Performances - 2010

A publication of the University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance

Summer 2010

From The Chair

The Task Before Us Education technology and research professors Paul Kirschner and Jeroen van Merrienboer have written a number of widely adopted works on designing instructional programs for problem-centered learning.

Their Complex Learning models involve “the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes; the coordination of qualitatively different ‘constituent skills’, and often the transfer of what is learned in the school or training setting to daily life and work settings.” In Ten Steps to Complex Learning: A Systematic Approach to Four-Component Instructional Design, Kirschner and Merrienboer stress that successful Complex Learning approaches must focus on “authentic learning tasks” -- that is, situations where learners apply knowledge to real-world situations.

Our theatre and dance majors have spent the year immersed in the Complex Learning experience of mounting our numerous main stage and laboratory productions. These real world “authentic learning tasks” strive to integrate the knowledge and insight gained from the study of the creative process, technique, history, theory and criticism into substance by the arts of the director, actor, designer and technician. Under the sure guidance of our exceptionally dedicated and gifted faculty, the productions we mount are designed learning experiences applicable to the future endeavors that our students choose to tackle.

Creating these relevant and high quality experiences is not easy or inexpensive. The continuing state budget crisis requires that our faculty look at how best to continue this journey toward ever-increasing excellence in teaching, service, scholarship and creative achievement. Recently and continuing into the months/ years ahead, we have dedicated ourselves to reexamining our course and making the decisions necessary to maximize our resources while continuing the department’s rapidly increasing arch toward wider national/international recognition and excellence.

Now more than ever, we are counting on our supporters. Whether a community patron, graduate student, undergraduate major, general Carolina student, faculty, staff or university administrator, each person is a critical player in the excellent educational experience we provide our students in preparation for their futures. Make no mistake: your efforts impact the lives of our students. Indeed, this newsletter is full of examples of achievements made possible through the assistance of our supporters.

In light of the ever-challenging budget situation, we face a formidable task but should be inspired by the strength and commitment of our team.

Jim Hunter Chair and Artistic Director

Performances is a publication of the University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance for alumni, parents, students and friends. We value your feedback about our programs, and are happy to share your news.

To contact us, call our main office at (803) 7774288, or email theatre@sc.edu. We invite you to visit us on the web at www.cas.sc.edu/thea, where you can access the latest news and performance information, and sign up to receive our monthly email newsletter.

On The Cover From left, Adrianne Eby, Catherine Curl and Melissa Goodfellow serve up the comic romance in Robert Richmond’s original adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac at Longstreet Theatre, September 2009.

The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of South Carolina offers undergraduate majors the BA in theatre or dance, and, at the graduate level, the MFA degree in acting, design or directing, as well as MA and MAT degrees. Our Theatre Program, known as Theatre South Carolina, is an extension of classroom teaching and stages literature that serves the liberal arts mission of the university. Ours is the only school in South Carolina that offers an MFA in theatre, the highest degree possible in the fields of design and performance. With majors in Performance and Choreography and Teacher Certification, our Dance Program provides specialized career training through a sound foundation of guided practice in the disciplines and principles of classical ballet, modern, jazz and related academic course work, attracting a cosmopolitan enrollment of students from across the country and abroad.

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Also receives University’s Distinguished Professor Award For dance professor Susan Anderson, 2009 was the crowning year in her three-decade-long University of SC career.

In 2009, Professor Anderson received two distinguished awards, honoring both her excellence in teaching and years of dedicated service to her students.

First, in April, Anderson was given the university’s highest teaching award, being named the Micheal J. Mungo Distinguished Professor for 2009. Anderson was the first faculty member of any of the university’s performing arts areas to receive the award since its inception in 1957.

That honor was followed by an even greater recognition in November, as Professor Anderson was singled out among all faculty of the state’s four-year colleges as the 2009 SC Governor’s Professor of the Year.

In a formal ceremony at the SC Statehouse, Anderson was praised

by Betty Davidson, education ombudsman for Gov. Mark Sanford, as “a woman of vision [with] great passion for teaching. She guided the university’s dance program into a new era.”

The professor accepted the award with deference to the faculty, administrators and students who have helped facilitate her achievements at the university. In comments made at the ceremony she remarked, “we are all put on this earth with a mission,” adding that it has been her personal mission to make a positive impact on the dance world.

Anderson has certainly made her mark at the university, forging a now-thriving dance program from very humble origins. She arrived at USC in 1975 as a part-time dance instructor in the physical education department; she formed the USC Dance Company in 1977. As she recounted to Columbia’s The Free Times newspaper, “We put on a performance at the Booker T. Washington auditorium -- I think we did a takeoff on Jesus Christ Superstar.

Department News

Anderson Named Governor’s Professor of the Year

Professor Anderson receives the official Governor’s award from Ken Wingate, chairman of the S.C. Commission on Higher Education November 2009

Then the next year I got serious, and I said I’m going to do a real concert and it was highly successful.”

The dance program became incorporated with the theatre program soon after. In 2005, after decades of being limited to offering only a dance minor, the Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance and Dance Education became a reality. In a very short four years, there are currently over 80 students enrolled, and the program impacts approximately 3000 students each academic year through its very popular dance appreciation courses.

Just this year, the program moved into a brand-new 32,000-squarefoot facility. It had until then been housed where it had started -- in a basement hallway of the university’s Blatt P.E. Center.

Squash courts had been converted into makeshift studios and a very cramped shared office space for all the dance faculty. The brand new building affords students and faculty three state-ofthe-art studios and classrooms, and new faculty offices.

Anderson was first notified of her being awarded the Governor’s award in a surprise visit to one of her classes by USC President Harris Pastides, who remarked that she “has built a flourishing program that has shaped the lives of young people throughout South Carolina and the nation, and has changed the artistic landscape in our community.”

Professor Anderson (front) poses with dance students and faculty in October after USC President Harris Pastides (back row, 9th from right) made a surprise announcement about the Governor’s award during one of her classes.

At the formal awards ceremony, award presenter Davidson echoed that sentiment, adding, “Susan Anderson has said that she is just getting started. Her vision continues.”

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Department News

New Performance Center Named The Department saw the birth of a new theatre performance wing in Fall, 2009, with the first two productions of The Center for Performance Experiment.

An extension of the teaching and research work of professors Steven Pearson and Robyn Hunt, The Center for Performance Experiment is described as “a performance laboratory dedicated to actor training.” The Center is housed in the university’s Hamilton Gymnasium, which during World War II was established as a training center for the US Navy, and for years was the center of ROTC activity on campus. With walls emblazoned with words such as “Decisiveness,” “Initiative,” and “Courage,” the gym has become a uniquely appropriate space for the work of Hunt and Pearson, which seeks to combine the physical approach of Eastern acting techniques with the more psychological and experiencebased Western approach.

For several years, Hamilton Gymnasium has been used by Hunt and Pearson as a site for experimental work and has played host to the “Physical Approaches to Acting” Summer Intensive offered through their production company, Pacific Performance Project/ east.

“We are thrilled to see this unique performance training venue used for the staging of fully-realized experimental productions,” says Department Chair and Artistic Director Jim Hunter. “After several years of using the gymnasium as a space for physical exploration by our actors, it is heartening to now welcome our audiences into this very special location.”

Chekhov. The first, Balance, was a reverie on The Three Sisters; the second, Gravity (workshopped at Longstreet Theatre before a successful NYC run) used The Cherry Orchard as its jumping-off point. Flight references characters and themes from The Seagull.

Pearson describes Flight as a “theatrical poem” which explores the thrill and daring of the first women aviators. The play’s narrative follows two daring French actresses who are preparing to make a history-making flight from Paris to Moscow in 1913, a time when, for women, being an actress was considered improper and being an aviator was considered impossible.

Flight’s major set piece was an exhaustively-researched replica of the Bleriot XI monoplane flown by many of the pioneers of aviation. Research on the incredible recreation started over a year prior to the production. The director recruited the actors as construction assistants, giving them a unique hands-on feeling for the skill and courage required to fly one of the fragile wooden and canvas planes.

Performing in the production were: Robyn Hunt, guest Lee Fitzpatrick, MFA-alumni Jen Burry and Eric Bultman, and undergraduate theatre major William Shuler. Another MFA alumnus, Brian Hanscom, served as Assistant Director for the production.

Pearson and Hunt are working on taking Flight to other venues around the country, including a possible run in NYC.

“We’re delighted to have a highly flexible space which can be used for pure research,” says Pearson. “It is critical that faculty and students be able to envision creating original work in an expansive environment. This Center will allow us to experiment freely with various spatial performance configurations, and with new ideas of three-dimensional staging, space/time relationships, and connections between theatre, dance and other media.”

The Center’s debut performance was Louis Nowra’s play Cosi, a comedy about a young director and his motley group of actors, all patients of a psychiatric facility, who are set on performing Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. Set in the institutional environment of the hospital’s gymnasium, the choice of Cosi as the Center’s first production was an especially appropriate one, giving audiences an “environmental theatre” experience as they watched the story unfold in a space very much like the one described in the play.

