2013-2014 Davis Center Season

The Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program’s 2013-14 Remember Me:  A Season of Ghosts and Spirits features four shows: three faculty-directed mainstage productions (one a co-production with Black Theater Ensemble) and a student-directed senior thesis (a co-production with Nomadic Theatre), along with an array of special events including visiting companies and leading professional guest artists, student-written and directed work, and much more.

Order your Flex Pass (good for four tickets to any combination of the following Theater & Performance Studies Program mainstage productions at the Davis Performing Arts Center:  Hamlet; A Mouthful of Birds; Doubt, A Parable; and Insurrection:  Holding History. Flex Passes are just $50 for the general public, $40 for faculty/staff/alumni/senior, and $20 for Georgetown University students.

Due to demand, matinee added on Saturday, November 16!

Thursday-Saturday, November 7-9 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 10 at 2 p.m.
Thursday, November 14 at 8 p.m. (sign-interpreted)
Friday, November 15 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 16 at 2 p.m. (just-added) and 8 p.m.
Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Professor Derek Goldman
Often called “the greatest story ever told,” Hamlet has been the subject of more interpretations and adaptations than virtually any other work in Western literature. This fresh and taut contemporary telling explores the play’s themes of loneliness/alienation, madness, and the tension between the private and the public. Being developed in tandem with an interdisciplinary seminar on the play, the production mines the play’s connections to the emotional and material lives of students in 2013, and more specifically to the Georgetown students working on the production. In its approach to the play’s engagement with politics, psychology, and power, this startling production explores how language and identity operate in a world of social networking profiles, tweets, and status updates.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FRIDAY/SATURDAY EVENING: $18 GENERAL/$15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR /$10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL/ $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR /$8 STUDENT
Presented in cooperation with C74

Though the performances have now passed, Hamlet lives on through the publications that have come out about it.

• Here is an overview of the programming that surrounded the performances.
• Here is a review by The Georgetown Voice.
• Here is a review by The Hoya.

Thursday-Saturday, January 16-18 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, January 19 at 2 p.m.
Wednesday-Saturday, January 22-25 at 8 p.m.
A THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM SENIOR THESIS PRODUCTION,
CO-PRODUCED WITH NOMADIC THEATRE
A Mouthful of Birds
By Caryl Churchill
Directed by Brendan Quinn (COL ’14)
Produced by Sarah Konig (COL ’16)
Advised by Professor Maya E. Roth
Modernity and myth seduce each other in this electrifying work from Caryl Churchill (“Far Away,” “Top Girls,” “Cloud Nine”), widely regarded as one of the greatest living playwrights. Loosely based on Euripides’ “The Bacchae,” this bold collage of vignettes depicts a Dionysian clash of seven urbanites on the verge of violent transformation. Incorporating highly physical movement, this ensemble work weaves tales of possession, lust, and madness into a swirling blend of contemporary and ancient forces, giving flesh to the uncomfortable notion that sometimes we need to fall apart in order to come back together again.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
$12 GENERAL/$10 FACULTY, STAFF, SENIORS, ALUMNI/$5 STUDENT
Post-show talk backs will follow the January 19, 22, and 23 performances.

Thursday, March 27 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 29 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 30 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 5 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 6 at 2 p.m.
Thursday, April 10 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 at 1 p.m.
Doubt, A Parable
By John Patrick Shanley
Directed by Professor Maya E. Roth
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, this contemporary classic takes place in a parochial school in the Bronx in 1964—set on the cusp of radical change for the Catholic Church and for America. The play layers a subtle, complex story of a nun who as school principal harbors suspicions about a charismatic priest and the personal interest he takes in his young male students. What emerges in this taut, absorbing drama is a riveting clash of cultures and wills in which the ghosts of sins and silence, possible cover-ups and broken vows surface. Fast and unnerving, this four-character play keeps audience perspectives shifting, provoking a powerful meditation on the nature of certainty and doubt. Visit performingarts.georgetown.edu for a schedule of discussions related to the play’s themes. Performed in repertory with Insurrection: Holding History by Robert O’Hara.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FRIDAY/SATURDAY EVENING: $18 GENERAL/$15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR /$10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL/ $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR /$8 STUDENT

