News from the Department: 2005–09
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Volume 7, Number 1 Spring 2009 Theatre News at Middlebury: Seventh Sequel! Doug Sprigg News from the Department: 2005–09 In 2007, the Department bade reluctant farewell to Doug Sprigg, Isabel R. Mettler ’39 Professor Emeritus of Theatre, who retired after 33 years, many of them spent as Chair of the Theatre Program. In October 2008, Doug gave a lecture entitled ‘Holding the Mirror Up to Nature: The Dialectic of a Divided Consciousness in the Performance of Shakespeare and Chekhov’ as part of his professorship, and was celebrated with a dinner at the President’s home. Doug’s influence lives on in his students and in the memory of his many productions. On March 8, 2008, the Center for the Arts was rededicated as the Mahaney MIDDLEBURY Center for the Arts, in honor of supporter Kevin Mahaney, alum and parent. THEATRE REUNION! Despite a ferocious ice storm, the evening attracted many student and community members. Theatre presented an evening of scenes, entitled Curtain WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 Up!, hosted by Alex Draper ’88, with alums including Greg Naughton ’90, NEW YORK CITY at ANGUS McINDOE Matt Saldivar ’92, Christian Parker ’93, Nina Silver ’93, Aidan Sullivan ’95, 8:00 p.m. Megan Byrne ’96.5, Michael Wrynn Doyle ’98, Alex Cranmer ’99, Rich Price 258 West 44th Street ’99.5, Sarah Peters ’03.5, David Moan ’04, Dan Pruksarnukal ’04, Cassidy Freeman ’04.5, Julia Proctor ’06.5, Lauren Turner Kiel ’07, Allison Corke ’08, It’s the Grand Reunion of ALL Rishabh Kashyap ’08, Willie Orbison ’08, Stephanie Strohm ’08, Alec Strum THEATRE STUDENTS from the Richard & Cheryl years, aka, “Alex ’08, Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki ’08, Justine Katzenbach ’08.5, Lucy Faust ’09, Draper to the Present Time.” So here’s Jimmy Wong ’09.5, Cassidy Boyd ’10, Peter Hoffman ’10, John Glouchevitch what you can do to help: PLEASE ’10.5, and guests, honorary alum Jim Ryan and visiting lecturer Vanessa FORWARD THIS TO ALL MIDD Mildenberg, appearing in a wide selection of work from Midddlebury and THEATER TYPES! Clearly my list PTP stages. leans a bit to the 1992–94 classes, but this is for ALL the theatre grads of the Faromagnoli Era. I am open to a si- multaneous West Coast Party and we Returning Alums….WELCOME! pass the phones around, but I praefer Fall 2005: Michael Wrynn Doyle ’98: Acting I and The Bewitched that Nina Silver charters a jet to fly Spring 2007: Josh Bradford ’93: Lighting Design for Cabaret all the West Coasters out for this. But more on those details later. Winter 2009: Kate Pines ’04: Director of Uncommon Women and Others For now, just start sending Multiple visits: Josh Bradford ’93, Carl Forsman ’93, Christian Parker ’93 RSVPs of any intent to me at And Other Artists... [email protected] Fall 2007: London Theatre Exchange (Chris Hayes, William Richards, Vanessa Mildenberg) Vanessa continued to work frequently with My love to everyone. Look forward to seeing many of you in May! the department through spring 2009! All best - Carl Spring 2008: Jim Ryan, Guest Artist for Jumpers Update on the Department • Jim Dougherty Associate Technical Director. Jim continues his work with the Theatre Department, most recently as TD of our production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It was the first departmental production attended by his sons Owen and Sean; other accolades notwithstanding, it received the coveted Fifth and Second Grader’s No Squirming and Rapt Attention awards. The current students are clearly upholding the tradition of fine work done here on campus! His work with the American College Theatre Festival has progressed to working as Facility Technical Director at the Dukakis Theatre for the most recent and upcoming festivals. Those who were part of the tour for The Bewitched will no doubt have fond memories of the space. • Alex Draper ’88 In the Fall ’05, Alex returned to Middlebury as a leave replacement for Doug and to perform in Richard’s production of The Bewitched, which was subsequently re-mounted for both the regional and the national American College Theatre Festivals. The next year, he accepted an offer to teach full-time, and moved from Brooklyn to Vermont with his wife Lorraine, daughter Nora, and son Toby (born 2 days after the Bewitched was performed at the Kennedy Center). Since joining the faculty, he has developed 2 new courses; directed productions of Janusz Glowacki’s Cinders, Matt Pepper’s Saint Crispin’s Day, and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; performed in Cheryl’s production of Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers; and had the thrill of being involved in PTP’s first two seasons in NYC. He has managed to keep working in film and television, most notably in the Law and Order franchise and the HBO miniseries John Adams, and this summer he will travel to the wilds of New Hampshire to shoot Andy Mitton ’00 and Jesse Holland’s ’01 indie horror film Yellowbrickroad also involving Clark ’00 and Cassidy Freeman ’04.5 and