We are thrilled to share with you the news that Tim Bond (MFA '83) has accepted the position of full professor at the UW School of Drama, starting in fall 2016. Tim has most recently been at Syracuse Stage and the Sycracuse University Department of Drama. Many in the Northwest will know him from his time at The Seattle Group Theatre and as associate artistic director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. You can read our full announcement online and join us in welcoming Tim back to UW Drama!
Presented in collaboration with Washington Ensemble Theatre.
Political activism meets bedazzled drag show in this story about two young friends who flee their suburban upbringing in "Real America" to join a ragtag group of activists on a protest march from D.C. to Nevada. On the road, the group attempts to establish a nomadic utopia, but the marchers continually find themselves divided by unrequited affections, indecision, and a secret hunger for power.
Whimsically blending commedia dell'arte influences with song and dance, The Walk Across America for Mother Earth explores how the idea of community sometimes fails to unite us, and sometimes brings us together in the most unexpected ways.
The Walk Across America for Mother Earth
by Taylor Mac
music by Ellen Maddow
directed by Ali el-Gassier
February 24–28
Penthouse Theatre
The Walk Across America for Mother Earth contains adult content and is recommended for ages 18+.
A co-production with Seattle Children's Theatre.
This inventive and humorous drama celebrates the making of things—research papers, bridges, community. When fifth-grade latch-key child Sasha can’t find a pen to write the due-tomorrow report on the Brooklyn Bridge she is struggling to complete, she works up the courage to break her mother’s rules and venture out of their apartment for help. There, in view of the magnificent bridge, she discovers a diverse collection of neighbors, each special in their own way but alike in their deep good-heartedness. Sasha learns that there are facts and then there is what’s important—and what’s important is what matters.
Brooklyn Bridge
by Melissa James Gibson
directed by Rita Giomi
Feb 25–Mar 20
Seattle Children's Theatre
The cast features School of Drama MFA candidates and MFA design students for the lighting and costumes.
This is a story of love, loss, and the struggle between the two. George is a linguist morbidly obsessed with documenting dying languages. But his obsession gets in the way of keeping those closest to him from sharing their love with him. Even his assistant, who shares his interest in language, struggles to find the right means to communicate with him. Mix in the old couple that everyone knows but doesn't, happening of fate, and sprinkle it with various languages to help find out whether or not they can find the right words to keep the language of love alive.
The Language Archive
by Julia Cho
directed by Parker Kennedy
March 3–13
Cabaret Theatre
Alumna Desdemona Chiang has been awarded a 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre from The Vilcek Foundation. The award includes an unrestricted cash prize of $50,000 along with a plaque uniquely designed by Stefan Sagmeister.
Desdemona received her MFA in Directing in 2009. Since then she has founded her own theatre company, Azeotrope, in 2010. Azeotrope is dedicated to producing new and contemporary stage productions about the invisible and marginalized.
The School of Drama is excited to once again work with Desdemona. This spring, in partnership with Azeotrope, Desdemona will direct a new play workshop of Clarence Coo's People Sitting in Darkness. The workshop will culminate in three public readings, April 1–3 at the Penthouse Theatre.
For more information about the Vilcek Prizes and 2016 recipients, visit vilcek.org.
About the Foundation
The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. Our mission was inspired by Jan’s and Marica’s respective careers in biomedical science and art history, as well as their personal experiences and appreciation for the opportunities offered them as newcomers to the United...
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With the approval of UW President Ana Mari Cauce and College of Arts & Sciences Dean Bob Stacey, the School of Drama is pleased to share with our friends, supporters, and alumni that the Design Wing of Hutchinson Hall will now be known as the Sarah Nash Gates Design Wing.
Sarah started at the School of Drama as a professor in costume design before becoming executive director in 1994—a position she would hold for 20 years before retiring in 2014.
Overseeing the renovation of the Hutchinson Hall design wing was just one of Sarah's many accomplishments during her tenure as our School's excecutive director.
She was our leader for 20 years and will remain always our teacher.
School of Drama senior David Borning’s design team was awarded first place in the 2016 Walt Disney Imagineering Imaginations Design Competition.
Carl Kennedy (PATP '10) received rave reviews for his work in Common Grace at Vancouver's Pacific Theatre.
Mia Tagano (PATP '97) plays Lady MacDuff in Macbeth at Berkeley Rep, opening February 26.
Tina Polzin (MFA '15) directs Death on the Supermarket Shelf at Center Stage Theatre, running March 4–26 and featuring Thomas Allen (BA '15) and the design work of Julia Hayes Welch (MFA '15), Paul Arnold (MFA '14), and Melinda Hare (MFA '15).
Valeka Holt (PATP '12) is playing in Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) at Roundhouse Theatre, running through...
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