<p>Does anyone know what the spring shows are this coming year? I know the auditions are being held right now as my D has just finished them, and call backs start next week, but I am having difficulty finding the shows on the Uarts calendar of events.</p>
<p>These are the Spring shows:</p>
<p>THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller
Directed by Gene Terruso
March 23-27, 2011
Merriam Theater</p>
<p>The Devil has come to Puritan New England, and Elizabeth Proctor is accused of being a witch by her husband’s secret lover. Jealousy and hysteria polarize a close-knit community, and the consequences are grim. Arthur Miller’s dramatic re-enactment of the 17th century Salem Witch Trials, originally intended as an allegory for the anti-Communist “witch hunts” of the 1950s, continues to resonate today wherever fear infects political discourse.</p>
<p>DESSA ROSE by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
Directed by Johnnie Hobbs, Jr.
April 22-24, 28-30, 2011
Arts Bank</p>
<p>A white woman abandoned by her husband and living on a rural Alabama farm in 1847 gives refuge to an escaped slave on the run from a bloody rebellion. Their unlikely friendship is the beginning of a journey to freedom and self-realization. Based on Sherley Anne Williams’ 1968 novel, the musical Dessa Rose defines the true measure of friendship and celebrates the value of difference.</p>
<p>ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS
by Jane Martin
Directed by Rick Stoppleworth
February 16-20, 2011
Caplan Studio Theater</p>
<p>Three actresses travel to the hinterlands of American theater to appear in Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. On the way to opening night, the production suffers every pitfall known to regional theater: egocentric actresses, maniacal directors, soulless corporate sponsors and self-important critics. Playwright Martin pulls no punches in this hysterical, acerbic and revealing back-stage comedy.</p>
<p>A LYRICAL OPERA MADE BY TWO
libretto by Gertrude Stein, music by William Turner
Directed by Charles Gilbert
April 13-17, 2011
Caplan Studio Theater
Presented as part of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts</p>
<p>It’s just your typical cubist lesbian love story: the poet Gertrude Stein and her lifelong companion Alice Toklas making love and making art in Paris, birthplace of modernism in the Twenties. Turner’s imaginative musical setting of Stein’s distinctive poetic libretto was last seen in 2005 at the International Festival of Musical Theater in Cardiff, Wales.</p>
<p>LA TEMPESTAD by Larry Loebell
Directed by David Howey
February 3-6, 2010
Caplan Studio Theater</p>
<p>UArts faculty playwright Larry Loebell reimagines Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as set on the island of Vieques, off the Atlantic coast of Puerto Rico, during hurricane season. The U.S. Military is using the island to prepare for the invasion of Iraq while lovers cavort on the beaches and Don Prospero, owner of the local hotel and museum, fights to protect his island’s heritage.</p>
<p>CAHOOTS STUDENT THEATER FESTIVAL
January 20-23, 2011
Caplan Studio Theater</p>
<p>Formerly known as “Equinox,” this festival of original student work is one of the highlights of the year in the Brind School. Student producers, playwrights, directors, designers and actors let their creative freak flag fly, testing their mettle as theater artists with results that are inevitably provocative and intriguing.</p>
<p>TWO STUDENT-DIRECTED ONE-ACTS
February 24-27, 2011
Caplan Studio Theater</p>
<p>BUTTERFLY by Trish Cole
Directed by Jessica Rodriguez</p>
<p>In the West Virginia State Penitentiary, Barb watches her cellmate Ruby’s sanity unravel as she recounts the story of her little girl’s transformation into an adult transgender male. When pushed to confront the chilling memories of her relationship with her child, the mother escapes her harsh reality into an imaginary field of wildflowers where she finds refuge from a horrific crime.</p>
<p>KEELY AND DU by Jane Martin
Directed by Karina Benjamin</p>
<p>A pregnant rape victim is held captive by a right-to-life activist and the two women find their innate human compassion at odds with their ideological views. What are a rape victim’s rights? What are the rights of the unborn? Faith and freedom clash in this thoughtful and probing drama.</p>
<p>IN THIS HOUSE
Music by Mike Reid, Lyrics by Sarah Schlesinger
Book by Sarah Schlesinger, Mike Reid and Jonathan Bernstein
Directed by Danielle Melendez
March 30-April 3, 2011
Caplan Studio Theater</p>
<p>A chance encounter between two couples on New Year’s Eve leads to a night of unexpected humor and heartbreak. In this moving, contemporary musical, the challenges of marriage and child-rearing and the joys and fears of intimacy are confronted by two different generations, leaving four individuals forever changed.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. Where did you find this info?</p>
<p>If you go the the UArts website and go to academics / Ira Brind School of Theatre Arts you will find “BFA Musical Theatre” and that site has the 2010/2011 shows all listed. My D also auditioned and they posted call backs yesterday.</p>
<p>Both the straight dramas and musicals are all listed together, broken out by main stage (Merriam Theater or Arts Bank), studio series (Caplan Theater), platform series (staged readings, usually in the Caplan) and student directed productions. And yes, call backs did go up yesterday and your daughters have lots of them 
.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the info.</p>
<p>My son got called back for two shows. He is excited, but can’t imagine being in a show. He is soo busy and stressed right now. Can’t wait to have him home for Christmas :)</p>
<p>I know purple9. It is stressful, but somehow they manage. I can’t wait for my D to be home on the 17th!!! She works in the box office at the Walnut Theater so she’ll only be home until Jan 2nd, but I’ll take what I can get. She’s a junior now, and has really made Philly her home as she has stayed there during the summer as well. These 2 weeks or so at home is a real treat.</p>
<p>The schedule is insane. Finals have started this week in some of the L.A. classes, all of the performance classes are scheduled as normal this week, some of the spring shows have 3 nights of call backs, let alone call backs for multiple shows and my daughter has 2 afternoons of understudy rehearsal at the Walnut this week, all coming off of Senior Cabaret rehearsals last week and 5 performances over the weekend. Call backs for some will end on Sunday, and then they all have juries next week. Compartmentalization and time management skills - the keys to surviving these 2 weeks!</p>
<p>Michael, how was the cabaret? Did they have casting directors from the Philly area only, or were there others from New York? What did your D have to do during the cabaret, and do all the seniors do it, or are only some invited to perform?</p>
<p>bk, I think you are mixing together 2 different events. The Senior Showcase, which is late January or early February I believe, is by audition and occurs in NYC. It is a two day event with one day involved in doing a showcase performance in front of agents and casting directors and a second day of seminars and workshops given by agents, casting directors and working actors. Based on the audition, which is run and determined by an outside auditor, about half the senior class is invited to perform in the showcase. All seniors, however, can attend the workshops so those who are not selected for the showcase still have an opportunity to work with and perform in front of the agents and directors who run the workshops. The cost of attending is about $400.</p>
<p>The Senior Cabaret is a cabaret style performance put on by all seniors in the Cabaret at the Arts Bank. The audience consists of the UArts community, parents and other guests. Local casting directors may show up as they do for other shows but the Cabaret is not intended as a vehicle to introduce seniors to the professional theater community. There is usually a thematic prompt and students pick 1 or 2 songs, rewrite some of the lyrics if desired and write their own “patter” to be responsive to the prompt, getting about 4-5 minutes for each performance. This year’s prompt was “My Four Scariest Words”. It was a delightful evening (all 3 that we attended ), filled with humor, comedy, reflection about the students’ lives and experiences over the last 4 years, and self revelation. At times hysterically laugh out loud funny, at times poignant, at times bringing tears to the eyes of the audience, and filled with inside jokes and observations, these immensely talented students shared their thoughts and feelings about the last 4 years of their lives and of the future. We walked out with a real appreciation of the breadth and depth of the talent found among the senior class, having enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining evening and feeling that we had been invited to share some meaningful moments of intimacy with many of the students.</p>
<p>You are right, I did mix them up. Thanks for the clarification and the information. I hope you keep visiting this site after your D graduates or we won’t know what to do with all our questions
Thanks.</p>
<p>Ah, I think the mantle of providing current day to day info will have to fall to you, oregontheatermom, purple9, sonlovesMT and the others with students at UArts. I’ll still be lurking around, though, and who knows, may have some comments from time to time, particularly about life for a neophyte performing artist in Philadelphia. :)</p>
<p>Just curious why the selection for the Senior Showcase is performed by an outside auditor. Is that normal for MT schools? I would think that the faculty should be the ones in the best position to determine who deserves to appear in the Showcase based on almost 4 years of experience with the students. Anyone can be sick or off for a single audition if that is what it is based on.</p>