Tara Giordano ’02. In the spring of 2008 he was offered a tenure-track position, and he and his family are thrilled to call Middlebury home. • Jule Emerson continues to design for the department’s productions and is currently working with new Costume Director Marcia Provoncha on the costumes for After Mrs. Rochester and The Europeans. Jule’s sabbatical last fall featured two amazing weeks in Paris (during fashion week, of course!) and, yes, it was FABULOUS! She has also been engaged in research for her upcoming Victorian and Edwardian costume exhibit at the College’s Museum of Art. Jule had a splendid time last summer with the PTP gang recreating the costumes for Scenes From an Execution and thoroughly enjoyed teaching PTP’s brilliant student actors how to sew and run wardrobe. As always, she is completely smitten with her fabulous design students. In addition to their usual work behind the scenes, these students were front and center modeling their incredible designs at the Bicentennial Ball and The Geiger Runway Show last spring. • Mark Evancho is still teaching intro and advanced scenic and light design courses and designing the college productions since the last newsletter: The Wedding Dress, The Bewitched, Cinders, Jumpers, Lysistrata, St Crispin’s Day, The Heidi Chronicles, and Twelfth Night. The design program is growing with an average of 10 to 12 set, light, and costume design students each year. We are moving slowly into intelligent lighting, with new ETC lighting boards in Wright and Seeler Theatres. Outside the college, Mark has designed My Fair Lady at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and has designed Scenes From An Execution, Somewhere in the Pacific, and Crave for the Potomac Theatre Project in NYC. Mark is now serving as Chair of the Theatre and Dance Department for the next three years with all the rights, privileges, and honors pertaining thereto. • Cheryl Faraone’s recent directing work includes Sarah Kane’s Crave (NY, 2008, Maryland, 2003) and The Politics of Passion, the Plays of Anthony Minghella (NY 2007) Company members included Stephanie Janssen, Cassidy Freeman, Tara Giordano, Adam Ludwig, Jesse Hooker, David Barlow, Michael Wrynn Doyle, Stephanie Strohm, Julia Proctor, Rishabh Kashyap, Laura Harris, MacLeod Andrews, Lauren Kiel. In 2005, she directed the professional premiere of Snoo Wilson’s Lovesong of the Electric Bear, on the life and times of Alan Turing, mathematician and code-breaker, with Tara Giordano as Turing’s teddy bear, Porgy. The cast also included Middlebury people Jay Dunn, Andrew Zox, Lucas Kavner, Meghan Nesmith and Julia Proctor. For Olney Theatre Center this spring she directed The King of the Jews by Leslie Epstein and spent some time in London initiating various projects. Middlebury projects in recent years have (also) included Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, The Heidi Chronicles, Talking With and Jumpers. Finally, a recent interest in plays about science and/or mathematics (note titles above) is the continuing impetus for “Math and Science as Art in Contemporary Theatre,” co-taught with Steve Abbott in fall 2004, 2006 and 2008, which also led to conferences in Glamorrgan,Wales, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Santa Barbara, California, with more travel to come. In spring 2009, Cheryl directed King Of The Jews by Leslie Epstein for the Olney Theatre Center. The cast included Peter Schmitz. • Claudio Medeiros ’90 After 6 consecutive years of teaching at Middlebury, Cláudio had his first leave year in 2008–09. His sabbatical research projects, though focused on Brazilian theatre, took him to very different areas of interest. In the first one, he researched German Expressionism and Melodrama to write an article about hyper- emotionalism in the work of Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues; in this work he focuses on his favorite Rodriguean text, All Nudity Shall Be Punished, which he hopes to direct for PTP some day. His other research project sent him on a 3-month voyage to Rio this past Spring, something he “hated” with a passion for he “detests” Rio—you would too, trust him!!! This multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural project centers around a 1970s avant-garde, gender-bending theatre troupe named Dzi Croquettes, a group of 13 non-traditional Brazilian male performers at the center of which stood an American dancer/choreographer from Brooklyn. He hopes to publish both works next year. At Middlebury his last two productions were Cabaret—yes, the musical, no kidding—lit by none other than Josh Bradford ’93, and Lysistrata. Both projects were immensely rewarding, and yes, we did use masks for the choruses of old men and women and they were fabulous, thanks to Jule’s indefatigable research! • Vanessa Mildenberg For the past 2 years Vanessa has been shuttling back and forth between Middlebury and London: At Middlebury she had a wonderful time teaching and choreographing Cabaret, movement directing Five(5)Hysterical Girls Theorem, Lysistrata, Jumpers and consulting on Twelfth Night.