On Saturday, Jan 30, at 1 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live, Rebecca Meacham (English, Humanities), Alan Kopischke (Arts Management, Theater) and Kelli Strickland, executive director of the Weidner Center for Performing Arts, will discuss how the arts sustain humanity during our darkest times. The event kicks off the NEA Big Read: Door County’s two-week program for Station Eleven, a post-pandemic novel by Emily St. John Mandel that centers on a traveling theater company, a comic book, and a museum of civilization. Attendance is free and virtual here.
Students can audition for The Laramie Project production by Jan. 27
UW-Green Bay Theatre and Dance announces auditions for the Spring 2021 production of The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. The production will be directed by Rebecca Stone Thornberry.
UW-Green Bay students from any major or discipline are encouraged to audition. The director specifically encourages auditions from students of all communities, including BIPOC actors, actors of all abilities, trans and gender non-conforming actors, and other members of historically and currently marginalized communities that are not well represented or are misrepresented onstage.
The Play
The Laramie Project is based on interviews conducted by the Tectonic Theater Project after the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. The incident was covered extensively by the press and the company travelled to Laramie and interviewed residents of the town.
Casting
Director Rebecca Stone Thornberry is looking to cast a diverse group of flexible actors who can each play multiple roles and create characters who are physically and vocally distinct. The production will be recorded and edited to be streamed online in April 2021.The rehearsal period is scheduled to begin (virtually) in February 2021 with plans to record in University Theatre on the Green Bay Campus in late March and / or early April.
Auditions
There are two ways to audition.
1) by scheduling a virtual audition with the director by Jan. 27 or
2) by uploading a video of your audition to TEAMS (or your own YouTube or similar site) by Jan. 27.
Auditions will consist of prepared monologues from the play. Perusal Script and Audition Monologues can be found at:
Theatre and Dance Online Callboard
Casting will be announced by Jan. 29. The cast list will be emailed to everyone who auditions and will also be posted on the Theatre and Dance blog by Jan. 29.
If you have questions about the production, the auditions, or need help submitting files, please contact Rebecca Stone Thornberry (stonethr@uwgb.edu).
NEA Big Read launches virtually in Door county with help of UW-Green Bay faculty/staff
Door County Library is launching its newest NEA Big Read festival this upcoming week with all events being available virtually to the public for free, including a Keynote discussion from author Emily St. John Mandel set for February 11 at 7 pm. The library received an NEA Big Read grant along with financial support from the Women’s Fund Endowment of Door County, Carol Coryell Charitable Fund, Adele and Ed Douglass Charitable Fund, and the Kerley Family Foundation of the Door County Community Foundation, Inc. and was underwritten by the Door County Library Foundation, Door County Medical Center and the Friends of the Door County Libraries, all supporting the community reading program featuring the novel “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel.
Panelists include: Rebecca Meacham author of two award-winning fiction collections as well as professor of English and Humanities and founding member of UntitledTown Book and Author Festival. Kelli Strickland the Executive and Artistic Director of the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts. Alan Kopischke a university lecturer in both Theater and Arts Management and founding member of the Big Read Door County among other organizations and festivals. And Bryan J. Carr an Associate Professor in the Communication, Information Science, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies programs at UW-Green Bay specializing in Mass Media and Game Studies and is one of the co-directors of the University’s Center for Games and Interactive Media.
Source: NEA Big Read launches virtually in Door county – Door County Pulse
Prof. Yadav responded to PQ Common Design Project 2021
UW-Green Bay Prof. Dinesh Yadav (Theatre & Dance) was the expert respondent for the PQ STUDIO—Common Design Projects—Autumn Edition, an educational platform of the Prague Quadrennial. Students were asked to create designs for the play ‘White Plague’ by Czech writer Karel Capek and present the designs digitally. Twelve projects were selected out of the thirty-eight schools from twelve different parts of the world signed up for the autumn semester. The jury, composed of PQ Artistic Director Markéta Fantová, PQ Studio Curator Patrick Du Wors, and artist and lecturer Sophie Jump, selected the twelve projects. All of them received feedback from experts—respondents Katrina Lindsay, Juli Balázs, Yadav, and Hasan Zahirović. See the screenshot.
