Theater at EMU is presenting six performances of its spring mainstage production, “Dancing at Lughnasa,” by Brian Friel.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Apr. 8-10 and Apr. 15-17 in the mainstage theater of the University Commons. Thomas P. Joyner, assistant professor of theater at EMU, directs the eight-member cast in this intense study of the lives of five impoverished women set in 1936 in Ireland’s County Donegal in the fictional town of Ballybeg.

About the play

The play is loosely based on the lives of dramatist Friel’s mother and aunts who lived in the Glenties on the west coast of Donegal. The play depicts the late summer days when love briefly seems possible for three of the Mundy sisters (Chris, Rose and Kate) and the family welcomes home the frail elder brother from life as a missionary in Africa.

However, as the summer ends, the family foresees the sadness and economic privations under which they will suffer as hopes begin to fade.

The play premiered Oct. 15, 1990 at the Lyttelton Theater at the Royal National Theater in London on 15 October 1990. The production, produced by Bill Kenwright and Noel Pearson, then transferred to the Phoenix Theater, London, on Mar. 25, 1991. In 2009, a run opened at the Old Vic from Feb. 26 to May 9.

The play opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theater on Oct. 24,1991, where the production won the Tony Award for “Best Play” in 1992. “Dancing at Lughnasa” was adapted for film in 1998 starring Meryl Streep as Kate Mundy.

Ticket info

Tickets are available from the EMU Box Office, 540-432-4582 or ordered online at www.emu.edu/boxoffice.

The Thursday, Apr. 8 performance will be offered at no charge, donations accepted; come as you are, pay what you will. For the remaining nights, reserved tickets are $10 for adults, $12 at the door, and $8 for seniors and non-EMU students ($10 at the door).Group rates available.

Information regarding age appropriateness for EMU events is available through the Box Office.

Whoever said, "’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" may have had the Bard of Avon’s romantic tale in mind.

A 13-member cast will give six performances of William Shakespeare’s "Love’s Labor Lost" Thursday – Saturday, Feb. 18-20 and Feb. 25-27 in the Studio Theater of the University Commons. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m.

There will be a final performance at Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Mar. 21, a co-production of EMU’s theater program and the American Shakespeare Center’s MLitt/MFA program.

Alisha Huber, an MFA candidate at Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, is EMU’s guest director for the five-act, 90-minute play.

Learn more about theater at EMU…

Fall workshops offer prep

Huber teamed with theater professor Heidi Winters Vogel througout fall 2009 to deliver a series of Shakespeare workshops on language, stage movement, and professional auditions.

"The first thing I wanted to accomplish in these workshops was to take Shakespeare off his pedestal and out of English class. Everyone who came was there because they were excited about doing Shakespeare," said Huber of the fall workshops. Read more >>

About the play

In Shakespeare’s giddy word-feast, Ferdinand, King of Navarre, and three of his friends give up women and the world to devote themselves to learning. But their foolish vows cannot bar love from their kingdom or their hearts – certainly not when four high-spirited ladies arrive on the scene. Their unexpected entrance throws the whole countryside into romantic upheaval.

Ticket info

Tickets are $5 for general admission and are available through EMU’s theater office at 540 432-4674 and at the door. Tickets can also be ordered on line at theater@emu.edu.

Alisha Huber, an MFA student working through Blackfriars Playhouse, leads EMU students in a Shakespeare movement workshop this fall in the studio theater. Photo by Brent Anders

Alisha Huber, currently an MFA directing student at Mary Baldwin, will direct Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labors Lost” at EMU in February. She’s scheduled three workshops throughout the fall 2009 semester in EMU’s studio theater (soon to be named after alumnus Lee Eshleman) to provide early training for EMU students who will audition. (The final workshop will be held Saturday, Dec. 12 from noon to 2 p.m.)

“Love’s Labors Lost” is scheduled for performance at the Blackfriars on March 21 as part of Huber’s MFA thesis project in addition to the EMU performances slated for Feb. 18-20 and 25-27.

Heidi Winters Vogel, EMU theater professor

Alisha brings a wealth of Shakespeare experience to EMU,” says Heidi Winters Vogel, theater professor at EMU. “She directed performances of Julius Caesar this summer in both Michigan and New York City.”

“I’m really looking forward to this final workshop,” says EMU student Steven Stauffer. “It will give me a great chance to practice my audition ahead of time and get some crucial feedback from the director.”

The challenge of Shakespeare

“The first thing I wanted to accomplish in these workshops was to take Shakespeare off his pedestal and out of English class. Everyone who came was there because they were excited about doing Shakespeare,” says Huber.

