Theatre and Dance

A reincarnated Elizabeth I greets friendly audiences, even in Scotland

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 20:09:27 +0000

A reincarnated Elizabeth I greets friendly audiences, even in Scotland Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/15/2024 - 14:09

Rachel Sauer

Actor and theater scholar Tamara Meneghini brings the long-ruling monarch to life in a solo performance that earned rave reviews at the recent Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Historical figures are so easily flattened into two dimensions—all stiff pleats and inscrutable expressions rendered in oils.

The challenge for artists and scholars, then, is how to lift these figures from the canvas—to regard them in three dimensions, to allow them foibles and failings and humanity.

For Tamara Meneghini, that meant more than just donning a red wig and pounds of brocade as one of the most famous women in Western history. It meant studying the time in which Elizabeth I of England lived—researching what influenced her behavior in her time period, how she interacted with people, what games she played, how she followed the rules and how she broke them.

Tamara Meneghini, an associate professor in the CU �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance, performed to rave reviews as the titular monarch in "Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

To become Elizabeth I onstage, Meneghini had to understand the monarch as a human woman and bring her to life for modern audiences who may believe there’s nothing new to understand about her.

So, audiences at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August were surprised and then delighted to rediscover the queen they thought they knew. Playing the not-so-popular-in-Scotland monarch in the one-woman performance “Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words,” Meneghini performed before full theaters and to glowing reviews.

“The key to fringe festivals is audiences want you to connect,” explains Meneghini, an associate professor in the �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance. “You have to connect. The audience can’t be just audience. The way our piece was set up, it worked really nicely that audience felt like A) they were in the presence of the queen and B) they could not leave, they were there with me in the moment, in this meta sort of space. I was interacting with them as the queen, but in a very specific circumstance we had created.”

Becoming Elizabeth

Meneghini’s interest in Elizabeth I grew, in part, from her interest in styles and plays from different time periods—"the ways in which we behave in those time periods, how changes in clothing, dances, culture, protocols can affect behavior,” she explains.

While working at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, where she taught before joining the CU �鶹ӰԺ faculty in 2008, Meneghini developed a concert of early Renaissance music that involved era-specific instruments such as sackbuts and crumhorns. However, she also wanted to bring in elements of theater and approached Carole Levin, a pre-eminent scholar of Elizabeth I and women in the Renaissance era.

“Carole was pivotal because what we created was a fictitious meeting between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots,” Meneghini says. “Part of that was crafting this improvisation with students that was really cool. It ended up being a combination of theater and film and history, and it was just a blast.”

Fast forward to 2016, when CU �鶹ӰԺ was honored as a stop for the first-ever national touring exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

Tamara Meneghini as Elizabeth I outside Edinburgh's Craigmillar Castle (left) and onstage (right) as the long-ruling monarch.

“When the Folio came through, I was doing a period styles class, and I was asked to create something for the Folio visit,” she says. “I immediately thought of Elizabeth I—the idea of Elizabeth, the time period, Shakespeare’s plays. I know they never met, but she certainly influenced his plays, so I started working on this thing based on Carole’s series of lectures that she did about Elizabeth.”

The initial performance was a duet, with Meneghini playing Elizabeth in front of projected images from the time period to which Levin had access. Meneghini and her acting partner—Bernadette Sefic, a CU �鶹ӰԺ BFA/acting graduate and recent MFA graduate of the Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program—performed at universities and sometimes in community theaters, and in costumes designed by theater colleague Markas Henry.

“As the costume as story went on, Elizabeth is becoming more and more like a real person,” Meneghini says. “The portraiture that we have of her was largely staged by how her council and her parliament wanted her to look. We wanted this piece to be an opportunity to see Elizabeth as the woman, as the human, as someone audiences could relate to.

“Markas and I talked a lot about this costume coming apart, and he made this thing that’s close to 30 pounds—the costume is immense—that gradually sheds layers through the performance.”

Fringe opportunities

Two years ago, CU �鶹ӰԺ graduate Penny Cole, founder of Flying Solo! Presents, approached Meneghini about creating a solo show and put her in contact with a Scottish theater scholar who asked whether she’d be interested in performing at Edinburgh Fringe.

If you go

What: "Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words"

Who: Tamara Meneghini, associate professor in the CU �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance

When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19

Where: Savoy Denver, 2700 Arapahoe St.

Learn more

Meneghini sought Levin’s expertise, as well as that of Denver-based theater guru Sabin Epstein, to craft a solo play from what began as lectures. The 55-minute play, for which Levin is credited as writer, is based on Elizabeth’s own writings. It eschews the projected images of the original duet performance—a lot of which featured the men in Elizabeth’s life—to create an intimate space between Elizabeth and the audience, Meneghini says.

She performed “Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words” several times in New York City before her 14 performances at Edinburgh Fringe, where it was a hit.

“People there are crazy about their royals,” Meneghini says with a laugh. “Elizabeth is not a popular monarch in Scotland; in fact, she’s almost an antagonist. So, when I first performed it in New York, people went nuts about it, but I didn’t think they were going to like it as much in Scotland, so that was a happy surprise.

“In fact, I went to do this photo shoot at Craigmillar Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots convalesced and planned her husband’s murder, and people were coming up to me—I was in full regalia—and saying, ‘Oh, Queen Mary, Queen Mary.’ So, I had to say, ‘No, I’m Elizabeth,’ and they’d run away.”

Thanks to the play’s reception at Edinburgh Fringe, Meneghini is now developing it into a full, 120-minute performance. She also will perform it Oct. 19 in the Denver Fringe Festival. And still, she says, there’s always more to learn about Elizabeth.

“One of my biggest takeaways (from performing at Edinburgh Fringe) was people came out of the show saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, I have a totally different perspective of her as a person. She wasn’t this awful woman, she really struggled with these decisions that she made,’” Meneghini says. “What I’ve learned in my own research with her is that she was a complicated person like we all are, didn’t take any of the decisions that she had to make in her life lightly. When I’m doing the show—whether it’s here, when I was in Edinburgh—I’m constantly reading more about her, and every day is bringing something new.”

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Actor and theater scholar Tamara Meneghini brings the long-ruling monarch to life in a solo performance that earned rave reviews at the recent Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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Unlearning fear and embracing an ‘audacity of hope’ through performance

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 20:09:44 +0000

Unlearning fear and embracing an ‘audacity of hope’ through performance Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/13/2024 - 14:09

Rachel Sauer

In newest chapter of ongoing ‘Conversation Series,’ CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Helanius J. Wilkins explores concepts of belonging and being heard

The seeds of the dance were planted in walks.

It was 2020, and the way Helanius J. Wilkins saw it, COVID-19 wasn’t the only pandemic. “Structural racism in our country is also a pandemic,” he explains, a fact that gained a spotlight following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.

