UW Drama Presents STATE OF THE THEATRE: STAGE AND SWORD

Whether it is a Shakespearean sword fight, a mock boxing duel, or a danced-out gang rumble, combat can be an essential and exciting aspect of live drama. A panel of experts in theatrical combat, led by University of Washington Drama School instructor Geoffrey Alm, will discuss and demonstrate the secrets of choreographing dynamic, suspenseful stage fights - while protecting the actors involved from harm.

Geoffrey Alm is a Fight Master with The Society of American Fight Directors and has taught around the world. He has directed fights for over 300 Equity productions since 1986. Nationally, he has worked with Arizona Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey and the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, as well as the Cinncinatti Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, Kansas City Rep, and The Santa Cruz Shakespeare Company. Local credits include, Seattle Children's Theatre, Seattle Rep, Seattle Opera, 5th Avenue Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Village Theatre, Intiman Theatre Company, Seattle Public Theatre, Taproot Theatre Co., and Seattle Shakespeare Company. He teaches Stage Fighting in the UW School of Drama's Professional Actor Training Program, as well as at Cornish College of the Arts and Freehold Theatre Lab. He is a member of the British Society of Fight Directors and the Society of American Fight Directors, as well as SAG-Aftra, AEA, and SDC.

Stacey Bush is the Managing Director of Performers' Forge, a theater company focused on the education, exploration, and exhibition of theatrical violence. She is recognized as an Actor/Combatant in all 8 weapons by the Society of American Fight Directors. She has also trained with international instructors at Paddy Crean Workshop, coordinated by the International Order of the Sword and the Pen. She has recently directed fights for Ibsen in Chicago at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Year of the Rooster at MAP Theatre, and Dear Miss Chancellor at Annex Theatre.

Tom Dewey is an actor and fight choreographer whose work has been seen around the Puget Sound Region. He has recently choreographed fights for Book-It Repertory Theatre, Copious Love Productions, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Theatre22, Annex Theatre, Theater Schmeater, GreenStage, the Latino Theatre Project, and Handwritten Productions. Tom is an actor combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, and a proud graduate of the Theatre Arts and History departments at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

Critic and educator Misha Berson helms State of the Theatre: Seattle Artists in Conversation, a series of free panel discussions with working Seattle theatre artists, now in its second year.

What are the current trends, enthusiasms and controversies in Seattle theatre? What is brewing in the creative minds of local directors, designers, performers, and other theatre artists right now?

To explore these questions, the University of Washington School of Drama is hosting free panel discussions on the current state of Seattle theatre. The series offers a rare opportunity for theatre practitioners, patrons, and other interested members of the extended community to share thoughts and ideas on the art form as we begin a new year. Past discussion topics include Latinx theatre in Seattle, playwriting in the age of Trump, sound design, and Shakespeare.

LOCATION
Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
4045 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/yUbevun1LKB2

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF DRAMA
The UW School of Drama develops innovative and courageous artists and scholars poised to be the creative leaders of tomorrow.

For 76 years it has served as one of this country's leading training institutions for theatre artists and scholars. The School of Drama offers MFA degrees in acting, design, and directing, a four-year undergraduate liberal arts education in Drama, and a PhD in theatre history and criticism. Faculty and alumni have founded theatres such as ACT Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Empty Space Theatre, Jet City Improv, and more recently, the Washington Ensemble Theatre, Azeotrope, and The Horse in Motion. The School of Drama is a laboratory for leading-edge performance research, attracting internationally renowned guest artists like Anne Washburn, Daniel Alexander Jones, Erik Ehn, Meiyin Wang, Chay Yew, Whit MacLaughlin, and PearlDamour, offering students the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from masters in their field and forge critical connections to the world of professional theatre.

UPCOMING UW DRAMA MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS

Rutherford and Son
By Githa Sowerby
Directed by Cody Holliday Haefner, 3rd year MFA director

Included in the National Theatre's list: The 100 Most Significant Plays of the 20th Century

London, 1912: Rutherford and Son, a new play by an unknown playwright, "K.G. Sowerby," has burst onto the scene, shattering box office records and drawing lofty accolades from critics, who are calling it the best play to premiere on the west end in 10 years, and comparing the author to theatrical titans like Ibsen. When it's revealed that the play's author is a woman named Githa Sowerby, she becomes the story, and her shattering tale of a tyrannical capitalist who loses his grip on his children is all but forgotten. As far as we can tell, UW Drama will only be the third theatre in the U.S. to ever present this transformational work of contemporary feminist drama. Be assured, time has only sharpened Sowerby's withering excoriation of the golden age of patriarchy. The New York Post called a 2001 production "alive with human passions and tyrannies." Do not miss this theatrical event!

Dates: January 23 - February 3, 2019 (Previews January 19 & 22)
Location: Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
Tickets: $5 - $20
More info and tickets: https://drama.washington.edu/events/2019-01-23/rutherford-and-son

In the Heart of America
By Naomi Wallace
Directed by Amanda Friou, 3rd year MFA director

A young Palestinian-American woman's quest to learn what happened to her brother, Remzi, who lost his life in the first Gulf War, leads her to a Kentuckian soldier named Craver. Through a poetic web of time leaps and apparitions, we watch the two men fall in love as she unravels the mystery. Woven into that story, the ghost of a Vietnamese mother, Lu Ming, seeks justice for her infant daughter, a victim of the 1968 massacre at My Lai. Obie Award-winning Playwright Naomi Wallace, known for her signature blend of politics, eroticism, and lyricism, here masterfully rings the gong of histories that still reverberate through our national body.

Dates: March 6 - 17, 2019 (Previews March 2 & 5)
Location: Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
Tickets: $5 - $20
More info and tickets: https://drama.washington.edu/events/2019-03-06/heart-america

Romeo and Jules
An adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Adapted and directed by Geoff Korf, School of Drama faculty

What if your first love was someone you'd been told to hate? The most famous love story in the English language is not just a love story-it's also a tale of young people attempting to repair the damaged world their parents have offered them, and chart a new way forward. Will their explosive love spark a revolution, or will discord, violence, and unspeakable tragedy continue to rule? Featuring a gender-diverse cast of undergraduates from across the UW campus community, Romeo and Jules tells the story of what happens when the children of two families with very different worldviews fall in love. UW Drama Associate Director Geoff Korf directs this gender-expansive reimagining of Shakespeare's tale of the destructive power of binary factions, and the transformative potential of youthful passion.

April 17 - 28, 2019 (Previews April 13 & 16)
Location: Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse
Tickets: $5 - $20
More info and tickets: https://drama.washington.edu/events/2019-04-17/romeo-and-jules

The Learned Ladies
By Molière, Translated by Richard Wilbur
Directed by Jane Nichols, guest director

The Parnell sisters don't always agree. Armande is seeking a life driven by intellectual pursuits, while Henriette wants to follow her heart. Add a set of overbearing parents, some meddling relatives, and a few pompous poets, and you've got one of Molière's most ridiculous satires. Jane Nichols, an internationally renowned teacher of physical comedy and Clown, directs this funny, philosophical play that pits the power of the mind against the passion of the heart. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur's translation of Les Femmes savantes sparkles-in Nichols' words, "every character is delicious and every scene is a pearl."

May 22 - June 2, 2019 (Previews May 18 & 21)
Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre
Tickets $5 - $20
More info and tickets: https://drama.washington.edu/events/2019-05-22/learned-ladies

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