by Adam Griffiths

Brian Manternach, Assistant Professor (Clinical) in the U of U Department of Theatre, is a man of many hats. Like most voice teachers, he has an extensive performance career, but what makes him stand out are his numerous achievements in vocal science and pedagogy research. Brian is the chapter head of the local division of NATS (National Association for Teachers of Singing), an organization which meets regularly to discuss how to improve vocal pedagogy in the voice studio. Additionally he serves as Associate Editor, and regularly authors and co-authors articles in the NATS periodical The Journal of Singing. He also writes regularly in a book review column, “The Singer’s Library,” for the Classical Singer magazine.

Brian uses his love of vocal science to directly affect those he teaches. Last year he gave a talk at TEDxSaltLakeCity about why singing is an activity people should all be able to benefit from and enjoy. In that talk, he cited studies that indicate how singing can lead to increased physical and psychological well being. By the end of the talk, he had the entire audience singing “You Are My Sunshine” with him.

He says, “What draws me to singing the most is the opportunity to collaborate with others and to build relationships through the shared human experience of singing together. In the same way, the research projects in which I’m most interested do not involve one person hidden away in a lab somewhere. For me, it’s all about like-minded people who are enthusiastic about a topic sharing what they have to contribute in order to hopefully learn something new. And when we do find something new, it’s exciting to be able to share that through presentations, publications, and in our teaching.”

Coming from the performance and teaching world, Brian says that he doesn’t have the research background to do a lot of work on his own. He states, “I rely on others who have a much greater understanding of research methods and acoustic analysis techniques to help carry out the studies we do. I’m particularly indebted to the U’s National Center for Voice and Speech and their associate director, Dr. Lynn Maxfield — a brilliant voice scientist who is truly committed to bringing vocal science and art together.” This past June, Brian and Dr. Maxfield presented research in Philadelphia at the Voice Foundation’s Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice. “For that study we played audio clips of professional and student singers for professional casting directors to see how the casting directors would evaluate their sound.” That research has recently been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Voice, which is “widely regarded as the world’s premiere journal for voice and medicine and [voice] research.”

This month Brian presented at the Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA) Symposium in Toronto, in collaboration with Dr. Maxfield and Dr. Jeremy Manternach (his brother), an Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa. He will also present at the NATS Conference in Las Vegas next summer. Regardless of how busy he gets, he will always prioritize his work as a teacher. “I have had wonderful, inspiring, patient teachers throughout my life and I’m really passionate about doing my best to fill that role for others.”

Finer Points Blog

Last modified on October 26 2017

Created for the stage by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott.

Original music and lyrics by The Tiger Lilies.

Originally conceived and produced by Michael Morris for Cultural Industry, London.

A smattering of cautionary tales pulled from the popular German children’s book Struwwelpeter, featuring live music and dead children. A silly and sinister evening for the Halloween season. Come, join us in the “withdrawing room” before Shockheaded Peter meets its end.

Shockheaded Peter stars Actor Training Program Professor Sarah Shippobotham as the MC, and Actor Training Program junior student, Emily Nash as Player.

SHOCKHEADED PETER $25 at the door / $17-23 online8 PM @ The Art Factory 193 West 2100 South, SLC, UT 84115

Get Tickets 

"A vile and repulsive story told by reprehensible characters in a thoroughly degenerate fashion--Absolute Bliss” – David Bowie

News update for Actor Training Program (ATP) sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Tim Orr from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival will be on campus on this Thursday and Friday (October 19-20), teaching various workshops TBA and holding auditions for the summer 2018 season. These auditions will be held in PAB 202 on Friday, October 20 from 2:00-5:30 p.m. There is a sign up sheet outside Chris DuVal's office.

Please make sure you bring a headshot and resume, and present two contrasting monologues of no more than 90 seconds or so in length (each). One monologue must be contemporary and one must be Shakespeare, with verse being a preference.

Their season will be announced October 23, however, it will consist of 4 classical plays that run in repertory, in addition to a special project that has a shorter rehearsal period. If you have any questions about the appropriateness of a monologue to be used for this audition, ensure you ask one of your professors prior to the audition.

