Current and Alumni News for Feb 28th

CURRENT NEWS

MFA3 Producer, Jackie Banks-Mahlum, is returning to The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum as their producer for their upcoming Summer repertory season.

D&P Administrative Assistant, Barb Edwards was recently accepted to Oregon State University. Don’t worry, she won’t be leaving us; Barb plans to take her courses through their distance learning programs.

Alum Sayda Trujillo (BFA ’00 Acting) presents “I was Raised Mexican”

“I Was Raised Mexican” investigates the experience of acquired identity. A Guatemalan teenager finds herself identified by her community as Mexican. Visually, it is a peeling of layers, each offering a possible answer to What is Mexican? Asking, What do you see when you see me? What do we carry with us? What is impossible to leave behind? Through movement, song, absurdist and poetic text, “I Was Raised Mexican” pays close attention to what the immigrant carries with him/her and what this translates in their adopted new home/country.

Upcoming Screenings of Derek Magyar’s (BFA 03 Acting) feature film debut Flying Lessons

I’m pleased to announce the Los Angeles and New York distributor screenings of Derek Magyar’s “Flying Lessons,” this year’s honored opening night film at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. One of Variety’s 2010 list of ’10 Actors to Watch,’ Maggie Grace (Lost, Taken, upcoming Knight and Day) stars as a woman who’s forced to return home to face old demons and her estranged mother (Christine Lahti). Cast also includes Hal Holbrook and Cary Elwes. Worldwide rights are available.

Virginia Grise’s blu wins the 2010 Yale Drama Award

2010 Yale Drama Series Prize for Emerging Playwrights

Read the announcement in the New York Times.

Read the announcement in Playbill.

Read the announcement in Theatre Mania.

From Virginia: I’m proud to announce my play blu has been named the winner of the 2010 Yale Drama Series competition by playwright David Hare. blu was selected from over 960 submissions. As part of the award, the play will be published by Yale University Press, have a public reading at the Yale Repertory Theatre in September and I will also receive a $10,000 award issued by theDavid C. Horn Foundation.

News from Writing for Performance Alumna Virginia Grise

I’m in San Antonio right now working on a project with Barbara Renaud Gonzalez titled Remember el Alma. I’s amazing what being home teaches you/reminds you. I am remembering things I have forgotten since I've been away. Driving down 281 the other night, I had to stop my car because at that moment, I remembered – as a high school student, I would drive to this dark spot on the access road, pull my car over and park in an empty field. Lie down on the hood of my mother's old chevy, stare at the stars, and watch the planes land and take off from the runway of the San Antonio airport. I'd take in heavy breaths of flight wondering about the places the planes had come from and gone to, trying to imagine all the places I wanted to go. I'd sit out there alone for hours dreaming underneath a blanket of stars. In all that wishing, I never imagined I would live with a houseful of female emcess in East Los Angeles, or that I would fly across continents to Africa to study the genocide in Rwanda and Uganda, or that I would serve food at soup kitchens with squatters in Amsterdam. Never imagined that I would live in the bitter cold of Minneapolis – armed with an ice scraper and jumper cables (though I do hope the ice has thawed by the time I return). Didn't realize then the power of dreams. I have a deep sense of gratitude and give thanks to those people that have supported my work and me, for holding me up, for helping me fly. I'd like to especially thank Laurie Carlos, Janet Dreisen, Irma Mayorga, Jessica Cerda, Mirasol Riojas, Marissa Ramirez, my godson Myzael and David Zamora Casas for reminding me of the importance of home, community and faith. And muchisimas gracias to la Barbara and Kellen McIntrye for creating a space for me to work, for bringing me home. To read about San Antonio artists poised to make a difference in 2010 (including David Zamora Casas, Pablo Martinez and ME) click here.

Remember el Alma (Remember your Soul)

“In this millenium, it’s time for women to transform the Alamo into a monument to peace, a wailing wall, a place of truth-telling and reconciliation, if we are serious about ending war.” -Barbara Renaud Gonzalez

Remember el Alma (Remember your Soul) is a site-specific performance written, directed and performed by women exploring the legacy of colonization and war, collective grief and acts of public healing.

MUCH at the Cock Tavern Theater, PRODUCED by Alum Tanja Raaste

How far would you go to get what you want?

A new play by Hannah Patterson

Directed by Hannah Eidinow

Helen is about to marry Roy when Tom, his son, arrives stirring up memories of the past. MUCH explores a loss of innocence against the city’s backdrop of ruthless ambition, revealing the dysfunctional ties that bind a domineering tycoon, his forsaken son and the object of their affection – a young, ambitious woman pushing the boundaries of privacy with her art.

23 February – 20 March (£12/£10 Concession)

Dog and Wolf by CATHERINE FILLOUX

When Jasmina, a political refugee seeking asylum in the U.S., suddenly disappears, her wheelchair-bound lawyer Joseph must track her down. Who is the dog? Who is the wolf? A psychological and political play of intrigue, identity and pursuit. Presented by Watson Arts, Directed by Jean Randich. Includes the talents of: Nadia Bowers*, John Daggett*, and Dale Soules* (* Member of the Actors’ Equity Association).

24700 » Pee-wee Herman’s Return to the Stage

After an almost two-decade hiatus, actor-comedian Paul Reubens (BFA Theater 73) has brought the iconic character of Pee-wee back—this time from the little screen to the stage at Club Nokia @ L.A. LIVE for a limited 4-week engagement, through Feb. 7. Nostalgic audiences–and critics–have welcomed their Saturday morning hero with open arms.