Brind School Buzz

Brind School students and alumni are well-represented in many of...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:57:52 -0400

Brind School students and alumni are well-represented in many of the events in PIFA (Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts), now in full swing. MT junior C. J. Celeiro has written a short play which was chosen for Luna Theater’s Future Fest, the cast features alumni Bob Stineman and Joe Matyas, and costumes are by alumna Jill Keys. It runs April 17 - 28 at the Adirenne Skybox, and the code “uarts” will get you a discount when you book tickets at www.lunatheater.org.

Video preview for “Time Machine: The Lost Hour,” a...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:33:52 -0400

Video preview for “Time Machine: The Lost Hour,” a production of Philadelphia Young Playwrights currently in development in the Brind School’s “Intergenerational Theater Making” class. Performances at the Kimmel Center April 24-26 as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Details here.

Open House - Saturday April 6

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:43:39 -0400

Open house 2013 from Charles Gilbert

The Brind School’s 2013 New York Showcase is now available...

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:19:58 -0400

The Brind School’s 2013 New York Showcase is now available on YouTube! Check out the work of some of our talented seniors in Acting and Musical Theater.

Brind School alum Lucas Steele (at far left) is featured in the...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:14:00 -0400

Brind School alum Lucas Steele (at far left) is featured in the cast of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, re-opening off-Broadway later this spring.

Brind School professor Johnnie Hobbs Jr. reprised his...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:17:00 -0400

Brind School professor Johnnie Hobbs Jr. reprised his performance as Simon in the play The Whipping Man at the Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida. Johnnie first appeared in this role when the Arden Theater Company produced The Whipping Man a few seasons ago. Matt Pfeiffer, who directed that production (and the Brind School’s fall production of John Guare’s A Free Man of Color) handled the directorial duties again.

You can read the critics’ enthusiastic reviews here, here and here. From a letter to the editor:

The entire cast, but particularly Johnnie Hobbs, Jr., enthralled the opening night in his leading role in the production of “The Whipping Man.” It was difficult to take your eyes off this stellar performer.

His onstage presence, along with his versatility as he cajoled, quoted the Bible, lectured and sang Let My People Go (a cappella and pitch perfect) earned every round of a well-earned and appreciative standing ovation.

An international collaboration bears fruit

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:14:27 -0400

The Brind School recently presented the premiere of a new play, Self:Same, by the Irish playwright Ciana ni Chuirc, directed by DPP senior Brey Ann Barrett, at Theatre Exile’s Studio X. This project was the fruit of a friendship that began during the semester that Brey spent at Trinity College Dublin, where she met Ciara and commissioned the script from her. The playwright (on the left in the picture below) wrote this brief reflection on her experience working with Brey (on the right) and the other Brind School students involved in bringing her play to life:

I was only in Philadelphia for a short time, but it strikes me as a great city for budding theatre-makers and artists. Working on Self:Same with Brey was a real pleasure, and it was lovely to do so in a city filled with so many supportive and talented people. Writing can be quite isolating, especially in Ireland, where we have a long history of brilliant writers who are noted for their solitude (Joyce, Synge, Beckett, Kavanagh, Yeats…and on and on). I don’t think isolation is always a bad thing, but I found collaborating with Brey, and with the cast and crew of Self:Same, to be a wonderful learning experience, and I certainly discovered more about the piece while watching it and listening to it than I did writing and re-writing it.

I believe one of the primary functions of theatre should be to bring people together; whether it be a character and an audience member, an actor and a director, or, as in my and Brey’s case, a director and a playwright. Theatre is at its best when it’s a living thing, and in working on Self:Same with Brey, I felt that the play was something that was growing and transforming as time moved along. Collaboration helps you become the best writer you can be, because it gives you the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them - when you know someone is going to be pointing out your errors, you become less obsessed with perfection the first time round.

Above, acting majors Sydney Wilson and Colin Fahey in a scene from the production.

Brind School alumna Erin Weaver, a 1998 graduate of Cherry Hill...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:00:30 -0500

Brind School alumna Erin Weaver, a 1998 graduate of Cherry Hill East High School, returned to her former high school to coach students in a production of Peter Pan directed by her father, Tom Weaver. Read more in this Inquirer article.

