Feb. 2013 Spotlight
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The Theatre Arts Management Shop at Catawba College Shuford School of Performing Arts Presents: MC EPPTHE HOUSE: SPOTLIGHT CATAWBA COLLEGE 2300 West Innes St. February 2013 Vol 19, No. 4 www.catawba.edu/theatrearts Salisbury, NC 28144 TELEPHONE (704) 637-4481 EMAIL THEATREARTS @CATAWBA.EDU Co-Editor: Sydney Berk Ringing in the New Year with some [email protected] Co-Editor: incredible shows! Verity Pryor-Harden [email protected] START OFF 2013 WITH QUALITY THEATRE UPCOMING PRODUCTION: REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT Student directed by senior Sydney Berk, this contemporary, poetic drama tells of the conflict between dreams and reality. Continued on Page 2 UPCOMING PRODUCTION: ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD Greg Stoughton & Verity Pryor-Harden in References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Photography by Tracy Ratliff) Directed by Dr. Beth Homan, the comedy by Tom Stoppard comes to life in our staged reading. Continued on Page 4 THE LIFE OF GALILEO GOES TO KCACTF One of six shows out of over 200 applicants invited to compete in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, the cast and crew of The The Life of Galileo goes to KCACTF (Photography by Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Life of Galileo get prepped to compete. Sean Meyers) Continued on Page 6 ALUMNI OF THE MONTH: TAYLOR HOHMAN Meet our Catawba Theatre Alumni of the Month! Continued on Page 7 Like us on Facebook: /catawbatheatre | Follow us on Twitter: @CatawbaTheatre | Follow us on Instagram: @catawbatheatre THE SPOTLIGHT PAGE2 References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot Beginning February 6th, References to Salvador get a look into Gabriela’s struggle with her Cast & Crew Dali Make Me Hot, a steamy piece of magical husband, who has been broken by a realism by José Rivera, will seduce audiences in true carnivorous war. The play becomes a Dali Fashion. The Blue Masque will transport the domestic drama, as lovers try to understand Gabriela: Kylie Beinke* audience to a new world with this spellbinding each other and wonder if you can ever Benito: Eric English Cat: Verity Pryor-Harden comedic drama. The production runs February 6-9, really solve the mystery of another’s heart. Coyote: Greg Stoughton in Catawba's Florence Busby Corriher black box With 2 distinct styles in one piece, a taste of Moon: Adam Weiner Theater at 7:30 pm. Be warned: it contains strong earthy realism tangled with fantastical Martin: Brandon language, sexual content, and adult situations so this poetry, this play has something for everyone. Engelskirchen one is not recommended for children. Oscar nominated and Obie Award Director: Sydney Berk* winning playwright, Jose Rivera, says that Directing Advisor: Dayna Anderson Let us set the stage: Barstow, California, taking plays beyond realism is what makes Stage Manager: Maggie Saunders Night. The moon plays the piano, them most special. He says, "We're Assistant Stage something lush and sentimental. As a coyote bombarded by realism [in film and Manager: Cody Mangum seduces a house cat, the moon whispers television] 24/7. We know it, we see it, we Set Design: Brooke Beall* Costume/Hair/ night poetry and sings entrancing boleros to have it all around us. If the theatre is going Makeup Design: Dee Clark* Gabriela who is sick with a broken heart. to offer us anything that's different, it needs Lighting Design: Chris Speer She spends her nights pacing her backyard, to exploit the possibilities of the theatrical. Sound Design: Gyo Gamble deeply missing her husband, a soldier away Another way to heighten reality is through Technician: Tynia Brandon at war. The 14-year-old boy next door, language. It can be poetic, dense, full of Publicity: Kara Procell* Technical Advisors: Christopher D. Zink, Martin, fumbles over trying to entrance her imagery. That is why I would rather go to a David Pulliam, Erin but she is busy staring up at the stars. The play than watch TV." Come buy tickets and B. Dougherty, Joe play both begins and ends with this see what he means. In a world where so Hernandez surrealist dreamscape centered around the much is digital, give yourself a night of woman everyone is lusting for, Gabriela. something real. * Denotes membership in the Alpha Psi But when her husband Benito returns, Omega Dramatic Honors Society the mood shifts and we are transported. We Kylie Beinke & Eric English as Gabriela & Benito in References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (Photography by Tracy Ratliff) Verity Pryor-Harden & Greg Stoughton Like us on Facebook: /catawbatheatre | Follow us on Twitter: @CatawbaTheatre | Follow us on Instagram: @catawbatheatre THE SPOTLIGHT PAGE3 JOSÉ RIVERA Growing up in a home with very few books, In the