UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies 18/19 Season

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

SCHOOL OF THEATRE, DANCE, & PERFORMANCE STUDIES CO MMI TTED TO EXCE L L E N C E AN D IN N OVATIVE E D U CATION

SEASON

UMD SCHOOL OF THEATRE, DANCE, & PERFORMANCE STUDIES advances and transforms the research and practice of theater, dance, and performance studies through its commitment to excellence and innovative education in the performing arts.

I am thrilled that

produce, write, cast, choreograph, market, and design

from classics to

their own performances for the TDPS Second Season,

new works, our

a blueprint for the professional performing arts world.

2018-19 Main

This year’s Second Season will be a culmination of

Stage Season

in-depth research, innovation, and joyous theatricality.

demonstrates our

From Lost Sons, showing the effects of mass incarcer-

School’s mission to

ation, to Luna which explores reincarnation and identity,

combine research and

it’s going to be a series of spectacular performing arts

practice in the performing arts through innovative works that celebrate human experiences, interests and curiosity.

celebrations on stage.

Our artist-scholars transform experience through their research and the art they create. You will experience

This year we explore an urgent meditation on race in

performances that reflect a shared humanity, the

the stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine’s Citizen,

potential of our culture and the bridging of differences.

with award-winning director Shirley Jo Finney. We

We are deeply proud of our students’ work and commit-

celebrate Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a physical dance

ment to the future of the arts.

theater piece in the Fall MFA Dance Thesis Concert and through Hamlet Replayed, employing clown and Lecoq movement techniques. We showcase masterful movement through our Faculty Dance Concert and UMoves: Undergraduate Dance Concert. With a vibrant humor, we present the musical Little Shop of Horrors with director Ron Himes, founding and producing director of the The

Thank you for your support of the intellectual and creative potential of our students. Your presence completes the circle of education required in the performing arts. We hope you will experience this amazing season with us.

Sincerely,

Black Rep in St. Louis, MO. And we enrich and give a platform to the next generation of writers and creators in the Fearless New Play Festival.

Through performing arts education and award-winning faculty, we engage critical inquiry, creative problem solving and rich collaboration as students learn how to

Leigh Wilson Smiley DIRECTOR, SCHOOL OF THEATRE, DANCE, & PERFORMANCE STUDIES

MAIN STAGE FALL 2018

Little Shop of Horrors Directed by Ron Himes Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken

FRI, OCT 5 • 7:30PM SAT, OCT 6 • 2PM & 7:30PM SUN, OCT 7 • 2PM WED, OCT 10 • 7:30PM THU, OCT 11 • 7:30PM FRI, OCT 12 • 7:30PM Seymour’s just another jerk working down on Skid Row when opportunity falls into his lap in the form of a carnivorous, conniving— not to mention singing— new plant that promises to fulfill his every wish in exchange for human blood! A smash-hit, sci-fi musical comedy with a gleefully witty Motown/pop-rock score.

Fall MFA Dance Thesis Concert FRI, OCT 12 • 7:30PM SUN, OCT 14 • 2PM & 7:30PM

All events are held at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Maryland theclarice.umd.edu 301.405.ARTS

dwelling, a multidisciplinary work by Stacey Carlson, utilizes movement to explore perspective and pathways within the myriad subtleties of dwelling.

Christine Hands’ highly physical dance theater piece, Hamlet, posits our hero in a dystopian future, exploring the human experience.

Citizen: An American Lyric Directed by Shirley Jo Finney Adapted for the Stage

by Stephen Sachs

FRI, NOV 9 • 7:30PM SAT, NOV 10 • 2PM & 7:30PM SUN, NOV 11 • 2PM TUE, NOV 13 • 7:30PM WED, NOV 14 • 7:30PM THU, NOV 15 • 7:30PM FRI, NOV 16 • 7:30PM Everyday racism can come on slyly — a hasty glance or a too-casual comment.

Adapted from Claudia Rankine’s acclaimed book of poetry, this searingly provocative meditation on race in America is not merely a play. It’s fast-moving, fluid theater at the speed of thought.

Faculty Dance Concert FRI, DEC 7 • 7:30PM SAT, DEC 8 • 3PM & 7:30PM SUN, DEC 9 • 3PM The Faculty Dance Concert showcases the eloquent and provocative choreography of featured dance faculty members, students and special guests.

Through gesture and verse, meaning through motion, this collection of dances will captivate and inspire.

Tickets: GENERAL PUBLIC: $25 FREE FOR UMD STUDENTS OTHER STUDENT / YOUTH: $10

MAIN STAGE SPRING 2019

Get the best deal on tickets and parking as you experience your favorite performances throughout the season!

