Summary of events
The beauty of festivals, said Professor Judyie Al-Bilali, who conceived the idea for the Rights of Spring, is that
they serve as a way for a culture to rehearse, renew and if necessary, revise its core myths—to examine its values
such as liberation, community, and heroism. All of the events that make up a festival, collectively, tell a story about the people who participate in it. This festival, coming after a hard year of massive social upheaval, served as a statement from a culture that was redefining what was important.
The festival kicked off with an invocation that included Earth!, an outdoor installation celebrating our planetary
home and acknowledging the stewardship of the areas’ indigenous peoples. We will present two live outdoor events, Monuments of the Future and Devising a Future Together, created by teams of artists who are responding to the unique times in which we find ourselves with exciting cross-disciplinary work, as well as a virtual event, COVEN-19, that is reimagined for Beltane after a memorable premiere at the Samhain full moon at Halloween.
Collectively, these events and the other pieces on the schedule are focused about creating community by any means available—in Zoom rooms, in conversations, through a unified appreciation of beautiful work. They represented a redefining of what we fit under the definition of theater — those aforementioned Zoom rooms, performances created by teams creating from scratch, scenic installations that spread out across the campus, web-based design presentations that encompass beauty, environmental awareness, and the wonder of old-fashioned story-telling.
The Rights of Spring Festival came out of a desire to make a statement of celebration and joy, and to make a case for how indispensable all the members of the department are, including faculty, staff, and students. The festival celebrated theater by offering both the type of online events the department had offered during the height of the pandemic as well as taking the first tentative steps toward a “normal” theater with limited capacity outdoor (and indoor) events. We even folded in collaborations with other organizations. For all events, but notably for the in-person events, audiences repeatedly expressed their joy at participating in theatrical events. Even when weather prompted re-schedulings or venue changes, which might reasonably have prompted complaints in the past, audience members
were happy to go with the flow because they just wanted to see theater.
Video Archives
A playlist of videos captures the ambience of select outdoor events, as well as those online events that could be recorded and shared for posterity, and can be viewed here.
Presentations and Events
Earth!, Innovation, Atlas
April 24, outdoors on the UMass campus (rescheduled from April 22)
Event description: Taking pride of place beside the Campus Pond just in time for Earth Day, this
striking piece of public, activist art will raise awareness about ways to address climate change. Earth!
is a transdisciplinary project between Theater technology and Environmental Conservation and the
School of Public Policy students, who have creatively applied technology, science, and art to technically
design and fabricate a 24’ diameter planet earth structure that is also a model of sustainability, as the
construction materials are meant to be reused in future projects.
Monuments of the Future
April 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and May 2 on the UMass campus
Event description: Seven beings rise up from the earth, Seven symbols move across a campus. Seven
spokes on a wheel take us through the never-ending cycle of change. Monuments of the Future is an
interactive installation and performance collaboration between theater artists across disciplines. Join
them as they journey across our campus and reimagine what it means to create images designed to
speak across time.Our opening combined Earth!, an Invocation by students, and a parade led by one of the Monuments.
We were able to capitalize on a beautiful spring evening to draw a crowd of not just intentional
audience members, but many who were outside on campus and viewed or participated in some
aspects of the event. Monuments required the greatest nimbleness of our creative teams and
company, as we were bedeviled by wind and rain on several days which prompted us to change dates
or move venues. Faculty, staff, and students alike deserved kudos for their unflagging commitment
to helping the show go on and pivoting at a moments’ notice to accomplish whatever needed doing
— Production Manager Julie Fife in particular was critical in keeping all wheels turning. Kudos, also,
to Maryanne Steele, Assistant Director Campus Safety and Fire Prevention at Environmental Health
and Safety, who was extremely responsive in working with us to adjust what we were presenting, and
even enabled us to move a handful of events to an indoor, timed presentation.
Audience: Collectively, Monuments of the Future (including Invocation, Earth!, Atlas), was attended
by an estimated 280 in-person audience members
Devising a Future Together
April 23, 24, & 25 at 3 p.m. outdoors on the UMass
campus
Event description: The company of Devising a Future Together invites you to experience the culmination of
their exploration of what it means to come together in joy and community when safety demands we be
physically apart. Join us for an outdoor theatrical and musical celebration!
