Little Shop of Horrors opened on Friday! Congratulations to all those involved in producing this musical extravaganza! Check out some preview photos below. If you haven't seen it yet, get your
tickets
here!
This week, the Fall MFA Dance Thesis Concert opens. Get to know the choreographers, Stacey Carlson and Christine Hands, in the feature story below. Tickets are available
here!
We are also thrilled to announce our keynote playwright for the
Fearless New Play Festival coming up next spring: nationally renowned playwright Sheila Callaghan will be joining us for a keynote speech and we will present a staged reading of her brand new play in development! Check out the story below to find out more about Sheila, our selected alumni plays, and what's coming up for the festival.
This newsletter is chock-full of on- and off-campus events, news, and opportunities, so scroll down to read more. We never stop here at TDPS!
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Photos from
Little Shop of Horrors
- photo credit: Stephanie S. Cordle/University of Maryland
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In this newsletter:
- Upcoming Events
- Feature Story
- News
- Opportunities
- Course Opportunities
- Other Events
Want to share your news with the TDPS family? Have a story you want featured? Have suggestions to improve the TDPS newsletter and communications?
Tell us about the creative, collaborative, innovative, and entrepreneurial work you're doing!
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Are you a TDPS student, faculty member, or staff member? Show us what a week in your life at TDPS looks like!
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Fall MFA Dance Thesis Concert
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October 12 & 14
Kogod Theatre
dwelling
by Stacey Carlson
and
Hamlet
by Christine Hands
See more details under Feature Stories below!
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The Festivalizing of Theatre: Yevgeny Vakhtangov and “Fantastic Realism”
Dr. Maria Berlova
Wednesday, October 10, 3:10-4:10pm, TDPS Conference Room 2804
As part of our year-long exploration of the Triumph of Isabella, the International Program for Creative Collaboration & Research (IPCCR) is delighted to bring Dr. Maria Berlova to our campus to talk about the work of Russian stage director, Yevgeny Vakhtangov (1883-1922). Vakhtangov devised a new artistic method, which combined Stanislavsky’s psychological approach and a highly theatrical form of expression he termed fantastic realism. His work influenced generations of theatre artists across the globe.
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Lost Sons by Niree Turner and Rockfish by Sydney Lemelin
October 19-20
Rockfish
In Rockfish, Sydney Lemelin explores her half Chinese identity through dance and theater. Research for this piece brought her to old photos, an unused Mah Jong set and half-remembered stories.
Lost Sons
This hip-hop theater piece explores the impact of mass incarceration in the black community. The effects of an imprisoned father ripple throughout the entire family and community, and the play highlights the sharp differences in families with and without a father figure around. It also demonstrates differences in how white men and black men are sentenced.
Tickets and information
here. Tickets will be available on Friday, October 12.
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Coming Up: TDPS Auditions
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Spring 2019 Auditions in October
First round of auditions for
The Heidi Chronicles,
Hamlet Replayed, and the Fearless New Play Festival:
Monday, October 15th from 4 – 6pm & Tuesday, October 16th from 4 – 6pm
Cafritz Foundation Theatre (Room 2740)
Callbacks:
The Fearless New Play Festival: No callbacks
Hamlet Replayed: Thursday, October 18th from 5 – 9pm
The Heidi Chronicles: Saturday, October 20th from 1 – 5pm
Schoenbaum Rehearsal Studio (Room 3732)
See the
flyer for more details.
CAPA Auditions in December
Mark your calendars! Save the date for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) Scholarship Auditions for incoming Fall 2019 Theatre and Dance majors will be held on
Monday, December 17th.
Dance auditions will run 10am-2pm and Theatre auditions will run 12pm-4pm.
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UTAS Town Halls in Fall 2018
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Mark your calendars!
UTAS will be holding two more town halls this semester on
October 15
and
November 19
. Both meetings will be at
12PM
in
Mulitz-Gudelsky Rehearsal Room
(Room 3730).
EVERYBODY is invited! Please come, bring your lunch, listen, and contribute to the conversation.
