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Welcome to the fifth IPA newsletter! The Institute of Performing Arts at Tisch School of the Arts includes the Department of Dance, Design for Stage and Film, Graduate Acting, Department of Drama, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, Graduate Theatre Production and Department of Performance Studies. In addition, Open Arts and the Department of Art & Public Policy are now officially part of the Institute of Performing Arts. Chairs, Associate Chairs, faculty and students from these departments are meeting on a regular basis and sharing concerns, ideas and plans for the future. This newsletter highlights Spring 2016 events sponsored by IPA and significant happenings in each of our Departments. What we’re able to share here represents only a small portion of the exciting work that is going on in all corners of the IPA in both our conservatory and academic programs. Our IPA office is in Room 267 at 715 Broadway, Second Floor. It is being run by Hali Alspach and her office hours 9:00am-5:00pm, Monday through Friday. Danny Larsen is the Program Coordinator and can be reached at 212-992-9322. Sarah Schlesinger can be reached at ss4@nyu.edu. We’re anxious to hear your ideas for collaborative programming, events, etc., so feel free to contact us at any time. Sarah Schlesinger Associate Dean, IPA
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-IPA Department Highlights-
Art & Public Policy EVENTS
The Department of Art and Public Policy, together with The Nation Magazine, hosted a Sneak Preview of the new EPIX documentary series, America Divided. Alumna Leah Thomas (’12) is a coproducer on the project. Open Dialogue on the NYC Cultural Plan with Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship and the Cultural Equity Coalition. The meeting was heavily attended, with standing room only.
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2ND Annual NOW AFRICA Playwrights Festival at NYU Showcases Classic and Contemporary Plays from Throughout the Continent, October 22-24, 2016 In cooperation with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Center for Art & Public Policy, the Tisch Institute of Performing Arts at NYU, the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at NYU(Anna Deavere Smith, Founding Director), and Dr. Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre, NOW AFRICA – a group of New York based African writers, actors, producers and community activists – will present its second annual playwrights festival, conceived to showcase and raise awareness of dramatic works by African writers. NOW AFRICA was conceptualized by Mfoniso Udofia and produced with ChiChi Anyanwu, Ngozi Anyanwu and Erin Cherry. Educational Theatre Specialist Gwendolen Hardwick, Tisch NYU Art & Public Policy Chair Kathy Engel, Marketing Consultant Zakeya Monique and Financial Consultant Kim Holten round out the NOW AFRICA team. Over the span of three days, the NOW AFRICA: Playwrights Festival will explore the theme, Africa and Her Children: Bridging the Continental Divide. We will reintroduce New York City to the masters of African dramatic literature and spotlight will also shine on the writers who are excavating this year’s theme such as NSangou Njikam! “This year’s festival is particularly exciting,” states Mfoniso Udofia. “I hope over the course of the 3 days, the dramatic and academic community can come together to discuss how our related African Diasporas can see into each other. Perhaps we can actually begin healing and building bridges of understanding.”
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FACULTY NEWS Kathy Engel's poem "dreaming neruda" was published.in Women's Voices for Change on the eve of the election with this message from the editor: Election Day looms. read Kathy Engel’s poem “dreaming neruda” for guidance & solace. Due to heavy demand, Anna Deavere Smith’s “Notes from the Field” has been extended at Second Stage Theater. The production has been named Time’s Top 10 Plays and Musicals of 2016 On September 28th, Far East of Eden, a short experimental film by faculty member Karen Finley and Brue Yonemoto, had its world premiere in Saratoga, CA. On October 15, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI), founded by Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, opened its doors to the public with a weekend packed of activities celebrating their new home in El Barrio/ East Harlem.
Kathy Engel’s “dreaming neruda.”
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Dance Faculty News
Translucent Borders is a Working Group of the NYU Global Institute for Advanced Study. The project looks at ways that dancers and musicians act as catalysts for mutual change between cultural entities across cultural, socio-political, linguistic and geographical divides. The past year's work has included expeditions to Israel/Palestinian Territories, Lesbos, and Ghana. This January, the group will go to Cuba. Initiated by Arts Professor Andy Teirstein, Translucent Borders involves professors in departments of Dance (Pam Pietro, Cari Ann Shim Sham, Jeremy Nelson, Wendy Perron), Performance Studies (Deborah Kapchan), and Steinhardt Music (Valerie Naranjo) as well as composers and choreographers outside of the institution. The trips have resulted in a growing collection of articles published at www.translucentborders.com. Moria Refugee Camp, Lesbos, Greece, February, 2016. Picture by Cari Ann Shim Sham
Ms Lavagnino recently received a grant from Rockefeller Brothers Fund for creation of a new work Cherylyn Lavagnino's Contemporary Ballet Company traveled to China this August to participate in The New Beijing Contemporary Dance Festival. Cherylyn taught both ballet and choreography in the Beijing Dance Academy in October and November of this Fall 6
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Design for Stage and Film Design Department Alumni Family Day
The Design Department hosted it's annual Design Department Alumni Family Day on Saturday, November 19th. Alumni spent the afternoon here on the third floor with their families stringing bead necklaces, decorating picture frames, playing with legos and having fun together. The youngest attendee was three months old, we had a set of twins, and even a few teenagers!
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John Conklin to Receive USITT 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award.