Cosi played to enthusiastic audiences from October 1-4, 2009.

Actors Brian Clowdus (left) and Daniel Hill in Cosi.

Cosi featured MFA Acting candidates Brian Clowdus, LaToya Codner, Daniel Hill, Ryan Krause, Katie Krueger, Sonya Thompson, Lin Ying, Todd Zimbleman and undergraduate actor Esteban Nevarez.

From November 18-22, the Center saw its second production, the premiere of Hunt and Pearson’s original play, Flight. Years in development, Flight is the third in a trilogy of original works that Pearson calls “riffs” on the works of Russian playwright Anton 4

Steven Pearson (left) and Jen Burry work on the construction of Flight’s plane (inset, Burry with finished plane)

Two dance students are working to bring dance education into the 21st century.

Bonnie Boiter-Jolley; Emily Enloe

Seniors Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, a Dance Performance major, and Emily Enloe, a Dance Education major, have been working with Dance Education professor Mila Parrish in research on incorporating video-conferencing technology into the realm of dance education. Both students received Magellan Scholarships for their participation in the study.

The study, dubbed iDanceSC, explores the use of internet videoconferencing technology to bring the teaching of dance to students who may not otherwise have access to a dance educator, looking at the limitations and opportunities for improvement of this “virtual” teaching process.

Bonnie Boiter-Jolley explains, “Our research is an attempt to see how videoconferencing works in dance education, and to continue to work with the possibilities so that in the future it can be employed in other methods.”

Emily Enloe adds, “This is definitely not a replacement for inperson teaching. When I first went into the project, I had the narrow view that it could provide a substitute for teaching dance in person, but I have realized that it provides more of a supplemental benefit to teaching in the classroom.”

ing distance to USC. Dreher and AC Flora were identified because they are relatively close to USC and are part of the Richland One school system, which has dedicated videoconferencing staff and room in the school, as well as experienced dance educators on faculty.”

In addition to the potential benefit of bringing arts to rural communities, Bonnie says she has recognized its potential for the professional setting, where it could provide repetiteurs and choreographers an easy and money-saving way to given their input on work being licensed around the world. “It could work better with professional companies or more advanced students in the sense that they are more familiar with the terminology, movements and vocabulary of dance,” she says, lessening the communication challenges inherent in videoconferencing.

Department News

“Virtual” Dance Class Comes to Life with iDanceSC

Both students acknowledge that those challenges are exacerbated by current limitations in the technology. “Compared to teaching in person,” says Emily, “with video you have to work around the technical obstructions of sound and feed delays, which requires the teacher and student to focus more on comprehension.”

The two students presented the findings from their last year of research at USC’s annual “Discovery Day” in April, 2010. They are working on getting the two high schools connected through the technology so the two schools can continue using it to work with each other in the future.

Boiter-Jolley and Enloe have been working with students at two area high schools, A.C. Flora and Dreher, in their research.

Boiter-Jolley says that the dance education component of the project has given her a fresh perspective. “I’ve taught students in the conservatory setting, which is just focused on ballet,” she says, “but our students in the general education setting don’t have the dance training that conservatory students do. When you’re in the room with the students, it’s great, but outside of the classroom, it becomes much more difficult because so much of traditional dance instruction is hands-on. Apart from the technical glitches, it’s difficult to communicate dance using just your words.”

Enloe agrees, noting that “this is a new way for teachers as well as students to learn a better way of communicating dance. Instead of it being about the visual art of dance, this method of instruction forces us to focus on how well we articulate the ideas of dance to our students. I am really paying attention more to the small details of the education process, having to use my words more carefully in teaching my students.”

Dr. Parrish says the iDanceSC project is “a long-term technologyin-education research project geared to meet the needs of rural SC communities. Since this project requires both video-conferenced and live instruction, I began with schools which were within driv-

Above, left screen, Dr. Mila Parrish; Below, from left, Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, Emily Enloe and Dr. Parrish test communication with a partner school.

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Department News

Theatre & Dance Undergrads Named Magellan Scholars Theatre and Dance undergraduates were awarded prestigious Magellan Scholarships in the 2009/10 academic year.

From the Theatre program, Senior theatre majors Gabrielle Peterson, Sydney Mitchell and Jeni Miller were recipients for the 2009-10 academic year. From the dance program, Seniors Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Emily Enloe received scholarships for Fall ‘09 (for more about Bonnie and Emily’s project, see iDance article, previous page). The Magellan Scholar program provided funds to all of these students for use in pursuing individual research projects.

Peterson’s project, titled “Of Myth and Legend: Tales of Scottish Lore for American Children’s Theatre,” took her to the United Kingdom for a semester of study at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Associate Professor Robert Richmond served as her mentor for the project.

Peterson’s research culminated in a children’s play, Mirrored Time, that teaches young people about Scotland’s rich histoPeterson works with an Iron Age tool at an archeological site at Loch Tay ry of oral and written folklore. in Scotland Peterson says the play “sees the world through the eyes of a child” and is set “in the Pictish Kingdom in the highlands of Scotland.” The Pict civilization dominated what is now Northern Scotland from the 3rd to 10th Centuries A.D. She explained in her scholarship proposal, “I am very passionate about this project because it incorporates my love of the arts and my belief that theatre is a social tool that has the ability to both educate and entertain. With this project, I will have the opportunity to share my interest in the cultural past of Scotland with children in a way that may also develop their interest in the arts and in other cultures.”

While in Scotland Peterson was able to attend the famed Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival, as well as visit museums and archaeological sites and take classes in Scottish dance, archaeology, history and culture.

project. She says that the genesis of the play came three years prior. “At that time, I was haunted by a poem by Lorca called Canción del Jinete, or Song of the Horseman, and knew that something about that poem would be the impetus for this play. All I had was the smell of the space, a haunting feeling and that poem.

I knew I wanted to immerse my audience in the story in a tangible way, and thus began my thoughts of environmental theatre.”

Funds received from the Magellan program enabled Mitchell to travel to New York City to see experimental theatre works that served as both research and inspiration for her production. She says, “The experience of writing and producing the play, and the positive feedback I have received from peers and advisors, has ignited a confidence and excitement for continuing to grow as a playwright.” She has already submitted the work to festivals in New York and has plans to submit it to a theatre in Atlanta.

Senior Jeni Miller received a Spring, 2010 Magellan grant to assist in the co-creation of a brand new university class on the field of Documentary Theatre. Working with Assistant Professor Victor Holtcamp, Miller developed, supported and administered the class, Jeni Miller which introduced students to the various forms of documentary theatre, culminating in a student-created original documentary work.

Miller reports, “The class decided our final project would examine women’s roles in the south and over the course of 3 weeks, the four class members (myself included) conducted interviews in Columbia, Greenville, Clemson, other towns in SC, and within the USC community, and compiled the transcripts into a short piece on the topic.”

Along with the other Magellan scholars, Miller presented her work (and a portion of the original play, at the 2010 Discovery Day event at the university, an annual showcase of undergraduate scholarship. (See the related story in this newsletter.) She remarked in her project’s abstract, “Working on this course was a highly rewarding experience; I want to teach at a collegiate level, and the thrilling thing about this experience was creating new knowledge with our piece and composing it into a tangible form for others. People challenge theatre for its relevance for today – audiences may tire of traditional theatre, but documentary theatre challenges what is locally relevant to take on universal implications.”

For Sydney Mitchell the award helped to fund the research and production of her original play, Lorca: Alone in a Dream, about the influential Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, which was performed in the catacombs of Longstreet Theatre in February, 2010. Under the mentorship of professor Robert Richmond, Mitchell staged the play as a piece of environmental theatre, with actors moving freely around the audience, and the audience moving to various locations in the performance space.

The play also served as Mitchell’s Honors College senior thesis 6

Undergraduate Theatre major Lee Gottschalk as Federico García Lorca in Sydney Mitchell’s Lorca: Alone in a Dream, staged in the catacombs of Longstreet Theatre. Inset: Sydney Mitchell.

For graduate students in the MFA acting track time is a precious commodity. From taking classes to teaching classes, studying and rehearsing, students simply don’t have time for much of an outside life.

However, for those that know him, it comes as no surprise that Brian Clowdus, second-year MFA candidate, has spent what time he does have starting a theatre... in Atlanta.

MFA Candidate Brian Clowdus

Since starting his MFA training at the university, Brian has been heading up the development of The Serenbe Playhouse, which will stage its first season this summer.

“Doing this while in grad school has been the most insane challenge, but hopefully I am setting myself up for an opportunity that will pave my way after graduation. I came to grad school to obtain a degree that would give me options and allow me to grow roots somewhere, and when this opporunity happened, I realized that it would be stupid to not pursue it.”

The Serenbe Playhouse is part of the newly developed Serenbe (Sehr-en-bee) residential community located outside of Atlanta.

