College Center

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE exploded on stage on October 30th at Creighton University's Lied Center for the Performing Arts as a glorious celebration of light, color and sound.

Caitlyn Porayko, a member of Belmont University Musical Theatre's class of 2016, has a busy holiday season ahead, to be certain - she's playing Judy Haynes in BUMT's production of White Christmas (running December 4-6) and she'll be a member of the choir backing up Broadway diva, "Nashville own" (we claimed her as one of our own in her last Nashville concert appearance at TPAC) Kristin Chenoweth, when she performs with the Nashville Symphony as Schermerhorn Symphony Center in December.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -The Washington Ballet (TWB) is pleased to announce that Howard University's Dance Arts Program will present two works in its upcoming studio company performance, theNEWmovement: Balanchine & Beyond. This energetic exploration of works by George Balanchine explores the dance legend's influence on generations of choreographers. The program will include Balanchine's classic Serenade; Septime Webre's Fluctuating Hemlines and his first ballet, D-Construction; TWB Company dancer Tamás Krizsa's piece Resonance; and two works by Howard University's Dance Arts Program: Keuchen and SHOOK.

"Good Kids" provides the spark necessary to begin conversations regarding the choices one makes in his or her life and how those decisions impact the future, and leaves audience members with much to think about long after they leave the theater.

Take Cate Jo, for example: A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she originally arrived on the Vanderbilt campus with an eye toward a career in academia, ultimately changing course to pursue a career as an actress. Most recently, she played the challenging role of Bianca in Tennessee Women's Theater Project's production of Lauren Gunderson's The Taming, a fanciful contemporary comedy that fairly crackled with intensity as it examined popular and political culture in the United States, viewing the trajectory of American political thought from the earliest days of the republic to the present. Earlier this year, she played Lady Nijo and Nell in Vanderbilt University Theatre's production of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls.

During a recent rehearsal, Community College of Rhode Island Associate Professor Ted Clement was bouncing around in the Bobby Hackett Theater, explaining his vision for blocking to the cast of the upcoming CCRI Players musical, 'The Rocky Horror Show.' Antonio DiPrete, playing Dr. Frank N. Furter, stood in front, his hip jutting out, trying his best to be comfortable. DiPrete was dressed for a pickup basketball game, but with stiletto heels.

Take Collin Peterson, for example: a junior vocal performance and music education major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, has been acting in theatrical productions for a number of years, most recently starring as Tarzan in Arts Center of Cannon County's Tarzan, the Musical, directed by 2015 First Night Honoree Darryl Deason. A 2015 First Night Most Promising Actor, Collin starred opposite 2013 MPA Jenna Pryor, who played Jane.

Hartford, Connecticut's Sonia Plumb Dance Company is celebrating its 25th anniversary season with an ambitious original production:  THE ODYSSEY: AN EPIC DANCE JOURNEY.

Live, laugh, love: my favorite motto for life, and a saying that couldn't be any more perfect to describe the play Stop Kiss.

The famous diary of Anne Frank has been recreated, republished, and reproduced in perhaps every form imaginable. Since its original publication in Amsterdam in 1947, The Diary of a Young Girl has been translated into over 67 languages, with over 30 million copies sold to this day. It has inspired the 1955 Tony Award-winning play, The Diary of Anne Frank (revived on Broadway in 1997), and the 1959 film version under the same name. The University of Texas' Department of Theatre and Dance kicks off their 2015-2016 theatrical season with the famed play.

There's a very good chance that Belmont University musical theater student Grace Williams is going through some separation anxiety this week. Along with her castmastes and the creative team, she bade farewell to Gypsy – the stunning revival of the iconic Broadway musical mounted by Franklin-based Studio Tenn – on Sunday after a run that drew unanimous acclaim from the critics and inspired audience accolades throughout the run. As a member of the show's ensemble, Grace played a variety of roles in director Matt Logan's imaginative staging of the show.