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Spring MFA Dance Thesis Concert

Fearless New Play Festival

FRI, FEB 8 • 7:30PM SAT, FEB 9 • 7:30PM SUN, FEB 10 • 2PM

KICK-OFF PANEL: SUN, FEB 17 • 3PM FREE, BUT TICKETED

Ama Law presents Tides. Where sand meets sea, it rises and falls. Drifting, floating, calls from our ancestors. Join these women on a journey discovering how different and alike we are in this skin. ’s (apostrophe s) by Shawn Stone consciously explores the dichotomy of consciousness. In researching the research of researching oneself, this dance explores the inner workings of mind through the awareness of body.

Directed by Jennifer Barclay

STAGED READINGS: THU, MAR 7 • 7PM FRI, MAR 8 • 7PM SAT, MAR 9 • 7PM This three-day festival of new scripts in development will kick off with a panel speech from a keynote playwright of national renown. After a week of workshops, participants will present: (1) a staged reading of the keynote playwright’s newest play, (2) staged readings of new ten-minute plays by current students, and (3) a showcase of new short plays by alumni, followed by a closing night celebration.

Hamlet Replayed

The Heidi Chronicles

Directed by Leslie Felbain Based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Directed by Scot Reese Written by Wendy Wasserstein

FRI, FEB 22 • 7:30PM SAT, FEB 23 • 7:30PM SUN, FEB 24 • 2PM WED, FEB 27 • 7:30PM THU, FEB 28 • 7:30PM FRI, MAR 1 • 7:30PM SAT, MAR 2 • 2PM & 7:30PM

SAT, MAY 4 • 7:30PM SUN, MAY 5 • 2PM & 7:30PM WED, MAY 8 • 7:30PM THU, MAY 9 • 7:30PM FRI, MAY 10 • 7:30PM SAT, MAY 11 • 2PM & 7:30PM

Hamlet finds himself knee-deep in a personal and political quagmire. But the politics and scandal in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy are nothing compared to the political discord and global uncertainty of today. This studentdriven, devised theater piece, adapted from the Bard’s tale, imagines a new cast of greedy, divisive leaders — and a new generation to challenge them and liberate themselves.

In this heartfelt, funny coming-of-age story, Heidi Holland grows up before our eyes.

With feminist guiding principles, she strives to build a fulfilling life and is forced to confront, through her work, friendship and relationships, the true cost of “having it all.”

A Pulitzer Prize winning play, newly resonant for a generation experiencing feminism through the lens of #MeToo and #TimesUp.

UMoves: Undergraduate Dance Concert Directed by Adriane Fang

FRI, MAY 10 • 7:30PM SAT, MAY 11 • 3PM & 7:30PM SUN, MAY 12 • 3PM Encouraged to nurture their authentic artistic voices, undergraduate dance students set new works of art into motion in this concert of original choreography.

Paired with faculty and graduate student mentors and in collaboration with student designers, these short works span multiple dance styles and are as diverse as the students themselves.

Tickets: GENERAL PUBLIC: $25 FREE FOR UMD STUDENTS OTHER STUDENT / YOUTH: $10

SECOND SEASON

Lost Sons by Niree Turner

Second Season features original works created, performed and produced

by TDPS students.

FRI, OCT 19 • 7:30PM & SAT, OCT 20 • 2PM & 7PM

A hip-hop theater piece exploring mass incarceration in the black community.

Rockfish by Sydney Lemelin A play inspired by rockfish dinners.

Hell is a Bubble Tea Shop

by Hana Huie This new play explores identity, the value we place upon it and the way we construct it.

FRI, NOV 16 • 7:30PM & SUN, NOV 18 • 2PM & 7PM

Fuse (working title)

by Suzanne Creedon Fuse is a dance work that dissects the juxtaposition of minimality and maximality.

Hapa

by Jenna Gerdsen Pain and labor lie beneath the pleasurable, paradisiacal landscape of Hawaii. This new play weaves the author’s own upbringing in Hawaii with the island-state’s imperialist history and tourist-based economy.

FRI, FEB 1 • 7:30PM & SAT, FEB 2 • 2PM & 7PM

Shared Graduate Dance Concert Featuring provocative choreography by MFA in Dance students, this concert is a collection of eclectic new works, serving as an unguarded exploration of these diverse artists’ talents and interests.

FRI, MAR 29 • 7:30 PM & SAT, MAR 30 • 2 PM & 7 PM

I’ve Been a Woman

by Jordan Ealey

FREE, TICKETS REQUIRED

Black feminism of the past, present and future.