Recently called “The Sonoma of the New South” by the New York Times, Serenbe promotes itself as a new type of urban development which values sustainability of its resources. The community is preserving 70% of its land as greenspace in an effort to, in their words, “demonstrate how development can accommodate the need for housing with minimal impact on nature.” “Green” features of the community include geo-thermal heated buildings,

native plant landscaping, a walking path that connects all points of the development, and an organic farm which supplies its produce to Serenbe’s restaurants and markets.

Brian discovered the community in the summer of 2008 and says he was “transported” by the community and its suitability for a professional theatre.

“I worked in several regional theatres before coming back to school, and have become familiar with the ingredients required for a success in that arena. Regional theatres should be located in a community that is willing and hungry to embrace the arts, provide patrons with a unique theatre environment and be near a large city which has an established theatre audience. Serenbe has all of those elements.”

Department News

MFA Student Founds New Theatre in Atlanta

He immediately contacted the community developers, who put him in touch with the Serenbe Institute, a non-profit entity which uses resident fees to attract artists and others who can enrich the community. After then submitting a three-year business plan, the Serenbe Playhouse was born in Summer, 2009.

The theatre’s premiere season begins in Summer, 2010. Because there is still no concrete home for the playhouse, the productions will all be staged outdoors. This sits well with Brian, as the outdoor settings are in line with Serenbe’s dedication to the environment. Additionally, he says, the Playhouse will be the only outdoor theatre in the greater Atlanta area.

In the year since the Playhouse’s approval, Brian has been busy planning this first season, from marketing and fundraising development to the nuts and bolts of each of the season’s three productions. He’s smartly made use of his resources at the university to bring it all to fruition.

“In the Fall of 2009 , I started working with the Darla Moore School of Business, which took on the Playhouse as a client. I had 8 students working with me on marketing, branding and fundraising. And out of those 8 students, one star arose who is now interning for the Playhouse as the person in charge of grant writing and other fundraising efforts.”

In addition, he worked with a student in the Department of Art to develop the theatre’s brand identity, a firefly, an icon he says was chosen because of it represents “the outdoors, is whimsical and is a natural source of energy.”

The theatre will use Serenbe’s natural settings for its first summer season. Pictured: (above) Serenbe’s Treehouse will serve as the backdrop for The Jungle Book; (below) sets will be built around a courtyard fountain for Shakespeare’s R&J and the musical John and Jen.

Not surprisingly, his connection to the university’s theatre program has also been an important asset. Slated to participate in the inaugural season are graduates Kimi Maeda and Aaron Pelzek as scenic and lighting designers, respectively; MFA costume candidate April Brown as costume designer; MAT Graduates Sandra Dietel as Production Manager and Alison Hogue as Assistant Stage Manager; and Senior William Shuler as Music Director.

Additionally, former instructor and frequent guest director Amy Boyce Holtcamp will serve as director of one of the three shows. continued on page 9

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Department News

Richmond Wins $100k SC Film Project Grant Robert Richmond, recently named Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, has been awarded the 2010-2011 Film Project Grant by the South Carolina Film Commission. Commissioner Jeff Monks and Director of Grants Tom Clark made the announcement on Monday February 8th, 2010.

The $107,500 award, granted yearly by the SC Film Commission, will allow Director Richmond to produce a short narrative film from the screenplay, Dreadful Sorry, written by Dionne O’Dell. Richmond, only the fourth independent filmmaker/director to receive this prestigious award, successfully competed with 30 other filmmakers during this year’s round of submissions.

Richmond, formerly the director of Aquila Theatre Company in New York City, came to USC three years ago as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Recently, he has produced works for USC, Denver Center For the Performing Arts, and The Lost Colony, the longest running outdoor drama in North America, and has a long list of collaborations nationally.

Department Chair Jim Hunter says, “Robert has the unique ability to bring a contemporary and innovative style to everything he directs, whether it’s bringing Shakespeare back to life on national tours or giving new freshness to Cyrano de Bergerac here at USC. We are so pleased that the SC Film Commission has recognized his distinctive talent, and is encouraging him to document his unique storytelling and visual style on film with the production of Dreadful Sorry.”

Dreadful Sorry is inspired by the legend of a Huguenot ghost named Gauche at a Beaufort plantation house called The Castle.

The film will be shot on location in Beaufort, Columbia, and surrounding areas in Spring 2011.

The production, commencing with preproduction in August 2010, will foster a Film Commission- sponsored collaboration between USC Art and Theatre students and Trident Technical students in an apprenticeship program where students will work with professional directors, actors, producers, a director of photography and independent filmmakers from regional, national and international locations.

Hunter comments, “Robert has a distinctive and powerful combination of theoretical expertise and real world knowledge. As a theatre director, his commitment to a truly collaborative process, his defense of language, his nurture of creativity, and his innovative approach to storytelling has inspired the students and faculty who work with him. He is a skilled professional practitioner who will undoubtedly energize students in both the Theatre and Art Departments at USC and at Trident Tech.”

Thorne Compton, Art Department Chair (and a former chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance) says, “the students in this script-to-screen apprenticeship have the opportunity to work directly with professionals in the very complicated and collabora-

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tive process of creating a film. It is a wonderful opportunity for aspiring artists and technicians to work with actors and directors, both student and professional, and learn how the integration of so many art forms works in this unique environment.”

The SC Film Project Grant was established in 2004 by act of the SC legislature as a means encouraging collaboration between film industry professionals and SC higher learning institutions in an effort to support SC’s growing presence in the entertainment industry. The first grant was awarded in 2006, for the film The Four Children of Tander Welch, which attracted the acting talents of Academy Award-winner Patty Duke and her son, actor Mackenzie Astin, as well as USC theatre instructor David Britt and thenstudent Madeleine Hamer.

...and more film news...

USC alum Matthew William Jordan’s independent film My Sweet Misery, featuring theatre graduate Zach Hanks (MFA, 2004) and Professor Richard Jennings (among other USC talent), received limited national release to rave reviews in October, 2009.

The dark comedy featuring “marquee” actors Anna Chlumsky and Thomas Jay Ryan had just taken top honors for cinematography at the Charlotte Film Festival when it was released by Carmike CinZach Hanks in My Sweet Misery emas. It was one of four independent features shown nationwide as part of the chain’s “Independent Film Series.” It has also been screened at film festivals in Orlando and Southern California.

The film got especially high praise from one nationally-published critic, Gary Wolcott, who wrote, “Outside of Star Trek and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, it will likely be the most fun you’ll have in a theater all year.” He added, “Jordan’s film puts a unique spin on dialogue, highlights the story with some inventive cinematography and one outrageous twist after another.”

Writer/Director Jordan is an MFA in English from the University of South Carolina. The film was shot in Columbia and Myrtle Beach in 2005, the same year that Hanks appeared in another independent feature, Come Away Home.

Hanks told Columbia’s Free Times, “I was pleasantly surprised and excited to find out that Matthew had not only secured a release but such a broad one. Come Away Home had between a $2 and $3 million budget, and it didn’t go to nearly as many theaters.”

Theatre alums appearing in the film included Patrick Kelly, Marybeth Gorman, Demetrios Troy, E.G. Heard and Stephanie Price.

Design professor Nic Ularu has traveled from South Carolina to New York and all the way to Romania to share his original work, The Cherry Orchard Sequel. The play was most recently performed in Cluj in the Transylvanian region of Romania at The National Theatre of Cluj.

The Cherry Orchard Sequel was first performed as a preview at Theatre South Carolina in January, 2008. It then moved on to premiere at the highly regarded La MaMa Experimental Theatre club in New York in February, 2008, where it received rave reviews. The New York Times chose the production as a “critic’s pick,” praising it as a “sparkling surprise,” and Variety summed it up as “just good, enigmatic storytelling.”

Romanian reactions were equally positive. The Romanian magazine, Luceafarul, commented that “it is throughout a spirit of caricature, that makes the great conflicts of the past, memories worthy of laughter,” adding that the show’s “humor, both literary and theatrical” comes just in time. Art Act theatre company summarized the play as “an intriguing original theatrical work.”

Ularu received an invitation to stage The Cherry Orchard Sequel at The National Theatre in the spring of 2009 as a co-production between the Lucian Blaga National Theatre of Cluj-Napoca and the Art Act Theatre Company. The show made its Romanian premiere on October 29th, 2009.

A native of Bucharest, Romania, Nic has major design credits in both America and Europe, including theatres in such places as Sweden, Northern Ireland, and his home country. He was a board member for four years of The European League of the Institutes of the Arts (ELIA) in Amsterdam. Before coming to USC, he taught at Smith College and was a visiting professor at the Universities of Tennessee, Minnesota, and Texas. Ularu also received an OBIE Award for outstanding achievements in Off-Broadway production in New York.

Department News

Ularu’s Cherry Orchard Sequel Travels to Romania

The National Theatre of Cluj was built in 1904 and was designed by the Austrian architects Helmer and Fellper. With an exquisite neo-baroque style auditorium, the theatre is one of the most prominent theatrical establishments in Romania.

