March 2017 College News

THEATRE Acting, Musical Theatre, Per formance and Production, Teacher Certif ication in Theatre, Technical Production, & Theatre FACULTY ACCOLADES Babs George concluded a run of Jon Jory’s Pride and Prejudice as a guest artist at St. Edward’s University. Kate Glasheen is appearing in Disgraced at the Playhouse San Antonio, March 17 - April 9. Marqui Maresca did a voice-over which was part of the Super Bowl teaser commercial for Avocados from Mexico featuring actor Jon Lovitz. Brandon R. McWilliams designed costumes for The Serenbe Playhouse’s production of Grease . Michelle Ney’s design work is featured here in this Arts and Culture profile piece. [ 1 ] Michael Rau directed Nadine Mozon’s Blue Spiral for Frontera Fest, Feb 16. He was also the director of Joanna Garner’s Wild Place’s for Groundswell/Rude Mechanicals at The Off Center, March 2 – 4. [ 2 ] In addition, Mr. Rau directed his technology/theater piece “temping” at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 7-19. Kaitlin Hopkins will be directing The World According to Snoopy at Theater Under the Stars and Theater Aspen Kiira Schmidt will be starring in A Chorus Line at the MUNY in St. Louis The Musical Theatre faculty will be launching a new two- week summer camp called NEXUS on June 10-24. STUDENT ACCOLADES In June, the cast of The World According to Snoopy [ 3] will travel to Theater Under the Stars in Houston for a two-week run, June 7 - 18. The cast includes Maggie Bera , Ryne Nardecchia , Ty Taylor , Adria Swan , Nick Eibler , Grayson Samuels , and Raegan Roberts . Set Designer Michelle Ney working on Lady Day at the Emerson Bar & Grill Michael Rau’s play Wild Place’s Ryne Nardecchia in The World According to Snoopy 14 | March | College News Michael Burrel will be going out on a cruise line contract following graduation for Norwegian. Chris Clark will appear as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast at the Shenandoah Summer Theatre in Virginia. In addition to performing in The World According to Snoopy (as Woodstock) at Theater Under the Stars, Nick Eibler will also be appearing in Newsies and The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Musical Theatre of Wichita. Logan Floyd will be assistant choreographer for In the Heights at Zach Theatre in Austin and alongside Resident choreographer Michael Balderrama in Hamilton at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma. Spencer Hansen will be at The Little Theatre on the Square in Illinois and will be musical directing and performing in their summer season. Andrew Heinrich was one of five playwrights in the nation invited to the Kennedy Center this summer to work on his play Flood as part of the Kennedy Center’s MFA Playwriting workshop. Chandler Lovelle will be playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid and Amber in Hairspray this summer. Cristina Oeschger will be starring in In the Heights at Zach Scott Theatre and then at the Oklahoma Lyric Theatre. Jorrel Javier will appear in the ensemble. Sally Rath won the Barbizon Award for Excellence in Costume Design for Ajax in Iraq at the Region VI KC/ ACTF Competition and Brandon Newton won the Barbizon Award for Excellence in Scene Design for the production Tartuffe . Both advance to the Kennedy Center as National Finalists. Juliette Redden and Trevor Berger will be starring in Newsies at Red Mountain Theatre. Sidney Rushing’s play Zu’s Earth is the winner of the 2017 Queensbury New Play Series and will have a reading and subsequent production at the Queensbury Theatre. Maeann Ross won the Region VI KC/ACTF Award for Excellent in Sound Design for Fool for Love . Emily McCarthy won the Region VI Award for Excellence in Scenic Art for Ajax in Iraq . Ty Taylor will be playing Big Deal in the Oklahoma Lyric production of West Side Story . Bruce Turk won the SDC Directing Initiative Fellowship for Region VI of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival and will travel to Washington DC for the national convention. Tom Delbello was runner-up. Caitlin Turnage’s play The Holes in Human Flesh has been invited as a national finalist to the ATHE national conference in August in Las Vegas. She is also one of four national finalists for the John S. Cauble Short Play Award given out at the Kennedy Center on April 22. Anna Uzele will be starring in the new Disney musical When You Wish , which will premiere at Oklahoma Lyric Theatre. Audrey Webb’s play Hindsight will be produced at the Articulate Theatre in New York in April as part of Articulating the Arts: Tales in Time. Rachel Webb will appear in Hairspray at Theater Aspen. Grayson Yockey will be performing in the summer season at Cumberland County Playhouse. TJ Young won the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting award to be given out at the Kennedy Center on April 22. This is the flagship award of the Michael Kanin National Playwriting awards given out as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. ALUMNI ACCOLADES Dakota James (MT ’14) had his short story “Vulture’s Guitar” published by The Saturday Evening Post . Ben Mayne opened off-Broadway in a new musical, A View from Upstairs . Annie Wallace is currently in a national tour of Aladdin . In April, Gianna Yanelli will appear in the Broadway workshop of Mean Girls, The Musical starring Tina Fey. Gianna Yanelli and Gabriel Bernal will star in the production of The World According to Snoopy at Theatre Aspen this summer. College of Fine Arts and Communication | 15 1 2 3