Take Neal Buckley, for example: A senior musical theater major at Belmont, he's onstage through this weekend in Studio Tenn's Gypsy (at Jamison Hall at The Factory at Franklin), playing Yonkers (one of Dainty June's peripatetic Farmboys) and later this semester he stars as Phil Davis in Belmont University Musical Theatre's production of White Christmas. Already on the Madison, Mississippi native's burgeoning resume, you'll find such disparate roles as Montparnasse in Les Miserables, Benjamin in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Dean Hyde in All Shook Up.

Wright State theatre students will work alongside Broadway stars Adam Pascal and Jason Robert Brown when they visit campus as part of MUSICALS ROCK, a yearlong celebration of contemporary musical theatre.

Fall is around the corner, meaning there's plenty of reason to look forward to these cool new and classic productions arriving in the upcoming months. What better way to prepare for autumn than checking out this list of shows from San Francisco's talented high school and college theater departments. Be ready to get your ticket because these fall productions are sure to please any theater-goer.

To know Rachel Beth Jackson is to love her: With a heart as big as all outdoors, she's kind, thoughtful and considerate - attributes that will continue to serve her well as she pursues her lifelong dream of becoming a professional actress. A 2013 First Night Most Promising Actor, she first came to our attention in performances in her hometown of Dickson with The Renaissance Players, the community theatre group that has helped young actors pursue their creative dreams for year

The University Musical Society (UMS) has been selected as one of the 2014 recipients of the National Medal of Arts, announced by the White House today. The award will be presented on Thursday, September 10 at 3 pm at the White House.

?"Heads," the story of four people - an American engineer, a British embassy employee, a network journalist, and a freelance photographer, who are thrown together when they are taken hostage during the early years of the war in Iraq, opens in New York at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row, for a limited run, September 11-20, 2015 (410 West 42nd Street).

Mary Moody Northen Theatre, the award-winning producing arm of the St. Edward's University theatre training program, announces its 2015-2016 season, featuring four plays ranging from classic to contemporary. Join us for our 43rd annual season and share in the fun and excitement at the theatre on the hill!

Students from the Community College of Baltimore County, Essex Academic Theatre will be performing "The Consumables" as part of Artscape 2015. The troupe was invited to perform at 11 a.m., Saturday, July 18, at the Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston Street. Tickets are FREE.  This production contains strong language and scenes of an adult nature and is not suitable for children.

Alexandra Silber directs Pace University School of Performing Arts first-year students Kevin Csolak and Bethany Tesarck in an adaptation of Ovid's METAMORPHOSES with text from the play by Mary Zimmerman, additional choreography by Noah Racey, and music by Willy Schwartz and Antigoni Goni. Check out the performance of Eros and Psyche below!

School's out for summer, but that doesn't mean that college theater students are lounging by the pool, waiting for their next big break. Rather, if you're someone like Rebekah Stogner, an acting/journalism major at Nashville's David Lipscomb University, chances are you're preparing for the next audition and getting ready for fall semester.

Broadway Academy of Performing, a kid's theatre camp hosted by Newman University Theatre Department, is now accepting registrations. The camp dates will be May 30th through June 6th at Newman University in Wichita, KS. Kids ages 11-20 are eligible, and campers under 11 years can be day campers.

Last fall, when we started this series - COLLEGIATE THEATRICS - we were talking to college students across the country about what lay ahead of them during the academic year and now we find ourselves at graduation time for the class of 2015, today represented by the beautiful, ethereal and brilliant Lacy Hartselle. Mere hours after her graduation from Nashville's Lipscomb University on Saturday, she reflected on our five questions to give us an intimate look into how her life was changed during her college career.

With 2015 Tony Award nominations announced today, it only seems appropriate to turn our interview focus on someone who might be a Tony nominee in the not-so-distant future. Take Lydia Granered, for example: she's an alumna of Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Academy (class of 2013), where she studied theater with Paula Flautt, and she's now in New York City, studying at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.