Professional rigger Rocky Paulson, lighting designer Fred Foster, costume designer Liz Covey, Sound Designer Rick Thomas, scenic designer Santo Loquasto, production stage manager Joseph Drummond, and educator John Conklin will be honored with USITT Distinguished Achievement Awards at USITT's 2017 Annual Conference & Stage Expo in St. Louis, March 8-11. John Conklin will receive USITT's 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award in Education. Conklin is a scenic and costume designer that has designed for opera, theatre, and ballet in a career spanning 50 years. Conklin has designed for the Metropolitan, San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, The Royal Opera (Stockholm), Houston Grand Opera, the Opera Theatre of St Louis, Glimmerglass Opera, Seattle Opera, and others. Mr. Conklin is a professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University Faculty News Brett J. Banakis spent the first half of 2016 in London with Christine Jones working on the new West End show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as associate set designer. Upcoming designs include set and lighting design for Coriolanus at Barrow Street for Red Bull Theater, set design for She Stoops to Conquer at The Actor's Company Theater, set design for Appropriate at The Juilliard School, and set design for Ghost Light by Third Rail Projects at LCT3, a new commission by Lincoln Center Theater. Brett continues his associate design work as Christine Jones's associate for Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera and as Andrew Lieberman's associate for The Glass Menagerie at the John Golden Theater. John Conklin is working on three productions for the upcoming Boston Lyric Opera season: sets for Greek (directed by Sam Helfrich), costumes for The Rakes Progress and sets for The Marriage of Figaro. He also makes dramaturgical contributions to the company's website, blog, and in-house magazine and prepares a series theatrical programs featuring singers and actors for a joint presentation by BLO and the Museum of Fine Arts In October ML Geiger is designing Until the Flood, Dael Orlandersmith's new piece about the death of Michael Brown and resulting events in Ferguson, commissioned by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. She is also designing light for TACT NYC's production of She Stoops to Conquer with alumna Cecilia Durbin, and scenery by alum Brett Banakis. It is playing at the Clurman Theatre and runs until mid-November. Nat Turner in Jerusalem at New York Theatre Workshop runs until the middle of Oct. Susan Hilferty’s work seen can be seen here and in London with What Did You Expect and Women Of A Certain Age, the second and third parts Richard Nelson three-play cycle, THE GABRIELS: Election Year in the Life of One Family for the Public; Love, Love, Love By
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Mike Bartlett Directed by Michael Mayer at the Roundabout; Master Harold‌and the Boys written and directed by Athol Fugard for the Signature; Chita Rivera at Carnegie Hall; Lewis Black on Broadway; and Buried Child at the Trafalgar Studios, London. Wicked London just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Constance Hoffman is currently commuting weekly to and from Berlin to teach class Monday through Wednesday at NYU. Current Projects: The Huguenots, an opera by Meyerbeer at the Deutsches Oper, Berlin. Starting rehearsals now, and opening November 13th. Sadko, a RimskyKorsakov opera at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent, currently on the drawing table for production in Spring 2017. Hugh Landwehr is preparing productions of Tartuffe for the Resident Ensemble Players at the University of Delaware, Newark, and A View From The Bridge for the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. He also has recently been working on the latest Woody Allen movie, shooting in the New York area this fall. Maggie Raywood has been completing some terrace garden projects which have been in the works for a while. Soon it will be time for fall cleanups and getting gardens tucked away for the winter. In addition, she has drafted the patterns from her summer research in the Acton collection, and is working with a fellow draper to create mockups of the dresses for use in the Textile Lab at Villa la Pietra. Paul Steinberg in the last week of August Der Rosenkavalier, directed by Robert Carson, was teched and lit at the Metropolitan Opera in preparation for its opening at Covent Garden in December and in NYC in April. It is a co-production with Buenos Aires and Madrid. Chris Muller is continuing work on the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in Salt Lake City, creating a helicopter flight simulator. He recently spent some time rendering costumes for Ocean's 8, starring Cate Blanchett. He is creating more robots for the Robot Dictionary, a portion of which will soon be available as an app. He is designing the cover of a zombie novel. Peter Nigrini finished up last season on the polar opposites Don Giovanni for Santa Fe Opera, and The SpongeBob Musical in Chicago. This fall is filled primarily with musicals, including moving Dear Evan Hansen to Broadway, and an out of town try-out for AmÊlie at the Ahmanson, but with a bit of Thornton Wilder thrown in with Skin of Our Teeth at TFNA.
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Alumni News
Beowulf Boritt '96 was featured in Microsoft commercial! He's also the set designer for A Bronx Tale that opened on Broadway on December 1st, 2016.
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Drama Drama Launches its Community Call In Series.
In September the Department of Drama’s new Chair, Rubén Polendo, and Michael McElroy, Associate Chair of Professional Training, introduced the Community Call In series. The special event series is scheduled about once a month and invites the department’s faculty, students, and staff to gather and talk about timely issues. “Our goal is not that of a town hall meeting where we are trying to resolve or address something,” explains Polendo, “Instead, we’re bringing the Drama Community together to discuss our shared artistic interests, challenges, and concerns. The hope is to complicate and elaborate these issues and inspire each other to articulate our diverse viewpoints and experiences in our work.” So far the conversations have focused on topics that the Drama Community considers particularly relevant. At the September Community Call In nearly fifty faculty and students explored diversity, equity, and inclusion within the department. Prior to the event, participants were asked to reply to a question dealing with the casting process for one of Drama’s StageWorks productions. The responses were submitted digitally and helped spark and direct the conversation. In October the Community Call In explored “The Politics of Perception in Casting.” Together the group examined how identity, race, sexuality, culture, dis/ability, gender, and other body politics impact the way artists see themselves and how they are seen in the casting process. “The Role of the Artist in Times of Political Transition” was the topic for the December 11th Community Call In. “Students and faculty have been overwhelmingly positive to Community Call In,” said Michael McElroy. “The series has offered a consistent and safe space to discuss various issues as they relate to our Tisch Drama community and beyond. These open and honest conversations lead us to a better understanding of who we are, our strengths, places for continued growth, and most importantly our agency as artists.”
