Welcome from the Chair
Dr. John S. Gentile
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Dr. John Gentile |
It
is my pleasure to welcome you to
the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.
Our department offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Performance Studies with concentrations in Acting, Performance, Design/Technology, and Musical Theatre as well as a new curriculum in Dance. Fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre, our major in Theatre and Performance Studies is complemented by professional internships, special topics courses, individualized directed studies supervised by faculty mentors, workshops conducted by guest artists and scholars, and exciting international opportunities like our annual Summer Study Abroad in Ireland: Acting in Irish Drama in partnership with the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. KSU theatre and performance studies students are involved in all aspects of production during the academic year, gaining practical performance experience by working on challenging and varied material.
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"The Whiteness of the Whale" from Moby-Dick. Adapted by John Gentile Directed by John Gentile & Hylan Scott. |
We are especially proud of our faculty scholar-artists and all that they bring to the classroom and the rehearsal stage. All of us are committed to a program that aspires to offer the intellectual depth and breadth of the best liberal arts education along with the work ethic and commitment to professionalism typical of a conservatory program. We seek to cultivate emerging scholar-artists who may seek employment in diverse fields after graduation as well as those who may pursue graduate studies or careers in professional theatre. If you are considering coming to KSU, please take a moment and read the theatre and performance studies faculty web pages. I know that you will be impressed as you find out more about our distinguished colleagues.
All the theatre faculty welcome you to KSU and invite you to attend our performances at the Stillwell or Studio Theaters and to consider joining us in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University.
A
Message from the Artistic Director
Professor L. Dean Adams
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Dean
Adams |
On behalf of the faculty and staff of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, I welcome you to our 2008-2009 season. We are honored to bring these events to the community and to share the range of performance and human experience that is brought to life by our talented students, faculty, and guest artists.
Each year, we proudly introduce our audiences to regional and world premieres as well as re-imagined versions of the classics. Our fall mainstage presentation of Lysistrata demonstrates that the Aristophanes battle-of-the sexes anti-war comedy is remarkably relevant today. In the spring, we present the southeast premiere of the new stage rendering of Flannery O’Connor’s Everything that Rises Must Converge.
In the Studio, we offer Tennessee Williams’ classic drama The Glass Menagerie, Steve Martin’s “what-if” comedy Picasso at the Lapine Agile, and the charming musical comedy hat trick, The Apple Tree.
We are also proud to collaborate with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre to co-produce the world premiere of Memorabilia, a contemporary rendition of The Glass Menagerie created by local students with professional playwright Ken Weitzman. The TPS production will be presented as part of the second annual New Works and Ideas festival that will also feature an evening of new ten-minute plays written by KSU students. In addition, Memorabilia will tour Atlanta-area high schools in the spring.
Our seven-year tradition of opening our season with an annual faculty benefit performance continues this fall with a reading of an original adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows by TPS Department Chair John Gentile. Proceeds from this special event will benefit the KSU chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, the national theatre honor society.
Additional special performances round out our season, such as The Spoken Word! in September, featuring contemporary performance poet Rachel Hastings, and the KSU StoryFest in March, featuring the best local and national tellers including Gene Tagaban. I hope you will not only attend the familiar but also challenge yourself to the new.
I welcome you to participate in a direct way as well. Our auditions are open to all KSU students, and each show has several evenings of talkbacks when audience members have a chance to engage in dialogue with the artists. We invite feedback about the current season and welcome suggestions for future offerings.
Our aim is to enlighten and entertain, engage and educate. Your responses, personal and communal, inform and shape our work, and we look forward to sharing our creative journeys in the coming weeks.
I look forward to seeing you at the show!
Dean Adams
Artistic Director
Department of Theatre and Performance Studies