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Department
Updates Check out the inside scoop on faculty, students, staff, and more. See the Alumni Spotlight page for news on alumni. Mason Gross School of the
Arts Faculty Activities and Accomplishments Theater Arts Israel Hicks continues his cycle of directing August Wilson’s plays for The Denver Center Theater Company. Gem of the Ocean Wilson’s most recent play opened in Denver on January 19 and runs through February 25. Lee Blessing is being considered for a nomination for the mid-career award for The PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Awards for Drama on behalf of Simon Lew, Producing Director and Dramaturg for The Fountain Theater, in Los Angeles CA. Professor Blessing’s A Body of Water was named best new play by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The play premiered last summer at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN. F. Mitchell Dana was the lighting designer on the Kentucky Opera productions of Little Women and The Barber of Seville. Little Woman opened on January 27 and 29 and The Barber of Seville opens on February 24 and 26. The Kentucky Opera is the Nation’s 12th oldest opera operating in Louisville, KY. Visual Arts Gerry Beegan is in a group show entitled Trigger: Projects Initiated by Graphic Designers. The exhibition is at the Center Gallery, Fordham University, New York City. The exhibition dates are January 18-February 3. Martha Rosler has a one-person exhibition entitled Martha Rosler’s Library in New York City. The exhibition contains thousands of books which form a portrait of the Artist’s mind. The exhibition will close April 15. It was cited in The New York Times on Friday, January 13.
Lauren Ewing, Diane Neumaier and Martha Rosler had works in the exhibition, Indelible Marks: Framing Art and Feminism at the Mason Gross Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ. Dance Randy James Dance Works is in residence at the Parkway Elementary School in Ewing from January through March presenting workshops to over 2,500 children and providing in-service training for teachers. The residency is sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Met for Life Program. The company continued their two-month residency in the East Brunswick School District during the month of January. This program is sponsored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Music
Min Kwon performed as a guest artist at 2006 Winter Festival, "Many Faces of Mozart" presented by the New Jersey Symphony on January 10 in Bickford Theatre in Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey. Professor Kwon performed Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio with principal clarinet Karl Herman and principal viola Frank Forerster of the New Jersey Symphony and Mozart and Salieri arias with Mezzo-Soprano Christine Abraham. Professor Kwon also presented lecture performances at the 4th Annual International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Hawaii held in January. Two proposals accepted for presentations were "Piano Concerto Extravaganza: From Bach to Rachmaninoff" and "One Genius to Another: Mozart Meets Liszt."
Frederick Urrey was featured as tenor soloist in a performance of Bach Cantata 147 Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben with the Voices of Ascension under the direction of conductor Dennis Keene on January 17 at the Church of the Ascension in New York City. The concert was recorded for broadcast on New York radio station WQXR. Professor Student Activities and Accomplishments Visual Arts Joseph Nanashe’s (MFA) video, Shoot was screened on Sunday, January 29 in a short Film program titled Dishing out the Pain at the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival. Dance
University DanceWorks, the university performing dance company, performed at the East Brunswick VoTech School in East Brunswick, New Jersey on January 19 and at the Morris County VoTech High School in Denville, New Jersey on January 26. Music Philip Alongi, tenor, performed opera arias at the 40th Anniversary Gala Concert of the New Jersey State Opera at the Papermill Playhouse last fall in Milburn, New Jersey.