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African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities Conference
October 19-20
The African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities Initiative invites students to their first national conference on Black digital humanities to be held on UMD's campus,
Friday, October 19 at Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center and Saturday, October 20 at Edward St. John
. Students and faculty are welcome to attend. AADHum is offering day passes to undergraduates, which can be picked up the day of at any registration table with ID. Faculty can register
here
. Check out the details and schedule
here.
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Real Talk: ARHU Student Town Hall Meeting
Wednesday, October 17, 6-8:30pm
2204 Edward St. John Learning & Teaching Center
Share your concerns with Dean Thornton Dill surrounding campus climate and safety. Free food and drink! More information
here.
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BikeUMD is hosting its first-ever evening ghost bike tour of campus on October 31! They are looking for storytellers to tell campus ghost stories as the ghosts themselves. No rehearsal required.
To thank participants for being part of the tour, they will give each storyteller a
1-year annual mBike membership and a 21-day use parking code for pay stations on the university's campus. What a great deal!
Please contact Cara Fleck Plewinski at
fleckc@umd.edu by October 18 if interested.
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October 18 - November 18
Go support Team TDPS at
Illyria, or What You Will
at Avant Bard!
The production is directed by Professor Mitchell Hébert and adapted from Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night
by Hébert and PhD student Jonelle Walker. The cast includes TDPS alumni Montana Monardes, Katie Gallagher, and Matt Sparacino, and the creative team includes Aaron Bliden (BA Theatre, music composition), Kristen Ahern (MFA Design candidate, costume design), Emma Hébert (BA Theatre, choreography), and Claudia Rosales (MFA Performance, intimacy director).
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MFA Thesis Concert
Stacey Carlson,
dwelling
and Christine Hands,
Hamlet
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October 12, 7:00 pm & October 14th 2:00pm and 7:00pm
The Fall Dance Season officially kicks off with the Fall MFA Dance Thesis Concert, with an evening length concert with works by Christine Hands and Stacey Carlson. We sat down to talk with them about their process and how their dance works came to fruition.
Stacey Carlson
has a diverse physical background that has played out in the creative process of her new work,
dwelling. Carlson received her BFA from Webster University in St. Louis, MO, after which she deepened her study of circus arts (namely, aerial work) which allowed her the opportunity to perform with Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Eloize. She assisted in the development of Anti-Gravity Yoga in New York City. Carlson was curious to re-stage this work and bring in non-traditional viewpoints by performing it in different contexts. She feels that
dwelling is a culmination of her life to this point, sifting together all of her experiences in dance, circus, puppetry, physical theater, as well as her life as a graduate student and mother. Her style is visceral and incorporates the aesthetics of her somatic and dance training. Through creating
dwelling
, she learned to navigate from a solo creative process in order to choreograph a piece for a group of five dancers. She developed connections with the other performers, who helped her realize her vision. When describing the piece, Carlson says, “I chose the title [
dwelling] because of the multiple interpretations of what it could mean and what it could be.”
Christine Hands
has always wanted to make a piece about
Hamlet
ever since her time in London at the Richmond American International University where she studied Shakespeare and his works. Hands was inspired by the lyrical nature of Shakespeare’s prose and wanted to explore the possibilities of creating a
Hamlet
in the context of dance theater in which movement, multi-media, and text are interwoven to view this seminal work through a new lens. Hands also double majored in English and Dance while at the University of Iowa so her familiarity with creating work of this type is not her first foray into combining Shakespeare and movement. She worked with Shakespeare’s text prior to arriving at UMD while dancing in Chicago by deconstructing the text and interweaving movement. Hands’ interpretation for her thesis also pulls from a sci-fi aesthetic as a means of including dynamics of social structure to create an alternate universe. She states, “We can create the reality we want.“ Informed ideas of dystopia and idealism are present in the piece and Christine readily admits that the most recent
Star Wars
film was a helpful motivator in its use of a diverse cast and a strong female lead. This dance theater version of
Hamlet
is performed by five dancers, including Hands.
