DDA News

DDA Receives $67,500 Grant for New Lights

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:36:00 +0000

Setting the Stage for Energy Efficiency

The UNC Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee (RESPC) congratulates PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art on receiving an RESPC grant of $67,500 for new, energy efficient stage lighting in the Paul Green and Kenan Theatres. With approximate savings of 74,989 kWh per year, the committee is thrilled that these lights can contribute both to energy efficiency and outstanding theatrical productions.

RESPC is a student-created, student-run group whose purpose is to increase the use of renewable energy and sustainable practices through the funding of renewable energy, energy efficiency, maintenance, and energy education projects on campus, as stated by the committee’s mandate. The committee is comprised of Student Congress-appointed Undergraduate and Graduate students as well as ex-officio members of the UNC faculty and administration. In addition, an open student group also aids in evaluating potential projects.

RESPC was created through Student Congress in 2003 in response to a successful Green Energy Campaign led by students who felt renewable energy needed a presence on campus. After a bill placed a referendum on the student ballot to raise student fees $4 per semester, 74.5% of the UNC student body voted in favor of the renewable energy fee. Fee collection began during the 2004-2005 school year. RESPC thus received the responsibility of managing the allocation of the fee and the fee’s renewal via referendum every 4 years.

Since then, RESPC has been behind the creation of many renewable energy projects on campus. The committee has funded the addition of a 172-panel Morrison Dormitory solar-thermal array, the conversion of the Point-To-Point (P2P) bus fleet to run on 20% B-20 biodiesel, and the construction of 30 geothermal wells at the Botanical Garden’s Visitor Education Center.

While such large projects are vital to addressing the need for more renewable energy on campus, RESPC felt that many opportunities for saving energy remained unexplored. Thus, when the fee required student renewal in the spring of 2009, RESPC decided to expand the committee’s mandate to also include energy efficiency, maintenance, and energy education projects.

After 83% of UNC students voted “yes” to approve the new mandate and student fee for another 4 years, RESPC then began examining new types of projects for consideration, such as LED lighting and speaker forums. Energy efficiency projects allow for rapid implementation and a broader range of project proposals, while educational opportunities serve to inform the public about the importance of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Upon receiving PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art’s proposal to replace outdated stage lighting in fall of 2009, RESPC delighted in this opportunity to save energy, provide modern equipment for students working with the lights, and reach out to the theatre-going community. The group has greatly enjoyed working with PlayMakers and the Department of Dramatic Art and looks forward to new project proposals from more UNC departments.

Want more information about RESPC energy grants? Visit respc.unc.edu or email respc@unc.edu.

A New Dress for Mona - Saturday's Show Canceled

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:31:00 +0000

Subject: Saturday show canceled

From Stephen Ashley:
Hi everyone! Big thanks to everyone who braved the weather last night to come see the show!

Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel the show today (Saturday, January 30 at 2pm) due to the weather.

If you already have tickets reserved for today's show, e-mail our house manager, Lee Storrow, at lstorrow@email.unc.edu, and let him know which date you'd like to switch your tickets to.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Get out and enjoy the snow! (If that's your thing. Otherwise stay warm inside.)

Kenneth P. Strong

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:56:00 +0000

We are deeply saddened to report that our dear friend and colleague, Ken Strong, passed away yesterday, January 12th, at 2:20 pm. He had bravely fought with brain cancer for almost 4 years, continuing to teach and act up until the end. He will be greatly missed.

There will be a gathering in the Paul Green Theatre at 1:00pm on Monday, January 18, 2010, to remember and celebrate Ken.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers donations may be made in Ken's name to The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center.

Kenan Theatre 10-Year Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Join us for a celebration commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the opening of the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre. A reception and brief ceremony will be held in conjunction with the opening of Doctor Faustus, presented by DDA Undergraduate Productions, Friday, December 4th. Light refreshments and beverages will be served beginning at 6:30 pm, and brief comments will be made at 7:00 pm. We then invite patrons to join us for that evening's performance, which begins at 8:15 pm, following which will be a gala celebrating both the anniversary and opening night. It is an evening not to be missed.

For more information please email DDA Student Representatives, Erin Hanehan at ehanehan@email.unc.edu or Todd Lewis at tplewis@email.unc.edu.

