2020/21 Season
Fall 2020
New Voices Playwriting Competition
Link to full production on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xRsnZ7KH5zw
Play Titles:
FREIGHT TRAIN By Wolf Morgan-Steiner, Directed by Kirk Boyd
FOR AN INCREASE IN CHARITY By Michael Jonsson, Directed by Craig Willis
STORY OF MORE WOE By Morgan James, Directed by Jen Gerould
WHEN I TELL HIM By Jude Stone, Directed by Morgan James
AUTONOMY By Dara Willmarth, Directed by Gabby Socolofsky
HEREAFTER By Zebe Loun, Directed by Michael Jonsson
A CALL FOR CHANGE By Spencer Fork, Directed by Nathan Shapiro
THE WORST CRITIC By Vidar Alexander, Directed by Joseph Gilg
HONEST INTENTIONS By Anakin Welp, Directed by Jennifer Chaney
Or Not To Be
Link to full production on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FZDw4uKSLRI
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, freely mistreated by John Schmor, directed by the Spring 2020 Play Direction class, performed by the cast for a production that was not to be until it was, but in a different form . . .
This version was rehearsed via Zoom and individually filmed by the actor (or their sibling, room-mate, friend) via mobile phone during Spring term, 2020. Actors made their own fake blood and were mailed zombie contact lenses, costumes, some props.
Editing progressed through five phases across the summer and right up to our Halloween 2020 release, with many thanks to lead editor, Grant Strange.
Winter 2021
“Fragmented” Character in “Personal Game”
PERSONAL GAME A live theatre experience showcasing MFA candidate Ashley Baker’s costume designs, with original music by Orchestra Next. This unusual project will feature performers in costumes which abstractly express different paths people take in adapting themselves for role-playing games.
Directed by John Schmor
Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lRHr2VR0r8Q
Check out the images from Personal Game on our Flickr: Personal Game Flickr
Daily Emerald article about Personal Game: UO Theatre reignites with role-play inspired showcase.
Play Reading: Personal History
By Dominic Taylor
Directed by Stanley Coleman
Interview with Stanley Coleman: Daily Emerald Interview
Personal History Images on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmV1hiat
Personal History follows an African-American couple as they navigate three moments in American life, stretched out over a century in the city of Chicago. The highly educated pharmacist Eugene enters the world of the play in 1903, outraged that he is overqualified and underemployed. At an elegant parlor party hosted by his white business associate, Eugene scandalizes the other guests by challenging their comfortable liberalism. He also meets his future bride, Bethany, herself an accomplished business owner. Toying with time, the play has the couple moving into this same home in an exclusive all-white neighborhood in the early 1950s. Race and class are further jumbled as the action shifts to the 1990s — the house is now a chic restaurant where Eugene and Bethany, divorced years earlier, have their final transformative encounter.
Personal History- Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. (www.playscripts.com)
Spring 2021
Two Virtual One-Act Plays: Watermelon Kisses, & Marisol’s Christmas
By José Cruz González
Directed by Theresa May
Production images on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWdFdgX
Article about Marisol’s Christmas & Watermelon Kisses: Highlighting the Latinx Community
In Watermelon Kisses two brothers tease one another about what happens when you swallow a watermelon seed, but the story is much larger than this as the boys are named for the Mayan and Aztec gods Tlāloc and Quetzal.
In Marisol’s Christmas a family flees over the border from Mexico to the United States on Christmas Eve and takes refuge under the overpass of a freeway bridge. There, Papí uses found objects to tell a story that gives the family hope and joy on this night of nights.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (Revised)
by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, Jess Winfield
directed by Liz Fairchild
Production images on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmVTxyMo
ABOUT THE PLAY
All 37 plays in 97 minutes! Six – Eight madcap folx weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies in one wild ride that will leave you breathless and helpless with laughter. An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) was London’s longest-running comedy.
Originally produced by Reduced Shakespeare Company
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED] is produced by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC www.broadwayplaypub.com
UNIVERSITY THEATRE/THEATRE ARTS IN THE NEWS
For a deeper dive into the importance of Theatre Arts, please watch this interview: Michael Najjar and a few Theatre Arts students gave a presentation at the 2021 Student Success summit that illuminates how our department came together to still produce art and maintain human connection during the pandemic.
“Theatre In The time of a Pandemic: New Voices 2020”
https://uoregon.zoom.us/rec/share/aQzlX_u1dopZ0J6uQ0kN6BiJg19EhDOO8pPT_YZu
For another inside perspective on how University Theatre adapted to the pandemic, please read this article by Megan O’Keefe: https://hultcenter.org/university-theatre-survives-during-covid-19-pandemic-dorothee-ostmeier-head-of-uo-theatre-arts-department/
