts said the line-up for the weekend-long event will be announced this Wednesday. There have been two Connect festivals before, in 2007 and 2008, both at Inveraray Castle in Argyll.
Announcing the festival's revival, Geoff Ellis, chief executive of DF Concerts and Events, said: “During initial planning discussions ar

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China - DJ Wengweng, well-known electronic musician, the main founder of Acupuncture Records and the Lantern Club, has recently opened Solo, a new electronic music room in Bejing, with the help of Van Damme Cable.
Measured at only 18sq.m, the music space will be used to record live sets of or other artists, and make their musical talents and ideas better known through the internet.
The key aim is to establish increasingly strong relationships with domestic artists, labels and club operators, start discussions around the development of electronic music culture in China and c

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Massive Losses - Commercial theatre companies including Ambassador Theatre Group and HQ Theatres have revealed losses they incurred to March 2021, with theatre closures leading to 90% falls in revenue in some instances. Cameron Mackintosh Limited suffered pre-tax losses of £16.2m to the end of March last year, with the company’s turnover tumbling to just £20.8m. This is down from £206.7m in 2020.
The organisation, which operates eight West End theatres blamed the “disappointing trading results” entirely on the pandemic and warned that conditions remained “challenging
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