December 2018

The Important Stuff:

It's been a while since my last post. Just saying hi. I'm alive and well! Here's what I've been up to:

• I’ve become more deeply involved with the (Python) developer community and have become a regular attendee at Python NYC, a meetup at Microsoft.
  
  
• Yacin Tmimi and I are building a “Broadway-API” which will provide massive data sets from pre-scraped data upon call. Development of this API will enable anyone to answer questions about the industry without ambiguity or proprietorship of data sets.
  
  
• My curiosity with marketing and technology led me to an opportunity with Pantelo Group, an innovate marketing tech startup focused on enabling consumers and businesses with data-driven services.
  
  
• My focus within Pantelo Group was on Marpipe, their audience identification product. My work is summarized in the medium article, Redefining Audience Targeting in the Digital Age with Predictive Analytics.
  
  
• The article, published in the journal Towards Data Science, has reached over 2,000 people!
  
  
• Interacting with so many marketing people (and attending a number of lectures) gave me a free and solid education in advanced marketing practices. I’ve begun sharing some of them on a new page on my site, my RESOURCES page.
  
  
• The first few pieces of content on this page are about creating and optimizing a website. Check it out and let me know what you think?
  
  
• Additionally, my deeper involvement with tech and data has led me to identify a massive gap in the utilization of technology in the theater industry. Thus, I’ve put together a monthly workshop in partnership with The Artist Co-Op titled Leveraging Tech and Data in Theater.
  
  
• The next workshop is about automating communication and is at 6:00PM, Thursday January 24​. Free to Artist Co-Op Members, admission is $10 (free tickets have just sold out).
  
  

As far as producing, it’s been difficult splitting my time and I’ve been dedicating less than I would have liked. Nonetheless:

• Magic the Play is coming along excellently. Chris and I are deep in our next wave of revisions and are having a great time in doing so, thanks to our collaboration with an enthusiastic and talented group of actors. Additionally, we’ve welcomed composer Sita Chay to our creative team, an exciting collaborator who’ll be writing music for the show in parallel with Kelly Catlin.
  
  
• Some Lovers – the new Burt Bacharach and Steven Sater musical, led by Cody Lassen – is coming along well too. After an exciting run upstate New York at the Adirondack Theatre Festival, the team has been focused on recording a cast album with Broadway Records. The talent for the recording include some major names – of which I cannot share just yet! But when I do, you'll be wowed.
  
  
• Jung & Crazy has been accepted to the Edmonton International Fringe Festival! Robert Keller and I are super excited to present and share this show to, who we consider, one of the most exuberant and participative theatre audience in the world! Also, Edmonton is where I fell in love with theater! So returning will be a fulfilling experience.
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Upcoming Events:

 Join me at one of these events, over the next few weeks?

• Leveraging Tech and Data in Theater: Automating Communication. 6:00PM Thursday, January 24th. Free to Artist Co-Op Members, admission is $10 (free tickets have just sold out).  FB event here.
  
  
• I’ll be seeing Meta-Phys Ed.’s experimental play, The Talmud – a dance + musical exploration based on 5th century Rabbinic text and Kung-Fu films – with a whole bunch of friends at 7:30PM on Thursday January 10. Want to join? Tickets will be between $15 and $20. If yes, drop me a line.
  
  
• Also, BroadwayCon Industry Day is coming up on Friday, January 11. This is one of the most premiere events in the Broadway industry, I highly recommend attending.
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• Also! I’ll be speaking on a panel with fellow Orthodox Jews at BroadwayCon on Sunday, January 13 at 3:00 PM! The discussion is titled Gods of the Theatre Smile on Us: Working in the Theatre while keeping a Religious Lifestyle. 

A visual demonstration of my data science work with MarPipe. Here, I reduced a dataset from 14 columns to 4, allowing me to sort out "winners" (in yellow).

Me, sharing marketing resources at a volunteer education event, hosted by Ziina.

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Explore marketing tools and best practices at the Academy...

ACADEMY

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The Magic the Play team took a purposeful trip to the HARRY POTTER – A HISTORY OF MAGIC exhibit where we saw J. K. Rowling's handwritten outlines and napkin sketches. Inspiring!

I was pleased to help out the women of Stern College's Dramatic Society (SCDS) with their production THE GAME'S AFOOT which was met with enthusiastic audiences.

Celebrating Brad's 50th Birthday in style! Thank you Brad for the full kosher menu!