Three national finalists of the KCACTF Award for Excellence in Costume, Scenic, and Lighting Design will attend the O’Neill Playwrights Conference in July as assistants to the resident design staff. There, Josh will observe and assist the process between the designers, playwrights, directors, and dramaturges from beginning to end. The conference supports playwrights and new works for theater, and over the years has developed more than 600 plays.

Josh began his degree at IUP principally in performance, and he grew to discover his talent and aptitude for design with Theater-by-the-Grove main stage projects, courses, and exciting collaborations with fellow students in Acorn Projects of the studio theater. This fall, Josh will be working as a set design intern for the Kalamazoo Civic Players, designing and painting scenery for four productions in their season.

In 2007, IUP alumnus David Hunter also won the O’Neill Design Fellowship for Sound Design for the design of Philoctetes, directed by guest artist Matko Srsen. Srsen will be returning to IUP this fall to direct The Brothers Karamatzov. Hunter is now a professional sound designer working out of New York City.

Department of Theater and Dance

The book explores the ways Broadway theater represented, and Broadway audiences responded to, characters identified as I.W.W. members, or “Wobblies.” The I.W.W. was founded in 1905, and was particularly active in organizing strikes and free-speech protests in the years through the First World War.

The works under study in the book include plays by Eugene O’Neill, John Howard Lawson, Maxwell Anderson, and Upton Sinclair.

Written by Erin Hug and directed by Nick Hrutkay, Louder Than Words is a laugh-out-loud comedy telling the story of a kingdom where books have been banned and the world’s greatest authors from across time have been exiled to a far-away, barren land. When a young boy receives an unexpected visit from Mark Twain, J.K. Rowling, Lewis Carroll, and the other banished authors, he rallies up the children in his neighborhood to revolt against the book-banning King and fight for their right to read stories.

Louder Than Words features six Footlight youth: Parker Koons, Jamie Latson, Owen Morris, Bastian Webber, Bricelyn Webber, and Emma Zuzek. The cast is also rounded out with IUP Theater and Communications Media majors providing a unique perspective for the younger actors to learn from and act alongside more seasoned performers.

Louder Than Words is the second theater-for-youth tour produced this season by Footlight Players. Last November, A Midsummer Night’s Dream toured to schools in the region, bringing a fresh interpretation of the Shakespeare classic to over 1,500 students. Louder Than Words is now following suit by partnering with the Indiana Free Library to bring awareness to the community about the benefits of reading in our society through the eyes of children and some of time’s most beloved writers.

Louder Than Words has two performances on Saturday, February 23. The first is at 11:00 a.m. in the Indiana Free Library Community Room, and the second is at 7:00 p.m. in the Indiana Theater, both on Philadelphia Street. Tickets are available at the door: $10 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under.

Footlight Players is supported by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a stage agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance.

MELUS is the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, a national professional organization for studies on the research and teaching of American multiethnic literature, criticism, arts, and culture in the national, regional, local, or global contexts. Faculty and graduate students from most of the 50 states in America in the academy as well as international scholars from about 19 countries will attend.

Van Dyke will copresent with colleague Holly Boda-Sutton and Tina Lewis.

Department of Theater and Dance

Gibson auditioned at the festival for the opportunity to act in the readings of new works by undergraduate and graduate playwrights across the eight-state Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley region. The Region 2 cochairs of the NPP present only one of these awards each year to an actor who provides exceptional talent for getting the playwright’s words from the page into action.

Gibson attended the KCACTF festival as an invited Irene Ryan Acting Competition partner with 26 other IUP students invited for a variety of performance, design/tech/management and directing opportunities. The festival was attended by over 1,400 students and faculty from dozens of universities across the region.

Glass was invited to present her costume work in the Design Exposition. While at the festival, she earned the opportunity to assist the SDC Fellowship program as the stage manager for four days of directing intensives. Glass displayed her costume construction for Titania’s costume in the Acorn Production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which drew favorable responses from regional respondents impressed by her ability to drape and realize a designer’s vision on a small budget.

Department of Theater and Dance

The regional festival at Towson University attracted over 1,400 students and faculty from an eight-state region.

Gallagher was selected by adjudicators of Region 2’s top national award in set design for his starkly whimsical space for In Quietness, written by Anna Moench. He presented his design at the KCACTF Region 2 Design Exposition, which exhibited over 100 designs from dozens of schools across Region 2, ranging from New York to Northern Virginia and west to Ohio. Moench’s new play was directed by Rick Kemp this past fall as IUP’s contribution to the National Theatre Conference’s challenge initiative supporting American women playwrights by providing for development of new works. “The opportunity for an undergraduate student designer to work with an emerging playwright of Moench’s stature is something that IUP is proud to offer,” department chair Brian Jones said. Only one such award is given by the region each year.

Chase was selected by representatives of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Fellowship for his work on The Caucasian Chalk Circle. He said he chose the work “because it was stylistically hard, and offered the most opportunity for me to learn.” Upon receiving an invitation based on his application last December, Chase prepared a scene from the play with IUP actors beginning last December. He showed it at the beginning of the festival, receiving criticism for improvement over the four days of the festival. Adjudicators based their decision on the quality of Chase’s original presentation, and especially his creativity and effectiveness throughout the process of festival. This is the third time in the past four years that an IUP student has been chosen for the SDC Fellowship in Region 2.

Gallagher, Chase, and 25 other students from IUP were invited to the festival in a variety of artistic programs, including the Irene Ryan acting competition, the KCACTF Fringe Festival, and the Design/Tech/Management exposition. They were supported by the IUP Graduate School fund for undergraduate student research travel fund, the College of Fine Arts, and Theater and Dance’s Theater-by-the-Grove.

Department of Theater and Dance

Grove is one of only two students chosen to present at the conference.

Her work addresses the incorporation of dance fundamentals and elements into physical education classrooms and the importance of incorporating dance and movement into general education classrooms. She'll lead attendees through movement activites and provide instruction on how they can create their own dance/movement lessons, while incorporating state standards.

Grove is a senior in IUP's unique Dance Arts major, combining dance studies with another arts area. Students in this program apply dance expertise to many potential career paths allied with dance.

She hopes to make dance a more accessible art form within the public schools, where she'll also be a certified middle school math teacher.

"Through my dance theory coursework, I found my passion in the curriculum and instruction of dance," says Grove.

According to association President Kimberley Razzano, “Boda-Sutton will be commended for being an outstanding role model, leader, and advocate.”

Boda-Sutton will also oversee the IUP Dance Theater Company, invited to perform for opening and closing ceremonies of PSAHPERD’s annual convention. Eight select dancers will perform selections from the dance company’s repertoire.

Department of Theater and Dance 

Brandon excelled in the MFA program at University of Nevada Las Vegas after graduating from IUP with loads of musical theater experience, including a leading role in A New Brain, directed by faculty emeritus Ed Simpson.

Department of Theater and Dance 

The Livingstone Project is an exciting new dramatic work about David Livingstone, the celebrated Victorian abolitionist, missionary, and explorer of Africa. The play examines the intricacies of David Livingstone’s life through a dramatic interplay of historical text, movement, song, and dance. The subject of the work, David Livingstone, remains a figure of international interest; the production explores Livingstone’s relationships firsthand and incorporates various perspectives and impressions of his life. We invite audience members to experience Livingstone’s world from various perspectives—to consider the ethical choices and moral dilemmas that Livingstone faced as one of the world’s greatest African explorers.

The Livingstone Project is funded in part by the University Senate Research Committee Small Grants Program, and is a Think Tank Theatre and IUP Center for Digital Humanities and Culture production.

The project is part of the international events being organized this year and the next to mark the Livingstone bicentenary. The script for the work has been devised and directed by Professor Jeannie-Marie Brown. The script is based on the research of Adrian Wisnicki of the English Department, who also served as literary and historical advisor for the script.

Performance dates are December 6–8 at 8:00 p.m. in the Waller Hall Mainstage. Tickets are available at the door for $5.

This play contains adult content, issues, language, and situations to which some audience members may object. Not suitable for children.

The event is part of a grass-roots nationwide reading of the play scheduled to coincide with Veterans Day and the presidential election. Spark is a play about three sisters, one of whom is a war veteran, living in a poor area of the U.S. and caught in a recent war’s aftermath. Svich’s production alliance, NoPassport, seeks to use the reading as an occasion to honor veterans of wars recent and past, as well as to shed light on the stories of female veterans.

For additional information on NoPassport and their projects, visit NoPassport.

Department of Theater and Dance

In Quietness is a touching and often funny story of a man called by God and his wife, a former CEO, who are beginning a new chapter of their lives at a Southern Baptist seminary. The play explores the difficulties of fitting oneself into a box and why, given how difficult it is, we all try so hard to do it.

Moench recently received the 2012–2013 Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright’s Center, a national resource for playwrights located in Minneapolis, Minn. Her work was selected for production as the department’s annual contribution to the National Theater Conferences’ Initiative to Celebrate American Women Playwrights, by providing production opportunities necessary for developing and expanding their creative voices.

Department of Theater and Dance

Mismatched lovers Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena encounter a supernatural squabble that will alter their destinies forever. Love, magic, and wonder fill the air as dreams blend with reality in this adventurous production directed by Nicholas Hrutkay and inspired by fashion designer Alexander McQueen.

General admission seating ticket prices are $7 regular, $6 discount, and $5 I-Card. Tickets are available at the door starting 45 minutes before curtain.

Please arrive early, as seating is limited.

