The 2009-2010 season!
The UMass Amherst Department of Theater is pleased to announce its slate of plays for the 2009-2010 season. Please stay tuned for details about productions and related special events.
The Burial at Thebes
a version of Sophocles' Antigone by Seamus Heaney
In a future time, the citizenry has been pushed to breaking by a fierce civil war. Attempting to consolidate his power in a fragile peace, the newly crowned King Creon takes a harsh stand against dissent, and here, Antigone faces a terrible choice. A brother who died in the war lies unburied outside the city gates. To bury him is treason; to leave his corpse to rot is untenable. Antigone’s integrity and defiance, and her honor, shine like a beacon in Seamus Heaney’s powerful version of Sophocles’ tragedy.
Oct. 29, 30, Nov. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 at 8 p.m.
Oct. 31 and Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.
The Curtain Theater
Visit our website to learn more about Thebes
Related events
First Friday Q&A
This first show of the season also marks the return of
our First Friday series. During the run of each of our shows, we invite
audience members to stay for a free question and answer session with the
artists immediately following the performance. The First Friday Question
and Answer event for this production is scheduled for Oct. 30. See our website
for First Friday and other events scheduled for shows throughout the season.
OEDIPUS IN TEN MINUTES
(OR LESS)
PLAY COMPETITION
The Story of Oedipus got you down?
Here’s your chance lighten it up a little.
WHO- The UMass Dept. of Theater in
conjunction with its production of The
Burial at Thebes.
WHAT - A competition for the best
retelling of the first two plays in
Sophocle’s Oedipus Cycle (Oedipus the
King and Oedipus at Colonus). Plays will
be ten minutes or less. While certain
material must be covered, the emphasis
h e r e i s c r e a t i v i t y a n d s h e e r
entertainment.
WHEN - Scripts (or production outlines,
if the piece is more improvisational or
devised in nature), and Entry Form are
due Friday, Oct. 23. Finalists will be
announced by Wednesday Oct. 28.
The
final scenes will not be performed live as was originally noted; but
will be filmed and post online. Please check back for the link for the
films.
WHERE - All materials may turned into
Jason Lites’ department mailbox.
WHY - Because wouldn’t it be nice to
hear the Oedipus myth and giggle for a
change?
Click to download contest information and an entry form (PDF).
Related resources
Read the blog by the show's creative team for their thoughts on the production.
Marta the Divine
by Tirso de Molina, translation/adaptation by Harley Erdman
Funny, sexy subterfuge is the order of the day in Tirso de Molina’s Marta the Divine. Tirso, who lived at the same time as Shakespeare, is one of Spain’s greatest playwrights, but in this country we don’t know much about him. With this vivid new translation/adaptation of a comedy that feels utterly contemporary, the Department of Theater is proud to present the world premiere of this play in English. Like many a Renaissance-era heroine with moxie, Marta is a clever young woman who must resort to trickery to be with the man she loves — in her case, she pleads a religious conversion. What will happen as she maneuvers those around her so she can get her way? Only one way to find out…
Nov. 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 at 8 p.m.
Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.
Special Student Matinee at 10 a.m. on Nov. 18
The Rand Theater
Keep up with the production on the Marta the Divine production site and blog
Related events
First Friday Q&A
During the run of each of our shows, we invite audience
members to stay for a free question and answer session with the artists
immediately following the performance. The First Friday Question and
Answer event for this production is scheduled for Oct. 30. See our website
for First Friday and other events scheduled for shows throughout the
season.
Academic honors for Marta!
Because our production of Marta the Divine is the first ever in English, there is considerable academic and theater world interest in the work translator Harley Erdman has done on the production.
A paper by Erdman and production director Gina Kaufmann, MARTA THE DIVINE ON STAGE TODAY: REFUNDICION AND CASTING ANEW, has been accepted for the 2010 Out of the Wings Symposium, 'Spanish Golden Age Drama in Translation and Performance,' at Oxford University in March 2010.