EMU students participate in a Shakespeare workshop led by Alisha Huber this fall in the studio theater. Photo by Brent Anders

Previous workshops this fall were “Shakespeare in Your Mouth,” which focused on elminating the language barrier and destroying preconceptions of what Shakespearean actors should sound like, and “Shakespeare on Your Feet,” which dealt largely with movement and staging.

“My focus was to acclimate the students to the joys and complications of original practices staging,” says Huber of the movement workshop.” The best exercise was about acting a set that one doesn’t have!”

About the final workshop

The final workshop, to be held Saturday, Dec. 12 from noon to 2 p.m., will prepare students for a classical audition, something many will be doing for “Love’s Labors Lost.”

“The Shakespeare workshops are not required for participation in ‘Love’s Labors Lost’ during the spring 2010 semester,” says Vogel, “but they’re a fun way to improve your comfort and knowledge of the art of Shakespeare.”

Participation in the final workshop is limited to the first 20 folks. No preparation is necessary. For more information, contact the theater department at (540) 432-4360 or theater@emu.edu.

Visit emu.edu/theater to learn more about theater at EMU!

In the play, a contemporary take on the adventures of Odysseus from Homer’s epic tale, a young refugee called Anon enters the U.S. by being swept ashore, having survived a boat crash. Like a contemporary Odysseus from Homer’s epic tale, Anon must live by his wits, his instincts, fortitude and humor to survive.

Junior Steve Kniss directs actors junior Brent Anders and sophomore Brandon Habron. (Photo: Erika Babikow)

Steve Kniss, an EMU junior vocal performance and digital media major from Chicago, Ill., is directing the 11-member cast with an original score and sound design by Michael Swartzendruber, a junior theology and philosophy major from Kalona, Iowa. ( in The Weather Vane, EMU’s student newspaper.)

This stunning lyrical saga is unflinching in its gritty determination to come at you with the absurdities of life. “Anon” ricochets off one chaotic situation, then slam bangs into another. It’s a dream. It’s a nightmare. It’s life. It’s the stuff of epic adventures – and real ones.

Tickets and other information

General admission to the one act, 90-minute play is $5 at the door. Advance tickets are available by calling the EMU theater office, 540-432-4360 or email: theater@emu.edu.

Directing. To me, it is fun. I have had such a great time through only a week and a half of rehearsal. Each night raises its unique challenges, but every it is also an adventure, and that is what I love about directing.

Junior Steve Kniss directs actors junior Brent Anders and sophomore Brandon Habron. (Photo: Erika Babikow)

However, I have been surprised to find that the biggest challenge comes from making a schedule for each week. There is so much to organize. Which scenes are more important to work on? Which characters do I need to further develop? Who can come which night? Scheduling is definitely not something that I had foreseen being such a challenge.

Anon has been such a great experience for me so far. I want to pursue directing after I graduate, probably more in the form of film than theatre. However, when I agreed to direct Anon, I knew I would be challenging myself, both time-wise and vocation-wise. If I really did not truly love directing, I knew that this experience would show me. So far, I still love it.

When I was talking with a couple friends Sunday night, I was saying the reason I love directing and theatre is because it allows me to create a world that is entirely my own.

I am not saying I do not love the real world, because I do, but the movies that inspired me to want to pursue film making were the Lord of the Rings franchise, directed by Peter Jackson. I suppose I will just come right out and say that I have seen each of the movies at least fifteen times, both extended and theatrical versions, with actor and director commentaries, and no, that is not an overstatement. I was absolutely enthralled by these films. They showed me that there were no boundaries when creating movies. Any world is possible to make. Any character is possible to create. Any movie is possible to direct.

Another thing that I have been discovering is the difference between film directing and theatre directing. Film directing requires slightly more organization with a larger crew, more equipment, and usually, a greater number of actors.

However, theatre requires more precision. During a play, each performance is live. Therefore, each night, the actor has one chance to deliver each of his or her lines, and if it is delivered poorly, there is nothing that the actor can do to change that. In film, a director can take as many shots of a scene as he or she wants. Eventually, they will pick the best shot and that is what the global audience will see. Have you ever thought of what a movie would look like if a director only took one take of each scene? Maybe not, but that is the type of thing that sometimes occurs to me. It tends to blow the mind.

As I continue to direct, I look forward to the challenges and questions that will be raised each night. How do I get this character from here to there? How do I incorporate this part of the set? How should the audience be seated? Where do I put my musicians? Who is going to run the sound and light boards? How do I motivate the actor at this point? These are questions that I have to ask myself on a nightly basis, and I cannot wait to see if I have answered them correctly come opening night.