Poster for Ularu’s Romanian production of The Cherry Orchard Sequel

New Theatre (continued) continued from page 7

Slated for the inaugural season are: • a children’s show, The Jungle Book; • Shakespeare’s R & J, a modern, all-male retelling of Romeo and Juliet; and, • John and Jen, a musical about the effects of the Vietnam War on a brother and sister.

Also scheduled over the summer is a children’s theatre camp, Camp Serenbe, which will offer theatre arts courses through the Playhouse. MAT Graduate Alison Hogue is serving as Camp Coordinator.

After the first season, Brian will continue working to grow the theatre. He hopes to see a structure built to house the Playhouse in the coming year. He has proposed meeting his MFA internship requirement through an internship at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, which he hopes will give him a chance develop awareness of the Playhouse among Atlanta’s professional actors, directors and designers.

“From the beginning, I have marketed this as a professional theatre. I think it has the opportunity to be a world class theatre.”

For more information about the inaugural season, or to become a founding member of the theatre, visit their website: www.serenbeplayhouse.com.

Promotional materials for Serenbe Playhouse’s inaugural season 9

Alumni News

Alumni News Lydia Anderson (MA, 2007) is in Boston, MA, working with Holland Productions as the Director of Development and Dramaturge in Residence.

Daryl Ball (MFA, 2009), a freelance actor in Utah, says he has shifted his career gears and is pursuing more of a teaching route at this point. He has several prospects and a handful of contacts that seem very promising. He recently signed with Urban Talent Management, the premiere agency in Utah.

Scott A. Bellot (MFA, 2003) has been teaching at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, CO. He also has directed two shows for them and will be directing the spring production of Ardy Fafirsin. Scott has been judging playwriting competitions for the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association and for the Western Region Playwrights Conference. He moved to Denver a year ago and has been acting and directing at local theatres around the town.

Alex Bergeron (BA, 2008) is a floor Manager and part-time carpenter at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, IL (North Chicagoland).

Last year, Alex was a full-time carpenter for Northlight.

Felicia Bertch (MFA, 2009) taught a creativity workshop in Carmel, California in Summer 2009. She then moved to the Chicago area to create and direct an original piece of theatre with undergraduates at her alma mater, Wheaton College. Felicia has been teaching movement and acting at Wheaton College as well as developing and writing curriculum for a new Creativity Major they are considering making available at the college. She finished the job at Wheaton so she could prepare to move to France! She has been accepted to the Jacques LeCoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris, a school which specializes in all forms of physical theatre: clown, mask, mime, and acrobatics; she began classes in October.

Scott Blanks (MFA, 1990) was honored in November by the “SC Native American Indian Arts Project” for “Excellence in the Performing Arts.” The ceremony held in Columbia was part of a variety of events held around the university to celebrate “National Native American Indian Heritage Month.”

Ben Blazer (MFA, 2009) is currently teaching Theatre Production and Acting at the Community College of Allegheny County, PA, as well as directing main stage productions there. In the spring he will be offering a new, experimental Movement Training for the Actor course, based on what he has learned about Suzuki, Ohto, and FM Alexander’s work. In addition to that Ben has found representation in Pittsburgh and has been working on Voice-Overs, commercials, and industrials. He is hoping to get married at the end of next summer.

Jennifer Burry (MFA, 2009) moved to NY after graduation and shortly thereafter performed in a production of Almost, Maine.

She returned to SC in October 2009 to take part in the Center for Performance Experiment production of Flight.

L. Nicol Cabe (BA, 2006) is in Seattle where she has taken up with the Eclectic Theater Company, where she has worked for the past two years as their associate artistic director and resident director. She is about to be promoted to Co-Artistic Director, while

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she figures out being the president of S.A.G. in Seattle. She has also worked freelance as a theatre teacher and dramaturg.

Steven Carpenter (MFA, 1995) was recently a part of a brand new production of A Christmas Carol at Washington DC’s Ford’s Theatre, playing one of the solicitors and various ensemble roles.

The play was well-received by audiences and critics and managed to raise over $50,000 for Bread For The City (DC’s largest food bank) by collecting donations after performances. In February and March, 2010, Steven directed Mauritius by Teresa Rebeck at the Bay Theatre in Annapolis, MD.

Jackie Coleman (MFA, 2003), was recently given an opportunity by the Hartford, CT Public Schools to be their District Artistic Director after six years at Hartford Stage. She reports she is doing everything she can to bring as many meaningful experiences in dance, music, theatre, and visual art as possible to all 22,000 students. On nights and weekends she is a company member of an ensemble-based theatre company, Artfarm. Last summer, she played Bianca in an outdoor production of Taming of the Shrew, and she looks forward to performing in this year’s Shakespeare in the Grove production of As You Like It. This semester she is teaching Improv for the Classroom at Central CT State University as well as doing an artist/mentor residency with 2nd graders at a school in South Windsor, CT. Stephen Cone (BA, 2002), Chicago-based filmmaker and alum, recently followed his hour-long film The Christians (Official Selection Gene Siskel Film Center, Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, New Filmmakers NYC) with his first full-length feature film, on which he served as writer, producer, director and editor.

Utilizing nearly 60 Chicago actors, 15 Chicago locations, a tiny crew and hardly any money, the movie is a strange, sad comedydrama entitled In Memoriam. It shot in Chicago in spring 2009 and was completed the following December. It hits the festival circuit this spring. Stephen is currently writing his next film, which will be shot in South Carolina and Illinois. Visit his website at: www. conearts.com.

Darin Dahms (MFA, 2003) writes: “Since Butterflies of Uganda, I have continued to fight the good fight out here in LA. I appeared in the play Savage World at the MET Theatre, Barrymore (with Jack Betts) at Greenway Court Theatre (I met Lea Thompson, gulp, all my dreams come true!), and I am currently in Just a Song at Twilight at the Write/Act Repertory. It’s directed by John DiFusco, the author of Tracers. I have had some continuing success as a director, directing two projects for the Actor’s Studio: Women of Manhattan by John Patrick Shanley and Cat’s Paw by William Mastrisimone. Both projects were executive produced

by Mark Rydell (director of The Rose and On Golden Pond) and Martin Landau (winner of the Academy Award for Ed Wood.) I will be directing a play for “Theatre of Note” next year, and I am cast in an independent film that will be shooting soon. One day I hope to get paid for what do! (lol) I am also teaching a Drama Class at Fairfax High School, and I continue to work as production manager at Greenway Court Theatre.”

Stephen Davis (MFA, 2006), is now an assistant professor of Theatre at Centenary College in NJ. In recent years, he has been a freelance director, actor, teacher, and fight choreographer. He has

Jason Diaz (MFA, 2007) has accepted a position with Robert Singer & Associates in Aspen, CO as an architectural lighting designer.

Isabel Dickey (BA, 2006) has been working for the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle as an assistant ticketing manager. Many Broadway musicals have gotten their start at the 5th such as Hairspray, The Wedding Singer, and Shrek: The Musical. She absolutely loves her job in ticketing.

Michael Downey (MFA Acting, 2009) is currently living in Chicago and working with a theatre company called The Strange Tree Group. He performed in their recent show called Hey! Mr. Spaceman at The Building Stage in Chicago.

Charlie Duncan (Theatre Cognate, 2009) is currently in new York working background on several shows (Gossip Girls, The Beautiful Life) and being a supernumerary in Aida with the metropolitan opera at Lincoln Center (and of course auditioning ALL the time).

Neal Easterling (MFA, 2009) has moved to Pittsburgh, where he is in the beginning phases of starting a theatre company called Momentum Theatre Ensemble. They hope to have their first production up in about a year and a half. He is currently working on assembling an advisory board - current board members include Ed Stern (Artistic Director of Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park) and Lynn Myers (Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati). The above mentioned contacts were made during his USC internship.

Robert Eubanks (MFA, 2006) is now the Technical Director for the Houston Ballet. Houston Ballet is one of the largest ballet companies in the US,with an annual production budget of around $5 million. Right now they are producing a mixed program with an original work by their artistic director and two others by choreographers Jiri Kilian and Twila Tharp.

Jennifer Fine (BA, 2007) is in her second year of a three year program to become certified in the Alexander Technique. She is also a lead teacher at a TV/Film school for kids and teens called “The Playground” in Los Angeles. She has done some private monologue and audition coaching, but mostly has been working on her teaching skills and studying new things.

Ursula Magura Finley (BA, 2006) is in Greenville, SC, doing freelance lighting design.

Kristen Gilmore (BA, 2006) was a set builder on the world premiere of Passing Strange at Berkeley Rep, which went on to win

7 Tonys on Broadway. She has freelanced on shows recently at the Public Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, Actors Playhouse, and the Wild Project, where she worked as head rigger on American Hwangap--a position that required her to improvise an entire rigging system. Other noteworthy gigs include a stint as a carpenter/ welder refurbishing the aircraft elevators on the carrier Intrepid, a few weeks working as a dresser for Marc Jacobs’ market week, and a lot of temp work. She is currently pursuing an MA in Scenography at Central College of School and Drama in the UK, where she says she will have opportunities to work in props, puppetry, and costuming.