A team including a director, designers, music director and performers devised from scratch this
play with music which mused on the various demands, difficulties, and realizations the group had
experienced over a year of dealing with a pandemic.
Audience: Devising a Future Together was attended by 73 in-person audience members.
COVEN-19, or, Magicks for Unprecedented Times — Beltane
Produced by Maegan Clearwood and Percival Hornak
Performed April 29, 30 and May 1
Event description: COVEN-19 is a community of artistic witches who are called upon to own our individual and collective power, make meaning out of utter chaos, and manifest tangible, seismic change. This spring, the Coven will collectively create a process-driven ritual in honor of Beltane, or May Day. The time is ripe for magick-making.
COVEN-19 returned to the virtual stage in time for May Day with a revised ritual. Audience members were invited to practice self care and engage to set boundaries and define goals over the Zoom online performance.
Audience: With some screens providing access for entire families and room groups, our best guesstimate is that we welcomed 151 people to the live-only event.
A Gathering of Grandmothers
Presented live online via Zoom May 2 at 4:30 p.m.
Event description: Via a mix of recorded and live material, Brown Paper Studio presents a collage of conversations with elder Black women of the Five Colleges and community about the history of New Africa House and the impact of Black culture in the Valley.
The penultimate event of the festival was an online event with recorded interviews with elders of the local Black community and the students who had interviewed them and shared their thoughts about identity.
Audience: Between live and on-demand viewings, we are estimating 87 viewers.
Studio Showcases
Event description: We’re thrilled to be showcasing the work that’s coming out of some of our classes as part of the Festival. Some projects will be pre-recorded or hosted live on Zoom, while some will be presented in person on the UMass Campus. Here’s what we have so far, but stay tuned for additions and more details as works emerge from the creativity of our students and their faculty mentors! One of the benefits of the “container” of the festival is that is allowed us to more prominently share the end-of-semester works that are not usually part of a production season, including class projects and thesis presentations. Audiences were delighted to stream podcasts, audio plays, attend live events, and view exhibits of design work. Due to the formats of these events this is the category for which our viewership numbers are the least precise, but we estimate that 50 attended the live events and at least that many more likely viewed the on-demand items.
• Voices from the Void
— Voice over students working with Professor Elisa Gonzales offer a pre-recorded online presentation of folktales and myths. Premiering online on April 26 at 7:30 p.m.
• The Freedom Artist Project
— A cast of 12 performers working with Professors Gilbert McCauley
and Paul Dennis, doing excerpts from The Freedom Artist, by Ben Okri. To be performed live on the UMass campus on April 28 at 5 p.m.
• Directing II presentations
— Projects showcasing work by students of Professor Gina Kaufmann, to be performed live on the UMass campus on April 30 at 2 p.m.
• RESPIRATION.
— Students working with Professor Judyie Al-Bilali and graduate student Tatiana Rodriguez collaborate to create a performance that mixes live online and pre-recorded elements, on April 27 at 5 p.m.
• Podcasting
— Professor Amy Altadonna and graduate student Bianca Dillard are guiding students through creating podcasts that capture the experience of creating the festival, exploring its social and
theatrical goals, and reflecting on its impact.
From our Graduate student Designers:
The Cunning Little Vixen
Premiering online April 23 at 2 p.m.
Storytelling and sustainability fold into a vivid presentation in costume designer Mikayla Reid’s work, as she creates character designs for this vibrant Czech opera while also investigating the viability of natural, more environmentally-friendly dyes.
Made possible in part by a grant from the UMass Arts Council.
Notre Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Premiering online April 23 at 2 p.m.
Scenic and costume designer Calypso Michelet and lighting designer Sydney Becker use new technologies such as 3D modeling, 3D printing, and laser cutting to bring to life a world that bridges past and present in their vision of the French musical, Notre Dame de Paris.
WORD! Festival
Presented live online via Zoom on May 1 at 2 p.m.
Through the WORD! Festival professors in the Five Colleges identify and nurture student writers who engage in multicultural themes and aesthetics. Our efforts build community between and among the departments of theater and the communities of color on each respective campus as we take turns hosting this celebration of new work. The playwrights who present their work receive an award of $100 from the Five College James Baldwin Memorial Fund. We are proud and excited to host the 2021 online version of this event as part of our Rights of Spring Festival this year.