About CSF: https://cupresents.org/series/shakespeare-festival/ Contact Chris DuVal if you have any questions.

Professor Xan Johnson is in the process of launching a theatre-based intervention program for the development social communication skills, theory of mind skills, and drama skills in preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Social skill deficit is a hallmark feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that contributes to significant disability. An effective intervention fostering generalizable social skill development in children with ASD remains elusive.

Children and adolescents with autism have a surplus of synapses in the brain, and this excess is due to a slowdown in a normal brain “pruning” process during development, according to a study by neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). The over-pruning hypothesis proposes that social skill impairments, among others, derive from an aberrant neural pruning process that occurs during early childhood.

As pruning targets weak neural connections and experience strengthens connections, interventions occurring just before critical pruning periods in the neural areas supporting targeted skills should be most effective. Peak synaptic number in areas involved in social skills occurs between age 3 and 5, just prior to pruning, which potentially make it a time most optimal for intervention.

The intervention proposes that theatre programs may offer an effective intervention to foster social skill development in this population. Theatre may be a particularly effective medium due to its ability to create specific learning experiences in a manner that provides embodied cognition and emotional experiences without conscious commitment to abstract social skill improvement goals. The scenes can be tailored to emphasize social and emotional cues and explicit identification of scene-related feelings for the formation of social cognitive and emotional memories that can be recalled as the basis for later social functioning.

However, children with ASD have unique needs surrounding communication, cognition and sensory processing. While theatre teachers are not typically trained to address these problems, speech language pathologists and occupational therapists are adept at addressing those issues. Therefore, the intervention hypothesizes that an interdisciplinary theatre program that combines creative process drama, story dramatization, play devising, and other children’s theatre techniques adapted using speech language pathology, and occupational therapy techniques provided to children with ASD who are between the ages of 3 and 5 will enhance the social skills in this population.

Original article from the Deseret News below:

SALT LAKE CITY — Researchers and scientists preparing to conduct a study are accustomed to reading existing literature, finding a pool of test subjects, applying for funding and filling out approval paperwork.

But for a team of researchers at the University of Utah, their preparation process also included a night out at the theater.

Xan Johnson, head of the University of Utah’s theater teaching program, is in the process of launching a study with a team of researchers involved in occupational therapy, communication studies, psychology and brain imaging to determine how providing early exposure to drama classes can benefit children with autism in the long run.

The group is currently looking for participants for the study, and as they prepare to move into the next phase of the project, Johnson had the idea to attend a production of Pioneer Theatre Company’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which runs through Sept. 30 and follows the experiences of an autistic boy.

“It was very important for me to take my research team (to the play), who are not theater people per se, and they were deeply moved,” Johnson said in an interview with the Deseret News. “I said to Chris Lino (PTC’s managing director) as I was walking out, ‘The scientists cried.’”

In the play, which is based on the novel by Mark Haddon, actor Harrison Bryan plays 15-year-old Christopher Boone, who is autistic and struggles in social situations but has a great talent for math. When Christopher is wrongfully accused of killing his neighbor’s dog, he embarks on a quest to figure out what actually happened to the dog.

Harrison Bryan, left, as Christopher Boone and Sara Shippobotham as Voice One in Pioneer Theatre Company’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”Brent Uberty

“I thought the way (Bryan) portrayed (Christopher) was pretty accurate based on my own patients and what I’ve experienced in my clinic,” said Michael Johnson, a neuroscience-imaging researcher and child and adolescent behavior health specialist at the University of Utah who is part of Xan Johnson’s research team. “So for people who don’t know autism, I thought the play did a great job for opening people’s eyes of how a person with autism tries to interface with the world.”

Xan Johnson’s area of academic interest is in social cognitive neuroscience as he understands it from the perspective of theater. He has spent his career using theater as an educational tool to help teens and elementary school-aged children. He and several of his other team members knew they wanted to do a study to see how participating in theater can train children with autism in life skills, but it was Michael Johnson who suggested they focus on preschool-aged children.