Prof. McKay Coble elected Faculty Chair

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:52:00 +0000

Annual faculty elections were conducted during the week of April 13-20, 2009 by all members of the voting faculty and Prof. Coble was selected new Chair of the Faculty to succeed Joe Templeton, whose term ended June 30. She will serve three years in her new post. Prof. Coble has served as a member of the Administrative Board of the College of Arts and Sciences, Chair of the Division of Fine Arts and has been Chair of the Department of Dramatic Art for the past 4 years. She has been with PlayMakers Repertory Company since 1987 as a Resident Designer in both costume and set design.

Kate Middleton and Mac Rogers Nominated for New York Innovative Theatre Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:35:00 +0000

The nominees for the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre (IT) Awards have been announced at a fifth anniversary celebration.

Among the nominees: actresses Jan Maxwell (for Scenes From An Execution) and Kate Middleton (for Avow), choreographer Austin McCormick (for The Judgment of Paris), playwright Mac Rogers (whose Universal Robots received multiple nominations), and composer Dave Malloy (for Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage).

For further information on the IT Awards, visit www.nyitawards.com.

Bekah Brunstetter – Off-Broadway Debut

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Bekah Brunstetter ‘04 will see her new play, “Oorah!” premiere Off-Broadway Sept. 1-27 at The Atlantic Theatre, alongside plays by David Mamet and Sam Shepard.

See: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/130526-Plays_by_Mamet_Shepard_and_Brunstetter_Will_Spike_Atlantic_Theater%27s_Season

PLAYMAKERS' JOE HAJ HONORED BY AMERICAN THEATRE

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:26:00 +0000

AMERICAN THEATRE Magazine has named PRC Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj as one of twenty five theatre artists across the country "whom we believe will have a significant impact on the American theatre over the course of the next quarter-century".

Dear Joseph,

For its 25th anniversary issue, coming out in April ’09, AMERICAN THEATRE magazine has formulated a list of 25 theatre artists from across the country whom we believe will have a significant impact on the American theatre over the course of the next quarter-century. You are one of these people.

...We would like to invite you to contribute a personal statement to this special April issue. The topic is “An Eye on the Future: What Will the Next 25 Years Bring to American Theatre?” ........
...We think the conversation that results from your contribution and those of your colleagues will be dynamic and insightful---maybe even prophetic about the future course of the art form we share..........

ALUMNUS MISSY EGAN NOMINATED FOR EMMY AWARD

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Mellissa Egan has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on "All My Children" on which she has been a regular for the last three years.

2009 CAROLINA ARTS BRUNCH YOUNG ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHT JOSH EVANS '07

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:25:00 +0000

Josh Evans earned his BA from the Department of Dramatic Art in 2007. Born and bred in New York City to two Southern Jewish parents, Josh was raised with a great love of the South, and the arts. He is a third generation Tar Heel but the first in his family to go into the theatre. Josh’s father Eli Evans is the recent recipient of an honorary degree in Doctorate of Laws from UNC. Some of Josh’s UNC credits include Sam Shepard’s La Turista with LAB!, Dr. Leon Katz’s The Son of Arlecchino, and Alfred Urhy’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo, which was the inaugural production of UNC’s Jewish Theatre Company. While at UNC, Josh spent his senior year studying acting with Joan Darling. He considers Joan one of his greatest influences.

After moving back to New York in 2007, Josh found his ongoing artistic home at Michael Howard Studios in New York City. After completing their Summer and One-Year Conservatories (having studied with such luminaries as Olympia Dukakis, Polina Klimovitskaya, and others) Josh was asked back to become a member of their Premiere Second-Year Program. Through Michael Howard Studios Josh has connected and worked with some of New York’s best up-and-coming talent in the industry. In fact, Michael Howard Studios has become home to many UNC Dramatic Arts Graduates. He has even continued his studies with Joan Darling as a part of the MHS Conservatory Programs.

While attending Michael Howard, Josh has been studying and working professionally. His work has included over a dozen stage productions, and six film projects including published material like Richard Greenburg’s The Maderati as well as numerous original pieces. He recently starred in a reading of an original play as a part of The Emerging Artist Theatre’s Illuminating Artist’s Series. He opens in a new dark comedy on May 19th, Ted’s Head by Charles Evered, about a south Boston alcoholic who has returned to his hometown to bury the frozen head of Ted Williams in Fenway Park. He portrayed a tortured Frank Sinatra in the throes of divorce and career turmoil in-- In Private: An Evening with Hollywood Icons. Josh’s films can be seen in festivals this summer and on youtube. A highlight of his camera work in New York was booking the job of First Assistant Director on Patsy Rodenburg’s documentary series “Shakespeare in the Present” featuring (Joe Fiennes, Lynn Cohen, Wallace Shawn). He not only worked behind the camera but is also a featured performer on the project portraying the illegitimate yet strikingly funny (and handsome) Edmund in King Lear.

