Auditions for the Duke Players' spring show, The Braveness of Jane, will be held in the Clum Room, BC 128, Fri. Jan. 15 and Sat. Jan. 16 from 5:00p to 8:00p. Be prepared to read from the provided sides. (See Facebook event for sides and sign-up sheet: https://www.facebook.com/events/616194521852366/ ) Actors may bring monologues and any other performance pieces (stand-up, dance, clowning, spoken word) to use in their audition. Actors, dancers and puppeteers needed! read more about Duke Players AUDITIONS »
MUSICAL THEATER WORKSHOP SHOWING The students of Tommy DeFrantz's THEATRST 211 class extend their practice into relationship with an audience! Hear songs from Gypsy, A Chorus Line, Carousel, The Pajama Game, and songs by Irving Berlin! Free, includes post-show reception. 6:30 PM Tuesday December 1 in Sheafer Theater read more about SINGING OUT IN SHEAFER »
Maybe you want to learn the arts of Playmaking (380S) or Writing The Musical Book (216S)? Ever wondered what exactly Performance Studies (202S) is? Dive into a special topic like PERFORMING OBJECTS in Design (390S-3) or SPEAKING IN TONGUES in Reading Theater (190S-1) or perhaps PLAYING DOCTOR: Medical Education, Research, & Theaters of Empathy (290S-1)! We've got the amazing Mike Wiley teaching… read more about NEW COURSES IN THEATER STUDIES »
The students in "Telling Stories for Social Change" class taught by Madeleine Lambert and Lynden Harris are running a blog for their class. Read what they're up to here! read more about Blogging for Social Change »
Theater Studies is looking forward to Manual Cinema's visit, both for residency activities and the presentation of Mementos Mori, their latest multimedia feat. Join us in Sheafer Theater Friday, September 11th at 8 pm to see the group Time Out New York Times calls "talent incarnate." tickets.duke.edu Ben Brantley of The New York Times, in a Critics Pick article, recently referred to the Chicago-based performance collective as “the uncanny coven of young sorcerers who operate under the name Manual… read more about Manual Cinema's September Visit »
Auditions for Duke Players' fall show, Comic Potential, will be held Sept. 1 (7 to 9) , Sept. 2 (7:30 to 9) in Brody Theater, and auditions for Antic Shakespeare Company's upcoming season will be held Sept. 6 between 3 and 5 pm in Brody. Email jaybirdandronicus@gmail to sign up for a time for Antic Shake! And for Duke Players: Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10k9jX2rHfj2R7yWRfPb0qFBBs2ITGIk…; Please prepare a two-minute monologue, preferably comic (here are two monologues from the show if you… read more about Auditions for Duke Players and Antic Shake! »
Students in Jody McAuliffe's Chicago program have been busy this summer. Their final project, HEAD SPACE, is a performance of original, immediate work grounded in experiences and perspectives. read more about Duke in Chicago StARTup Project »
Just two more showings of the Duke Players Orientation Show - this Friday and Saturday night in Brody Theater, preceded by free pizza on the Branson porch! read more about Two more nights of O-Show! »
It's time to plan for auditions for our two mainstage shows! Fall brings us An Experiment With An Air Pump by Shelagh Stephenson and spring will feature Bob by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. Audition info here.An Experiment With An Air Pump is a contemporary consideration of art and science that takes place in the same house, but on the eve of two very different centuries. Furtive romance, farcical commotions and dark secrets infuse this unique examination of women's roles in medical research and the… read more about Audition Info for Mainstage Shows! »
Neal Bell’s play Cold Sweat is currently running in Los Angeles, produced by the theater group Uranium Madhouse. The film In Secret - based in part on his play adaptation of Zola's Therese Raquin - was released in the U.S. in winter last year. Directed by Charlie Stratton, it starred Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac and Jessica Lange. For a third year, this past spring, he was a guest mentor to an undergraduate playwright in Yale University's Playwrights Festival. This summer he… read more about FACULTY NEWS! »
The Theater Studies CoLab (Collaborative Theater Making) course under the leadership of visiting artists Lisa D'Amour and Brendan Connelly proved to be a huge hit with students spring semester. Both artists are award winners in their fields - playwrighting for D'Amour and sound design for Connelly - and were praised for both their expertise and generosity by students. According to senior Bailey Sincox, "The class was immensely impactful on my journey as an individual and a theater artist. Brendan and Lisa led us in a… read more about CoLab with D'Amour and Connelly »
Get a taste of Theater Studies Professor Ellen Hemphill's technique for teaching voice and body gesture in this trailer taken from a longer training film. Voice and Body Gesture Technique from Jim Haverkamp on Vimeo. read more about Trailer for Voice and Body Gesture Technique »
See where the set magic happens, and hear from the wizard himself, David Berberian! read more about From the Scene Shop! »
Check out this slideshow made for our 2015 graduates, which celebrates the plays during their time at Duke. Duke Theater Studies Graduates 2015 - 4 years in plays from Theater Studies on Vimeo. read more about Four Years in Plays »
Read about the Duke in Chicago summer program here - from Duke Magazine. read more about Planet Duke: A Drama-Filled Summer in Chicago »
