Wake Forest Department of Theatre and Dance
Encyclopedia
Wake Forest Department of Theatre and Dance is a department within Wake Forest University
which instructs students in theatre
and dance
and puts on four productions each school season and maintains the university's theatre. The department is based at the Scales Fine Arts Center on campus. The department cooperates with other branches of the university to focus to contemporary topics in the media
by sponsoring films and other activities, lectures and workshops, charitable events and guest performers. In 2011, the department has eleven full-time theatre faculty and five full-time dance faculty.
, comedies
, drama
and tragedies
. The theatre is led by John E. R. Friedenberg, a senior lecturer who has taught at Wake Forest since 1990 and who serves on the boards of several theatre and arts organizations. Friedenberg and several other directors take turns working on different productions, and typically direct one production each academic year. The program makes use of the MainStage theatre in the Scales Center as well as the Ring Theatre. In addition, the theatre is the venue for other types of productions, such as one-person performances.
Many productions combine skills from theatre and dance professors and tackle sometimes unusual projects. For example, the production Sonnets for an Old Century featured "newly dead" persons in an airy space who were encouraged by the "experienced dead" to make a statement to the world, and to relate stories of their lives. In the Wake Forest production of Smash, a socialist millionaire infiltrates an upper-class school for girls to try to plant the seed of socialism into their young minds since they may become "future cabinet ministers", but the comedy erupts into love triangle
s, mistaken identities, and light-hearted look at Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels
. The play Three Penny Opera was first performed in Germany in 1928, and it needed minor adjustments to make it work for modern audiences, such as modeling the character Peachum on Bernie Madoff:
Theatre productions have won positive reviews. Sonnets for an Old Century won plaudits for having a "strong ensemble performances". Friedenberg's production of Three Penny Opera kept the audience "fully engaged" including "more-than-risqué costumes" and excellent music, according to one report. The production of John Steinbeck's
The Grapes of Wrath
in 2011 was praised for its "stagecraft" and was described as an "ambitious and admirable" take on "challenging material." The production of Eurydice was described as a "crazy salad of ideas about music, words, living in the present and remembering the past." Directing, according to Friedenberg, is not about multitasking
but rather having the "experience and context to be able to figure out which tree needs attention when you look at the forest." It is a process of breaking down complex productions into smaller steps and approaching them in the right order. He added "I think the most important part of the learning curve is to trust yourself, to know your team and how they work, and to know when to push and when to wait." In 2011, Friedenberg recruited playwright John Cariani
and star of the TV show Law & Order
to work with Wake Forest theater students during their dress rehearsal phase of Cariani's play Almost, Maine
.
in theatre are required to take a minimum of 33 course-hours in subjects such as acting, voice and movement, design and production, directing, scene design, and history of western theatre. Majors are typically declared by students during the spring of their sophomore year, but they are urged to do so sooner if inclined. Students must take two courses in dramatic literature. Students who choose to minor in theatre are required to take 18 course-hours. Students must have a 2.0 grade point average to graduate. The department is located in the Scales Fine Arts Center. Students have gone on to careers in acting and directing. According to director J. E. R. Friedenberg, the program can teach techniques, tools, processes, and provide opportunities to practice the craft of acting
and directing in an environment with constructive feedback
.
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
which instructs students in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
and puts on four productions each school season and maintains the university's theatre. The department is based at the Scales Fine Arts Center on campus. The department cooperates with other branches of the university to focus to contemporary topics in the media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
by sponsoring films and other activities, lectures and workshops, charitable events and guest performers. In 2011, the department has eleven full-time theatre faculty and five full-time dance faculty.
University theatre
The university theatre has been offering plays and musicals since 1942. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, there have been four main productions during each annual school season, and feature musicalsMusical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, comedies
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
and tragedies
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
. The theatre is led by John E. R. Friedenberg, a senior lecturer who has taught at Wake Forest since 1990 and who serves on the boards of several theatre and arts organizations. Friedenberg and several other directors take turns working on different productions, and typically direct one production each academic year. The program makes use of the MainStage theatre in the Scales Center as well as the Ring Theatre. In addition, the theatre is the venue for other types of productions, such as one-person performances.
