2011-2012 THEATRE & DANCE DEPARTMENT PRODUCTIONS Production start time change. All productions will be at 7:30 PM
The Mainstage
naked
Directed by Craig Quintero and Shih Pei-yu
Auditions: Sunday, August 28 and Monday, August 29
Callbacks: Tuesday, August 30
Performances: October 6-9, Flanagan Studio Theatre
In his seminal theatre manifesto “Holiday,” Polish director and theoretician Jerzy Grotowski challenged the commercialization and commodification of theatre. He envisioned a theatre of communion, a breaking down of barriers between audience and spectator and a removing of one’s social mask. Grotowski challenged his performers to disarm themselves, to offer themselves fully and honestly, to approach their art as a way of life. naked is a performance that follows in Grotowski’s path. It is a ritual, a celebration, an offering. Combining puppetry, text, image-based performance, and music, naked is a poetic exploration of the possibilities of performance.
Shih Pei-yu, based in Taipei, writes, directs and performs in puppet theatre. From 1994 to 2002, she worked as administrator in Shiny Shoes Children’s Theatre as well as theatre manager and producer in Creative Society Theatre. She is currently the artistic director and project manager of Flying Group Theatre. http://www.flying-group.com.tw/
Sunday in the Park with George
Directed by Brandon Bruce
Auditions: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 and Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Callbacks: Thursday, September 1 and Friday, September 2
Performances: November 17-20, Roberts Theatre
The winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Sunday in the Park with George breathes life into the story of maverick French Impressionist Georges Seurat and his great painting A Sunday Afternoon at the Ile de La Grande Jatte. Just as the painted explored the combination of individual colored dots and optical theory to create a unified composition, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical explores the ways in which individuals form community. In search of innovation and greatness, Seurat casts off those he loves as he struggles to understand the balance between life and art, and through this struggle he helps us to understand our own balance between art, self, and our need for love and friendship.
Dance Ensemble
tRADitions + enCOUNTers
When is tradition necessary, and when do we break free?
A mash up of traditions, lineages and personal histories inside our movement worlds – from break dance to Ballet to contemporary; dance forms spanning the globe from Cuba to Southeast Asia to Grinnell; from dining hall protocol to the unique movement opportunities when borrowing campus bikes - no movement sources are safe from our investigation.
A synergistic encounter created and performed by ensemble members working with Grinnell College’s Javanese dance instructor, Valerie Vetter, and the ensemble’s new director and contemporary dance choreographer, Celeste Miller.
December 2-4: Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 PM; Sunday at 2:00 PM
Shattered Mirrors: Stories from Salman Rushdie’s East, West
Directed by Lesley Delmenico
Auditions TBA
Performances: March 8-11, 2012
Devised performances of three Rushdie stories, “The Prophet’s Hair,” “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers,” and “The Courter.” These luminous stories are at the intersection of Salman Rushdie’s complex identity as scribe of India, Western storyteller, and someone who is always tantalizingly in-between.
Spring Dance Performance
Directed by Celeste Miller
Auditions TBA
Performances: April 27-29, 2012
Rogers will develop choreography with and for students drawing on dancing and concepts from her current project See What Happens, including Repo – work derived from a danced reconsideration of prior dances reaching back to 1968. Joined by a guest artist and collaborator from Malaysia, TBA, the residency will investigate the roles of tradition, lineage and personal history inside of contemporary dance making.
Wendy Rogers has choreographed and performed contemporary dances for over forty years, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City and now in Riverside, California where she joined the University of California, Riverside dance faculty in 1996. She has received Fellowships from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and most recently, a 2009 Fulbright Fellowship in Malaysia in support of her multi-year choreographic projects in which dances focused by singular concepts evolve and morph into specific performances allied to occasion and place. http://www.dance.ucr.edu/people/faculty/rogers/index.html
Dance Ensemble
Dancing Traditions – whether from Southeast Asia or from the United States - will be the focus for the ensemble during the 2011-12 academic year. In the fall, Grinnell College’s Javanese dance instructor, Valerie Vetter, will collaborate with the ensemble’s director and contemporary dance choreographer, Celeste Miller in a synergistic exploration of their respective practices.
Fall Semester Auditions: Monday, August 29 and Tuesday, August 30
Fall performances: December 2-4, Flanagan Studio Theatre
Box Office:
Hours: 12-5p.m. the week of the performance E-mail: boxofc at grinnell.edu Phone: (641) 269-4444 (Please call during box office hours) Tickets: The number of tickets available per patron is based on the performance space. Each patron may reserve/receive up to 2 tickets for performances in The Wall Performance Lab and Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre. Each patron may reserve/receive up to 6 tickets for performances in Roberts Theatre. All shows are free and open to the public.
