 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre and Dance News
|
| |
|
The 2008 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges ranks Muhlenberg
among the top 20 small college programs in the nation in both Theatre and Dance - one of only 8 schools in the country to appear on both lists.
The Princeton Review rates Theatre the #6 undergraduate theatre program in the United States. (The PR does not rank dance programs.)
Muhlenberg College is one of only 30 schools from across the nation selected to perform at the 2008 National American College Dance Festival.
|
|
THEATRE & DANCE ALUMNI UPDATES
|
From 'Berg to Broadway...and Africa - Frankie Grande '01, a cast member of the Broadway hit Mamma Mia!, prepares to travel to South Africa to teach art, theatre and dance to children.
 Grande is part of Broadway in South Africa, a group of actors who hold master classes for children in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. On October 6, the group presented a concert to raise money to fund this year's trip. The concert in New York's Symphony Space included cast members from major Broadway shows such as ''The Lion King,'' ''Jersey Boys,'' ''Rent,'' ''In the Heights,'' ''Wicked,'' ''The Little Mermaid,'' ''Legally Blonde'' and ''Mamma Mia!'' The concert also will feature original works based on the poems, stories and drawings of African children living in New York City.
Grande will also perform a dance number created by Muhlenberg College dance professor Charles Anderson and Dance Theatre X. Anderson has long been interested in African song, dance and music, and has tried to incorporate modern dance with traditional African mythology and rhythms. His dance works use African instruments and rely a lot on African symbolism.
The 10-day trip includes a four-day arts intensive program for more than 50 underprivileged youth and benefit performances at Baxter Theatre or Artscape in Cape Town, Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg and Agape Orphanage in Durban. The will also teach at Oprah Winfrey's Academy for Women outside Johannesburg. Grande got involved in Broadway in South Africa three years ago.
|
 Rachel Shapiro has been cast in the world premiere of Paula Vogel's new play A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS at the Long Wharf Theatre. Directed by Tina Landau, the new musical by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel intertwines many lives in the Lincoln White House on a cold Christmas Eve. It’s 1864, and in the White House, President and Mrs. Lincoln plot their gift-giving; on the banks of the Potomac, a young rebel challenges a Union blacksmith’s mercy; and in the alleys downtown, an escaped slave loses her daughter just before finding freedom. Visit the The Long Wharf Theatre for details. The world premiere runs from November 26 to December 21, 2008. Filled with Christmas music and traditional American songs, this new musical by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel intertwines many lives and shows us that the gladness of one’s heart is the best gift of all.
|
Dyshaun Burton' 06 is moving from freelance stylist to television contestant on the CW's Stylista. If "The Devil Wears Prada" were a reality show, it would be "Stylista." Eleven aspiring fashion enthusiasts vie for a much-coveted editorial job with Elle magazine. They work as assistants to Elle's Fashion News Director, Anne Slowey, a demanding but well-respected fashion icon. The competitors carry out a fashion editorial assignment in each episode. Each week, in consultation with Elle's Creative Director, Joe Zee, Anne fires one person, until the last assistant standing gets "promoted" to the coveted real-life job opportunity. The grand prize includes a paid editorial position at Elle magazine, a paid lease on a great apartment in Manhattan, and a clothing allowance at H&M, all for one year, valued at $100,000. DyShaun was the runner-up in the finale in December.
|
GUEST ARTIST
 Charles Strouse celebrated the release of his book on October 29th in the Baker Theatre of the Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College. Strouse has also been working for more than a decade on a musical adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel, An American Tragedy with lyricist Lee Adams based on the book written by the late David Shaber. Still unproduced, Strouse has begun collaborating with Muhlenberg's director of theatre, Charles Richter, on a proposed workshop of the new musical on campus next year, with a full production next spring as part of the Theatre & Dance season.
More on Charles Strouse. |
|
|
AMERICAN COLLEGE DANCE FESTIVAL 2008
 Congratulations are in order for Charles O. Anderson and our male dancers Michael Biren, Erik Fiebiger, Brandon Girouard, Dany Guy, Kennedy Kanagawa, Michael Laskaris, Mike Miller, William Porter, Theodore Rutherford and Scott Schneider. Charles' spectacular piece, "evidence of things (un)said," has been selected as one of three works from the Mid-Atlantic Conference of the American College Dance Festival Association for presentation at the National festival to be held in New York City this June. Of the 46 works adjudicated at this conference only three are selected for presentation at the National Festival, so this indeed a high honor. ACDFA is comprised of 10 regions and about 30 works are shown as the best of college dance at the National Festival. This is the third time Muhlenberg College Dancers have been selected. Charles O. Anderson has been included in Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" for 2008.He is the recipient of a prestigious Pew Charitable Trusts grant in support of his professional company, dancetheatre x.
Muhlenberg College ACDFA history. |
|
| THEATRE FACULTY |
 Francine Roussel performed with Footsbarn Theatre Company in Europe during her 2007-2008 sabbatical. She was featured as Hermia in the international company of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dreamin tours through France and England.
An international company (in this cast: English, French, Japanese, Javanese) based on Jacques Lecoq training, Footsbarn revels in a very physical, visual and musical type of theatre (the musicians were from Poland and India). The work is characterized by beautiful imagination, poetry, a great sense of humor, and original masks, all employed in an extraordinary space. Photo © Vincent Arbelet.
Click to learn more.
|
|
|
| DANCE FACULTY |
 Sarah Carlson created a new work for MOVING STORIES 2008. Titled "response/ability" - the dance explores the nature of human reaction. High powered and unrelenting, the dancers tumble in and out of urgent situations that test their limits. Lassique Benthaus’ gritty score fuels the frenzy in this environment where moments of hesitation can have dire consequences. An Assistant Professor of Dance, Carlson has danced professionally in NYC with numerous companies including Alexandra Beller/Dances, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Clare Byrne Dance, Paul Mosley Dance and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. As an independent choreographer, her own work has been presented throughout New York, as well as in Boston; Charlottesville, VA; New London, CT; Hattiesburg, MS; Seattle, WA; The Yard on Martha's Vineyard and in Benin, Africa, where she completed a Fulbright Grant studying Vodou ritual dance in Benin, Africa, furthering an ongoing inquiry into sacred dance forms. She attended the Sacred Dance Guild's 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee Festival last summer, where she shared a new solo work, and participated in the Dance Critics Association's annual conference at the Kennedy Center. Photograph ©Kozo Takeuchi.
For more dance faculty and alumni news, visit DanceBeat. |
|
|
Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts |
 Muhlenberg Summer
Music Theatre
is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
The Department of Theatre & Dance participates in the PCA's Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), a program of local grant-making which fosters and promotes access to arts experiences for all the people of Pennsylvania. PPA supports artists, arts organizations and infrastructures that deliver these experiences and now reaches all 67 counties throughout the state.
Visit www.summerbroadway.org for highlights of the 2008 summer season.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Trexler
Pavilion for Theatre & Dance
484. 664.3335 (Administration)
484.664.3333 (Box Office)
|
|
