Archives 2004-2005
Faculty & Graduate Student Showcase
September 7
Faculty and graduate students hit the boards to launch our fourteenth season in the HopKins Black Box.
A Magical Mystery Tour of the American Theatre
Written & performed by David Terry
September 15-19
In memory of Spalding Gray, Terry reflected on the everyday in performance and the performance of everyday by sitting at his grandfathers desk and interweaving three styles of recollection: scripted mediations, found passages in Grays texts, and impromptu stories as spurred by chance-drawn words written by the audience. As Terry promised, the performance lasted one hour.
US
Written & performed by Tim Miller
October 5
US ricocheted between Miller sharing his love affairs with show tunes and his partner of ten years, Alistair, and interrogating the injustices against lesbian and gay people in our country epitomized currently by George W. and his aim to enshrine Christian Right ideology in the US Constitution.
Body Maps
Written & performed by students with nudges from Tim Miller
October 9
As part of his residency at LSU, Miller held evening workshops with students, culminating in an ensemble piece of narratives of the body where our lives, dreams, obsessions, peeves, memories and desires reside.
The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd * Adapted & performed by Tracy Stephenson Shaffer
October 20-22
Set to the music of Motown and in circular shifts of past and present imagery and recall, Stephenson Shaffer told Kidds story of a young girls journey to find the mother she lost as a child. On October 21, Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, Associate Professor of Speech Communication at SIU, responded to the performance.
The Undergraduate Student Showcase
November 30 & December 1
A rollicking evening of prose, poetry, and other pieces by our extraordinary students in the introductory course, performance composition, nonfiction, southern fiction, and performance of everyday life.
Dashiki Project Theatre: An Experiment in Black Performance
A lecture by Dr. Stanley Coleman
Assistant Professor of Speech and Theatre at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux,
director of the Nicholls Players, and former member of Dashiki Project Theatre February
16
Dr. Coleman traced the historical development and significance of the Dashiki Project
Theatre of New Orleans and its relationship to the Civil Rights, Black Power, and
Black Arts Movements of the 1960s and 70s. Coleman recalled several cutting edge productions
of Dashiki, which gave rise to their inclusive black identity at the time.
Paul Robeson
By Phillip Hayes Dean * Performed by Dr. Stanley Coleman
February 19
Through song, narrative, dramatic scenes and monologues, Coleman presented Deans portrait of Paul Robeson, a forerunner in the struggle for human rights and a stage, screen, and radio star of the early twentieth century. A moving performance of power and grace, in the past and present.
What Are You Trying to Tell Me PosterWhat are you trying to tell me?
Written & performed by Linda Shkreli
March 2-6
In thirty scenes of diverse characters and discourses, Shkreli explored our daily art of spinning a network of selves that mis/communicate with the pervasive social order and its expectations of a coherent (private-gone-public) Self. Among others, Shkrelis alien waitress, bag lady, and sock puppet proved, in Oscar Wildes words, that being natural is simply a pose.
Across Disciplines: Performance Research & Response:
The Body and Discipline
Produced by Melanie Kitchens
March 31 & April 1
Based on collaborative research in workshops, the performers developed individual pieces that, together in performance, demonstrated how different media and perspectives impact diverse bodies of discipline. The performers were Lisa Flanagan (mask), Melanie Kitchens (photography), Bess Matassa (space/place), Roger Pippin (martial arts), Ben Powell (voice), and Tiffany Walter (text). The program included respondents attending the SSCA convention held in Baton Rouge at the time. The respondents were Dr. Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, Director of Communication Across the Curriculum at LSU; Dr. Sharon Croft, Associate Professor of Communication at Capital University; Dr. Mindy Fenske, Assistant Professor of Communication at USC; Dr. John Protevi, Associate Professor of French Studies at LSU; and Dr. Phillip Tebbutt, Associate Professor of Interior Design at LSU.
Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance
By Richard Powers * Adapted & directed by Gretchen Stein
April 20-24
In 1914, August Sander took a photograph of three young men walking along a muddy country road. The photograph leads Powers and, in turn, Stein, her ensemble, and the audience on a journey through the contingent networks that arise in history and memory; a journey where we find that the destination is not nearly as important as the means of transportation. A hauntingly beautiful performance.
The Undergraduate Performance Showcase
May 3 & 4
A celebration of our terrific undergraduate students and the diverse performances they concocted in our introductory course, performance composition, performance art, performance of narrative, and group performance.
The residencies of Tim Miller, Craig-Gingrich Philbrook, and Stanley Coleman were
supported in part by the LSU Performing Arts Student Fee.