News & Updates
Robert DiLutis and Linda Mabbs from the School of Music and Sharon Mansur of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies were recently selected by the Maryland State Arts Council to be recipients of a 2014 Individual Artist Award (IIA).
MFA Stephanie Miracle has been selected as Fulbright Fellow to Germany for 2014/2015. With this research grant she will experience the rich lineage of German Tanztheater — including the work of dance icon Pina Bausch — through embodied practice, including intensive training in choreography and performance at the world-renowned Folkwang University in Essen. Both Stephanie and her husband Jimmy Miracle look forward to this exciting year overseas.
This blog post is by Emily Schweich, a sophomore Broadcast Journalism major.
Spring Awakening photo by Blinkofaneye/BrightestYoungThings
Spring Awakening proves that the tumultuous experience of adolescence transcends place and time. Based on a 19th century play by Frank Wedekind, the rock musical follows a group of adolescents in a provincial village, balancing angst with optimism, and naiveté with curiosity, struggling to reconcile society’s agenda with nature’s desires. The UMD School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies’ production, directed by five-time Tony Award-winner Brian MacDevitt and acclaimed choreographers Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, explores this dichotomy between institution and nature.
Dressed in neutral-colored, flowing, loose dresses and tunics, their hair swept up into disheveled hairstyles, the Elementals were more than conventional backup dancers; they told the undercurrents of the story.
UMD’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) dancers and choreographers were honored with an invitation to perform the dance work, If only I knew at the Kennedy Center this June. The dance was chosen during the American College Dance Association's (ACDFA) Mid-Atlantic Regional College Dance Festival held recently at George Mason University, and is the only undergraduate work to be selected for this honor.
This blog post is by Emily Schweich, a sophomore Broadcast Journalism major.
Forgiveness from Heaven, an 18th-century Chinese woman, suffers after years of foot binding. Victoria, from 19th-century England, has hysteria. Contemporary Jersey girl Wanda has trouble with her silicone breasts. They all come together in a modern doctor’s waiting room.
Lisa Loomer’s 1994 play The Waiting Room takes place in “the past, and the present, and often both at once. New York City, England and China.” This transcendence of time and space creates a formidable challenge for set designers – how can they create a believable, authentic and versatile design?
Cohen said he hoped the set would highlight the play’s juxtaposition of the clinical and the beautiful.
This fall the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center was filled with music, dance, theatre and important ideas in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
Read selected highlights of the semester's press coverage from newspapers like The Washington Post, public radio stations such as WAMU-FM and student news outlets like The Diamondback. See what the critics said about the fall’s performances from the UMD School of Music, the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies and the Clarice Smith Center Visiting Artist Program – and let us know if you agree with them!
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Five emerging choreographers from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies have been selected to participate in the 31st Annual Choreographers’ Showcase, which is presented by the Clarice Smith Center Visiting Artist Program and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The performance will be held in the Dance Theatre of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Saturday, January 25, 2014 at 3PM and 8PM.
School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) faculty and alumni will take part this weekend in the African Continuum Theatre Company's benefit cabaret "J's Jook Joint," a modern-day twist on the historical "jook joint" experience. TDPS professor Scot Reese will direct the production, and TDPS alumna Thembi Duncan (BA Theatre ‘09) is the Artistic Director.
This post is by Lauren Burns, a sophomore Multiplatform Journalism and History double major.
The audience of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Perfomance Studies’ production of Molière Impromptu will not only be exposed to the classic comedic works of Molière, but also the Commedia dell'arte style of masked theatre. Kara Waala, an MFA Design student crafted all of the masks worn by the performers in the play. Kara talks to me about the history of Commedia dell’arte and also shares a bit about the work that goes into bringing such beautiful, communicative masks to life.
The mask design for Molière Impromptu was inspired by marrying traditional Commedia dell'arte masks with the powdered courtly facade of Versailles through makeup and paint.
The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts (NACTA) and the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) embarked on a new collaboration on October 28 as part of the five-year partnership that created the bi-lingual co-production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A NACTA contingent, including two junior professors and one graduate student will spend three weeks working in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with TDPS faculty, students and production staff, sharing each culture’s fundamental approach to theatrical production, stage management and theatre technology.