marrying of these influences, José Rivera’s illiterate grandparents told many Rivera developed a style that is magical and José Rivera has stories, inspiring the young Rivera who thought provoking. It is true poetry. gained international decided at the age of 12 that he wanted to be acclaim for his a writer. MAGICAL REALISM talents as a Throughout his education in the New p l a y w r i g h t a n d York school system, he read all the European Magical realism aims to seize the screenwriter. Rivera greats such as Ibsen, Chekhov, Tolstoy. But paradox of the union of opposites, the has won countless he grew up in this household that was so supernatural and the natural. It differs from awards and grants different from what he read that he felt a pure fantasy primarily because it is set in a for his plays as well disconnect. But when he began reading 100 normal, modern world with authentic as being the first Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, descriptions of humans and society. The Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated he was inspired. Rivera says, “Reading supernatural is not seen as questionable, but for an Academy Award. Among his Marquez was the first time that anything it is integrated within the norms of the world numerous plays are The House of Ramon from the world of school and education as we know it. As Jose Rivera says, "the Iglesias, Cloud Tectonics, Marisol, Sonnets for an came to me that reminded me of my home.” human condition is so absurd, and people Old Century, Sueño, Giants Have Us in Their He felt that someone was finally celebrating are so outrageous, that insane things happen Books, Each Day Dies With Sleep, and of course, his culture. He thought, “Someone gets it, on a daily basis. All you really have to do is References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot. Also and someone writes about it in a beautiful, record them." Why wouldn’t a woman in having written for Film and Television, some amazing way. It was really a personal thing love levitate and who says mothers can’t read of his best known works are The Motorcycle for me to read this work.” Inspired, Rivera the minds of their disobedient children? Diaries and On The Road. wanted to apply the same aesthetic that one Magical Realist writers are not limited by the The magic and charm ever present in finds in Marquez’s work to the theatre, an confines of realism and often draw upon the Rivera’s work comes from his Puerto Rican experiment no one had yet tried. energies of fable, folk tale and myth while roots. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1955, Rivera’s primary love is poetic language, maintaining a strong contemporary social into a struggling family. When he was 4 years drawing inspiration from the plays of Lorca relevance. old, they moved to America, settling in Long and Sam Shepard and poets like Pablo Island. Rivera’s parents were uneducated Neruda and Charles Bukowski. He said, “I and didn’t know English so job opportunities tend to view the language of theatre to be of References to Salvador Dali were sparse. His father was a laborer, taking a different magnitude than the language in a on various jobs such as a gardener, a cook, a song or the language in real life. There ought Make Me Hot taxi driver and a janitor. These menial jobs to be a place for language that does more By: José Rivera barely supported the family and they were work than normal speech, where people can Student Directed by: Sydney Berk quite poor. It was a hard life and very go and hear incredible language and be isolated at first, until Long island started to entertained by language the way they used grow and other Puerto Ricans came into the to. The way they used to with Shakespeare, February 6-9, 7:30 p.m. area. Life was not easy but they made do, for instance. That place is the theatre. You go Florence Busby Corriher Theater Rivera’s parents were able to send him and to have your mind provoked and startled by his sister to college and the youngest siblings beautiful language.” all went into the military. This lifestyle has In 1989, Rivera had the opportunity to $5, General Admission been the primary inspiration for much of his become Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s student at $4, Catawba Students & Senior the Sundance Institute. Marquez opened up work. Citizens But Rivera’s parents often had doubts Rivera’s eyes to the possibility of portraying a about whether or not the move to America different vision of the word through the use was worth it. They had come to America to of Magical Realism. He showed Rivera that Please call (704) 637-4481 leave the material poverty of Puerto Rico, fantastical events are not made up, that they but they felt that America had a spiritual and come from secondhand narrations of to purchase tickets or buy online emotional poverty.