“If you intervene early and aggressively with lots of intervention earlier — as early as you can — then you increase probability that you’ve changed the longterm outcome of whatever the biology is that’s driving the autism,” Michael Johnson said. “There’s more brain cell plasticity that we might be able to take advantage of if we hit this early.”

The study will expose a group of children with autism and a group of typically developing children to drama therapy multiple times a week for several months. Along the way, evaluations will be done to see the effects of the therapy on the children. The therapy will be led by Penny Caywood, artistic director of Youth Theatre at the U.

“We did a feasibility study last summer … and now we’re ready to go; now we’re fired up,” Xan Johnson said. “We’re going to launch as soon as we find our population of at least five (autism spectrum disorder) 3 and 4-year-olds and three or four typically developing to be in our drama group.”

Many other types of intervention have been tested through the years to help children with autism with social skills, but Michael Johnson said the potential benefits offered by drama therapy are unique.

“I think the drama interventions have the potential to go beyond what more limited social skills groups do to bring the child more into the role of understanding others and taking on perspectives,” he said.

Harrison Bryan as Christopher Boone in Pioneer Theatre Company’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”Brent Uberty

“There is a great dependency for individuals with autism on the skill of scripting,” Xan Johnson also explained. “Immediately when you say scripting, you think instantly of theater and scripts.”

Michael Johnson said he didn’t have any theater experience before he began working with Xan Johnson, but he’s seen how the study provides an opportunity for multiple disciplines to work together.

“It’s been part of this collaborative effort with how can we bring psychiatry, neuroscience and the humanities together,” he said. “The humanities have long sustained mankind in multiple ways through multiple centuries and millennia and we know that there’s healing potential.”

Both Xan and Michael Johnson said PTC’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is an important play because it brings community awareness to what someone with autism experiences. According to the Center for Disease Control, autism affects 1 in 68 children in the United States.

“What we hope about using theater as an intervention to help preschoolers with autism better navigate a complex social world is the same hope we have for theater patrons attending (‘The Curious Incident’),” Xan Johnson said. “Such a transformational impact on theater patrons might change lives, and we hope the same is true for our preschoolers.”

The researchers are currently seeking preschool-aged participants for the study. For additional information, contact Megan Raby at 612-325-9802 or .

Department of Theatre Professor Bob Nelson stars in Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill opening September 1-16 at the new Regent Street Black Box theatre at the Eccles Theater. Set in 1850 and based on the Greek mythological story of Phaedra, Desire Under the Elms is one of the great tragedies of American drama. A story of religion, forbidden love, and American soil. This production is the first theatre performance at the new Regent Street Black Box at the downtown's Eccles Theater. Tickets are available at artix.org or by calling 801-355-2787.

Entire story by Ellen Fagg Weist from the Salt Lake Tribune below:

August 27, 2017

“They’s no peace in houses,” says Ephraim Cabot, the rough-hewn, hard-eyed religious patriarch at the center of Eugene O’Neill’s 1924 play “Desire Under the Elms.” “They’s no rest livin’ with folks.”

Set in 1850, “Desire” is a story of religion, forbidden love and tragic family relations based loosely on the Greek myth of Phaedra. The play, rooted in American soil, burns with religion and sexuality, says director Javen Tanner.

“It’s really, yet again, a play in which O’Neill seems to be working out his own relations with his demons and the family ghosts that haunt him,” says Bob Nelson, 70, who plays Cabot.

Nelson terms Cabot “a cranky old guy,” while Tanner calls him a “wilderness prophet.” “The religion burns in him,” the director says. “What’s wonderful about it to me is it doesn’t make him some sort of good person. It doesn’t soften him. As he says many times in the play, ‘God is hard.’ He hardens into it, but religion burns in him.”

Bringing the character to life, with his distinctive regional dialect, is “a delightful challenge,” Nelson says. “There’s a lot to condemn these characters for and less to admire them for,” the actor says.

A rare local production of “Desire,” by Tanner’s Sting & Honey Company, opens Sept. 1, the first theater performance at the new Regent Street Black Box at downtown’s Eccles Theater.

