It's been quite the year! Thank you for joining us for this celebratory, community-driven 75th anniversary season. Perhaps more than any other, one of our final productions of the season represents community-driven theatre. We hope you'll join us the first weekend of June to see the result of nine-months of work by our students, who have gone out into the U-District neighborhood and gotten to know the people served by three non-profit organizations. Out of those experiences have evolved three separate student-generated pieces that will be combined into a single installation performance at the Jones Playhouse. We hope to see you there.
Plays from the School of Drama’s inaugural 1940-41 season are reimagined in an immersive, multi-media theatre experience. The audience is invited to walk freely through time and space as the historic Penthouse Theatre comes alive.
The Horse in Motion ensemble and UW School of Drama undergraduates have devised an original performance that allows the audience to come face to face with the turbulent past of 20th Century America and how we have taught ourselves to escape. From the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor to the fractured cultural landscape of today, …And Hilarity Ensues… will challenge, disorient, and surprise.
...And Hilarity Ensues...
conceived & created by The Ensemble
directed by Bobbin Ramsey
May 25– 29
Penthouse Theatre
A father murdered. A murderer crowned. After being summoned home for his father's funeral—and his mother's marriage to the new king, Claudius—Prince Hamlet learns there may be foul play involved in the death of the previous king and feigns madness in an effort to delve into the deception shrouding Denmark's throne. However, his quest for truth calls into question two polar identities, leaving him forced to make a choice. Is he the noble prince who does what is best for his country, or the dutiful son who stops at nothing to exact revenge upon his father's killer? Stuck in the center of an expansive political web, Hamlet's decisions help determine not only his own path, but the path of Denmark itself as well.
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
directed by Megan Brewer
May 26–June 5
Cabaret Theatre
Skies Over Seattle examines the nature of the tiny American individual under a vast shared sky—specifically, the sky over the U-District in Seattle. Three world-premiere, student generated performances have evolved out of a year of collaboration and conversation between UW Drama students and three U-District community groups: ROOTS Young Adult Shelter, The People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, and Elizabeth Gregory Home.
The performances built for and about these communities are woven together into one installation performance.
Skies Over Seattle
in partnership w/ PearlDamour
directed by Ashley Sparks and Katie Pearl
June 3–5
Jones Playhouse
Over 150 alumni, current students, faculty and staff, past and present, and friends of the School of Drama celebrated its 75th Anniversary during an all-class reunion weekend at Hutchinson Hall.
On Saturday, May 7, we met and partied in rooms 202 and 201. Present were students from the 1940s to the 2000s, as well as emeritus faculty, including Aurora Valentinetti, Betty Comtois, and Barry Witham.
In one of the most beautiful moments of the evening, Senior Lecturer Judith Shahn, the voice of the School of Drama for the past 26 years, led us all in a medley of songs.
Thank you to all who were able to join us, as well as those who joined us in spirit. Here's to the next 75!
Andrew McGinn (MFA '13) (pictured, right) is Dr. John Watson in Seattle Rep's Sherlock Holmes and The American Problem, with costumes by faculty member Deb Trout, running through May 22.
Javonna Arriaga (BA '13) can be seen in eSe Teatro's production of Bernie's Apt, running at ACT Theatre through May 28.
Evan Christian Anderson (BA '12) does the lighting design for Caught at Seattle Public Theatre, opening May 20 and running through June 12.
Camille Thornton-Alson (PATP) is Katherina Cavalieri in Amadeus at South Coast Rep, running through June 5.
Chris Hutchison (PATP '99) is Woodnut in The Nether at Alley Theatre, running through May 29.
Valerie Curtis-Newton (MFA '96) is directing ...
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