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RubÊn Polendo, Drama’s new Chair, hosts a conversation at a recent Community Call In. The series was introduced in September and invites the Drama Community to explore timely issues. (Photo: MandaLeigh Blunt)
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An Exposition Most Sound: Honors Students Present an Evening Discussion of The Merchant of Venice On November 15th students in Professor Laura Levine’s Honors Seminar, Afterlives of Endor, hosted a colloquium on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in conjunction with The Classical Studio’s production of the play. Seven students presented papers as various as “Ecclesia and Synagoga” (a comparison of the play’s portrayal of Christians and Jews and visual depictions of the Church and the Synagogue in the early modern period), “Why is Antonio so Sad?” (an analysis of homoeroticism in the play) and “A Pound of Flesh and a Christian Life” (an analysis of blood-libel accusations against Jews in Chaucer and Shakespeare). Students Samantha Carbery and “Knox” Van Horn interviewed Daniel Spector, Associate Director of The Classical Studio, about the production of the play. The event was part of Levine’s ongoing effort to involve Honors students in the mentorship of first-year students (who attended the event) as well as a celebration of the many collaborations possible around Shakespeare in the Department of Drama. Levine’s Honors Seminar, which looks at depictions of Jews, women, “witches,” and other “others” in the Renaissance, is itself part of an ongoing effort to identify areas of historical study within the drama curriculum which make possible discussions of race and gender and the practices of exclusion which mediate them. The Honors Program is designed to develop analytical thinking, writing skills, oral presentation and original research. Panelist Juliana Corsetti observed, “Examining plays that deal with questions of race, gender, and anti-Semitism has been paramount in my understanding of the complexity of the issues. The conversations we've had have unearthed so much new ground.” Lachlan Sage Brooks, who will finish the program this spring with a thesis on Shakespeare and Montaigne, cited a strength of the program as “its ability to put so many topics in conversation. Courses like this,” she said, “allow philosophy, theology, art history, and other subjects to deepen our thinking about fundamental questions in Shakespeare.” Levine took the title of the course from a moment ripe with possibilities for theatre scholars: In the Bible, Saul seeks out the witch of Endor to summon up the dead Samuel. But at least one Renaissance critic of witchcraft persecution said the so-called witch was simply a ventriloquist, a master theatre-maker.
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Students in Honor’s Seminar, Afterlives of Endor, presented papers at a colloquium on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in conjunction with The Classical Studio’s production of the play. Left to right are Juliana Corsetti, Elsa Kegelman, Monique Bernier, Meagan Grace Sisler, Lachlan Saige Brooks, McKennah Rabel, and Carolyn Hunter. (Photo: Gregory Chan)
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A Drama student shares her experience as a “theatre activist.”
My name is Andrea Abello and I’m a Tisch Drama senior, training at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Since September, I’ve participated in the studio’s Outreach Division, touring with my fellow students in a one-hour version of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Collaborating with our director, Kern McFadden, we’ve performed the play and led workshops in middle schools, high schools, retirement homes, and prisons across New York City. There is nothing quite like the Outreach Division. To be able to wake up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror and say, “I get to perform Shakespeare for a group of people who may have never seen a play before,” is really special. I get to experience the shift that happens when the same students who had been chatting, texting, and rolling their eyes at the start of a performance become enraptured by Shakespeare’s story of love’s triumphs and tribulations. It’s so fulfilling to broaden the accessibility of theatre and prove that Shakespeare is for everyone. The work isn’t always glamorous. I’ve learned that as a theatre activist, one must also be a warrior. We carry our set and costumes on subways and buses, trekking to venues come rain or shine. But the reward pales in comparison. The tour has also given me a look at what I’ll face after graduation. I’m learning and practicing the ins and outs of the touring actor: physical and vocal warm-ups, daily routines, protein-filled snacks, lastminute staging adjustments in unknown venues—the list goes on. To follow the cast blogpost where we periodically write about our experiences, visit: https://adleroutreach.wordpress.com/. Drama students training at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting perform “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” with the support of the studio’s Outreach Division. The program brings theatre and workshops to communities throughout New York City. (Photo: Andrea Abello)
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High school students enjoy a performance of “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” (Photo: A. Abello) 17
Drama Students Experience Theatre from Around the World
AFRICA At the end of November, Professor Bob Vorlicky accompanied students in his NYU Abu Dhabi course, “African Women Playwrights” on a travel seminar to the International Theatre Festival in Kampala, Uganda. The group attended 5 productions from across Africa and participated in two panels, moderated by Vorlicky: “Women Writing Africa” (featuring 5 women playwrights) and “Modernity, Culture, and Contemporary Ugandan Theatre,” featuring co-festival curator and award-winning playwright Asiimwe Deborah Kawe and theatre scholar Moses Serubiri. The festival’s plays, written in a range of dramatic forms (from casted plays to solo performances, from realism and surrealism to spoken word), captured any number of poignant concerns and joys in African life: the reconfigurations of family structures, surrogacy, illegality of homosexuality, pregnancy out of wedlock, child marriages, obstetric fistula, surveillance and interrogation of Africans in the diaspora, one’s living with HIV, the pandemic of AIDS among heterosexuals, crushing poverty, the dynamic relationship between individuals and the community, and the tensions between modernity and (traditional, tribal) culture. A highlight of the festival was the production of Black, by NYUAD alum, ’15, Sanyu Kiyimba Kisaka.. NYUAD has been fortunate to strengthen its relationship with the Kampala Festival over the years, as well as to host Ugandan artists on the NYUAD campus, as recently as Asiimwe Deborah Kawe’s public presentations and playwriting workshops in September 2016. Members of the African women playwrights panel (from L to R): Achiro Patricia Olwoch, Sanyu Kiyimba Kisaka, Antu Yacob, Kemiyondo Coutinho, Doreen Baingana, and Asiimwe Deborah Kawe. (Photo: CREDIT TK)
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Vorlicky’s students with (L to R) the Kampala Festival’s co-curator and playwright Asiimwe Deborah Kawe, and Ugandan theatre scholar and critic Moses Serubiri. (Photo: CREDIT TK)
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ASIA Throughout the semester, students in Assistant Arts Professor Erin Mee’s Classical Asian Performance and Introduction to Theatre Studies courses explored various types of Asian theatre. At a recent demonstration-lecture-performance of the play Heart of Kyogen, Daijiro Zenchiko and Noriyoshi Okura of the Okura School of Kyogen taught Drama students techniques of the form. Students practiced how to laugh and cry “kyogen” style and learned that emotion can be evoked and experienced by performing the form of it correctly. The master teachers also illustrated Kyogen movement techniques. They showed how to use a fan to represent a wide variety of props, inviting audiences to use their imaginations in order to “see” the fan as a saw, a bowl holding sake, and a plant to hide behind. In November, students saw noh plays Kayoi Komachi and Shojo-midare at the Japan Society. At a pre-performance workshop, Kaitlyn Warner practiced her noh walk and learned how to play the instruments used in performance. “In addition to giving me perspective as an audience member, the workshop reminded me of the necessity of awakening fully embodied energy inside myself for every performance,” said Warner. “With noh, there is no way you can phone in the performance. That’s an attitude I can maintain as I work in developing my own skill.” A month earlier, students saw a kathakali performance of the play Kalyanasaughandika, by Kalamandalam Manoj. Students experienced the foregrounding of the performer in a genre that values “elaboration” over “faithfulness to the text,” and celebrates the actor’s improvisations in performance. Students expressed an appreciation for the rasa, or emotional essence, of the performance. Beckett Melville found the production “beautifully meditative.” He said, “I was unexpectedly engrossed in every single detail of the deceptively elaborate performance—every eye jolt, every step, and every vocal tremble.” Kaitlyn Warner, a student in Classical Asian Performance, plays the kotsuzumi (shoulder drum) in a noh workshop. (Photo: Erin Mee)
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Drama student Gaa-on Grace Jeon practices kyogen-style laughter with Daijiro Zenchiko and Noriyoshi Okura. (Photo: Erin Mee)
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Alumni Accomplishments
Moisés Kaufman ‘89 received a 2015 National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama. Molly Shannon ’87 (BFA, Drama), nominated for Best Supporting Female for Other People at 2017 Film Independent Spirit Award Rachel Bloom ’09 (BFA, Theater) was nominated for Breakthrough Series - Long Form for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at the 26th Annual Primetime IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards Rachel Chavkin, '02, directed the acclaimed Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Recent alumnus, Alex Gibson '14, was cast. Jess Barbagallo, '05, was profiled by the New York Times in an article on transgender playwrights.
