UP NEXT:
FALL FACULTY & GUEST ARTIST DANCE CONCERT
November 15-18
The concert will feature work by former Boston Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet company member Sam Shapiro, and excerpts from Le Corsaire restaged by ballet faculty Chris Martin and Brantly Shapiro. Christina Soriano is creating a group work set to music excerpted from Philip Glass’ Orphee Suite for Piano and Nina Lucas' contemporary jazz fusion piece is set to music by Daniel Pemberton from original movie soundtrack King Arthur Legend of the Sword.
Former dancer with Shen Wei Dance Arts Janice Lancaster in her first year as a Teacher Scholar Post-Doctoral faculty member will be setting a new work on our dancers, and Tina Yarborough Liggins will be fusing jazz dance and tap in her new work.
Tickets are $15, $7 for students and $12 for senior citizens and may be purchased beginning November 14th. Purchase tickets by calling the box office at 336-758-5295 on weekdays from 1-5pm, or online.
Mainstage Productions
Wake Forest University Theatre opened the 2018-19 season with Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky, directed by Professor Sharon Andrews. The play is a hilarious fast-paced, biting but ultimately loving send up of the endless egos, anxieties and shifting loyalties of 1940’s theatre folk. But, it is also a play about the integrity of a writer and his loyalty to what he has to say. Read more about Light Up the Sky and the rest of our shows this season in this Winston-Salem Journal article.
The second production of the season was Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves, directed by Professor J.K. Curry. Winner of the inaugural Relentless Award for Playwriting, as well as a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, The Wolves provides a fresh look at the lives of contemporary teenagers, focusing on a girls’ indoor soccer team.
As the young women navigate their way into a complex adult world, they engage in friendships and rivalries, moments of silliness, and fierce competitiveness. Above all, they are teammates intent on winning the next game.
FOR HE IS AN ENGLISHMAN
A celebration of the life of James Dodding was held on October 6 in the Ring Theatre. The afternoon featured performances by alumni such as Michael Carter, Mary Mendenhall, Ben Whiting and many others. Harold Tedford, Teresa Radomski, Michael Kamtman and Sharon Andrews talked about working with James. Current students Katy Milian and Caleb Cabiness also performed. Alumni Michael Huie and Natalie Cordone organized and hosted the afternoon.
Professor Dodding joined Wake Forest’s Department of Theatre and Dance as a visiting lecturer and director in 1979 and continued his association with Wake Forest until 2008, when he last directed a play. Although he retired as professor of theatre in 1998, he had continued to return to Wake Forest to direct many productions in the department.
Professor Dodding, who received the Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award at Wake Forest, was known internationally as a theatre director and teacher at universities and colleges in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere. He also enjoyed a career as a performer, author, broadcaster and more.
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
Rob Eastman-Mullins
Professor Eastman-Mullins' scenic design for Wake Forest University Theatre's 2017 production of Macbeth, directed by Dr. Brook Davis, will be one of 51 United States performance designs exhibited at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. PQ is often described as the Olympics or World’s Fair for performance designers.
Professor Eastman-Mullins' work will be on view in Prague from June 6-16 before travelling internationally. The U.S. exhibition at the PQ is supported, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more at https://www.pq.cz/
Christina Soriano Named Inaugural Associate Provost for Arts and Interdisciplinary Initiatives
Christina Soriano, Director of Dance and Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance and Administrative Fellow in the Office of the Provost, will continue her tenure in the Provost’s Office as the inaugural Associate Provost for Arts and Interdisciplinary Initiatives. She is overseeing strategic planning for the Transformative Arts Project, intended to strengthen and further develop interdisciplinary partnerships across the university while enhancing the visibility of the arts at and beyond Wake Forest.
ALUM CONNECTIONS
DeacLink is Wake Forest's first online career and alumni resource for the creative industries. Founded in 2016, DeacLink is the brainchild of two former Scales regulars, Art History Major Katie Winokur ('14) and Fine Arts Presidential Scholar Kelsey Zalimeni ('14).
Fostering the alumni culture of Wake Forest's creative departments, DeacLink endeavors to connect beyond the campus, from introducing students to established alumni to connecting the dots among Wake's robust alumni network in the creative fields. Katie and Kelsey have amassed over 80 alumni interviews on the DeacLink blog, synthesized a global network organized by city on the home page, and facilitated numerous fruitful introductions between students and alumni alike resulting in job opportunities, work experience, and branded events and workshops.
To become a part of the DeacLink network, email deaclink@gmail.com, or contact them here. You can sign up for their newsletter on their homepage.
Credits:
Ken Bennett & Betsy Mann