Sarah Hammond (BA, English, 2002) is still in New York, in the third year of her seven-year residency at New Dramatists. In October, she had two staged readings of her latest play House On Stilts: one in New York with Page73 Productions, and another in London at the Studio of the Royal National Theatre. This past winter, she read a piece of a work-in-progress at the McCarter Theatre in an evening called “In The Writer’s Voice”, alongside Nilo Cruz and Jose Rivera as part of their lab festival of new works. (www.mccarter.org/lab/). She recently had a reading of her play The Extinction of Felix Garden at Luna Stage in New Jersey. She is also busy at work on a musical with Adam Gwon, commissioned by Broadway Across America, and also a new play about a stuntman and his kids.

Alumni News

also directed educational tours for Kean University, the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (STNJ), and the American Globe Theatre (AGT) in New York City. At KU, he taught acting improvisation, stage makeup, and a class entitled Kean Players on Tour.

At STNJ, he has been the stage combat instructor for the Summer Professional Training Program for five years. As a teaching artist for Playwright’s Theatre of New Jersey (PTNJ) he teaches playwriting, acting, and on-camera acting. For Primary Stages in NYC he developed, and teaches, in-school video residencies entitled Primary Voices. As a makeup artist, he has designed the makeup for St. Joe’s High School productions of Tommy and West Side Story, a production that he also served as the fight choreographer.

Zach Hanks (MFA, 2004) is in Los Angeles. Zach primarily works in voice-over, mostly on interactive games. He has directed and voiced characters in over 50 titles, including a lead in Brutal Legend, starring Jack Black, Tim Curry, Ozzy Osborne, Lita Ford, Rob Halford (Judas Priest), and Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead). His voice over production company is SOUNDAWG, L.L.C. Zach was the lead in My Sweet Misery, an independent film that premiered at the Charlotte Film Festival on September 26th.

Brian Hanscom (MFA, 2010) most recently directed a production of Almost, Maine, at the Arudel Barn Playhouse in Maine this past August. He also worked on Flight with Pacific Performance Project/East and the Center for Performance Experiment here at USC. Martha Hearn (BA, 2009) is playing Claire in a new musical version of The Breakfast Club, being produced by pH Theatricals in Chicago.

Angelina Herin (MFA, 2007) is currently in her second year as an Assistant Professor of Theatre and resident Costume Designer at Ashland University. Prior to this Angelina was the Costume Shop Manager for Montana Rep. Theatre/University of Montana (2007-08). When she is not teaching, she is the resident costume designer at American Folklore Theatre and freelances in the Cleveland, OH area.

Katie Hilliger (BA, 2009) is currently managing a tanning salon in West Columbia, coaching the USC dance team and teaching for Tumble Tree Cheerleading Incorporated. Katie also does freelance choreography and teaches dance for various South Carolina Arts Institute projects.

Ashley Hyatt (BA, 2009) is working at the Mary Black Hospital.

She went to the Carolina Film Institute this past November for an editing class and is hoping to begin some volunteer work at the Greenville Little Theatre.

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Alumni News

Abbie Isaac (BA, 2007) has been all over the place, assistant directing at Milwaukee Rep, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and The Studio Theatre in DC. She just directed her first NYC show with a company called Promethean Theatre Company. Abbie is freelance directing and stage managing a little, too (she stage managed for Maryland Shakespeare Festival this summer) and is currently assisting Grapes of Wrath at Jersey Shakes.

Marcella Kearns (MFA, 2003) has done several productions in Milwaukee area: Witness with First Stage, Mr. Flannery’s Ocean and Riders to the Sea with Summer Stage of Delafield, Henry V with Quasi, and Scrooge in Rouge with In Tandem. She has continued to work in education in schools from elementary through continuing education/ lifelong learning gigs. Marcella and an artistic partner worked along with a teacher to lay the groundwork for the Milwaukee Public Schools Shakespeare Festival, and they hope to reprise it this April. She also volunteers with goats&monkeys, an ensemble providing an artistic home for local artists. At the present, Marcella is in Houston and, though still Milwaukee-based, travelling has been and continues to be a high priority.

Patrick Kelly (BA, 2006) resides in Chicago and recently made his Chicago stage debut with WNEP Theater in their world premiere production of The (Edward) Hopper Project. In 2008 and 2009, Patrick had the privilege of performing Off-Broadway at NYC’s (in)famous La MaMa E.T.C. in two of USC professor and OBIE Award-winning designer Nic Ularu’s plays: The Cherry Orchard Sequel (NYTimes Critic’s Pick) and The System. Currently, Patrick works in Donor Relations at Chicago Public Radio and is an Artistic Intern at both Lookingglass Theatre Company and About Face Theatre. This summer, Patrick, along with fellow USC alum Martha Hearn, will produce an award-winning play written by yet another USC alum, George Pate, and he will also act in his first Chicago sketch comedy revue as a part of Joe Janes’ 365 Sketches. For more info, visit http://365sketchesbyjoejanes. blogspot.com/.

Catherine Arnold Marhenke (BA, 2005) is in Little Rock, Arkansas working for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra as the Associate Director of Development. Catherine credits everything that she learned at USC for putting her on the path towards an arts administrations career. Catherine is also getting her MS in Community and Economic Development from the University of Central Arkansas.

Brandon Martin (BA, 2009) is living in Columbia and doing some community theatre. He is preparing to move to California in the next 2 years.

Meghann Marty (BA, 2006) is in London slowly breaking into the acting biz. She has just been cast in Wild Oats production of The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project. She recently received a residency permit to stay in the UK for two more years.

Mallory Morris (BA, 2009) is a journeyman at Greenville, SC’s Warehouse Theatre. She is also working with the South Carolina Children’s Theatre.

Karyn A.J. Moss (MFA, 2003) has been teaching Drama classes at Carver- Edisto Middle School for the past two school years. She says her students are 6th, 7th and 8th graders who have not had much exposure to theatre either from an onstage or audience perspective. Her duties include (but are not limited to) teaching five classes of creative dramatics; collaborating with the music/ chorus teacher and directing the spring musical; developing, planning

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and directing the drama portion of the Fine Arts Showcase; and, auditioning students for the Arts Consortium for Orangeburg and Calhoun counties. She is in a vocal trio called “The Flame Within” with her two best friends, and they have performed as featured artists, opening acts and background singers.

Bridget O’Leary (BA, 1999) is currently in Boston in her second season at New Repertory Theatre as their Artistic and Education Associate. She recently directed their production of Boom.

Rich Remedios (MFA, 2007) moved to Atlanta in 2007 immediately after finishing his internship at Milwaukee Rep. He has been acting under AEA contracts in the Atlanta area. As of Spring 2010, Rich is an adjunct teacher at Kennesaw State University, teaching Acting I and Acting III. Amanda Reyelt (BA, 2004) recently had an article, Women’s WellBeing Initiative: Creating, Practicing, and Sharing a Border Pedagogy for Youth (co-written with Sheri Hardee), published in the online journal Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education. The article chronicles the integration of alternative arts-based practices that she used in two urban educational settings for marginalized youth.

Brian Rooney (MFA, 2009) is in Chicago after finishing his year at Milwaukee Rep with four principle roles. He spent the summer in three plays at Illinois Shakespeare Festival - all great roles, he reports. He was recently in a show called The Man Who Was Thursday at New Leaf Theatre in Chicago, and had to turn down three conflicting roles around the Chicago area in the month and a half he was first there. He has auditions coming up for future shows, and he works a full-time day job online from home. He also taught at Noble Fools Theatricals. Visit his website at www. brianrooneyactor.com.

Vanessa Streeter (MFA, 2009) worked at Santa Fe on Wigs and Makeup Staff in Summer, 2009 and is now in Washington, DC at Arena Stage doing wigs and makeup. She is also freelancing for a local wig designer, ventilating wigs and stitching for other theatres (such as Signature Theatre) in DC. Demetrios E. Troy (MFA, 2007) appeared in Richard III at Chicago Shakespeare in the fall of 2009 and Awake and Sing at Theatre Northlight in the winter of 2010. Demetrios recently was cast in The Good Negro at The Goodman, which begins in May, 2010.

Dewey Scott-Wiley (MFA, 1994) recently saw her USC Aiken production of The Clean House selected from more than 200 other plays to perform at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Dewey told the USC Times that “being chosen as one of the four outstanding college productions in our nine-state region is a tremendous honor for our University... The other invited shows come from much larger theatre departments, which reinforces the quality of theatre education available at USC Aiken.

I am extremely proud of our students!” The Clean House opened USC Aiken’s 2009-2010 theatre season in October. Dewey most recently directed Rent at Trustus Theatre. She is an Associate Theatre professor at USC Aiken.

