Department of Theatre and Dance Newsletter
Vol. 6, No. 27
April 14, 2008
NOTICE TO STUDENTS REGARDING FINALS WEEK
Notice to Students From the Academic Senate - "As you may know, the U.S. Open Golf Tournament will be held at the Torrey Pines Golf Course the week of June 9 through June 15, the same week that Spring Quarter final examinations are scheduled. The traffic impact on the campus, and on all who work and attend here, will be enormous (for more information, see the March 21st Campus Notice from UC San Diego Transportation and Parking Services). If you live off-campus, YOU WILL NEED TO LEAVE FOR CAMPUS MUCH, MUCH EARLIER for your final exams than you might in other quarters. Unfortunately, we cannot give you any estimates of how much time you will need to allow for the traffic impacts.... " Click here for the entire message.
Free Public Transportation Available During US Open Week - Any UCSD affiliate with a current ID card can board a bus, the MTS Trolley, the NCTD Coaster, or Springer service to ride free during the US Open. Click for transit trip planning assistance.
DEPARTMENT NEWS
Head of Playwriting Naomi Iizuka is the recipient of a Howard Foundation Fellowship in support of her play, Three Taoist Transcendants Admire A Toad. The Board of Administration of the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation awarded eleven fellowships of $25,000 each for the 2008-2009 academic years. The eleven recipients, representing the fields of Music (Composition, Performance, Musicology), Playwriting and Theatre Studies, were selected from this year’s outstanding group of applicants.
Costume Designer Judy Dolan worked on the new production of Candide, the Opera that opened recently in New York. The NY Times has a write-up on the production.
Undergraduate Meeting - The spring undergraduate quarterly meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 16th, at 4:30 pm in GH 155. Up for discussion will be summer school classes, workshops, and the departmental graduation ceremony. Seniors who are planning to attend graduation should try to make it to the meeting. Each year a member of the faculty gives a speech at graduation. Last year it was Jim Winker. If you're a senior theatre or dance major, think about who you'd like to speak and email the reps at tdugreps@ucsd.edu with your vote.
The Department of Theatre and Dance presents: DANCE DAY - Saturday, April 19th, from noon to 4:00pm. A variety of free classes will be offered in the Molli and Arthur Wagner Dance Facility. All high school and college students are welcome to attend. Please contact Patricia Rincon for additional information email princon@ucsd.edu or call (619) 851-9349.
ONSTAGE
Next Week - The Baldwin New Play Festival 2008: Five world premiere plays by UCSD Playwrights
Ticket Information.
Bureau of Missing Persons, by Lila Rose Kaplan (MFA '08), directed by Sarah Rasmussen. A man loses his wife. A fourth grade teacher loses a child at the zoo. A maid obsessed with obituaries brings two strangers together to find the loved ones they lost. They end up in a cave in Pakistan where nothing is quite what it seems. What does it mean to be missing? And how do we recover from catastrophic loss?
OPENS: Friday, 4/18 at 8:00pm
Saturday, 4/19 at 2:00pm
Wednesday, 4/23 at 8:00pm
Thursday, 4/24 at 8:00pm
Friday, 4/25 at 8:00pm
The Further Adventures of Suzanne and Monica, by Alex Lewin (MFA '08), directed by Lori Petermann. An acerbic young actress, Monica Grant, has been hired as the body double for Suzanne Baxter, sagging doyenne of the silver screen. But when Suzanne up and disappears, Monica must stand in for her in more ways than one.
OPENS: Wednesday, 4/16 at 8:00pm
Saturday, 4/19 at 8:00pm
Tuesday, 4/22 at 8:00pm
Saturday, 4/26 at 2:00pm
Saturday, 4/26 at 8:00pm
The Attic Dwellers, by Jennifer Barclay (MFA '09), directed by Adam Arian. As a natural disaster ravages LA, two strangers find refuge in the attic of an abandoned house. But inexplicable noises rumble from below, the radio has a split personality, and the only exit has been sealed shut. A dark and twisted comedy about a toxic past that just won’t stay buried.
OPENS: Saturday, 4/19 at 8:00pm
Tuesday, 4/22 at 8:00pm
Wednesday, 4/23 at 8:00pm
Thursday, 4/24 at 8:00pm
Friday, 4/25 at 8:00pm
Wading in the Water (a staged reading) of a new play from the winner of the second national Dr. Floyd Gaffney National Playwriting Competition on the African-American Experience, Maya L. James. Set in the backwoods of Baton Rouge, Wading in the Water explores the harsh impact of Hurricane Katrina on an African-American family. Saturday, 4/26, at 10:30am in Galbraith Theatre (GH 157).
