Graduate Student Announcements

2011-2012

Graham Brown (MFA candidate in Dance) has presented three works in various venues and events on and off campus, including most recently, You, an evening-length choreographic work that was presented in the CSPAC Dance Theatre. His work The Better Half was performed in the Shared Graduate Concert here at CSPAC, as well through the Dance Exchange in the Round House Theatre in Silver Spring. His solo work as far as I know was selected to be performed in the Choreographer's Showcase sponsored by the Clarice Smith Center in partnership with the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission. He is currently choreographing Leigh Smiley's new theatre work, Sandwalk, which will premiere on April 27th. He recently toured with PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER to Santiago, Chile and will soon be touring to New York City and Middlebury, Vermont. On March 14 his wife Lehua gave birth to their third child, a baby girl.

Caroline Stefanie Clay (MFA candidate in Performance) is serving as Assistant Voice and Dialect Coach to Professor Ashley Smith at Studio Theater's American Premiere Production of Suckerpunch.

Shannon Dooling (MFA Candidate in Dance) recently presented a paper titled, Hidden in the Hands Four: An Exploration of Self, Gender and Community in Contra Dance Events at Glen Echo Park at the Graduate English Organization at the University of Maryland 2012's conference, The Body Electric.  She performed her solo work My Ex-Boyfriend (One Short Story) at the Open Marley Showcase hosted by Baltimore area dance company The Collective in January, and will dance in a recital with UMD music student Yee Von Ng and other musicians at Mount Vernon Unitarian Church in late March.  In May 2012, her dance company New Street Dance Group will present a shared concert with two local companies in Bethlehem, PA.

Xuejuan Feng (MFA candidate in Dance) received the 2012 Dance/Metro DC award of Outstanding Individual Performance for her work Snow at the Kennedy Center. She participated in the Dance Across the Board conference hosted by NYU’s Tisch School of Dance and performed a part of her thesis project in Feb 2012. Her final thesis dance concert will be performed on Oct 19th 2012 in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Dance Theater. She will be teaching and performing a short segment on Chinese folk dance at the University of Maryland’s 2012 Maryland Day on April 28th. This Summer, she will be collaborating with and choreographing for the TDPS on their cross-cultural production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will be showing in both the US and China. She actively collaborates with and choreographs for local Chinese culture associations and recently participated in the Lantern Festival Gala of Virginia in February of this year. In November of 2011, she collaborated with the Silk Road Dance Company on their annual Silk Road Dance Festival and staged two original works, The Tibetan People and Snow. She also performed her solo dance Snow in the Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Event at the University of Maryland.

James Hesla (PhD candidate, Theatre & Performance Studies) is presenting his dissertation research on Clown theatre at the Performance Studies International Conference, Leeds, UK, and at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference in balmy Washington, DC. Creative activities include serving as dramaturg for the Source Theatre Festival in Washington, DC this June. In addition, the Source Festival will present his ten minute play, Lost and Found at the Hotel Mogador, directed by Rick Hammerly. James has also been commissioned to co-write a musical about a high school science fair for Active Cultures Theatre in suburban Maryland.

Rob Jansen (MFA candidate in Performance) is in the process of writing, adapting, and developing his solo performance Ah, Eugene O'Neill: The Birth, Death, and (Impractical) Rebirth of American Theatre to be performed as part of the Eugene O'Neill Festival at Arena Stage in March.

Casey Kaleba (PhD candidate, Theatre & Performance Studies) staged movement and violence for Signature Theatre's premier of Really, Really, as well as Folger Theatre's The Gaming Table and Time Stands Still at Studio Theatre.  He serves on the adjunct faculty at Shepherd University, and served as creative consultant and host for the Folger Library's Electronic Field Trip, a live interactive broadcast for secondary schools in collaboration with Alabama Public Television.

Stephanie Miracle (MFA candidate in Dance) recently presented her inter-generational work, Recollecting Disappearing at Round House Theatre in Silver Spring through the Dance Exchange's Healthy Living Commission, funded by the Met Life Foundation. Her research documentary, "Dancing  Backwards: Autoethnography through home movies" was included in the Dance Across the Boards Conference at NYU in February. She is currently working on a full evening of choreography that will be produced by Dance Place in the 2012 - 2013 season.

