Alfred University Performing Arts CenterStage Fall 2017

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CenterStage

Division of Performing Arts Newsletter · Fall 2017

Director’s Welcome

A new academic year is once again about to begin. As we carry with us the Alfred
summer of warm air, green hillsides and the cheer of community friendships, we
look forward to the rigor of a renewed commitment to learning by experiencing the
discoveries that only Performing Arts can deliver. Join us at Holmes Auditorium,
Susan Howell Hall, and at the Miller Performing Arts Complex for our events. Here
at Alfred University, we offer a world of music, dance and drama to entertain and
inspire. Our commitment is to bring enjoyment, knowledge and meaning to life.
Welcome to Center Stage.
Our 2017-2018 performances are made possible through the extraordinary
generosity of Marlin and Ginger Miller, David and Elizabeth Miller, the Herrick-
Gallman Fund for the Performing Arts, Hillel at Alfred, as well as the support of our
many Premiere Club members.
This season premieres Friday, September 8th in Holmes Auditorium with Journey
West, a unique music ensemble exploring the migration of melody from east to
west, featuring two remarkable refugee musicians from Iraq and Syria.
Dr. Lisa Lantz
Professor of Music, Founding Director of the MostArts Festival
and Chair of Performing Arts at Alfred University

&theatre designS P O T L I G H T O N

Guest Director, Dara Malina

Dara Malina returns to the Miller Performing Arts
Center to work with our students on another
Devised Performance piece, September 28-30
in the C.D.Smith III Theater.

Students will form an ensemble and devise
an orginal performance work from found or
collectively generated text and images. The
piece will be inspired by our current political
moment and tests from early 20thC works
inspired by war and avant garde art movements.
Malina is a director of theatre, performance,
opera and video in NYC.

Currently, she is directing an opera film featuring
the Ophelie mad scene from Thomas’ HAMLET
while developing THIS IS A PROTEST OF
WHAT HAPPENED at The Brick in Brooklyn, NY.
Welcome back, Dara!

Scenic Painting Workshop with Karen Glass th

The Design program welcomes set
designer and scenic artist Karen
Glass from Pittsburg, PA. Karen will
give a workshop and discuss the role
of the scenic artist as a production
team member. Students will also
discover interesting and informative
information about surface preparation,
paint formulation and mixing, creating
textures and modeling with highlight
and shadow.Theatre and Art students
can look forward to getting messy while
having some fun- Welcome to the Miller
Performing Arts Center, Karen!

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Spotlight on: Shaminda Amarakoon Class of 2004

Shaminda was recently appointed Chair of the
Technical Design and Production Department and
Director of Production at the School of Drama and
Yale Repertory Theater. Amarakoon graduated
from Alfred University in 2004 and until his recent
appointment had worked as production manager
at Second Stage Theater, where his responsibilities
included consulting on renovations of the Helen
Hayes Theater, in New York City. He also worked
in production for Yale Repertory Theater, and had
worked in production management for numerous
Broadway, off-Broadway and national tours through
Tech Production Services, and then Lincoln Center
Theater. With one word, Shaminda sums up his
Alfred University experience: “Confidence! AU gave
me the confidence to pursue my dream.”

Theatre Department presents Eurydice

Eurydice, by Sarah Ruhl, is an enchanting retelling of of it as a “cultural ritual to organize her feelings”, a way
the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Told from to “have a few more conversations with him.” Through
the perspective of Eurydice, the story focuses on her a collage-like plot structure, Ruhl creates a dreamlike
time in the Underworld after her untimely death and world in which she introduces themes not present
the surprise awaiting her that ultimately determines in the original myth. Directed by J. Stephen Crosby,
her eternal fate. Lush with dark humor, lyrical beauty, Eurydice will run November 15th- 18th - Transport
and wit, Eurydice transforms this Greek classic into yourself into the two worlds of Eurydice, a play New
a visceral, contemporary meditation on love worth York Times reviewer Charles Isherwood called “weird
grieving for. Award-winning playwright and Pulitzer and wonderful.” For reservations, go online (las.alfred.
Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl wrote Eurydice in honor of her edu/performing-arts/events) or call 871-2828.
father who died of cancer. She describes her writing

Famous Plays Will Light Up Milller Stages

Watch throughout the 2017-2018 year for “Pop-Up Orson Wells that set off panic in the US in the fall of

Concert Readings” of timely plays! Under the direction 1939. It’s a Wonderful Life will conclude the fall season.

of Becky Prophet, students from Performing Arts will Spring semester includes: The Laramie Project, Our

present plays as great readings for FREE! Look for Town, and, perhaps, Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap or

Gaslight in early October: a husband convinces his wife a stage adaptation of A Prayer for Owen Meany from

that she is crazy. Just in time for Halloween and some John Irving’s stunning novel. Exact times, dates, and

t 78 years after the scary and realistic radio broadcast,locations will be announced through e-mail, Alfred
Today, and the Alfred Sun.
heatrea reading of The War of the Worlds, made famous by
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musicS P O T L I G H T O N

