Love and Information
by Caryl Churchill and directed by Jennifer L. Nelson opens on Friday! Check out a sneak preview with photos from last week's tech rehearsals, posted on our
TDPS Instagram account (thanks to Production Manager and last week's Instagram taker-over, Cary Gillett). Also mark your calendars for our second Second Season of the year, featuring
Finding Space Between
by Emily Ames and Amber Chabus, and
i'm just trying to stay here by Les Gray.
We are thrilled to announce that TDPS alumna
Abigail (Gustafson) Hawk '04 will return to campus on Wednesday, November 29 for a special talk with students about her journey from UMD to playing the role of Detective Baker on the hit CBS TV show,
Blue Bloods. Check out her story and details about her talk below.
With
TDPS Wednesdays,
Delta Chi Xi Honorary Dance Fraternity's New Dances, and many other events in The Clarice, we're keeping you busy this November! Check out the details below.
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Professor Esther Kim Lee's Asian American Theatre class visited Broadway this weekend to see David Henry Hwang's
M. Butterfly
! The special donor-supported trip gave students an opportunity to see live professional theatre related to class topics.
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In this newsletter:
- Upcoming events
- Featured stories
- News
- Opportunities
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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Love and Information
by Caryl Churchill
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Friday, November 10 - Saturday, November 18
Kogod Theatre
Directed by Jennifer L. Nelson
Someone can’t get a signal. Friends debate the existence of God. A man has a secret. A scientist dissects a brain. A person is in love and that love can’t be reciprocated. Experiencing this kaleidoscope of vignettes is like watching a stranger’s Snapchats – the characters may be unfamiliar and unrelated to each other, but the emotions are instantly recognizable. In this relentlessly paced serio-comedy, celebrated British playwright Caryl Churchill asks how our infinite access to inspiring, mundane, crucial, insignificant information affects how we connect to each other – and ourselves.
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Second Season:
Finding Space Between
&
i'm just trying to stay here
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Friday, November 17 - Saturday, November 18
Dance Theatre
Second Season features original works created, performed and produced by students.
Finding Space Between
By Emily Ames and Amber Chabus
Influenced by the writings of feminist theorists like bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir and Susan Bordo,
Finding Space Between
seeks to explore the construction of women and the spaces we inhabit.
i'm just trying to stay here
By Les Gray
There are three elements here: weights, waits and water. What stage are you in?
i'm just trying to stay here
explores how to continuously survive trauma - collective and personal - as a black person in over-policed and over-mediated American society. Using dance, spoken word, video art and immersive drama, this piece works through every painful means of survival, and the connections (and disconnections) we need to stay here.
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Delta Chi Xi Honorary Dance Fraternity's
New Dances
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Thursday, November 9th and Friday, November 10th
7:30PM both days
Dance Theatre
Once a semester, Delta Chi Xi features bold original student choreography at the New Dances Showcase. On November 9th and 10th, you have a chance to witness work being produced across the UMD dance community. Several on-campus dance groups as well as dance majors are excited to share their passion with you. Note: Each night will feature a unique line up.
Free, no tickets required
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The Measure of Our Lives
at the National Portrait Gallery
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Saturday, December 2 - Sunday, December 3
12PM and 2PM both days
National Portrait Gallery
Don't miss this year's performances by students in Professor Leslie Felbain's THET324: Character Development class at the National Portrait Gallery. Audiences will have the opportunity to walk through the gallery as the performers bring the historical portraits to life. This year's figures include: Bobby Kennedy, Richmond Barth, James Gibbons, Mary Church Terrell, Edward E. Cummings, Lillian D. Wald, Canada Lee, Charlotte Cushman, César Chavez, and Gwendolyn Brooks.
(Click the image to view the flyer)
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Check out this video by the University of Maryland, featuring the process and performance of last year's Character Development class!
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Wednesday, November 8
Presented by Maryland Citizens for the Arts
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Wednesday, November 15
Presented by Christine Hands
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Wednesday, November 29
Presented by Abigail Hawk
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Wednesday, December 6
Presented by the Second Season Committee
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Other Events at The Clarice
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Irmgard Bartenieff: A Personal Journey through Dance
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Friday, November 10, all day
Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library Gallery and various locations in The Clarice
The Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library (MSPAL) and Special Collections in Performing Arts (SPCA) will host a one-day symposium as part of the year-long exhibit housed in the MSPAL Gallery:
Irmgard Bartenieff: a Personal Journey through Dance
. The exhibit highlights the various aspects of Bartenieff's life and includes two interactive displays: an icosahedron for exploring Space and Kinect sensor that allows an individual to see Shape.
Free, registration required
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#DoGood Dialogue: Music for Peaceful Understanding
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Wednesday, November 15 at 7PM
MilkBoy ArtHouse
Presented in partnership with the UMD Arabic Flagship Program
Rahim AlHaj
is an Iraqi-born musician and composer who was forced to leave Iraq in 1991 due to his activism against the Saddam Hussein regime. He has been living as a political refugee in Albuquerque since 2000 and has been promoting peaceful understanding between the US and Iraq through speaking, performing and writing about his views. Join us as Rahim is joined by UMD faculty and Middle East experts to discuss pathways to peace.
Free, no tickets required.
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Rahim AlHaj. Photo by Michael G. Stewart.