Two One-Act Plays in the Molli and Arthur Wagner Dance Facility, Studio 3:
The Strangest Fruit, by Ronald McCants (MFA '10), directed by Isis Misdary. Inspired by true stories of Springfield, MO, a detective investigating a star basketball player’s lynching encounters two people who challenge his understanding of race, identity, and history’s legacy.
A Cure for Pain, by Stephanie Timm (MFA '10), directed by Tom Dugdale. A 21st century couple struggles to remedy their troubled relationship. A Victorian doctor strives to heal a beautiful madwoman. A group of abused internal organs contemplate their suffering and the role of pain in strengthening the body and the soul.
OPENS: Thursday, 4/17, at 8:00pm
Friday, 4/18, at 8:00pm
Saturday, 4/19, at 8:00pm
Friday, 4/25, at 8:00pm
Saturday, 4/26, at 2:00pm
Coming Soon-
May 13th - 17th: Surf Orpheus
Book and Lyrics by Corey Madden
Music by Bruno Louchouarn
Directed by Corey Madden
Choreographed by Jacques Heim
Sheila and Hughes POTIKER Theatre
June 5th - 7th: Highly Sprung
created by Student Choreographers
directed by Yolande Snaith
Sheila and Hughes POTIKER Theatre
Tickets to all productions are available for purchase by calling the Box Office at (858) 534-4574 or in person at the Theatre District’s Central Box Office at the Sheila & Hughes Potiker Theatre. Visit the Theatre Department website for complete season information.
ALUMNI NEWS
Soo Hong (MFA '08) has received the prestigious Gilbert Hemsley Internship for 2008, the only one out of about 30 candidates across the nation. Jim Ingalls, Heather Carson, and Victoria Petrovitch wrote her letters of recommendation.
Adrianne Krstansky (MFA '94) wrote to say: "This past year appeared at the American Repertory Theater in Britannicus, directed by Robert Woodruff, the world premiere of Gary, by Melinda Lopez, at Boston Playwrights Theater, and directed Macbeth for the Actors Shakespeare Project in Boston. I will be playing the 'Lisa Kron' role in Well at the New Century Theater at Smith College this summer. I am an Assistant Professor of Theater at Brandeis University and live in Boston with my husband and our extremely energetic four year old son."
Jenny Slattery (MFA '06) is the Assistant Stage Manager for the new musical Cry-Baby, opening on Broadway at the Marriott Marquis Theatre on April 24th.
Matthew Wilder (MFA '93) premieres his first feature, Your Name Here, "a kind of anti-biopic of Philip K. Dick," starring Bill Pullman, Taryn Manning, Harold Perrineau and M. Emmet Walsh, at Cinevegas in June 2008.
Paul Gutrecht (MFA ‘92) sends: "I mentioned previously that we had a child in July. That news basically blotted out memory of any other news, so here I add that on June 30th (10 days before Dante’s birth), I was hired to direct a series of online video intro’s for the premiere of a trailer (yes, intros...for the trailer..) of a documentary called “The 11th Hour.” Well, the doc was produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and so I directed...him. We met him in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park. He had shot all night on a feature, slept a bit, ran to a GQ shoot, and then joined us a few hours late. Very gracious, professional, and open to feedback - to the extent there was any for him reading direct-to-camera speeches off a teleprompter. I got to do another one of these in December, for online promos with the two bad guys in “Funny Games,” which came and went in March."
Miracle Theater Group/Teatro Milagro presents the professional premiere of The Labyrinth of Desire, by UCSD Alum Caridad Svich (MFA '88), adapted/translated from Lope de Vega’s La prueba de los ingenios. May 9th - 31st at the Miracle Theatre in Portland.
John Ovrutsky (MFA '76) just sold the television channel he co-founded, Time Out New York on Demand, and broadband site. He is currently producing and consulting for Yahoo!, Time Out, and other New York City media companies.
Send Us Your News - Have something to share? Please email it to TandDNews at yahoo.com (replace “at” with the “@” sign). If you're an alum, please include your name at graduation (if it's changed since then) and the year you graduated. If you have a photo we can use, please send it in a GIF or JPG format file no larger than 500KB. Be sure to let us know who to credit, if that is an issue. Typically your item will appear in the newsletter within two weeks. Time-sensitive material that arrives by Thursday will have priority for the next Monday's edition. Thanks! - Nan