Welcome new adjunct faculty Kurt Galván and Eric Carlin

Pianist Kurt Eric Eric Carlin’s diverse

Galván is our musical interests have

new accompanist spanned electric blues,

and adjunct jazz, rock, pop and

piano instructor. classical guitar. Carlin

He performed received his Bachelor

on campus of Music in guitar

this summer at performance from
the 4th annual
Kurt Galván Mansfield University

MostArts Festival and will return this fall to teach Class and went on to study

Piano, private lessons and accompany our students with Nicolas Goluses Eric Carlin
at the Eastman School
in rehearsals and recital. Active as a performer in New

York and around his native New England area, where of Music earning a DMA. Most recently, Carlin

he has premiered many new chamber works, Kurt received the prestigious Doctor of Musical Arts

recently returned from a performing tour in China. Degree in Performance and Literature from Eastman.

He earned his MM in Piano from the University of At Eastman, he nurtured his passion for teaching,

Connecticut, and an MM in Piano Accompaniment at and currently divides his time between Mansfield

the Eastman School of Music, where he is currently University and Nazareth College in Rochester, NY and

pursuing his DMA. is excited to begin teaching at Alfred this Fall.

Peggy Lynn composition residency and performance

David Miller Guest Artist Series Presents: Peggy Lynn and Dan Duggan m
Singer/songwriter, Peggy Lynn would be
in residence with the FYE class “Tell Me
A Story” September 27-28. Students will
be exploring ballads from the US and
the British Isles and composing their
own ballads. Ms. Lynn will also present a
WGST Women’s Studies Roundtable on
Friday, September 29, entitled Songs of
the Suffragette Movement. Lynn would
be joined by her husband, award winning
hammer dulcimer player Dan Duggan for
a free concert of traditional folk music
on September 29 at 7:30 pm in the
Alfred Seventh Day Baptist Church. This
residency is also funded by the Herrick-
Gallman Fund.

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Journey West to feature two special guest artists

Journey West is a music ensemble which chronicles
the migration of melody, from east to west, through
an interactive multi-media performance.

On Friday September 8, 2017, Journey West will
perform at Alfred University’s Holmes Auditorium and
will be joined by two refugee musicians: Imad Yassin
from Iraq, and Basam Batbouta from Syria, who will
share their remarkable stories and their music.

Journey West’s visit is sponsored by Hillel and the
David Miller Guest Artist Series.

Journey West

A special message

In 1985 I began playing the violin through youth Hussein fell, and in 2007 I went back to Iraq to visit
organizations affiliated with the Iraqi Baath Party, my family, where I was exposed to violence from
headed by Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein and forced the opposition that had gained power.
to perform for the State. Later, I was forced to work for
Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam – an unstable and I was faced with another type of extremism.
violent individual. If you refused to participate in the Extremist religious parties outlawed my music and
special activities of the Hussein family, your fate was persecuted me. This became insufferable when
imprisonment, where you would be tortured to death. they bombed my family’s house, forcing me to flee
In 1997, in order to survive, I fled from Iraq to the back to Dubai with my wife and children. I remained
United Arab Emirates. there until November, 2016.

Over the years, I yearned to return to my native I am now very happy to be in the United States
country. Finally, in 2003, the government of Saddam and am grateful to be alive.

Imad Yassin

m Trio Alexander, a unique classical ensemble

Trio Alexander champions the music for flute-viola-harp
trio by performing not only standard classical repertoire,
but also their own transcriptions, commissioned works
from emerging composers, and improvisations on
jazz and folk tunes. The trio comprises flutist Caroline
Sonett, violist Adam Paul Cordle, and harpist Rosanna
Moore and will perform a free concert on October 29 at
3:00 in Miller Theater.

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danceS P O T L I G H T O N

Eiko and Body in Spaces

Eiko performing Kifune Shrine. Photo by William Johnson Rosemary Candelario, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor at
Texas Womans University) specializes in the Japanese
In the Spring of 2018, The Alfred University Dance avant-garde movement form butoh. Other research
department, along with multiple partners, looks forward interests include dance and ecology, Asian American
to hosting artist Eiko Otake in a week-long residency dance, site-specific performance, and arts activism. Her
at Alfred University. Eiko’s “medium is movement and book, Flowers Cracking Concrete: Eiko & Koma’s Asian/
her work resides in the spaces between dance, theater, American Choreographies was published by Wesleyan
performance art, and sculpture”. The residency will University Press in 2016. Candelario’s choreography
connect with many departments on AU’s campus has been produced across the United States, and
along with universities and community members within as a dancer she has performed in the United States,
the region. Eiko will be teaching open master classes, Brazil, Canada, Germany, and South Africa. She has
giving multiple free public video lectures that range in published articles in the Journal of Theatre, Dance and
topics but will include A Body in Fukashima, and will be Performance Training; The Scholar and Feminist Online;
creating and performing a site-specific solo as part of and The International Journal of Screendance, and
her A Body in Places series. has chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Dance and
the Popular Screen, Contemporary Directions in Asian
To prepare our students and larger audience for this American Dance, and Race in the Vampire Narrative.
residency, the dance department, with the generous Rosemary earned a PhD in Culture and Performance
funding from the Herrick Gallman Fund, will be from UCLA. At TWU she teaches graduate theory and
bringing Dr. Rosemary Candelario, author of Flowers writing courses, advises PhD and MA students, and
Cracking Concrete: Eiko & Koma’s Asian/American directs the International Dance Company.
Choreographies for a two- day residency November www.rosemarycandelario.net/
6 & 7. Dr. Candelario will present lectures and teach
movement classes that will prepare the community for Eiko Otake’s project is supported by the New York
Eiko’s upcoming residency. State DanceForce with funding from the New York
State Council on the Arts Dance Program, the Marlin
6 Miller Dance Residency Program, The School of Art and
Design, and the Alfred University Institute for Cultural
Unity.