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Kelly Colburn’s termiNATION at NextLOOK
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Friday, November 17 at 7PM
Joe's Movement Emporium
termiNATION is an in-process movement-based solo work investigating life and death through the lens of a pregnant war widow. Inspired by an adolescence and early adulthood steeped in the events of post-9/11 and the recent inauguration of Lumpy Joffrey Baratheon, this piece explores the role women have to play as we carry this new era of politics to term. In the maelstrom of American culture, 21st century colonialism and the cyclical blind faith to trust the institution, termiNATION looks to use the last sixteen years worth of politics, perspective and war to ask ourselves what kind of world we want to create for our children.
Kelly Colburn is a MFA Design candidate focusing on projections and multimedia design.
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Dramatic Reading of Farm Hall & German Atomic Project of World War II
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Monday, November 20 at 7PM
Carnegie Institution for Science
The American Institute of Physics will be conducting a dramatic reading of
Farm Hall and the German Atomic Project of World War II
. It will be performed by the
Tonic Theater Company.
This one-act play is based upon the transcripts of conversations between German nuclear scientists held by the Allies, as well as the author's historical work on the subject. An audience discussion with the playwright, David Cassidy, will follow the staged reading.
Free, RSVP recommended
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From Tawes to the Big Screen:
Alumna Abigail Hawk '04 remembers her time at UMD
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You may recognize her as Detective Baker, on CBS’ hit TV show
Blue Bloods
.
Abigail (Gustafson) Hawk ‘04
knew she wanted to be an actor ever since she played Gretl in a community theatre production of
The Sound of Music
. She spent her formative years of actor training while an undergraduate in the University of Maryland’s Theatre program. Abbie majored in Theatre performance; she was also in the College Park Scholars program and received a citation in Life Sciences.
Also be sure to attend
Abbie's talk
on Wednesday, November 29 as part of TDPS Wednesdays (see details above).
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Abbie in
Sophisticated Ladies
,
directed by Scot Reese, October 2003
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Leticia Ridley selected as African American Digital Humanities Scholar
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Leticia’s digital project employs a Black Feminist methodology that focuses on how musical artist Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, television showrunner Shonda Rhimes, and tennis superstar Serena Williams activate dialogue and theorization in digital spaces by everyday Black women. Leticia’s dissertation project will underscore how these women cannot be “written off” as mere entertainers, but rather it will highlight how their work must be recognized as contributing to the agency and self-defining expressions for and by Black women in America.
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Jared Paul '99 delivers TerpTalk at UMD Homecoming
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TDPS alumnus
Jared Paul ‘99
was a speaker at this year’s TerpTalks during UMD Homecoming weekend. He spoke to and met with student leaders to inspire future UMD graduates. Jared is a Hollywood producer who created
Faculty Productions
to help entertainers create concerts, festivals, and other collaborative endeavors. Fun fact: he also spearheaded the reunion of New Kids on the Block!
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Jared Paul with Professor Scot Reese
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(L-R)
Charlie Boulton, Jared Paul, and Montana Monardes
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The cast of "Wild and Reckless" at Portland Center Stage, designed by Jared Mezzocchi. Photo credit: Patrick Weishampel.
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- Design Professor Jared Mezzocchi's projection design work on the sci-fi show Wild and Reckless at Portland Center Stage was featured in the September issue of American Theatre magazine.
- TDPS Production Manager and MA student Cary Gillett’s Production Manager’s Toolkit is the Book of the Month (page 22) in the October 2017 issue of PLSN: Projection, Lights & Staging News magazine! You can purchase the book on Amazon or check it out our TDPS faculty book display case.
- Caroline Clay (MFA Performance ‘13) is starring in the world premiere of Edith Wharton's Shadow of a Doubt at Shakespeare Theatre Company.
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- The UMD School of Music is launching a university-wide competition that invites UMD students to write lyrics to the tune of the state song “Maryland, My Maryland,” which is taken from the folk song widely known as “O Tannenbaum." Submissions are due by Monday, November 20, 2017. Winning submissions will receive a cash prize. Learn more here.
- Mosaic Theater Company is seeking a Director of Development. The Development Director will be specifically responsible for cultivating relationships with major donors as well as partnering with board members to expand Mosaic’s circle of supporters. To learn more and apply, click here. Questions? Contact Lina Khawaldah, Executive Assistant at Lina@mosaictheater.org.
- Theatre Without Boundaries is seeking actors for Near Death Experience at the Charm City Fringe Festival in Baltimore. Rehearsals will be held in College Park and the performances will be in Baltimore from November 8-12. Producers are looking for a diverse range of actors; all ages, races, genders and identities. For more information please e-mail nikoo.mamdoohi@gmail.com.
- Camp Louise is looking for an artist to serve as their Dance Department Head. For more information about this opportunity, check out the flyer.
- The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has three arts-oriented job opportunities: Arts Specialist, Arts Coordinator, and Director of the Prince George's Publick Playhouse. Information and applications for all three of these position are available here.
- Bel Cantanti Opera Company needs volunteer light board and titles operators The Magic Flute. Rehearsals will take place this weekend with performances from November 11-18. For more detailed information on this opportunity, e-mail Helen Aberger at soundslikehelen@gmail.com.
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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
Jonelle Walker, Graduate Assistant
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