Department of Performing Arts

SEASON OF TRANSFORMATION

The 2005-2006 season marks the first academic year during which the Davis Performing Arts Center is open. It is the only building in Georgetown's 225 year history designed for arts education--and specifically theater. As the former Ryan Administration Building has transformed into the Davis Center, the burgeoning Georgetown Theater program transforms as well

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Our Country’s Good

By Timberlake Wertenbaker

Directed by Maya Roth

A collaboration with students of the Theatrical Ensemble

November 10-13, 17-19, 2005

 

A modern classic that has wowed international audiences, Our Country’s Good is inspired by a Restoration comedy performed in 1789 be exiles in the first penal colony of New South, Wales, Australia. With wit, moving theatricality, and creative elegance, this play highlights the transformative power of imagination and community. Join us top open the Gonda Theatre.

 

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The Winter’s Tale

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Derek Goldman

Scenography by Michael Philippi

February 16-19, 22-25, 2006

 

One of Shakespeare’s most beautiful plays, this tragicomedy set in two starkly different kingdoms abounds with music, romance, laughter and the magic of forgiveness and rebirth. The Winter’s Tale is brought to the stage by two nationally recognized artists new to Georgetown’s faculty., Derek Goldman and Scenographer Michael Philippi.

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Dr. Korczak and The Children

By Erwin Sylvanus
Directed by Karen Berman
A collaboration with Nomadic Theater
March 16-19, 22-25, 2006

Part history, part love story, part moral meditation, this haunting and hopeful story threads the real events of the famed Dr. Korczak–who sheltered Warsaw orphans in Nazi Germany—into a theatrical fable. This Washington premiere opens the Divine Studio Theatre with cross-campus collaboration. The performance will be followed by reflective events, such as "The Life and Legacy of Janus Korczak", a panel discussion featuring Daniel Blatman of the Holocaust Museum and  "Janusz Korczak and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto", a photographic exhibit.

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Schoolgirl Figure

By Wendy MacLeod
A Senior Thesis Production directed by Jen Rogers (2006)
Designed by Natsu Onoda
Advised by Professors Roth and Onoda
April 20-22, 2006

The virtuosic chamber player helps to raise audience awareness, and activism, around body image issues and the silences that surround them. Darkly funny, important, oddly hopeful. Written by a DC native, one of the most daring of contemporary playwrights.

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Jenufa

By Gabriela Preissova
Adapted by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Irina Brown
Choreographed by Christopher Silversten
March 21, 2006

This developmental workshop features both students and professional actors in an adaptation of the controversial play by Gabriela Preissova. Best known as an opera by Czech composer Leos Janacek, this performance maintains the original playwright's sense of realism with its look at infanticide and redemption. The rehearsal will be followed by a discussion with the adaptor, director, and actors.

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The Kite Runner: A Dramatic Performance

From the novel by Khaled Hosseini
Adapted and Directed by Wynn Handman
Performed by Aasif Mandvi
April 3, 2006

Georgetown welcomes Aasif Mandvi, one of America's most famous Arab actors and the originator of the solo role in The Kite Runner and Wynn Handman, the co-founder and Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre for a dramatic performance of the critically acclaimed novel. An extraordinary story about life, friendship, family, fear, guilt and redemption from the first novel about contemporary Afghanistan to be written in English, this dramatic performance portrays the relationship of two socio-economically differing boys during the country's turmoil of the 1970's. This production provides a vivid cultural picture full of haunting images and locates the personal struggles of everyday people within the tide of history.