They both will be traveling to Oxford to give the MARTA presentation.
That same month, the entire production will be traveling to El Paso's Chamizal Memorial to take part in the park's Siglo de Oro festival. The festival is a celebration of Spanish Golden Age Theater, and Marta the Divine will be performed in early March, where it'll be seen by an international audience.
Related resources
Read the Marta the Divine Study Guide page.
Curiosity
puppetry devised by Miguel Romero and students, music by Eric Sawyer
Made possible in part by Live In Concert,
Inc.
Suitable for ages 7 and up
Made possible in part by Live In Concert, Inc. Suitable for ages 7 and up Pandora discovers a mysterious box hidden at the back of a cabinet. “Don’t open,” it says — but curiosity is a powerful force. Puppetry artist Miguel Romero and his students craft a new puppet theater piece inspired by the music of Eric Sawyer. A trio of singers generates a live soundscape to a series of provocative vignettes based on the age-old myth liberally leavened with compelling flights of visual fancy.
Dec. 8, 9, 10 at 8 p.m.
Dec. 11 at 7 and 9 p.m.
Dec. 12 at 2 and 4 p.m.
The Curtain Theater
1905
a collaboration with The Misa Table
Made possible in part by a CHFA Visioning
Grant
For the second year in a row, the Department of Theater has received
a Visioning
Grant from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts to develop new work.
In this case, the department is partnering with The Misa Table, a company
that creates theater pieces through collective research, writing, and
studio
composition, to mount a production of its innovative new multi-media
project, 1905. This piece combines theater, live music, and film to tell
a
story of a group of immigrants from Russia, Germany, and Mexico coming
together in rural Nebraska in 1905 to create a new community.
Through personal stories, the play deftly outlines the larger story of
the rapidly
evolving American society of the time, with new ideas pushing against
old world
traditions.
Jan. 22, 23 at 8 p.m.
Jan. 24 at 2 p.m.
The Curtain Theater
1905 Production team biographies
Paul Besaw
Paul Besaw (The Misa Table Co-Artistic Director/1905 Choreographer)
is an independent choreographer with a primary interest in developing
original dance/theatre and his work has been seen throughout the US.
He is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of The Misa Table, a
performance collective devoted to original, collaboratively devised theatre
projects. He is also the founder and Artistic Coordinator of The Solo
Workshop, a multidisciplinary group of dance, music, theatre, film, writing,
and visual artists focused on solo performance creation. He has performed
in the work of numerous choreographers, including Jan Van Dyke, John
Gamble, Sally Bomer, Jack Arnold, Kayvon Pourazar, Susan Levine, and
Sherone Price and has been a guest choreographer for Dale Scholl Dance/Art,
the Sacramento Black Art of Dance, and numerous colleges and
universities. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Dance at
The University of Vermont, hired in 2006 to build a new academic dance
program. A New Hampshire native, Paul received his BA in Theatre from
Keene State College and his MFA in Dance from The University of North Carolina
at Greensboro.
Jonathan Fielding
Jonathan is very excited to have the opportunity to work
on the 1905 project
in Amherst. Performance credits include the Broadway productions of The
Seagull at the Walter Kerr and Pygmalion with
Roundabout Theatre Company. He recently performed for the grand re-opening
of the Ford's Theatre in DC in The Heavens
are Hung in Black commemorating the 200th aniversary of
Abraham Lincoln's birth. NYC credits include Kicker (Triptych
Theatre),
The History of Julia Pastrana…,
Leonce and Lena (Amphibian). Regional:
The Bald Soprano, Laughing Wild, Sexual
Perversity in Chicago, Mistakes Madeline Made (W.H.A.T.), Below
the Belt (Amphibian - FW Weekly Critics
Pick-Best Actor), Lincolnesque (TX - Circle Theater), Rough
Crossing (Public
Theatre of Maine). TV: Guiding Light.