• November 11 at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
• November 12 at 11:00 p.m.
• Waller Hall Studio Theater, IUP Performing Arts Center
• Run Time: 75 Minutes with no intermission

Department of Theater and Dance

Geffers is the casting and literary director for EgoPo. She is directing their current production of The Assassination of Jesse James, which has gotten good press from Steve Cohen at BroadstreetReview.com and from the Philadelphia Weekly arts and culture section.

EgoPo (meaning “the physical self”) is a nonprofit repertory theatre company committed to revitalizing the great classics. They “strive for virtuosity in vocal and physical performance in order to create innovative and provocative theatrical events.” EgoPo advances the American acting technique through a professional conservatory and seeks to expand audiences with education outreach programs. Check out the EgoPo blog.

Department of Theater and Dance

The NEA grant will support the work of program director and IUP alumnus Nick Hrutkay (’10) to make Footlight Players even more effective in its outreach to area schools. Beginning in October 2012, Hrutkay will develop, for touring to schools, an adventurous production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play will feature IUP students and alumni involved in the popular summer enrichment program.

By getting into the schools with this grant project, Footlight executive director and chair of the department Brian Jones expects to have an even greater impact on theater programs in the surrounding area. “This is a major step forward for us,” Jones said. “It will bring the Footlight program to the next level in our region, and will provide even more meaningful arts experiences for the community, as well as our students and alumni.”

Footlight Players has been an outreach service project of the Department of Theater and Dance since 2004, and now engages 60 young people from the Indiana community in creative workshops and theatrical productions led by professional teaching artists and IUP student interns. Through four weeks of activity beginning mid-June, the participants produce two plays and two musicals in a weekend festival of performances.

The program is also funded by a program stream grant of the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Program, which is the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

The play concerns a family of sisters in North Carolina, one of whom is a returning war veteran, and how the sisters find ways to make do with little economic means. Svich describes the play as “a contemporary U.S. story of faith, love, war, trauma, and a bit of healing.”

The reading will be directed by Michael Schwartz, and will take place on Friday, November 9, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. in the Studio Theater in Waller Hall. Admission is free.

Department of Theater and Dance

Through a network of friends who travel the country doing stand-up, he discovered that his comic sensibilities from playwriting translated well to the stand-up routine.

Comedian Phil Keeling, featuring Brooke Cochran

Friday, October 05, 2012

• Location: Toretti Auditorium
• Start Time: 8:00 p.m.
• End Time: 11:50 p.m.

Fresh from the release of his first album, Conquistadork, Phil Keeling brings his medication-free brand of humor to the frozen lands of Pennsylvania for the first time ever! Feel sad and slightfuly superior as Phil shows you exactly what he's been up to since his graduation from IUP in 2005. He'll make you laugh, he'll make you think, he'll make you buy him a gin and tonic while he hits on your girlfriend. You'll love it!

Trisha Rae Stahl (Theater ’98) made her debut in the season opener of Fox Networks’ Glee on Thursday, September 13, 2012. She will appear in a recurring role.

Stahl reports that she is unable to divulge much about the story, but previews have revealed that she is a family member of Marley Rose, a new addition to New Directions.

Stahl moved to California soon after graduating and has worked in independent films and other ventures that have built toward this terrific opportunity. After IUP, she also studied special education at National Univerisity in Sherman Oaks, and she teaches special needs students.

Department of Theater and Dance

Schwartz’s paper, “The Fabulous Who?: The Productions of Robert Griffith,” focused on the career of the successful Broadway producer who partnered with Hal Prince on such hits as The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, and West Side Story.

Schwartz also participated as an actor during the 23rd annual New Play Development Workshop for the Playwrights and Creative Teams program of ATHE, taking part in the revision and development of new 10-minute plays presented at the conference.

Schwartz is in his second year as a temporary full-time theater historian for the Department of Theater and Dance. He has contributed a curricular revision of the history and literature sequence and created a new course in Dramaturgy. He has been a lively contributor to Theater-by-the-Grove productions with dramaturgical support of most productions.

“Bent” will run September 14 and 15 at 8:00 p.m. and September 16 at 2:00 p.m. in the Waller Hall Studio Theater. Tickets are $7, or $4 with an I-Card, and may be purchased in Waller before the show.

The theater department’s Acorn Honors project provides funding for one student-directed play a year. Student directors are required to complete an application process beginning in the spring of the previous year.

Morgan Chase and Forrest Trimble, both theater majors, are the co-directors.

“One of the huge benefits of the Acorn Project is that it gives student actors who may not get to be a part of the Mainstage productions a chance to hone their craft,” Chase said. “With this funding, we’ve created a more realistic set and costuming, which I think will capture the audience more.”

This year’s production features Kurt Stridinger, a management major; Jose Aponte, a criminology major; and Kyle Hawk, a theater major, as well as 11 supporting cast members and crew.

Chase and Trimble chose the 1979 play for its dramatic elements and overall message.

“We wanted to do something that would provide a harsh and explicit look at what the extremes of prejudice can lead to,” Chase said. “We hope to open people’s minds through this production.”

The Acorn Project at IUP aims to nurture new growth in theater. Previous Acorn Project productions have included “Come Blow Your Horn” and “The Shape of Things.”

The grant was awarded through the Faculty Professional Development Council and supports Kemp and his colleagues, Brian Jones of IUP and Colleen Reilly of Slippery Rock University, in an innovative, multi-university research project. The results of their investigation will be applied to future collaborations between the two universities.

Incorporating IUP’s Communications Media Internship Program, under the guidance of Jay Start this summer, Kemp, Jones, and Reilly are investigating the potential and feasibility of using real-time video interaction at a distance in theater instruction and performance. They will experiment with the possibility of doing this in a number of courses that they teach in the areas of performance, design, and arts administration.

The grant also supports an exploration of videography in performance, for a future creative venture in staging Shakespeare’s The Tempset.

IUP Theater majors have staged another summer production for campus and community amusement. Under the direction of Ryan Thornhill, an ensemble has been rehearsing since finals to bring you a production of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? in the Studio Theater at Waller Hall. (It's in the basement of Waller, follow the signs from the Waller lobby).

The show plays June 1 and 2, 2012, at 8:00 p.m., and June 3 at 2:00 p.m.

There will be a “brownbag lunch” preview on May 31 at noon. 

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? is three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee’s most provocative, daring, and controversial play. In the play, Martin, a successful architect who has just turned fifty, leads an ostensibly ideal life with his loving wife and gay teenage son. But, when he confides to his best friend that he is also in love with a goat (named Sylvia), he sets in motion events that will destroy his family and leave his life in tatters. This show deals with adult issues and situations.

Department of Theater and Dance

Our two Fall productions are an original script, In Quietness, by Anna Moench, and Hay Fever by Noel Coward.

Scripts to review may be signed out in Waller Hall, room 104—the Theater Department main office. Check the Waller Hall Call Board (basement level) for further information.

Clowns Dave and Cherie shared skills-building techniques in a session on the art of clowning in a visit ahead of their April 2012 shows at Kovalchik Convention and Athletic Complex. The session added to the “toolbox” of skills and knowledge that Spencer, from Exton, Pa., is learning at IUP.

The Kovalchick Complex’s efforts to get performers into the classroom adds to the many workshops contracted by IUP’s Lively Arts Ovations! series.

Photo: Tom Peel, Indiana Gazette

Awards Chair Theresa Purcell Cone said that Boda-Sutton will be given the award “in recognition of her outstanding service to the profession, as well as her dedication to excellence as an educator, leader, advocate, and scholar. The Honor Award is the highest award given to a professional in the Association, and she is most deserving of this recognition.”

The award was presented on March 15, 2012, during the annual convention of the Eastern District Association held this year in Boston, Mass.

Technicians, stage hands, and costume characters also invited to apply. Get more information about the auditions.

Book your spot now with this Emmy-award winning, actors’ equity company.

• IUP Performing Arts Center Rehearsal Room (second floor)
  403 South 11th Street, Indiana, PA
• Noon–5:00 p.m., by appointment only
• Parking available nearby in the IUP Parking Garage on Papermill St.

To request an audition appointment, please e-mail Casting@rwsandassociates.com.

Department of Theater and Dance

Each year, the eight KCACTF regions honor individuals or organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to the teaching and producing of theater and who have significantly dedicated their time, artistry, and enthusiasm to the development of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Most importantly, recipients have demonstrated a strong commitment to the values and goals of KCACTF and to excellence in educational theater. It is the most prestigious regional award given by KCACTF and is considered one of the great honors in theater education.

Blackledge, who retired this year from IUP, was surprised and touched by the award. For many years she has contributed her time and talents to managing KCACTF’s prestigious Irene Ryan Acting Award. She also is a respected respondent who has travelled throughout the region to offer responses to other schools. In response to receiving the award, Blackledge said, “I was so touched that the people with whom I have worked and grown to respect so much voted to give me this prestigious award. I have given KCACTF so much of myself for the last six years. But I have received so much from the experience in terms of how I have grown as an artist and as an educator—well beyond this totally unexpected award.”

The KCACTF Region 2 Festival 44 at IUP brought together over 1,000 students and faculty from Pennsylvania, southern New York, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia to celebrate excellence in college and university theater. Festival attendees saw eight productions representing excellence in theater across the region. They also participated in dozens of workshops, gallery expositions, and events to help them develop their artistry.

Four plays will be staged at Fisher Auditorium, and four plays, including Lindsey's Oyster, produced by IUP, will be staged at Waller Hall Mainstage Theater. Tickets for each play are $10 and will be available in the Performing Arts Center grand lobby ticket office starting two hours before the performance.

There will be ample seating for the Fisher Auditorium performances. Seating for the Waller Mainstage performances is limited and will be open to the community through a waiting list. Available seats will be distributed starting approximately 10 minutes before the performance.