By Renee Gerardo
--
All performances include audio description, ASL interpretation, and a pre-show touch tour beginning 1 hour and 15 minutes before show time. The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is wheelchair accessible.
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Christine Hands / photo by Jonathan Hsu
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News from the Fearless New Play Festival
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We are looking forward to this year’s
Fearless New Play Festival, which will be included in our Main Stage Season for the first time in February/March 2019! We have some exciting news to announce:
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Announcing Sheila Callaghan as our Keynote Playwright
We are thrilled to announce that nationally renowned playwright Sheila Callaghan will be our keynote playwright for the 2019 Fearless New Play Festival! Sheila will present the keynote speech on Thursday, March 7, followed by a staged reading of her new play in development.
Sheila Callaghan’s plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwright’s Horizons, Yale Rep, South Coast Repertory, Clubbed Thumb, The LARK, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, The Flea, Woolly Mammoth, Boston Court, and Rattlestick Playwright’s Theatre, among others. She is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, a MacDowell Residency, a Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the prestigious Whiting Award.
In 2010, Callaghan was profiled by Marie Claire as one of “18 Successful Women Who Are Changing the World.” She was also named one of Variety magazine’s “10 Screenwriters to Watch” of 2010. Sheila was a longtime writer/producer on the hit Showtime comedy Shameless and a founder of the feminist activist group The Kilroys. She was nominated for a 2016 Golden Globe for her work on the Hulu comedy series Casual and a 2017 WGA Award for her Shameless episode “I Am A Storm.”
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Congratulations to our alumni whose plays have been selected for the festival!
- CrossFit WonderWoman by Sam Mauceri (BA Theatre ’15)
- Ceasefire by Avery Collins (BA Theatre ’16)
- What to do When You're Suicidal but You Can’t Fight Fascists When You’re Dead by Natalie Ann Valentine (BA Theatre ’13)
- Field Glass by Martin Thompson (BA Theatre '15)
- It's a Queer Thing by Radcliffe Adler (BA Theatre ’18)
- The White Talk by Whitney Geohagan (BA Theatre ’18)
- Terrible Lizard by Megan Meinero (BA Theatre ’12)
- Sweet Dreams by Nikki Lust (BA Theatre ’17)
These plays will be presented on the third night of the festival on Saturday, March 9.
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Seeking submissions from current students for the Fearless New Play Festival!
The second night of the New Play Festival (Friday, March 8) will be an evening of staged readings of new 10-minute plays by current undergraduate and graduate students.
Submit your new play now!
Check out the submission guidelines
here.
Submissions
are due on Thursday, November 1.
No late submissions will be accepted
.
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Have a story you want to share?
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Gabriel Mata / photo credit: Bill Cameron
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- Congratulations to PhD candidate Po-Hsien Chu on being selected as one of eight award recipients for a prestigious dissertation scholarship from the China Times Cultural Foundation!
- The Triumph of Isabella was featured in the UMD’s Diamondback and Writer’s Bloc. Click the links to read what these reviews had to say about our multimedia immersive experience!
- MFA Dance candidate Gabriel Mata will be featured as a choreographer and performer in San Jose, CA on October 12 and 13. sjDANCEco has commissioned Gabriel as a choreographer to create a new work with live music by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. He will also perform an excerpt from his solo DREAMING, a restaging of Colin Connors (Limón Dance Company Artistic Director) Corvidae, and a solo from José Limón’s Mazurkas.
- Recent alumnus Sudesh Mantillake (PhD '18) will perform in Masks and Myths: Devils and Dancers from Sri Lanka in Chicago this weekend. This piece explores the individual voices that make up Chicago's fabric, as well as the connections that are found between people and across disparate regions of the globe--one such connection being the one between Sri Lankan artistry and Chicago's own bucket boys, who are iconic and essential to art performance in the city. This performance is an extension of Sudesh's PhD dissertation research.
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Sudesh Mantillake works with "bucket boys" in Chicago to explore
the connections between Chicagoan and Sri Lankan artistry
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Have news you want to share?