FRI APR 12 . 7:30PM & SAT, APR 13 . 2PM & 7PM

DEFINING THE FUTURE International Program for Creative Collaboration & Research

Initiated in 2017, the International Program for Creative

The inaugural production of the IPCCR is The Triumph of

Collaboration & Research (IPCCR) facilitates a wide range

Isabella, a yearlong exploration of the performing arts

of new and existing collaborative activities within the

depicted in eight iconic 17th-century paintings of the

School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Ommegang in Brussels by court painter Denys Van Alsloot.

This ten-year program, funded by the Smith Family

This year, in collaboration with the Michelle Smith Performing

Foundation, is part of a ten million dollar gift for “Defining

Arts Library, the School of Music, and the Victoria and Albert

the Future of the Performing Arts,� and it is a partner in

Museum in London, we present an exhibition, a multimedia

the Global UMD Initiative for international collaboration.

experience and an international symposium that demonstrate

As scholar-artists, we treasure direct live human interaction, and the IPCCR supports our faculty, graduate students and staff in securing funding for collaborative projects with an international scope. We also recognize that, in the 21st century, live interactions can be enhanced with long-term digital collaborations. To that end, we are creating a World Outreach Classroom, a World Outreach Seminar Room and two World Outreach Studios over the next three years in order to research and provide best practices for such collaborations in performing arts practice, design and scholarship.

how art, technology and history connect and come to life.

For more information, visit: go.umd.edu/ipccr

NEW PATHS OF INQUIRY Leticia Ridley (MA ’17)

PhD Student, Theatre & Performance Studies

Leticia Ridley is one of our PhD students contributing to the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies’ reputation as a burgeoning hub for the study of black theater and performance in the United States.

She has been awarded the prestigious predoctoral Ford Fellowship for young academics whose scholarship and teaching promotes diversity as a resource for student enrichment. The fellowship connects her with an international network of scholars who provide mentorship and support across a wide range of academic disciplines.

Leticia studies black theater and performance, American popular culture and black feminism, with an emphasis on

intersectional

social

identities.

She

was

first

drawn to TDPS through her advisor, Dr. Faedra Chatard Carpenter, whose research and creative interests in critical theories of race, gender, class and sexuality in performance and dramaturgy closely align with her own.

“I appreciate the diverse faculty of our MA/ PhD program and the School’s commitment to equity and inclusion, which allows students of all backgrounds to grow their scholarship and combine innovative research with artistic practice.”

As an example, Leticia had the opportunity, through TDPS’ Second Season in 2017, to develop a play, Blood Memory— an adaptation of Angelina Weld Grimké’s lynching drama, Rachel. The experience allowed her to bridge her scholarship with her playwriting and discover new paths of inquiry.

Leticia has cultivated relationships with University of Maryland faculty who support their students’ academic success, as well as demonstrate personal investment in their career development. She welcomes opportunities to connect with scholars across campus and has expanded her research into Women’s Studies, American Studies,

Communications

and

Digital

Humanities.

Leticia credits her fellow classmates in the M.A./PhD program for their commitment to diversifying the School’s student profile, research topics and course offerings and to creating an environment for rich scholarly discourse.

DONORS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

WE ARE PLEASED TO OFFER MULTIPLE WAYS TO SUPPORT THE SCHOOL OF THEATRE , DANCE , & PERFORMANCE STUDIES:

DONORS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

PERFORMING ARTS SCHOLARSHIPS

ENDOWED FACULTY POSITIONS

Through your generous support,

Through a strong liberal arts education

With your support, we can contin-

the larger Maryland community is

within a research university and with

ue to recruit and retain world

able to experience the performing

rigorous training in the performing

class performing arts faculty who

arts in new and profound ways. Your

arts, our students become artists

engage their expertise and passion

gifts provide unparalleled learning

and scholars who inspire the next

to reimagine arts education and

opportunities for our students to

generation. Your support for scholar-

scholarship — rooted in tradition and

understand the cultures of the

ships

engaged with emerging technologies.

world, help faculty infuse creativity

that the UMD School of Theatre,

and innovation into their curriculum

Dance, and Performance Studies

and expand opportunities for us to

attract and retain top students.

collaborate with local artists in the creation of original works. Thank you!

and

fellowships

ensures

For more information on how to support the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, please contact:

David Robinson-Slemp Images used throughout the brochure are by staff photographers Geoff Sheil, Stan Barouh and John Consoli or created

by The Clarice Creative Studio.

Assistant Director of Development for the Performing Arts drslemp1@umd.edu • 301-405-4623

2810 The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center University of Maryland College Park, Maryland 20742

SAVE ON TICKETS AND PARKING WITH AN ARTS PASS! See inside for details.