Jerry Winters (MFA, 2004) has been teaching at Eastern Connecticut State University since 2004. In Fall, 2009 he directed As You Like It at Eastern. In the fall of 2008, Jerry directed a production of Hamlet with local professional actors that was performed in Middletown, CT as a fundraising production for Oddfellow’s Playhouse. Jerry also teaches adult acting classes at Hartford Stage.

Alumni, let us know what’s up! Email your personal and professional updates (and pictures) to bushk@mailbox.sc.edu.

Aaron Pelzek, a 2008 graduate of the MFA Design program, and Kimi Maeda, 2005 MFA Design graduate, are giving residents of Columbia, SC a new reason to enjoy the night life.

In the summer of 2009, they formed Pocket Productions and began the popular “Playing After Dark” performance series.

With “Playing After Dark,” the group invites artists and performers from the Columbia area to create original works and put them on display. The series has melded the works of choreographers, dancers, singer/songwriters, bands, actors, puppeteers, poets and all sorts of visual artists to create one-of-a-kind performance experiences.

Poster for the second installment of the Playing After Dark series

Pelzek says, “‘Playing After Dark’ was something that came from another idea that Kimi and I had about starting our own agency... where we could find jobs and book each other for them, with scenic designers, lighting designers, everyone alike, from all over the country, being part of our company. Well, that never came together but it did come to pass that in the Spring of 2009 we began talks of starting something a bit different, something that we could have fun doing and get the local community involved.”

Pocket Productions’ website (playingafterdark.net) further explains their mission: “We create the space for artists to play together, leading them to produce original, collaborative work that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

A Big Wig Future

Vanessa Streeter (MFA, 2008) is finding fast success in the world of wigs. Streeter is currently Hair, Wig and Make-up Supervisor for Arena Stage in Washington, DC, and thanks to a connection with professional designer Chuck LaPointe, might soon be heading to NY. LaPointe shares a studio with fellow wig designer Tom Watson, and coming through that space are orders for such major broadway shows as Wicked and The Jersey Boys. She served under LaPointe while he was guest designer for the Arena Stage production of Light in the Piazza. She worked with his assistant in the summers of 2008 and 2009 at the Santa Fe Opera, where both LaPointe and Watson were wig designers.

Streeter credits her recent professional accomplishments in part to her time here at the university, saying that Valerie Pruett’s “Period Styles with Hair and Wigs” class helped her realize her passion for wig design.

“Valerie was a great mentor, and has continued to be since I graduated. She has really encouraged me to take opportunities and that’s why I am where I am at this stage.”

Pruett remembers that Vanessa, like many students, originally struggled with mastering the art of wig design. “As a teacher, the greatest compliment is to see students come full circle -- to work

Pelzek told Columbia’s Free Times that the series’ concept is “very altruistic. All the money that comes in the door from donations goes to the artists. No commissions are taken on items sold.

There’s a real push to make a network between the artists and people in town.”

Pelzek and Maeda joined forces with choreographer Sherry Warren for their most recent show in January, 2010, and say the marriage has taken the company to greater heights. They now have a non-profit business license and have hosted well over 50 local artists.

Alumni News

Graduates Helping Columbia Artists “Play” Together

Artists connected to the Department of Theatre and Dance have been a part of “Playing After Dark” from the beginning. Kimi Maeda performed a shadow-puppet work at the premiere show; Michael Downey did a theatrical piece and Liesl Downey played acoustic guitar at the second show; and, Aaron Pelzek played guitar for the third and fourth installments.

Also in 2010, the group partnered with the USC Arts Institute and the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties to start Artrageous, a project committed to bringing “spontaneous art events” to the area. One such happening, a “flash mob” at a local mall, was staged in May 2010.

Pelzek says that the future for Pocket Productions “will take local artists into the classroom to give talks to children on what it is like to become a professional artist... This company is now very real and we’re about to make a big name for ourselves in Columbia, SC.”

with them while they are struggling, to remind them over and over that the work is for their own good, and then to see the pay off when they are working professionally.”

Pruett adds, “This particular area of design is in high demand. I think as a program in Costume Design we are really giving our students an advantage in the job market by offering them Hair and Make-up training along with all the technical skills that we teach and promote. There are only two programs in the US that offer a MFA in Hair, Wigs and Make-up; the fact that we give our students an edge in the market with another area of design is very unique.”

For Arena, Streeter has worked on shows like The Fantasticks and The Quality of Life; she is currently working on Sophisticated Ladies featuring Maurice Hines. She did her first professional wig design in January, 2010 for the Metro Stage production of Mahalia: A Gospel Musical.

Streeter hopes to make it to LaPointe and Watson’s NY studio in the coming Fall, when Broadway gets busy with show openings. In the meantime, she is working on getting her cosmetology license, a requirement for joining the union. On her future plans, she says “Ideally, I will work in NY for a while, but I would ultimately like to get into film and television.”

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Faculty News

Faculty News Sarah Barker (Associate Professor, Acting and Movement) and Erica Tobolski (Assistant Professor, Voice and Acting) co-wrote an article for the 2009 Voice and Speech Review entitled The Greek Messenger Speech as Training Paradigm.

Tobolski presented a paper at the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association in August entitled, Cultural Crossover: Teaching From a Western Perspective in an Islamic Environment,” inspired by her recent year-long teaching engagement (with Jim O’Connor) at the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, Malaysia. She was named to a two-year term as treasurer of the University Resident Theatre Association in Fall, 2009. Erica will serve as the vocal acting coach for The Lost Colony in Summer, 2010.

Thaddeus Davis (Dance Faculty, Director of Contemporary Dance for USC Dance Company) has been busy introducing his dance company, Wideman/ Davis Dance, to his new hometown of Columbia, SC. With partner (and wife) Tanya Wideman-Davis (Adjunct Faculty in the dance program), WDD has brought two original socially-conscious works to Columbia in the past year: Promotional image for Bal- Based On Images, a piece reconstructing ance by Wideman Davis Dance. media images of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and Balance, which used contemporary choreography to bring light to the issues of the homeless in Columbia. With both works, the dance company attempted to stimulate dialogue with their audience through talk-backs held after each performance.

Wideman-Davis says that the company’s work “is about creating movement that inspires discussion and dialogue, instead of just making movement that is about itself alone.” The company has travelled to NY to perform both pieces. USC dance students have been cast (and travelled) with both works.

Walter Clissen (Assistant Professor, Sound Design) has authored a new musical with partners Jean-Louis Milford and Francis Nugent Dixon. The show, Seven Stars in Paradise, is a two-act musical tribute to the icons of rock and roll Ray Charles, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley. In the play, these seven stars have come together in the afterlife, seeking permission from a heavenly tribunal to stage a concert in their celestial home. Clissen’s collaboration with composer Milford and lyricist Nugent-Dixon stretches back to the 1980’s, when they worked as a team on several hit recordings in Europe.

Peter Duffy (Assistant Professor, Head of the Graduate Teaching Program in Theatre) recently returned from Scotland, where he taught at Adam Smith College.

His book, Youth and Theatre of the Oppressed (co-written with Adam Smith College’s Elinor Vettraino) is being released in March, 2010. According to the publisher’s description, “This book shares Theatre of the Oppressed’s goal of engaging the collective to create generative conversations among readers which look deeply into the

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issues of community through theatre...and to work with young people to name their world, untangle the knot of oppressions, and to develop with them possible action plans for their own futures.”

In the summer of 2009, Duffy headed up a successful reboot of the USC Summer Drama Conservatory. Assisted by graduate students in the MAT program, the Summer Drama Conservatory will be active again in Summer, 2010. For more information, visit: www.cas.sc.edu/thea/sdc/summerdrama.html.

Victor Holtcamp (Assistant Professor, Theatre History; Department Dramaturg) recently returned from speaking and hosting a workshop at Vermont’s Marlboro College on Suzuki technique and physical approaches to acting. Victor was choreographer and composer of incidental music for the main stage production of Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights in February, 2010.

Robyn Hunt (Professor, Acting) and Steven Pearson (Professor, Acting; Head of the MFA Acting Program) appeared in “Doug Varone Presents” at the 92nd Street Y in NY in March, 2010. The evening was a collection of the works of three former dancers with the Doug Varone Dance Company, Gwen Welliver, Daniel Charon and Nancy Bannon. Hunt and Pearson were part of Bannon’s short play presented during the performance, “Drinking Ink, a Portrait in 10 Parts.” In June, 2009, Hunt was one of 13 performers in Bannon’s “Pod Project,” a performance/installation at NY’s Dance New Amsterdam which gave audience members a unique one-on-one experience with 13 different characters in separate performance environments.

