Blogs
UPDATE (Monday, November 5, 2012 . 5:52PM): We've finished our maintenance. Thank you for your patience.
On Monday, November 5, 2012, we will perform scheduled maintenance on our ticketing software.
From 7AM to approximately 6PM, we will be unable to perform any transactions or access any accounts.
UMD students: We will delay the distribution of free tickets until Tuesday, November 6, starting at 11AM.
Brian MacDevitt and Stephen Colbert photo by Anita and Steve Shevett
The UMD School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) is proud to announce that professor Brian MacDevitt has been honored with the prestigious 2012 Henry Hewes Design Award for his lighting design in Death of a Salesman on Broadway. MacDevitt has won this honor twice before for his lighting of the Tom Stoppard plays The Invention of Love and later for The Coast of Utopia.
After being closed for two days due to Hurricane Sandy, we will reopen on Wednesday, October 31, 2012, resuming our normal business hours.
Our ticket office will be open from 11AM to 9PM.
Please join us for the Big Band Pre-Halloween Scream, rescheduled for 7:30PM on Halloween day: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.
UPDATED: Closed on Tuesday, October 30, 2012.
Due to the forecasted impact of Hurricane Sandy, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center will be closed on Monday, October 29 and Tuesday, October 30, 2012, including both our ticket office and administrative offices.
The following events have been canceled or rescheduled:
Drew Barker photo by Chris Flynn/NEH.
You may know Drew Barker as our Graduate Student for Development or as a Master’s Candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies with TDPS.
We're looking for extraordinary students!
Apply for our new student committee, the Maryland Students for the Arts:
- Share your creative instincts and insights.
- Advise us about important issues.
- Assist us in making programming decisions.
- Undergraduate and graduate students from all majors welcome!
Application deadline: Sunday, December 2, 2012 . 11PM
Last week, Kronos Quartet worked with three young composers from UMD School of Music. Now it's your turn!
You may have noticed mandolinist Chris Thile on a big banner in front of our building — he’ll be here on April 12, 2013, performing with pianist Brad Mehldau.
We’ve just gotten word that he received a 2012 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
Congratulations, Chris! Can’t wait to hear you perform.
ANTHONY DE MARE, Pianist
Although I am a concert pianist, two of the most moving performing arts experiences for me were in the theatre.
One was just a few years ago in New York, during a performance of the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. It was a British production, directed by the young Sam Buntrock, who had also worked in film and animation. The incorporation of animation within the set design throughout the show was stunning. I was also particularly struck by the simplicity of the staging and how it reflected the inner wisdom of Sondheim’s work, especially the richness of the musical score, as well as leaving an emotional impact on the viewer. The entire production moved me to tears many times over. Being so aware at the time of how this experience completely enveloped me, I realized this production deepened my love and respect for Sondheim’s work even more.
I remember leaving the theater and having to go sit down on a bench outside, feeling like I was still immersed in the pool of water that was the central aspect of the set design. I was just so lost in thought, feeling and revelation.
DAVID SAMUEL, Student
When I was a second semester freshman here at the University of Maryland, I came to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center to see The Bluest Eye, which was directed by Walter Dallas. At the time I was thinking about switching from sociology to theater. And the entire performance just had me riveted: my jaw was open, my eyes were watering. When I enjoy something my eyes get really big and I just couldn’t stop watching it.
…I was thinking, “I can’t talk to them, I can’t possibly take class with them.” Then I started taking class with them and started doing performances with them and now they’re some of my dearest friends.