ALUMNUS DAVID CHAPMAN NAMED DRAMA LEAGUE FELLOW

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:24:00 +0000

David Chapman '03 has been named a Fall Directing Fellow of the Drama League. Four Fall Fellows are chosen every year from a large applicant pool; program alumni include Tony-, Obie- and Drama Desk-winning directors, artistic directors, and professors around the country.
David writes: In other news, I will be directing a revival of the coming-of-age musical Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? this month in NYC and Wisconsin, then I will be attending the TCG Conference as part of my internship in International Programs at TCG/ITI, and later this summer I will return to Cherubs to direct Chuck Mee's Fire Island. If any of you will be in NYC, Lake Geneva (WI), Chicago, or Baltimore this summer, please let me know!

SENIOR CARINA CORTESE WINS BEST UNDERGRADUATE PRESENTATION, GILL AWARD and is INDUCTED INTO THE ORDER OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:23:00 +0000

Carina Cortese who presented the research for her Honors Project yesterday at the 2009 University Research Day and won the award for Best Undergraduate Presentation in the Humanities. There will be an awards ceremony on April 20th through the Graduate School.
Fall 2008: Department of Dramatic Art Major Carina Cortese has received a 2007 SURF grant for her project " Family, Memory, and Political Violence in Argentina: the Lizaso Family through its Members". Carina will document the knowledge of Jorge and Miguel Lizaso s only surviving nieces, Laura and Alejandra Voglino (her mother and aunt, respectively), with regards to her family 's involvement with the Montoneros faction in Argentina through a series of extensive interviews that will shed light on these events for use in academic exploration of the period.
The transcripts from the interviews will be integrated into the History department s curriculum at La Universidad Nacional de La Plata where Carina is studying abroad to further understanding of the Dirty War in Argentina. She also looks forward to exploring the stories she collects through a creative means upon her return to UNC." DDA professor Julie Fishell will serve as UNC faculty sponsor for this project.

Carina Cortese has been selected to receive the 2009 Federico G. Gil Award in recognition of her honors thesis, “Afterimages of the Disappeared: Creating a Space for Memory through the Lizaso Family” under the direction of Professor Adam Versényi. The Institute for the Study of the Americas presents this award each year to the undergraduate student who writes the best honors thesis on a Latin American topic.

On March 31, 2008 Carina Cortese was inducted into the UNC Honorary Society of the Order of the Golden Fleece for her outstanding contributions to the Department and the University.

RAY DOOLEY ELECTED TO URTA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Dramatic art professor Ray Dooley of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been elected to the board of directors of the nation’s oldest and largest association of graduate theater training programs.He will serve a three-year term on the board of the University/Resident Theatre Association, which consists of 35 of the most influential schools in theater training in the country and 14 partner theater companies. Dooley is head of the professional actor training program in the dramatic art department in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. He chaired the department from 1999 to 2005. He has taught undergraduate and graduate acting classes and courses in dramatic literature. Dooley has 30 years of professional acting experience that has spanned film, television and stages across the United States and abroad. He is the recipient of a Village Voice OBIE Award for Distinguished Performance at CSC Repertory in New York. In 2006, he played Father Flynn in the European premiere of “Doubt: A Parable” at Vienna’s English Theatre. With PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theater in residence at UNC, Dooley has acted in nearly 50 productions since 1989. Among them, he portrayed Salieri in “Amadeus” and played the title role in “Cyrano de Bergerac.” University/Resident Theatre Association Web site: http://www.urta.com

DAVID WHALEN WINS KEVIN KLINE AWARD

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:14:00 +0000

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and its production of Douglas Carter Beane's The Little Dog Laughed were the top winners at the fourth annual Kevin Kline Awards in St. Louis March 30.
Broadway veteran Lee Roy Reams hosted the 7 PM awards gala that honored the work of theatre companies in the greater St. Louis area (nine were recognized with awards). The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis earned ten Kline Awards, including Outstanding Production of a Play for The Little Dog Laughed, and director Rob Ruggiero was awarded for his work on the Rep stagings of Little Dog and Ella.