Faculty Highlights Narda Alcorn production stage managed Thaddeus and Slocum; A Vaudevillian Adventure, in July and August for Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. This world premiere set in 1908 explored the divided heart of American culture, racial boundaries, friendship, and blackface under a daring cavalcade of slapstick, song and dance, burlesque, and vaudeville. Gwendolyn Alker was invited to keynote the Women and Theatre Program’s annual conference, which aims to foster both research and production of feminist theatre activities, in Chicago last August. Sebastián Calderón Bentin was awarded an NYU Center for the Humanities Research Fellowship for 2016-2017 and the 2016 Cambridge University Press Prize by the American Society for Theater Research for his plenary "The Politics of Disillusion: The Collapse of the Fujimori Regime in Peru." In March 2017 he will perform in the premier of Every House Has a Door's new work The Three Matadors, based on the writings of American poet Jay Wright, at the Chicago Cultural Center. His new performance piece The Reception will premiere at HERE Arts Center in June 2017. David Brimmer was the invited faculty at the 2016 World Stage Combat Training Conference in Toronto, Canada, where he was awarded the honorary title Fight Master with the Fight Directors Canada. He hosted the Summer Sling, New York’s regional Stage Combat Workshop. David choreographed This Day Forward, currently at the Vineyard. Additionally, David was the movement consultant for The Band’s Visit at the Atlantic Theater.
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Gigi Buffington was Steppenwolf Company Vocal Coach for the 2016-17 season. Productions included the world premiere of David Rabe’s Visiting Edna, directed by Ana Shapiro, and The Christians, by Lucas Hnath and directed by K. Todd Freeman. Gigi was also the Voice and Text Coach for the Red Bull Theatre Company’s production of Coriolanus, directed by Michael Sexton and the King Lear Workshop for the Fall ‘17 Production, Bedlam Theatre Company, directed by Eric Tucker. Una Chaudhuri’s book The Stage Lives of Animals, which examines what it might mean to make theatre beyond the human, was published by Routelage. The book is a collection of essays engaging in alternatives modes of thinking, feeling, and making art offered by animals and animality, bringing insights from theatre practice and theory to animal studies as well as exploring what animal studies can bring to the study of theatre and performance. Lenore Doxsee designed three shows this fall. She was the Lighting & Visual Designer for Remains, a new dance by John Jasperse at the BAM Harvey Theater. Lenore was also the Lighting Designer for Still Life, a new dance by Morgan Thorson at American Dance Institute. Additionally, she was the Lighting Designer for A Gun Show with So Percussion at the BAM Harvey Theater. Chris Jaehnig and Shanga Parker participated in the first leg of an exchange program with the Norwegian Theater Academy in August. They hosted seven students and two faculty members from the Norwegian Theater Academy in collaboration with seven of students from NYU in a week of workshops, tours and outings in New York City. In May, the same seven students and two faculty members from NYU will go to Norway. Laura Levine presented work, “A Self by Any Other Name,” on Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Romeo and Juliet at the International Shakespeare Association (Stratford, England). Carol Martin published two essays: “Locations of Memory: Bridging the Gap between Private and Public Memory in Location Performance and Theater Mitu’s Hamlet-Ur-Hamlet” in Sinais de cena and "The Theatrical Life of Documents” in Dokument in den Künsten. She presented “Luv” on the Internet: Student Reactions to The Art of Luv: Eliott Rodger (Part I) by Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble at the 21st Century Performance conference in Malta. Her book series In Performance published a new anthology of plays, Tales from Tahrir Square: Plays from the Arab Spring. Additionally, Carol and Richard Schechner are the Honary Chairs of Aluna Santana, the annual gala of Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya's LEIMAY the buto and light company that makes its home at The Cave in Brooklyn. This year's honored artists are Laurie Anderson, Alanna Heiss and Robert Wilson. Michael McElroy performed as part of the City Center Gala cast of Sunday In The Park With George with Jake Gyllenhaal. His choir Broadway Inspirational Voices released their latest CD “Great Joy II Around the World.” Erin Mee’s article “The Audience is The Message: Blast Theory’s App Drama Karen” was published in the fall 2016 edition of TDR. In July, she also directed and performed in the site-specific podplay Festival de la Vie, set in a café in the Place de l’Horloge in Avignon, as part of 23
Avignon Le Off. Erin won the 2016 ATHE-ASTR Award for Excellence in Digital Theatre and Performance Scholarship for the born-digital article, “Hearing the Music of the Hemispheres,” which incorporates film, video, and audio clips that are integrated in, and central to, the argument. Orlando Pabotoy collaborated on two productions that won the 2015 Bessie Dance Award, I Understand Everything Better and The Object Lesson. He also performed in The Servant of Two Masters at Theatre for a New Audience. Shanga Parker acted in episodes of Mr. Robot and Blue Bloods. He also created Cycle of Tisch, a Tisch-wide podcast, in which he interviews faculty, alumni, and current students. By the end of the semester, he will have completed 14 episodes. They will be launched during the second week of December. Rubén Polendo’s company Theater Mitu has presented Juárez: A Documentary Mythology (conceived and directed by Polendo) in Santiago, Chile (Teatro Duoc); Torun, Poland (Kontakt Festival); and Cairo, Egypt (Cairo International Experimental Theater Festival). It has also been produced this fall as part of SMU’s ROOTS festival as well as the Los Angeles Theater Center, The New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center, and MassMOCA. Theater Mitu’s Juárez: A Documentary Mythology Archive Gallery Installation was hosted this fall by Duoc’s Advanced Theater Training program in Santiago Chile, where Polendo was also a resident artist. Louis Scheeder participated this past July in the Huntington Library’s “Shakespeare for Teachers” program. The program held an “alumni week” for past participants the first week of July, and then launched into its regular two-week residency designed to help teachers use The Huntington’s extensive resources to grow their classroom curriculum. Louis specifically worked with text and helping the teachers navigate performance techniques based on those promulgated in The Classical Studio. In August, he directed Don Giovanni by Mozart at the Verbier Music Festival in Verbier, Switzerland. Lisa Sokolov published a chapter in the collection “Giving Birth to Sound; Women in Creative Music,” released by Buddy's Knife, Koln, Germany. She also taught and performed alongside renowned trauma specialists Dr. Peter Levine and Anngwynn St. Just, at the Learning Festival of Ideas in Weggis, Switzerland on the topic “Depression, Aggression and Full Aliveness.” Bob Vorlicky and Debra Levine received competitive grants from NYU Abu Dhabi Global to host their NYUAD students at the Kampala International Theater Festival, Uganda. During their time in Kampala, the group attended 8 productions (including those from Uganda, Kenya, Kosovo, Iraq, and Belgium), met with festival playwrights and directors, and participated in discussions with African journalists, theatre critics, and scholars. Edward Ziter's book, Political Performance in Syria: From the Six-Day War to the Syrian Uprising, was the co-winner of 2014-2015 Joe A. Callaway prize for the best book on Drama. 24
Graduate Acting Grad Acting is proud to celebrate the life of former chair, Zelda Fichandler. Zelda took the program from infancy to maturity and for nearly three decades led NYU Graduate Acting to become one of the preeminent actor training programs in the world. On Monday, October 17th, the Jack Crystal Theatre was packed to the rafters with current students, alums, directors, former teachers and of course, Zelda's two sons, all gathered in remembrance of her contributions to NYU and beyond. The support from the entire historic grad acting community was marvellous to feel. It was a sad but joyous occasion and a chance to see old friends reconnect and reunite in a meaningful way with generations of alums. The structure of the event was exquisitely organized with an extremely moving final segment where alums through the ages said key lines from Chekhov while standing in the house, culminating with two first year students, Elizabeth Evans & Chris Herbie Holland, on stage playing out a section of the scene from The Cherry Orchard where Trofimov talks about being an eternal student, which brought the roof down. We're proud that the values with which she founded the program are still very pertinent and present in everything we do and looking into the future, generations of students who never knew Zelda will no doubt feel her impact. Grad Acting is also delighted to announce the Zelda Fichandler scholarship which we're hoping will continue to share Zelda's gifts with students in perpetuity.
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Prof. Janet Zarish with Class of '19 actors Elizabeth Evans and Chris Herbie Holland in a scene from “The Cherry Orchard.” (Photo by Ella Bromblin)
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Alumni update
Sterling K. Brown won the Emmy for The People vs. OJ Simpson and stars in This is Us on NBC. Genevieve Angelson leads Good Girls Revolt, an Amazon Original series. Mahershala Ali stars in films Moonlight and Free State or Jones and the Netflix Original Luke Cage. Andre Holland stars in film Moonlight and FX series American Horror Story. Jin Ha plays the role of Philip and understudies Hamilton, Burr& King George in Hamilton in Chicago. Keren Lugo reprised her role in Scenes from Court Life by Sarah Ruhl at Yale Rep alongside Angel Desai and Greg Keller. Nina Arianda stars in Amazon Original Goliath. Corey Stoll and Tim Nicolai star in Plenty at The Public Theater . Amber Gray is on Broadway in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Michael C. Hall leads the cast of the David Bowie musical, Lazarus, in London. Harry Ford and Marcia Gay Harden star in CBS's Code Black.
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Graduate Musical Theatre Writing
The GMTWP: A Place for Musical Theatre Creators From All Across the World
It is no secret that writing musicals is an extraordinarily collaborative effort, and at times it can take the proverbial village to effectively tell a story through songs. In some cases, it can even take the coming together of two different teams from two different nations. During the 24th and 25th of October The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program was visited by a creative team consisting of a lyricist, bookwriter, composer, director, choreographer and other members involved in the project who came all the way from South Korea to attend a Creator's Idea Lab where they discussed the creation of a new musical adaptation of 1984, the dystopian novel by George Orwell. Led by producer Brian Yim, the creative team met with Department Chair, Sarah Schlesinger, and Associate Chair, Fred Carl, to discuss ideas about how to adapt the futuristic Orwellian story about a man who questions and rebels against the governmental regime in which he lives. The team composer, Cycle 17 GMTWP alum Chris Lee returned to the Program to attend the lab as well.