“Those were the two seeds that really launched me into this journey,” says Wilkins, an associate professor and director of dance in the �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance. “I have a saying that I meet adversity by actioning through the arts, which is me finding my footing again inside of all of those things.

Helanius J. Wilkins, a CU �鶹ӰԺ associate professor of theatre and dance, created “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging” as a path to unlearn fear and create opportunities for listening. (Photo: Paul Kieu. (c)2023)

“In 2020, I was noticing what was happening to me in that time, and what came to light was that I basically was in a place of a lot of fear. I was afraid to leave my own place, I was afraid to be in public in the body that I’m in.”

So, he began walking—every day, by himself, same time, same path, sometimes up to 16 miles. It was his way of reorienting himself to and in his surroundings and creating space for his surroundings to reorient him.

“This work in so many way is me walking across the country and inviting others to walk with me to expand their sense of belonging,” he explains of the newest chapter of his ongoing work “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging,” premiering this weekend in the Roe Green Theatre.

“The vision for this work was to create a path for me to unlearn fear, to create a path for others to unlearn fear, to create a greater sense of belonging and opportunities to listen to one another. We can’t have belonging unless we come together and listen.”

‘Conversation is a passage’

In broadest terms, “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging” is a “collaborative, immersive work, performed by two men with different racial and cultural backgrounds” who perform an “ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resilience, justice and hope.” The work centers belonging as a way to “disrupt the erasure of silenced stories and forge paths towards justice/equitable landscapes. ‘The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging’ is a dynamic intersection of contemporary dance, performance art, technology (video and interactive gaming), music, fashion and design.”

Helanius J. Wilkins, left, and Brandon Welch, right, perform “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging” as an “ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resilience, justice and hope.” (Photo: Paul Kieu. (c)2023)

A key to all of it, Wilkins says, is conversation and listening. As he was conceptualizing it, he had conversations with people across Colorado—in rural and urban settings, on the Front Range and Western Slope, in mountain resorts and small towns.

What he heard is that “everyone is interested in belonging, everyone is interested in their stories being heard and seen and everybody’s interested in their histories being protected in some way, shape or form,” Wilkins says. “The key is how we get to that and find those meeting points.”

He found a nexus between the art of conversation and listening, the art of dance and social justice because “there is no social justice without the body. We have to bring our bodies to the frontline to make the changes that we desire to see. What this work is for me is it’s a way of bringing forward two bodies in this current moment, bringing two bodies to the frontline, choosing to be at the frontline, to work together to figure out what it means to coexist.

“What I’m not striving to do is tell someone else’s story, because it’s not mine to tell, but I can reveal my story and show how I’m grappling with someone else and how I can understand what we are in relationship to these other stories.”

If you go

What: “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging”

Where: Roe Green Theatre

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, and 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14

Learn more

For Wilkins, performance feels, in many ways, like a continuing conversation and an invitation to lean in with curiosity and ask perhaps the biggest question: “What does it mean to create the world that we deserve, one that can work for everyone?” he says. “What does it mean to sit with that for 90 minutes and to dream, to hear bits and pieces of how people are grappling with reflections on ancestry or the present while we’re also trying to work and construct a future that we don’t know?”

The performance, Wilkins says, reflects his “audacity to hope” and his commitment to “knowing or feeling that things can be different and that we can find a space where more people feel a sense of belonging and where more of us can come together.

“I hope that audience members walk away hopeful—hopeful because conversations are happening and we’re invited to join them. Conversation is a passage, but it doesn’t have to be the end point, there are ways in which audiences will be able to continue the journey with me in some way, shape or form.”

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In newest chapter of ongoing ‘Conversation Series,’ CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Helanius J. Wilkins explores concepts of belonging and being heard.

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How ‘dance like nobody’s watching’ does and doesn’t describe dancers

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 15:50:20 +0000

How ‘dance like nobody’s watching’ does and doesn’t describe dancers Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/29/2024 - 09:50

Rachel Sauer

On International Dance Day, Erika Randall, a CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of dance, reflects on the popular advice that can apply to both dance and life

The advice, it seems, is everywhere: Dance like nobody’s watching.

On T-shirts and journals, bumper stickers and wall art written in fancy script, the advice hints of living unselfconsciously and freely, of moving through the world without fear of an audience or its attendant judgment. And yes, of actually dancing however it feels good in the moment.

This is not always as easily done as the T-shirts advise, though. What seems as natural as breathing in toddlerhood—the bopping and booty shaking—can be gradually replaced by nerves and an awareness of appearances. Can this be unlearned? Is it ever too late to truly dance like nobody’s watching?

Erika Randall, a CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of dance, notes that a key to dancing like nobody's watching can be asking, "What is the thing that liberates me from the constraints that sometimes even the body imposes?"

Today is International Dance Day, a UNESCO-sanctioned day founded by the International Theatre Institute in 1982 “to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers and bring people together with a common language—dance.”

In honor of the day, Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine talked with Erika Randall, a �鶹ӰԺ professor of dance, about the idea of dancing like nobody’s watching—what it means, how to do it and the value of letting go and just dancing.

Question: Do dancers actually dance like nobody’s watching?

Randall: It’s funny, because dancers don’t do this well. Dancers often do better when they’re being watched. In my class yesterday, we had 30 or so dancers and I’m in front, the mirrors are closed, and at first things were kind of lazy, a little lethargic. So, I have them find a partner, they get watched by one individual, and suddenly everybody lands their turns. Dancers are used to a mirror, to always being watched, particularly in classical, western European forms. Even in a cypher for hip hop, it kind of pumps you up when people are watching.

I don’t think a dancer made up (the saying “dance like nobody’s watching”) because as dancers, we love to watch each other, and we love to be watched. There are disciplines, contact improvisation particularly, that are not about what it looks like at all. It’s sensation-based, but then it would be more dance like the sensation that is being returned to you.

Question: As a dancer, have you ever danced like nobody’s watching?

Randall: Only once in my career, with Margie Gillis. I had seen her perform when I was at Juilliard—she had this long, streaming red hair, just this tiny little redhead, and I had seen her perform and I fell in love. So, I went to Vancouver to study with her and I just wanted her to know my name—I just wanted her to see me. And on day one she said, ‘Just know I’m not going to know any of your names.’ So, I dance so hard for two weeks, I’m living in my van in Stanley Park, and on the last day I just closed my eyes and went into the moment.

I don’t even remember doing it, but I fell to floor and there was Margie down by my head and she whispered, ‘Now Erika, that was beautiful.’ As soon as I stopped watching myself be watched, I did something improvisational and that’s what made her get down by my ear and whisper, ‘Now Erika, that was beautiful.’

Question: Even though the advice to dance like nobody’s watching isn’t necessarily about dancing, but about a mindset and an approach to living, why is it so hard to turn off that self-conscious idea that people are watching?