Welcome back from sabbatical...

to Chase Angier, Steve and Luanne Crosby. We
look forward to hearing about your time away
from campus at this fall’s Bergren Forum in Nevins

daTheater. Steve and Luanne will present “China: Terra

Cotta Warriors, Fish Head Soup, And Fiddler on the
Roof” on September 7 and Chase will speak about
Iceland and more November 2.

Project Updates

Recently The Letter to the World Project created by D.
Chase Angier, Marketa Fantova and Evelyne Leblanc
Roberge was featured in the ASAP/Journal in an in-
depth article written by Amanda Graham. This project
included three current or former AU faculty members
- Angier, Leblanc Roberge, and Fantova, and Alfred
University students who have since graduated: Eden
Palmer, Kim Rau, Krystal Redding Cooper, Megan
Chambers, Ned Allen, Julie Verdone, Emily Smith, and
Ibrahim Osumanu.

Last year Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks performed AU alumni Ibrahim Osumanu and Megan Chambers
in Alfred University’s Miller Theater. You will see both of
them in Wendy’s new documentary Restless Creature. Award Winning Choreographer and Alfred University
Wendy Whelan joined the New York City Ballet in 1984 Marlin Miller Dance Residency Ann Carlson has been
as an apprentice and became its principal dancer in touring Doggie Hamlet to enthusiastic audiences at
1991. She is a highly respected and beloved figure The Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, in Jackson
in the dance world. In this documentary, Whelan is Wyoming and soon at The Center for the Art of
followed as she confronts the limitations that time has Performance at UCLA. This project includes Alfred
placed on her body and learns to adapt to a new role University Art Faculty member Diane Cox, and Hornell
in the dance community.– Gia Kourlas, The New York community member Imre To. This art work was first
Times developed at Alfred University in partnership with
Nevermore Farms in 2015.

Performing Arts Fall Calendar 2017

SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER

From the Hillel & David Miller Guest Artist Series 3 Tianhan Chinese Orchestra. Traditional Chinese Orchestra
joins AU Chorus and Guzheng. Miller Theater, 7:30 pm.
8 A Journey West. A migration of melody from east to west,
joined by refugee musicians from Iraq and Syria. Holmes 15-18 Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl. A retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice
Auditorium, 8:00 pm focusing on her time in the Underworld after her untimely
death and the surprise awaiting her. C.D. Smith III Theater, 7:30
28-30 Devised Theatre Production. Under the guidance of NYC pm. Tickets required.
based guest director, Dara Milano. C.D. Smith III Theater, 7:30
pm. Tickets required. 19 Symphony Orchestra Concert. Miller Theater, 7:30 pm

David Miller Guest Artist Series 30 Informal Dance Showing. C.D. Smith III Theater 7:00 pm.

29 Peggy Lynn & Dan Duggan. Enjoy an evening of traditional D E C E M B E R
folk music. Alfred Seventh Day Baptist Church, 7:30 pm
1 Informal Dance Showing. C.D. Smith III Theater 7:00 pm.

OCTOBER 2 Student Recital. Miller Theater, 3 pm
2 Jazz Band Concert. Miller Theater, 7:30 pm
David Miller Guest Artist Series

dance29 TrioAlexander.MusicrangingfromtheClassicstoJazzfor 3 Winter Choral Concert. Alfred Seventh Day Baptist Church,
flute-viola-harp Miller Theater, 3:00 pm. 7:30 pm

8 Symphonic Band Concert. Miller Theater, 7:30 pm

9 Student Recital. Susan Howell Hall, 3 pm

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Division of Performing Arts Non-Profit Org.
Miller Performing Arts Center U.S. Postage
1 Saxon Drive PAID
Alfred, NY 14802 Alfred, NY
Permit No. 5

S UMMER M USIC & A RT Save the Date for MostArts 2018:
July 8-14!

Visit our website for information and updates:
www.MostArts.Alfred.edu or contact Lisa Lantz,
Artistic Director at [email protected].

Congratulations to
Alice Zhang, the 2017
MostArts Festival
Grand Prize winnSeUr,M M E R M U S I C & A RT
and Second Prize
winner, Raymond Feng.
Alice will return for our
Opening Gala Concert,
July 8, 2018

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