In addition, the public is invited free of charge to the festival keynote by actor and playwright John Cariani at noon on Wednesday, January 11, in Fisher Auditorium.

Swing of the Sea

Wednesday, Jan. 11; 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Waller Hall Mainstage Theater
By Molly Hagan (NPP, student playwright)
Produced by Arcadia University
Directed by Mark Wade
Mysterious and whimsical in equal parts, this new play was written by Molly Hagan, two-time national finalist for the Best Ten-Minute Play at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The story takes us on an intimate exploration of what it means to be an adolescent. Newly out from under their parents’ explanation of everything, Boots and Eggs grapple with the dawning realities of adult-size loss and yearning.

Macbeth

Wednesday, Jan. 11; 8:30 p.m.
Fisher Auditorium
By William Shakespeare
Produced by Towson University
Directed Steve Satta
“Faire is foule, and foule is faire…” The shortest, tightest of all of Shakespeare’s tragedies tells the tale of a good man’s fall from grace. Written to garner the good graces of King James I, Macbeth is an entertainment fit for royalty. This production pulls out all the stops for this tale of horror complete with witches, magic, and broadswords and plenty of blood!

Proof

Thursday, Jan. 12 ; 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Waller Hall Mainstage Theater
By David Auburn
Produced by Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Directed by Kaitlyn Ide (student director)
Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, Proof tells the story of twenty-five-year-old college dropout Katherine who “clings to her past as she tries to find the answer to the question that has been plaguing her for years. “Is she just like her father?” asks student director Kaitlyn Ide.

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

Thursday, Jan. 12; 8:30 p.m.
Fisher Auditorium
By William Inge
Produced by West Chester University
Director by Leonard Kelly
The Dark At the Top of the Stairs is William Inge’s brilliant and touching examination of the American family. Set in the early part of the 20th century in Oklahoma, this semi-autobiographical work explores the themes of love and loss, isolation and intimacy, and the recognition of our essential humanity. As Inge’s alter-ego, Sonny recalls the richly layered characters and poignant memories from his youth and begins to understand how his past illuminates his understanding of who he has become.

A Dream Play

Friday, Jan. 13; 8:30 p.m.
Fisher Auditorium
By August Strindberg
Produced by Bridgewater College
Directed by Scott Cole
Written in 1901—one year after Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams—but not staged until 1907 in Stockholm. Strindberg’s A Dream Play is a symbolic masterpiece in seeking to “reproduce the disconnected but apparently logical form of a dream” where “imagination spins and weaves new patterns made up of memories, experiences, unfettered fancies, absurdities, and improvisations.” Agnes, a daughter to the gods, is sent to earth in order to understand what it is like to be human. Journeying through this dreamscape where time suspends and splits then travels forward while simultaneously flashing back, Agnes struggles to understand love, loss, missed opportunity, and the crossroads that duties present

Re-Membering Antigone

Saturday, Jan. 14; 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m
Waller Hall Mainstage Theater
A devised project by the ensemble
Produced by Long Island University
Directed Maria Porter
Re-Membering Antigone is a collaborative performance in which performers, director, dramaturges, and designers contributed to devising both the physical and text-based narratives. The themes we chose to explore—fragility and strength, rigidity and compromise, dualities and ambiguities—evolved from weeks of physical exploration, discussion, research, and experimentation. The physical work is sourced in the Suzuki Method of actor training—a rigorous discipline that requires the struggle of the actor and the struggle of the character to be visible at the same moment. This adaptation is an amalgam of movement, text, and music designed to mirror the structure of the ancient text from the perspective of contemporary theater practices.

The Elephant Man

Saturday, Jan. 14; 1:30 p.m.
Fisher Auditorium
By Bernard Pomerance
Produced by Fairmont State University
Directed by Jeffrey H. Ingman
The Elephant Man is based on the life of John Merrick, who lived in London during the latter part of the nineteenth century. A horribly deformed young man, victim of rare skin and bone diseases, Merrick becomes the star freak attraction in traveling side shows. Later, found abandoned and helpless, he is admitted to London’s prestigious Whitechapel Hospital. Under the care of celebrated young physician Frederick Treves, Merrick is introduced to London society and slowly evolves from an object of pity to an urbane and witty favorite of the aristocracy and literati, only to be denied his ultimate dream—to become a man like any other.

National Playwriting Project Special Production

Lindsey’s Oyster

Friday, Jan. 13; 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Waller Hall Mainstage Theater
By Tammy Ryan
Produced by Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Directed by Jason Chimonides
When an infatuated 16-year old girl becomes pregnant by her aloof boyfriend, she is forced to confront a host of unimagined adult dilemmas. Lindsey’s Oyster compassionately explores a host of powerful contemporary issues and themes relevant to young people and young women in particular. It has been said of this generation, a generation that has, in many ways grown up online, that the gap between today’s teens and their parents represents the largest since the advent of Rock n’ Roll. Now, in 2012, all of the same adolescent yearnings and dangers still exist but communication technology has amplified their expression and created a sometimes morally dissociated social norm.

Some productions contain language and situations that may be objectionable to some audience members.

Desdemona, a play about a handkerchief opens this Thursday, October 20, 2011. Written by Paula Vogel, the IUP Theater-by-the-Grove production is directed by Barb Blackledge with Fight Director/Assistant Director Matt Brown.

The production stars theater majors Gabrielle Byrd, Chantel Cumberbrand, and Lyssie Garrison.

Performances start at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday and Saturday, October 22, and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 23, in the Waller Hall Studio Theater. Tickets can only be purchased at the door for $5 with an I-Card ($7 general admission; $6 seniors).

Play Overview:

“As the wrongly accused and suffering wife of Shakespeare’s tragic Moor, Othello, Desdemona has long been viewed as the ‘victim of circumstance.’ But as the Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel demonstrates in her comic deconstruction of Shakespeare’s play—aligning tongue-in-cheek humor while raising serious questions as the role of women through the ages—Desdemona was far from the quivering naïf we’ve all come to know.”

Department of Theater and Dance

On September 30, 2011, Professor Joan Van Dyke, Department of Theater and Dance, attended “Making the Cultural Shift to Embodied Voices and Virtual Selves,” sponsored by Indiana University of Pennsylvania along with Clarion University women’s studies programs. An outcome of the event was development of a electronic support network.

The IUP Women’s Commission created this universal women’s consortium website as a Facebook page. It is a “group” instead of a page, so you’ll have to ask to be added to it—and you will be. Note that IUP events (such as Lindsey’s Oyster performances!) are posted, but so are PASSHE and statewide events.

The workshop featured Dr. Susan Shaw from Oregon State University and a video conference with Iris Dunkle from Santa Cruz, California. The topics covered included nationwide status of women and gender studies, research in women’s studies online learning, cross-institutional collaboration, philosophy behind a women’s studies major, and contextualizing technology in the “feminist” online community. Colleagues attended from throughout the state, including Indiana, Clarion, Slippery Rock, Edinboro, West Chester, and Lock Haven universities. Van Dyke’s interests in integrating the arts with Women’s Studies led her to the workshop.

Added to the event page was the Department of Theater and Dance main stage production of Lindsey’s Oyster, written by Pittsburgh playwright Tammy Ryan and directed by Jason Chimonides. Lindsey’s Oyster was the first of three plays written by female playwrights that the Department of Theater and Dance will produce as a participant in the National Theater Conferences’ initiative to support American playwrights.

Lindsey’s Oyster deals with sensitive women’s issues, including date rape and abortion. “The Red Shoes Project,” directed by Joan E.Van Dyke and Tina Lewis, was a dance arts collaboration with choreographer Holly Boda-Sutton, Chauna Craig of IUP Women’s Studies, Steven Loar of the College of Fine Arts, and other artists throughout the university and community. Its premiere last spring at IUP brought two stories from Clarissa Pinkola Estés “Women Who Run with The Wolves,” interpreted to the stage through ballet and modern dance.

Further information on each production is posted on the Callboard in the Lower Lobby of Waller Hall. These auditions are open to all IUP students.

Department of Theater and Dance

Written by IUP Theater major Joe York and directed by award-winning student Nick Hrutkay, Discovering Eden is a new rock musical modernization of the fall of man.

On the verge of separation, husband and wife Abram and Isaia awaken to find the world as if Eve had never eaten from the Tree of Knowledge. Struggling with why they have been transported to this pure state, questions of love, betrayal, and forgiveness are thrust upon the couple. This moves them to discover the true gift of paradise already that is already bestowed in their lives.

Premiering songs include “What’s in a Name?,” “Lust Me,” “When Love Is Dying,” and the title song, “Discovering Eden.” The musical features guest artist Lisa Ann Goldsmith as Temptation, courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

This marks the second major new work collaboration between Hrutkay and York. The first, Black Friday, was produced through Theater-by-the-Grove in May 2010. Region II of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival invited Black Friday to its annual Fringe Festival in January 2011.

Tickets are now available at the Hadley Union Building. Tickets remaining will be sold at the door starting forty-five minutes before curtain. Ticket prices are $7 regular admission, $6 senior or groups, and $4 for I-card holders.

For additional information, please contact the Lively Arts at 724-357-2547 or e-mail lively-arts@iup.edu. Seating is limited, and advance purchase is recommended.

This musical contains language and situations to which some audience members may object.

Did you hear that the Centers for Disease Control has published a protocol for what to do in the case of a zombie invasion? Now you can attend summer theater at IUP without fear. Keystone Repertory Theater presents Evil Dead: The Musical in the Studio Theater at Waller Hall, June 3 through 5 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the HUB.