Henson Foundation awards include Brind School faculty, alumni recipients

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:17:00 -0500

The newest round of grants from the Jim Henson Foundation has just been announced, and the Brind School is prominently featured among the recipients. Lone Wolf Tribe, a troupe founded by Brind School alum Kevin Augustine, is the recipient of a $5,000 project grant for “The God Projekt,” while Brind School faculty member will receive a $2,000 seed grant for “The Body Lautrec,” a new piece he is developing with Philly actress Mary Tuomanen. Cromie has taught puppet-making and puppet theater skills (as well as Neutral Mask and, currently, Clowning) for the Brind School, and his production of “The Blue Monster” (which he adapted and directed) was a highlight of our season three years ago. A Brooklyn-based artist, Augustine brought his work “Hobo Grunt Cycle” to the Arts Bank in Philadelphia two years ago, and his work as a master puppeteer includes engagements at the Metropolitan Opera House. Congrats, guys!

Below: images from “Hobo Grunt Cycle” and “The Blue Monster”

Profile of alum Jen Childs

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:09:00 -0500

Great piece on Jen Childs, our distinguished (Silver Star Alumni award winner) alum and former faculty member, in the Daily News. The accompanying photo from the show she’s currently directing, “To Fool The Eye,” also features our head of Acting, David Howey, who appears in the show.

Hell Hath No Fury! Brind School senior Jess Cosgrove briskly...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:51:15 -0500

Hell Hath No Fury! Brind School senior Jess Cosgrove briskly dispatches an assortment of adversaries in this video she made for her independent study about women in combat. The Brind School is one of the leading schools in the country for the training of actor-combatants!

Susanne Collins is Gemma and Erin Fleming is Rob, a teenage...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:34:54 -0500

Susanne Collins is Gemma and Erin Fleming is Rob, a teenage couple for whom love at first sight has unexpected consequences, in the new musical Crush, onstage this weekend as part of the Brind School’s New Play Festival. Also pictured: Marcus Briddell, A. J. Lockhart, Victoria Bentz, Alaina Wis and Gregory Brown. tickets.uarts.edu

BRIND SCHOOL PRESENTS 2013 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:38:00 -0500

Pictured above: the cast of Crush with authors Stew and Yasmine Lever (center front)

A new musical featuring book and lyrics by Yasmine Lever and music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald will be one of the works featured in the second annual New Play Festival to be held at the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia early in 2013. The authors of a new play and a new musical will be in residence at the school for two weeks in January to develop their work, giving student actors and dramaturgs the opportunity to experience first-hand the process by which new work is developed. This year, the Brind School received nearly two hundred submissions for the festival, and Assistant Professor P. Seth Bauer and students in the Brind School’s Dramaturgy class reviewed the submissions and selected the finalists.

The musical CRUSH and the play A FRONTIER, AS TOLD BY THE FRONTIER will be the featured works in this season’s New Play Festival. CRUSH, a new musical with book and lyrics by Yasmine Lever and music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, is a star-crossed love story set against the backdrop of race riots in contemporary London. A FRONTIER, AS TOLD BY THE FRONTIER a play by Jason Gray Platt, is a dystopian fantasy about a group of four orphaned children and their caretaker, among the last bastion of a population torn by civil war, who inhabit an abandoned government-run theme park.

Public presentations of CRUSH will be presented on Friday February 1 at 7pm and Saturday February 2 at 3pm; A FRONTIER will be presented on Thursday January 31 and Saturday February 2 at 7pm. All performances will be held in the Philadelphia Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St., on the University of the Arts’ campus on the Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia. Visit tickets.uarts.edu or call 215-717-6450 for reservations.

The New Play Festival began last weekend with EQUINOX, an evening of one-act plays written, produced, directed, designed and performed by Brind School students, under the leadership of DPP junior Savanah Knechel. A reading of BLACKFACE, a new play by DPP senior Haygen Walker, was held on Monday, January 28 as part of the preparations for that work’s April premiere.

