College Center

The lecture auditorium in Hitchcock Hall, normally the venue in which engineering presentations are given, was transformed into a brightly colored, wildly patterned scene straight out of the '60s when Ohio State's Off the Lake Productions took to the stage Friday to perform "Hairspray." From the opening number that brought a taste of morning in Baltimore to the campus of OSU to the cast's final bows, "Hairspray" created an atmosphere bursting with energy and exuding undeniable passion.

Off the Lake Productions, the only student-run musical theatre group on Ohio State's campus, is bringing its 20th production, HAIRSPRAY, to you this spring!

Chae Chaput - a native of Manchester, New Hampshire, who did her undergraduate work at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, where she earned her BA in Theater Arts with a double concentration in Acting and Technical Theater with a minor in film - is one such member of the group.

Grand opera--lavish in scale, setting and voices--certainly has its place, but, oh, the joys of hearing Cavalli and Faustini's bawdy, early baroque charmer LA CALISTO in a theatre with fewer than 100 seats! The Juilliard Opera production not only proved a great showcase for the singers, dancers and instrumentalists involved but for the opera itself, which is still infrequently heard and should be better known.

It's a shame that Bellini wasn't Donizetti--because the story of LA SONNAMBULA seems to be begging for the full comic treatment and could have been a great companion to L'ELISIR D'AMORE. (I'm not sure how Maria Callas would have felt about changes in one of her great roles.) As it stands, performing the semi-serious work in a concert format--as The Juilliard Opera did last week--is the next best thing, putting the emphasis on the music and the virtuoso singing it calls for and less on the absurd storyline.

Chris Ramirez is an excellent example of the talented, driven and committed individuals honing their craft at USC. A native of Kansas City, Kansas - "aka Wyandotte County, aka The Dotte!" - he earned his B.A. in theatre performance at the University of Kansas before heading westward to USC.

Love was in the air this weekend at the Lincoln Theatre in Columbus when the Ohio State Department of Theatre presented its reimagined version of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." A sense of magic and unpredictable mischief, paired with energetic performances from the student actors in the production, defined OSU's take on this romantic classic.

The translation of art from the stage to the screen is often viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Yet an annual event by the Ohio State Department of Dance proves that the fusion of dance and film is far from two-dimensional. "Dance@30FPS," a presentation of dance films from around the world, was hosted on OSU's campus in the Wexner Center for the Arts' Film/Video Theater on Feb. 11.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago concludes its 2015-16 season with the choreographer-performer duo of Rennie Harris and Michael Sakamoto, performing their dance-theatre duet Flash. Performances take place March 31-April 2, 2016 at The Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.

Here is your opportunity to get to know USC's Salome Mergia in this week's edition of Collegiate Theatrics. Miraculously, it would seem, she found time to sit down and consider our questions - and to offer some elucidating answers - about her time at USC and how her experiences there have prepared her for the future…

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2015-16 season with Moscow Festival Ballet's double bill of one-act ballets, Romeo and Juliet and Carmen, on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 8pm. Tickets are $36-45 and can be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500 (Tue-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

The Piano Lesson is an important part of American theater.  August Wilson wrote a story that needs to be told, now more than ever.  And a story which asks the important questions like, What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?  Are we forced to live in the shadows of our ancestors choices?

From the stomping of rhythmic footsteps reverberating unaccompanied through the darkness to the lyrical interpretation of biblical verses that merged multimedia art with movement, the Ohio State Department of Dance's "Winter Concert" showcased nine works laced together by the common threads of intensity and emotion.

Theater's next generation of actors will come from all over the globe, to be certain, but one might find an impressive concentration of artists on the campus of the University of Southern California, where the list of candidates for the Master of Fine Arts in acting rivals any group to be found anywhere. Take Adam Lebowitz-Lockard, for example. A native of Philadelphia, he was an English major at Boston University and he boasts a noteworthy resume of onstage assignments all over the country that other young actors might envy.

Vanderbilt University's Sadie Andros, one of the region's busiest and most acclaimed young actors - she was Psyche and Aphrodite in last fall's production of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses and takes on the role of Olivia in this spring's Vanderbilt Players' production of Twelfth Night - is among those students juggling schedules while dazzling audiences with her onstage antics.

The Harlem School of Arts Theatre Department presents MEDEA, Adapted, Directed and Designed by Artistic Director Alfred Preisser.

Cambridge, MA - Tickets are now on sale for Harvard College Opera's production of Stravinsky's 20th century neoclassical English opera The Rake's Progress. Performances will take place February 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30pm, at Agassiz Theater on the Harvard University campus (10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA). A reception will follow the performance on opening night. Tickets ($10-$20) may be purchased through the Harvard Box Office (1350 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA - boxoffice.harvard.edu - 617.496.2222) or at the door pending availability.

One of the best parts of covering and reviewing theater in one region for almost 30 years is seeing new talent emerge from among the area's younger actors. Take, for example, Ryan Garrett - a 2012 First Night Most Promising Actor and a graduate of Williamson County's Centennial High School, he now studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, a program that has encouraged him to think outside the box and which has challenged him with ever-more intense roles onstage and in the classroom.

With his final semester of collegiate study still ahead, Millikin University student Joseph J. Bezenek is clearly looking forward, making plans for his future - but make no mistake about, the talented theater student who hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, still has his attention focused squarely on what's to come before he leaves the Millikin campus in Decatur, Illinois.

BroadwayWorld.com is currently seeking talented theater enthusiasts to blog on their school productions in college, high school, middle school and even elementary school!

The dancers of The Juilliard School--Class of 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 performed New Dances: Edition 2015.

What could be more exciting than a stage full of musical theatre students performing the roles they dream to play in the decade that lies ahead? Answer: Absolutely nothing.  I was one of the fortunate audience members to share in the experience of night two of the Dream Roles Concert, performed by the UCF BFA Musical Theatre Senior Class (with half the class performing on December 12 and the other half on December 13). From the opening medley to the finale, all of the students had stars in their eyes and a fire in their hearts.  UCF is known for attracting impressive talent and I can only imagine the pride felt by the staff, family and friends in the audience. I only wish I'd witnessed night one to have captured the complete essence of the pseudo recital.

All this yuletide revelry to which I am alluding comes courtesy of BUMT's latest production: Irving Berlin's White Christmas, the onstage updating of the 1954 film version that features a score of the master musician's finest songs as it tells the story of two song-and-dance men and their female counterparts who join together during one particularly mild winter ski season to help save the bacon of an inspiring leader who's played a significant role in their lives. It's a tuneful, feel-good show that's certain to lift your spirits and, as performed by the BUMT cast, reaffirm your faith that the future of musical theater will be thriving for years to come.

With the end of semester quickly approaching, even college actors are immersing themselves in study in preparation for finals - and Vanderbilt University's Nick Mecikalski is certainly no exception. But, somehow, Nick managed the time to answer our questions and to give us a glimpse into his theatrical life on the Nashville campus of Vanderbilt University, a place he's made quite the name for himself in productions as varied as Metamorphoses, Titus Andronicus, Much Ado About Nothing and Wit.

Kennesaw State University's Dance Company Presented TEN November 11-14, 2015 at the Stillwell Theater on Kennesaw State University's campus. TEN celebrates ten years of KSU's dance department.