PAGE 6 - THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2016 WWW.THEWESTFIELDNEWS.COM THE WESTFIELD NEWS ARTSLEISURE The Arts Beat By MARK AUERBACH details on the UMass Theatre UMass Theatre program: https://www.umass. Grads Get Four edu/theater/ Also of note: Lupita Tony Nominations Nyong’o, Best Actress nomi- Three UMass theatre nee for Eclipsed, is a graduate alums have received four of Hampshire College. The Tony Awards nominations. multi-nominated creator and David Korins, Tony- star of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel nominated scenic designer Miranda is a Wesleyan gradu- for Hamilton, graduated from ate, as is Hamilton director UMass/Amherst in 1999, as Thomas Kail. did Justin Townsend, a 1997 The Tony Awards air live on grad,. a dual-nominee in CBS at 8PM on Sunday, June Lighting Design nominee for 12. For details on the 2016 The Humans (Best Lighting Tony Awards: www. Design for a Play) and DAVID KORINS tonyawards.com American Psycho (Best Yale School of Drama, Lighting Design for a Carnegie-Mellon, NYU, Presto Change-O: Musical). Ben Stanton, also a Emerson, and UCLA have 1999 grad, is nominated for incredible track records. Next Year’s his lighting design for Spring UMass may be undervalued, The Skivvies, a Broadway undie-rock comedy-pop duo, will be performing up close and Awakening. Their bios and because it doesn’t have as Tony Contender ? personal, at Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre on May 28-29. photos are available at The high a profile or an on-cam- Broadway may be abuzz Tony Awards website, under already announced that Change-O. This exciting new pus professional theatre affil- with Hamilton, but producers’ Anastasia will open on musical, with music by Joel Nominees. www.tonyawards. iation, like UConn, for exam- eyes are looking at three com. Broadway next season. Waggoner and book and lyrics ple, with its highly-regarded Massachusetts and Goodspeed Musicals, which by Eric Price, tells the story of Many people overlook Connecticut Repertory Connecticut theatres as incu- some colleges and universi- has provided numerous musi- three generations of magicians Theatre or the Ballard Puppet bators for possible Tony cals to Broadway including who find themselves under ties when looking for a qual- Institute at Storrs. But, it’s Award next year. This column ity theatre program. Sure, Man of La Mancha and Annie, one roof for the first time in certainly worth a visit. For has already previewed is presenting a revised version years. When the grandfather Hartford Stage’s production of of The Roar of The causes real magic to happen, Anastasia, and Hartford Stage, Greasepaint-The Smell of The they must confront their past which sent A Gentleman’s Crowd, also previously pre- mistakes and re-examine what Guide to Love and Murder to viewed in this column. it means to be a family. Marc New York and a Tony Award Barrington Stage, opens its Bruni, who staged Broadway’s win for “Best Musical”, has new season with a world pre- Beautiful: The Carol King miere musical, Presto- Musical, directs. Vadim BARBARA WALSH ENJOY THE SOOTHING SOUNDS OF Fish & Plants Feichtner is music director. WATER FROM YOUR GARDEN POND. arriving weekly! 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BEAUTY AND City, State & Zip: Phone: HOURS: Mon-Thur 11am-11pm • Fri-Sat 11am-12am • Sun 12pm-10pm THE BEAST 1 Table of Contents 2015-2016 Our Season Page 3 Our Programs Page 14 People: Faculty News and Achievements and Guest Artists Page 20 Outreach Page 26 Grants, Professional Development and Scholarship Awards Page 28 Development Page 30 Student and Alumni News and Achievements Page 33 Appendices: 1. Departmental Events — a full listing of mainstage and student productions, guest workshops, special events, department guest appearances for the 2015-2016 school year Page 38 2. Audience Survey — an analysis of demographic, advertising, and art consumer questions asked of audience members via program insert during the 2015-2016 season Page 46 3. In Memoriam — remembering Kaz Reed and Doug Kraner Page 61 2 2015-2016 Our Season Box Office This year’s season saw the Department of Theater double down on its commitment to present new works from fresh voices and underrepresented populations. The lack of productions with high name recognition means we did not draw blockbuster audiences, but the strong response from those that did attend confirmed for us that reaching out to new or under-served audiences is worth the effort. We further demonstrated our commitment to this idea by making our school matinee of Collidescope 2.0, a powerful work that engaged important questions about our country’s troubled racial history, free to all students. In the sell-out crowd were students from traditionally-underserved communities who reacted powerfully to the play’s important message. FY16 THE SHOW SPACE EST # ACTUAL +/- Marie Antoinette Rand $4,000.00 $4,400.12 $400.12 Donny Johns Curtain $2,500.00 $2,444.40 $(55.60) Love and Information Curtain $3,000.00 $2,752.70 $(247.30) Play Lab Curtain $500.00 $509.87 $9.87 Collidescope 2.0 Rand $6,500.00 $5,579.53 $(920.47) SUBTOTAL $16,500.00 $15,686.62 Less 7.9% $1,303.50 $1,239.24 TOTAL $15,196.50 $14,447.38 $(749.12) Audience Survey This year, as we did for two years previous, we included a survey in each program we handed out. Our aim was to learn about who our audience is, where people learn about us, and what their priorities are in the arts. This year’s results were in large part confirmations of the patterns that have begun to emerge in the two previous years’ results. We found that our audience members are split between college students and seniors, are enthusiastic arts consumers, and are strongly affiliated with the Five Colleges and most especially UMass. We also saw, again, that our top audience-getter is word of mouth, whether from friends and relatives in productions, fellow arts consumers, or faculty recommendations/assignments. Expense and schedule were cited as the top barriers to attendance last year and continue to be this year.