Killer Joe... Bug... August: Osage County. You will not want to miss this amazing opportunity to see Tracy Letts' contemporary realistic plays in rotating repertory , which plays Oct 21 -28. Offered as part of the BFA studio series, performed by the University of Minnesota/ Guthrie Theatre 2017 BFA company, each show will unfold on the intimate Liu Stage of the Kilburn Theatre. Killer Joe directed by Joe Price opens Oct. 21, 7:30pm, followed by Bug directed by Ellen Fenster on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7:30pm, and completing the rep will be August: Osage County , directed by Bruce Roach Friday, Oct 24 at 7:30pm. NOTE: These performances will contain strong language, nudity and stage violence which some may find offensive.
Performances are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and based on first come first serve basis. The Letts trio continues so each play will be presented three times. Check the department upcoming events at theatre.umn.edu
Creative Collaborations present informal showings after a series of intense rehearsal weeks focused on ensemble theater creation. The first showing, performing Oct. 24, is Act II of Mayakovksy's Mystery Bouffe, directed by guest Polish artist Ludmila Ryba with input from Michal Kobialka. Presented in the
Nolte Xperimental Theatre, Mayakovsky's play, grounded in the proletarian causes of the Russian revolution, directs performers to "change the content, making it contemporary, immediate, up-to-the-minute." Ryba, an original member of Tadeusz Kantor's theatre company, will utilize Kantor's theories and methods in creating the piece. This piece anticipates the 100th anniversary of Kantor's birth in April
2015. Note:Creative Collaboration production elements are usually light, creativity and artistic risk are always high. Admission is free to Creative Collaborations; seating is based on first come first served basis.
Faculty "Out West" Onstage & Backstage
When lighting designer (and department chair) Marcus Dilliard partners up with light technician extraordinaire Bill Healey you've struck gold -- just ask the folks at the Minnesota Opera. Earlier this month, the two UMTAD faculty members collaborated on the Opera's recent production of La Fanciulla del West, (Girl of the Golden West) dazzling audiences and critics alike. The Pioneer Press raved about "a production as engaging to the eyes as to the ears." Puccini's blazing orchestral colors got an extra boast from these two theatre artists. Later this fall, Mr. Healey designs lights for the Ordway's Christmas Story . At the Cowles Center, Mr. Dilliard will light the stage for The Steeles LIVE and in concert coming soon.
Out West, too, dance faculty member and alum Carl Flink, is on tour with his Black Label Movement company presenting Whack- A- Mole at University of Northern Texas. With a cast of 17 performers, Whack-A Mole examines the frenetic, creative and exhilarating physical world of communities responding to the aftermath of natural or man-made disaster and the cycle of rebirth. While at UNT, he is teaching master classes.
Alums Spotlight
Secret Lives of Coats, a new play with music at Red Eye Theater, features alums Nike Kadri, Charlotte Calvert, and Anna Hickey plays through Oct. 26. For tickets and info visit www.redeyetheater.org or call 612 870-0309.
Recent UMTAD grads Michael Fell, Pegeen Lamb, Chelsie Newhard and Sam Pearson play in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Durang's dark comedy at Theatre in the Round Players on stage now through Nov. 2.
Aeysha Kinnuen recently concluded performances of Nature, the mythic telling of Emerson and Thoreau's mutual love affair with the natural world. Nature was performed outdoors as a "walking play" in a lush green outdoor setting at U of M's Landscape Arboretum in Chaska.
Nathan Barlow played the lead in Marcus,or the Secret of Sweet by Tarell Alvin McCraney at the Guthrie's Dowling Studio in a co-production of the award winning play by Pillsbury House theatre helmed by MFA alum Faye Price and Noel Raymond, and The Mount Curve Company.