Based on Sam Raimi’s '80s cult classic films, Evil Dead: The Musical tells the tale of five college kids who travel to a cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash an evil force. And although it may sound like a horror, it's not! The songs are hilariously campy, and the show is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit.

Evil Dead: The Musical unearths the old familiar story: boy and friends take a weekend getaway at abandoned cabin, boy expects to get lucky, boy unleashes ancient evil spirit, friends turn into Candarian Demons, boy fights until dawn to survive. As musical mayhem descends upon this sleepover in the woods, “camp” takes on a whole new meaning with uproarious numbers like “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons,” “Look Who’s Evil Now,” and “Do the Necronomicon.”

This play contains language and situations to which some audience members may object and is not considered appropriate for children.

Tickets for Evil Dead: The Musical are available at the Hadley Union Building, located on Pratt Drive of the IUP campus, and at the door forty-five minutes before the performance. Tickets are $7 for regular admission, $6 for senior citizens and groups of fifteen or more, and $4 with a university I-card.

Department of Theater and Dance

Michael Hood’s Combat for the Stage class will participate in a skills proficiency test under the auspices of the Society of American Fight Directors and adjudicated by Fight Master Michael Chin. Part one of the test is open to the public.

The test will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 6, 2011, on the Waller Hall mainstage. Students will test in three forms: rapier and dagger, broadsword, and unarmed combat. In each case, the fights will take place within the context of an acted scene.

There is no charge to attend.

Brown is an accomplished professional actress, director, and choreographer who has credits off-Broadway and in the Regionals, as well as in academic theater.

She holds an M.F.A. in directing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is currently chair of the theater program at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. There, she created and directed the Integrated Center for Academic Theatre.

While at the University of Massachusetts, Brown was a finalist for the Distinguished Teacher Award and received Arts Council funding for two original productions.

The department says a fond farewell to temporary faculty member Lisa Ann Goldsmith, who steered with sureness and strength the department’s growing Musical Theater program. Goldsmith’s direction of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas last winter was a sparkling achievement for the entire community. The admiration of her students is a tribute to her. Many have spoken fondly of Goldsmith’s ability to challenge and coach the best out of them, from beginner to accomplished senior actor.

The Comedy of Errors opens April 14, 2011, on the Waller Hall Mainstage in the IUP Performing Arts Center.

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s most farcical and accessible of comedies. Two sets of identical twins, separated at birth, unknowingly end up in the same town. Confusion runs rampant in this bawdy story as each is mistaken for the other by wives, mistresses, business partners, and the authorities.

In this production, the mysterious and exotic quality of Shakespeare’s original location, Ephesus, is transported to the sultry, tropical glamour of Havana in the 1950s.

This production contains situations which may not be suitable for younger children.

• Directed by Richard Kemp
• April 14-16 and 27-30: 8:00 p.m.
• April 17: 2:00 p.m.
• Waller Hall Mainstage, IUP Performing Arts Center
• A Theater-by-the-Grove Production

Tickets available online and at the Hadley Union Building (Pratt Drive) starting Monday, March 28, 2011; Reg $14, Disc $12, I-card $8.

Department of Theater and Dance

The article is a translation of a tract written by Rousseau in 1760 describing the stage practices of the Paris Opera while housed at the Theatre des Arts.

This theater was considered the scenic marvel of the time, with complex stage machinery and lighting effects.

Ault is an award-winning author on matters of Renaissance theatrical architecture and regularly contributes to Theatre Design & Technology on matters of antiquity.

Theatre Design & Technology is the journal of the U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology.

The Department of Theater and Dance at IUP has developed a reputation for developing plays by students and faculty members. Initiating “new works” has become part of every season’s offering in the past few years. So, when invited, it was a natural step to join in the National Theatre Conference’s Initiative to Celebrate American Women Playwrights.

Lindsay’s Oyster examines the female body as battleground, through the experience of a typical American teenage girl. Tammy seeks to develop this one-act into a full-length play, and will be brought to IUP in a residency to develop the play and interact with IUP students. The one-act version is currently in production in Cornell’s S/HE Project. Jason and the entire TBTG company are excited to be able to work with Tammy over the coming months in order to serve the NTC’s call for support of the voices of American women playwrights.

The initiative by the National Theatre Conference states:

“We at the NTC believe there are currently an extraordinary number of playwrights working in America. We recognize, however, that production opportunities are becoming more difficult to find for all playwrights and that women writers especially face even greater challenges in getting produced. Accordingly, we would like to announce a new national initiative, and urge all our members who are affiliated with producing entities, be they professional or non-professional, to join together and pledge that, for the next three years, we will dedicate at least one production slot per year to a contemporary female American playwright.”

Conditions for the initiative are that the production shall be a full production (not a staged reading), ideally with a residency for the playwright, and with features that help the playwright develop her play. It cannot be a play which has had a Broadway production.

The National Theatre Conference, founded in 1925, is a cooperative association of distinguished leaders of the American theater—university, community, and professional. Membership in the conference is by invitation only and is limited to 120. The conference operates as a theatrical “think tank,” and meets annually to review and confer on matters pertaining to the welfare and development of the theater and to honor outstanding achievement of organizations and individuals in the field.

Theater-by-the-Grove is IUP’s theater company, and is the producing arm of her Department of Theater and Dance. In existence since 1988, TBTG has only grown in its commitment to placing theater at the heart of the IUP community.

Audiences have been larger than usual as hundreds of students, faculty, and community members have gathered to see Arthur Miller’s play about a New England village that erupts in hysteria as false accusations of witchcraft turn into perceptions of reality.

Miller’s analogue to political polarization of the McCarthy era Senate and House hearings on “Unamerican Activities” rings true in today’s polarized political atmosphere of “values testing.” However, the deeper, more universal human truths explored in this production are probably what make it such a hit.

The passionate performances are accompanied by a surreal, visual world of lighting and sound shrouded in a misty haze.

Director Jason Chimonides’ artistic investigation of the psychological motives in The Crucible have provided the groundwork for incredibly vital and passionate performances by the actors. When senior Theater major Chris Anthony, playing John Proctor, cries out, “Because it is my name!” one can come to understand human love and pride and honor in that moment of his hero’s journey, because the psychological underpinning of the characters has been so well constructed throughout.

Tickets remain available for performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights (February 24–26, 2011) at 8:00 in Waller Hall of the IUP Performing Arts Center. They may be purchased at IUPtickets.com, the HUB Box Office, or at the door up to forty-five minutes before curtain.

Department of Theater and Dance

The IUP Dance Theater company will perform its “’50s Dance” piece from the repertory for the “Day of Dance for Health” on Saturday, February 26, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. in the Indiana Mall.

The Day of Dance for Health is sponsored by the Spirit of Women at Indiana Regional Medical Center.

IUP Dance Theater Company, under the direction of Holly Boda-Sutton, is a professionally modeled dance-theater company that performs several outreach programs for service to the community and schools each year, in addition to its major concerts.

Department of Theater and Dance

Theater majors Emily Morris, Lyndsey Thomas, Emily Brooks, and Natalie Palamides and Musical Theater major Rachel Pierce were selected by the IUP Provost as outstanding scholars based on their grade point average.

Provost Scholar Awards are given to academic high achievers in their junior year.

Thirty-two students from IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance have been invited to present in a variety of ways at the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) in Baltimore, Maryland.

The conference takes place from Tuesday, January 11, through Saturday, January 15, 2011, at Towson University. During the festival, they will also be attending performances and workshops that will enrich their education.

The KCACTF Region 2 festival showcases outstanding creative work submitted by over one hundred colleges and universities from the eight-state region of Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia, New Jersey, Western New York, Northern Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Attendance is typically about eight hundred students and two hundred faculty members.

Six students will represent IUP in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition. Carolyn Chiurco, Samantha Fabiani, Whitney Weimer, Joseph York, Sean Barrett, and Caleb Feigles were chosen by regional respondents invited to Theater-by-the-Grove productions. They will perform scenes and monologues at the festival, with the possibility that one of them will be chosen to attend the national festival at the Kennedy Center in April. In 2005, IUP theater major Brett Mack was selected for this honor.

Nick Hrutkay, a theater major with aspirations to become a professional director, was selected for two presentations. He will direct his cast of Black Friday in “Fringe at the Festival.” “Fringe” is an edgy potpourri of works not eligible for the nine mainstage performance slots. Black Friday is a rock musical written by senior Theater major Joe York, set in an apocalyptic future world where mall security reigns.

Hrutkay was also selected for the prestigious Student Directing Competition sponsored by the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. He will direct IUP Theater majors Kate Bianco, Casey Cunningham, and Emily Brooks in a scene from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof. Students are selected for this competition by a KCACTF panel based on application materials and having successfully directed a production at their home school. Applications are reviewed by a panel comprised of the SDC Directing Fellowship coordinator and other members of the Region 2 Directing Institute. This panel selects students to participate in the preliminary round of SDC Directing Fellowship program. A range of twelve to sixteen students are invited. One fellow is selected to attend the national festival as the region’s representative at the Kennedy Center, and this honor went to Hrutkay last year.

Occasionally a scene from a production is chosen for inclusion in the festival. A scene from IUP’s Crimes of the Heart, produced by Theater-by-the-Grove, has also been selected by the panel of jurists for inclusion in a showcase of scenes from Region II. Crimes of the Heart was directed by Professor Barbara Blackledge and performed at Theater-by-the-Grove in October 2010. Theater majors Whitney Weimer and Chris Anthony will perform the scene.

