With spring registration deadlines quickly approaching, plenty of new and exciting opportunities for freshmen are presented across the university. Consider registering for one of these seminars offered through the Theatre Arts & Dance department. Each fulfills essential requirements.
Live Theatre: Creating and Expressing Community
This seminar seeks to utilize the immensely rich culture and resources in the Twin Cities such as Penumbra, Mixed Blood, and Ten Thousand Things supplemented with in class discussions and conversations with professionals to "develop a critical language with which to look at, think, discuss, and write about live performance - particularly its relationship to who we are to ourselves and each other." Many classes will occur at the theaters mentioned above!
Taught by Professor Sonja Kuftinec Thursdays 6:30-9:30pm
Fulfills Intensive Writing requirement
Backstage Pass to London: From the Guthrie to the Globe
London, theatre capital of of the English-speaking world, once prohibited public plays within its city gates. Why? How did a rained-out Hamlet performance at castle Elsinore become "game-changer" for 20th century stage design that actually effected Minneapolis and Rarig Center? What does A Midsummer Night's Dream share with Romeo and Juliet? See the shows and explore for with us! No photo of 1598 original exists, so how accurate is that reconstruction of the Globe Theatre anyway? You'll check out evidence, and decide. Meet today's Cardboard Citizen Theatre that empowers the homeless in London through performance.
Raise the curtain on London's world famous theatre scene and get a backstage view of what makes a great performance. Research performance practices, take actor-led tours on the Globe Theatre and the National Theatre. You'll visit Hampton Court Palace, where Shakespeare performed for his queen. Plans include experiencing plays, the famous Old Vic, and the West End. You will be debating and writing about them.
Taught by Dennis Behl, PhD Thursdays from 6:30 - 9:30pm. Class will study in London over spring break, March 13-22,
Fulfills Globe Perspectives liberal education requirement
NOTE Register before Dec 5. A few spaces are still available.
For more information visit: UMabroad.umn.edu/programs/fsa or contact Lindsey
at lahr 0039@umn.edu or 612 625-8827. Financial aid and $1000 FSA scholarships are available.
Coming Soon in November BFA STUDIO SERIES: NEW PLAYS
The BFA Class of '15 performs two new plays from opposite ends of the genre spectrum: an intense crime thriller and a thought-provoking and entertaining mythical mash-up.
BACK BAY by Christina Ham directed by Hayley Finn is set in the 1950s. In the grips of the Cold War the violent unsolved murder of a young African-American woman in Boston's affluent Back Bay neighborhood has the community on edge. When a fresh-off-the-farm Violet comes to stay in the illustrious mansion belonging to her older brother, Lowell, and his socialite wife, Elsie, she meets their best friend Alton who enlists her help to collaborate on a true crime novel investigating the unsolved homicide. As Violet closes in on the killer by following the trail of lies, the truth that she uncovers may destroy the lives of those around her. Inspired by such Post-War female crime fiction luminaries as Patricia Highsmith, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Zenith Brown, this psychological thriller is a riveting and revealing portrait of how the other half lives.
WORLD WITHOUT END by Dominic Orlando is directed by Joseph W. Stodola. In The Beginning There Was . . what, exactly? An Old Dude in The Sky with a beard? Adam and Eve? Adam and Steve? Talking Snakes and glowing Angels? All God and no Goddess? WORLD WITHOUT END asks more questions than it answers, in a freewheeling mash-up of cultural myths where only one thing is certain: In The Beginning . . . There Was a Story.
See both of these plays, performed in the Kilburn Theater on the Liu stage, November 20 - 22. Admission is free.
Alumni Spotlight: BFA Grad cast in Disenchanted!
Stephanie Bertumen,(BFA '14) stars as Mulan, Pocahontas, and Jasmine in DISENCHANTED! at Minneapolis' Illusion Theater. These original fairytale princesses team up with others to "storm the castle" as they stand up against the exploitation they've suffered in today's modern portrayals of their stories.. See Bertumen in Disenchanted! at the Illusion Theater, running now through November 23.
Visit http://www.illusiontheater.org for more information.
Faculty/Staff Professional Activities
University of Minnesota Theatre Arts & Dance chair Marcus Dilliard provides lighting design for the Guthrie play RELICS. The year is 2314 and archaeologists have discovered remains from a 300-year-old colony in what was North America. As an audience member, you are invited to the opening night gala exhibition of the artifacts they uncovered. The Guthrie promises a "mind-bending interactive theatrical event [that] allows you to see today through the cracked lens of tomorrow." Among the cast is BA Theatre Program Head Luverne Seifert. Experience this theatrical museum event at the Guthrie Theater November 13 through November 23. For more information, visit http://www.guthrietheater.org
"To Embrace Failure? A Multi-Disciplinary Re-Thinking," moderated by Associate Professor Lisa Channer, explores the "productive" failure of single authorship and of representation in Bertolt Brecht's theatre, which ultimately led to new forms of collectivity. Featuring MA/PhD Associate Professor Margaret Werry, the panel will ask: what constitutes failure? What does failure mean for our academic work? Can failure be disentangled from success? This discussion will takes place on November 13 at 4 pm at the Crosby Seminar Room - 240 Northrop. Visit http://www.northrop.umn.edu for more
Associate professor Michael Sommers directs and designs THE JUNIPFER TREE at the Open Eye Figure Theatre playing now through Dec. 6. Recommended for ages 8 and up. Visit OpenEyeThreatre.org for details and ticket information.
Associate professor Carl Flink, presently on sabbatical leave, conducts an artist-in-residency program and stages his Lost Lullabies at Orem's Utah Valley University running November 17 - 22.