The Black Rep earned three Kline Awards for its production of Sarafina!, which took the prize for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

Highlights of the Kevin Kline nominations follow:

Outstanding Lead Actor in a PlayJ. Samuel Davis (Blood Knot, Upstream Theater)
Keith Jochim (Frost/Nixon, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis)
Ben Nordstrom (Mary's Wedding, Echo Theatre Company)
Cody Proctor (The Comedy of Errors, St. Louis Shakespeare)
David Whalen (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis)

JUNIOR ERIN STONEKING AWARDED THE PHILLIPS SCHOLARSHIP

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Erin Stoneking was awarded the Phillips Ambassadors Scholarship to study abroad in India this summer. Erin intends to use the information she gathers for a Senior Honors Thesis. http://www.phillipsambassadors.org/

2009 MARIAN A SMITH AWARD PRESENTED TO MFA STUDENT AMY PAGE

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Cornell) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:12:00 +0000

The 2009 Marian A. Smith Award was presented to MFA Costume Technology student Amy Page. This annual award is presented by the Southeastern Theatre Conference to an outstanding student pursuing a degree in costume design and/or technology.
Former winners of the Marian Smith Award are Jacki Blakeney (2008) and Spencer Henderson (2007) both also students of our MFA Costume Technology Program.

Tar Heel of the Week: Actor-playwright turns on the light for honest discussion

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Reprinted from The News and Observer
Orla Swift, Staff Writer

