2011-2012 Theater and Performance Studies Season
Nature’s Mirror: A Season of Evil and Noble Acts
The 2011-12 Nature’s Mirror: A Season of Evil and Noble Acts features three faculty-directed mainstage productions, as well as an array of special events including visiting international companies and leading professional guest artists, student-written and directed work, and much more.
Order your Flex Pass today (good for three tickets to any combination of the Theater & Performance Studies Program mainstage productions at the Davis Performing Arts Center (Visible Impact, A Child Shall Lead Them: Making ‘The Night of the Hunter,’ and Macbeth) at just $40 for the general public (up to 25% savings), $30 for faculty/staff/alumni/senior (up to 33% savings) and $15 for Georgetown University students (up to 50% savings).
VISIBLE IMPACT
Conceived and Directed by Professor Susan Lynskey
Created in collaboration with
Suzanne Richard, Fr. Rick Curry S.J., and the Ensemble
Visible Impact is an ensemble-created production that weaves monologue and memoir, scene-work and Shakespeare, poetry and movement,to explore and enact diverse experiences and perspectives from the d/Deaf and disabled communities. This revealing and often autobiographical piece dramatizes the intertwined relationships between biology, language, culture, and identity. Created on the premise that disability, deafness, and diversity enrich the artistic experience and advance aesthetic innovation, Visible Impact artists celebrate difference, inclusion, and the evolving capacity of all people.
The Visible Impact production is the centerpiece of the DiverseABILITY Forum (Oct 21-23), a weekend of workshops and discussions with guest artists, scholars, and policymakers, cabaret/dance and solo performances, and forums on access and advocacy. The Forum is made possible by Georgetown’s Reflective Engagement in the Public Interest Initiative. Check out the schedule of DiverseABILITY Forum events for additional details and ASL interpretation information.
Thursday, October 20 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, October 22 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, October 23 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday, October 26-29 at 8 p.m.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM:
MAKING ‘THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER’
Written and directed by Professor Derek Goldman
CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF THEATRE, DANCE, AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES AND GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
The 1955 film The Night of the Hunter was largely ignored upon its release but is now widely regarded as an American masterpiece. This new multimedia production is a historical re-imagining of the making of the film, woven from the classic screenplay and accounts of the shooting from those who were there, including director Charles Laughton, screenwriter James Agee, and actors Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. The play provides a powerful new framework for experiencing this uniquely chilling tale of corruption and evil, in which the forces of creation and destruction do battle with each other, within and outside of the frame. The production will also run November 12-19 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Kogod Theatre (University of Maryland, College Park).
Thursday-Saturday, November 3-5 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 6 at 2 p.m.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
MACBETH
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Professor Maya E. Roth
Produced by Lorraine Damerau (COL ‘13)
Co-production between the Theater and Performance Studies Program and Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society
A fresh, exhilarating approach to Shakespeare’s most haunted tragedy, this distinctly ensemble rendering conjures an immersive world between nightmares and waking, the living and the dead. Ritualistic, mercurial, and provocative this highly theatrical, cross-cultural staging probes Macbeth’s spiral through brutality, witches, and war. Co-produced by the Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program and Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society, one of America’s longest-running co-curricular theater groups, this production caps a year-long focus on Macbeth by Professor Roth.
Thursday-Saturday, April 12-14 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 15 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday, April 18-21 at 8 p.m.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
In addition to the core productions that made up the 2011-12 Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program’s Nature’s Mirror season, there were numerous interdisciplinary collaborations, guest residencies, professional partnerships and student-produced theater throughout the year:
ARENA STAGE-GEORGETOWN PARTNERSHIP
Now in its sixth year, our unique partnership with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater highlights our shared commitment to the development of new work, to community engagement, and to deepening dialogue on vital issues in the field through co-productions, festivals, frequent collaborations on developmental workshops and readings, national convenings, residencies, and more. Work developed through the partnership has led to productions such as Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations on Broadway. Partnership events in the coming year will include a return residency by playwright Heather Raffo and much more.
The Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership is made possible thanks to the generosity of Andrew R. Ammerman and the family of H. Max and Josephine F. Ammerman.
