Welcome to the summer issue 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.
You'll notice that The Through-Line looks a bit different than our monthly e-newsletter. Whereas each month we give you previews of our productions and snapshots of the work being done by our alums, here you'll find us diving deeper into the people and programs that make up the character and community of the University of Washington School of Drama.
We hope you'll enjoy reading The Through-Line, and we welcome your thoughts, questions, and suggestions. Please get in touch with us at: katrinae@uw.edu.
Dear Friends,
In this edition of the School of Drama Academic e-Newsletter you will meet my successor as Executive Director, Dr. Todd London. After twenty years at the helm, I am retiring and do so with pleasure knowing the School will be in Todd’s exceptionally capable hands. It has been an honor and a rewarding enterprise to work with our multitudes of courageous students, and to lead an extraordinary group of faculty and staff as we have striven to maintain the traditions of excellence at the School of Drama as established by Glenn Hughes in 1941. I am proud to believe I have contributed to innovations as well.
A recent feat is the establishment of an Innovation Fund which allows our students to make theatre with boundary-pushing artists from across the nation. In this newsletter is a preview of our upcoming Innovation Fund production: Cold Empty Terrible – which promises to be an exciting project in devising theatre led by Whit MacLaughlin and his New Paradise Laboratories collaborators.
We are proud to share the news of a talented alumna from the MFA in Directing Program, Lydia Fort, who has a new job as Executive Artistic Director of Mo’oelo. I vividly remember her ambitious and accomplished thesis production of The Good Person of Setzuan, so I was not surprised when she was...
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In May, we announced the appointment of Dr. Todd London as the new Executive Director of the UW School of Drama, and we are thrilled to share the news with you here as well. Dr. London comes to us from New York, where he was the Artistic Director of New Dramatists. He will officially assume his new role on August 1.
“I’ve followed the vibrant work of the UW School of Drama for thirty years, both through friends and colleagues who have graduated its programs and through its enormous impact on the Seattle theatre community and across the nation,” said Todd London.
Read the full press release here, and join us in welcoming Dr. London to the School of Drama!
From July 29 to August 30, fourteen University of Washington undergraduate students will travel to the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival with School of Drama professors Andrew Tsao and L. Zane Jones. The course is sponsored by UW Study Abroad, and will focus on the study and experience of current global trends in theatrical practice, with an emphasis on viewing and critiquing international work. Professor Tsao has led previous study abroad trips to Edinburgh, as well as Pontlevoy, France.
Over the course of the month, the students will see a world of new theatre and performance at the largest and oldest international performing arts festival of its kind, while living in one of Europe’s great cultural centers. They will also participate in a unique range of workshops, classes and excursions designed to build fluency in the common language of the dramatic arts, while having the opportunity to meet artists and students from around the world.
The 14 participating students come from a variety of backgrounds and academic interests, including Drama, Nursing, English, Interdisciplinary Arts, and Environmental Science.
In addition to the study abroad participants, three recent Drama grads and one current student will perform at the festival in the world premiere of Andrew Tsao’s...
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For the first three weeks of spring quarter, our Professional Actor Training Program students worked alongside company members of New Paradise Laboratories (NPL) and under the direction of visiting artist, and director of the first show of our 2014-2015 season, Obie award-winning NPL Artistic Director Whit MacLaughlin. Whit recently answered some questions via email, reflecting on the three-week residency and the pieces born out of the experience.
What influenced you to take on this residency in partnership with the School of Drama?
I worked with UW Lighting Design Professor Geoff Korf (now also head of the MFA Design program) in 1992. It was on one of my favorite projects ever, a rich and unusual production of Euripides’ The Bakkhai that he designed. I always sought to work with him again, but it never happened – a bicoastal separation problem. One day in the spring of 2013, I sent him a bit of NPL’s work by email and, coincidentally he called to invite us out. We were absolutely thrilled! I had heard great things about the UW School of Drama over the years – I studied Suzuki Actor Training Method in Japan and there has been the consistent presence of a Suzuki teacher here at NPL over the years. I was fascinated and enthusiastic about the opportunity from the beginning.
How did working with our MFA students and the environment here at UW School of Drama influence your company’s work on The...
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Lydia Fort (MFA Directing ’06) has made a few cross-country moves: First, graduating from New York University with a B.A. in Media Studies and Theater. Then earning her MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, only to move back to New York, where she became a Time Warner Foundation Fellow of the 2012-2014 Lab at Women’s Project Theater, an Affiliated Artist with New Georges, a TCG New Generations Future Leaders Grantee, New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellow, and Drama League Directing Fellow, as well as an Assistant Professor at City College/CUNY. Now she’s landed back on the Pacific coast: This time in San Diego as the new Executive Artistic Director at Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company.
Lydia has barely touched down at Mo’olelo, having arrived at the end of May, but she recently took the time to chat with us over email about her time at UW and her new role at Mo’olelo.
What drew you to the MFA Directing program at UW?
Initially, I was intrigued by the prospect of being able to explore directing from multiple perspectives like adaptation and film. But it was really when I came out for my second interview/audition that cinched it. I found that the program was interested in helping me discover who I am as director rather than molding me into their version of what a director should be. It felt like they were saying, "We are dedicated to helping you unearth yourself as an artist,...
Read moreIt's official. Our 2014-2015 season will have laughs, singing and dancing (and not just in the musical!), cross-dressing, and who knows what else! No really, who knows!? We're excited to kick-off our season with a new devised work created by our students and New Paradise Laboratories and directed by NPL Artistic Director Whit MacLaughlin.
We're also looking forward to the thesis shows of two MFA directors. We've enjoyed watching Leah Adcock-Starr and Tina Polzin develop as artists over the past few years. Mark your calendars now!
Cold Empty Terrible
directed by Whit MacLaughlin
Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
Oct 15-26
Sweet Charity
Musical Theater Program in association with the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Drama, School of Music and Dance Program
book by Neil Simon; lyrics by Dorothy Fields; music by Cy Colman
directed by Wilson Mendieta
Meany Studio Theatre
Nov 14-23
Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
directed by Leah Adcock-Starr
Meany Studio Theatre
Jan 28-Feb 8
The Hostage
by Brendan Behan
directed by Tina Polzin
Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
Mar 4-15
William Inge One Acts
directed by Malika...