"It’s like when people are alone in their cars or in their kitchens and they’re gettin’ it and it’s not on TikTok—it’s not for social—it’s just this head down and you don’t care. It’s this kind of abandon that is not embedded necessarily in much dance training," says Erika Randall.

Randall: It’s so interesting, it’s almost like we can’t turn off that Foucaultian panopticon of surveillance—there’s always the potential that we can be watched at any time, or we want attention, so we self-surveil. I think we forget a lot of times that others aren’t watching us nearly as much as we watch ourselves. As a teenager, I was a classical ballet dancer, and I felt hyper watched—watched by mirrors, watched by peers, watched by teachers.

I felt like I was always being watched, always being critiqued. And I remember one night taking a little cassette player out in the middle of a field, and I don’t know that I’d ever danced outside like that before, and at night. I played Mozart’s Requiem and I have no idea what I did, but I can still remember something about it. That tells me I was still self-conscious, that I remember the music, I remember the black, handheld cassette player, I remember walking out of my mother’s house and going to this field and dancing.

It felt rebellious, and I needed rebellion, both from a form of dance that was so beautifully supportive and incredibly confining, and I needed to have a body that was mine. Especially as a teenager, that’s huge when you’ve been attached to rules of home, rules of attitude, rules of body. For me, the thought of going someplace outside and dancing—and in other communities and cultures, dancing outside is completely part of ritual, it’s a part of the day—in my little suburban townhouse, in my ballet school, to go dance outside was liberation.

I think what we can ask ourselves is, ‘What is the thing that liberates me from the constraints that sometimes even the body imposes?’ And it’s different for everyone. For me, I needed to dance wildly to classical music outside, at night, having left my mother’s house.

Question: Is part of the reason that it can be so hard to dance like nobody’s watching maybe the self-defeating little inner voice that says dancing is for some bodies but not for others?

Randall: This makes me think of a time when I was backpacking in New Zealand by myself. I had been dancing with a company in Australia, and I’d been having a hard time in the company because as a woman who’s 5’8” and curvy, compared to other dancers who seemed so tiny—and I felt this often in dance, particularly any classical western European dance—I always felt huge, like this monstrous presence sometimes.

"Dancing is everywhere. And when you see these moments that feel like they’re sort of choreographed by the stars, it’s magic," Erika Randall notes.

So, I got off a plane in New Zealand and stayed to backpack, and on this one trail there was this amazing woman who ran the hostel there. She told me this story, she said, ‘When my father took me to the circus as a little girl, I saw the elephants and they were dancing, and I realized you are never too old or too big to dance’ and she just hugged me. She was like this little prophet that I needed to remind myself that dancing, as much as I love it as a discipline, it’s also part of the potential life force we can inhabit as humans, and maybe as animals, maybe as trees blowing in the wind. You’re never too big or too old to dance.

Question: Is it possible to get to that place of letting go and just dancing, even after years or decades of feeling self-conscious that people are watching?

Randall: I think it takes a ton of practice. It’s not just something that we can do on command, like, ‘Shut off all screens, now I’m dancing like no one’s watching.’ That is hard, and I think it’s so deeply personal. I think we have this interesting sort of dissonance in the human world. It’s like when people are alone in their cars or in their kitchens and they’re gettin’ it and it’s not on TikTok—it’s not for social—it’s just this head down and you don’t care. It’s this kind of abandon that is not embedded necessarily in much dance training. We seek to get to that level of flow, and I would say generally that happens for folks while they’re improvising and in that beautiful mind-brain-soul-body sensorial space.

I think about Sufis, who are not dancing to be watched—they’re dancing to connect with a deeper sense than the visual, material world and certainly not to be seen. The portal for that kind of connection is different for everyone. So, for me, rather than telling people to do this thing, to dance like no one’s watching, for me it’s more like, ‘How can we create environments where you can feel uninhibited?’

One of my favorite things to do with this notion of dance like nobody’s watching is to turn it around and to watch like everybody’s dancing. Like right now, when I watch the choreography right out my window, the people walking by, or to just watch in a bus station, say, it’s like everybody’s dancing. Dancing is everywhere. And when you see these moments that feel like they’re sort of choreographed by the stars, it’s magic.

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On International Dance Day, Erika Randall, a CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of dance, reflects on the popular advice that can apply to both dance and life.

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But seriously, folks, climate change is a laughing matter

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 18:30:24 +0000

But seriously, folks, climate change is a laughing matter Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/05/2024 - 12:30

Rachel Sauer

‘Stand Up for Climate Comedy’ unites CU �鶹ӰԺ student performers and professional comedians in a show that encourages the audience to laugh together and then work together

The Green Bachelor was not impressed with Oceana Sea and her 2 million followers—despite her name, she hates the water and doesn’t know how to swim. Nor was he impressed with Petrolina Exxon and her daddy’s helicopter. They clearly weren’t there for the right reasons.

Not to spoil the true-eco-love ending, but the Green Bachelor, a marine biologist, was smitten with the contestant who rode her bike to the Green Bachelor mansion and knows the flow of her local watershed.

Pause scene.

"Stand Up for Climate Comedy" is at 7 p.m. April 15 at �鶹ӰԺ Theater, 2032 14th St. Admission is free.

“I think we should say, ‘What is your local watershed and what are you doing to support it, hmm?’” says Elizabeth Smith, a junior majoring in environmental studies.

This followed discussion of defining Oceana as someone who obviously doesn’t know her bodies of water, and advice from Beth Osnes to remember that the sketch is “a physicality thing, so get it up on its feet as soon as you can.”

It was a Tuesday morning in the Climate Change Communication class, and students were laughing at climate change.

Not the reality of it, of course—it’s the defining issue of their generation and there’s nothing funny about it—but in preparation for Stand Up for Climate Comedy April 15 at the �鶹ӰԺ Theater. The show, which is in its ninth year, will feature comedians and science communicators Chuck Nice, Rollie Williams and Kasha Patel, as well as students from the Climate Change Communication class, who write and perform either solo stand-up or group sketches that they create together with support from Osnes and Ben Stasny, a PhD candidate in theater and teaching assistant for the class.

“Comedy has always taken on serious, heavy, depressing social issues,” explains Osnes, a �鶹ӰԺ professor of theatre and dance who teaches the class. “Instead of people just yelling at each other about these issues, approaching them through comedy makes engagement with the issues not only positive, but helps us process them in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming or hopeless.

“Comedy relies on double meaning. I think it’s easy for us to get stuck in binary thinking, things are one way or the other, and once you get locked into one thought, you’re stuck. Comedy can help us get unstuck, and the gorgeous thing about it is when it works, our response is involuntary, that burst of laughter, and all of a sudden everybody’s having that same response and we’re having it together. It’s golden. When we’re talking about climate change, we need things that are going to help us burst through our set ways of thinking and that we do together.”

