Welcome to the Winter 2017 edition of our academic e-newsletter, The Through Line. On a quarterly basis, The Through Line keeps you informed of the work being done by our students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
We hope you'll enjoy reading The Through Line, and we welcome your thoughts, questions, and suggestions. Please get in touch with us at: aramsey2@uw.edu.
Letter from the Editor
Dear Readers:
Our fall quarter was packed with powerful performances and thought-provoking stories that dived deep into our season's theme of “New Takes on Old Worlds." With Iphigenia and Other Daughters the Greeks were reimagined in a modern context, through the lens of the Grecian women so often forgotten. MFA student Malika Oyetimein directed Fucking A, Suzan-Lori Parks’ compelling adaptation of The Scarlet Letter, which asked us to examine where we’ve come from by showing us what could be. We welcomed Ali el-Gassier back to the School of Drama to direct Qui Nguyen’s The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, in which a young writer tries to recount his family’s immigration story through popular culture, complete with rap numbers, dance parties, and flying ninjas. We started off the new quarter with an event-filled, 10-hour reading of Anne Washburn’s modern epic about Emperor Nero, The Octavia. Currently we are in performances for Maple and Vine, MFA director Sean Ryan’s thesis production, about a modern American couple is so fed up with their ultra-convenient life, that they opt for a “simpler" time.
To continue the examination of our past in and effort to better understand our present, this quarter’s The Through Line explores the “Then and Now” with three members of our community. PATP alumnus Richard Nguyen Sloniker reflects on working with other UW alumni in CIVIC REP's The Trojan Women and the value of artistic collaborators who share a common language. New faculty member Tim Bond talks about what's changed in the School of Drama from when he was an MFA Directing Student, and what can be learned from both eras in the School’s history. Lastly, Ph.D. Candidate Monica Cortes Viharo shares about her upcoming research project, which investigates the importance of storytelling during the Civil Rights Movement in the Pacific Northwest.
Looking back at where we came from can teach us so much about where we are going. We are thrilled to be producing a season of adaptations, reimaginings, and revitalizations, and we are even more curious about how that theme can be implemented in our work as artists, our relationships in our community, and our visions for the future. Please enjoy the Winter 2017 issue of The Through Line!
Sincerely,
Bobbin
Ph.D. student Monica Cortes Viharo was recently awarded a $8,500 Mellon scholarship from the Simpson Center to do a resarch porject that engages the public in the sphere of storytelling and performance. Over the next year she will be collaborating with Sara Freeman, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at University of Puget Sound (UPS) in Tacoma, on a Performance Walk project. This event will have a self-guided tour that takes participants around Tacoma as they learn more about the Civil Rights Movement in the Pacific Northwest. They will also be presenting their resaerch at the Race and Pedgogy conference at UPS in Fall of 2018. We sat down with Monica to learn a little bit more about the origins of this project.
BR: Can you tell me a little bit about this project? Where did your inspiration come from?
MCV: The inspiration came from three places, firstly, in the Autumn of 2015 the School of Drama brought Dr. Sara Freeman from the University of Puget Sound in to teach a graduate seminar on Contemporary British Theater. The class gave me insight into British models of activist and documentary theater that are two forms I focus on in my work. Secondly, at that time I also was accepted in to the UW Certificate Program for Public Scholarship which trains and supports scholars of any discipline who want to do work with, for, and about local...
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We are so excited to welcome back Tim Bond who received his MFA in Directing from the School of Drama in 1983. He has now returned to be on the UW School of Drama faculty as a professor of Acting and Directing. We sat down with Tim to learn a little bit about what he has been doing in the meantime, and what's he has observed in his time back here.
BR: How was your first quarter? How are you settling back into Seattle and back into the School of Drama?
TB: I love being back in Seattle, but it’s a very different city from when I was here. Both in terms of how the city feels, how people travel through it, and what it looks like. Many of my favorite landmarks are gone. I’ve been back and forth for the last twenty years, and in that time, Seattle has gone through a major shift. The theatre ecology is entirely changed. So I am still getting to know it, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of getting to know what Seattle theatre is now. I’ve been doing a lot of letting go of everything I’ve known.
BR: That’s an interesting process – has that been difficult?
TB: No, I’m not stuck on it. I just have to let go of those reference points because they are not applicable to this universe. That’s kind of what’s happening to me everywhere in my life. I am letting go and I’m literally starting over. I’m like a baby. A baby that’s already got all this stuff in its DNA and its knowledge base...
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Faculty member L. Zane Jones' local theatre company, CIVIC REP, is currently running a production of The Trojan Women, by Caroline Bird. This radical retelling of Euripides' Greek classic is bursting with UW talent, including direction by Leah Adcock-Starr, performances by L. Zane Jones, Anna LaMadrid, Ray Tagavilla, and Richard Nguyen Sloniker, and design by Julia Welch. We sat down and chatted about the project with PATP '09 alumnus, Richard Nguyen Sloniker.
BR: Can you tell us a little bit about this play?
RNS: Trojan Women is a contemporary re-telling of the Euripides epic by the talented Caroline Bird. What I really enjoy about Ms. Bird's text is her use of language. It's not overly poetic but it does have a lyrical quality that makes her words easy to speak, the text rolls out of your mouth like a beautiful song, even though what the characters are saying is quite, quite grim. The language she's chosen makes the telling of this story extremely relevant, which should be the hallmark of any good production.
Most problems we're facing, including our current political struggles, are reflects in the Greek works.
BR: What is the most exciting element about working with other UW School of Drama graduates?
RNS: Working with other UW actors is a treat! Even though it's been a few years since I've...
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Gregg Henry (BFA '75) did an interview with Columns Magazine about his portayl of Hollis Doyle on ABC's Scandal. Read it here!
Spencer Hamp (BA '14), Mark Jenkins (UW Faculty), Hannah Victoria Franklin (PATP '09), Tyler Polumsky (BA '08) and Hannah Ruwe (BA '14) are appearing in the The Cherry Orchard with The Seagull Project at ACT theatre from Jan 21st-Feb 19th. The production features design by alums Jennifery Zeyl, Doris Black, Julia Welch, and Robert J. Aguilar, and dramaturgy from BA alumnus Gavin Reub.
Rudy Roushdi (PATP '16), Trevor Young Marsten (PATP '12) will performing in The Liar at Seattle Public Theatre, with costume design by Ali Panzarella (MFA '14). The show runs Jan 27th-Feb 19th.
Shaudi Vahdat (BA '12) is currently performing in Every Five Minutes at Washington Ensemble Theatre at 12th Ave...
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