Happy Thanksgiving, TDPS! Have a restful break!
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Monday, November 19, 2018
Congratulations to everyone involved in
Citizen: An American Lyric! We were pleased to put on such a thought-provoking production, and we received much positive feedback from audiences. See the featured story below to read more about the piece.
Mark your calendars for our last Main Season production of the semester:
Faculty Dance Concert on December 7-9.
Have a wonderful, restful, and grateful Thanksgiving break! Recharge your energy as we head into the final weeks of the semester.
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Congratulations to our overstudy (left) and understudy (right) casts of
Citizen
!
Thank you for pouring yourselves into this deeply moving and difficult work.
Photo credit: Thai Nguyen (left) and anonymous (right).
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In this newsletter:
- Featured Story
- Upcoming Events
- News
- Opportunities
- Course Announcements
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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Citizen: An American Lyric
, directed by Shirley Jo Finney
.
Photo credit: Thai Nguyen.
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“This production doesn’t shy away from the truth.”
Highlighting the everyday experiences of black Americans in a way that is both illuminating and disarming is no small task.
Citizen: An American Lyric, a moving piece of theater adapted from Claudia Rankine’s acclaimed book of poetry, does both. We spoke with theatre majors Kyle Starling ’20 and Molly Boyle ’19 about the emotionally challenging process of preparing for their roles and how director Shirley Jo Finney created a space to explore and process the difficult material.
Read the full interview
here.
Citizen was also reviewed in
The Diamondback. Read more about how the cast shines light on how our daily interactions affect racial dynamics in the United States and on our own campus.
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TDPS in
How to Catch a Star
at the Kennedy Center
November 21 - December 16
Best-selling author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers's beloved children’s book about chasing your dreams comes to vivid life in a production created and directed by design professor
Jared Mezzocchi. Featuring colorful projections and choreographed movement,
How to Catch a Star is a whimsical tale of discovery, friendship, and delightful surprises!
Many TDPS folks are involved in
How to Catch a Star, so all the more reason to go! Playwriting professor
Jennifer Barclay collaborated with Jared on the script, MFA Dance alumni
Matt Reeves '17 and
Colette Krogol '17 of
Orange Grove Dance choreographed the show, MFA Design alumna
Jeanette Christensen '18 designed the costumes, current MFA Design candidate
Peter Leibold did the lighting design, and BA Dance alumnus
Jonathan Hsu '15 is performing in the piece.
Don't miss this TDPS extravaganza at the Kennedy Center!
More information and tickets
here.
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Call for Second Season 2019-2020 proposals!
Second Season is an excellent opportunity to showcase original work, direct a play that you feel our community needs to see, or re-create that dance piece that really speaks to you. Second Season is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Proposals are due on
February 11, 2019 to
Bobby Hunter at
rhunter1@umd.edu. There will be a
Second Season application workshop on
Monday, December 3 from 12-1pm in the Cafritz Foundation Theatre.
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Always a Preacher's Daughter:
The Performance of Gender and Sexuality
in and Beyond the Church
Presented by Tabitha Chester, Ph.D.
November 28, 4-5pm
Cafritz Foundation Theatre
Don't miss our last TDPS Wednesdays presentation of the semester! Our postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Tabitha Chester will present their research, birthed from their experiences growing up as a girl-child of a Black pastor. This research interrogates the archetypal narrative of the "wild preacher's daughter."
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Coming Up: TDPS CAPA Auditions
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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 Hall TODAY at NOON
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UTAS will hold one more town hall meeting this semester
TODAY,
November 19, at noon
in
the
Mulitz-Gudelsky Rehearsal Room
(Room 3730).
EVERYBODY is invited! Please come, bring your lunch, listen, and contribute to the conversation.
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Tara Demmy (back row, second from left) and Tribe of Fools; photo credit: Micheal DiFebbo
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- PhD student Tara Demmy’s Philadelphia-based theatre company, Tribe of Fools, was the 2018 Barrymore recipient of the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company. The company was also nominated for five awards for its 2017 FringeArts Festival show, Fishtown: A Hipster Noir. Tara has been a company member of Tribe of Fools since 2013. Read more about her work on her website. Congratulations, Tara!
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- PhD candidate Victoria Scrimer’s paper on Prometheus Unbound, performed last fall as part of TDPS Wednesdays, was selected for the Anthony Ellis Prize for Best Paper by a Graduate Student at the Comparative Drama Conference last April. The essay entitled, “Performing a Postmodern Prometheus: Percy Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’ from Page to Stage,” will be published in Text & Presentation journal in 2018. Congratulations, Victoria!
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Have news you want to share?
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- BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD, is accepting resumes for a full-time Technical Director (TD). The TD will work in tandem with Operations Manager to train rotating overhire crews to implement and facilitate this quality work for all events. Compensation ranges between $35-$40K + benefits with future merit increases. Please forward cover letter, resumes or personal CV, and three recommendations to brad@blackrockcenter.org.
- The Shakespeare Theatre Company is seeking individuals with a love of the arts for a position with flexibility to work from 8 hours to up to 29 hours per week depending on scheduled events. Hiring for the following positions: retail and concessions lead, retail attendant, and publicist. More information at their website or email employment@shakespearetheatre.org.
- DC Non-Equity Auditions will take place at Round House Theatre Administrative Offices in Silver Spring, MD on Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9. Submissions are due on Friday, November 23. See the flyer for submission rules and deadlines.
- Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is inviting students to apply for the Bruce E. Coyle Acting Internship Program for the 2019-2020 season. In-person auditions will be held in Cincinnati and New York City in late January and early February; video auditions are due on January 15. For more information, visit their website.
- Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is offering internship opportunities that give students hands-on experience in the professional world. They are currently seeking interns for the Winter, Spring, and Summer of 2019 in: Costume, Directing, Development, Marketing, Education, and General Theatre. For more information and to apply, visit their website.
- Are you interested in an internship or future career in arts management? Looking for something to do over winter break in January? Check out the Road Trips to the Real World program, offering an employer site visit to the Wolf Trap Foundation to the Performing Arts to learn about their paid internship and apprenticeship programs on January 10 from 10am- 12:30pm. Please visit the EACE website for more information and to register.
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Winter Intensive Opportunities
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Interested in a participating in a dance intensive during winter break?
Bates Dance Festival/ Gibney Connect
January 7-11, 2019 in New York City
Scholarships and workstudy available
Dance Forward: Winter Dance Intensive 92Y
January 14-19, 2019 in New York City
David Dorfman Dance Winter Intensive
January 2-7, 2019 in New York City
Paul Taylor, American Modern Dance, The Taylor School
2019 Winter Intensive
December 27th ,2018- January 6, 2019 (single week options)
Information and registration
here.
ADF NYC Winter Intensive
January 4-11th, 2019
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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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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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