Many productions combine skills from theatre and dance professors and tackle sometimes unusual projects. For example, the production Sonnets for an Old Century featured "newly dead" persons in an airy space who were encouraged by the "experienced dead" to make a statement to the world, and to relate stories of their lives. In the Wake Forest production of Smash, a socialist millionaire infiltrates an upper-class school for girls to try to plant the seed of socialism into their young minds since they may become "future cabinet ministers", but the comedy erupts into love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
s, mistaken identities, and light-hearted look at Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
. The play Three Penny Opera was first performed in Germany in 1928, and it needed minor adjustments to make it work for modern audiences, such as modeling the character Peachum on Bernie Madoff:
Theatre productions have won positive reviews. Sonnets for an Old Century won plaudits for having a "strong ensemble performances". Friedenberg's production of Three Penny Opera kept the audience "fully engaged" including "more-than-risqué costumes" and excellent music, according to one report. The production of John Steinbeck's
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962....
in 2011 was praised for its "stagecraft" and was described as an "ambitious and admirable" take on "challenging material." The production of Eurydice was described as a "crazy salad of ideas about music, words, living in the present and remembering the past." Directing, according to Friedenberg, is not about multitasking
Human multitasking
Human multitasking is the best performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. The term is derived from computer multitasking. An example of multitasking is taking phone calls while typing an email...
but rather having the "experience and context to be able to figure out which tree needs attention when you look at the forest." It is a process of breaking down complex productions into smaller steps and approaching them in the right order. He added "I think the most important part of the learning curve is to trust yourself, to know your team and how they work, and to know when to push and when to wait." In 2011, Friedenberg recruited playwright John Cariani
John Cariani
John Cariani is an American actor best known for his role as CSU Tech Julian Beck on television's Law & Order, and for his performance as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof for which he received a Tony Award nomination. He is also a playwright best known for...
and star of the TV show Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
to work with Wake Forest theater students during their dress rehearsal phase of Cariani's play Almost, Maine
Almost, Maine
Almost, Maine is a play by John Cariani, an American actor. The play is composed of nine short plays that explore love and loss in a remote, mythical place called Almost, Maine. It premiered at the Portland Stage Company in Portland, Maine where it broke box office records and garnered critical...
.
Theatre
Students who choose to majorAcademic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....
in theatre are required to take a minimum of 33 course-hours in subjects such as acting, voice and movement, design and production, directing, scene design, and history of western theatre. Majors are typically declared by students during the spring of their sophomore year, but they are urged to do so sooner if inclined. Students must take two courses in dramatic literature. Students who choose to minor in theatre are required to take 18 course-hours. Students must have a 2.0 grade point average to graduate. The department is located in the Scales Fine Arts Center. Students have gone on to careers in acting and directing. According to director J. E. R. Friedenberg, the program can teach techniques, tools, processes, and provide opportunities to practice the craft of acting
Acting
Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....
and directing in an environment with constructive feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
.
Dance
Dance is offered as an academic minor subject. Courses include dance composition, ballet, tap dancing, jazz dancing, history of dance, improvisation, and social dance. Experienced dancers can try out for the Wake Forest Dance Company.Student groups
Student groups involved with acting include the Anthony Aston Players which does a number of projects during the school year including campus wide service and charitable events such as Project Pumpkin and Hit the Bricks and presents readings with its Rep Hour program, and produces one-act and full-length plays. Other groups include a student comedy troupe known as the Lilting Banshees, a Christian theatre troupe called the Living Parables, and a multicultural theatre ensemble known as Umoja. Student dance groups include Gotta Dance and Taylor Academy of dance.Productions
| Date | Production | Director | Oklahoma City Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma... . Al Pacino Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared... . Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a rock musical with music and lyrics written by Michael Friedman, and a book by its director Alex Timbers.The show is a comedic Wild West rock musical about the founding of the Democratic Party... External linksThe source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
|
|---|