Jonathan was a voice artist for the dialect text book Classically
Speaking by Patricia Fletcher. MFA: Rutgers,
Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Michael Hoch
Michael has worked in the theater world for 25
years as a producer, dramaturge, actor, and director. He co-founded the
Misa Table / Triptych Theatre in 2003, whose aim is to develop new works
and re-imagine existing works through a multidisciplinary collaborative
development process. Along with 1905,
Triptych has produced over a dozen off-Broadway and regional projects
in the last 5 years, including “Kicker” by
Robert Simonson in New York, NY, Mud by
Maria Irene Fornes in Los Angeles, CA, and Mistakes
Madeline Made by
Elizabeth Meriwether in Boulder, CO. Michael is also currently a board
member and producer with The Lobster Theater Project in San Francisco,
and recently produced Pure Shock Value by
Matt Pelfrey and two sketch comedy shows, Killing
My Lobster Hits Highway 101 and KML
Patronizes the Arts. In the mid-1990s in Boston, he co-founded the
Mill 6 Collaborative with fellow Misa Table member, Jason Lambert, which
continues to mount comic productions of new and existing work. Michael
has an MBA from Northeastern University and BA in Literature from Boston
University.
Jason Lambert
Jason Lambert has spent the last
twenty years studying, making, performing and teaching theatre. He has
worked as a professional actor and theatre maker with organizations
throughout the country, including Annex Theatre (Seattle, company member),
Mill 6 (Boston, co-founder), Theatre de la Jeune Lune, (Minneapolis,
artistic fellow – regional
Tony 2005), and Penguin Rep (New York, performer and co-literary manager). A
founder of the Misa Table, a collaborative theatre making workshop
begun in 2004, Jason continues to act, write, and direct, and to explore
and facilitate processes of collaborative theatre making. He currently
teaches English and Theatre at Contoocook Valley Regional High School†in
Peterborough, NH, and in addition to many artist teaching residencies
in public and charter schools, Jason has taught theatre at Keene State†College
in New Hampshire and at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Jason
has a BA in History from Yale and an MFA in Acting from Rutgers University’s
Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Luis Rodriguez
Born in San Juan Puerto Rico, started studying music at the
age of 16.
Graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a BA on Humanities/
Music concentration. Co-founder of the Afro-Caribbean music group Iyawo
(2000) and founder of Nudo (a singer-songwriter project fusing elements
of jazz and afro Caribbean rhythms, 2006). As a composer and music
performer have worked with several ballet and theater companies including
Ballet Lili Castro, Ballet La Perla, Ballet Municipal de San Juan,
choreographer Patricia Hernandez and theater director Rosa Luisa Marquez,
Desideratum inc. (theater company) and others. As a singer songwriter
have played in United States, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela,
Colombia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Spain.
Co-founder of Taller Ce the first cultural cooperative in Puerto Rico
(2003).
Matthew Walley
Matt has a varied performance background with experience
as a stunt man in Tucson, an “aerial puppeteer” with Mabou Mines
in New York City, and as the co-creator of his own Shakespeare theatre.
He recently graduated with his MFA from Dell’Arte--the International
School of Physical Theatre.
Sarah Wiggin
Sarah is a professional actor and director who has worked in
Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC. Sarah earned her MFA in Acting & Directing
from the University of Arizona. Sarah continues working toward her professional
certification in the Alexander Technique at the Urbana Center for the
Alexander Technique where she is studying with Joan and Alex Murray.
Sarah is a proud working member of the Actor’s Equity Association
(AEA) and the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG). She has worked professionally
with theatres such as The Shakespeare Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Company, Ford’s Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Washington Shakespeare
Company, and The Folger Theatre. Her on-camera work includes Law & Order:
SVU and God’s and Generals, as well as independent film,
industrial, and print work. Sarah directed professionally at Venus Theatre
and assisted Aaron Posner on his Helen Hayes Award Winning production
of The
Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Folger Theatre. Her own production of Picasso
at the Lapin Agile earned Baltimore City Paper’s #4 slot in their “Top
Ten: the Year in Theatre” list. Sarah is also an Assistant Professor
of Acting and Directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Missouri
State University. This fall she will
be directing Macbeth as part of their production season.