Emily Oleson (MFA candidate in Dance) recently presented a paper at the Dance Across Borders conference at New York University in February, 2012, and will be presenting an expanded version of her thesis concert Vaudevival: Old is the new New at Dance Place in Washington DC, June 30 and July 1, 2012.  Tickets at www.danceplace.org.  The updated version will include collaboration with Baakari Wilder and Capitol Tap, among other artists.  Check out the preview at Maryland Day!  Read along with her Research blog at www.vaudevival.wordpress.com.  Oleson is also co-coordinating Dance Week at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV in August, as well as several other summer events (www.goodfootdance.com).
 
AnnMarie T. Saunders (PhD Candidate, Early American Theatre) co-organized the Economies of Popular Entertainment working group at the 2011 ASTR conference in Montreal, co-created a workshop entitled “Theory, Performance, Action: an Arts-Based Civic Dialogue on Gender Performance, Past, Present, and Future” for the Women and Theatre Program at the 2011 ATHE conference, and will be presenting a paper, “Myth Made Manifest: the Building of the First Washington Theatre,” at the 2012 MATC conference. She will complete her dissertation ‘To the Advantage of the City:’ Playgoing, Patriotism, and the first Washington Theatres, 1800-1836” in the Spring of 2012.

Aaron Tobiason (PhD candidate, Theatre & Performance Studies) served as an Advisory Council Fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies this fall, where he conducted research on his dissertation. He also co-convened a session on Economies of Popular Entertainment at the American Society for Theatre Research.

Matthew R. Wilson (PhD candidate, Theatre & Performance Studies) was honored with two Helen Hayes Award mentions this year: He is Artistic Director of Faction of Fools Theatre Company, which won the 2012 award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, and he was a writer/performer on dog & pony’s Beertown, which was nominated for Outstanding New Play.  This April-May, Matt performs the title role in Hamlecchino: Clown Prince of Denmark.  He also recently presented a paper at the International Commedia dell’Arte Conference in Toronto and teaches Stage Combat classes at Round House Theatre.  His article on Goldoni & Commedia dell’Arte is currently published in the Season Guide for the Shakespeare Theatre Company.  www.MatthewRWilson.com

Anu Yadav (MFA candidate in Performance) presented in January 2012 a staged reading of her solo work-in-progress, Meena's Dream, directed by Walter Dallas, at acclaimed street theater troupe Jana Natya Manch's new cultural center in Delhi, India. She apprenticed with the troupe, documenting their annual "Safdar Sahadat" theater festival and teaching voice workshops for troupe members.  She also reunited with members of her family for the first time in 10 years. This trip was funded through a grant from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies International Initiatives Fund.   This past February, Arena Stage screened the debut of Walk With Me, a documentary featuring her work along with artists Lisa Biggs and the late Rebecca Rice, as women whose theater work is engaged with issues of community-building and social change.

2010-2011

Valerie Durham presented "I Don't Dance Like That! Does Historical Dance Have Any Relevance in Contemporary Society?" at the Reading the Body in Contemporary Culture: A Multi-disciplinary Graduate Student Conference. The conference was held in the Art Gallery at the The University of Maryland, College Park, on April 23, 2011.

Kathleen Spanos presented "Embodied 'One Two Threes' in Irish Step Dance: Authenticity and Tradition in the North American Diaspora" at the Irish Theatrical Diaspora conference, Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto,on April 16, 2011

2008-2009

Aaron Tobiason, Chris Martin, Ara Beal, Jessica Holman, Matthew Shifflett, Erin Bone Steele, Natalie Tenner and Emily Townsend have been recognized as 2008-2009 Distinguished Teaching Assistants by the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Karalee Dawn was awarded a Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship by the Graduate School to pursue research on her dissertation, Today We Are All Scottish: The Creation of Scottish Cultural Identity at Highland Games Festivals and Gatherings.

Brian Engle received a Jacob K Goldhaber Travel Award from the Graduate School for his participation in the Hemsley Lighting Portfolio Review in New York.

Lindsey Snyder successfully defended her PhD dissertation Sawing the Air Thus: American Sign Language Translations of Shakespeare and the Echoes of Rhetorical Gesture.

Ivania Stack successfully defended her MFA thesis project on the costume designs for Boom.

Sean Urbantke successfully defended his MFA thesis project on the set design for The Winter's Tale.

Elizabeth Forte Alman successfully defended her PhD dissertation's prospectus for Shakespeare’s Stage in America: The Early History of the Folger Shakespeare Theatre.

Casey Kaleba will be the master teacher for a three week Stage Combat Workshop for Shakespeare Theatre this summer.