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THET669V-5501 Visionary Collaboration
Dates: January 2-18, 2019 (Winter term)
Level: Graduate
Instructor: Howard Shalwitz
What's the difference between a routine production and a truly visionary one? Where does "vision" come from, and what kinds of collaborations and artistic processes can lead to visionary results on stage? In this graduate level seminar -- intended for advanced designers, directors, playwrights, and actors -- participants will gain hand-on practice with a number of key concepts that provide a framework for collaboration among all the members of a creative team. We will then analyze a number of visionary productions (on video) from both the United States and Europe, and learn about the collaborative processes that led to them. Finally, small teams will be formed to select their own projects and engage in their own visionary collaborations.
Howard Shalwitz is co-founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. He was the visionary force behind the company for 38 seasons, steering its adventurous play selection, guiding the development of dozens of new works, building a renowned company of artists, and leading Woolly in the creation of its award-winning downtown theatre which opened in 2005. Howard has directed new plays by Clare Barron, Jason Grote, Sheila Callaghan, Aaron Posner, Doug Wright, Amy Freed, Regina Porter, Nicky Silver, and many other leading American playwrights, at theatres including New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Rep, as well as Woolly Mammoth. In 2014 he received the Margo Jones Award from Ohio State for his lifetime commitment to new American plays, and in 2011 he was named Distinguished Finalist for SSDC’s Zelda Fichandler Award.
TDPS458U - When Film & Puppetry Meet on Stage
Time: Mondays 10am-12:50pm (Spring 2019)
Using puppetry and live-feed cinematography, this course will explore the question of how we tell stories. We will investigate both practical and theoretical studies of these engaging multi-disciplinary mediums inside and outside of class. It takes a delicate balance to juggle two very different but complimentary mediums. For visual inspiration, we will look at works by Jim Henson, Julie Taymor, Hugo & Ines, The Quay Brothers, Philippe Genty, William Kentridge, Hotel Modern, Paul King, Basil Twist and so much more. There is an expectation that you will also bring in sources for the class to examine. The class will be part lecture based part studio work. We will devise theater exercises and create filmed presentations of art work in class, both in and out of class, individually and in small groups. Both the Midterm and Final Exams will be performance/film based.
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- Second Season’s February production of Hapa by Jenna Gerdsen is seeking a petite female presenting dancer, preferably with experience in mask work, as well as projection, costume, light, and sound designers. The show the weaves Jenna's personal upbringing in Hawaii with the island-state’s colonialist history and tourist economy. Email Jenna for more information.
- Fame: The Musical is seeking bilingual musical theater actors and dancers for its premiere at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, DC in May 2019. The prodcution will be directed by Luis Salgado, who directed and choreographed the 2016 Helen Hayes Award winning In The Heights en Español at GALA. Check out more details on the flyer.
- The Folger Theatre and Folger Shakespeare Library are seeking friendly and enthusiastic individuals to join their House Management team. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume on their website.
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Neguinho da Beija-Flor, Brazilian samba carnival champion at MilkBoy ArtHouse on October 13
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- 19 the Musical - Through the 4th Wall, a company founded by alumna Jennifer Schwed (BA American Studies '96) is in the process of creating an original musical called 19 the Musical. They are currently performing vignettes from the show in and around the Washington, DC area. More information and performance dates can be found here.
- Samba Carnival party at MilkBoy ArtHouse - Samba Jig Productions, co-founded by Kate Spanos (PhD ‘16), is bringing the energy of Rio’s samba carnival festivities to MilkBoy ArtHouse in College Park on Saturday, October 13. Neguinho da Beija-Flor is one of the most iconic and charismatic samba parade singers from Rio de Janeiro. Come dance with us! General admission $35, students $15 (available at the door). More information at sambajig.com/neguinho.
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Have an opportunity you want to share?
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Do you have news to share with the TDPS community?
The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
advances and transforms the research and practice of the performing arts
through a commitment to excellence and innovative education.
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Kate Spanos, Coordinator of Marketing & Communications
Renee Gerardo, Graduate Assistant
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