The Duke In Chicago 2014 group. Below, excerpts from a blog entry from a student who participated in the Duke in Chicago 2014 program. See more of what the students had to say here. "Our incredible six week artistic and entrepreneurial immersion has been extremely fun, eye-opening, and insightful. When I board my flight to New York on Sunday, I will take lots of small, specific information about the industry away with me, but what about the big picture? Through our guest speakers… read more about Duke In Chicago 2014 »
Professor Jaybird O'Berski was in China this summer working with migrant workers, along with recent Duke graduate Shucao Mo. Below are visual dispatches from Beijing with captions. Jaybird and his new friend Caesar (adult pictured) visited an English class in a school for the children of migrant workers. They taught them a game called Fruitbowl that he plays with acting classes at Duke. PS He says the pro actors here already knew Big Booty (a favorite of Duke students… read more about O'Berski in China »
The theater studies department invited a number of exciting guests to campus during the 2013-14 academic year, in an ongoing commitment to provide students with unique opportunities to work with or hear from professional artists and scholars. September brought Sibyl Kempson, an experimental playwright who was a 2010 MacDowell Colony Fellow, a member of the New Dramatists class of ’17 and a 2013 McKnight National Resident and Commissionee. Kempson came to campus for two weeks to develop… read more about A Bounty of Visiting Artists »
Three theater studies faculty members, Ellen Hemphill, Neal Bell, and Torry Bend, premiered new work off campus over the year. Filmmaker Jim Haverkamp provided the video, former theater studies designer Jan Chambers designed the set, Duke alum Jesse Belsky designed the lighting, and New York composer Allison Leyton-Brown composed the score to tell the story of events that threaten our civilization and species—from the past and the future.Hemphill brought to the stage an original piece in November called The… read more about New Work from Faculty »
Director Jeff Storer brought Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya to the fall theater studies mainstage. Storer (professor of the practice of theater studies) calls Chekhov “the master of combining laughter and tears,” so he prepared his student cast by having them explore both Chekhov’s vaudevilles and his longer major works to help them understand the fine balance of humor and suffering in his work. To help the cast mine the humor in the play, Storer brought in Providence, RI-… read more about Uncle Vanya Plays at Duke »
Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal was the department’s spring mainstage play. Jules Odendahl-James, visiting lecturer and resident dramaturg in theater studies, directed the play. Machinal is the story of “a young woman, any woman,”—a woman destroyed by “a world of money, men, and machines.” Machinal depicts the struggle for personal fulfillment in a world where alienation, commodification and automation reign supreme. A world that is past,… read more about Machinal Comes to the Spring Stage »
Brand new graduate Phil Watson spent his final year at Duke immersed in his senior distinction project. A theater studies and classics double major, he chose to perform An Iliad by Lisa Peterson & Denis O'Hare, a one-man retelling of Homer’s Iliad, in Phil’s words, “the first and greatest war story.” He described the play to a writer at The Chronicle back in the winter when he was deep in the rehearsal process: “There’s this… read more about Senior Phil Watson's One Man Show »
When senior Phil Watson needed a director for his one-man distinction play, An Iliad by Lisa Peterson & Denis O'Hare (see story here), Kevin Poole (T’98) had just moved back to Durham from Colorado with his wife and twin girls after training at Naropa University and becoming immersed in Viewpoints theory. Watson had been exploring physical acting, with an emphasis on movement and voice and had done summer training in Viewpoints with SITI Company. So it was an obvious… read more about Alum Kevin Poole Comes Home »
John Clum has just finished a book on the plays, musicals, and screenplays of Arthur Laurents. He and Sean Metzger are co-editing a volume, Awkward Stages: Dramas About Gay Teens for Cambria Press. John is also writing an essay on Terrence McNally for a new Methuen volume of essays about contemporary American playwrights. Heartbreak Express, an opera with music by George Lam and libretto by John Clum will receive its first concert performance in New York and Baltimore in November. A full… read more about Faculty News »
The Duke University Dept. of Theater Studies will present Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal April 3-13, 2014 in Sheafer Theater in Duke’s Bryan Center. Jules Odendahl-James, visiting lecturer and resident dramaturg in theater studies, is directing the play. Machinal is the story of “a young woman, any woman,”—a woman destroyed by “a world of money, men, and machines.” Machinal depicts the struggle for personal fulfillment in a world where alienation, commodification and automation… read more about Machinal Opens April 3 at Duke »
Brand new graduate Phil Watson spent his final year at Duke immersed in his senior distinction project. A theater studies and classics double major, he chose to perform An Iliad by Lisa Peterson & Denis O'Hare, a one-man retelling of Homer’s Iliad, in Phil’s words, “the first and greatest war story.” He described the play to a writer at The Chronicle back in the winter when he was deep in the rehearsal process: “There’s this character only referred to as the poet. He gets up to tell this… read more about Phil Watson's One-Man Show »