Jim Hunter (Department Chair) recently created the scenic and lighting designs for Boeing, Boeing at Florida Rep., and lighting design for Some Kind of Wonderful at Florida Stage. He and former department professor Jim Patterson have collaborated on the 8th edition of The Enjoyment of Theatre. This popular 450-page introduction to theatre text book was published by Allyn & Bacon in February. Patterson and Hunter worked with co-authors Patti P. Gillespie, a former USC theatre department chair, and Kenneth M. Cameron. This latest edition is the first edition of the publication to be printed in full color throughout.

Jim Patterson (Retired Professor) has authored Stage Money: The Business of the Professional Theatre with co-author Tim Donahue. The book is scheduled to be published in May by the University of South Carolina Press. Donahue, former Director of Marketing and Development for the department, says the book was “written for those interested in learning more about how American professional theatre is financed.” Patterson also reports that Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom: Methods & Strategies for the Beginning Teacher is in now its third printing. Patterson and co-authors Melissa Swick Ellington and Donna McKennaCrook published Theatre in the Secondary School Classroom in 2006 with Heinemann.

his original play A Tale Told by an Idiot will be performed in Los Angeles as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. He is slated to direct Henry VIII at the Folger in October, 2010.

Jim O’Connor (Professor, Directing and Acting), the current president of the National Theatre Conference, presented the NTC Person of the Year Award to Tony Kushner at the organization’s annual meeting in NYC in October, 2009. He also moderated a q-and-a session with O’Connor shares a laugh with Judith the Pulitzer and Tony-winning Malina (center) and Tony Kusher (right) playwright which touched on such wide-ranging topics as the comparison of film to theatre, writers who have inspired his work, and the role of art in shaping our world. Also honored at the conference (with the Outstanding Theatre Award) was Judith Malina, co-founder of The Living Theatre, which is widely regarded as being responsible for ushering in the Alternative Theatre Movement in the United States. Here at the university, O’Connor directed a staged reading of The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later at Longstreet Theatre in October. The reading was part of the worldwide premiere of the play, in which more than 100 theatres around the world participated with “simultaneous” performances.

Lakesha Campbell has accepted a new position in the department as Student Services Coordinator, where she serves as academic advisor to students in the department.

Valerie Pruett (Costume Design Instructor) continues to work as a professional Hair and Makeup Artist for media productions, averaging around 15 commercials a year with several companies in the tri-state area. She also volunteers and works with patients undergoing chemotherapy on a private basis. Pruett is working on a pictorial manual/texts for creating a variety of hair and wig styles from periods throughout the history of hair and fashion.

Dr. Mila Parrish (Associate Professor, Director of USC Dance Education Major) presented several choreography and technology workshops in Kingston, Jamaica in August 2009, as part of the Dance and the Child International conference. DACI holds dance sympo- Dr. Parrish (third from right) with students in Jamaica at NACI. siums every three years in different foreign countries and celebrates the spirit of children in dance. At the conference there were dancers from over 15 countries creating, training, and performing dance.

Robert Richmond was named an Associate Professor in April, 2010. Richmond previously held the title of Visiting Assistant Professor. In Summer, 2010, he will direct (for the third time) The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of NC. In June,

Staff Notes..

The Department welcomed Deborah Pearson in January, 2010 to the main office, where she is our new Human Resources Coordinator. She comes to us from the university’s Center for Child and Family Studies, where she served for six years as Administrative and Training Assistant. Deborah is married to husband Sammie and has a 22-year-old daughter, Samanda. Welcome, Deborah!

Faculty News

Amy Lehman (Assistant Professor, Theatre History) saw her book Victorian Women and the Theatre of Trance: Mediums, Spiritualists and Mesmerists in Performance published

by McFarland & Co. in October, 2009. As described by the publisher, the book “examines some of the most fascinating American and British actresses of the Victorian era, whose performances fairly mesmerized their audiences of amused skeptics and ardent believers. It also focuses on the transformative possibilities of the spiritualist theatre, revealing how the performances allowed Victorian women to speak, act, and create outside the boundaries of their restricted social and psychological roles.”

Moving on...

Lee Waters, who for ten years has been the Department’s Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to the Chair (as well as go-to person for just about everything), retired in May 2010. She had been with the university for eleven-and-a-half years, and prior to USC worked for seventeen years at Baptist Hospital (now Palmetto Health).

Waters has lived in SC for thirty years, and says that is the longest she has lived anywhere. “I was an Air Force brat and largely because of that have had forty-three different addresses in my life time.”

It is to the department’s benefit that she has been with us for so long. “Lee has been an unsung hero of the department,” says department chair Jim Hunter. “Her knowledge of the program and how things actually work has smoothed the way for so many faculty and students. No matter how hectic the office became, and the office can get pretty crazy, Lee has always been there with a ready smile and willingness to help. She will be sorely missed.”

Waters says a major highlight of being here has been sitting frontrow center to the constant creative energy. “This is such a creative place, and it’s been amazing to be here and see how everything comes together, from sketches to the actual shows.”

“I have really loved seeing the students grow and progress, as well,” she continues. “I loved seeing them learn how to navigate this big university maze and then go out into the world and make their careers happen.”

Is there anything she won’t miss? “Getting up early! And solving last minute crises! But really I will miss being here, and especially the people.”

Waters says she is happy to be retiring at the beginning of the summer, which she hopes will help in making the shift to the new phase of her life.

“I”ve been telling people that in my retirement I’m planning to do anything I want to do that I can afford! I’m hoping to be able to start exploring my creative side with needlepoint and gardening, and have time to deal with the necessities of my house. I’m also really looking forward to having time to visit my family.”

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Department News

Theatre Students Dazzle During 2010 Discovery Day Theatre undergraduates made impressive showings at USC’s 2010 Discovery Day, garnering numerous awards during the annual showcase of undergraduate scholarship.

Gabrielle Peterson displays her research findings at Discovery Day.

During Discovery Day, undergraduates present work they have done in and out of the classroom over previous academic years. According to the Discovery Day website, the event gives the students the opportunity to present “any activity or experience that enhanc[es]...academic, professional, and/or scholarly pursuits.” The day is comprised of four different types of presentations: visual arts displays, oral presentations, creative presentations and poster presentations.

Taking 1st Place among poster presentations for Arts, Humanities and Culture research was senior theatre major Gabrielle Peterson for her Magellan Scholar project, Of Myth and Legend: Tales of Scottish Lore for American Children’s Theatre. Peterson’s display highlighted the results of her research on the oral traditions and folklore of the early peoples of Scotland, particularly the Pict culture; she included actual archaeological artifacts and a copy of the play she wrote based on her research, Mirrored Time. She was present for a three-hour block during the day to give rotating groups of attendees information about her research experiences and findings.

Senior Sydney Mitchell took 1st Place in the creative presentation category for her Magellan project, Lorca: Environmental Theatre for a Modern Audience. Mitchell’s presentation consisted of a condensed, 10-minute performance of her original play, Lorca: Alone in a Dream, and a period for oral presentation and a question-and-answer session with the audience.

the audience will see it.” Koch attended the three-week National Stage Combat Workshop at the NC School for the Arts last summer, an intensive offered through the Society of American Fight Directors, from which she received certification as an Actor-Combatant. In the past academic year, she has served as fight captain or choreographer for Cyrano de Bergerac, The Arabian Nights and Lorca: Alone in a Dream.

Jeni Miller gave a presentation on Documentary Theatre based on her experience co-creating a Documentary Theatre class with Assistant Professor Victor Holtcamp. Miller recieved a Magellan Scholarship in Spring, 2010 for her work in establishing the class.

In her abstract, Miller wrote, “Documentary theatre is a unique genre in that it entirely consists of the voices of the people in a given community, all the while extending its greater ideas and implications to the audience. In featuring such strong voices of the people, it confronts viewers with the inescapable reality of the present.” After a brief introduction of the genre, Miller and class members Emily Gonzalez, Rachel Stahlman and Jennifer Goff staged part of an original documentary work entitled Women in the South. The script was compiled from interviews the class did with southern women from SC towns such as Columbia, Greenville, Clemson, and within the USC community.

Of the theatre program’s “ award sweep” during Discovery Day, participant Sydney Mitchell says, “ I think what is most exciting... is the wide spectrum of work represented [at Discovery Day].

Lauren’s stage combat, Jeni’s documentary theatre, Gabrielle’s folklore play, and my environmental theatre are all ways that we as young artists are taking ownership of and contributing to what theatre will be for our generation. We’ve all made this decision to make careers of our passion for theatre, and we’re determined to not only be participants but innovators. I am very humbled to be a part of this group of such incredibly intelligent, talented, and creative women.”

Congratulations to all of our Discovery Day participants!

[For more information about Gabrielle and Sydney’s projects, see related story on page 6.]

Sophomore Lauren Koch and Senior Jeni Miller shared 2nd place honors in the creative presentation category.

Koch demonstrated her advanced knowledge of stage combat with her presentation, Stage Combat: A Microscope on Acting, during which she showed how stage combat can be used as another avenue for actor training. As she explained in the abstract submitted to the Discovery Day committee, “Most training works from a psychological standpoint, like Stanislavsky, or a physical one, such as clowning, but stage combat forces an actor to address moments where one cannot be separated from the other. In moments of violence, everything must be specific, from the character’s objective to the body’s breath and if something is missing,

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Lauren Koch spars at the National Stage Combat Workshop last summer.

