March 2022 College News

1 Dr. Kevin Byrne's Jukebox Musicals: An Interpretive History 2 Te Great Stage of Texas featuring work by Michelle Ney and Sarah Maines 3 Plaza Suite , the Broadway revival directed by John Benjamin Hickey starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker 16 | March | College News THEATRE Acting, Musical Theatre, Per formance and Production, Teacher Certif ication in Theatre, Technical Production, & Theatre FACULTY ACCOLADES Dr. Kevin Byrne has been accepted to the Multicultural Curriculum Transformation and Research Institute (MCTRI) this summer. He also received fnal proofs on his manuscript Jukebox Musicals: An Interpretive History that will be published this summer by Routledge Press . [1] Sarah Maines is the Lighting Designer for Pasadena Playhouse’s production Ann starring Holland Taylor which opened on March 26. Dr. Ana Martínez won the Texas Association for Chicanos in Higher Education (TACHE) award for the Mentor of the Year. She also gave a presentation at TACHE's 47th Annual Conference 2022 in Fort Worth. Work by Michelle Ney and Sarah Maines is featured in the McNay’s Tobin Collection show Te Great Stage of Texas running now through August 4th. [2] Sound faculty Carlos Nine is the lighting and sound designer for Amadeus with Penfold Teatre at the Ground Floor Teatre in Austin. Mackenzie Mulligan is the associate lighting designer, and Brennon Cope is the associate sound designer. Playwriting faculty member Caitlin Turnage’s play In a Darkroom, Te Lord Knows was selected for Te Last Frontier Conference in Valdez, Alaska. STUDENT ACCOLADES Katherine Brand , MacKenzie Mulligan , AnnDee Alvidrez , and Rossina Lozoya presented work at the Southeastern Teatre Conference’s Design Competition in Memphis, Tennessee. Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire was performed through the Jeremy Torres Lab Teatre under the artistic direction of Shelby Curry March 4th - 6th. Tis full-length play was put together in less than 4 weeks and had a complete set and full technical set up. Te play starred a talented undergraduate cast including: Fallon Goldsmith , Joshua Vetter , Leslie Hill-King , Allie Lawrence , and Llailan Bennett . Undergraduate Performance and Production student Andrew John was cast in the musical Isabel and the Runaway Train which opens in late April. Undergraduate Performance and Production student Roderick Loving was cast as Space Crew in the flm In Space with Markiplier which releases on Youtube Red on April 4th. ALUMNI ACCOLADES Maggie Bera (Musical Teatre) started rehearsals on the Of-Broadway production of A Baker’s Wife . Te show was at J2 Spotlight Musical Teatre Company through March 20th. Stephen Brower (Musical Teatre) was on SNL hosted by John Mulaney with musical guest LCD Soundsystem. Bella Coppola (Musical Teatre) was in the world premiere of Other World: A New Musical at the Delaware Teatre company which ran through March 20th. Jessie Douglas is the new associate general manager for Tompson Turner Productions. Two of their recent shows were Mean Girls and Company . John Benjamin Hickey is directing the Broadway revival of Plaza Suite , starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. [3] John was a 2020 Tony nominee for his role in Te Inheritance and a 2011 Tony-winner for his performance in Te Normal Heart . Austin Owens Kelly (Musical Teatre) was named a member of the 2022 Wallis Studio Ensemble in Los Angeles, and opened Reckoning-A short Play Festival . Austin can be seen in fve of the plays of the festival. Bobcat Alumni Jamie Knox was recently interviewed on Blue Ridge Public Radio regarding her work as a MFA ALUMN Liz Fisher (M.F.A. Directing) directed Life Sucks by Aaron Posner for Heartland Teatre Company in Normal, Illinois. Te production, which opened February 10, was well- received by audiences and critics. In a review of the production for the Bloomington-Normal Pantagraph , John D. Poling wrote, “Visiting director Liz Fisher has used a deft hand in guiding this fne ensemble of actors through material that is, at turns, profound and absurd and then funny and heartbreaking.” College of Fine Arts and Communication | 17