Laughing together

Stand Up for Climate Comedy is the brainchild of Osnes and Max Boykoff, a CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of environmental studies, who also are two of the project leaders for Inside the Greenhouse, a collective effort that aims to creatively frame and tell the stories surrounding climate change through video, theatre, dance and writing.

Osnes and Boykoff figured that people might have a better time carrying or reframing the burdens of guilt and despair that shadow climate change if they were laughing together rather than shouting at each other. It’s not so much “laugh to keep from crying,” she says, but more “laugh and get moving.”

The first year of Stand Up for Climate Comedy “was basically Max and me downstairs (in the Theatre Building) with a $250 budget,” Osnes says.

Not long after, however, they were approached by representatives from the Argosy Foundation “who came to us and said, ‘We’re so sick of people screaming at each other; if we gave you $25,000, what would you do with it?’” Osnes recalls.

Beth Osnes (center) works with Lief Jordan (left), Jayden Simisky and Taylor Gutt as they prepare their stand-up comedy performances. (Photos: Rachel Sauer)

They would make the show bigger, they would organize events across the country, they would bring in luminaries of comedy who also know their science and they would integrate students as a key part of the show. That last part—student involvement—is especially key, Osnes says, because students have deep knowledge of the issues of climate change and are demanding action.

Hence the environmental hostility.

‘The seas are rising, and so are tensions!’

“My best bit is, ‘I’m sick of all this environmentally friendly shit. I’m environmentally hostile now,’” says Taylor Gutt, a senior in environmental studies.

“That’s a good bit,” says Lief Jordon, also a senior in environmental studies. “Environmental hostility is funny.”

They’re sitting with Jayden Simisky, a senior in environmental studies, and Cate Billings, a senior majoring in creative technology and design, at the top of a staircase in the Loft Theatre, workshopping the stand-up routines they’re writing.

None of them has performed stand-up before, “but why not, right?” Jordan says with a laugh. “If you’re going to go down, go down big.”

Billings is taking her stand-up in a multimedia direction, complete with a PowerPoint presentation “so it’s a little educational,” she explains. “I have a slide of coral bleaching and I say, ‘Up here on the surface we bleach our assholes, but coral is way ahead of the trend.’”

That earns an appreciative laugh from her classmates. Meanwhile, Simisky is thinking out loud about how to make carbon dioxide funny.

“The biggest thing for me with CO2 is they’re always saying, like, ‘7,000 tons of CO2,’” he says. “So, there’s this whole-ass neighborhood of carbon dioxide in the sky. Maybe something like, ‘There’s so much CO2 in the air that they’re starting to weigh it in terms of cruise ships. I’ve started to live in fear of a boat falling out of the sky.’”

Skyler Behrens (foreground) times her group's comedy sketch on a practice run-through.

That’s good, his classmates agree.

Elsewhere in the theater, Skyler Behrens, a sophomore studying engineering and education, and Claire Grossman, a junior in creative technology and design, are considering what contestants on a climate change-informed “Love Island” would say.

“What if he just says, ‘Wow, that’s hot’?” Behrens suggests.

“That’s perfect,” Grossman says, and soon Behrens is running through the sketch introduction again: “Welcome back, everyone, to the most exciting season of ‘Love Island’ yet! The seas are rising, and so are tensions!”

Nearby, Marcus Witter and Jake Mendelssohn, both seniors in environmental studies, and Austin Villarreal, a junior studying environmental design, are working with Osnes on their sketch involving three guys on a chairlift deciding who has to jump off.

“I don’t really like murder,” Osnes observes. “I think it’s funnier if an act of God knocks you off.”

Many of the students have not done this kind of performance before, and certainly not on a stage the size of �鶹ӰԺ Theater’s. They admit to nerves and to thinking about jokes so much that they stop being funny, but they’re excited, too.

“It helps that we’re doing it together,” notes Danielle Harris, a senior in environmental studies who plays Oceana Sea on “The Green Bachelor,” and her comedy partners nod in agreement.

Did you enjoy this article? Subcribe to our newsletter. Passionate about creative climate communication? Show your support.

‘Stand Up for Climate Comedy’ unites CU �鶹ӰԺ student performers and professional comedians in a show that encourages the audience to laugh together and then work together.

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After 75 years, ‘Death of a Salesman’ still packs a gut punch

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 18:22:45 +0000

After 75 years, ‘Death of a Salesman’ still packs a gut punch Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/20/2024 - 11:22

Chris Quirk

CU �鶹ӰԺ theatre professor Bud Coleman reflects on Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer-winning play and why it’s a story that still has meaning

“A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.”

It’s a simple yet resonant thought, first expressed 75 years ago this month when Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” debuted at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway. Since that time, the play has occupied an iconic place in the American consciousness.

For Bud Coleman, a �鶹ӰԺ professor of theatre and Roe Green Endowed Chair in Theatre, one of the reasons for its resilience is Miller’s subtle complexity.

Bud Coleman, a CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of theatre, notes that a reason "Death of a Salesman" remains relevant 75 years after its first performance is characters that seem immediately recognizable to audiences.

“Every time I revisit the play, I'm just amazed at how many different layers are in it. It continues to play the boards because it is very rich,” he says. “You get a hundred people and, quite often, they'll have a hundred different takes on what they think either the message of the play is, or what part of the play grabbed them the most.”

“Death of a Salesman,” which tells the story of Willy Loman, a traveling salesman from Brooklyn coming to grips with his failure after years of hopeful—some would say delusional—thinking, won virtually every accolade a play can win, including five Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Miller.

Mike Nichols, who directed a revival of the play starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, saw it as a young man during its first run, and likened its effect to an explosion.

"When ‘Salesman’ first opened in 1949, there were fathers for who the doctor had to be called because they couldn't stop crying,” he told USA Today in 2012. “The show's effect was people seemed to see themselves.”

For Coleman, the play may or may not be the quintessential tale of the end of the American dream, but it can be devastating. “We see the crushing of a human being in real time on the stage in front of us.”

Translating theater to film

On that front, the first film version of “Death of a Salesman” in 1951 was the occasion of a brief but revealing dispute. Prior to releasing the film, Columbia Pictures created a 10-minute short meant to run newsreel-style before the full feature in theaters, as a preemptive salve for the rawness of Miller’s portrayal of Willy Loman.

“Career of a Salesman” was a stiff and laughable bit of propaganda, which replayed and critiqued segments of the feature film, deriding Willy’s talents as a salesman, while reassuring the audience of the importance of the profession and the guarantee that hard work leads to success. “Nothing, nothing happens in this great country of ours until something is sold,” a lecturer gravely intones.

