Director of Dance Ananya Chatterjea Honored

Congratulations to Director of Dance Ananya Chatterjea for being named by the Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill as "Local Mother of Environmental Justice."

The Institute's mission is:

The Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is an environmental research, renewal and retreat center designed to create and share knowledge about environmental issues and policies relevant to women, children and identified communities especially affected by environmental injustices; to promote agricultural justice, organic and sustainable agriculture and ecological awareness; and to support activism that influences public policy and promotes social change.

For more information, check out the Women's Environmental Institute website.

Congratulations to our Ivey Award Winners

Luverne Seifert, Head of BA in Performance, won an Ivey for playing science-fiction author Philip K. Dick in "The Transmigration of Philip Dick" by Victoria Stewart and produced by Workhaus Theatre Collective. Affiliate faculty member, Sonja Parks, received an Ivey for her solo role as a high-school teacher in Nilaja Sun's "No Child," which was produced at Pillsbury House Theatre. For more information about the Iveys and the award winners, check out Graydon Royce's article in the Star Tribune.

Dance Program Receives an NEA American Masterpieces Grant

The Dance Program received a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces: Dance Grant of $15,000 to reconstruct and restage sections of Jawolle Willa Jo Zollar's "Walking With Pearl . . . Southern Diaries." This reconstruction will take place during the 2010-2011 academic year.

For more information, visit the National Endowment for the Arts website.

Department Chair, BFA alum, and Affliate Faculty Member Combine Artistic Talent in the Jungle Theater's Latest Production

Mary's Wedding, a dream play set in the World War I era, opens Friday, September 18 at the Jungle Theater. Directed by affiliate faculty member Joel Sass, choreography by Department Chair, Carl Flink, and BFA Acting alum Sam Bardwell, the production features a variety of artistic talent with ties to the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance.

The play runs from September 18-October 25. Visit the Jungle Theater's website for more information.

Check out the great articles about the produciton:

• Quinton Skinner's article, The Law and the Jungle in City Pages.


• Dominic Papatola's piece, Theater: 'Mary's Wedding' unites director and choreographer in the Pioneer Press.


• The Star Tribune OnStage article, Conjure a horse, but don't use one by Graydon Royce.

VOLUNTEER FOR ARTSMOSIS

ARTSMOSIS, a collaborative arts festival on the west bank of campus will be held on October 9! The event will feature animation, dance, performance art, painting,
photography, music, drama, opera, and more...

Volunteers are needed for: publicity, design, tech (audio/video/theatre), dance, music, costuming, lighting, and logistics.

To sign up, email aqc@umn.edu.

For more information, visit the Arts Quarter Collective website at
www.tc.umn.edu/~aqc/~

Helpers needed for improving studio space

Professors Lisa Channer, Michael Sommers, and Marcus Dilliard, have made arrangements to improve our rehearsal/ studio spaces. During the spring, several students and these professors built flats and procured some lights to put into studio A and either room 10 or 20. These additions will make students in directing classes have the ability to utilize lighting and level choices, grant design students simple tools to create stage pictures, and performance students new tools to play with to compliment their physical work.

We need a few volunteers- between 4 and 6- to come in on Friday, September 18 around 3 to help staple on the top covers of the flats and install them. Michael Sommers has even offered to buy pizza for those involved. If you would like to volunteer, e-mail Allison Witham at peers@umn.edu.

Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor's Theatre, A New Book by Professor Michal Kobialka

Professor Kobialka recently published a new book entitled, Further on, Nothing: Tadeusz Kantor's Theatre (University of Minnesota Press) . Below is a direct link to the Press's catalogue containing a more detailed information about the book--

http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/K/kobialka_further.html

For additional information, the Editor Review from Amazon.com:

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was one of the twentieth century's most innovative visual artists, stage directors, and theoreticians. His theatre productions and manifestos challenged the conventions of creating art in post-World War II culture and expanded the boundaries of Dada, surrealist, Constructivist, and happening theatre forms. Kantor's most widely known productions--The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1985), and Today Is My Birthday (1990)--have had a profound impact on playwrights and artists who continue today to engage with his radical theatre.

In Further on, Nothing, Michal Kobialka explores Kantor's theatre practice from the critical perspective of current debates about representation, memory, and history. He pursues the intriguing proposition that Kantor gave material form to a theatre practice that defined the very mode of postmodern operation and that many of its theoretical notions are still in circulation. According to Kobialka, Kantor's theatre still offers an answer to reality rather than a portrayal of a utopian alternative.

Further on, Nothing includes new translations of Kantor's work, presented in conversation with Kobialka's own theoretical analyses, to show us a Kantor who continues to offer--and deliver on--the promise of the avant-garde.

Xperimental Theatre Auditions Announced

X Auditions

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
AND
Ysengrimus

Wednesday, September 16 6-9pm
Thursday, September 17 6-9pm

"For Colored Girls" will provide readings from the script for audition.
"Ysengrimus" asks for 2 one-minute monologues, 1 comedic and 1 dramatic. In either classical or contemporary style.

Sign up for auditions is located on the callboard in the basement of Rarig.

Ananya Dance Theatre to Perform at the Southern Theater

Director of Dance and Associate Professor Ananya Chatterjea's dance troupe Ananya Dance Theatre will be performing the premiere of their latest work, "Ashesh Barsha, Unending Monsoon" at the Southern Theater September 10-13, 2009. For more information check out Camille LeFevre's article, "Ananya Dance Theater completes trilogy", an article in the Minnesota Daily, and the Southern Theater's website. Also watch a video on the 3-Minute Egg website.

Associate Professor Sonja Arsham Kuftinec Publishes New Book

Associate Professor Kuftinec recently published a new book entitled Theatre, Facilitation and Nation Formation in the Balkans and Middle East.

How might theatre intervene in violent inter-ethnic conflicts? When does participatory theatre mediate more just futures, and when might it preserve inequities? Theatre, Facilitation, and Nation Formation addresses these questions through detailed case studies of community-based projects in the Balkans and Middle East that the author has witnessed or helped to create. In Mostar, collaborative performance helps youth to re-member a divided city. In Berlin, participants from seven Balkan countries reorient understandings of citizenship through an interactive installation. In Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, image theatre animates the limits of reconciliation. These theatrical facilitations model ways that ethnic oppositions can move towards ethical relationships, while pointing out challenges in doing so. As a travelogue, this study weaves critical analysis with the voices of participants, directors, and workshop leaders, offering viewpoints and field notes on how theatrical facilitation can (and can't) effectively transform conflicts.

New Videos Now Online

Check out our two new videos:

• 2009-10 Season of Love


• An Introduction to the BA Program