Author Archives: twebb1

Honors Acting Capstone: DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT (2/27-3/1)

DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT is a story of national identity, heroism, and goof. Join us in Dublin in 1904 at the grand opening of the Irish National Theatre of Ireland. But wait, the the King of England is in town for a visit! Amidst the squalor and the muck, the pomp and circumstance, an intrepid six-person ensemble plays 33 different characters to tell the fictional….and not so fictional…story of rebels, divas, dandies, and duds. A unique blend of classic melodrama and commedia dell’ arte and the Irish struggle for independence from the British crown.

Written by Michael West
Directed by Alex TorraDBLFINAL
Stage Managed by Swift Shuker

with
Cosmo Alto
Amelia Dornbush
Tyler Elliot
Michelle Johnson
Jameson Lisak
Joshua McLucas

and
Costume and Makeup Design: Laila Swanson
Light Design: Amanda Jensen
Sound Design: Liz Atkinson
Dialect Coach: Peter Schmitz
Movement Coach: Brendon Gawel

LPAC Frear Ensemble Theater
February 27, 2015 at 8PM
February 28, 2015 at 2PM & 8PM
March 1, 2015 at 2PM

Honors Dramaturgy Thesis: A PILLAR OF MARBLE (2/7 & 2/8)

A PILLAR OF MARBLE
Crafted by: Amelia Dornbush
Adapted from The Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds 
Directed by: Rebecca Wright

2PM February 7, 2015 Headlong Studios, 1170 S Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
2PM February 8, 2015 LPAC Frear Ensemble Theater
Amelia Dornbush ’15’s dramaturgical thesis, A PILLAR OF MARBLE recrafts and interprets stories from classical Jewish texts written in Palestine and Babylon for a 21st century, American stage.
The work tells us: “God is not yet dead. Must he die for us to live?” Relationships and identities pivot around the struggle to exist with a structure of power centered form of an (un)just God.

Design class opportunities are not just for Theater majors!

Looking for a break from writing papers?  Interested in learning more about lighting? The Lighting Design class is now open and available to all!

In this hands on class you will learn the hows and whys to help you design lights for theater, dance, art, or music events. This knowledge is also useful for gallery installation, architecture, engineering and fashion! Your enrollment can lead to design opportunities and steady employment on campus with the LPAC, Olde Club, and beyond.

Meets Mondays 1:00PM – 6:15PM (break halfway through class for coffee).
NO PREREQUISITES!!
Email jmurphy2@swarthmore.edu, or enroll in THEA 004B.


Are you missing some basic skills of drafting and architectural model making? Want to make exciting interior and exterior spaces?

Explore scenery design from concept to production and how it relates to other elements in performance spaces and beyond. A lab component of this class will include an introduction to computer drafting, model making and additional information about materials used for basic construction. The course is designed to serve all students regardless of prior experience in theater production.

Meets Mondays 4:15PM – 6:15PM and Wednesdays 1:00PM – 3:45PM! NO PREREQUISITES! Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
Enroll in THEA 004A or email Prof. Saunders at msaunde1@swarthmore.edu for details.


If you are looking for a broad spectrum class in design processes, look no further! This course offers an introduction to creative aspects of designing scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound for theater and performance with emphasis on the correlation of text, imagination, and space. In a collaborative classroom setting, the students will have the opportunity to explore individual ideas and transform these into a design that is cohesive and relevant to a production. The lab component of the course will provide a broad introduction to the technical aspects of theater production. No prior performance experience necessary!

Meets Thursdays 4:15PM – 6:15PM and 7:15PM – 9:45PM.
NO PREREQUISITES! Fulfills a general requirement for all theater majors and minors.
Enroll in THEA 003 or email lswanso@swarthmore.edu for more info.

Radical Democracy and Humanism: Intersections Between Performance and Action (2/9 – 2/27)

_DSC5655Swarthmore College (Departments of Music and Dance, Black Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Theatre, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility) and the William J. Cooper Foundation present a three-week performance residency RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND ACTION. Conceived by Professor Sharon Friedler and led by Swarthmore graduate Kate Speer ‘08, the residency centers around engagements with David Dorfman Dance (DDD), a leading American modern dance company known for politically relevant works centered on community responsibility. From February 9 to February 27, 2015, workshops, classes and lectures will address a spectrum of positions and assumptions regarding intersecting issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, politics and the environment. The central performance, David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK, for this residency will take place on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 8PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center.

Participating facilitators for the residency include the following scholars and artists: Kate Speer ‘08, who has written and delivered papers on Dorfman’s dances, creative processes, and their connection to radical democracy, Teya Sepinuck, the founder and director of the Theater of Witness model of performance, David Kyuman Kim, a Connecticut College scholar of race, religion, and public life and George Lakey, visiting professor, non-violence advocate and civil rights activist. In the lectures and workshops, selections of David Dorfman’s repertory works will be taught as aids in broadening individual performing range and exposure to these processes will provide a common basis for the study and discussion of different aspects of performance. Discussions will delve into multiple opinions and perspectives in order to encourage participants to begin dialoguing about the questions at stake, effectively employing democratic practices within the concert stage environment. The residency will seek to explore how Dorfman creates dance that de-stigmatizes the notion of accessibility and interaction in post-modern performance and how dance can add a positive challenge to engage audiences in action.

A schedule for these events is available on our home page: http://www.swarthmore.edu/dance-program. These events are free and open to the public without reservations, but space is limited for some of the smaller lectures and workshops. Please contact lpacevents@swarthmore.edu or 610-328-8260 for more information.

Radical Democracy and Humanism: Intersections Between Performance and Action (2/9 – 2/27)

_DSC5655Swarthmore College (Departments of Music and Dance, Black Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Theatre, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility) and the William J. Cooper Foundation present a three-week performance residency RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND ACTION. Conceived by Professor Sharon Friedler and led by Swarthmore graduate Kate Speer ‘08, the residency centers around engagements with David Dorfman Dance (DDD), a leading American modern dance company known for politically relevant works centered on community responsibility. From February 9 to February 27, 2015, workshops, classes and lectures will address a spectrum of positions and assumptions regarding intersecting issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, politics and the environment. The central performance, David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK, for this residency will take place on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 8PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center.

Participating facilitators for the residency include the following scholars and artists: Kate Speer ‘08, who has written and delivered papers on Dorfman’s dances, creative processes, and their connection to radical democracy, Teya Sepinuck, the founder and director of the Theater of Witness model of performance, David Kyuman Kim, a Connecticut College scholar of race, religion, and public life and George Lakey, visiting professor, non-violence advocate and civil rights activist. In the lectures and workshops, selections of David Dorfman’s repertory works will be taught as aids in broadening individual performing range and exposure to these processes will provide a common basis for the study and discussion of different aspects of performance. Discussions will delve into multiple opinions and perspectives in order to encourage participants to begin dialoguing about the questions at stake, effectively employing democratic practices within the concert stage environment. The residency will seek to explore how Dorfman creates dance that de-stigmatizes the notion of accessibility and interaction in post-modern performance and how dance can add a positive challenge to engage audiences in action.

A schedule for these events is available on our home page: http://www.swarthmore.edu/dance-program. These events are free and open to the public without reservations, but space is limited for some of the smaller lectures and workshops. Please contact lpacevents@swarthmore.edu or 610-328-8260 for more information.

David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK (2/20 @ 8PM)

NicoleLacourPOFSwarthmore College and the William J. Cooper Foundation present David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 8PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Pearson-Hall Theater. Rhythm, groove, and love: PROPHETS OF FUNK is a “dynamic engagement of movement driven by the popular – and populist – funk sounds of Sly and the Family Stone.” Ahead of their time, Sly and the Family Stone is one of the first racially and gender-integrated bands in American music history and solid purveyors of social consciousness. David Dorfman Dance (DDD) celebrates the band’s groundbreaking, visceral, and powerful visions of prophetic love that continues to shine on despite everyday struggles. PROPHETS OF FUNK lifts up the spirit of Sly: that in the face of the funk of life, there are still hopes and aspirations that reside in all of us. DDD will also host a Master Class in dance technique on Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 4:30PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Troy Dance Studio (LPAC 2).

The production of PROPHETS OF FUNK was made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, and Friends of David Dorfman Dance. Choreographic material for PROPHETS OF FUNK was developed, in part, during residencies at the Tisch Dance Summer Residency Program at New York University and as company-in-residence at Connecticut College.

PROPHETS OF FUNK is the central performance of a three-week residency from February 9 to February 27, 2015 at Swarthmore College titled RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND ACTION. Conceived by Professor Sharon Friedler and led by Swarthmore graduate Kate Speer ‘08, the residency centers on engagements with DDD and is supported by critical discussions, workshops, classes, and lectures. Participants and leaders will address a spectrum of positions and assumptions regarding intersecting issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, politics and the environment. More info available at: http://www.swarthmore.edu/dance-program.

For further information about the performance or residency events, contact Tara Webb at 610-328-8260 or lpacevents@swarthmore.edu. These events are free and open to the public without reservations.

David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK (2/20 @ 8PM)

NicoleLacourPOFSwarthmore College and the William J. Cooper Foundation present David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK on Friday, February 20, 2015 at 8PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Pearson-Hall Theater. Rhythm, groove, and love: PROPHETS OF FUNK is a “dynamic engagement of movement driven by the popular – and populist – funk sounds of Sly and the Family Stone.” Ahead of their time, Sly and the Family Stone is one of the first racially and gender-integrated bands in American music history and solid purveyors of social consciousness. David Dorfman Dance (DDD) celebrates the band’s groundbreaking, visceral, and powerful visions of prophetic love that continues to shine on despite everyday struggles. PROPHETS OF FUNK lifts up the spirit of Sly: that in the face of the funk of life, there are still hopes and aspirations that reside in all of us. DDD will also host a Master Class in dance technique on Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 4:30PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center’s Troy Dance Studio (LPAC 2).

The production of PROPHETS OF FUNK was made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project with funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Jerome Robbins Foundation, and Friends of David Dorfman Dance. Choreographic material for PROPHETS OF FUNK was developed, in part, during residencies at the Tisch Dance Summer Residency Program at New York University and as company-in-residence at Connecticut College.

PROPHETS OF FUNK is the central performance of a three-week residency from February 9 to February 27, 2015 at Swarthmore College titled RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM: INTERSECTIONS BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND ACTION. Conceived by Professor Sharon Friedler and led by Swarthmore graduate Kate Speer ‘08, the residency centers on engagements with DDD and is supported by critical discussions, workshops, classes, and lectures. Participants and leaders will address a spectrum of positions and assumptions regarding intersecting issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, politics and the environment. More info available at: http://www.swarthmore.edu/dance-program.

For further information about the performance or residency events, contact Tara Webb at 610-328-8260 or lpacevents@swarthmore.edu. These events are free and open to the public without reservations.

Dance in the news

Here’s an analysis of recent protests from a choreographic standpoint (via Jumatatu Poe): http://thefeministwire.com/2014/10/protest-in-ferguson/

And also take a moment to look at the article: “I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom” by Danielle Goldman. Swarthmore students can access if online at https://tripod-brynmawr-edu.proxy.swarthmore.edu/find/Combined/Results?lookfor=i+want+to+be+ready&type

Dance in the news

Here’s an analysis of recent protests from a choreographic standpoint (via Jumatatu Poe): http://thefeministwire.com/2014/10/protest-in-ferguson/

And also take a moment to look at the article: “I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom” by Danielle Goldman. Swarthmore students can access if online at https://tripod-brynmawr-edu.proxy.swarthmore.edu/find/Combined/Results?lookfor=i+want+to+be+ready&type