Also presenting at the festival from Crimes of the Heart will be student costume designer Leslie Palmer and student stage manager Ryan Thornhill. They will exhibit their supporting materials in the festival’s exhibition hall. They are eligible for regional and national awards, including participating as the regional representative at the national festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In the past several years, IUP students have received these national awards in costume design, lighting design, stage management, dramaturgy, and sound design.

Brett Mack (Theater ’05) was cast as a central character in the independent film Knight to D7 in summer 2010.

The film is now in post-production and due to be released soon. In it, he plays Brady, a cancer patient who reveals his cancer has taken a turn for the worse to his friend Dustin during their ongoing game of chess.

Mack lost his stepfather and aunt both to cancer recently, so the role has a special place in his heart. He came by the chance to play the role while taking an acting class in Los Angeles. The need to take classes after graduation was a lesson emphasized by IUP professors Barb Blackledge and Ed Simpson, and it’s paying off.

Mack was an outstanding actor in IUP’s program, playing rich roles such as Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing and Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire. In 2005, he was one of sixteen national finalists invited to the Kennedy Center for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival acting competition. Since graduating, he has travelled a lot, keeping his career going in various markets. He has been contracted by the Orlando Shakespeare Company and Pittsburgh’s City Theater when not in LA.

More at home on stage than in front of a camera, Mack is growing in confidence with strong work such as his role in Knight to D7. He’s maintaining his practice of acting classes and auditioning around, and is one of the IUP Theater and Dance grads to watch.

Portions of this story were taken from the December 5, 2010, issue of the Indiana Gazette.

Brett Mack as Stanley Kowalski in IUP’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire

Eighteen students from MCAHS took a master class on musical theater movement with IUP Dance Arts major Lindsay Grove and Professor Holly Boda-Sutton from IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance.

Afterward, Grove and Boda-Sutton talked with students about IUP programs in Dance and Musical Theater. Ten students indicated an interest in pursuing university study in dance, musical theater, or scene design.

In it, a group of new high school graduates, running from the law, their parents, and their future, are surprised to find out that their best friends and even their town can turn on them.

View the rough cuts of the trailer:

• No Home For You Here
• In My Life

From Tree Nation Productions

Pig Iron Theatre specializes in ensemble created works like its production of Chekhov Lizardbrain, which was performed at IUP in November.

Pig Iron Theatre has a residency this year with IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance through a New Directions Grant written by Fine Arts Public Events Director Hank Knerr. Pig Iron’s core ensemble of Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel, Dan Rothenberg, and Dito van Reigersberg was recently recognized with a prestigious USA Knight Fellowship from the Knight Foundation.

Ben Savory, Caitlin Collins, Christopher Anthony, Emily Perry, J. Casey Cunningham, Kelly Sandok, Natalie Palamides, and Samantha Fabiani will travel to Philadelphia with professors Rick Kemp and Brian Jones on December 18–21, 2010.

Classes and project work with Pig Iron is part of the ensemble’s new initiative to add an educational component to its company.

Hood is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and is certified by the society to teach various forms of fighting for actors. This course will include rigorous and intensive study, practice, and performance of unarmed, broadsword, and rapier and dagger techniques.

Hood stresses that the course is “an acting course and that students and audiences need to understand that stage fighting is not competition and is much more than athleticism alone.” Dean Hood has been teaching stage fight since 1975 and has choreographed violence for the community, university, and professional theater. His work has twice been recognized for meritorious achievement by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, for Rapier and Dagger in 1989 for the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and here at IUP in 2003 for Zastrozzi: Master of Discipline. 

In addition, Ashley Tait, a former IUP student, was awarded the Teacher of the Year for dance at the secondary education level.

The PSAHPERD is an education association working to promote quality programs and provide professional development in the disciplines it represents. The PSAHPERD is committed to the continual professional growth and development of its members, the expansion and application of the knowledge base and pedagogical constructs, and the support of the professions that encourage active healthful lifestyle.

As a member for thirteen years, Professor Van Dyke has presented and choreographed at both the state and regional levels, including the Eastern District Association of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Eastern District serves the members of its geographical area―Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the Virgin Islands.

Ms. Van Dyke also received the Professional of the Year award in 2006 and 2009.

Ms. Van Dyke is an associate professor of Dance in the Department of Theater and Dance in the College of Fine Arts at IUP.

Neil Labute’s play served the College of Fine Arts "I Am An Artist" initiative by opening up questions about the role of artists and their creations.

Hrutkay, a recipient of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival recognition for his directing, approached Labute’s script with an effective plan that mined it for its gems of insight into art’s eternal relationship with big human themes of love and relationship.

"I Am An Artist" also included the IUP Dance Theater production of Sixteen Dancing Divas, the Music-Theater workshop performances of selections from class projects, and an Art Department student show.

The Shape of Things ran for three nights as an Acorn Project—one of a series of student-produced and -directed productions in the department’s studio theater. Actors featured in the leading roles were sophomore Casey Cunningham and senior Kate Bianco, who used the experience as her senior thesis project.

Department of Theater and Dance

Dr. Rick Kemp, Department of Theater and Dance, will present his paper, “Movement, Metaphor, and Meaning: Cognitive Principles in the Work of Jacques Lecoq,” at the national conference of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), to be held in Seattle, Wash., on November 18–21, 2010.

ASTR is the leading society for research in theater and performance studies in the USA and the only such organization to be affiliated to the International Federation of Theatre Research.

Kemp’s paper combines his extensive professional experience as an actor and director with his doctoral research into the cognitive processes involved in acting. In it, he argues for the integration of physical and psychological processes in actor training, an approach that embraces the concept of the “embodied mind” that is now current in cognitive studies.

This argument is made through an analysis of the connections between physical experience and metaphorically sourced mental concepts in the teaching of French theatre practitioner Jacques Lecoq.

Her realization of the real-life Eppie Lederer (better known as advice columnist Ann Landers) is a three-week return engagement of the acclaimed role Blackledge created at ETC during her sabbatical last April. Directed by Mary Ethel Schmidt, this engaging production uses the audience as a full partner in the evening’s roller coaster of a ride through laughter and tears.

Chekhov Lizardbrain is the story of a lonely, mildly autistic botanist who conjures up a parade of unsettling and comic recollections in an attempt to shape his fractured memories into a comforting fiction.

Though the brain science it is based on is slightly outdated, Pig Iron Theatre’s investigation of the human condition is 100 percent current.

Pig Iron Theatre is in residence with the Department of Theater and Dance this year as another step in distinguishing our program’s commitment to creative exploration and invention. The company’s current initiative, “Something from Nothing: A Workshop in Theatrical Creation,” is a perfect companion to the thrust of our program toward creative invention.

Come see and be amazed by the show, and come back again for our holiday spectacular, White Christmas, during the first week of December.

Sorce and twenty-two elementary-aged students visited the Performing Arts Center for a day of activities and demonstrations. IUP Theater and Musical Theater majors gave workshops and tours, then performed a scene from the upcoming play Crimes of the Heart. Actors and the technical crew from the production shared how they use their gifts to create theater.

Seniors Geoff Maus and Hank Fodor concluded the day with a stage combat demonstration enjoyed by all.

IUP Theater majors Kelsey Peterson and Caleb Fiegles were featured in the public service commercial “You’re Going Out, So Are We.” The commercial is part of a media campaign by the Armstrong-Indiana Drug Free Communities Coalition.

Peterson and Fiegles joined ten other students from the Department of Theater and Dance in the commercial by the video production company Orion Vega of Pittsburgh.

“When Jennifer McKendrek called from the AIDFCC, I was happy to help provide talent from our program,” said Brian Jones, chair of the Department of Theater and Dance. The project gave a practical experience for students, and provided a service to the local community.

See the video on YouTube.

The production is presented by 404 Strand, a performance company that Kemp founded in 2009. He received an IUP Academic Excellence and Innovation Award to create an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Faust, and the production has already gained a lot of attention in the region.

See Kemp talking about the project on PCTV’s Theatre Talk .

Watch an interview on KDKA’s Pittsburgh Today.

Performances take place in downtown Pittsburgh at the James E. Rohr Building, 805-807 Liberty Avenue, on July 21–25 and July 28–August 1 at 8:00 p.m.

For tickets, visit the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. For more information, visit 404 Strand.

The show airs on radio station WDAD-AM 1450.

This summer’s productions are The Secret Garden; As You Like It; Seussical, The Musical Jr.; and The Brothers Grimm—Out of Order. Read more about the Footlight Players’ summer plays and workshops.

Department of Theater and Dance, will produce two uniquely different plays this summer related to old-style news media—the printed newspaper. Both will be performed in Waller Hall’s Studio Theater in June, coinciding with the 2010 Summer session of classes at IUP.

Bat Boy, a chamber musical ripped from the headlines of the tabloid Weekly World News, is directed by award-winning student Nick Hrutkay. Hrutkay focuses in on the black and white “gothic” setting of fictional Hope Falls, West Virginia, where a “bat boy” has been discovered in a local cave.

This is not one for children, and contains situations and language to which some audience may object and could find disturbing. This very dark musical comedy-tragedy will be performed June 4–5, 2010, at 8:00 p.m. and June 6 at 2:00 p.m.

The Lady With All the Answers is likewise ripped from the newspapers. Theater professor Barb Blackledge plays Esther “Eppie” Pauline Friedman Lederer, the popular, humorous, and down-to-earth person behind the inherited name of Ann Landers. Under the name of Landers, Lederer wrote the column for nearly six decades starting in 1945.

