When school’s not in session, our esteemed instructors and researchers stay booked and busy! Read about their achievements and accolades below.
Assis. Prof. of Directing & Theatre Studies - Area Head Alexandra Harbold directed a staged reading in PAB Studio 115 of “Last Lists,” a new musical based on Julie Jensen’s book, “The Last Lists of My Mad Mother.” Music was shaped by Ron Barnett, with lyrics by Julianne Homokay, direction from Musical Director Alex Von Marshall, and accompaniment by U Music alumnus Trevor Jex. Company included Jen Kroff, U Theatre alumna Jackie Marshall, and Assis. Prof. & MTP - Area Head Erin Farrell Speer. See photos from the reading.
Musical Director Alex Von Marshall joined the Utah Symphony for several performances of “How to Train Your Dragon: In Concert.” Audiences were able to experience DreamWorks Animation’s captivating film in HD, with John Powell’s Oscar®-nominated musical score performed live by the symphony!
Assoc. Prof. Amber Bielinski attended the Broadway Stage Management Symposium (virtually) along with all 29 stage management majors and certificate students. The Symposium is the professional development and networking conference created by stage managers for stage managers and allows attendees to connect around the world. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from Broadway professionals who shared their experience and expertise on numerous topics specific to the art and craft of stage management.
Props Manager Arika Schockmel will enter her 5th year as the costume, prop, and set designer for Plan B Theatre's Free Elementary School Tour.
Schockmel was recently announced as a 2024 Utah Artist Fellowship Awardee in Design Arts.
UCV Res. Assoc./Assoc. Prof. Clinical Brian Manternach was named the winner of the 2024 Clifton Ware Group-Voice Pedagogy Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing. The annual award highlights the concept of “Class Voice” and its potential impact for singers through offerings in community, independent, and academic settings.
Additionally, Manternach and the Utah Center for Vocology staff presented research at the Voice Foundation Annual Symposium in Philadelphia. U Health Res. Assoc. & Speech-Language Pathologist Amanda Heller-Stark, UCV Dir. & U Music Prof. Lynn Maxfield, and U Music, U Otolaryngology, U Biomedical Engineering Sr. Researcher Ingo Titze were co-authors of a research presentation titled “Vocal Distortions of Epic Proportions: A Case Study of Quantifying Ten Extreme Vocalizations Used in Deathcore Music.”
In a separate project, Manternach teamed up with Assis. Prof. David Eggers to present a webinar in June, titled “Using Theatrical Intimacy Practices to Create Vocal Health Boundaries,” for the Pan American Vocology Association.
Adj. Inst. Chandler Vaccaro is on the planning committee for the American Society for Alexander Technique's 2024 Annual Conference & General Meeting. Additionally, Adj. Assoc. Prof. Jacque Lynn Bell will present her work encompassing teaching theater and Alexander Technique at this same meeting.
Vaccaro also taught Alexander Technique to high school and college dancers in U Dance’s University Ballet Summer Intensive (UBSI).
Dept. Chair Chris DuVal, Assis. Prof. of Directing & Theatre Studies Area Head Alexandra Harbold, and Theatre alumna & RDT Production Stage Manager Pilar I. Davis are 2024 Dance West Faculty Guest Artists. They will teach respective sessions in “Stage Combat,” “Physical Dramaturgies: Creating Character,” and “Intro to Lighting for Dance.”
Assoc. Prof. Lecturer & Vocal Performance Studies - Area Head David Russell Schmidt will be returning as Music Director for Royal Caribbean International - Enchantment of the Seas. He will be providing vocal direction for two shows to a cast of international singers and dancers. Rehearsals will be in Miami before the crew sets sail to the Bahamas and Western Caribbean.
Adj. Inst. Ed Sciotto is in his fourth year of directing and choreographing for Orbit Arts Academy’s Summer Shows. Academy students had the opportunity to work with Sciotto, guest artists, and Orbit professionals in a full scale production of “Mean Girls.”
Assis. Prof. & MTP - Area Head Erin Farrell Speer is choreographing Sundance Summer Theatre’s production of “Newsies.” Based on the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City, “Newsies” tells the inspiring story of the newsboys and newsgirls who stand up against powerful publishers to demand fair treatment. Shows run until August 10th.
Assoc. Prof. Kimberly Jew’s article, “(Multi)Ethnic Absurdist Theatre,” was recently published in "The Routledge Companion to Absurdist Literature," which was edited by Michael Y. Bennett for Routledge Press (2024).
Assoc. Prof. Lynn Deboeck presented a book that she co-edited and published last year, “(M)Other Perspectives: Staging Motherhood in 21st Century North American Theatre & Performance,” in Boston at the 2024 Conference of International Association of Maternal Action & Scholarship (IAMAS).
Deboeck will also be presenting on two panels in Atlanta at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) annual conference. The first panel is titled, "Queering Failure,” and will be a pedagogical look at how we can reframe our understanding and teaching of failure. The second panel is titled, "Revisioning Acknowledgement Practices.”
Adj. Assis. Prof. & Artistic Dir. Youth Theatre Penny Caywood leads another year of Summer sessions of Youth Theatre at the U.
Caywood was a playwright and wrote lyrics for SLAC's Summer Show: “Close Encounters in the Beehive,” a comedic out-of-this-world romp that follows intergalactic friends and their close (maybe a little too close) observation of the Jorgensen family. Direction was provided by Cynthia Fleming with contributions from fellow playwrights, U Music alumna Olivia Custodio and PTC Prod. Manager David Knoell. The line up of characters includes Prof. & ATP - Area Head Robert Scott Smith, as well as, various U Theatre students and alumni.
Prof. Sarah Shippobotham will grace the Utah Shakespeare Festival stage as Williamina Fleming in "Silent Sky" by Lauren Gunderson, which celebrates the life of Henrietta Leavitt. Shippobotham’s character, Fleming, was one of the real women who was responsible for many of the astronomical discoveries made at The Harvard Observatory in the late 1800s. “Silent Sky” is a celebration of science, female achievement, and family that shows us how one woman’s determination forever altered the course of scientific history. See Shippobotham onstage now through October 5th.
Additionally, Shippobotham appears in a minor role as the Proprietress in Kevin Costner’s film, "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1." Fellow castmate, Theatre alumnus Michael Todd Behrens (ATP), stars in the role of Surgeon Vreeland in all four films. The film was released June 28th and is available to watch in movie theaters.
Assoc. Prof. Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell and Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities Dir. & Dept. of Internal Medicine Assoc. Prof. Gretchen Case (along with two colleagues from the School of Medicine) facilitated a forum theatre workshop at the New Leadership Academy on June 3rd. Participants were faculty, staff, and administrators from universities across the country who were taking part in the NLA Fellows Program. The NLA was founded through a partnership between the University of Michigan and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and is now housed at the U of U.
Andra Harbold and Robert Scott Smith teaching “Devising Practices” in the Department of Theatre’s first annual High School Theatre Teacher Summer Workshop. Photo: Chris DuVal
U Theatre faculty and staff contributed their time and expertise to the first annual High School Theatre Teacher Summer Workshop in the Department of Theatre. Fourteen Utah teachers attended the day-long event held in The Meldrum Theatre at the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse. A total of 4 workshops were offered along with opportunities for networking and meaningful breakout discussions.