Mike Wiley knows how easy it is for the mind to distort things.
Sit in a dark room at night, and a coat rack can look like a menacing stranger, a blanket like a monster. Turn on a light, and these imaginary threats melt away.
Wiley aims to be that light switch, transforming the distorting forces of fear, ignorance and prejudice into understanding or at least open debate.
A playwright and actor, Wiley tours the nation performing one-man shows primarily about African-American history. He has portrayed baseball player Jackie Robinson and a slave who mailed himself north in a box. He has re-enacted the Brown v. Board of Education integration case and the Montgomery bus boycott. He has told the tale of the Tuskegee Airmen and of Emmett Till, the Chicago teen murdered while visiting the Mississippi Delta in 1955.
This week he will portray people involved in the execution of death row inmates in Huntsville, Texas, and elsewhere in "Witness to an Execution," the final installment in UNC-Chapel Hill's yearlong Creative Campus project, "Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined."
"My job is to turn on the light and show people different cultures, different individuals, different stories, so that you can have an honest discussion about race, you can have an honest discussion about execution," says Wiley, 35, who lives in Apex. "If you don't know the different angles of that culture or that particular individual, then you are in the dark."
Since he launched his touring company in 1999, Wiley's lively shows have attracted a devoted fan base locally and nationwide. And he is continually creating new shows.
Premiering soon
In September, he hopes to premiere his solo adaptation of local writer Timothy B. Tyson's historical memoir "Blood Done Sign My Name," about a 1970 race-motivated murder in Oxford.
In October at the Holly Springs Cultural Center, he'll premiere a two-person adaptation of Richard Glaubman and George Dawson's "Life is So Good," Dawson's account of being a black man in the segregated South and learning to read at age 98.
Wiley performs in community centers, in churches, in traditional theaters such as Chapel Hill's Deep Dish and Durham's Manbites Dog, and in middle and high schools across the nation.
Most of his performances are followed by post-show discussions, the highlight for Wiley, who has grown adept at dispelling the tension his shows can create and encouraging people to speak.
"He can open up a door and bring the audience in with him," says "Execution" director Kathryn Hunter Williams. "And in that way, they're comfortable enough to go with him to places that may not be comfortable for them to be."
Hunter Williams anticipates that the March slaying of UNC-CH student Eve Carson will make Wiley's new show particularly emotional for local theatergoers and the post-show conversation potentially cathartic.
"We're human," she says of audiences. "We really want to be heard."
Early stage work
Wiley began acting in elementary school, when he was asked to play Abraham Lincoln -- an irony not lost on him even then. By middle school, he was performing Martin Luther King Jr. speeches and other monologues at churches and community centers in Roanoke, Va., where he grew up.
He says he was driven by how proud his performances made his mother, a divorcee who worked for a night-vision goggle manufacturer. Lately, Linda Wiley has taken to creating educational puppet shows, an avocation she credits to her son. He insists it was in her all along and she was the source of his own creative instincts.
In high school, Wiley went to what was then the Soviet Union with an international group called Peace Child, performing a play that U.S. and Soviet teens had written about nuclear weapons, social issues and the environment.
He wrote his first one-man play -- "One Noble Journey," about Henry "Box" Brown, the Virginia slave who mailed himself north to freedom -- in 1999, after noting a lack of touring artists focusing on African-American history.
He didn't anticipate the escalating success of his solo shows, but those who hired Wiley are not surprised.
Cissy O'Neal, who heads the social studies department at Chapel Hill-Carrboro's McDougle Middle School, says she never has to remind students to sit still when Wiley's on stage.
"By the end of the performance, Mike Wiley has commanded their highest respect and regard," says O'Neal, whose school has hosted several of his shows.
Wiley moved to the Triangle after premiering "One Noble Journey" at Durham's Manbites Dog in 2000. He later earned a master's degree from UNC-CH, where "Witness to an Execution" was born.
The 75-minute play, commissioned by UNC's PlayMakers Repertory Company, grew from an acting class assignment. Wiley had heard a radio documentary of the same name produced by Sound Portraits for National Public Radio. He was riveted.
"You listen to it, and no matter what side you come down on in this whole debate, you have to realize that execution is inhumane to the executioner," Wiley says. "In writing this piece, I sought to make that apparent."
While at UNC-CH, Wiley wrote his Jackie Robinson show and also performed in "Brown v. Board of Education," which Apex playwright Serena Ebhardt wrote with Wiley in mind.
Colleagues impressed
Ebhardt has directed several Wiley shows, and she also produces and performs intimate historical shows for her own EbzB Productions. She is impressed with Wiley's ability to portray multiple characters and admires the complexity of his writing.
"While many of his works examine civil rights, Mike doesn't frame his stories as black vs. white, good vs. bad," Ebhardt wrote by e-mail. "Instead, he examines events from all points of view -- in context and with relativity. His ultimate moral is clear, but he's explained his parable to those that have ears and still produced an evening of amazement for those who cannot yet hear."
Tyson praises those same qualities, which he says made Wiley an ideal adapter for "Blood Done Sign My Name."
He saw Wiley for the first time at Deep Dish Theater in the 2006 premiere of "Dar He: The Lynching of Emmett Till" -- a topic Tyson has also researched at length. Awestruck, he promptly bought 11 tickets to the next night's performance so he could bring his children, their friends and others.
Tyson says he considers Wiley a colleague, a sophisticated and diligent historian.
"Even though he's a playwright, and there's a sense in which this is a work of the imagination," Tyson says, "it's really all historical research from documentary sources, which he explores and interprets and then makes come to life."
Ebhardt calls Wiley's work a ministry, a term Wiley says he resisted at first because it seemed too heavy and demanding of reverence. But now he says he embraces it.
"It is a ministry, because it makes people think, and that's what ministers do: They make you think; they move you to action or at least dialogue," he says. "I'm hoping that by what we're creating, we will move people to action."
Published: Apr 20, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Apr 20, 2008 01:43 AM

UNC's Playwriting Studio is proud to announce the winner of this year's Sam Selden Prize for Playwriting:

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:47:00 +0000

This year the Samual Selden Playwriting jury chose Ben Greene's HANNAH LEE as the first prize winner winner and awarded honorable mentions to TORTURE IS BEST by Eric Martin and THE PERFECT EULOGY by Scott Kaplan.

Reading of HANNAH LEE in Room 101 of the Center for Dramatic Art, 5:00 pm on Friday, April 25th . Refreshments and snacks will be served.

PATP Matthew Murphy at Malibu Film Festival

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:16:00 +0000

"Somay Ku: A Uganda Tennis Story," a documentary featuring original African percussion music by Matthew Murphy, PATP '10, has won the Best Documentary prize at the prestigious Malibu International Film Festival. "Somay Ku," directed by photojournalist and tennis pro Rex Miller of Rexpix Media and co-produced and edited by Chapel Hill native Ted Roach, received it's world premiere in Malibu on Saturday, 5 April. One of only four documentaries selected from myriad applicants, "Somay Ku" became the talk of the festival, a hit among audiences and adjudicators alike. The film is currently slated to appear on The Tennis Channel beginning in September 2008.
Attached to this e-mail is the official press release from Rexpix Media announcing the film's Malibu win. Other press:

Click here for an interview in The Durham News with director Rex Miller.
Click here for a Malibu television interview with Miller and co-producer David Thayne.

