We just posted the "Thought Through Motion: Dance Revolutions 09-10 Video" on the department website: http://www.theatre.umn.edu/utheatredance/dancerevolutions.php.
It is also available on our Facebook Fan Page and Youtube Channel.
Enjoy! And don't forget to check out Dance Revolutions running December 11-13, 2009.
Backstage Pass, the weekly newsletter produced by the Peers, is now available online. It can be found on the Current Students Resource Page.
After 15 years of dedicated service to the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, Sherry Wagner-Henry, Managing Director for University Theatre and Dance and the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, has announced that she will be moving in to a new position within the University as the new Director of Graduate Programs in the College of Continuing Education.
A letter from Sherry:
Dear Colleagues, Alumni and Friends:
It has been my extreme pleasure and honor to have been a part of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University for almost 15 years now. I moved to Minneapolis straight out of graduate school in July of 1995 to take over the position of Managing Director for both U Theatre and Dance and the Showboat programs. And while serving as the Managing Director has been a true labor of love, my passion has always been in the educational development and training of the next generation of Arts leaders and managers. That's why I worked with so many of you on internship placements with local and regional companies, advised directed studies and Senior Seminar projects on arts management topics, and worked hard to keep Arts Management curriculum and work opportunities in the box office a part of the department.
Because of my commitment to the further development of Arts leadership and management opportunities, I have accepted the position as the new Director of Graduate Programs in the College of Continuing Education at the University of Minnesota. The position will allow me to help steward the interdisciplinary, inquiry-based Master of Liberal Studies program (which features an arts management emphasis), as well as to help launch the new Arts and Cultural Leadership program, which I helped to develop over the course of the last four years. In addition, I will be working with other units, colleges and the community to not only buoy and grow these programs, but create and launch new collaborative graduate programs, some currently under development and others not even sparked yet. It is a truly challenging and innovative opportunity and I am thrilled to become a part of this forward thinking at the University.
This transition is both exciting and emotional. Whenever you are part of something for this length of time, as I have been, it becomes more than just a job--it becomes an integral part of your life. I have made life-long friendships with faculty, staff and with alumni, whom I continue to remain in contact. I met and married my husband, the technical director in the department for almost 8 years, and we even held our wedding celebration on the Showboat! I have had the opportunity to work on and promote countless productions, projects, workshops, classes and students, many in collaboration with all of you! I owe an enormous debt to this University and this community for allowing me to serve in this capacity and for allowing me to learn so much while I was doing it. I have been truly blessed in this job, but realize that it is time to move on and take on the next big challenge that life has to offer: helping to educate and develop the next generation of Arts Leaders and Managers, who will lift up, steward, and celebrate the next generation of art-makers and producers.
My last official day in the Dept. of Theatre Arts and Dance will be Friday, October 23 and I will start my new position officially on Monday, November 2 over on the St. Paul Campus, which is where the College of Continuing Education is housed. I will operate on a consulting contract with the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance through January 31, in order to execute a smooth transition with current projects, before my replacement is hired and comes on board. My email will remain the same, but I will forward address and phone number information once it becomes available.
While this is certainly an amazing change for me, it is an exciting time for Theatre Arts and Dance as well, as this community contemplates its own set of new opportunities and directions. The Department is always changing, always growing, and being a part of that is something we all can have an impact upon. Take advantage of dept. meetings, town hall forums and volunteer opportunities--all of us are responsible for setting the course for the next 10 years of exciting developments within this department and at this University.
Fifteen years ago, I set out to find an arts management job in MPLS/ST PAUL, because in my estimation, when it came to the arts and education, there was no finer place in the world--my university colleagues, my community partners and my students have all proved that assumption to be overwhelmingly true. I would rather not think of this transition as good-bye, but perhaps as a new conversation that will open doors to unchartered opportunities between my new department and your future endeavors. So here's to a future full of possibilities!
Many kind regards,
Sherry Wagner-Henry
swh@umn.edu
On October 5th Maggie Moulton passed away. She was married to long-time, but now deceased Department of Theatre Arts Professor and iconic figure Robert Moulton. A quiet, but passionate supportor of our department, she established a generous scholarship fund in her husband's name shortly after his passing. She is also the mother of choreographer Charles Moulton who has been a Cowles Guest artist with the dance program in the past.
She will be missed.
A memorial service will be held at St Matthews Episcopal Church, 2136 Carter Ave, St Paul on Saturday Oct 17.
Mrs. Moulton's Official Obituary
Congratulations to Director of Dance Ananya Chatterjea for being named by the Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill as "Local Mother of Environmental Justice."
The Institute's mission is:
The Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is an environmental research, renewal and retreat center designed to create and share knowledge about environmental issues and policies relevant to women, children and identified communities especially affected by environmental injustices; to promote agricultural justice, organic and sustainable agriculture and ecological awareness; and to support activism that influences public policy and promotes social change.
For more information, check out the Women's Environmental Institute website.
