Photos by Walter Dallas.
In 2010, the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies originated a new MFA program, simply called MFA Performance. The program’s first class of graduates is now ready to show Washingtonians the fruits of their studies. The University’s first Festival of New Works will run February 1 through 16 at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
The MFA Performance program responds to a growing trend in the world of theatre: the solo and/or devised performance. In this new world, the individual theatrical entrepreneur has emerged as a powerful new force because of his or her ability to create performances not only with fewer bodies than traditional theatre but also without the reliance upon a playwright. In the traditional structure of theatre, the actor is an interpretive artist—one who fulfills the artistic vision of others, i.e., the producer, the director, and/or the playwright. In this new genre of performance, however, the actor emerges as the total theatre artist, creating work from their own experiences or from the experiences of their community.
To be sure, theatre from the past did not operate that differently; Commedia Del’Arte troupes devised their performances using stock characters and roving players and storytellers have since the beginning of theatre been entrepreneurs, devising their performances from their unique worldviews. If anything, what makes these postmodern performers different is that they take their cue from the origins of theatre, while frequently using a host of modern technologies in the creative process.
The Festival of New Works begins on Friday, February 1 at 7:00 p.m. with performances by Caroline Clay and Anu Yadav. Clay’s Let it Flo! explores the reality of freedom in the world today, particularly as one grows older and one’s legacy begins to fade. Yaday’s Meena’s Dream deals with the coming-of-age of Meena, a seven-year-old Indian American. With musical accompaniment, Yaday takes her audience on an imaginative journey to have a conversation with God.
The following weekend, Rob Jansen and David Demke present their new works. Jansen’s multimedia The Tramp’s New World uses an historical screenplay by James Agee (never produced) in which Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” is the lone survivor of a nuclear apocalypse. Demke’s Sacred Soil explores the darkness of the human soul, posing the question: “Can we be redeemed by violent means?”
The final weekend of the Festival begins Friday, February 15 with three new works by Nick Horan, Claudia Rosales, and Teresa Ann Virginia Bayer. Horan’s The Sound of Smoke delves into transvestism, exploring our understanding of sexuality and identity. Rosales’s Café uses the Cuban ritual of preparing coffee as a way of examining the cultural identity of many first-generation Americans. On the other hand, Bayer’s Coffee and Biscuit re-imagines Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, setting it in the sexism of the 1950s, using both puppets and live actors.
The Festival of New Works will allow audiences to experience his multi-talented, multi-cultural collection of theatre artists at the beginning of their careers. No doubt, as artists and entrepreneurs who are willing to put their souls all on the line, some day in the future we will hear their names again. Then we can say: “We saw them when….”
The Festival of New Works plays at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, 3800 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, February 1 through 16. For more information about the University of Maryland’s Festival of New Works or to by tickets click here.
For more information about the MFA in Performance Program click here.