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GMTWP Alum Sean Flahaven Named CEO of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE MUSICAL COMPANY
Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program Alum, Sean Flahaven (Cycle 7) was recently offered the prestigious new role of CEO of Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Musical Company, a brand new licensing, publishing and recording entity. From writing student at The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program to Chief Executive Officer of a global company, Flahaven's path has certainly been a fascinating one--and a particularly bright example of how our alumni have branched out into other successful musical theatrerelated fields. We had the opportunity to interview him to gain an in-depth view of his journey. You’ve just been named the CEO of The Musical Company. Congratulations! Tell us what The Musical Company is and what your role as CEO will entail. Thank you! It's an exciting opportunity for me. The Musical Company is a new joint venture between two industry-leading companies, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group and Concord Bicycle Music, an established independent record label and music publishing group. I'm the founding worldwide CEO, based in New York, with offices in Los Angeles and London and affiliates around the globe. My teams and I will be handling theatrical licensing, music publishing, and cast recording for theatre writers. Tell us about your journey from being a graduate of The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program to becoming the CEO of a new major licensing company. As I always say to my GMTWP students, it helps to develop a multiplicity of skills. I spent the first five years or so after graduating (Cycle 7) working as a music director/arranger/orchestrator/music copyist/music assistant on shows and recordings for Stephen Sondheim, Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, and others. I was also a music editor for the licensing agencies Music Theatre International and The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization; wrote for magazines and websites; and read scripts for producers. I began to get more interested in producing and went back to school for another M.F.A. in Performing Arts Management at Brooklyn College, while working for the Shuberts, Manhattan Theatre Club, and The York Theatre. Before I graduated, I became managing director of The Melting Pot Theatre, an off-Broadway nonprofit. Then I was hired to be Director of Music and Marketing and then General Manager for the launch of Theatrical
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Rights Worldwide, another licensing agency. Then I was recruited to run theatre for Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group, where over 8 years, I signed 40 of the best theatre songwriters as well as administering the catalogs of the majority of the Great American Songbook. I also oversaw theatrical licensing and producing, print/digital sheet music, and orchestral rental for Warner. At the same time, I was a producer on two dozen cast albums, 9 of which were nominated for Grammys, including Hamilton, which won a Grammy, has sold 2x Platinum, and topped the charts for over a year. That quite a resumĂŠ! What are the goals of The Musical Company? The Musical Company will provide best-in-class service to theatre writers and producers by licensing professional and amateur performance rights and music publishing and releasing cast recordings. It can either be a "one-stop-shop" for handling all those rights, or a "cafeteria" plan for those who want one or two services. Our focus is on proactively promoting and protecting our writers' work, while also making it user-friendly for producers, schools, music users, and consumers to license rights and purchase records. How has your experience as a writer influenced you in the world of licensing and recording? As a writer, I have a sense of what writers require in terms of support. Everyone has different needs: some want me to give notes on songs and shows in progress, others want my artistic oversight on specific projects, others want me as a business and copyright advocate. How will your experience as a writer influence what you do in your new role at The Musical Company? I think one of my primary skills is being able to speak to my clients in detail about their work, to promote that work, and to do smart deals on their behalf and translate the business aspects to them. What a great asset you will be, not only to The Musical Company, but to future clients as well. In your eyes, how will The Musical Company differ from other licensing entities? Having worked for the most prominent producers and licensing companies, the most prominent music publisher, and the most prominent record labels in theatre, we'll implement the best practices from each to form a new, energetic company with significant financial backing. We'll take advantage of the existing expertise and resources of Concord for records, Bicycle for music publishing, and Really Useful Group for theatrical licensing. To the best of our knowledge, no other company has ever combined these services in one place.
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Sean Patrick Flahaven is a producer, music publisher, writer, composer, orchestrator, conductor, and an alumnus of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (Cycle 7). He is Senior Vice President of Theatre and Catalog Development for Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group, where he is the music administrator for Sondheim, Ahrens & Flaherty, Boublil & Schonberg, Finn, Green, Kitt & Yorkey, LaChiusa, Lerman, Lippa, Lopez & Anderson-Lopez, Milburn & Vigoda, Miller & Tysen, Miranda, Pasek & Paul, Shaiman & Wittman, Sklar & Beguelin, Tin, and others. He also manages the song catalogs of the majority of the Great American Songbook, including Comden & Green, Coward, the Gershwins, Jones & Schmidt, Kander & Ebb, Lerner & Loewe, Mercer, Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Styne, Weill, and many more. In addition, he oversees WCM's theatrical producing & licensing, print/digital sheet music and orchestral rental. He has produced and written liner notes for 19 cast albums on PS Classics and Nonesuch, 8 of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. His own work has been performed in New York, at regional theatres around the country, and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Sean has had the privilege of working with Stephen Sondheim for 18 years on many shows and recordings, including Saturday Night, Do I Hear A Waltz?, Follies, A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along, Passion, Wise Guys / Bounce / Road Show, and Sondheim on Sondheim. His symphonic work, A Sondheim Suite, arranged in honor of the composer’s 80th birthday, was recorded by the 65-piece BBC Concert Orchestra at Abbey Road. He has worked on dozens of new musicals and has produced over 100 shows, concerts, workshops, and readings for major Broadway and off-Broadway companies, including the Shuberts, Jujamcyn, Public Theater/NYSF, Manhattan Theatre Club, O'Neill Theater Center, York Theatre, and Melting Pot Theatre. He was General Manager and Director of Music and Marketing for Theatrical Rights Worldwide and was a music editor for Music Theatre International and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Sean was an arts journalist and editor for 13 years, with over 200 articles published in The Sondheim Review, Show Music, Playbill, and the former BroadwayOnline.com. A native of Minnesota, Sean received degrees in Music and English with multiple honors from Boston College, where he was a Presidential Scholar; an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU-Tisch, where he was an Oscar Hammerstein II Fellow; and an MFA in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College, where he received several fellowships. He has been teaching at NYU-Tisch since 2001. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, and AFM Local 802 and serves on the board of the Music Publishers Association, the ASCAP Symphonic & Concert Committee, and the Dramatists Guild AntiPiracy Committee.
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Open Arts New faculty Fall 2016!
Open Arts is excited to welcome two new faculty members this year: Patricia Hoffbauer and Peter Terezakis. Patricia Hoffbauer is a Brazilian-born dance artist and educator. In addition to creating her dance work with several NY-based artists including Sara Rudner, Nayland Blake, and Guy Yarden, Hoffbauer has developed a long artistic collaboration with writer/performer George Emilio Sanchez. Hoffbauer is also a founding member of Yvonne Rainer’s “The Raindears.” She has been a performer in several original works touring internationally and performs Rainer’s early solos Three Seascapes and Three Satie Spoons. Her latest project, Small Dances for Intimate Spaces and Friendly People, was awarded the Gibney Dance Center DIP (Dance in Progress) residency, and was commissioned and presented there in 2015. Peter Terezakis is committed to sharing his awe, curiosity, and love for art, nature, and science with future generations of artists. His works have been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including Canada, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. As adjunct faculty at New York City's School of Visual Arts from 1993 to 2000, Terezakis helped to develop the Extended Forms major within the MFA Computer Art program. His work is featured in Bruce Wands' textbook, Art of the Digital Age, published by Thames and Hudson.