Academic Programs
Theater Arts
The first show of Rutgers Theater Company’s spring season was Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh. The play was directed by MFA III director Douglas Hall and featured MFA III actors Wesley Broulik and David Carl. MFA II actor Christopher Halladay and BFA IV Natalie Knepp rounding out the cast. The set was designed by guest designer Robin Vest, lights by MFA II Ben Hagen, costumes by MFA II Ellen P. Stockbridge and sound by Shane Rettig. Alison Roberts (MFA II) was the stage manager. The play opened on January 27 and ran through February 4 in the New Theater. Public/Community Service; Outreach
Theater Arts The Theater Arts Department is again sponsoring the annual Speech and Theater Association of New Jersey (STANJ) competition January 28 on Douglass Campus. The competition brings hundreds of high school students from about 50 New Jersey high school drama programs to our facilities to compete for the coveted Governor’s Awards for several different theater categories. Visual Arts Emma Amos, chair, was a juror in Atlanta, GA on January 13. Professor Amos was there to serve on a panel to select a young or mid-career African American artist or art historian/scholar for the High Museum of Art’s David Driskell Award. Grants and Fundraising Activities Dance
John Evans & Dancers received a $2058 grant from the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission towards a presentation of the company’s work in Middlesex County in 2006. Conferences, Seminars, Other Events Visual Arts Thomas Nozkowski and John Yau were guest lecturers at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture, New York City on the evening of January 18. Jacqueline Thaw curated an exhibition at the Center Gallery, Fordham University, New York City. The title of the Exhibition is Trigger: Projects Initiated by Graphic Designers. The dates for this exhibition are January 18-February 3, 2006. Music Music Performances February 10 – Music at Kirkpatrick Chapel, noon February 17 – Rutgers Symphony Band, Darryl Bott, conductor, 8 pm February 21 – Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, Ralph Bowen, director, Nicholas Music Center, 8 pm February 24 – Music at Kirkpatrick Chapel, noon February 25 – Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, Kynan Johns, conductor, Nicholas Music Center, 8 pm Other (e.g., New Appointments; Alumni Relations; Staff Activities; New Websites)
Theater Arts Raymond McAnally (MFA) was recently cast in The Order of the Serpentine which will air soon on Spike TV. Jessica Myhr (MFA) and Caitlin Mulhern (BFA) appeared in House of Desires at The Storm Theatre at St. Mary’s in Times Square, NYC. The show written by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a Spanish nun during the Spanish golden age, opened on January 6 and ran through Januray 28. The Village Voice and The New York Times both reviewed the play. The Village Voice states “staging (in a church, aptly) leaves no buckle unswashed, with pratfalls, sword fights, and shtick flying by so quickly, it's a miracle the cast can negotiate Sor Juana's baroque verse. They breathe life into what might have been a musty relic”. The New York Times says “Caitlin Mulhern as Leonor, a character with a fondness for overdramatizing, gives her ridiculous laments a nice, understated spin.” Pandora Scooter (MFA) performed her vocal fireworks at The Woman’s Coffee House at the Pride Center of New Jersey. Pandora’s new solo show Samuraization was presented at Stage Left Studios in New York City on January 13, 21, 29 and on February 3, 11, and 19. Leslie Farrell and Patrick Frederick (MFA) both appeared in Goner produced by Word Monger. The play opened on January 7 and ran through January 28 at The Kraine Thater in New York City. The play was given four stars by The Times of London and The Guardian (UK) called the production "American satire at its sick, twisted best. GONER is performed in a controlled frenzy of firework acting by a brilliantly sharp cast." Visual Arts (Alumni Relations) The work of Joan Semmel, professor emeritus, is represented in the exhibition Indelible Marks: Framing Art and Feminism at the Mason Gross Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ. Pasqualina Azzarello MFA ’05 has work in a group exhibition at Tribes Gallery, New York City. The Opening was January 6. Megan Greene MFA ’02 and Aaron Williams MFA ’02 have work in a two-person exhibition at the Baumgartner Gallery in New York City. The exhibition closes on February 15. Lucas Kelly MFA ’04 has drawings in an exhibition entitled Build-Conceptual explorations of Architectural Space at the Platform Gallery, Seattle, WA. The exhibition opened January 5 and will close February 11. Marion Lane MFA ’78 has an exhibition at Pleiades Gallery, New York City. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Leon Golub, one of her professors. The exhibition dates are February 21 to March 11. Eliza Newman-Saul MFA ’05, goes beyond the physical by inviting guests to respond to and describe the gallery space. These performances take place on specific Saturdays and will include discussions about the properties of the space in philosophical, psychological and poetic terms at Smack Mellon Gallery, Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, New York. Joan Snyder MFA ’66 has works in an exhibition entitled Indelible Marks: Framing Art and Feminism at the Mason Gross Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ. Lloyd Boston BFA ’89 graduate was interviewed by Sona Charaipotra for the winter issue of the Rutgers Focus, a student magazine. Mr. Boston, after becoming vice-president of art direction for Tommy Hilfiger, has written three books on fashion design. Oprah Winfrey promoted his book on her show. | ||
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