Blogs

October 4, 2013 - 2:02PM -

Faedra Chatard Carpenter

The Kennedy Center has announced that two faculty members from the UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) have been selected to participate in their New Visions/New Voices May 2014 program. Assistant professor Faedra Chatard Carpenter has been chosen to be the lead dramaturg of the Festival and professor Scot Reese will be the director of Oliver of Brazil, a Brazilian take on on the Dickens classic Oliver Twist.

The festival is a week-long biennial program for playwrights and theaters to stimulate and support the creation of new plays and musicals for young audiences and families.

October 2, 2013 - 11:11AM -
Megan Pagado

This post is by Emily Schweich, a sophomore Broadcast Journalism major.

Gran Wilson and his students

Gran Wilson and his students
 

As Gran Wilson jogged through the streets of Baltimore, an unusual statue caught his eye. A man perched on a rock, holding a notebook and pencil. In a relief behind him, the muses of poetry and music walked along the shore as the sun set.

This man immortalized in bronze was flutist and poet Sidney Lanier, a Georgia native who came to call Baltimore his home. Appointed the first flutist of the Peabody Orchestra in 1873, Lanier also lectured at Johns Hopkins University and was known for his poetry depicting the beauty of the south. He battled tuberculosis throughout his life and died at the young age of 39.

Throughout his life, Lanier fought criticism and illness, but he prevailed over pain and continued to write art and poetry. Wilson found Lanier’s strength inspiring.

September 27, 2013 - 4:04PM -
Emily Schweich

Estelle Parsons

Estelle Parsons photo by John Spellman
 

This event has been cancelled.

Academy Award-winner and four-time Tony nominee Estelle Parsons will work with students in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) at a salon to be held Tuesday, October 15 from 1:30-3:20 p.m. in studio 3736 in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

September 25, 2013 - 5:05PM -
Megan Pagado

Visible Seams

Photo by Zachary Z. Handler
 

From Friday, September 20 through Monday, September 30, you can experience the Visible Seams sound installation in our Grand Pavilion. Created by Tomek Regulski, the music comes and goes as freely as the guests who come through the Clarice Smith Center every day.

September 19, 2013 - 3:03PM -
Megan Pagado

Our new executive director, Martin Wollesen, sends virtual welcome back wishes to our student employees at the start of a new school year and a new season.

August 29, 2013 - 10:10AM -
Missy McTamney

Jennifer Barclay

Preparing to succeed in the competitive world of theatre arts requires students in UMD’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) to delve into a diverse theatre curriculum with an impressive faculty of eclectic backgrounds. The newest addition to the TDPS faculty line-up is Jennifer Barclay, a noted actor-turned-playwright whose recent work entitled Counterweight: An Elevator Love Play will debut this October in La Jolla Playhouse’s inaugural “Without Walls Festival”. This one-of-a-kind Festival of on-site work will simultaneously stage events around San Diego’s Playhouse Theatre District, presented by the Playhouse and partner institutions the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) and UC San Diego.

Barclay joins TDPS as Assistant Professor of playwriting and performance beginning this fall, and will teach both graduate and undergraduate courses.

August 26, 2013 - 12:12PM -
Megan Pagado

Season Guides

We've found a printing error in some of our new season guides. If you've received a copy of the guide featured in the image above, you may notice that pages 60-66 don't meet our normal high standards.

The printing error affects the ten events below. We encourage you to visit our web pages for these events or view the correct PDF version of the guide.

August 26, 2013 - 11:11AM -
Missy McTamney

La Cruzada Teatral

Photo by Laurie Frederik Meer
 

​Modern Cuba is home to an incongruous mixture of modern and traditional. Bustling, urban Havana is a remarkable contrast with the remote and isolated countryside, where many Cubans live and work. 

Laurie Frederik Meer arrived in Cuba's eastern Guantanamo Province on the back of a Russian flatbed truck accompanied by twenty-four Cuban artists and theatre performers. The professor in UMD's School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies conducted ethnographic field research for over two years, attached to a troupe of performing artists who trekked into the most isolated parts of Cuba's mountain terrain. These artists presented outdoor theatre that celebrated cubanía (Cuban-ness) and the beloved campesino (farmer), while at the same time questioning their traditional role in a modern Communist society.

As an anthropologist, [Dr. Laurie Frederik Meer] examines how and why particular cultures use theatre to define themselves and deal with social and ethical conflicts.

August 16, 2013 - 12:12PM -
Sarah Snyder

Andrew Mulinge and Congressman John Lewis

Andrew Mulinge and Congressman John Lewis photo courtesy of Andrew Mulinge
 

Senior Government and Politics major, Andrew Mulinge will be part of the student activist conversation at the Civil War to Civil Rights: The Well-Being of a Nation national symposium on September 6.

The Civil Rights Movement has left an everlasting impression on me, and I use that time period as the standard for how to create change in society.

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