Friday, April 4 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 5 at 2 p.m.
Sunday, April 6 at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 9 at 8 p.m.
Friday, April 11 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 at 8 p.m.
CO-PRODUCED BY GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM AND BLACK THEATRE ENSEMBLE
Insurrection: Holding History
By Robert O’Hara
Directed by Guest Artist Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Moving like a bullet through time, Robert O’Hara’s Insurrection: Holding History traffics in spirits and ghosts to offer a wickedly witty romp through America’s history. A contemporary African-American graduate student confronts the specter of his 189-year-old great-great grandfather, as well as Nat Turner, the subject of his graduate school thesis on American slave insurrectionists. Engaging questions about who has the right to tell history and what kinds of stories get remembered and recorded, this challenging and provocative work has been hailed by Tony Kushner as “a gorgeous, fresh and vital play from a very exciting playwright.”
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FRIDAY/SATURDAY EVENING: $18 GENERAL / $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $10 STUDENT
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL / $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR / $8 STUDENT

In addition to the core productions that make up Remember Me:  A Season of Ghosts and Spirits, watch for events related to numerous guest residencies and professional partnerships throughout the year, including visits/residencies from renowned artists, supplementary forums and events connected to the offerings in our mainstage season, and more.

Saturday, August 31 at 2 p.m.
Page-to-Stage Festival at the Kennedy Center
A staged reading
Polk Street
Based on Polk Street Stories by Joey Plaster
Written by T. Chase Meacham (COL ’14)
Directed by Joseph Megel
Polk Street: an end-of-the-line stop for people who are running from pieces of the past. It is a cradle of rebirth, for some, and a gutter for most. It is a place of sex and drugs — of love, and things that feel like it. It is a nest for runaways, lost children, drag queens, ministers, strippers, hustlers, druggies, artists, queers, and Others who dream of freedom and dancing, of new lives with new pasts. But for all its inhabitants, for better or worse — Polk Street is home. After the hugely successful premiere co-produced by Nomadic Theatre and Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society last March, Theater and Performance Studies major T. Chase Meacham will continue his development of Polk Street as his senior thesis project, in collaboration with students, faculty, and professional artists, with several public events to be held over the course of the school year.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Terrace Theater
FREE

Thursday, September 5 at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Friday, September 6 at 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, September 7 and 8 at 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m.
An interactive workshop production
Things That GO!
Devised, Designed, and Directed by Robbie Hayes
This fun, participatory developmental workshop, inspired by Richard Scarry’s children’s books, offers an immersive gaming experience, inviting audience members to explore the different ways in which we move through the world. Split into two teams, attendees will control their interactive experience through gaming technology, participating in a different combination of virtual experiences at each performance.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
$5 GENERAL | LIMITED CAPACITY

Monday and Tuesday, September 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Freedom Theatre
The Island
By Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona
Following sold-out performances at its community-based theatre and cultural center in Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine, Freedom Theatre gives a historic performance of “The Island” at Georgetown as part of its inaugural U.S. tour. This South African apartheid-era drama, inspired by a true story, is set in a prison and revolves around a cellmate who is soon to be released, and another who is serving a life sentence. The two spend their days at mind-numbing physical labor while at night rehearsing for a performance of Sophocles’ “Antigone.” Is Antigone guilty of defying the laws of the state to bury her brother? Who decides? Under which law? This innovative adaptation reflects the experiences of Palestinian political prisoners, highlighting the parallels between South Africa under apartheid and Palestine today. Each performance will be followed by discussions with the artists and leading policymakers/officials, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, an initiative of the Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program and the School of Foreign Service.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
$15 GENERAL/$12 FACULTY, STAFF, SENIOR, ALUMNI / $7 STUDENT

Friday, November 8 at 5:30 p.m.
Remember Me: Hamlet and Its Contemporary Resonance
Offered as a pre-show event leading up to the 8 p.m. ticketed performance of the Theater & Performance Studies Program’s production of Hamlet, this panel discussion by internationally acclaimed artists and scholars addresses the enduring legacy of Shakespeare’s play and the new meanings it continues to generate. Participants include the following:

Joe Dowling, artistic director of the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis, MN)
Caridad Svich, author of ‘Twelve Ophelias (“A whimsical riff on Hamlet…’–NY Times)
Derek Goldman, Ph.D., artistic director of GU’s Davis Performing Arts Center
Joan M. Holmer, Ph.D., GU Professor of English Emerita

DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE
Presented in cooperation with C74

Tuesday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m.