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2016 Day of Community: Tisch + PS3
Marking the second annual collaboration of its kind, Tisch Open Arts continued its Day of Community activities with New York City Elementary School PS3. This year, Tisch Open Arts, Tisch Department of Drama's Experimental Theatre Wing, and Tisch Dance partnered with PS3 for a morning of music, movement, and reflection.
Growing up Coy
Fundamentals of Filmmaking instructor Eric Juhola's new feature documentary Growing Up Coy screened at New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center on November 16. The film has also been featured in The New York Times and shown at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival earlier this year.
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Performance Studies Alumni Updates
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, MA '07, is one of the 23 people selected as 2016 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and is a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant. Laura Zlatos, MA '16, received the Woodward/Newman Drama Award from Bloomington Playwrights Project (BPP) for her play Happily After Ever. The award-winning play will be produced at BPP in May 2017.
Assistant Professor Malik Gaines Performing at the New Museum
Working at the intersection of theater, visual arts, and critical practice, the collective My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, and Alexandro Segade) uses performance to theatricalize past and present problems and imagine ways of being together. The group’s New Museum exhibition and residency, “The Audience is Always Right,” are organized as part of the Department of Education and Public Engagement’s R&D Season: DEMOCRACY. The residency will include a series of workshops, performances, and public programs that will culminate the eight-year international tour of My Barbarian’s project the Post-Living Ante-Action Theater (PoLAAT).
PRAXIS
PRAXIS, a special all-day Performance Studies community event, brings together current students, alumni, faculty, staff, prospective students and friends, to learn new skills, engage in important conversations, and stay connected with colleagues and peers. This year, we invited all parents to attend PRAXIS during Parents Day. The day was filled with a variety of workshops led by faculty, students, and alumni and concluded with a special final performance led by Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade. PRAXIS
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Institute of Performing Arts
Welcome Danny Larsen!
The IPA would like to welcome Danny Larsen as Program Coordinator for Tisch’s Institute of Performing Arts. Danny is replacing Julianne Wick Davis (who has joined the GMTWP full-time faculty) and has been working in the office as of September 1st Danny Larsen graduated from New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program in 2005. He co-wrote The Yellow Wood with collaborator Michelle Elliott, which in 2006 was awarded a Richard Rodgers Development Award and the Daryl Roth Award. In 2007, The Yellow Wood was presented in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where Danny won the award for Best Music. In 2008 the show was part of the Village Originals and the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Festival. In 2010, Cloaked, his second show with Elliott, was staged at CAP 21 and received a workshop production at The Village Theatre. Cloaked received a 2011 Jonathan Larson Grant and was the recipient of the 2011 Kleban Prize for Most Promising Librettist for the show. His musical, Catch the Wind, co-written with Michelle, is a passionate exploration of the lives of women aboard a notorious pirate ship, was presented at the Village Originals in August 2013. It was also presented at The Buckhill Skytop Music Festival in August 2016. In 2014, Danny and Michelle’s new musical adaptation of the book Zombie in Love had its world premiere at the Oregon Children’s Theatre, where it received multiple Drammy Awards, including Best Original Score and Best Original Script, as well as the Portland Area Musical Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Musical. Danny has co-written an online musical for teens that is a response to the spate of suicides by gay youth. This new work, entitled The Hinterlands, was released online at HinterlandsTheMusical.com and can be viewed via Youtube. Danny and Michelle are currently working with director Jerry Dixon on a new musical called Hart Island, about New York City’s public burial ground. The show was shortlisted for the Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists of Choice award in 2015. Danny holds Bachelors of Arts degrees in Music and Theatre Education from Brigham Young University. He won the ACTF Kennedy Center Composition award for his music and lyrics for Soft Shoe. Danny has orchestrated several musicals, including A Wind in the Willows Christmas at Two River Theatre Company in Redbank, NJ.
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IPA Events
Exploring Found Text
IPA’s first cross-departmental class, Exploring Found Text was taught by IPA’s Artist-in-Residence, Rebecca Taichman, and Associate Chairperson of Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, Fred Carl. Every Wednesday, an array of students representing five different departments within the IPA, met for three hours to workshop found text pieces focusing on a central question. Using interviews and preexisting found materials, they created six dynamic and timely 10-minutes pieces which were presented in a culminating performance on December 4th. "We don't often get to work with fellow students outside of our program, especially over the course of a semester, so I appreciated the opportunity to meet creators in other disciplines and respond to the ways they make art. I'm proud of the work we created together, but I'm especially excited about the collaborative connections we forged among students that will continue to bear fruit after graduation." – Rachel Dean, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing “Exploring Found Text was a gem of a course and a highlight of my semester--it was incredibly exciting to build work and community across departments here at Tisch.” – Tyler Thomas, Art & Public Policy "I loved the way we collaborated, each of us has a different expertise and can contribute to the piece in our own way. I also liked that we developed put own ideas, which means they came from our personal place." -Tianni Viola Bao, Performance Studies T Team Aquarius gathers around the piano. 38
Team Nix the U working with Rebecca Tiachman
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IPA’s Conversation with Playwrights Series
From left to right: Paula Vogel, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Sarah Ruhl This semester, IPA Artist-in-Residence, Rebecca Taichman, was joined by Paula Vogel, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Sarah Ruhl for conversations about their work and experience in the theatre. The audience was made up of students, staff and faculty from all corners of Tisch and many were given the opportunity to ask specific questions about craft and how to navigate creating art in a time of transition.