Spring Awakening: A Sin of Omission
by Frank Wedekind, adaptation by Toby Bercovici and Emily Denison
Spring Awakening is a devastating yet magical play, full of unexpected surprises. Based on the groundbreaking work by Frank Wedekind, this adaptation highlights the shocking modernity of the 1890 script. It follows a group of schoolchildren on their search, often unsuccessful, for the truth about love, sex, and the meaning of their lives. Incorporating dance and masks to tell the story, this production rivetingly lays out the life-and-death struggles of child versus adult, authority versus freedom, and sexuality versus morality.
Feb.
25, 26, 27, March 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 at 8 p.m.
Feb. 27, March 6 at 2 p.m.
The Curtain Theater
Little Shop of Horrors
by Alan Mencken and Howard Ashman
We’re excited to present this show for the same reasons that have
kept it one of the most enduringly popular musicals in the American
theater repertoire: a score that is simple, edgy, and often
touching, a book that is scathingly funny, and a bloom unlike
any other. Little Shop of Horrors is a story about people
trapped by finances and circumstances who are forced,
whether in their careers or love lives, to make difficult decisions
and live with them. However, as so often happens,
these choices come back to bite them — literally, in this
case, thanks to the ravenous appetites of one very large
houseplant.
April 15, 16, 22, 23, 24 at 8 p.m.
April 17 and 24 at 2 p.m.
Special Student Matinee at 10 a.m. on April 21
The Rand Theater
Guest artist Andrew Lichtenberg, Musical Director
for the production
Andrew Lichtenberg spent his first summer in Amherst in 1973, musical directing
Jacques Brel for a production presented by UMass at the Provincetown Playhouse.
Among the shows he has musical directed are Little Night Music, Candide,
Trial by Jury, The Cotton Patch Gospel for the Wanut Street Theatre, and
The Four Little Pages for a tour of the US National Park Service, as well
as The Caucasian Chalk Circle at UMass in 2007 for which he also composed
the score. He has composed original music for many plays including A Streetcar
Named Desire, Miss Julie, Arms and The Man, Love's Labours Lost for UMass,
MacBeth and A Moon for the Misbegotten for the Cleveland Play House, and
As You Like It for the Walnut Street Theatre. He is the composer of 8 original
musicals created with Dorothy Johnson for New Salem's 1794 Meetinghouse-
the latest of which, Who Killed Doc Robin will be presented in September
2009. He has an MFA in Directing from UMass, a BA in Music and Theatre from
Case Western Reserve University and has lived in the Amherst area for the
past 20 years.
Play-In-A-Day '10
by various
The best in fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants
productions! We give a halfdozen
writers the night to create
brand-new works. Come morning, we
hand the pages off to the directors,
actors, and stagehands who have
until 8 p.m. to figure out a way to
bring those works to life on the stage.
It’s nerve-wracking, it’s exhausting,
it’s hard — and it’s an absolute blast!
Join us as we re-inaugurate this popular
benefit event for the Department
of Theater with a crew of artists including
talented students, loyal community
supporters, and a familiar
name or two from among our alumni.
May 8 at 8 p.m.
The Rand Theater
Tickets
- $15, $7 students/seniors
- Call 545-2511 or 1-800-999-UMAS
- Visit the Box Office Online
Cancellation and Closing Policy
- In the case of inclement weather or emergency, the Department of Theater follows the University's closing policy. If UMass Amherst closes, Department of Theater events including performances and special events will be cancelled. The Department of Theater may also cancel events during the evening or on the weekend. If inclement weather is expected, check this page or call 545-3490 or 545-6808 for updates regarding our status. If a ticketed event is cancelled, please contact the box office at 545-2511 when the university reopens to exchange your ticket for one to a later performance, as available.