This one-woman show is a biographical sketch very popular with audiences around the nation. Subject matter ranges across many of the topics of the column, and Eppie doesn’t pull punches, so this is not recommended for children. Performances will be June 17–20 at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets for both productions are available now at the Hadley Union Building starting and are $7 regular admission, $6 for senior citizens, and $4 for students. Tickets are also available through IUP Tickets. For additional information, please contact The Lively Arts at 724-357-2547 or e-mail lively-arts@iup.edu. Seating for both productions is limited, and advance purchase is highly recommended.

KRT is IUP’s Summer Theater-by-the-Grove. Founded in the 1990s as an incubator for new works, KRT has always had a mission to serve the needs of the university community and, by extension, the local area and tourism as well. When most university funding for KRT was redirected in 2002, KRT went on hiatus. Since then, the Department of Theater and Dance has used funding from the Student Cooperative Association to continue the mission of KRT with student-produced and -directed productions. Productions of The Tempest and Shakespeare’s R&J, among others, have been featured. KRT has also supported some of the public offerings of the department’s theater-for-youth program, Footlight Players.

The academy for older youth will produce an abbreviated version of the Broadway musical The Secret Garden and Shakespeare’s As You Like It, in an abbreviated version condensed by IUP alumna Rachel Smith. The youth camp for younger children will produce Seussical, The Musical Jr. and The Brothers Grimm—Out of Order. 

All Footlight youth will also participate in age-appropriate workshops led by professional teaching artists. This year, actress Sharen Camile will provide a scene study workshop to help aspiring actors understand how to get the most out of their lines. Camile is best known for role as Maria in West Side Story (“Her voice is pure, powerful, and meltingly tender”—The Connecticut Post) in the final national tour overseen by Jerome Robbins, with the honored distinction of being the last Maria he ever cast, performing in more than twenty-five cities across America in over four hundred performances.

For the younger set, award-winning director Nick Hrutkay takes them through a series of acting games and creative dramatics designed to help them explore their talents and open up new abilities. Nick is a 2010 graduate of IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance. He was most recently awarded a trip to the Kennedy Center to take part in the American College Theatre Festival Directing Intensive.

Registrations for Footlight Players’ popular Theater-for-Youth program can be done on line, or by calling the department at 724-357-2965. There is a registration fee for the program that begins on June 14, 2010, at Theater-by-the-Grove on IUP’s campus. All school-age children and teens are eligible.

This project is supported by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance.

HeyDay is a special program sponsored by the Open Door in Indiana to feature safe summer activities to counter boredom and potential substance abuse scenarios in the local area. Footlight Players offers a month-long summer theater-for-youth camp from June 14 through July 12. Registration for Footlight can be done on line.

Professor of Theater and former chair of the department Barb Blackledge is “the lady with all the answers” at the Electric Theater Company (ETC) in Scranton, where she is a guest member of the resident company. Blackledge accepted a challenge from ETC artistic director David Zarko to perform in a one-woman show. Reading through available plays, she discovered The Lady With All the Answers, a monodrama featuring Eppie Friedman, also known as advice columnist Ann Landers.

Blackledge told the Abington Journal, “Her life was just amazing. She had quite a life of adventures, and she brings all of that to the play.” The play has gotten great reviews and played to large audiences. The Department of Theater and Dance will produce encore performances for the IUP campus over summer 2010 as an offering of Keystone Repertory, and again in the fall as a special production of Theater-by-the-Grove.

Blackledge also directed Mark Twain’s The Diary of Adam and Eve for the Electric Theater Company as part of her sabbatical. She returns to IUP this fall to direct Beth Henley’s comedy Crimes of the Heart as the season opener for Theater-by-the-Grove.

No, not naked actors, but rather stripped-down, highly accessible productions of Shakespeare’s works performed by a company of professional players for audiences that might think Shakespeare a little too “formal” for their liking. Department of Theater alumni Emily Ehlinger (’05) and Caitlin Simkovich (’06) will be two of eight actors portraying twenty-seven characters in BareShakespeare’s production of the Bard’s little-seen comedy All’s Well That Ends Well.

The first twenty minutes are straight out of a classic romance: a lovestruck young woman gains a mother’s blessing, saves the life of a monarch, and wins the hand of the man she loves. But when she is unexpectedly rejected, the fairy tale goes off the rails in every way imaginable. Director Reesa Graham directs this challenging play about unrequited love with BareShakespeare’s blend of physical comedy, audience interaction, and raucous musical accompaniment.

BareShakespeare is an emerging theater company based in New York City that is dedicated to producing work that continuously pursues ways to get the audience as interactive as possible: booing the villains, “aweing” the lovers, finding ways to get them in touch with their inner slightly immature high school student—or think of it as Shakespeare at a Piano Bar.

The International Theatre of Changes’ primary goal is cooperation with theatres and professionals all over the world to bring opportunities for cultural exchange and sharing of techniques to participants. Hence the International Festival of Making Theatre. Founder Evdokimos Tsolakidis uses these experiences to shape the work of students in the theater who form acting groups that produce and perform works for the followup festival that takes place at the Theater of Changes every September.

Professor Van Dyke’s techniques for movement and character were used by her in support of her choreography of Darsa Farsa at the Dubrovnik International Festival in Croatia three years ago. Her next creative project will be The Red Shoes, to be developed over the next year and performed at IUP in April 2011.

Kemp is a writer, director, and performer. In his native Great Britian, he has performed with noteworthy British companies such as Theatre de Complicite, the Almeida, and the Oxford Playhouse and has toured worldwide with his solo clown show, Coming Home.

On the faculty of IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance, Kemp specializes in movement-based performance and classical acting techniques. He also leads the department’s initiatives in “devised” theater, creating new works originating from actors in an ensemble as an alternative to works formally scripted by a playwright. At IUP, he has directed A Flea in Her Ear, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, Citizen’s Soldier, and Boys’ Life. He continues to perform widely as an actor.

Since 1969, IUP has presented the Distinguished Faculty Award to honor exemplary faculty members who make significant contributions to the university.

Hrutkay experienced a week of intensive workshops, panel discussions, and presentations from professionals, including Libby Appel, former artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Returning to IUP to finish his semester, Hrutkay is also auditioning and beginning work directing a studio production of the musical Bat Boy for the IUP summer community. Bat Boy is an irreverent, rock-musical look at prejudice ripped from the pages of the National Enquirer.

Hrutkay will also be directing Seussical the Musical for Footlight Players, the Theater and Dance Department’s service outreach to the Indiana area through a theater-for-youth summer camp.

This honor is one of many received by Sabol, who will continue her academic career in the master’s degree program in Arts Administration at Penn State University. Her ultimate goal is a career in higher education administration, and she’s built exceptional experiences toward that goal at IUP.

In January, Sabol played a key administrative role as administrative assistant for IUP’s hosting of the Region II Festival of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Her coordination of operations for a festival of over a thousand participants was acclaimed by the regional staff of the festival.

Sabol is a dual degree candidate in Theater and English. Through her education in the Robert E. Cook Honors College and experiences with Theater-by-the-Grove productions, she has risen to exceptional challenges with alacrity. This honor puts an exclamation point on her IUP experience.

The Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab is a highly selective annual event for emerging, early-career theater directors to learn from experienced professionals in their field, as well as to stretch and grow in collaboration with their peers. Chimonides has been selected along with approximately seventy fellow artists from approximately 3,000 applications.

In past years, participants in the lab have worked with such luminary directors as Jo Bonney, Julie Taymor, Susan Stroman, and Mark Lamos.

Chimonides said, “As a director who works mainly with student actors, in a college setting, such an opportunity promises to be instrumentally valuable to me; not only in terms of helping me to ‘elevate my directorial game’ and interface with valuable contacts in the field, but also by allowing me to advance my primary research agenda: the integration of cognitive neuroscience and its discoveries on embodiment and the relationship between individuals into directorial craft.”

Department of Theater and Dance

IUP’s Center For Teaching Excellence announced that Assistant Professor Jason Chimonides has been awarded a Teaching Excellence Award for his approach to the large course sections of Introduction to Theater.

Chimonides is leading the way in distance education at IUP with his Introduction to Theater (THTR 101) courses. Using blogs and links to YouTube and other streaming media, he brings theater closer.

“I want to work with students from where they are, and build on that,” he says.

The resident playwright for IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance, Chimonides will next be developing an on-line version of his popular Playwriting course (THTR 347).

For information and to register, go to Theater and Dance, or call the Department of Theater and Dance at IUP: 724-357-2965.

“Footlight has such a way of blending instruction and recreation that it has become our best four weeks of the summer,” says Theresa McDevitt, acting dean of Libraries at IUP. McDevitt’s daughter Elizabeth has attended every year since Footlight started in 2004 as a community outreach project of the Department of Theater and Dance.

Workshops and rehearsals in IUP’s recently renovated Performing Arts Center begin daily at 9:00 a.m. and last until 4:00 p.m. Under the direction of professional artists, students are engaged in age-appropriate activities to explore their talents for acting, singing, story telling, and dance, as well as behind-the-scenes crafts.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, through its Partners in the Arts program, distributes funding to help support the program. Footlight has received a grant every year from the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance to cultivate the arts in our area. Parents can go to the Department of Theater and Dance to register and get more information about Footlight.

This project is supported by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance.

Erika Pealstrom came to IUP three years ago looking for a dynamic musical theater program that would give her creative and academic opportunities. She might have been dreaming of performing a big, juicy title role. This week, that dream becomes a reality when the Bob Fosse musical Sweet Charity opens on the Fisher Auditorium stage Thursday night, February 25, 2010, at 8:00.

Erika performs the title role of Charity Hope Valentine, a “dance hall hostess” looking for love in a series of misadventures through which she finds out that she’s “the bravest individual I have ever known.”