DEAD MAN WALKING, The Play

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:34:00 +0000

DEAD MAN WALKING
The Play

UNC Department of Dramatic Art Mainstage in association with the year-long Carolina Creative Campus Initiation “Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined” presents playwright Tim Robbins’ moving drama Dead Man Walking based on the book by Sister Helen Prejean in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre, located in the Center for Dramatic Art on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This production is a part of the Dead Penalty Discourse Network Play Project that selects schools and universities across the US to perform and use Dead Man Walking, “as a focus for deepening reflection on one of the key moral issues of our day.”

Faculty director and PlayMakers Repertory Company member Julie Fishell helms the upcoming production of Dead Man Walking. The play is crafted from a composite of Roman Catholic Sister Helen Prejean’s first experiences with death row inmates, victims of violent crimes, their families, penal and judicial systems, and philosophies of Faith. Through her correspondence with guilty and condemned murderer, Matthew Poncelet, Sister Prejean experiences the first-hand devastation of senseless violence and confronts the unimaginable suffering of victim’s families. The journey of the play unfolds as Sister Helen confronts personal and provocative truths about legitimate and heart-felt stances on the sentence of execution for Poncelet and leads her toward ownership of a deeply-held, controversial and challenging belief that the only humane response to the most violent of crimes is non-violence. At the curtain, the seeds of resolve have been sown, and the real-life mission of Sister Helen Prejean, to foster change on Death Penalty legislation through community conversation, collective awareness and civic participation, sits in our midst.

Dead Man Walking is part of The Death Penalty Examined, this year’s Creative Campus Initiative headed by the Office of the Executive Director of the Arts. As part of the initiative, members of the campus and local communities will examine the death penalty from all points of view during the 2007/2008 school year. Several post-show discussions will help to integrate the play’s topics with our campus, local, and national communities. Post-show information is listed below.

Please join faculty director Julie Fishell, her cast and crew of over thirty Undergraduates, and Department of Dramatic Art Technical Production Graduate and Undergraduate Program Designers Kalen Larsen (Sets and Projections), Kyle Longwell (Lights), Michael Bagley (Sound) and Lauren Reid (Costumes) in an artistic, educative exploration of justice, power, faith, and humanity in this spring’s Dead Man Walking.

For Carolina Weeks broadcasts on Dead Man Walking and an interview with Sister Helen Prejean go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TgfKblaaxo&feature=related

http://www.carolinaweek.org/carolina_week_archive/carolina_week_2008/4/07.html

Death penalty project to feature performances, multi-media exhibit

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:22:00 +0000

Dramatic performances and an interactive multimedia exhibit will highlight spring events on campus for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s year-long discussion of the death penalty.

“Still…Life, An Exploration of a Killing State, North Carolina,” an original play that examines the death penalty in North Carolina, will be presented by The Justice Theater Project and Carolina Performing Arts. It will be directed by Joseph Megel, an artist-in-residence in the department of communication studies. Performance dates are March 27-29 and April 5 at 8 p.m. and April 6 at 2 p.m. in Swain Hall. A post-show reception with a discussion facilitated by Rene Alexander Craft, a postdoctoral fellow in communication studies, will be held April 6.

The Justice Theater Project is an activist theater group. The group’s mission is to use the dramatic arts as a way to call attention to the needs of the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed. Photographic images projected throughout the performance will be provided by photojournalist Scott Langley from his documentary death penalty project.

Tickets are $15 adults, $12 students/seniors; March 27 is “Pay What You Can Night.” Tickets may be purchased in advance through the Memorial Hall box office on Cameron Avenue, (919) 843-3333, or at the door for all performances.

“Spectacular Justice” is an interactive media installation that creates a look at the death penalty through images and sound. The free, multi-media exhibit is designed by artist Joyce Rudinsky, an associate professor, in collaboration with multi-media lab director Mark Robinson, both in the department of communication studies, along with colleagues at the Renaissance Computing Institute. The exhibit opens March 28 with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. at the ITS Manning building. It is open every Friday and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Social Computing Room from March 29 to April 26. The Social Computing Room is a 24-by-24-foot room with continuous video on all four walls.