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Paula Vogel engaging with Tisch students. 41
Molissa Fenley On October 7th, Molissa Fenely presented a “Duet Program of Molissa Fenley with Christiana Axelsen” in the Son of Normandy Studio for members of Institute of Performing Arts. Molissa Fenley founded Molissa Fenley and Company in 1977 and has since created over 85 dance works during her continuing career. She grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria traveling there with her family in 1961, completing all of her early education there in International Schools and her last two years of high school in Spain. She returned to the US in 1971 to study dance at Mills College in Oakland, California. Upon graduation in 1975, she moved to New York. With her company, Molissa Fenley and Company, and as a soloist working in collaboration with visual artists and composers, she has performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Her work has been commissioned by the American Dance Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, the Dia Art Foundation, Jacob’s Pillow, the Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, the New National Theater of Tokyo, The National Institute of Performing Arts in Seoul, and by Dance Theater Workshop/New York Live Arts. Both Cenotaph and State of Darkness were awarded a Bessie for Choreography in 1985 and 1988, respectively. Molissa has also created many works on ballet and contemporary dance companies, most recently for Barnard College Columbia University, Oakland Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Robert Moses' Kin and the Seattle Dance Project. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, has enjoyed residencies at the Baryshnikov Art Center, the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy, Djerassi, TopazArts and Yaddo, is the recipient of two Asian Cultural Council residencies in Japan and a Master Artist of the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Molissa is the Danforth Professor of Dance at Mills College, in residence in the spring semesters, and often teaches choreographic workshops at other universities, most recently at Barnard College Columbia University, Hunter College and the Experimental Theater Lab of New York University. 42
Molissa Fenley and Tisch students.
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An Evening with Composer Anthony Davis
On Nov. 3rd, composer Anthony Davis spoke to IPA students about his career and his new opera “Five� with a libretto by Richard Wesley that investigates the Central Park Five, the five young African American boys who were falsely convicted of the rape and assault of a young white woman in Central Park Opera News has called Anthony Davis, "A National Treasure," for his pioneering work in opera. His music has made an important contribution not only in opera, but in chamber, choral and orchestral music. He has been on the cutting edge of improvised music and Jazz for over three decades. Anthony Davis continues to explore new avenues of expression while retaining a distinctly original voice. Mr. Davis has composed five operas. X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X with a libretto by Thulani Davis, had its world premiere at the New York City Opera in 1986. A recording of the opera was released in 1992 on the Gramavision label and earned a Grammy nomination for music composition.
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PA Summer Indoor Picnic
On July 13th, Institute of Performing Arts held it’s 2nd Annual IPA Summer Indoor Picnic, bringing together faculty and staff from all over Tisch in the middle of the summer for good food and good conversation!
(Photo cred. Ellen Johnston)
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Introducing the Tisch Institute of Performing Arts "Students of Color Mentorship Program"
FROM KENT GASH, founding director of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ New Studio on Broadway: In Fall 2017, I, along with numerous faculty members of color across all IPA departments, recognized that there was a growing need for cross departmental conversations among faculty members and students of color. Mentoring fellowship, shared experiences and a rising passion around the intersection of race, heritage and culture within the performing arts. On Sept. 20th, over 50 students of color and faculty of color met to discuss how this mentoring program could most benefit them. The evening was full of insightful conversations about art and representation. The conversation was continued with a trip to the Whitney Museum on November 13th, attended by 50 students of color and faculty of color, as they investigated the impact of visual art. A founding principle of our gathering has been that ART and BEING ARTISTS is our common denominator and we are interested not only in having open discussion about being artists but about being artists within Tisch and outside of Tisch in increasingly complex times. The program continues to grow and remains flexible. The first meeting of the Spring Term will occur at the end of February with a trip to the Broadway production of August WIlson's JITNEY planned for March. Gatherings are often planned around an Artistic event as well as simple open gatherings for discussion, always intended to best fit the needs of the community of students of color. Trip to the Whitney Museum Our mission is to give students of color and faculty of color the opportunity to gather as a group of artists and discuss art and life, to build a fluid and sustainable sense of community that is defined and evolving based on the population of the group for all of us to learn from each other’s experiences. It is also our hope that there will eventually be alumni mentoring and networking in order to support and nurture them throughout the unique journey of Tisch/IPA Artists as they enter their Professional Artistic Careers.
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Students and faculty of color discuss art and representation.
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IPA Ticket Initiative In its third successful year, the IPA Ticket Initiative has continued to send classes within the IPA to shows all over Manhattan, Brooklyn and a few outside New York! This semester alone the IPA funded the attendance of 18 shows: Underground Railroad Game, Master Voices, Loni Landon Dance Project, Ship of Fools, Vortex Temporum, Nat Turner in Jerusalem, London Road, Unicorn Gratitude Mystery, Scenes from a Court Life, The Winter’s Tale, Inner Voices, Barbarians, The Nutcracker, Party People, The Lion in Winter, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World and Breaking the Waves. In addition to sending numerous IPA classes to shows that enhance their curriculum, Institute of Performing Arts sponsors IPA-wide trips to Two River Theatre and the Signature Theatre in Manhattan. This semester included trips to Two River Theatre’s productions of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Lion in Winter and Signature Theatre’s Production of The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World. The Tisch-wide bus trips to Two River Theater in New Jersey not only gives the students an opportunity to see theatre outside of the city but also gives them the chance to meet students in other departments. The bus trips to Two River Theater are always accompanied and enhanced by a pre-show talk by one of the actors or John Diaz, the Artistic Director of Two River Theatre. Below are some of the highlights that the initiative has yielded this semester.
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Scenes from a Court Life at Yale Repertory Theatre On October 1st, Graduate Acting traveled to Yale to see the second production of “Scenes from Court Life of the whipping boy and his prince” by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Graduate Acting Chair, Mark Wing-Davey Graduate Acting had previously commissioned and produced the first production of the play in the Fall of 2015.
Scott Illingworth and Graduate Acting students attending “Scenes from a Court Life” at Yale. 50
Dean Allyson Green Associate Dean of the Institute of Performing Arts Sarah Schlesinger
Program Coordinator, Institute of Performing Arts Danny Larsen Administrative Assistant, Institute of Performing Arts Hali Alspach
Institute of Performing Arts Tisch School of the Arts 715 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 Second Floor, Room 267 212-998-1654
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