One of the first to enroll in IUP’s new Musical Theater degree program, headed by professor Rob Gretta, Erika leads a growing number of students who have discovered the strength of an academic program that shares the resources of two strong departments at IUP. Unique in the region, IUP’s program is not a conservatory training program that tracks a student into a narrow regime of classes. The liberal arts approach is gaining popularity with students, with five freshmen entering this year, and six already accepted through the audition process for next year.

The musical comedy Sweet Charity will be performed at the IUP Performing Arts Center Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. General admission tickets for Sweet Charity are available through the IUP Tickets website or at the door. For more information about the production itself, visit the College of Fine Arts Lively Arts page.

According to Christine Mills, program officer at the museum, the performance will highlight its Whale of a Day activities. This special event is tied into an exhibition from the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand titled Whales/Tohora. Out of the Deep was chosen for its ability to help visitors look at whales from a different perspective and to make an emotional connection to whales.

The work is an artistic call for deep understanding of whales and conservation of their habitat. The performance is based upon poems written by Roffman after her experience with a pod of whales off the coast of Mexico. It is a suite celebrating humans connecting with gray whales, the great creatures of the deep, through poetry, dance, and music and will be performed in the Hall of North American Wildlife at 11:00 a.m. After the performance of selections from the suite, the audience will be invited to interpret dramatic readings for themselves.

At 3:00 p.m., a lecture titlted “Out of the Deep: An In-Depth Look” will be held at the Carnegie Museum Lecture Hall. You will discover the inspiration behind the performance piece—gray whale mothers bringing their babies to meet whale watchers in San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California, Mexico. After an encore performance of selections from the Out of the Deep suite, the three artist collaborators will discuss the creation of this work, including how whale communication is incorporated into the music.

Department of Theater and Dance

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History has invited the IUP Dance Theater Company to perform scenes from Out of the Deep, a work originated by choreographer Holly Boda-Sutton in collaboration with poet Rosaly Roffman and composer David Berlin.

According to Christine Mills, program officer at the museum, the performance will highlight its “Whale of a Day” on February 6, 2010. This special event is tied into an exhibition from the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand titled Whales/Tohora. Out of the Deep was chosen for its ability to help visitors look at whales from a different perspective, and to make an emotional connection to whales.

Out of the Deep is an artistic call for deep understanding of whales and conservation of their habitat. The performance is based upon poems written by Roffman after her experience with a pod of whales off the coast of Mexico.

Academic credit is also available if cast in either Sweet Charity or The Servant of Two Masters.

Select for further information or check the Callboard on the Lower Level of Waller Hall.

Department of Theater and Dance

Performance dates for the two Ten-Minute Festivals are either Thursday, December 3, or Monday, December 14, 2009. Further information on these auditions is available on the Theater and Dance Department webpage under the "Current Students" link. Information is also posted on the Callboard located in the Lower Lobby of Waller Hall.

Professor Barb Blackledge and company opened the Theater-by-the-Grove season with a record attendance for Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest on Thursday night, October 1, 2009. The night was sold out, and a few sad patrons were even turned away. Larger-than-usual audiences attended performances Thursday through Sunday as well.

The Importance of Being Earnest comically reveals the adventures, mischief, and drama involved when two friends both lead double lives. More information can be found at the Lively Arts. Performances continue Wednesday, October 7, through Saturday, October 10, at 8:00 p.m. in Waller Hall.

Senior double major (Theater and Psychology) Addam Wawrzonek, pictured at right, plays Algernon, a “playboy” of the roaring 20’s in London. His love interest, Cecily, is played by junior Amanda Hohman, who is in the Musical Theater track of the Interdisciplinary Fine Arts degree. In the second act, Algernon goes to the country estate of his friend Earnest Worthing to discover all kinds of comic misadventure.

Senior Theater major Jake Santina’s costume design is beautifully realized in this production that resets Wilde’s play into 1925. “1925 gave me a great fashion period to work in,” says Santina. The cut of clothing changes dramatically in that year, providing lots of opportunty for costumes that reflect the strong, comic characters. Santina also used the abrupt change of fashion to distinguish the city characters from those in the country. Santina’s design is entered in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival competition for student designers.

Department of Theater and Dance

Sarah Fritz and Anthony Lombardi have been hired by Vincent Lighting in Pittsburgh to assist with the massive technology involved in hosting the international event. Three days of work, entailing hours of running cable, hanging fixtures, and deploying control technology equipment, is great practical experience for these veterans of IUP’s Theater-by-the-Grove productions. The skills learned in their many production assignments prepared them for the job.

“IUP students come to Vincent ready to work and perform well. I love to hire IUP students when I can,” said Brandon Beale, rental manager for Vincent Lighting Systems.

Fritz has an added interest in the summit. Her second major is Political Science!

Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Theater and Dance will present A Year with Frog and Toad, a musical by Robert and Willie Beale, which runs October 16, 17, and 18, 2009.

Arnold Lobel’s well-loved characters hop from the page to the stage in Robert and Willie Reale’s musical A Year with Frog and Toad. Conceived by Mr. Lobel’s daughter, Adrianne Lobel, A Year with Frog and Toad remains true to the spirit of the original stories as it follows two great friends, the cheerful and popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad, through four fun-filled seasons. Waking from hibernation in the spring, they proceed to plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, and go sledding, learning life lessons along the way, including a most important one about friendship and rejoicing in the attributes that make each of us different and special. We guarantee the entire family will want to see it again and again!

This Broadway musical hit was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score Music. The musical is directed by Rob Gretta (assistant professor of Musical Theater at IUP), music directed by Tom Octave (instructor of Fine Arts at Saint Vincent College), and choreographed by Kayleigh Thadani (an IUP theater student).

A Year with Frog and Toad is on stage at the Indiana Theater (637 Philadelphia Street, Indiana, PA) on October 16 and 17 at 7:00 p.m., and October 18 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets for A Year with Frog and Toad are priced at a family-friendly $10 for adults, $5 for students/seniors, and free for children 10 and under. Tickets may be purchased at the door or at the HUB.

A special matinee performance for surrounding grammar schools will perform Friday, October 16, at 11:00 a.m. at the Indiana Theater. This is at a special group rate. Please call 724-357-4037 for information.

IUP Theater and Dance faculty member Rick Kemp is performing in a production of faustUS at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, September 8 through 12, 2009.

The show is an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus, dating from 1593, and is the first production of a new independent theater company, 404 Strand, that Kemp has formed with an international group of theater artists. The project is supported by an IUP Academic Excellence and Innovation Award and through major external funding from the Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation, together with assistance from Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

Roald Dahl’s timeless story of the world-famous candy man and his quest to find an heir comes to life in Willy Wonka, the stage adaptation of Dahl's book Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, featuring songs from the classic family film Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.

Roald Dahl's story James And The Giant Peach comes hilariously to life in this delightful dramatization that reveals the wickedness of some, the goodness of others, and the indecision encountered by many when they are faced with crises. A magical peach! An imprisoned boy! Insect friends! An incredible journey!

Willy Wonka will perform at 7:00 on Friday, July 10, in Waller Hall’s main theater of the IUP Performing Arts Center. James and The Giant Peach will perform at 7:00 Saturday, July 11, also at Waller Hall’s main theater. For tickets call 724-357-2965, or purchase them at the door.

Footlight is supported by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance (PRAA).

Department of Theater and Dance

Footlight Players Theater-for-Youth will host a giant puppet parade at IUP’s Picnic in the Grove this Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

The parade will feature the award-winning puppetry of Cheryl Capezzuti. Capezzuti will lead a puppet-making workshop for kids of all ages beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the Oak Grove. Then, at approximately 12:30 p.m., a parade will lead participants to a stage where Footlight Players casts will sing songs from this summer’s offerings: James and the Giant Peach and Willy Wonka.

Footlight Players is celebrating its sixth birthday with two productions that put the familiar lyric “Come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination!” into practice. Casts of Indiana Area youth have been rehearsing Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka, the stage adaptation of Dahl’s book Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, and his James and the Giant Peach since June 13. Willy Wonka will be performed at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 10, in Waller Hall’s main theater of the IUP Performing Arts Center. James and The Giant Peach will be performed at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, also at Waller Hall’s main theater. For tickets, call 724-357-2965 or purchase them from any Footlight Player.

Footlight Players is a service outreach project of IUP’s Department of Theater and Dance and is supported by IUP’s College of Fine Arts and by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance (PRAA).

Founded in 1986, ATHE is a comprehensive, nonprofit, professional membership organization whose vision is to serve as “an advocate for the field of theatre and performance in higher education.”

In addition to his role as dean of IUP’s College of Fine Arts, Hood is also a tenured faculty member in the Department of Theater and Dance. Hood directs occasional productions for the department and also teaches Stage Combat, so it is no surprise that the broadsword fights in MacBeth 3 are noteworthy.

Adapted by Los Angeles playwright Lisa Wolpe, MacBeth 3 also features choreography by Joan Van Dyke, IUP associate professor of Dance. Van Dyke’s summer also includes her annual dance program at Cook Forest State Park.

Macbeth 3 continues through June 20, 2009. The Unseam’d Shakespeare Company production is held at Open Stage Theatre, 2835 Smallman Street, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. Tickets are available through Pro Arts Tickets, 412-394-3353. 

Footlight Players Theater-For-Youth begins its sixth summer enrichment program for young people in the greater Indiana community on Monday, June 15, 2009.

This year over forty children and teens will participate in workshops and will produce two plays based on the imaginative books by Roald Dahl—James and the Giant Peach and Willy Wonka (a musical). Enrollements are still being accepted and applications are available on the Footlight Players website.