Prof. Yadav delivers lecture on The Role of Performing Arts in Life
“Bhiwani (Danik Bhaskar)—The ways in which we express ourself and our feeling is performing arts, therefore every one of us has the potential to perform on stage. The one who understands the nuances of performing has capacities to embrace life to its fullest, this is to say by UW-Green Bay Prof. Dinesh Yadav (Theatre and Dance), who was delivering a lecture on The Role of Performing Arts in Life at Chaudhari Bansi Lal University, Haryana, India. Yadav was featured in two of the largest Hindi Daily of India, Danik Bhaskar, and Danik Jagran.”
Warren Gerds/Critic at Large: Review: Youth drive virtual ‘Christmas by the Bay’ in Marinette
MARINETTE, Wis. (WFRV) – Young people get a chance to do their performance thing in a different format in the fourth annual “Christmas by the Bay.”The show by University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Marinette Campus, Children’s Theatre this year is a pay-to-view virtual presentation until Dec. 20 at this address: uwgb.edu/christmas-by-the-bay.The 45-minute show is filled with Christmas favorites sung by an age range as found in a one-room schoolhouse, with the teacher joining in, too.The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has created many hybrids on the performance scene in Northeastern Wisconsin, and this is another in league of its own.
Source: Warren Gerds/Critic at Large: Review: Youth drive virtual ‘Christmas by the Bay’ in Marinette
Peninsula Players Theatre Presents IT SOUNDS LIKE A CHRISTMAS CAROL A Holiday Audio Play
Peninsula Players Theatre has announced, in collaboration with Dirt Hills Productions, “It Sounds Like a Christmas Carol” by Neil Brookshire and Cassandra Bissell will be available on the theater’s website beginning on Tuesday, December 15.”It Sounds Like a Christmas Carol” is an original audio play that features the talents of Peninsula Players Theatre’s veteran performers Neil Brookshire, Cassandra Bissell and Noah Simon (UW-Green Bay associate lecturer, Theatre and Dance) with special sound effects by Jeff Rice. The audio production will be available on www.peninsulaplayers.com through Thursday, December 31, 2020. Listening is free; donations are welcome.
Source: Peninsula Players Theatre Presents IT SOUNDS LIKE A CHRISTMAS CAROL A Holiday Audio Play
Christmas by the Bay tickets now on sale
The UW-Green Bay, Marinette Campus Children’s Theatre presents the fourth annual Christmas by the Bay on Dec. 17 through 20, 2020. This virtual public event grants 24-hour access to the performance of your choice, once purchased by the viewer. Bundles are available for all four performances as well.
This year the musical holiday extravaganza will be in a virtual format where we bring the holiday spirit to you. Join talented singers as they share holiday favorites. Directed by Children’s Theatre Director Brittany Welch and produced by the Marinette Office of Continuing Education, this holiday showcase will get you in the holiday spirit. Visit this website to get your tickets. Every ticket purchased helps support the area’s long-standing community theatre.
Warren Gerds/Critic at Large: Review: ‘Faithfall’ a tight, complex play on a mission of insights
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – A nun commits suicide. The nun has a checkered past. The nun has an admired recent present.
Her estranged biological sister and her colleague/priest try to sort out the nun and themselves as they bob roughly in her wake.
That’s the gist of “Faithfall,” a tightly-wrapped play that is in its world-premiere presentation by way of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Theatre and Dance and COVID-19.
Without the coronavirus, Thomas Michael Campbell’s play would not have been forced into a situation where valuable additional accesses are gained online. A preview segment introduces the players, the playwright and informational background materials. A post-show segment contains four experts speaking about the complexities of the suicidal, with the playwright noting his motivation:
“Let’s use theater to talk about things we don’t want to talk about.”
The play is theater with a purpose.
See Warren Gerds review at wearegreenbay.com.
Reminder: Only For Now premiering Dec. 10
Only For Now is a musical revue featuring an ensemble of theatre and dance students. The revue is loaded with Broadway hits such as Avenue Q, Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, Hairspray, Les Miserables and more. The selections were chosen to highlight what it means to be a performing artist and inspire hope for the future.
*Please note, this performance contains strong language and adult content- recommended for mature audiences.
Only For Now will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 at 7 p.m. The performance will be available for viewing until Tuesday, Dec. 15. The performance can be viewed on the Weidner Center’s YouTube site.