Tim Robbins’ play “Dead Man Walking,” based on the book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean, will be presented by the department of dramatic art mainstage April 11-15 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road. The production is directed by department of dramatic art professor Julie Fishell and features a cast and crew of more than 30 undergraduates. Performance times are April 11, 13 and 14 at 8:15 p.m., April 12 and 15 at 5 p.m. and April 14 at 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 general admission, free for PlayMakers Repertory Company subscribers and dramatic art privilege card holders. Tickets are available at the door one hour prior to each performance. For information, e-mail ddamainstage@yahoo.com.

Free post-show discussions will be held April 12-14. On April 12, an inter-faith guest panel will explore “prisms of faith,” a conversation of religious histories, stances and actions on death penalty issues. On April 13, Sister Maureen Fenlon, the national coordinator for the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project, will lead the discussion. On April 14, the 4 p.m. post-show discussion will be moderated by Mark Kleinschmidt, executive director of the Fair Trial Initiative and a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council. The production team will discuss how they put together the play after the April 14 8:15 p.m. performance.

PlayMakers Repertory Company, UNC’s professional theatre in residence, will present the world premiere of “Witness to an Execution” April 23-27 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art. Commissioned by PlayMakers, Mike Wiley’s new one-man play explores capital punishment, recounting tales inspired by candid and chilling interviews from death row in Texas. Wiley graduated in 2004 from UNC’s graduate acting program.

Shows will be at 8 p.m. nightly and 2 p.m. on April 27. Tickets are $24 to $32 and may be purchased at http://www.playmakersrep.org or by calling (919) 962-PLAY.

“Witness” concludes the inaugural season of PlayMakers’ PRC² series, which showcases gripping and topical stories, followed by engaging artist/audience discussions after each performance. Wiley, a Triangle-based actor and playwright, will be joined by death penalty scholars and activists for “Witness” post-show talks.

The communication studies and dramatic art departments and PlayMakers Repertory Company are part of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. New York’s Drama League named PlayMakers “one of the best regional theatres in America,” and the North Carolina Theatre Conference gave PlayMakers its Professional Theatre of the Year Award.

The events are part of Carolina Performing Arts’ year-long project, “Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined,” which uses the arts to foster discussion of the controversial issue. The project is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Creative Campus Innovations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

DDA STUDENT ADAM WRIGHT WINS FRANCIS PHILLIPS SCHOLARSHIP

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:55:00 +0000

DDA Major/Creative Minor Adam Wright has been awarded a prestigious Francis L. Phillips Travel Scholarship http://www.unc.edu/depts/travel/fpts_intro.html. Adam will be traveling to London, Ireland, Scotland and various other places to attend festivals, conduct interviews and research oral storytelling traditions in order to further his abilities as a director and writer.

A new day for PlayMakers

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:09:00 +0000

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february 2008

Joe Haj ’88 is passionate about making theatre relevant, especially for today’s busy audience members. So when he returned to his dramatic art training ground at UNC in 2006 to become producing artistic director of PlayMakers Repertory Company, he was ready to take some risks to entice more people to the award-winning regional theatre based in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The first thing he did was add a sixth play to the main stage season in the Paul Green Theatre. Then he started a new second-stage series called PRC2 in the smaller, 200-seat Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre, where the company could offer works that wrestle with some of the difficult, challenging issues of our time.

“In our on-demand world of TiVo, NetFlix, Internet home pages and iPods, when we control more narrowly than ever before what part of the world we let in, theatre remains a place for us to see the world from another’s point of view,” Haj wrote in the company’s season brochure.

He took these words to heart as he starred in the first play of the new PRC2 series, “When the Bulbul Stopped Singing.” The controversial one-man show is based on the true-life experiences of a Palestinian human rights lawyer during the Israeli Army’s siege of Ramallah in 2002. After each show, Haj invited the audience to participate in a panel discussion airing both sides to the conflict.

Haj said he left those talks having learned something new each time. Panel discussions have now become a stable of the ongoing series, making the PlayMakers experience more interactive than ever.

“We are in a world where there are fewer and fewer places where people with really different, opposing points of view can sit in a room and have a respectful conversation with one another,” Haj said. “If we can provide that place a couple of times a year, that strikes me as a very good thing.”