Footlight Players is a service outreach of the Department of Theater and Dance and provides a nurturing environment in which children can explore and discover their creative talents in the performing arts. Each year, IUP alumni, faculty, and regional professional artists work together to create four weeks of programming at IUP’s Performing Arts Center.

Funded in part by the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts grants administered by the PA Rural Arts Alliance for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Rick Kemp from the Department of Theater and Dance has received an Innovation Award from the Academic Excellence and Innovation Award Committee at the IUP Research Institute.

This award will support a theater research project in which Rick will work with an an international group of performers and award-winning British director Dan Jemmett to create an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus. Their adaptation will be called shopfrontfaustus and will be presented in September 2009 in a disused storefront in the East Liberty district of Pittsburgh as part of a festival of new works organized by the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre.The project is supported by funding from the Heinz Endowments and the Pittsburgh Foundation and sponsorship in kind from The Mattress Factory and Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

The Eastern District is the largest of the nine AAHPERD districts. Their mission includes advocacy for dance in education and promotion of physical activity as a component of healthy lifestyles. Boda-Sutton has been a leader in Pennsylvania’s state chapter of AAHPERD for years and has been a faculty member on the Pennsylvania Department of Education Governor’s Institute for the Arts, where she has also served as dance representative to the Steering Committee.

• The Importance of Being Earnest, a comedy by Oscar Wilde. Directed by Barb Blackledge.
• A Year with Frog and Toad, a children’s musical. Directed by Rob Gretta.
• Saving Alice, a new play written by Jack Culbertson. Coproduced/directed by Jack Culbertson and Scott Fetterman.
• A collage of David Ives’ comedies. Director: TBA.

For further information, visit For Current Students or check out the Callboard in the Lower Lobby of Waller Hall.

Auditions are open to all IUP students.

Registrations are now being taken for the popular summer program that will begin on June 15 at Theater-by-the-Grove on IUP’s campus. Youngsters ages 7 to 12, and teens ages 13 to 17, will enjoy four weeks of fun preparing plays and musicals. These will provide a summer treat for the whole community on the weekend of July 10.

Workshops and rehearsals in IUP’s recently renovated Performing Arts Center begin daily at 9:00 a.m., and last until 4:00 p.m. Under the direction of professional artists, students are engaged in age-appropriate activities to explore their talents for acting, singing, storytelling, and dance, as well as behind-the-scenes crafts.

Theresa McDevitt’s daughter Elizabeth has attended Footlight since it started. “Footlight has such a way of blending instruction and recreation that it has become our best four weeks of the summer,” says McDevitt. “Elizabeth is learning a sense of self-assurance, and I just think every kid should have this opportunity. She just loves to go.”

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, through its Partners in the Arts program, distributes funding to help support the program. Footlight has received a grant every year from the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance to cultivate the arts in our area.

Holly brings her expertise to bear on plans for a new major in dance at IUP. In addition to the Interdisciplinary Fine Arts degree with a Dance Track, the Department of Theater and Dance will be requesting a new major in Dance. Holly is developing this new major with colleague Joan Van Dyke. The new major, if approved, will focus on dance pedagogy. With it, graduates will be prepared to become teaching artists in school and community settings.

Performances take place at the IUP Performing Arts Center’s Waller Hall on Nov. 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 9 at 2 p.m.

“Picnic” is the story of a love triangle involving the characters of beautiful Madge; her not-so-attractive sister, Millie; and the nomadic, charismatic, mysterious and handsome Hal. Things begin to unravel when a wealthy suitor, Alan, wants to marry Madge and forces her to choose between her mother’s hopes for a good life with Alan or her own affection for Hal. This play contains strong situations to which some audience members may object and which may not be appropriate for children.

Chimonides said the cast spent time exploring the similarities the characters have to people of today.

“Society’s values are always shifting, but human beings don’t change. We used this philosophy to explore a contemporary understanding of the play,” he said. “Audiences will be able to recognize their contemporary selves in the situations and predicaments of ‘Picnic.’ ”

Tickets are available at the Hadley Union Building and at the door 45 minutes before the performance begins. Tickets are $14 for regular admission, $12 for senior citizens and groups of 15 or more, and $8 with a university I-Card.

This production is co-choreographed by Boda-Sutton and IUP dance faculty member Joan Van Dyke. Performances take place at the IUP dance studio in Zink Hall at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 26. The show includes guest dancers from the Mahoning Valley Ballet.

The production follows the adventure of fairy tale characters Tom Piper and Mary Contrary and others as they “save” Mother Goose Village from Barnaby and his minions. The show includes the signature tunes of “Toyland” and “March of the Toys.”

Boda-Sutton said she adapted the original 1903 operetta to explore the humorous side of the familiar nursery rhyme characters in Mother Goose Village.

Tickets for Babes in Toyland are available in advance at the Hadley Union Building, along Pratt Drive on the IUP campus. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door starting 45 minutes before the performance. Tickets are $14 for regular admission, $12 for senior citizens and groups of 15 or more, and $8 with a university I-card.

This production is co-choreographed by Boda-Sutton and IUP dance faculty member Joan Van Dyke. Performances take place at the IUP dance studio in Zink Hall at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 26. The show includes guest dancers from the Mahoning Valley Ballet.

The production follows the adventure of fairy tale characters Tom Piper and Mary Contrary and others as they “save” Mother Goose Village from Barnaby and his minions. The show includes the signature tunes of “Toyland” and “March of the Toys.”

Boda-Sutton said she adapted the original 1903 operetta to explore the humorous side of the familiar nursery rhyme characters in Mother Goose Village.

Tickets for “Babes in Toyland” are available in advance at the Hadley Union Building, along Pratt Drive. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door starting 45 minutes before the performance. Tickets are $14 for regular admission, $12 for senior citizens and groups of 15 or more, and $8 with a university I-Card.

Kemp is now at work on a production of The Museum of Desire for Quantum in collaboration with Dan Jemmit, to be performed at the Frick Art and Historical Center in Pittsburgh.

Violet Sharp, a new play written by William Cameron and directed by Barb Blackledge, will be first produced here at IUP on the Waller Mainstage: October 2–5 and 8–11. (Note: This production will be toured to regional high schools in October and November.)

Babes In Toyland, a co-production of IUP Dance Theater Company and the Van Dyke Dance Company, directed by Holly Boda-Sutton and Joan Van Dyke, Zink Dance Theater: October 24–25.

Picnic, an American classic by William Inge directed by Jason Chimonides, Waller Mainstage: November 6–9 and 12–15.

Anything Goes, a co-production of Theater-by-the-Grove and IUP Music Theater, directed by Rob Gretta, musical direction by Sarah Mantel, Choreography by Joan Van Dyke, conducted by Jack Stamp, Fisher Auditorium: February 18–21.

Dance and Percussion, a co-production of IUP Dance Theater and IUP Percussion Ensemble, Fisher Auditorium, March 28.

A Boy's Life, a contemporary comedy directed by Rick Kemp, Waller Mainspace, April 16–19 and 22–25.

In addition, Jason’s newest play, The Bluest Water: A Hurricane Camille Story, will be getting its world premiere in Virginia this summer. Produced by the Endstation Theatre Company in cooperation with the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, this play will open on July 9, 2008. (For further information, please check the Enstation Theatre Company website.)

Chimonides is a member of the Theater and Dance faculty.

Buried: The Sago Mine Disaster

by Jerry Starr
Directed by Barb Blackledge
April 3-6 at 8 p.m.

Encounter

Directed by Ryan Winder
April 12, 2008 at 8 p.m.; April 13 at 2 p.m.

Brilliant Traces

by Cindy Lou Johnson
Directed by Molly Simpson
April 19-20 at 8 p.m.

Life Under Water

by Richard Greenberg
Directed by Sarah Morrow
April 26-27 at 8 p.m.

Preview performance April 16, 2008. Regular performances April 17 – 19 and 23 – 26, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.; April 20, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. All performance in Waller Theater.

Tickets on sale at the HUB starting Monday, April 7, 2008. Reg. $12, Disc. $10, I-Card $7.

An IUP Dance Theater/Theater-by-the-Grove Production

Tickets on sale at the HUB starting Monday, March 24, 2008. Reg. $12, Disc. $10, I-Card $7

A joint production of the IUP departments of Theater and Dance and Music, “The Threepenny Opera” was performed Feb. 21–23 and Feb. 27 through March 1.  

The classic musical, with music by Kurt Weill and a text by Bertolt Brecht, weaves the stories of murderous con artists, aggressive beggars, and ladies of the evening with a musical score that boasts the classic, “Mack the Knife.”

A milestone of Twentieth Century musical theater, “The Threepenny Opera” profoundly broke from the standard opera and operetta forms of its time, combining a barbed, political perspective with the sound of 1920s Berlin.

Macheath, a notorious bandit and womanizer, runs afoul of Jonathan Peachum when he marries Peachum’s daughter, Polly, in a ceremony of doubtful legality.

Described by American composer Virgil Thompson as “one of this century’s most powerful creations,” “The Threepenny Opera” premiered in 1928. Through the 1930s, the musical production was banned throughout Germany by the Nazi government, which stopped performing the music publicly because it was being enjoyed by too many people.

An English production premiered a new translation off-Broadway in 1954 with a now recognizable cast including Lotte Lenya, Bea Arthur, Charlotte Rae and John Astin. Since that time, “The Threepenny Opera” has been performed all over the world, including five major Broadway revivals, the latest performed in 2006 in the legendary Studio 54.

“The Threepenny Opera” is a joint production by the departments of Theater and Dance and Music and is funded, in part, by the Student Cooperative Association.