Tag Archives: College Park Maryland

Pig Iron Theatre Company presents Zero Cost House at Clarice Smith, Apr 4-5

Pig Iron Theatre Company presents Zero Cost House at Clarice Smith, Apr 4-5

By Toshiki Okada

April 4 & 5, 2014 . 8PM

Location: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Kogood Theatre. Reserved Seating.

Click Here to Buy Tickets:
Regular: $35
Subscriber: $28
Senior Citizen: $30
UMD Alumni Association: $30
UMD Faculty & Staff: $28
Students & Youth: $10

Fri, Apr 4, 2014 . 8:00PM
Sat, Apr 5, 2014 . 8:00PM

Description:

Zero Cost House was initially conceived as a meditation on how Henry David Thoreau’s Walden changed the playwright’s life. The Japanese tsunami of 2011 occurred while Toshiki Okada was writing the play, which left him reflecting even more deeply on the disruptions that come from natural disasters and the uneasy compromises between radical idealism and contemporary living.

Known for its raucous performance spirit, Pig Iron Theatre Company is the first English-language company to premiere Okada’s work and is making its Clarice Smith Center debut with Zero Cost House.

Founded in 1995 as an interdisciplinary ensemble, the company is dedicated to the creation of new and exuberant performance works that defy easy categorization. The company calls itself a “dance-clown-theatre ensemble” whose focus moves from character to space to contact with the audience. Individual pieces have been called “soundscape and spectacle,” “cabaret-ballet” and “avant-garde shadow puppet dessert-theatre.” As one company member put it, “We have a hard time sitting still.”

This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Seagirl at Clarice Smith, Mar 29-30

Seagirl at Clarice Smith, Mar 29-30

Director: Sam Mauceri

Saturday, March 29, 2014, 3:00pm
Saturday, March 29, 2014, 7:30pm
Sunday, March 30, 2014, 3:00pm

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Cafritz Foundation Theatre.

Free admission, no tickets required.

Description: How do you cope when everything you’ve learned begins falling apart? Sam Mauceri’s original work Seagirl utilizes theatre, dance and movement to explore a young woman’s attempts at unpacking her own prejudices in a world that wishes she wouldn’t. Feminist punk music and a longing for radical ideas invade a culture of conventionality in this partnership between The School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies and The Weekday Players.

Spring Awakening at Clarice Smith, Feb 28-Mar 8

Spring Awakening at Clarice Smith, Feb 28-Mar 8

Based on the play by Frank Wedekind
Books & Lyrics by Steven Sater
Music by Duncan Sheik

February 28 – March 8, 2014

Directors Brian MacDevitt, Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig

Presented By: Clarice Smith Center
Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Kay Theatre. Reserved Seating.

Parental Advisory: Adult themes.

Click Here to Buy Tickets:
Regular: $30
Subscriber: $24
Senior Citizen: $25
UMD Alumni Association: $25
UMD Faculty & Staff: $24
Students & Youth: $10

Fri, Feb 28, 2014 . 7:30PM
Sat, Mar 1, 2014 . 7:30PM
Sun, Mar 2, 2014 . 2:00PM
Wed, Mar 5, 2014 . 7:30PM
Thu, Mar 6, 2014 . 7:30PM
Fri, Mar 7, 2014 . 7:30PM
Sat, Mar 8, 2014 . 2:00PM
Sat, Mar 8, 2014 . 7:30PM

Description:

Spring Awakening is based on a controversial 1891 play by German playwright Frank Wedekind, which was banned for a time in Germany because of its frank portrayal of abortion, homosexuality, rape, child abuse and suicide.

The rock musical caused a sensation when it premiered on Broadway in 2006. Set in late 19th-century Germany, it tells the story of teenagers discovering the inner and outer tumult of sexuality.

Alternative and folk-infused rock music capture and reflect the emotional essence of the timeless experience of coming of age.

The production is being co-directed by Tony Award-winning lighting designer and TDPS faculty member Brian MacDevitt in partnership with dance faculty members Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, a testament to the genre-blurring dynamic of the school.

SPRING AWAKENING is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019; Phone: 212-541-4684; Fax: 212-396-4684; www.MTIShows.com.

The Waiting Room at Clarice Smith, Feb 14-22

The Waiting Room at Clarice Smith, Feb 14-22

by Lisa Loomer

February 14-22, 2014

Director Kris Messer

Presented By:
University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Kogood Theatre. General Admission.

Click Here to Buy Tickets:
Regular: $25
Subscriber: $20
Senior Citizen: $20
UMD Alumni Association: $20
UMD Faculty & Staff: $20
Students & Youth: $10

Fri, Feb 14, 2014 . 7:30PM
Sat, Feb 15, 2014 . 7:30PM
Sun, Feb 16, 2014 . 2:00PM
Wed, Feb 19, 2014 . 7:30PM
Thu, Feb 20, 2014 . 7:30PM
Fri, Feb 21, 2014 . 7:30PM
Sat, Feb 22, 2014 . 2:00PM
Sat, Feb 22, 2014 . 7:30PM

Description:

Lisa Loomer’s 1994 play is a dark comedy about the timeless quest for beauty — and its cost. Three women from different centuries meet in a modern doctor’s waiting room.

Forgiveness From Heaven is an 18th-century Chinese woman whose bound feet are causing her to lose her toes. Victoria is a 19th-century English woman suffering from what is commonly known as “hysteria.” Then there is Wanda, a modern gal from New Jersey who is having problems with her silicone breasts.

Husbands, doctors, Freud, the drug industry and the FDA all come under examination in this wild ride through medical and sexual politics.

The playwright — who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Girl, Interrupted — often deals with the experiences of Latinos and Hispanic Americans and with various aspects of contemporary family life. For her work on The Waiting Room, she won the 1994 Jane Chambers Playwriting Award and the 1995 American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award.

For Colored Folks: An Adaptation at Clarice Smith, Feb 1-2

For Colored Folks: An Adaptation at Clarice Smith, Feb 1-2

Saturday, February 1, 2014, 3:00pm
Saturday, February 1, 2014, 7:30pm
Sunday, February 2, 2014, 3:00pm

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Dance Theatre.

Free admission, no tickets required.

Description: For Colored Folks: An Adaptation pays homage to innovative African American writers. Incorporating monologues, movement, dialogue, and music, the end result is a cohesive piece that reveals the similarities between people, rather than romanticizing what makes us different.

“for colored folks…” is a hybrid-performance of two choreopoems: Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf and Keith Antar Mason’s for black boys who have considered homicide when the streets were too much.

The end result is a cohesive choreopoem that explores love, loss, happiness, pain, and self-worth.