September2022_CollegeNews

THEATRE Acting, Musical Theatre, Per formance and Production, Teacher Certif ication in Theatre, Technical Production, & Theatre FACULTY ACCOLADES Cassie Abate’s textbook The Art and Practice of Musical Theatre Choreography was published in August by Methuen Drama/Bloomsbury. [1] Cassie worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival as a director and choreographer on productions including The Greenshow , All’s Well That Ends Well , and Sweeney Todd . She also served as the movement director for The Inheritance at the ZACHTheatre. Cassie received glowing reviews from Austin Chronicle for her movement work on Zach Scott’s production of The Inheritance : "Also noteworthy and equally enthralling is Steakley’s and movement director Cassie Abate’s handling of an explicit and highly erotic onstage sexual encounter between Eric and Toby that consists of noncontact, metaphorical choreography.” John Fleming joined other international scholars as a “Page, Stage, and Screen” panelist at the Stoppard Symposium at the University of Texas held in conjunction with the publication of Tom Stoppard in Context (Cambridge University Press). Yesenia Garcia Herrington is making her co-producer debut with Theatre Producers of Color (TPOC) on the off-Broadway remount of Kinky Boots this fall. She is the 2022 KCACTF Uta Hagen Award recipient and completed a week-long residency at HB Studios in New York City. Her most recent performance included a staged reading of Arbolito written by Raul Garza and directed by Jerry Ruiz for Hyde Park Theatre in Austin. Musical Theatre faculty Kaitlin Hopkins was invited to present a workshop on mental wellness and stress reduction for administrative assistants attending the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest conference in Houston. Dr. Ana Martínez was a speaker at the 27th Performance Studies International conference with a presentation about Mexican theatre and ecology. She has a couple of upcoming publications: An essay for the catalogue Cassie Abate’s textbook The Art and Practice of Musical Theatre Choreography Don't you go Nowhere cast members Clarissa Smart, Elisabeth Ledoux, Candice Johnson, Michael Hale, Chris Florence with Bryan Poyser August Wilson's Tribute at this year's Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration 18 | September | College News 1 2 3 accompanying the exhibition Susan Harbage Page: Embodied Cartography in Territorial Disputes at the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, and her article "Bodies of Corn, Maguey, and Water: Performing Latin American Environmentalisms" to be published this fall in the journal Critical Stages / Scènes critiques , Theatre and Ecology / Théâtre et écologie Special Issue. She will give invited book talks at the University of Texas in Austin, University of Arizona, and at the Universidad Areandina in Bogotá, Colombia where she will also give a presentation about her current research and a master class on academic writing and research. She will be part Texas State's panel "The Life of (Mexican) Books in North America" at the International Historians of Mexico Conference. Bryan Poyser's short film Don’t you go Nowhere was selected for prestigious summer and fall film festivals like the Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY), Sidewalk Film Festival (Birmingham, AL), LA Shorts International Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA), Newport Beach Film Festival (Newport Beach, CA), Crested Butte Film Festival (Crested Butte, CO) and the Hill Country Film Festival (Fredericksburg, TX), where it won the Best Texas Film Award. Several current and former Texas State students worked on the film, including Elisabeth Ledoux , Dizzy Harrison , Candice Bell , Ariel O'Gwin , Tyra Williams and alumni Drake Howard and Taylor Wright . [2] Bryan also participated as a mentor for the Austin Film Society's Artist Intensive Program, a workshop for emerging Texas narrative feature filmmakers poised for career leaps that includes screenplay readings, works-in-progress screenings, and rehearsals with guest actors. Fellow mentors included Richard Linklater ( Boyhood , Slacker ), Elizabeth Avellan ( Sin City , Spy Kids ), Toby Halbrooks ( The Old Man and the Gun , A Ghost Story ) and Jennifer Phang ( Advantageous , Half Life ). Yong Suk Yoo was invited by KAFTE (Korea Association for Theatre Education) and presented at their 2022 Spring Academic Conference titled ‘Theatre Education in the Age of Post-pandemic and New Normal’ in June. The title of his presentation was ‘The Expectations and Concerns about Theatre Education Integrated with Digital Technology.’ Yong Suk Yoo has also been invited by the KSFB (Korean Society of Fashion Business) and is going to participate as a forum lecturer at their international academic conference titled ‘Fashion 5.0: Digital Playground and Virtual Human’ in October. The title of his lecture is ‘The Fashion Show as Performing Arts in Digital Age.’ College of Fine Arts and Communication | 15 Texas State Theatre and Dance Department opened the Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration in early September. The mission of Texas State University's Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration is a workshop and showcase featuring the work of student and professional Black and Latino playwrights where they get the opportunity to work with professionals for a hands-on, rehearsal process. The celebration included a tribute to celebrated playwright August Wilson [3] as well as readings of two new plays Cebollas by Leonard Madrid directed by faculty member Jerry Ruiz (pictured) and A Cup of Life by Kwik Jones directed by guest artist Victor Mack. BLPC 9