September 2019 College News

THEATRE Acting, Musical Theatre, Per formance and Production, Teacher Certif ication in Theatre, Technical Production, & Theatre FACULTY ACCOLADES Natalie Blackman was asked to perform her award- winning solo show about mental illness, Disorder , at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City for their incoming class of psychology fellows and psychiatry residents. Michelle Dahlenburg was one of 10 audio producers accepted to the Transom Traveling Audio Storytelling Workshop held at KUT Austin this August. The week- long intensive included training in finding stories, pitching, interviewing, field recording, script writing/ editing, and multitrack mixing/editing for NPR-style radio stories. [ 1 ] Michelle produced a short documentary piece about an interesting person in Austin, which was presented at a public listening event at KUT. You can hear her work here. Kaitlin Hopkins directed the Austin premiere of Andrew Lippa’s Unbreakable starring Rachel Webb (’20) at Bates Recital Hall with the Austin Gay Men’s Chorus. The Austin American-Statesman called Unbreakable "incredibly moving" and said the show "should be experienced by audiences in every city and town and performed in every school. It’s an historical and artistic landmark”…. “Rachel Webb shined as transgender activist Sylvia Rivera.” [ 2 ] Eugene Lee won the Helen Hayes Award for Lead Actor in a Play for Two Trains Running at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Eugene, also traveled to Atlanta where he directed a production of his play, East Texas Hot Links at True Colors Theatre Company. The play was nominated for a Pulitzer and won the 1994 Off- Broadway Audelco Award for best new play. American Son , in which Eugene Lee played the pivotal role of Lt. Stokes on Broadway last fall, has been captured on film and will soon be available on NetFlix. In a review from The Hollywood Reporter , John DeFore says, “Lee is very fine, using his short time onscreen to remind us Michelle Dahlenburg at the Transom Traveling Audio Storytelling Workshop Andrew Lippa’s Unbreakable starring Rachel Webb and directed by Kaitlin Hopkins Eugene Lee (right) as Lt. Stokes on the Broadway production of American Son 20 | September | College News 1 2 3 that, in oversimplified talk of cops vs. black men, too little attention is paid to the people who fall into both catagories.” [ 3] The feature film Bull , co-written and executive produced by Johnny McAllister debuted at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section in May. It recently swept three prizes at the Deauville American Film Festival in France: the Grand Prize, the Revelation prize for best first film and the Critics Choice. Johnny also directed, edited and co-produced a short doc, A Building Shaped By Light: Austin Central Library , which is a finalist for the American Institute of Architecture’s Film Challenge. Nadine Mozon performed her one-woman show, Blue Spiral , at the Congreso Internacional de Artes Escénicas in Morelia, Mexico in June. The show was directed by Michael Rau with videos by Ana Baer . Chuck Ney was featured in the “Pre-Show/Post-Show” section of the SDC Journal’s summer edition. Phillip Owen’s sound design for Dancing at Lughnasa was featured at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial. Work by Cheri DeVol , Sarah E.C. Maines , and Michelle Ney were also exhibited under submitted work. This Summer, Scott Vandenberg returned to Summer Stock Austin for his fourth consecutive season, designing lights for How To Succeed In Buisness… , Sister Act and a new musical, Haunted , written by Allen Robertson. His team included Assistant Lighting Designer Andrew McDaniels (M.F.A. 2021) and Master Electrician Samantha Smith (B.F.A. 2020). STUDENT ACCOLADES William Hoss Abete (B.F.A., Performance and Production) attended The Performing Arts Project in North Carolina. With the skills he learned at the summer intensive William was asked to step into the role of Holofernes in Broke Thespians Theatre Company’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost with only one day of rehearsal, and enjoyed a very successful run. A staged reading of Magpie , a new play by Connor Pate featured William Hoss Abete (B.F.A., Performance and Production), and alumni Hunter Ginn (B.F.A., Acting) and Jackson Pounds (B.F.A., Acting). At the Austin Critic's Table, Sarah EC Maines (Faculty) won in the Best Lighting Design category for her work on Sunday in the Park With George (pictured) at Zach Theatre. Liz Fisher (M.F.A., Directing 2019) won a Best Direction Award for We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 , produced by Street Corner Arts. The production also won Best Production and Best Production by an Ensemble. AUSTIN CRITICS TABLE AWARDS College of Fine Arts and Communication | 21