Theatre & Performance Brown Bag Series Matthew Allar and Christopher Owens On the Collaborative Process
Friday, March 17 | Noon - 1pm | PBK - Dodge Room
What does it mean to collaborate on an artistic project? What is gained and what must be given up? Join Professors Matthew Allar and Christopher Owens for a discussion of the benefits, challenges and processes associated with theatrical collaboration between designers and directors as they discuss their work together on several William and Mary theatre creations, including the upcoming production of Baskerville.
A native of Pennsylvania, Matthew Allar is a scenographer based in Williamsburg, Virginia. An Associate Professor of Theatrical Design, Matthew is the resident Scenic Designer for William & Mary. Recent work includes production design for the New York premier of East 14th and Joseph Haydn’s Le Pescatrici for the Zempleni Music Festival, Tokaji, Hungary. Additional scenic design work includes productions of Shakespeare’s R and J (Michael Sexton, dir.), All My Sons (Victor Pappas, dir.), Arcadia, Hair (Elizabethtown College) A Lie of The Mind, Marat / Sade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cabaret (Cornell College), Top Girls (Albright College), You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Three Sisters, Songs For A New World (Eastern Univ.) and The Pillow of Kantan (Muhlenberg College) as well as the New York premiers of several works including Samuel IV, Playing House, and the Peccadillo Theatre Company’s revival of All God’s Chillun Got Wings. As a lighting designer, credits include the recent NYC productions of Baby With The Bathwater, Dancing at Lughnasa, You Never Can Tell and Studio 42’s annual The Starving Artist’s Ball. Additional credits include design work, both here and abroad, for several television networks including MTV, VH1, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, and Noggin. A former Associate Director of Design for the New York Television Festival, and co-founder of both M.A.D. Inc., and Cabana Creations LLC, Matthew’s education includes Muhlenberg College, The University of London, and New York University. Matthew has taught at Cornell College, Elizabethtown College, and Nazareth College and is a Member United Scenic Artists #829
Professor Owens joined the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance and the Virginia Shakespeare Festival in 2004. Prior to that he spent eighteen years heading professional theatre companies in Dallas (Plaza Theatre, New Arts Theatre) and Winchester, VA (Wayside Theatre), and five years in Academia at Dickinson College, Indiana University-South Bend and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. He has directed over 100 professional stage productions from Seattle to Sarasota, including King Lear, Measure for Measure, Amadeus, the regional premiere of David Mamet’s Oleanna, Noises Off (3 times), The Learned Ladies, and 10 productions of A Christmas Carol. He directed Bat Boy: The Musical, Pal Joey, As Bees in Honey Drown, Little Shop of Horrors, Dancing at Lughnasa, All’s Well That Ends Well and Antigone for William and Mary Theatre as well as The Tempest, Macbeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and The Complete History of America Abridged for the Virginia Shakespeare Festival.
Further information contact convenors: [email protected] and [email protected].
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This new initiative by the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance brings interdisciplinary per- spectives to the study of theatre and performance in all its forms through scholarship, artistic presentations and provocations by faculty, students (both undergraduates and post-graduates) and occasional guests. All are welcome. Bring your own lunch. Coffee and cookies will be provided.