Author Archives: twebb1

Swarthmore Theater Alums on Broadway!

Two Swarthmore Theater Department alums are involved with the Broadway opening of David Henry Hwang’s CHINGLISH last night.  Jeff Sugg ’95 shares credit as Projection Designer for the Broadway production with Shaun Duan after designing the world premiere of the play solo at the Goodman Theater in Chicago last Spring.  Jeff was a founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company has worked since with The Wooster Group, Moises Kaufman, and performance artist Cynthia Hopkins (who happens to be his wife).  Jeff’s Broadway debut was as the Projection Designer for Kaufman’s 33 VARIATIONS, starring Jane Fonda. He returned to Swarthmore to teach our first Integrated Media Design class in 2005, when he also designed the projections for the Theater Department’s production of Robert Auletta’s THE PERSIANS.  He has regularly returned to campus as a participant in the Swarthmore Project in Theater (SPT).

Also working on the sound design team for CHINGLISH is Charles Coes ’06, a recent MFA graduate in sound design from the Yale School of Drama, who will return to campus to teach Sound Design in the Department of Theater next semester.

Ben Brantley ’77 has reviewed the opening-night performance of CHINGLIGH in today’s NEW YORK TIMES, and other reviews should be appearing in the next few days.

Production Ensemble 2012 Auditions!

AUDITIONS FOR PRODUCTION ENSEMBLE 2012 (THEA 022; Spring 2012)

IVONA, PRINCESS OF BURGUNDIA by Witold Gombrowicz

A grotesque and paranoiac fairytale from 1938.

THURSDAY 11/17 7PM-10 PM and SATURDAY 11/19 2PM-5PM in the FREAR ENSEMBLE THEATER

Director/Professor: K. Elizabeth Stevens

No need to prepare anything for the audition. You will be given scenes to read.

* Auditions are open to all students that have taken Acting I (THEA 002A).

* Participation in THEA 022 fulfills a requirement for all Theater majors and minors.

* Students that have previously done Production Ensemble may audition and be cast again for academic credit, registering for THEA 042 or THEA 06.

* Copies of the script for the production will be made available through the Theater Department Office (13 LPAC) starting Monday, October 31st.

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE:

Production Ensemble rehearses weekly on the following schedule:

Mondays 4:00-7:00 pm

Wednesdays 4:00-10:00 pm

Sundays: 12 noon-6:00 pm

No student will be called to rehearsal for more than 12 hours in a given week. Some students may be called for only 6. It is okay to have a conflict with one of the rehearsal times.

This schedule will be expanded for tech/dress rehearsals and performances March 18, 2011. Performances will take place the weekend of March 23-26. Other than for a post-mortem meeting for the students and faculty involved, the work for the production will be finished by March 26. The production team includes Matthew Saunders as Set Designer, Laila Swanson as Costume Designer, Jim Murphy as Lighting Designer, and Mike Kiley as Sound Designer.
Questions: contact K. Elizabeth Stevens (esteven1@swarthmore.edu, 610-690-6889)

Dinner for Theater Majors and Minors (Actual or Potential)

Theater Department Dinner & Meeting for All Majors and Minors (Actual or Potential)
Sunday, Oct. 2, 7 – 8:30 pm, Frear Ensemble Theater

Professors Allen Kuharski, Elizabeth Stevens, Laila Swanson, and Matt Saunders will be attending, along with members of the Department staff.

The meeting will be a chance for all majors and minors in Theater to meet each other, meet the regular faculty, hear the Department’s plans for the year, ask any questions about advising, honors, study abroad, summer funding, student employment, internships, etc.

Pizza, salad, drinks, and dessert will be provided.

RSVP to Allen Kuharski (akuhars1@swarthmore.edu) appreciated, but not required.

AUDITIONS for Directing Workshop Projects!

Sunday, Sept. 25, 7-9 pm

Frear Ensemble Theater (Room 1 LPAC)

—auditions are open to all students (no prior acting experience necessary)

—sign up for a time on the bulletin board next to the Theater Department Office (13 LPAC, Lower Lobby Level)

—come prepared with a monologue of up to three minutes (memorized or not) or to do a cold reading of a monologue we provide that day

—projects will be directed by Sebastian Bravo ’13, Jeanie Noto ’13, & Meryl Sands ‘13

—if you are cast, the rehearsal commitment is for six hours/week + in-class presentations on Friday afternoons

—some projects will only rehearse through Oct. 28 (total of three weeks of rehearsal)

—some projects will rehearse through the end of the semester and be part of the Department’s Fall Night of Scenes, presented on Dec. 7 & 8 (reading week)

—Projects in the final Night of Scenes will be 15-20 minutes in length.

—those cast that have already taken Acting I or are currently enrolled in Acting I are eligible for academic credit if the project becomes part of the Night of Scenes.  Contact Prof. Allen Kuharski for details (akuhars1@swarthmore.edu)

—this is a great way to get involved with the Department of Theater with a small project.  Check it out!

 

Deborah Stein ’99 discusses collaborative Theater

http://www.howlround.com/2011/08/14/what-i-mean-when-i-talk-about-collaboration-by-deborah-stein/

Currently participating in the HARP residency program at HERE Arts Center with co-collaborator Suli Holum ’97, Deborah Stein’s plays include God Save Gertrude, Wallflower, Bone Portraits and The Aerodynamics of Accident. Her work has been produced and developed nationally at Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, the Theatre @ Boston Court, the Guthrie, the Children’s Theatre, Seattle Rep, Stages Rep, the Women’s Project, the Wilma Theatre, Azuka Theatre Company, Live Girls!, and Theatre Artaud; in New York at the Public Theatre, Dance Theatre Workshop, and Ars Nova; and internationally in Poland, Ireland, Edinburgh (the Traverse) and Prague. A frequent collaborator of the Pig Iron Theatre Company, she most recently worked on Welcome To Yuba City, and was twice nominated for the Barrymore Award for Best New Play, for The Lucia Joyce Cabaret and Shut Eye (dir. Joseph Chaikin). Her writing is published in Theatre Forum, Play: A Journal of Plays, and The Best American Poetry of 1996. She has been an artist in residence at Hedgebrook, Swarthmore College, Princeton University, the Tofte Lake Center for the Arts, and the Lexington Center, and has taught at NYU, Northeastern University, St. Olaf College, Parsons School of Design, and Brown University, where she received her MFA. Deborah is the recipient of two Jerome Fellowships at the Playwrights’ Center (Minneapolis), where she is co-producing director of the Workhaus Collective. She is the recipient of a 2009-2011 Bush Artist Fellowship and a member of New Dramatists.

The Phoenix Notes Swarthmore Alumni in the 2011 Fringe Festival!

Swarthmore alums are well represented in the Fringe including Pig Iron Theatre Company (Dito van Reigersberg and Quinn Baureidel ’94 and Dan Rothenberg’95) and Tangle, a circus arts company founded by Lauren Rile Smith ’08.

http://www.swarthmorephoenix.com/2011/09/01/living/college-well-represented-in-2011-philly-art-festivals