The short film enraged Miller. "Why the hell did you make the picture if you're so ashamed of it?” he reportedly asked Columbia studio executives. “Why should anybody not get up and walk out of the theatre if ‘Death of a Salesman’ is so outmoded and pointless?" Columbia relented and pulled the short from theaters.

What has made the play so resilient over the decades, says Coleman, is the depth that Miller imbued into characters that will be immediately recognizable to the audience—including Willy’s sons, Biff and Hap, and his wife, Linda. “The young high school senior who's got dreams and aspirations, and the parent who also has those dreams and aspirations. That’s pretty much the American story right there,” he says.

Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke played Willy and Linda Loman in "Death of a Salesman" at London's Young Vic theater in 2019. (Photo: Brinkhoff Mogenburg)

‘Despite all his flaws’

The fifth and most recent Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman” was a highly regarded run starring Wendell Pierce as Willy and Sharon D. Clarke as Linda. It was the first run of the play on Broadway with Black actors portraying the Loman family, which created a new dimension for the drama.

In an interview, Pierce noted that in New York City during the 1940s, “great danger, violence, oppressive attitudes [and] subtle humiliations were part of daily life for an African American family.”

“It could be just a depressing story of somebody with a pipe dream who's completely unrealistic, but Willy loves his family so much,” says Coleman. The strained but evident familial bonds run against the riptide of Willy’s demise.

“Linda loves him, and the boys in their own way love him, and the next-door neighbor who drives Willy crazy also cares for him.” In addition to listening to Willy’s woes, the neighbor loans him money.

“Despite all his flaws,” Coleman says, “the actor playing Willy has to show us his charm and heart. In the end, four different people, with very different relationships with him, are there for him.”

Top image: Many notable actors have played the role of Willy Loman on Broadway, including (left to right) Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Wendell Pierce and Dustin Hoffman

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CU �鶹ӰԺ theatre professor Bud Coleman reflects on Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer-winning play and why it’s a story that still has meaning.

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Professors give wings to climate-cooling action

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:53:31 +0000

Professors give wings to climate-cooling action Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/18/2024 - 09:53

Grant Stringer

In 'The Butterfly Affect' immersive performance, CU �鶹ӰԺ Professor Beth Osnes guides participants through the butterfly life cycle to inspire people to participate in 'climate solutions'

Climate change and biodiversity crises can be overwhelming. Climate-fueled disasters are accelerating, and scientists recently reported that Earth could become uninhabitable for up to 6 billion people by the end of the century.

For Beth Osnes, a �鶹ӰԺ professor of theatre who is active in applied performance and creative climate communication, the urgency calls for a fresh approach to get people working on long-term climate solutions.

And what is a better symbol of transformation than a butterfly?

Beth Osnes, a CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of theatre, designed "The Butterfly Affect" with Sarah Fahmy as an immersive experience that facilitates hope and change.

Osnes and her former student Sarah Fahmy began dressing up as butterflies to create a “visual spectacle” at climate rallies and conferences not long before the Covid-19 pandemic. Fahmy is now an assistant professor of theatre at Florida State University, and the pair’s practice with butterflies has blossomed into a new, immersive experience designed to facilitate hope and change.

“We’re capable of incredible change as beings,” Osnes says. “Anything that happens in nature can also happen in us.”

In this immersive performance dubbed “The Butterfly Affect,” Fahmy and Osnes guide small groups of participants through a 30-minute process that represents metamorphosizing from a cocoon to a full-fledged butterfly. They’re offering the experience Saturday, Jan. 27 at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. All ages are welcome, and admission is free.

The workshop uses original costumes and materials to simulate the experience of becoming a butterfly. Participants begin as eggs, emerge as caterpillars, are suspended within a chrysalis and become butterflies at last. The project’s title is a play on words that emphasizes the important roles individuals can play in climate solutions.

If you go

What:The Butterfly Affect: Interactive Performance

When: 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Jan. 27

Where:The Butterfly Pavilion, 6252 W. 104th Ave. in Westminster

Who: All ages welcome

The experience is designed to be meditative and inspire self-reflection. Ideally, Osnes says, participants will be pondering how to propel climate solutions.

“What are they hungry for as caterpillars that they need to grow?” Osnes says. “And in the chrysalis, how do you nourish the growth that finally needs to emerge into the world as a butterfly?”

Osnes and Fahmy are part of a growing body of climate communicators melding science with art. Elsewhere at CU �鶹ӰԺ, a fellowship has connected artists and scientists for exhibits exploring climate impacts in Colorado, and other art professors are thinking about environmental connection in new ways.

Learning from another species

Osnes’ own research suggests that comedy can help people forge a better relationship with the climate and possibly spur involvement, rather than sending messages that make people feel guilty or afraid.

Fahmy and Osnes are friends, and they say there’s no real separation between their friendship and their work, which began in 2017. Fahmy pursued her master’s degree at CU �鶹ӰԺ and recently graduated with a PhD.

Participants in "The Butterfly Affect" mirror the life stages of a blue morpho butterfly.

They began thinking about butterflies as symbols of change on Osnes’ porch, where they pondered climate communication that doesn’t “regurgitate the same doom and gloom that surrounds climate action,” Fahmy says.

The pair began sewing their own butterfly wings—and broke a few needles along the way. Now, they’re employing the skills of some local artists and sourcing their materials as sustainably as possible.

They’ve brought their symbolis and message to Ireland, Scotland, British Columbia and around the United States, including a U.N. Commission on the Status of Women conference in New York City.

While grounded in feminist research and climate-communication theory, Fahmy says there’s something “beautifully goofy” about dressing up as a butterfly. She said adults can have trouble experiencing joy and being playful, and she relishes watching participants don their costumes.

For Fahmy, there’s also the added satisfaction of taking cues from nature itself as humanity embarks on an unprecedented period of transition—and, hopefully, growth.

“You’re learning from another species,” she says.

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In 'The Butterfly Affect' immersive performance, CU �鶹ӰԺ Professor Beth Osnes guides participants through the butterfly life cycle to inspire people to participate in 'climate solutions.'

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From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 23:10:18 +0000

From renderings to reality: The renovated Roe Green Theatre opens Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 16:10

Allison Nitch

'The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support CU �鶹ӰԺ and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,' says Chancellor Phil DiStefano

With the grand opening of the renovated Roe Green Theatre on Nov. 3, the university has ushered in a new era for CU �鶹ӰԺ’s Department of Theatre & Dance.

To celebrate the theater’s opening, the department hosted a celebratory ribbon-cutting featuring remarks from campus and university leadership—as well as the theater’s namesake, Roe Green—ahead of the opening night performance of Working, A Musical.

The state-of-the-art renovations were made possible with a gift from arts patron, philanthropist and alumna Roe Green (Comm, Thtr’70) in 2021. Formerly known as the University Theatre, the iconic theater was renamed in recognition of Green’s generosity.