Congratulations to Kari Barclay for being chosen for a Humanity in Action Fellowship. Kari was selected as 1 of 43 Fellows out of an extremely competitive pool of 688 applicants from more than 255 universities and colleges across the United States. Kari will join Fellows from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine to participate in the Humanity in Action Fellowship in Europe from May 25 to June 28, 2015. Intensive and demanding, the Humanity in Action Fellowship… read more about Kari Barclay Wins Fellowship »
Congratulations to the winners of our 2015 awards, presented annually by the faculty of the Department of Theater Studies: Harold Brody Award for Excellence in Musical Theater Elena Lagon John M. Clum Distinguished Theater Studies Graduate Award Kelly McCrum Alex Cohen Award for Summer Initiatives in Theater Hunter Stark Harmony Zhang Dale B.J. Randall Award in Dramatic Literature Jamie Bell Mike Myers Kenneth J. Reardon Award for theater design, management or production Austin Powers Dana Marks Award for Outstanding Acting… read more about Theater Award Winners »
Looking for a Triangle area internship? Check here. And check here for other info listed on the Duke Career Center site. read more about Arts Internships »
Check our trailer and plan to attend! Tickets at the Duke Box Office. Enron Promotional Video from Jon Haas on Vimeo. read more about ENRON Runs Through Sunday! »
Basketball captain and theater studies major Quinn Cook brings some fun to the arts when an artstigator calls on him in Cameron. read more about The Artstigatorshake »
Each spring Theater Studies presents awards. The deadline for awards for which students need to apply is March 20. These include grants for summer study and prizes for essays or scripts. Others are given for achievement and chosen by the faculty. Check here to learn more. read more about Awards Season is Here! »
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 5:00-6:30 p.m., Gross Hall 270RSVP Take control of your future and market your personal brand! Every project—theater, social innovation, music, literature, visual arts, dance—needs a powerful elevator pitch to grab an audience’s attention. Meet Jody McAuliffe (writer, director, dramaturg) and Jeff Storer, co-founder and artistic director of Manbites Dog Theater, a professional company founded in 1986 dedicated to world and regional premieres of contemporary work. Whatever you have to pitch—a project… read more about Taking Control of Your Future: Personal Branding »
Kelly McCrum opens her adaptation of the novel A Time For Dancing by Davida Wills Hurwin this week. Her play is called Dancing in the Bonehouse and is inspired by personal experience. She says, "as strong as we are, we often forget how fragile we can also be. We take advantage of our bodies until something goes wrong, at which time we are suddenly made aware of the myriad of things our bodies provide. This project started as a ‘what if’ story from my own experience, and has morphed into this production,… read more about Dancing in the Bonehouse Opens »
Duke students Jamie Bell and Austin Powers will present Mukwerere, an original play written by Bell, designed by Powers and set in Zimbabwe. Durham artist Tamara Kissane is directing. The play is Bell’s and Powers’ senior distinction project and will run Feb. 12-14, 2015 in Sheafer Theater on Duke’s West Campus. The title is derived from the Zimbabwean Mukwerere ritual—a rain-making ceremony—a plea to the ancestors to bring rain to thirsty fields and yield a fruitful harvest, explains Bell, herself a… read more about Mukwerere »
Check this preview of Mike Myers' distinciton play: http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/02/05/student-director-tackl… read more about Wittgenstein's Hamlet »
Please join the Department of Theater Studies for its spring lecture series, "New Directions in Musical Theater," which begins with a talk by Kim H. Kowalke, Richard L. Turner Professor of Humanities at the University of Rochester and Professor of Music at the Eastman School. “Give Me Time”: Sondheim, A Clever Maid, and “The Miller’s Son” Monday, January 26 4:30 pm 209 East Duke Building The series will continue on February 5 with Stacy Wolf, and again on February 11 with David Savran. On February 21 and 22,… read more about Lecture by Kim H. Kowalke »
Four seniors are preparing for their upcoming productions in their efforts to graduate with distinction in May. Mike Myers is working from Shakespeare's most famous play in his original Wittgenstein's Hamlet, in which influential philosopher Wittgenstein inhabits Shakespeare’s linguistic universe, embarking on Hamlet’s ingenious and lunatic quest for truth and justice. Seniors Jamie Bell and Austin Powers are collaborating on Mukwerere, set in Zimbabwe, Bell's native land. Kelly McCrum's Dancing in the… read more about Seniors Preparing Distinction Projects »
Very special course opportunities brought to theater studies by award-winning visiting artists - check out the courses and the artists teaching them! THEATRST 290-4 CoLAB: Contemporary American Collaborative Theater Making w/guest artists Lisa D’Amour and Brendan Connelly (ALP): Work with award-winning theater artists to examine practices of four American ensembles (The Rude Mechs, Theater of a Two Headed Calf, the Wooster Group and UNIVERSES) and apply theory to create short pieces in class. Artists from all these… read more about Unique Course Opportunities! Drop and Add! »
All Duke undergrads are invited to audition for the Theater Studies spring play, Enron (running April 2-12), directed by guest artist Talya Klein (see bio below). Auditions will be on Monday, January 12 from 6 to 8 pm in Bryan Center 128 (Clum Room). Sign up below. If you can't come Monday night, contact the director at talyaklein@gmail.com to make other arrangements. Note: Cast must be available for the class 6:30 to 9 pm on Tuesday evenings. For your… read more about Auditions for ENRON! »