The Festival includes another event on Saturday, February 2 at 1pm, when Philadelphia Young Playwrights will present two one-act plays written by area high school students, directed and performed by students from the Brind School. In addition, on Sunday, February 3 at 1pm the New Play Festival will present a reading of SELF:SAME a new work by Irish playwright Ciara Ní Chuirc that will receive its premiere production later in February in a Brind School production directed by Senior Directing major Brey Ann Barrett as her senior project. Both events will be held on at the Philadelphia Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St. This ten-day array of events attests to the fact that new play development is a lively and important part of the artistic life of the Brind School.

More complete details on this year’s New Play Festival, including biographies of the principal artists, can be found below. Tickets for the performances can be reserved online at tickets.uarts.edu or by telephone at 215-717-6450; all performances are free.

SCHEDULE

Reading of student one-acts - Monday January 28, 7pm, Laurie Beechman Cabaret Theater at the Arts Bank
Performances of “A Frontier” - Thursday January 31 and Saturday February 2 at 7pm, Arts Bank
Performances of “Crush” - Friday February 1 at 7pm and Saturday February 2 at 3pm, Arts Bank
Philadelphia Young Playwrights presentation of short plays by high school students - Saturday February 2 at 1pm, Arts Bank
Reading of “Self:Same” by Ciara Ní Chuirc - Sunday February 3 at 1pm, Arts Bank

THE PLAYS

A FRONTIER, AS TOLD BY THE FRONTIER

In an abandoned government-run theme park, a group of four orphaned children and their caretaker find themselves among the last bastion of a population torn by civil war. When one of the children decides to leave the park, the fragile equilibrium of the group begins to unravel. Jason Gray Platt’s dystopian fantasy was a finalist for the 2011 O’Neill Playwrights Conference and was workshopped by Columbia Stages in MFA New Voices Festival at the Cherry Pit in New York City.

JASON GRAY PLATT’s work has been produced and developed around the country by American Repertory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Round House Theater, the Institute for Contemporary Art/Boston, Red Bull Theater, Page 73, Ensemble Studio Theater, Columbia University, The Inkwell, The Inconvenience, The Abingdon Theater, and Samuel French. He received his MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University, where he studied under Charles Mee.

A FRONTIER will be directed by JILL HARRISON, who most recently directed A BRIGHT NEW BOISE at Simpatico Theater Company. Jill is the Festival Director for PTC @ PLAY, the Philadelphia Theater Company’s New Play Festival, and holds an MFA in Directing from Temple University.

CRUSH
book and lyrics by Yasmine Lever
music by Stew and Heidi Rodewald

Loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” CRUSH is the tale of a doomed inter-racial romance set against the backdrop of race riots in contemporary London. An earlier version of CRUSH was presented in New York City last summer in an Equity workshop directed by Kent Gash.

HEIDI RODEWALD
Heidi Rodewald has spent more than a decade as a performer, arranger, producer and composer for both The Negro Problem and the multi-disciplinary ensemble known as Stew. Credits include PASSING STRANGE, Berkeley Repertory Theatre/the Public Theater/the Belasco Theater (2006/2007/2008); composer, Karen Kandel’s Portraits: Night and Day (2004); and co-writer with Stew of the screenplay We Can See Today, Sundance Screenwriters Lab/Directors Lab (2005). Heidi also wrote and performed with the seminal female punk band Wednesday Week.

STEW
Works include PASSING STRANGE, for which he received the 2008 Tony award for ‘Best Book of a Musical.’ Wrote lyrics and co-composed music for the same. Two-time Obie winner: ‘Best New Theater Piece’ and, as a member of the PS acting family, ‘Best Ensemble.’ A four-time Tony nominee, Stew leads, along with his collaborator Heidi Rodewald, two critically acclaimed bands: The Negro Problem and Stew. Works: “Post Minstrel Syndrome” (TNP 1997), “Joys and Concerns “(TNP 1999), “Guest Host” (S 2000), “The Naked Dutch Painter” (S 2002), “Welcome Black” (TNP 2002), “Something Deeper Than These Changes” (S 2003) and the cast album of PASSING STRANGE (2008). Artist-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts (2004/5); PASSING STRANGE: Berkeley Repertory Theater/the Public Theater/the Belasco Theater (2006/2007/2008). But what Stew will ultimately be remembered for is having composed “Gary Come Home” for SpongeBob SquarePants.