Set in 1850, it’s the story of Cabot and his sons (Daniel Beecher, Cam Deaver and Topher Rasmussen), who want to leave their hardscrabble New England farm. The family comes further undone through the choices of Cabot’s new, younger wife, Abbie (Melanie Nelson).

“She comes into this farm run by men who don’t know how to communicate,” Tanner says. “She’s harder than any of them, with more nerve and more backbone, and she says: This place is mine.”

Beyond the new venue, the show represents something of a full circle for Tanner, the company’s founder and artistic director. Nelson directed and taught Tanner when he was a theater student at Brigham Young University. In 2005, Nelson moved to the University of Utah to head the department where he had earned his doctorate.

“Javen has directed more plays than I have. He’s very experienced,” Nelson says. “I have no trouble whatsoever turning over the reins to a qualified, sensitive director like Javen.”

In ensemble roles, the cast also includes Tanner’s daughter, Rain, and several current and former students at Sandy’s Waterford School, where Tanner heads the theater department.

Tanner finds the power of theater rooted in ritual, and he is exploring those moments in O’Neill’s writing. “He places specific moments to the play — that rise out of realism — into a ritual place,” Tanner says. “I take those cues and really push those moments into the ‘anti-real.’ By ‘anti-real’ I mean that you push into realism and then you go beyond it into something transcendent.”

One such moment, for example, is when the 70-something Cabot begins to dance at a party he throws to welcome his newborn son. “He pushes everyone else aside, and he goes to this very wild place,” Tanner says.

Another such moment happens in the family’s parlor, when two characters, haunted or blessed by the memory of Cabot’s dead wife, have a fateful encounter that veers the story into the territory of tragedy.

Speaking of full circles, the role has given Nelson a chance to again delve deeply into the richness of O’Neill’s work, which he studied in graduate school in the early 1970s under U. professor Harold Folland.

“Having read all his plays, his plays play better than they read,” Nelson says. “They are a difficult read, often, but a company that really trusts the script, trusts the text, finds that O’Neill had a great theater sense. And the plays play surprisingly well.”

London on Stage | October 5-14, 2017

We are in London now and we want to tell you about the plays that we will see on this trip. We just took a group to The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth, which we will see in October. It is over-the-top good, and will be talked about for years. It was the fastest-selling show in Royal Court Theatre history, and everyone wants in. The night we saw it, in the audience with us were Nicole Kidman, Dustin Hoffman, and (wait for it) Keith Urban. Another play we’ve selected, The Girl from the North Country by Conor McPherson, is already getting significant buzz before it’s even opened, being called by The Guardian "the play to see this summer."

One more exciting opportunity we'll have on this trip is great seats to J.T. Rogers extraordinary playOSLO, winner of the Obie Award for Best New American Theatre Work and nominated for a whopping 7 Tony Awards this year. These plays, and Wings which we’re seeing at the Young Vic with the incomparable actress, Juliet Stevenson, and King Lear at the Globe, with one of the most creative minds in theatre, Nancy Meckler directing, are  superior plays and incredible productions compared to what we've seen in past trips. Remember that we have seen Cumberbatch's Hamlet and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child previously. These plays are so very good. Join us!

Tim & Jane

Sackerson and Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory present a new collaboration:

How long can you stand on the train tracks: a game for two sisters

In the basement of the Pioneer Memorial Building on the University of Utah Campus sits the Babcock Theatre. Sackerson and Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory will premiere a new play by resident playwright Morag Shepherd. A wild painting of two sisters facing trains barreling down the tracks, this play runs July 7, 8 , 9, 13, 14, 15, 16 @ 7:30 PM

Tickets are $18-25 at https://sackerson.org/

A game. A train. An echo of death. A game for two sisters. Two sisters: Charlie and Pepper—both in love with Grayson. Their father is a digger, a stranger. Their mother has kaleidoscopes for eyes. A train and a question. It’s coming nearer, nearer; it’s almost here, it’s almost here — it was never here. Was it ever here? An echo of love. Love that tastes like the ocean, and steel, and glass in your eyes.