At the top of the page: Roe Green, an arts patron, philanthropist and CU �鶹ӰԺ alumna, cuts the ceremonial ribbon for the newly renovated Roe Green Theatre. She is flanked by Chancellor Philip DiStefano (left) and Bud Coleman, the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and associate dean of faculty affairs and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences. Above: Green enjoys a moment at the doors of the theater. (CU �鶹ӰԺ photos by Casey A. Cass)

“The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support CU �鶹ӰԺ and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,” said CU �鶹ӰԺ Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

Innovation by design

Originally built in 1904 as the campus library on what would become the Norlin Quadrangle, the theater’s last major update was completed more than 30 years ago. According to the Campus Master Plan, a major addition in 1985 included new studios and classrooms for the Division of Dance. In 1989, the older sections were renovated, and a new stage house was added to provide a backstage and wings for the existing theater.

This time around, improving the theater-going experience through advanced acoustics and audience comfort were the key renovation goals. This included adding a near-silent air-handling system, improved stage lighting, optimized acoustic-speaker placement and faceted surfaces that clearly reflect sound from the stage to the audience.

“Our brilliant architects from Architectural Workshop not only achieved this goal—they were also able to improve the positions for theatrical lighting and speakers, the air handling and the overall aesthetics of the space,” said Bud Coleman, the Roe Green Professor of Theatre and associate dean of faculty affairs and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“This is modern acoustical science at work—and the impacts are profound,” said Jonathan Spencer, assistant professor of lighting design, in a video tour of the renovated theater.

Embracing the arts

Green’s record-breaking $5 million gift—the largest ever to the Department of Theatre & Dance—was announced in 2021 and welcomed students and the community back to campus after pandemic restrictions.

“The arts are what make us human,” said Green when asked why supporting live performance matters. When budgets get tight, she said, “The first thing the schools take away are the arts. It should be the last thing they take away!”

In addition to the theater’s sweeping physical upgrades, Green’s gift also establishes endowed funds for student scholarships, theater maintenance and “launch” events designed to kick-start students’ careers.

The arts are what make us human,” said Green when asked why supporting live performance matters. When budgets get tight, she said, “The first thing the schools take away are the arts. It should be the last thing they take away!”

“Through her generous philanthropy, many more students, faculty, staff and community members will be able to embrace the life-changing power of theater and dance,” said DiStefano.

One of CU �鶹ӰԺ’s largest arts donors to date, Green previously established the campus's Roe Green Theatre Artist Residency Program and the theater department’s first endowed faculty chair.

Transforming lives, transforming the future

The renovated theater’s opening coincided with the debut of Working, A Musical—a celebration of the unsung heroes of everyday life, such as the schoolteacher, phone operator, waitress, millworker, mason and homemaker. In CU’s production, this classic has been updated for a modern age, featuring new interviews with Colorado workers and new songs by Tony Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as favorites by Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, James Taylor and Micki Grant.

Based on Studs Terkel’s best-selling book of interviews with American workers, the production runs through Nov. 12 and is the 2023–24 Roe Green Production. This program is funded by the Roe Green Visiting Theatre Artist Fund, which allows the Department of Theatre & Dance to invite professional guest artists to campus annually to work with CU �鶹ӰԺ students.

Coleman said Green’s generous gifts are truly an investment in the future of live performance at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

“Roe’s endowment will mean that the theater will continue to have funding to make necessary changes to stay current with new technologies, and will also provide scholarships for students to pursue the study of theater,” he said.

“Roe’s conviction in the power of theater to transform lives inspires us to work harder, work better and work smarter.”

Additional funding support was provided by the CU �鶹ӰԺ Graduate School Professional Master’s Program in Experience Design, the University of Colorado Foundation and the CU �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre & Dance.

"The arts give joy and meaning to life, and I’m so pleased that Roe Green has chosen to support CU �鶹ӰԺ and the surrounding community in such a creative and meaningful way,” said CU �鶹ӰԺ Chancellor Phil DiStefano.

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Making it so

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Oct 2023 22:03:23 +0000

Making it so Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/09/2023 - 16:03

Bradley Worrell

Patrick Stewart of Star Trek (and Shakespeare) fame shared his wit and wisdom Saturday with attendees at the Glenn Miller Ballroom on the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus as part of national book tour

Whether you knew it or not, Saturday was a special day in Colorado. That’s because Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued an official proclamation naming Oct. 7 as “Patrick Stewart Day.”

The governor presented the citation to the actor of stage and screen fame on Saturday before a capacity crowd at the Glenn Miller Ballroom on the �鶹ӰԺ campus, where Stewart was appearing as part of a national book tour to promote his new memoir, Making It So.

Polis told the audience he issued the proclamation because of Stewart’s accomplishments as an actor and philanthropist, as well as an advocate against domestic violence and for women’s rights and the LGBT community.

“When it comes to declaring a day in honor of a true icon and hero to many, we must ‘Make It So,’” declared the governor, who is widely known for his love of science fiction and fantasy books and movies. His proclamation drew cheers from the capacity audience.

At the conclusion of Patrick Stewart’s talk at the Glenn Miller Ballroom on Saturday, fans of Stewart’s posed for a picture in front of the stage holding free copies of his memoir provided by the �鶹ӰԺ Book Store.

Tim Orr, producing artistic director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, led Stewart through a 45-plus-minute conversation touching on his upbringing in rural Yorkshire, England; how he got started in regional theater and his time performing as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; his success in TV and films; and his decision to write a memoir.

“I read your book and I loved it,” Orr said, then asked Stewart, 83, why he wrote it.

“COVID,” the actor deadpanned, to laughter from the audience. He explained that he had previously been asked to write his memoir but had always begged off, saying he was too busy with work.

Seated on a cushioned chair onstage with Orr, Stewart said his prior excuses about being too busy to write a memoir were only partially accurate. In truth, he left school at age 15 to become a full-time actor and said he wasn’t sure he was up to the challenge of writing a book.

Still, he said he always loved reading, and he dedicated his book to the memory of Ruth Wynn Owen and Cecil Dormand, whom he credited as being two inspirational teachers of English and of theater who helped start him on his professional journey.

Stewart’s role in regional theater paved the way for him to join the Royal Theater Company, where he studied and performed with such veterans of the stage as Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley and Ian McKellen.

Orr asked what it was like being a star in the company of such famed thespians, to which Stewart responded, “We didn’t see ourselves that way.”

In retrospect, being timid at that time is one of his deep regrets, Stewart said. If he could today give advice to his 40-year-old self, it would be to “be braver.” That’s also the advice he said he gives today to younger actors, telling them to “be fearless.”

Because of his timidness, Stewart said he didn’t get to know McKellen until much later, when they were in the first X-Men film together. On the studio set, they had adjacent trailers, and went on to become great friends. Stewart added that he considers his performances with McKellen in the plays No Man’s Land and Waiting for Godot personal highlights of his career.

