Student Blogs

February 10, 2015 - 12:12PM

This blog post is by Emily Schweich, junior broadcast journalism major.

The Lost World

The Lost World photo by Jared Schaubert
 

The Lost World isn’t your typical coming-of-age play – unless your idea of a coming-of-age play includes a secret world of dinosaurs under the bed. I spoke with writer and director Jared Mezzocchi, an assistant professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies design department, about his inspiration for the play and the multimedia aspects of the performance.

"I think the biggest challenge has really just been making sure that everybody is seeing the same thing in their head as we’re building it. It’s a really complex landscape, because it’s all kind of a memory play, set in the mind of our narrator, who’s telling the story."

February 4, 2015 - 12:12PM

This blog post is by Emily Schweich, junior broadcast journalism major.

Jason Schlafstein

Jason Schlafstein photo by Wilder Photography
 

Fun, quirky and genre-based – that’s the kind of theatre that inspires Jason Schlafstein.

He often saw it at the Capital Fringe Festival, but “it didn’t seem like year-round theatres were doing theatre that had that kind of spirit all year,” he said.

So Schlafstein, a University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) alumnus who received his B.A. in Theatre Performance in 2008, joined with Colin Grube to found Flying V Theatre in 2010. The company was recently named the 2015 John Aniello Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company by theatreWashington and the Helen Hayes Awards.

The UMD family is a really strong one,” Schlafstein said. “I’ve never seen in this town a group of alumni who are so invested and supportive in working with one another.”

January 30, 2015 - 4:04PM
Megan Pagado

This blog post is by Emily Schweich, junior broadcast journalism major.

Masterclass with Dr. Phil Collister

Dr. Phil Collister from Towson University works with Daniel Hopkins, Amanda Staub & Carl Hengen; photo by Carlos Howard
 

Analyzing musical text and preparing opera roles are big parts of the School of Music curriculum for vocalists, but it’s often hard for undergraduates to have the opportunity to put these skills to use.

That’s why School of Music students Daniel Hopkins and Carlos Howard decided to found OperaTerps, the University of Maryland’s first undergraduate opera company. Their first production, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, opens this Saturday at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

“Because it’s an independent project, we’re all really strongly invested in it…This is something we can say was totally our own.”

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