YASMINE LEVER
SWOON: Theater 503, CRUSH, Equity workshop director Kent Gash. PLAY FOR CHANGE, Equity workshop New York University (music Dimitri Landrain). MONSTERS, Leicester Square Theater, PUNK PRINCESS (music Stew and Heidi Rodewald, director Jackson Gay), New York Musical Theater Festival 2009. Yasmine’s short plays, short musicals and short operas have been past of numerous festivals and shown all over New York and London including The Flea Theater, The Duplex, Lincoln Center New Voices Now, Theater 503, The Hard Rock Cafe. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of The Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program in 2012.

CRUSH will be directed by CHARLES GILBERT, Director of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at the University of the Arts. Gilbert’s recent directing credits include Sondheim’s ANYONE CAN WHISTLE (Prince Music Theater) and Gertrude Stein’s cubist lesbian romance A LYRICAL OPERA MADE BY TWO (Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, Cardiff International Festival of Musical Theater). Among his credits as a writer and composer are LEADING LADY (book by Seth Bauer), GEMINI THE MUSICAL (book by Albert Innaurato) and the 1979 musical ASSASSINS, source of the idea for the Sondheim musical of the same name.

Music direction will be provided by ERIC EBBENGA. A winner of multiple Barrymore Awards for his music direction, Ebbenga’s work has been featured at the Arden Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company and 11th Hour Theater Company, and he teaches in the Brind School at the University of the Arts.

Faculty member Maggie Baker's costumes for The Liar

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:26:08 -0500

Faculty member Maggie Baker's costumes for The Liar:

A piece from Al Dia about Maggie’s costume designs for Lantern Theater’s production of The Liar. (Read it in English if you’d prefer.)

The Brind School will be at the Virginia Theatre Association...

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 15:20:26 -0400

The Brind School will be at the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) this weekend - stop by and meet staff member Darin Dunston and student Terri Mittelman!

Professor Michael Earley is the Principal of Rose Bruford...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:51:28 -0400

Professor Michael Earley is the Principal of Rose Bruford College of Theater and Performance, a London school with whom the Brind School has begun a student exchange program. In this clip, Michael appears on “Prime Time Russia,” a Moscow-based television show, to talk about the legacy of Konstantin Stanislavski. Rose Bruford is the home of the Stanislavski Centre, “a unique initiative within the UK to create a home for both academic research and practice/performance events based upon the work of Konstantin Stanislavski and the entire subject of acting.” Earley is the editor of a new translation of Stanislavski’s writings created by Jean Benedetti, his predecessor as Principal of Rose Bruford College.

Brind School alum Sarah Bolt, who most recently appeared onstage...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:37:35 -0400

Brind School alum Sarah Bolt, who most recently appeared onstage as Sister Mary Patrick in “Sister Act,” married David Crowell on Saturday, October 20 in her hometown of St. Louis. You can read the details in The New York Times. Congratulations and best wishes to Sarah and David!

Brind School alum Dotan Negrin was featured on CNN’s The...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:20:24 -0400

Brind School alum Dotan Negrin was featured on CNN’s The Situation Room last week. He and his piano have travelled all across America, and along with his music, Dotan spreads an important message: “You owe it to yourself to do something Remarkable with your life.” Can I get an “amen?”

The third installment of Madison Auch’s backstage vlog...

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:33:38 -0400

The third installment of Madison Auch’s backstage vlog captures the scene behind the scenes at the tech rehearsals for A Free Man of Color, opening Thursday October 11 at the Arts Bank. Tickets here; an article in the Philly Tribune about the show and leading man Jahzeer Terrell here. Time to get excited!

Alumni Rory Donovan and Josh Lamon will appear in the Broadway holiday musical "Elf," according to Playbill.com

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:05:35 -0400

Alumni Rory Donovan and Josh Lamon will appear in the Broadway holiday musical "Elf," according to Playbill.com