Orr peppered Stewart with questions about Star Trek, including his first thoughts about the TV project (Stewart said he initially believed the show might end after just six months), about Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s thoughts on casting him in the role as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Roddenberry was not a fan, initially, Stewart later learned), regarding famous admirers of the show (which included Frank Sinatra and a former U.S. joint chiefs of staff who asked for permission to sit in the captain’s chair on set), his interactions with his co-stars; and why, after seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and four movies, he was coaxed back into the captain’s chair in 2020 for the Picard TV series (because he came to believe there was still room to tell new stories about the famous starship captain).

As for his future, Stewart said he is still open to taking on roles, including in Shakespearean theater. That prompted Orr to say that he knew of a Shakespearian theater in Colorado.

“Do you have a small theater?” Stewart asked.

“Four hundred seats,” Orr replied.

“Egggggh,” Stewart responded, to laughter. He said that these days he is primarily interested in performing in small, intimate venues.

Stewart’s visit to �鶹ӰԺ was part of a seven-city, cross-country book tour, with most stops in bigger cities, including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

So, why �鶹ӰԺ?

Stewart told the crowd that the decision was deliberate, because his wife, singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, attended the University of Colorado and had previously performed in the Glenn Miller Ballroom. She sang in various bands while in college.

“She was educated here in �鶹ӰԺ. And that is one of the reasons that we are here, because I know what a great impact it had upon her life and how much she loved this place, and the lasting relationships that it created,” he said.

Saturday’s event was sponsored by the �鶹ӰԺ Book Store and the Center of Student Involvement, part of CU student government. Students had the opportunity earlier in the week to sign up for free tickets.

While there were college-age men and women wearing CU attire in attendance, the biggest fans seated in the front rows tended to skew a bit older.

Kristol Cummings and her husband, Craig, drove six hours from Nebraska to attend the event, even though they didn’t have tickets. They said they felt extremely lucky to score additional tickets from people they met by chance in line.

Self-described Trekkies Liz Star, Alice Slaikeu and Stephanie Peterson came from even farther afield, flying from their hometown of Minneapolis to Denver on Thursday. On Friday, they each got matching Star Trek insignia arm tattoos, and on Saturday they arrived at the Glenn Miller Ballroom at 1:30 p.m. for the 6:30 p.m. event to be some of the first people in line for the general-seating event.

The only person to arrive earlier was Dan Valentine of Greeley, who showed up at 8:30 a.m. Valentine said it was an evening he will not soon forget after Stewart personally answered the question he submitted in writing in advance about what advice Stewart would give his younger self, while Valentine was sitting in the front row and was acknowledged by Stewart. Still, did he really need to arrive so early Saturday morning?

Said Valentine, “It was totally, totally worth it.”

Top image: Sarah Coulter/Paramount+

Did you enjoy this article? Subcribe to our newsletter. Passionate about theater? Show your support.

Patrick Stewart of Star Trek (and Shakespeare) fame shared his wit and wisdom Saturday with attendees at the Glenn Miller Ballroom on the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus as part of national book tour.

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Writing a new chapter on a very old play

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 00:51:05 +0000

Writing a new chapter on a very old play Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/12/2023 - 18:51

Doug McPherson

CU �鶹ӰԺ associate professor Tamara Meneghini, a contributor for new textbook on acting, explains why you might give Greek tragedies a second look

Can a play written more than 2,400 years ago about a despairing mother seeking revenge for the deaths of her children teach modern performers anything new about not only their art, but also about conveying broader themes of power and justice?

For Tamara Meneghini, an associate professor in the �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance, Euripides’ play “Hecuba,” written around 424 BCE about a grief-stricken queen of the fallen city Troy, has much to teach performers about the interaction between power and powerlessness in times of extreme conflict. Conveying those themes, however, requires specific physicality and preparation from actors.

Meneghini elaborates on these themes in a chapter written for the new textbook “Building Embodiment: Integrating Acting, Voice, and Movement to Illuminate Poetic Text.” The chapter, titled “Grace, Gravitas and Grounding–Approaching Greek Tragedy through a New Translation of Hecuba,” focuses on helping actors “get close” to the original Greek performance style, Meneghini says.

At the top of the page: "Hecuba's Grief" by Leonaert Bramer, ca. 1630 Above: Tamara Meneghini is an associate professor in the �鶹ӰԺ Department of Theatre and Dance who contributed to a new textbook focused on illuminating poetic texts through acting, voice and movement.

“I also wanted to add some newness–to make the performance style and the text [of ‘Hecuba’] more accessible to actors with a newer translation, so that actors can integrate breath and movement into the poetic text,” she says. “It’s also about giving readers lessons and tools they can use in the rehearsal process.”

Meneghini was chosen to contribute to the textbook by Karen Kopryanski, associate professor and head of voice and speech at Virginia Commonwealth University and one of the book’s editors. She’s known Meneghini since 2005 and says she chose Meneghini to write the chapter because she was inspired by Meneghini's work on the new translation of “Hecuba” that she features in the anthology. She says she felt that others would benefit greatly from her expertise and artistic process.

Meneghini says she spent the better part of a year writing the chapter.

“I’d write some and send it to Karen, and she’d help me sharpen it and improve it. We went back and forth like that for many months,” Meneghini says. “I had been playing with the ideas that ended up in the chapter in my classes for some time, and I felt that when the ideas worked for the students, then I was capturing something that might work for all actors.”

She adds that writing was “a new thing” for her. “I’m an actor and director, but writing was a great exercise for me—it was a lesson in specificity and a lesson in the value of ‘less is more’.”

Meneghini says she was seeing evidence that the chapter was proving helpful to audiences months before it was published. In March, she taught a workshop in San Deigo using contents from the chapter.

"Hecuba Blinding Polymnestor" by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, first half of 18th century

“I actually gave them a copy of the chapter, and we used it during the workshop, and it was well received,” she says. “These were graduate, professional actors, so I believe it will be helpful beyond students who are studying theater in college.”

She had the same result after teaching with information from the chapter at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. “It proved to be useful to the students there, too.”

Meneghini is intimately familiar with Greek tragedy and with “Hecuba.” In 2018, she directed the play at CU �鶹ӰԺ, where nearly 1,000 people saw the performance.

She says she believes there’s much to be gained from watching or reading tragedies, particularly today.

“Our world today is not so unlike the tragedies in literature,” she says. “I think tragedies are also very freeing for actors because they require actors to go to that place of tremendous size—to go to that public domain and to be creative with it and to connect with the themes behind the poetry. I know with ‘Hecuba,’ some people told me they felt transported to a different time and different place.”

She adds that in “Hecuba,” the lead character of the same name faces many misfortunes, including losing her children.