Your tax-deductible contribution to the Department of Theatre and Dance is crucial to our ongoing success, especially in this time of economic hardship.

It is through the gifts of supporters like you that we can continue fulfilling our mission of academic and performance excellence which has been key to our growth over the last 35 years. Your donation provides much-needed funding for scholarships that help us recruit and keep the best and brightest in our programs; research and travel grants that give our students enhanced real-world experience; and, facilities improvement funding which helps us provide and maintain the tools and performance venues that bring our students face-to-face with the state-of-theart.

DONATION FORM

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Please remit to: University of South Carolina Office of Gift Processing 1600 Hampton Street, Suite 736 Columbia, SC 29208 I am proud to make a gift to the USC Department of Theatre and Dance in the amount of:

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Below, you’ll meet just a few of the students and alumni who have reached new heights thanks in large part to the generosity of our donors.

Please ensure the continuation of a high-level educational experience for these and all of our students by returning your tax-deductible donation along with the form on the opposite side today!

2009 Magellan Scholar

Wrote and directed an original “environmental theatre piece, “Lorca: Alone in a Dream.”

Funds received through her Magellan scholarship allowed for travel to NYC to study other plays in the same style.

Olivia Anderson Dance Performance Major Recipient, USC Dance Scholarship “Our performance opportunities are the envy of even professional dance companies with works by such celebrated choreographers as George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, and Lila York. It was my scholarship to the university that unlocked these competitive tools for me as a dancer and student, and have made my dream of being a professional dancer possible.”

I prefer to charge my gift in full to my credit/ debit card.

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Sydney Mitchell, Theatre Graduate 2010

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Mary Tilden, Theatre Major

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Recipient, 2010-11 Helen Hayes Outstanding Undergraduate Contribution Award

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Thanks in part to funds received from scholarships, Mary will study abroad in Summer, 2010 at the British American Dramatic Academy, and in Fall, 2010 at the University of Alcalá, near Madrid, Spain.

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PHONE______________________________________ CAROLINA ALUMNUS, CLASS OF______________ AF581

Department News

Scholarship Recipients Announced The winners of the theatre program’s 2010-11 Helen Hayes Undergraduate Outstanding Contribution Scholarship Award were announced at the department’s annual spring picnic in April. The recipients are T. Adam Bintz, Dillon Ingram, Mary Tilden and William Vaughan.

Theatre undergraduate Lauren Koch has received the University Libraries Award for Undergraduate Research for a paper on the french actor/director/poet Antonin Artaud, written for Professor Amy Lehman’s “History of Theatre II” class.

The dance program has awarded scholarships for 2010-11 to the following returning undergraduates: Olivia Anderson, Jacquelyn Ball, Brenna Campbell, Liza Cardinal, Emily Carter, Carmen Dent, Taylor Ferguson, Joanna Hardy, Amanda Hurst, Ashley Johannsen, Marilynn Joyner, Tricia Koch, Meredith Madden, Paige Maxwell, Sabrina McClure, Caitlin McCormack, Kathryn Miles, McCree O’Kelley, Katie Owerbach, Hannah Parrish, Caroline Poe, Margaret Rambo, Callen Ring, Raven Rutherford, Elizabeth Smith, Leslie Smith, Charlotte Stewart, Kayla Szolek, Ryan Thomas, Maeve Tierney, Emily Washburn and Rebecca Wilkins.

Incoming freshman dance scholarship recipients are: Hannah Brown, Jana Cartee, Ariana Cicatiello, Andra Gold, Lilliana Goti, Sarah Koslov, Hannah Patten, Claire Roseland, Taylor Smith and Emily Wilson

Design Student Accepted at 2011 Prague Quadrennial An MFA design student will see her work showcased on the international stage in 2011.

Heather Abraham, a first-year student in scenic design, recently won the opportunity to display her scenic designs for the 2010 main stage production of The Arabian Nights at the USA National Exhibit during the 2011 Prague Quadrennial. Held every four years, The Prague Quadrennial is the preeminent juried exhibition for theatre design in the world. Professional and student designers from more than 60 countries participate, and, as with Abraham’s work, most entries must pass a rigorous adjudication in their home countries before inclusion in the exhibition.

Department chair Jim Hunter praises Heather’s work. “Her inclusion in the PQ is a significant achievement that recognizes Heather’s artistry and reflects well on the professional theatre design training program here at the University of South Carolina.”

Abraham’s design was chosen from over 140 other student entries at the annual conference of the US Institute for Theatrical Technology (USITT), held March 31 - April 3, 2010 in Kansas City, Missouri. A panel of professional designers reviewed the entries.

The road to presenting at the USITT conference started in late November, 2009, well before the final design plans for The Arabian Nights were set. Abraham says all she could enter at the time were photos of the initial model and some photoshop renderings.

She was able to provide a concept statement, however, which detailed the concept of the design.

Heather wrote, “Baghdad during the Islamic Golden age was a hub of knowledge and home to the House of Wisdom, the first public lending library and translation institute... [which was] destroyed during the Mongol Invasion of Baghdad in 1258. This historic event parallels the destruction of the Baghdad National Library in 2003 as a result of the invasion by the United States Army. The contrast between what Baghdad used to be and what it is now provoked us to create a world where a composition of beauty and decay could define the space, thereby creating an environment...where the magical and didactic tales of The Arabian Nights could be told.”

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In addition to being chosen to present at the international showcase, Abraham’s designs will also be included in the Summer, 2010 issue of Theatre Design and Technology magazine, published quarterly by the USITT. She comments, “This is quite an honor for a graduate student because my works will be displayed next to professionals and tenured faculty from all over the nation.”

Abraham attributes her recent success in part to design professor Nic Ularu. Ularu’s designs appeared in the 1998, 2003 and 2007 Praque Quadrennials. He was the lead designer and curator of the US National Exhibit for PQ 2007. “[Nic] has been a constant source of mentorship and guidance,” she says. “I can hear him in my head telling us that we have to do whatever it takes to become our best and what that means is that you have to ‘be there.’ I knew that it was very important for my future to ‘be there’ at USITT this year, which meant I had to fund my travels there and back out of my own pocket. Although the trip was difficult financially, the pay off is worth more than I could have asked for.”

“I am no longer just some graduate student. I am Heather Abraham, a graduate student at the University of South Carolina. Every member of USITT will be receiving an issue of TD&T featuring the scenic design of The Arabian Nights at the University of South Carolina with my name attached to it.”

One of Abraham’s original renderings of the set for The Arabian Nights.

Inset: Heather Abraham

On Our Stages

Here are a few of our favorite snapshots of the journeys we took in 2009-10!

Top row, from left: Cyrano de Bergerac at Longstreet Theatre, September, 2009; The Book of Liz at the Lab Theatre, October, 2009; Giselle at the Koger Center, October, 2009.

Middle row, from left: Thresholds, v. 2.2

by Alan Hineline at the Koger Center, October, 2009; Radium Girls at Longstreet Theatre, November, 2009; If At First We Dream by Thaddeus Davis at the Koger Center, November, 2009.

Bottom row, from left: The Arabian Nights at Longstreet Theatre, February, 2010; The Winter’s Tale at Drayton Hall Theatre, April, 2010.

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C o m i n g t o o u r s ta g e s i n 2 0 1 0 - 1 1 Our Country’s Good

By Timberlake Wertenbaker Drayton Hall Theatre October 1-10, 2010

Big Love

By Charles Mee Longstreet Theatre November 12-21, 2010

The Suicide

By Nikolai Erdman Longstreet Theatre February 18-27, 2011

The Comedy of Errors

By William Shakespeare Drayton Hall Theatre April 15-23, 2011

Proof

By David Auburn October 7-10, 2010

Up to Date

Fall Concert

Koger Center for the Arts November 18-19, 2010

Student Showcase

By Laura Shamas October 28-31, 2010

Drayton Hall Theatre November 30-December 3, 2010

Bent

Wideman/Davis Dance

By Martin Sherman November 18-21, 2010

Last Days of Judas Iscariot

by Stephen Hadley Guirgis February 24-27, 2011

Dead Man’s Cell Phone

by Sarah Ruhl April 20-23, 2011

Drayton Hall Theatre November 30-December 3, 2010

Spring Concert

Drayton Hall Theatre February 9-12, 2011

6th Annual Ballet Stars of New York

Koger Center for the Arts March 19, 2011

dates subject to change.

Visit our websites for more info on these and other exciting events! www.cas.sc.edu/thea or www.cas.sc.edu/dance

University of South Carolina Department of Theatre and Dance Longstreet Theatre Columbia, SC 29208 803.777.4288 theatre@sc.edu dance@sc.edu www.cas.sc.edu/thea www.cas.sc.edu/dance

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