About Morag Shepherd (playwright) Playwright Morag Shepherd, originally from Scotland, is the resident playwright at Sackerson in Salt Lake City, where her plays BURN, THE WORST THING I’VE EVER DONE (performed in a box by one actor for an audience of one at a time), BEFORE THE BEEP (performed in weekly installments via voicemail) and POPPY’S IN THE SAND have premiered, the latter also playing Great Salt Lake Fringe and San Diego International Fringe Festivals.

About FLYING BOBCAT THEATRICAL LABORATORY (Salt Lake City, UT) Flying Bobcat is a theatrical laboratory dedicated to exploring the possibilities of storytelling in performance through language, movement, technology, and design. Recent collaborations include; In March 2016 the World Premiere of Climbing With Tigers, adapted for the stage by Troy Deutsch, based on the book by Nathan Glad and Dallas Graham Produced by Salt Lake Acting Company in collaboration with Flying Bobcat and Red Fred Project. Climbing was a new devised work involving animation and live action and was featured in American Theatre Magazine May 2016.

About SACKERSON (Salt Lake City, UT) Sackerson is a nonprofit, Salt Lake City-based theatre company with a focus on new works, unconventional venues, and bold audiences. Recent works include the immersive dance theatre experience SONDER, yoga-studio-based BURN, and the mobile theatre box for one patron at a time production of THE WORST THING I'VE EVER DONE.

University of Utah Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Ruth Watkins announced that John W. Scheib, director of the School of Music at University of Kentucky, has accepted the offer to serve as the next dean of the College of Fine Arts.

Following the completion of the appointment approval process, Scheib will begin on July 1, 2017.

“We are delighted to welcome professor Scheib to this key leadership role at the U,” said Watkins. “His record of achievement as a scholar, educator, leader and champion of the arts is remarkable.”

After earning his master’s and doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in music education, Scheib began his academic career at Ball State University where he held a number of leadership positions, including director of the School of Music. For the past three years, he has served as the director of the School of Music at the University of Kentucky. In that role, Scheib has implemented several well-regarded budget and personnel initiatives. He has significant experience with capital campaigns and has developed programming aimed at improving student and faculty success, as well as enhancing access to the arts. He is recognized for his talent as a keen listener who works with his team, including community members, to build and enact vision and strategy to advance the arts.

Scheib’s research in music education is rooted in his experience as a music teacher in the Wisconsin public schools for nine years. He focuses on, among other things, the beliefs and practices of music teachers and their students and music education reform. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including the Journal of Research in Music Education and the Journal of Music Teacher Education.

“I am excited to be joining a college and university with such a strong commitment to the development of creative and innovative leaders and citizens,” said Scheib. “Our roles as artists, arts scholars and arts educators are vital as we provide key opportunities for students to develop the wide range of intelligences and skills necessary for 21st century success.”

The search for the replacement of esteemed Raymond Tymas-Jones, who served as dean for 12 years and who will remain as the U’s associate vice president for the arts, began in fall 2016. The committee, led by College of Humanities Dean Dianne Harris and School of Music associate professor Jessica Nápoles, included members of the college’s faculty, staff, students and Advisory Board, as well as members of the community and professional arts affiliates on campus.

Original article can be found at The Finer Points.

Have you ever wondered what a fight choreographer does? The Department of Theatre is fortunate to have Professor Chris DuVal on our faculty who teaches many areas of theatre including being a fight choreographer. This summer, DuVal is the Fight Choreographer for Colorado Shakespeare Festival, with is the 2nd oldest Shakespeare Festival.

The productions he will be fight choreographing this season include Taming of the Shrew (also the director), Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. "My typical day is a combination of various planning meetings with other designers, and rehearsals in which I am working with actors to develop safe but effective illusions of violence.

We keep the fights slow n’ steady for a long period of time, we make sure the weapons are all safe, and that we keep a close tab on other elements of lighting, sound, costume, and scenic design to ensure that all elements work together to help the fight effectively and dynamically contribute to the story."