“All these things are done to her, so she has to change her destiny,” she says. “It’s a very relatable story. Her fate was in the hands of the men around her, and the audience has to decide if she’s a good or a bad person. The audience members have to ask themselves if they would kill if someone killed their family.”

Up next for Meneghini is a sabbatical to create a documentary film about Loyd Williamson, the creator and author of The Williamson Technique, a system of training for the body and its role in the communication process; and Deborah Robinson, a renowned theatre movement and period style specialist, choreographer, actor, director and writer.

Did you enjoy this article? Subcribe to our newsletter. Passionate about theatre and dance? Show your support.

CU �鶹ӰԺ associate professor Tamara Meneghini, a contributor for new textbook on acting, explains why you might give Greek tragedies a second look.

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New seminar series explores the nexus of art and activism

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:05:16 +0000

New seminar series explores the nexus of art and activism Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/12/2022 - 10:05

Activism and Engaged Humanities Event Series will last throughout the year, with the first presentation on Sept. 21

From musical performances and poetry to speeches and printmaking, the Art, Activism, and Engaged Humanities series highlights how artistic achievements and performances synergize art and activism.

The series seeks to inspire and encourage participation both in and outside the �鶹ӰԺ community in the engaged humanities, a cross-disciplinary effort to make the humanities more accessible to the public.

“Too often in the humanities, we fail to make visible why and how our research and teaching matter to public life,” says Laurie Gries, an associate professor in writing and rhetoric and communication at CU �鶹ӰԺ and one of the series’ organizers.

Starting late September and lasting through spring, the series will host a range of performances, talks, workshops and community collaborations. These events will bring together students, faculty, staff and local �鶹ӰԺ community members to see, hear and experience various forms of art and allow them to join discussions about community involvement, activism and social issues.

Participants will discover how “to talk about pressing social matters and explore how art, in a broad sense, can work toward social justice in powerful publicly engaged ways,” says Gries.

Events included in the series are as follows:

A two day event on hip hop and social justice

The Politics of Race, Rap and Incarceration: A Conversation with Mark Katz and Mariah Parker aka Linqua Franqa

Date and Time: Sept. 21, 3:30 – 5 p.m.

Location: Center for British and Irish Studies room, Norlin Library, M549

This event is being organized by the Center for Humanities & the Arts and American Music Research Center.

A Musical Performance with Linqua Franqa

Date and Time: Sept. 22, 7 p.m.

Location: The Dairy Arts Center, Gordan Gamm Theatre

This concert (followed by Q&A) is being organized by The American Music Research Center and The WRITE Lab/Program for Writing and Rhetoric. Tickets are free, but registration is required. Please click on this link and click on "Tickets" and fill out all necessary information.

A Workshop with Mariah Parker on Artmaking, Activism and Political Engagement

Date and Time: Sept. 22, 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Location: UMC Room 247

For this event, organized by the WRITE Lab/Program for Writing and Rhetoric, Mariah Parker will speak about the process of becoming politically engaged through the art-making process.

Workshop max: 40 participants. Workshop registration required.

A panel and workshop on fighting for reproductive rights and justice

Virtual Panel of Community Organizers, Lawyers, Scholars, Activists

Date and Time: Oct. 27, 3:30 – 5 p.m.,

Location: Zoom (Registration Required)

Moderator: Samira Mehta (assistant professor, Jewish studies and women and gender studies)

Participating organizations, scholars and community members: Alexis Moncada (outreach coordinator of COLOR: Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights), Arianna Morales (policy manager of New Era Colorado), Dr. Warren Hern (�鶹ӰԺ Abortion Clinic), Jennifer Hendricks (professor of law) and Chenthu Jayton (executive director of Equity Labs).

Workshop with New Era Colorado on Reproductive Rights Advocacy and Organizing in Storytelling

Date and Time: Oct. 27, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

Location: Hellems 241

Facilitators: Aaron Lombardi and Kate Kelly, New Era Colorado

This interactive workshop will dive into the history of organizing in Colorado and the role storytelling has played within the reproductive-rights movement. Participants will explore different mediums of storytelling for advocacy and discuss tools and/or resources to become an advocate in one’s community.

Workshop registration required. Workshop is limited to 30 participants. Organizers will email you to confirm registration and communicate any necessary instructions.

2022 Kwanzaa Celebration

Date and Time: Dec. 1, 2022, times TBD

Location: TBD

Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1 that celebrates the African diaspora, family and community contributions. To celebrate Kwanzaa and to demonstrate its potential for the engaged humanities, the Center for African and African American Studies is hosting a two-part event. Using the seven principles of the Ngozu Saba, a speakers event will feature presentations and performances from students and faculty in CU �鶹ӰԺ community related to research, entrepreneurship and activism. Directly following the event will be a karamu, or feast with traditional foods found in the Black community, which is an essential cultural practice of the holiday.

Printmaking as Activism

The CU Art Museum is hosting a two-day event in February, opening with a lecture by a printmaker or artist whose practice works toward social justice, followed by Q&A and discussion. On the second day of the event, the museum will lead a hands-on workshop on poster making and activism with opportunities for students to participate in art making. The invited artist will be selected from the museum’s current exhibition, Lasting Impressions. Potential artists are Delita Martin, Alison Saar, Rose B. Simpson, Dyani White Hawk and William Villalongo.

More than Words—A Digital Performance Installment

This virtual installment will explore the theme "More than words." Curated by Donna Mejia (associate professor, theatre and dance and Inaugural Chancellor's Scholar in Residence at the Renee Crown Wellness Institute), this program will feature visual and performing artists who use multiple formats of communication, incorporating or expanding beyond words in their activism and public works. This presentation will explore what is conveyed, transmitted and exchanged through art when words may not be enough, or can be augmented by nonverbal intelligence with the same precision as the written word.

Audience members will be invited to engage and open to duende (Spanish): the experience of being moved deeply or activated by the expressive arts.

Note: This event may be followed up by an experiential dance workshop.

Speaking Out against Gun Violence

Edna Lizbeth Chavez is a social justice activist, supporter of immigrant rights, and a survivor of gun violence. In 2018, she headlined and delivered a powerful speech at the March for our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. Chavez has lost many loved ones to gun violence and has become a leading gun control advocate and student voter registration organizer.

For this event, Chavez will give a talk, followed by a workshop for students on Using Voice for Social Justice.

This event is sponsored by the WRITE Lab/Program for Writing and Rhetoric, the English department and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Office for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The event series is hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences' Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, the WRITE Lab within the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, the Department of English, the Division of Student Affairs, the School of Music, the CU Art Museum, the Department of Ethnic Studies, the Center for Arts and Humanities and The Center for African and African American Studies.

Activism and Engaged Humanities Event Series will last throughout the year, with the first presentation on Sept. 21.

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