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Release date: Aug. 16, 2002 Theater Emory Announces
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According to Theater Emory’s mission statement, it functions in the best tradition of a research university—posing questions, challenging assumptions, and examining values in search of lasting truths: "A theater company cannot find its voice solely by following preexisting models. We investigate questions about the form and content of our work. We produce theater that evokes ideas that challenge ourselves and our society," wrote Vincent Murphy, artistic producing director.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the 2002-03 Theater Emory season, with highlights including a production of Arthur Kopit’s work-in-progress, "Discovery of America"; the biennial Brave New Works marathon; the presentation of "Room" by SITI Company (the Saratoga International Theater Institute); and "Three Sisters," a production that launches an investigation cycle on classic Russian playwright Anton Chekov.
Murphy has been instrumental for more than a year in the development of "Discovery of America" by the two-time Tony Award nominee. "Discovery" was commissioned by the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Arts Festival and the Pioneer Theatre Company; Murphy directed the first reading in Feb. 2001 at the Pioneer, and most recently worked with Kopit on the play at the Ojai (Calif.) Playwrights Festival last month. The play is based on the published recollections of 16th-century Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca’s travels in the Americas.
"The great thing for me about ‘Discovery,’ is that it’s very rare for American writers to take on their own history, especially in an epic, big canvas way," says Murphy. "Here you have Arthur Kopit taking what many scholars call the first great American narrative and trying to see what we can discover about America."
Some of the region’s most acclaimed actors comprise the cast of "Discovery," including Tim McDonough as de Vaca, Carolyn Cook, Chris Kayser and Tom Byrd. Theater Emory’s is the first full production of the work-in-progress as Kopit continues to tinker with it, and it is being presented as part of the city-wide First Glance Atlanta Festival, a collaboration of more than 30 arts organizations, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Cultural Tourism Initiative, the Atlanta Coalition for Performing Arts and several corporate and foundation partners.
Homegrown talent also will be showcased this season. The Science Plays readings Sept. 20 (part one of Brave New Works) will present new plays about two scientists who helped explain the birth and shape of the universe, written by Emory junior Lauren Gunderson and Candler Professor of Physics Sidney Perkowitz. A reading also will be done of "Manna," a new work by frequent Theater Emory collaborator Steve Murray, in preparation for its full production at Actors’ Express this spring.
Theater Emory also will be part of celebrations surrounding the opening of the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts in February. Murphy serves as artistic director of "Inter-play," the dedication ceremony and kickoff to a four-month inaugural festival that showcases Emory dance, music and theater performers. "Inter-play" will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 in the newly named Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall of the Schwartz Center. For more details on the Schwartz Center festival, go to: www.emory.edu/ARTS/calendar/index.html.
Brave New Works intensifies in February to inaugurate the new Theater Lab in the Schwartz Center. From Feb. 6-22, an international ensemble of actors, directors and playwrights will explore new work and offer two or three public readings each week.
Next, a special David Goldwasser Symposium in Religion and the Arts will take place March 30. To celebrate the Schwartz Center opening, the long-time Goldwasser Lectureship is being expanded to a symposium featuring three internationally respected artists—Bill T. Jones, dancer and choreographer; Anne Bogart, director of the SITI Company; and Pauline Oliveros, contemporary composer.
The season rounds out with the April production of Chekov’s masterpiece, "Three Sisters," directed by McDonough, also a member of Emory’s theater studies faculty. The production will be based on new scholarship about the Russian playwright and his interpreters, whose work is being reexamined in a post-Communist world where theater productions continue to move away from historical realism.
Discounts are available for most of the ticketed events during the season: 60% off for Emory students with i.d.; 20% off for Emory faculty and staff, PBA members, TCG members and Arts Card holders; and10% off for alumni under 30, seniors over 65, Friends of Theater Emory, and groups of 10 or more.
For more information on the season or for tickets, call the Arts at Emory box office at 404-727-5050, or go to www.emory.edu/ARTS. Tickets go on sale Aug. 19, with the exception of "Room," on sale now as part of the Candler Series.
The complete season is as follows:
Brave New Works I
Mary Gray Munroe Theater, Dobbs Center 3rd Floor, 605 Asbury Circle, and Rich Memorial Building,1602 Mizell Dr., Emory.
Theater Emory’s biennial marathon of play development workshops will be held in two phases this season. The two events in the fall are readings of plays about two scientists who helped explain the birth and shape of the universe by Emory junior Lauren Gunderson and Candler Professor of Physics Sidney Perkowitz, and a reading of a new play by Steve Murray, directed by Wier Harman of Actors’ Express, prior to a production there in the spring. Brave New Works also will explore a new project with Arthur Nauzyciel, the French director of "Black Battles with Dogs," which was produced at 7 Stages and in Brittany last season.
* Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. Science Plays in the Mary Gray Munroe Theater
* Nov. 3 at 5 p.m., "Manna" by Steve Murray in 205 Rich Memorial Building
Readings are free and open to the public.
Oct. 9-26, 2002
"Discovery of America." Written by Arthur Kopit, directed by Vincent Murphy
Mary Gray Munroe Theater
Discovery of America, by two-time Tony-nominee Arthur Kopit, will be presented as a work-in-progress production as part of the 2002 First Glance Atlanta Festival. The play is based on the published recollections of Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish explorer who traveled in the Americas between 1528 and 1536. As the first European to cross nearly 6,000 miles of what is now North America, de Vaca was transformed by the journey he chronicled in the first great narrative of the making of America.
* Performers Up Close: A free public discussion with playwright Arthur Kopit following the 8 p.m. Oct. 10 performance.
General admission $15*, appropriate discounts apply.
8 p.m. Oct. 9-12, 16-19, 23-26
3 p.m. Oct. 20 and 26
* Oct. 10 pay-what-you-can performance
Feb. 1, 2004
Schwartz Center Dedication: "Inter-play," dedication of the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, showcasing Emory dance, music and theater artists. Cherry Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center, 1700 N. Decatur Rd., Emory. 7 p.m. Ticketing details TBA
Feb. 6-22, 2003
Brave New Works II
Theater Laboratory, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
The second phase of Theater Emory’s biennial marathon of play development workshops inaugurates the Theater Lab in the Schwartz Center. A company of international artists will convene at Emory to share a process that has launched productions at the Alliance Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and at Yale Repertory Theatre. (The center’s new Theater Lab will become the primary home to Theater Emory’s Playwriting Center and Brave New Works play development while Theater Emory’s productions will continue to take place in the Mary Gray Munroe Theater in the Dobbs Center.)
Readings are free. VIP Pass for priority seating and special events with the guest company: $15.
Call the box office after Sept. 1 for the complete schedule.
March 21-23, 2003
"Room." Created by the SITI Company (Saratoga International Theater Institute), directed by Anne Bogart
Mary Gray Munroe Theater
The SITI Company, internationally recognized for its innovative and kinetic theater, created "Room" from the writings of Virginia Woolf. Actress Ellen Lauren, in a tour de force performance, guides the audience into the mind and experience of this extraordinary woman who wrote with humor, outrage and passion in the early 20th century. Made possible by the Flora Glenn Candler Fund.
* Performers Up Close: A free discussion with artistic collaborators for "Room," follows March 22 performance.
$25 general admission, appropriate discounts apply.
8 p.m. March 21-22
3 p.m. March 23
March 30, 2003
David Goldwasser Symposium in Religion and the Arts: "The Redemptive Power of Art"
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Featuring three internationally recognized artists: Bill T. Jones, dancer and choreographer; Anne Bogart, director of the SITI Company; and Pauline Oliveros, contemporary composer. The three individual presentations will be followed by a conversation between the artists. Emory’s David Goldwasser Lectureship in Religion and the Arts was established in 1980 in memory of Goldwasser, a 1932 graduate of Emory College. The lectureship is intended to keep alive his appreciation of art, music and faith as enriching dimensions of the human spirit, and is expanded to a symposium this season to celebrate the opening of the Schwartz Center. Free and open to the public.
2 p.m. presentations; 7:30 p.m. panel discussion
April 17-26, 2003
"Three Sisters." Written by Anton Chekhov, directed by Tim McDonough
Mary Gray Munroe Theater
Theater Emory begins a research cycle into the work of the great Russian playwright with one of his masterpieces. In "Three Sisters," Chekhov’s characters, shaped by political and economic forces, live with great hope on the brink of despair. In the face of the inevitable, they search feverishly, sometimes hilariously, for the meaning of their lives. General admission $15. April 18–pay what you can.
8 p.m. April 17-19 & 23-26
3 p.m. April 26
General admission $15*, appropriate discounts apply.
*April 18 pay-what-you-can performance.
Theater Emory is the producing organization of Emory University and is affiliated with the Department of Theater Studies. It is a constituent member of the Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national association of nonprofit professional theatres, and a member of the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts. It operates under a season agreement with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
First Glance Atlanta is a premiere citywide festival celebrating performances of new work in theatre and dance developed by established and emerging companies throughout the greater Atlanta area. First Glance Atlanta is intended to increase and enhance the production and appreciation of new work and the performing arts. The festival is a collaborative effort among more than 30 local arts organizations, with the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau's Cultural Tourism Initiative serving as the presenting partner. Other partners include the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts, The CF Foundation Inc., American Express Company, DeKalb Council for the Arts, Fulton County Arts Council and the Loridans Foundation. For more information, visit www.firstglanceatlanta.com.
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copyright 2001
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