A staged reading
Shakespeare for My Father
Written by Laura Redgrave, Performed by Kathleen Chalfant
Co-Sponsored by the Davis Performing Arts Center and  Folger Shakespeare Library
Called ‘a pleasure and a privilege to watch’ by the New York Times and ‘an original, funny, often fascinating…blend of art and psychotherapy’ by Time magazine, this autobiographical Tony-nominated work by acclaimed late actress Lynn Redgrave offers a poignant portrait of a child’s longing for the love of her daunting, charismatic Shakespearean actor father. Her first foray into playwriting as family reminiscences, Ms. Redgrave’s ‘Shakespeare for My Father’ weaves scenes from the Bard that delightfully coalesce with events in her young life, eliciting memories of Sir Michael and engaging impressions of the celebrated stars who frequented their home and lives. Kathleen Chalfant, a dear friend of Lynn Redgrave, returns to Georgetown after several previous performances on campus. Chalfant has won numerous awards for her stage work, which includes the 1993 ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,’ for which she was nominated for a Tony; ‘Wit,’ which earned her Obie, Drama Desk, and other awards; and her 2003 performance in ‘Talking Heads,’ which earned her a second Obie.

DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
$15 GENERAL
$12 FACULTY/STAFF/SENIOR/ALUMNI
$5 STUDENT

Friday, December 6 at 8:00pm
Anticodes
By: Concept Brano Mazuch, Dan Gregor
Directed by Brano Mazuch

The latest multimedia play the main role in a visual and dance production based on Václav Havel’s collection of experimental poetry of the same name. See the Laterna Magika of the 21st century at the New Stage of the National Theatre!

Laterna Magika’s classic and typical use of film footage is replaced in Anticodes by projection and sounds from live sources. The production introduces real-time tracking to Laterna Magika, which detects people or objects in pre-determined zones and turns the stage into a real-time visual and aural reflection of the movement of dancers on the stage.

The production was created for the New Stage of the National Theatre and Laterna Magika by a team of young professionals led by director Brano Mazúch, the author or more than twenty shows in the Czech Republic and abroad. He is joined by multimedia artists Dan Gregor, internationally renowned choreographer Vera Ondrašíková, sound designer Stanislav Abrahám and composer Michal Nejtek. From the ‘60s to the 21st century with the press of a single key. The typewriter is replaced by a laptop, ink by light and paper by darkness. The poetry remains.

FREE, but ticketed.

Running time: 1 hour no intermission

Saturday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m.
A staged reading
Dear Harvey
By Patricia Loughrey
Music by Thomas Hodges
Directed by Professor Susan Lynskey
Co-sponsored by the Georgetown University LGBTQ Resource Center & The Tagliabue Initiative for LGBTQ Life, and Health Education Services
Dear Harvey, presented as a staged reading to a full house audience in 2010, returns featuring a cast of leading DC professional actors, Georgetown faculty, alumni, and students. Dear Harvey is a tribute play to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to a major public office in the United States. Drawn from more than 30 interviews, the work weaves together the personal and political writings of Milk with stories from the people he knew and the lives he changed, painting a portrait of a leader and a vision for equality. Dear Harvey celebrates the stories not often found in history books: stories that reach beyond fear and stereotyping to honor the positive contributions of the members of our LGBTQ community past and present.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE, BUT TICKETED

Wednesday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m.
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH
A staged reading
Losing Grace or Unmasking Yourcenar
By Elyane Dezon-Jones, Professor Emerita Michele Sarde, in harmony with Roger Bensky
Directed by Professor Derek Goldman
Featuring Professor Sarah Marshall in the title role
Sharing revealing glimpses of the life and works of a French literary genius of the 20th century, this work alternates between moments of glorious recognition and instants of sorrowful intimacy. After the death of her companion Grace Frick, Marguerite Yourcenar falls victim to the real-life seduction of Jerry, a youthful Adonis who succumbs to AIDS. In her late seventies, she reminisces about her life and her fictional characters who become more real to her than her own physical existence. The play touches on the deep mystery of artistic creation. The playwrights will be in residence for a talkback, and the French Department, in collaboration with the Theater and Performance Studies Program, will also be organizing a series of presentations on Yourcenar in the context of the event.
DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, DEVINE STUDIO THEATRE
$10 GENERAL / $5 STUDENTS

