October 2019 College News

1 Te new Austin Central Library is a building shaped by light, featured in the documentary directed by Johnny McAllister 2 David Mamet’s Glengarry Glenn Ross featuring scenery designed by Cheri Prough DeVol 3 Te sold out PSH Foundation Teatre production of Te Harvest 16 | October | College News THEATRE Acting, Musical Theatre, Per formance and Production, Teacher Certif ication in Theatre, Technical Production, & Theatre FACULTY ACCOLADES A Building Shaped By Light , a short documentary directed by Johnny McAllister , placed third out of more than 100 entries in the American Institute of Architecture’s 2019 Film Challenge. Te flm was subsequently invited to play at the Chicago Ideas Week Festival, ADFF: New York, ADFF: Toronto and ADFF: Vancouver flm festivals. [ 1 ] Bull , a feature flm co-written and executive produced by Johnny was picked up for domestic distribution by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Cheri Prough DeVol designed the scenery for David Mamet’s Glengarry Glenn Ross which was directed by Bill Roudebush and performed Sep 13-Oct 6 at Beck Center for the Performing Arts in Lakewood, Ohio. [ 2 ] Award winning critic Bob Ableman of the Cleveland News-Herald and the Cleveland Jewish News writes “For all their boisterous sound and failing fury, these men are small and insignifcant outside of their limited realm — a reality represented by their getting lost in the restaurant’s overstufed, high-back booths and dwarfed by the garish ceiling-to-foor curtains beautifully designed by Cheri DeVol and accentuated by Trad A. Burns’ dramatic lighting. Te second act takes place in the Real Estate Ofce, a den of thieves where the salesmen’s competitive nature, sense of entitlement and worst personality traits are laid bare… Once again, designer DeVol outdoes herself by having the ofce walls intersect at awkwardly acute angles with windows that introduce no source of natural light. Her remarkable eye for realism and costume designer Inda Blatch-Geib’s period-perfect fashion sense are co-stars in this production.” STUDENT ACCOLADES A staged reading at the Coldtown Teatre of Red River , a new play by Connor Pate featured B.F.A. Performance & Production major William Hoss Abete and B.F.A. Acting majors Chris Frey and Hunter Ginn . Dylan Droz (B.F.A. Performance and Production ’22) portrayed Alan Seymour in Te Wimberley Players production of Picnic last month. Dylan was recently cast as Eddie McCuen in Emilyann Teatre’s production of Te Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 , opening in February 2020. Tristen Geren (B.F.A. Performance and Production ‘19) was hired as the Access and Inclusion Apprentice at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland, and recently opened Te Very Hungry Caterpillar Show . Aidan Hartung (B.F.A. Performance and Production ’23) created Fingerprints Teatre for Change: an extracurricular theatre company devoted to creating new works devoted to addressing social injustices, spreading awareness, and starting a conversation. Josh Vetter (B.F.A. Performance and Production) created an album called Soundtrack For Returning From Te Grave dedicated to Haley Frizzell , a Performance and Production major who passed away in the Iconic Apartment fre in the summer of 2018. ALUMNI ACCOLADES Musical Teatre alumni Jose Gomez (’18) is playing the role of Valet in Amadeus at the Folger Teatre directed by Richard Cliford in Washington, D.C. Movement of Conclusion a new play by M.F.A. Dramatic Writing Alumni Andrew Heinrich will receive a stage reading at the Public Teatre of San Antonio. Kelly Mathew Hodges (B.F.A. Acting ’12) works at McG’s production company: Wonderland Sound and Vision as an Executive Assistant to producer Corey Marsh where they just released their new movie Tall Girl on Netfix. Musical Teatre Alumni Jessica de Jong (’14) is starring in the new musical Te Pin Up Girls by Jim Hindman at Casa Mañana. Tommy Levrier published his third book titled, South Peeveetoe, Texas . Te book presents an arresting set of charming stories set in a small mythical town situated in the East Texas oilfelds of the early-to-mid 1960s. Individuals arising in the various stories survive to interact with each other throughout the book. THE HARVEST Te Harvest opened to sold out houses in the PSH Foundation Teatre in mid-October. [ 3] Te production was directed by Aaron Sparks (M.F.A. Directing), with lighting design by Megan Whittington (B.F.A. Technical Production). Te production stage manager was Holden Fox (B.F.A. Technical Production). Cast in the show were: Will Wilkerson , Jordan Gregson , Grace Hickey , Laney Neumann , Elizabeth Rees , Evan Hays , and Malik James . College of Fine Arts and Communication | 17