The Eugene O’Neill Festival: A Capital-wide Celebration March 9 – May 6
BEGOTTEN: O’NEILL AND THE HARBOR OF MASKS
Written/adapted and directed by Prof. Derek Goldman
Featuring DC favorite Rick Foucheux with Georgetown University students and alumni
A workshop production of an exciting new work set in a mythic landscape that evokes Eugene O’Neill’s fascination with the Greek dramas. Begotten explores O’Neill’s legacy and his rejection of the world embodied by his father’s renowned performance of The Count of Monte Cristo, O’Neill’s tortured personal relationships, his diverse creative output and his vision for a new American theater that, while forged out of human suffering, must ultimately transcend it.
This event is part of the Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership, now in its sixth year, which is made possible thanks to the generosity of Andrew R. Ammerman and the family of H. Max and Josephine F. Ammerman.
April 26-29, 2012
ARENA STAGE AT THE MEAD CENTER FOR AMERICAN THEATER
$10 General
READING OF A LIBRETTO
by Heather Raffo
From a new Chamber Opera Commissioned by Vancouver City Opera
Presented by Georgetown University and Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater
This libretto-in-progress by Heather Raffo excavates the human and social effects of the War in Iraq. Based on the life of Christian Ellis, infused with Raffo’s gift for transforming interviews into art, and attuned to traumas experienced by US Marines as well as Iraqis, Raffo’s development with DC actors will culminate in a public reading of the working libretto prior to the Annenberg/Explore Project’s Musical Workshop, produced by Vancouver City Opera in September 2011. Raffo will explore this powerful script-in-development with faculty, student, alumni and guest artists in the Davis Center. Interdisciplinary Q&A with the audience to follow the reading. HEATHER RAFFO is best-known for her solo performance piece 9 Parts of Desire, based on Iraqi women’s lives and hailed by The New Yorker as “art that can remake the world,” which toured nationally and internationally. This event is part of the Arena Stage-Georgetown partnership.
Monday, August 29 at 6 p.m.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE
Page-to-Stage Festival at the Kennedy Center
TREE HOUSE
Written by Joshua Goode (COL ‘10)
Directed by Joanna Ruf (COL ‘09)
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WELDERS THEATRE (FOUNDED BY GU THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES ALUMNI)
A husband and wife steeped in domestic turmoil are shocked to find a budding tree growing between the floorboards in the middle of their bedroom. The Tree grows with reckless abandon and forces the couple to confront the demons of their relationship. Loosely inspired by the writings of philosopher Judith Thompson, Tree House employs magical realism to explore the many questions and emotions surrounding loyalty, trust, and choice. Featuring a cast and creative team of GU alumni, students, and faculty.
Monday, September 5 at 4 p.m.
JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, REHEARSAL ROOM 1
FREE
View more details about the Page-to-Stage Festival 2011.
Ping Chong & Company
CRY FOR PEACE: VOICES FROM THE CONGO
Co-written by acclaimed theater artist Ping Chong and renowned Syracuse playwright Kyle Bass, this riveting new piece of documentary theater is based on interviews with refugees from the ongoing wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, now living in Syracuse, NY. There are approximately 200 Congolese in Syracuse, representing 12 different tribes with a violent past hanging between them – victims and perpetrators living in close proximity. Although they’ve escaped the conflict in their homeland, tensions and mistrust remain. Based on their first-hand experiences of fleeing war and their efforts to build community and reconciliation in their adopted community, this work is part of Undesirable Elements, Ping Chong & Company’s ongoing series of more than 40 community-specific oral history theater works. The work Cry for Peace and its continued development are commissioned by Syracuse University.
Monday, September 19
5:30-7:00 p.m. Performance
7:00-7:45 p.m. Lobby reception with food
7:45-8:45 p.m. Panel discussion
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
THE BI(G) LIFE: Two Solo Performances
Ambiguous Infatuation
Theater & Performance Studies Thesis Projects
Written & Performed by Jeremy Guyton (COL ‘12)
and Allie Villarreal (COL ‘12)
Advised by Professors Natsu Onoda Power and
Maya E. Roth, Thesis Advisers
Riffing on memoir, savvy in their cultural critique, and laced with humor, these two thirty-minute original solo thesis performances together comprise THE BI(G) LIFE. What does it mean to be standing “in the middle”? Using performance to debunk myths of the bisexual lifestyle, Jeremy Guyton’s solo work explores unique intersections of race, gender, and sexuality while questioning the sustainability of bisexual lifestyles in a society focused on monogamous heterosexuality. Allie Villarreal’s solo work, in turn, invites the audience to step into the very big shoes of an array of engaging characters all sharing the common experience of living with fat–and taking it in stride.
Friday, February 3 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 4 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 5 at 2 p.m.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
$5 GENERAL