February 2012
1 post
Big River review
This review ran last weekend in a travel blog, but got posted on the TAGP list:
There’s something really special going on at the upstairs theater at the Arts Bank on South Broad Street (Avenue of the Arts) this weekend and, if you’re lucky, you can probably still score a ticket for the closing performance tonight. It the UArts production of Roger Miller’s musical Big River. What makes this...
November 2011
3 posts
The Music of Good Person of Szechwan
The Music of Good Person of Szechwan
Paul Dessau wrote the music for Good Person in 1947 and ’48, five years after the original production, which had music composed by the Swiss composer Georg Fruh. Dessau was a favorite collaborator of Brecht, mostly because he was so agreeable to everything Brecht asked of him. “I have no pride. When a genius says something good to me, I believe him. I work on...
October 2011
7 posts
Stoppleworth in Sweden
Brind School Assistant Professor Rick Stoppleworth reports on some of his recent adventures:
New Friends Found In Sweden
In September I attended an international conference of theater educators titled “Whose Art Form Is It, Anyway?” The conference was organized by the Musical Theater Educators Alliance International and was hosted by the University of Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama and...
Simply contemplate
Food for thought from the book “The Empty Space” by Peter Brook, shared by Brind School Assistant Professor Ernie Losso:
“A word does not start as a word—-it is an end product which begins as an impulse, stimulated by attitude and behavior which dictates the need for expression. This process occurs inside the dramatist; it is repeated inside the actor. Both may only be...
Dramaturgical notes for TOP GIRLS
Dr. Mari Kathleen Fielder has provided the following excellent dramaturgical notes to enhance your experience of this weekend’s production of TOP GIRLS. A condensed version of these notes appears in the TOP GIRLS program. Click here to get tickets for TOP GIRLS.
“She’s a bit thick – a bit funny. She’s not going to make it.” Such is the cold indictment that our top Top Girl, Marlene, makes...
1 tag
September 2011
6 posts
August 2011
4 posts
Rory Donovan on the Air! →
Brind School alum Rory Donovan plays the title role in Finian’s Rainbow, produced by the Berkshire Theater Festival’s “Unicorn Company.” He recorded a “round table” with two other cast members that recently aired on public radio station WAMC. He gives a shout-out to UArts and tells the story of how his showcase presentation led to booking the gig at BTF. He...
1 tag
A report from Fringe NYC
Last week I had the opportunity to attend one of the performances of LIPSHTICK, a play co-written by Brind School alumna Romy Nordlinger (known to her classmates as Sharon Nordlinger when she attended UArts 20 years ago) and her husband, Adam Burns.
The show was performed by Nordlinger and two other talented actresses, Scout Durwood and Aja Houston, in the intimate Dixon Place Theater, with an...
Directing In The Blood: Space for Discovery
Director Bill Buddendorf offers these thoughts about the progress of rehearsals for In The Blood, the opening show of the Brind School’s upcoming season. Week 2 of rehearsals for the first production of the 2011/2012 season is quickly coming to a close. We are right on schedule and the play will be completely staged with all of the actors off book (they were off book from day one per my...
July 2011
6 posts
June 2011
2 posts
Is the "Starving Artist" a myth?
A podcast on American RadioWorks explores the myth of the starving artist, and discovers that many students who earned degrees in the arts wind up being very satisfied with their careers, regardless of whether they wind up working in the field they studied. Brind School faculty member (and Assistant Dean of Performing Arts) Krishna Dunston is one of the individuals with degrees in the arts...
May 2011
8 posts
1 tag
College Admissions Tips for Artistic Students →
In this feature in US News and World Report, Halley Shefler cites UArts as one in a select list of “wonderful school(s) for musical theater.”
Forrest McClendon = Tony Nominee! →
Brind School faculty member Forrest McClendon, whose portrayal of Mr. Tambo in The Scottsboro Boys earned a chorus of kudos, can now add Tony Nominee to his CV. We couldn’t be happier for him!
April 2011
11 posts
V-Day coming soon!
The UArts chapter of Alpha Psi Omega hosts V-Day University of the Arts The Vagina Monologues! This is a benefit performance to stop the violence of women and girls. Performances are in the Gershman Black Box April 28th, April 29th, and April 30th all at 8:00 PM TO PURCHASE TICKETS OR RESERVE TICKETS IN ADVANCE GO TO http://vdayuarts2011.eventbrite.com/ Tickets are: $5.00 for Students/UArts...
Program notes for Dessa Rose
These program notes for the Brind School’s upcoming production of the musical Dessa Rose were written by Mari Kathleen Fielder, Adjunct Professor of Theater History
Slave revolts bring to mind the names of men: black men such as Nat Turner, George Boxley and Denmark Vesey; even white men such as the now-mythic John Brown. Slave rebellions conjure images of geography - - the German...
Janice Orlandi and Will Thompson in BACKSTAGE...
Movement teacher Janice Orlandi and Brind School junior Will Thompson are quoted in this article in Backstage:
Camping It Up
Young performers describe the benefits of their favorite summer acting programs.
By Frank Nestor
March 23, 2011
Students at Actors Movement Studio.
There are more than 800 performing and creative arts camps in the United States , reports the American Camp Association....
"When you sing, you bite like a shark."
Rosey Hay, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Brind School, offers these observations on the Brecht workshop taught last fall by Heinz-Uwe Haus:
14 students (sophomore, Juniors and Seniors) gathered to take Brecht Workshop with Hans-Uwe Haus, who worked with the Berliner Ensemble in the 1970’s and is one of the foremost interpreters and teachers of Brecht. Uwe is profoundly knowledgeable, not...
March 2011
14 posts
The Brind School's 2011-12 Season
The Ira Brind School of Theater Arts is pleased to announce its plans for the coming season. In addition to the titles listed below, we will announce additional Platform Series production and several student-directed works in the coming months. Auditions for fall productions will take place at the end of April. MAINSTAGE SERIES HIGH FIDELITY Lyrics by Amanda Green, music by Tom Kitt, book by...