Haj is fulfilling his dream of turning the Center for Dramatic Art into what he calls a cultural watering hole.

“I feel like we can make the hardest drama work as long as people feel that what we are doing is relevant to their lives.”

There’s still time to get in on the action. The rest of PlayMakers’ 2007-2008 season includes: “Doubt”, “Topdog/Underdog,” “Amadeus,” and “Witness to an Execution.” Details and ticket information are online at www.playmakersrep.org

-- This is a sneak preview of a longer feature written by Kim Spurr ’88, from the spring issue of Carolina Arts & Sciences magazine, which she edits. If you would like to receive a copy of this issue (coming out in late March), which celebrates the transformative impact of private funds from College alumni and friends in the Carolina First Campaign, send your name, mailing address and email address to: artsandsciences@unc.edu

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3 Treats on Playmakers' 1927 Playbill

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:10:00 +0000

Big night of culture directed by famous UNC drama professor

HELEN ARTHUR-CORNETT

"North Carolina has the first folk drama in the United States," declared well-known professor Frederick Koch, who founded the famed Playmakers at the University of North Carolina, right here in Concord on Feb. 28, 1927.

Well, I don't know how many of you might remember the famous professor, though he continued teaching drama in Chapel Hill, at least into the 1940s -- when I was in UNC's summer school and took a playwriting class under him.

In Concord, the Playmakers had presented three one-act plays for local folk. According to a 1927 newspaper account (and it could have been one of perhaps three local papers being published here then), the crowd was nigh on to SRO status -- standing room only.

The article quoted one spectator: "I enjoyed the plays and I'm sure everyone present did also. Every member. ... was a real actor or actress of ability and talent."

The good professor, during intervals between the plays, added that North Carolina was the "first to write drama of the life of the people by a native of the state and then to produce it with North Carolina talent."

Now, the article didn't say who that native Tar Heel was -- but Paul Green comes to mind, although I'm not sure his "The Lost Colony" was written as early as 1927. Of course you remember Paul Green, whose book "In Abraham's Bosom" won a Pulitzer Prize, back in those long-ago days.

Anyway, back to Koch, who directed all three of the rave-notice plays that night 81 years ago.

I remember him well. He assigned us all to write an original one act play -- the only play I ever tackled. As I was having a Blue Heaven ball, with dances and activities all the time -- and with thousands of military stationed there for schooling in Chapel Hill in 1943, it was a poor play. But I eked out a passing grade.

Again, thanks to Alex Patterson and his "Aunt Janie" Patterson Wagoner -- who have saved every scrap of local history they could find in Cabarrus County -- I read this yellowing newspaper account of the Playmakers in Concord with exceeding interest.

In 1927, Concord was little more than a slow-growing but successful mill village. But there had long been a group of townspeople who aspired to more cultural activities.

Thus, this probably was a really big fine arts night for local folk.

One of the three plays "showed the life in Carolina during the early history of the colony, showing its superstitions." Surprisingly, the news article didn't give the name of the play, but wrote that those colonists declared they didn't believe in witches -- yet they plugged their houses' keyholes to keep suspected witches out.

The second play, a tragedy, "Old Wash Lucas," was modern, involving a stingy farmer who was partially paralyzed, and his daughter, "who had slaved for her father."

Happily, the third play, "In Dixon's Kitchen," was a comedy involving a young man trying to woo his love -- amid her family and a pesky little brother.

These simple plays, Koch told the audience, helped to present "the rich store of legend and history to be found in the tales and songs of the village and country folk...."

So a well-deserved thank you, again, to Alex Patterson and his aunt, who provided for this lively glimpse into the early life of this town.

A Look Back Helen Arthur-Cornett

Reprinted from the Charlotte Observer

Helen Arthur-Cornett is a local historian and a free-lance writer for Cabarrus Neighbors. Her column is a regular feature of Cabarrus Neighbors.

Professor Adam Versenyi is named the Milly S. Barranger Distinguished Professor

noreply@blogger.com (mckay) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:21:00 +0000

Dr. Adam Versenyi has been named the first Milly S. Barranger Distinguished Professor of Dramatic Art. Versenyi is Head of Dramaturgy for the DDA and PlayMakers Repertory Company and also serves as the Chair of UNC's Program in International Studies. He is the creator and editor of "The Mercurian".