Blogs
This blog post is by Drew Barker, Graduate Student and MLS Candidate.
If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss the beginning — however, this dance piece will demand your attention soon enough. What starts with the dinging of a bell quickly scales stairs and then ushers you outside only to look back in at a space you have never seen in such a way. Ladies in bright colors dance/run down corridors, pause, revel in a modern arabesque with arms churning, and then disappear around a corner. Visible Seams is a dance piece choreographed by MFA candidate Erin Crawley-Woods which utilizes the interior and exterior of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in ways epic and sensual.
Crawley-Woods blends an entertaining sense of humor with a swaying meditation on human relations.
This post is by Lauren Burns, a sophomore Multiplatform Journalism and History double major.
The typical dance performance does not come with a warning to wear comfortable shoes and to bring an umbrella in case of rain, but Visible Seams is not the typical dance performance. For Erin Crawley-Woods’ MFA Dance Thesis, she creates a site-specific piece, starring 15 graduate and undergraduate dancers, that incorporates the architecture of the Clarice Smith Center in its choreography. Erin explains her inspiration and vision for Visible Seams in the following Q&A interview.
I guess my inspiration was this place – not just the building but everything that goes on within it, and my interest in pursuing this project was to create a thread through all of that, through the process of making a dance.
This post is by Lisa Driscoll, a Junior Vocal Performance and Broadcast Journalism double major. You can read more of her writing on her blog.
Mongolian music group Anda Union shared a taste of their homeland in an evening filled with folk songs and nostalgic original compositions, all performed in traditional clothing, on September 20 at the Clarice Smith Center. The steady percussive drive mixed with the many string and wind instruments made for a lively and memorable musical performance.
By the end, the energy was so high that I was practically rocking out — certainly not a reaction I expected of myself.
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.
This post is by Emily Schweich, a sophomore Broadcast Journalism major.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.