Thursday, April 25 at 5:00 p.m.
THE DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER,
THE THEATER AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM,
AND THE LABORATORY FOR GLOBAL PERFORMANCE AND POLITICS
A staged reading
Remember This: A Walk with Jan Karski
Written/ adapted by Derek Goldman and Clark Young
Directed by Prof. Derek Goldman
Featuring Academy-Award Nominee David Strathairn (“Good Night and Good Luck,” “Lincoln,” “Bourne Ultimatum”) as Jan Karski, with an ensemble of Georgetown students
“All I can say is that I saw it. And that it is the truth.” In 1942, as the Nazis began mass deportations of Jews from occupied Warsaw to the death camps, Jan Karski, a courier for the Polish Underground, volunteered at great personal risk to carry an eyewitness report of the destruction of the Jewish people of Poland to the Free World. From the underground tracks of Polish resistance to the unimaginable despair of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi camps, to the Oval Office and his decades as a beloved Georgetown Professor, this world-premiere staged reading explores and celebrates the complex life and legacy of a witness, spy, diplomat, hero, and teacher who overcame overwhelming odds to “shake the conscience of the world.”

DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
FREE, BUT TICKETED

ZEITGEIST FESTIVAL
Organized by Zeitgeist DC, a collaboration of the Goethe-Institut Washington, the Embassy of Switzerland and the Austrian Cultural Forum, in partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, and dog & pony dc.
Saturday and Sunday, May 10 and 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In participatory theater, audience members interact with actors or become the performers themselves, leading to exhilarating and often hilarious experiences for all involved. This shift in the artist-audience relationship opens up opportunities to question form, aesthetics, and content in theater art, civil engagement, and social justice. Audience members can explore issues, develop a sense of ownership, and work together to think about how change can happen.

Innovative participatory theater companies from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria will collaborate with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University, and dog & pony dc. These pieces will be performed in all corners of the Goethe-Institut in Chinatown.

Don’t miss your chance to take part in this fun, fascinating, and unique theater experience right here in DC!

Read more about the full Zeitgeist festival.

Monday, May 12, 2014 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.    

SYMPOSIUM
The Performer/Audience Relationship: Politics, Intimacy, and the Barriers between Private and Public

DAVIS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GONDA THEATRE
located on Georgetown University’s main campus

Participatory theater lies at the intersection of aesthetics, actions and experience. Hosted by Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program Professor Derek Goldman, Artistic Director, Davis Performing Arts Center; Michael Rohd, Artistic Director, Sojourn Theater, and Founder, The Center for Performance and Civic Practice; and Rachel Grossman, Ring Leader, dog & pony dc; this symposium will alternate between planned audience integrative experiments and reflective response sessions. Visiting experts from MerciMax, God’s Entertainment, machina eX, and local theater artists from dog & pony dc, will give presentations which encourage audience participation and highlight their aesthetics, methodology and practice.

Sabine Heymann (Managing Director, Center for Media and Interactivity, Giessen, Germany) will address the global political perspective and trends during a multi-media presentation Urban Performances: The Intersection between Art and Politics.

Saturday, May 10, 2014 at 10 p.m.

LOVE CLUB
“Nightclub” doors open at 10:00 | Show starts at 10:30 pm | $10 cover charge

GOETHE-INSTITUT WASHINGTON, FotoGalerie
812 7th St., NW
Washington, DC 20001

Georgetown University Assistant Professor of Theater Natsu Onoda Power and two radical theater artists from God’s Entertainment (Vienna, Austria) have teamed up with some local actors to recreate an outrageous, fascinating theater event in which everyone gets to watch, play and love… in a remake of the video game, Fight Club — based on the 1999 film — but for lovers.

Georgetown University/Arena Stage/Ammerman Family Partnership

Now in its eighth year, our unique partnership with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater highlights our shared commitment to the development of new work and a new generation of artists and administrators, 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, The Glass Menagerie Project as part of the Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival, and collaboration on festivals celebrating Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, and most recently, Eugene O’Neill.

Partnership highlights in the coming season will include the symposium Playing with the past, (W)righting the future, hosted by Professor Soyica Colbert in conjunction with the Theater and Performance Studies Program and Black Theatre Ensemble’s co-production of Insurrection: Holding History by Robert O’Hara; development of Anatomy of a Female Pope by Joan Vail Thorne, featuring Kathleen Chalfant; artistic apprenticeships for Georgetown alumni in Arena Stage’s Artistic Development Department; potential observerships for students in stage management, design and producing; masterclasses with Arena Stage resident and guest artists; and more. Check this page for updates.