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