Luverne Seifert, Head of BA in Performance, won an Ivey for playing science-fiction author Philip K. Dick in "The Transmigration of Philip Dick" by Victoria Stewart and produced by Workhaus Theatre Collective. Affiliate faculty member, Sonja Parks, received an Ivey for her solo role as a high-school teacher in Nilaja Sun's "No Child," which was produced at Pillsbury House Theatre. For more information about the Iveys and the award winners, check out Graydon Royce's article in the Star Tribune.
The Dance Program received a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Dance Grant of $15,000 to reconstruct and restage sections of Jawolle Willa Jo Zollar's "Walking With Pearl . . . Southern Diaries." This reconstruction will take place during the 2010-2011 academic year.
For more information, visit the National Endowment for the Arts website.
Mary's Wedding, a dream play set in the World War I era, opens Friday, September 18 at the Jungle Theater. Directed by affiliate faculty member Joel Sass, choreography by Department Chair, Carl Flink, and BFA Acting alum Sam Bardwell, the production features a variety of artistic talent with ties to the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.
The play runs from September 18-October 25. Visit the Jungle Theater's website for more information.
Check out the great articles about the produciton:
ARTSMOSIS, a collaborative arts festival on the west bank of campus will be held on October 9! The event will feature animation, dance, performance art, painting,
photography, music, drama, opera, and more...
Volunteers are needed for: publicity, design, tech (audio/video/theatre), dance, music, costuming, lighting, and logistics.
To sign up, email aqc@umn.edu.
For more information, visit the Arts Quarter Collective website at
www.tc.umn.edu/~aqc/~
Professors Lisa Channer, Michael Sommers, and Marcus Dilliard, have made arrangements to improve our rehearsal/ studio spaces. During the spring, several students and these professors built flats and procured some lights to put into studio A and either room 10 or 20. These additions will make students in directing classes have the ability to utilize lighting and level choices, grant design students simple tools to create stage pictures, and performance students new tools to play with to compliment their physical work.
We need a few volunteers- between 4 and 6- to come in on Friday, September 18 around 3 to help staple on the top covers of the flats and install them. Michael Sommers has even offered to buy pizza for those involved. If you would like to volunteer, e-mail Allison Witham at peers@umn.edu.
Professor Kobialka recently published a new book entitled, Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor's Theatre (University of Minnesota Press) . Below is a direct link to the Press's catalogue containing a more detailed information about the book--
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/K/kobialka_further.html
For additional information, the Editor Review from Amazon.com:
Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was one of the twentieth century's most innovative visual artists, stage directors, and theoreticians. His theatre productions and manifestos challenged the conventions of creating art in post-World War II culture and expanded the boundaries of Dada, surrealist, Constructivist, and happening theatre forms. Kantor's most widely known productions--The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1985), and Today Is My Birthday (1990)--have had a profound impact on playwrights and artists who continue today to engage with his radical theatre.
In Further on, Nothing, Michal Kobialka explores Kantor's theatre practice from the critical perspective of current debates about representation, memory, and history. He pursues the intriguing proposition that Kantor gave material form to a theatre practice that defined the very mode of postmodern operation and that many of its theoretical notions are still in circulation. According to Kobialka, Kantor's theatre still offers an answer to reality rather than a portrayal of a utopian alternative.
Further on, Nothing includes new translations of Kantor's work, presented in conversation with Kobialka's own theoretical analyses, to show us a Kantor who continues to offer--and deliver on--the promise of the avant-garde.
X Auditions
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
AND
Ysengrimus
Wednesday, September 16 6-9pm
Thursday, September 17 6-9pm
"For Colored Girls" will provide readings from the script for audition.
"Ysengrimus" asks for 2 one-minute monologues, 1 comedic and 1 dramatic. In either classical or contemporary style.
Sign up for auditions is located on the callboard in the basement of Rarig.
Director of Dance and Associate Professor Ananya Chatterjea's dance troupe Ananya Dance Theatre will be performing the premiere of their latest work, "Ashesh Barsha, Unending Monsoon" at the Southern Theater September 10-13, 2009. For more information check out Camille LeFevre's article, "Ananya Dance Theater completes trilogy", an article in the Minnesota Daily, and the Southern Theater's website. Also watch a video on the 3-Minute Egg website.
Associate Professor Kuftinec recently published a new book entitled Theatre, Facilitation and Nation Formation in the Balkans and Middle East.
How might theatre intervene in violent inter-ethnic conflicts? When does participatory theatre mediate more just futures, and when might it preserve inequities? Theatre, Facilitation, and Nation Formation addresses these questions through detailed case studies of community-based projects in the Balkans and Middle East that the author has witnessed or helped to create. In Mostar, collaborative performance helps youth to re-member a divided city. In Berlin, participants from seven Balkan countries reorient understandings of citizenship through an interactive installation. In Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, image theatre animates the limits of reconciliation. These theatrical facilitations model ways that ethnic oppositions can move towards ethical relationships, while pointing out challenges in doing so. As a travelogue, this study weaves critical analysis with the voices of participants, directors, and workshop leaders, offering viewpoints and field notes on how theatrical facilitation can (and can't) effectively transform conflicts.
Check out our two new videos: