Category Archives: Theater

Theater

Shira Samuels-Shragg as Musical Director of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

From November 10-12th, a group of Swarthmore students will perform The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical comedy by William Finn. The musical made its Broadway debut in 2005 to widespread critical acclaim, winning a Tony Award and several Drama Desk Awards.

Swarthmore’s production falls under the musical direction of Shira Samuels-Shragg ‘20, a sophomore with a rich musical history and a preternatural gift for conducting, who also loves to dance. Samuels-Shragg grew up in a musical household, listening to classical music and attending concerts with her family. She began playing piano at a very young age and picked up the viola soon after, but it was in eighth grade that she discovered her love for conducting. She had been working on a project called “Women in Conducting,” and the orchestra director at her school allowed her to continue studying the craft. “There was an ‘aha’ moment where I realized conducting combined my three favorite things: music, dance, and being in charge.” Thus began a fruitful career in orchestral conducting. In 2015, Samuels-Shragg was selected to be one of two inaugural conducting apprentices with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. The following year she became the first high schooler to be selected as a conducting intern with the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra. In the fall of 2017 she conducted part of a concert with Chamber Orchestra First Editions, “a professional ensemble that combines new works with early Mozart.” She currently helps conduct the Swarthmore College Lab Orchestra as part of her studies with Lecturer Andrew Hauze.

Despite working more than 20 hours per week on the production, Samuels-Shragg says directing The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has been immensely rewarding. In addition to working with the actors, she says that collaborating with the pit musicians has been especially fulfilling: “We have an all-star team of musicians and they’re cooperative and patient with me. Conducting for theater can be very different from classical orchestral conducting, so it’s been a joy being surrounded by supportive musicians as I figure out what works and what doesn’t.” Although her experience has primarily been in classical orchestral conducting, she says that she has always had a love for musical theater, and that working on this production has reaffirmed her desire to work at least partially in show business. “After Swat I’m planning on going to grad school and then pursuing a career in conducting, so I’m hoping I can find a professional balance between the orchestral and theater worlds.”

Her love for this production is clear: “I’m deeply grateful to be part of this project. It’s been an insane semester of rehearsals, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. We’ve poured so much of ourselves into this show, and I’m proud of the result.”

The November 10th show will be held at 8pm. On November 11th there will be two shows, at 2pm and at 8pm. The last show, on November 12th, will begin at 2pm.

                                                                               Gabriel Hearns-Desautels ’20

2018 Senior Company presents HIR by Taylor Mac (12/1-12/3)

HIR_paper_ver(updated)Isaac, an average, young, cis-het male, returns home from the war in Afghanistan to find his family exploring the uncharted frontiers of gender. Taylor Mac’s HIR is a hysterically queer spin on the classic American living-room drama that asks the age-old question – what makes or breaks a family? Come watch Isaac, his parents, Paige and Arnold, and his sibling, Max, as they crash through their run-down suburban house in an absurd and surprising shakeup of American family stereotypes.

Directed by Wesley Han ‘18 with Scenic Design by Yoshifumi Nomura ‘17, Costume Design by Tara Webb, Lighting Design by Robin Stamey, and Sound Design by Elizabeth Atkinson. Performed by Oliver Lipton ‘18, Alexandra Kingsley ‘20, Gerald “Jack” McManus ‘21, and Victoria Lee-A-Yong ‘21.

LPAC Frear Ensemble Theater
12/1 8PM
12/2 2PM, 8PM
12/3 2PM

 

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

spelling-bee-poster-FINALFINALNovember 10th at 8PM
November 11th at 2PM & 8PM
November 12th at 2PM

“Can I have a definition please?”

The swirl of vocabulary words. The thumping of the heart. The glare of the audience. And at stake…the chance of a lifetime. A group of adolescent kids vie for the title of spelling bee Champion in a hilarious, heart-warming snapshot of the terrors and pleasures of growing up. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves. At least the losers get a juice box.

In this exciting new collaboration, Swarthmore Departments of Theatre and Music & Dance come together to produce the Broadway musical hit THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, Winner of the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Book, with Music & Lyrics by William Finn and Book by Rachel Sheinkin.

Directed by Alex Torra with Set Design by Matt Saunders, Costume Design by Laila Swanson, Lighting Design by James P. Murphy, and Sound Design by Liz Atkinson. Musical Direction by Shira Samuels-Shragg, Choreography by Dan Dunn, and Vocal Coaching by Rachel Camp.

Originally conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss and originally directed on Broadway by James Lapine. Originally produced on Broadway by David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo at Barrington Stage Company, Second Stage Theatre. Licensing courtesy of Music Theatre International.

Who’s Watching 2.0? (Or I C U 2)

The Eyeball Beacons present

Who’s Watching 2.0?  (or I C U 2)

A video projection on the water tower behind the Science Center

Friday 10/27- Tuesday 10/31

7-9PM

Best viewing from the Science Center Quad!

Fair weather only (the eye doesn’t like rain or snow).

Tune into WSRN on 10/31 for a LIVE sound accompaniment! http://www.wsrnfm.org

With support from the Language and Media Centers, the Department of Theater, the LPAC office, & Film and Media Studies and content inspired by horror visions of the past and future.

 

BUILDING GENRE: A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN Workshop (11/3 12-5PM)

Film and Media Studies and the Department of Theater are excited to announce Building Genre: A Collaborative Design Workshop. Part workshop, part design challenge, Building Genre invites students from both FMST and Theater to explore the art of production design and mise-en-scene in real time. In their respective industries, theater, film, television, and new media all converge on the process of production design.This workpostershop provides students with an entry point into that process.

Presented with a genre scene on the day of, students will have four consecutive one-hour sessions to research and determine a design plan for their genre scene, assemble design-appropriate props and costumes, and finally stage the scene for the other groups and audience. True to professional life, participants will work as part of a team, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in production design. One student in each group will document the design process as it happens.

Final presentations will be juried and critiqued by participating faculty from both FMST and Theater.

We invite all interested students to participate! Workshop size limited to 30 total. Please register at this link. Lunch and snacks will be provided!

If you can’t participate but you’re interested in student work, come by for a visit! The workshop will be open to visitors and curious campus members who want to walk through and witness the process of building mise-en-scene.

Friday, November 3, 2017
12 PM – 5PM
LPAC Frear Ensemble Theat

Acting and Martial Dance in Peking Opera with M’me Li Shuyuan (10/24 at 4PM)

Workshop: Acting and Martial Dance in Peking Opera

Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Time: 4-6pm
Location: LPAC Frear Ensemble Theater (Lower lobby black box theater)

Let us know if you are coming! Please fill in the information below by
Thursday, October 13. Follow the link below to register.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVHkw0q2TsviSjHioAfgUH
jlqEQ4tqEeYxzAsZakGPoCGHUw/viewform?c=0&w=1
 
Are you interested in participating in a master class on acting and martial
dance in Peking opera with Madame Li Shuyuan? This class is open to all
students and faculty members with or without Chinese language but has a
limit of twelve participants.
 
Meet the Master:
Born in a family with a long tradition of acting in martial roles, Madame
Li had been China’s top-ranked martial female role and enjoyed over forty
years of stage life before coming to America. Since 1999, she has been the
artistic director of the Philadelphia Chinese Opera Society and has
performed in Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Mann Center for the
Performing Arts, Lang Performing Arts Center and Wilma Theater.
 

Pig Iron Theatre Company’s A Period of Animate Existence

On September 14th, the Pig Iron Theatre Company will host a semi-staged concert of their newest original work, A Period of Animate Existence. The performance will begin at 7pm in The Lang Performing Arts Center. It is free and open to the public.

Pig Iron Theatre Company describe themselves as an “interdisciplinary ensemble” that is “dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works that defy easy categorization.” Their pieces combine the versatility and originality of performance art with more traditional elements of theater, such as music and dance. They have created more than 30 original works that tackle a range of topics, from sleep, dreams, and consciousness (Shut Eye), to a child’s struggle to accept contingency and fantasy after the Fukushima nuclear disaster (Zero Cost House). While their works do span many different subjects, they all attempt to answer many of life’s difficult questions. A Period of Animate Existence is no exception.

Their newest work offers a meditative examination of life during the Sixth Extinction, a period that will see the death of 20-50% of all life on earth. The company grapples with what lies ahead after such an era, exploring questions of existence and the effects of time. While this may sound abstract, Swarthmore Music Professor Barbara Milewski contends that the work is a “direct attempt to engage audiences with fundamental questions about what it means to be human and what our place is on this planet.” The performance puts children, elders, and machines in dialogue with one another to create what Professor Milewski calls a “multi-generational” exchange, “trying, if you will, to engage conversations among the generations to see how we might all be viewing the same urgent issue of our time.”

Founder/Co-Artistic Director Dan Rothenberg ‘95 collaborated with contemporary composer Troy Herion and set designer/recent MacArthur “Genius” Award winner Mimi Lien to create this new piece. The addition of Herion to the creative team is sure to make A Period of Animate Existenceone of Pig Iron’s most musically inventive works to date. Herion composes in an immense range of musical styles, from classical orchestral compositions to electronic scores that stretch the boundaries of contemporary music. Much of his work focuses on “visual music,” a concept that will merge organically with Pig Iron’s own unique approach to theater. Mr. Herion will be giving a master class on “Visual-Music” at Swarthmore on Tuesday, September 12th, from 4-6pm in the Lang Concert Hall.

Given their dynamism and creativity as an ensemble, the Pig Iron Theatre Company seems uniquely situated to take on these questions. Being an interdisciplinary group gives them the ability to adapt in interesting ways to the work they take on. A Period of Animate Existence is sure to employ new and inventive methods in answering some of the toughest questions that face us today.

Gabriel Hearn-Desautels ’20

AUDITIONS: Senior Company 2018

HIRAuditionsProject: Taylor Mac’s HIR

SEEKING ACTORS!

Roles available: 1 male, 1 female, and 1 non-binary afab

About the play: In this suburban style family drama, Isaac has returned from the wars to help take care of his ailing father, only to discover his mom is rebelling and in revolt. Freeing herself from a stifling marriage, with Isaac’s newly out transgender sibling as her ally, Mom’s on a crusade to dismantle the patriarchy. This comic look at family dynamics tells us that destroying the past doesn’t always make you free.

AUDITION information

7-10PM Mon 9/4 and Wed 9/6

in the LPAC Frear Ensemble Theatre

Walkins also welcome! Email Laila Swanson (lswanso1) or Wesley Han ’18 (whan1) for more info!