Learn more about theater at EMU…

No one wanted to see it. The memories were too painful. The script was rejected. The show opened to rough reviews. The playwright was fired because it appeared she really screwed this one up. Even that did not stop Deborah Brevoort, who paid EMU a visit to watch her show and talk to students this past Saturday.

Playwright Deborah Brevoort gives a talkback after Saturday’s performance of ‘Women of Lockerbie.’ Seniors Greta Shenk and Emily Hertzler listen in. (Photo:Amy Schmid)

Internationally acclaimed playwright, Deborah Brevoort, author of the production “Women of Lockerbie,” was up against a lot of opposition to get her play heard by the masses in the 1990s. Based on the first terrorist attack against America, “Lockerbie” told the story of the aftermath of the plane crash and the response of the women from Lockerbie. Told by many that “No one wants to see this,” Brevoort kept pushing for her poignant yet horrific story to be told. During the 1990s, few wanted to hear the sad tale that painted a picture of a vulnerable America. However, after September 11, the play finally received the attention it deserves.

According to the playwright, the idea for the play came to her in 1997. She was channel-surfing late at night when she came upon the image of the cockpit of Pan Am 103 smoldering in the hills of Lockerbie. A news channel was running a special on the nearly decade-old disaster, and Brevoort was surprised to find the story of the women who washed and returned clothes to the crash victims’ families a rather uplifting yet painful story.

She woke up the next morning with the concept for a production about the Scottish women playing through her mind. She went to her bookshelf and pulled down books of Greek tragedies, which she used as inspiration for the show. She says that, “Inspiration is not romantic, but tied to study. It comes with reading and being engaged with the world.”

Her journey would not be an easy one. Disregarding later opposition to her play, she says, “I had to take the audience into the journey of the horror.” With this in mind, she set to work writing the painful tale. During the process, she discovered that, “Light is found in the darkest places. You don

Read more…

In the play, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl and directed by 2008 EMU theater graduate Pam Mandingo, a woman is forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technology-obsessed world.

Cast members are Brent Anders, Souderton, Pa.; Sarah Gant, Harrisonburg; Katie Jantzen, Plymouth, Neb.; Evan McCarthy, Bluffton, Ohio; Heidi Muller, Fancy Gap, Va.; and Sonnie Siegfried, Lancaster, Pa.

Stage managers are Brandon Habron, Fredericksburg, Va., and Kimberly Lane, Fairfax, Va. Lighting designer is Jonathan Nofziger, Lancaster, Pa.; with sound design by Praveen Chhetri, Kathmandu, Nepal.

General admission tickets are $5 and may be purchased at the door or by calling 540-432-4360.

Love and politics cross paths in a most unlikely way in W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s popular comic operetta, “Iolante,” the major spring theater production at EMU.

EMU Theater will present the two-act, two-hour musical 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, Mar. 26 & 28, and Apr. 2-4, with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, Apr. 5, in the Mainstage Theater in the University Commons.

Twenty years ago, the fairy Iolanthe was exiled for marrying a mortal. Unknown to the rest of her kind, Iolanthe bore a son, Strephon, before her banishment. Now a young shepherd, Strephon falls madly in love with Phyllis, a ward of the Court of Chancery. But the entire House of Lords also want Phyllis, and a chaotic struggle ensues between the fairies and Britain’s men of power.

Costume designer Becca Snyder (l.) makes adjustments to Todd Hooley’s tie as fairy queen Charlotte Wenger looks on.

Heidi Winters Vogel, associate professor of theater, is directing the 24-member cast. Stage managers are Sarah Harder, Mountain Lake, Minn.; Emily Hertzler, New Holland, Pa.; and Jamie Hiner, Culpeper, Va.

Other major players are Phil Grayson, set designer; David Vogel, technical director; Sara Prince, choreographer; James Richardson, vocal instructor; Kenneth Nafziger, orchestra director; Heidi Winters Vogel, costume design coordinator; and Grant Sprunger, Kidron, Ohio, and Mark Fenton, lighting designers.

Advance tickets are $12/$14 at the door for adults, non-EMU students and seniors, $10/$12 at the door. Tickets are available at the EMU box office, 540-432-4582 or on line at www.emu/edu/boxoffice.

Information regarding age appropriateness for EMU events is available through the box office.

Theater at EMU is giving six performances of its fall production, “Metamorphoses,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 6-8 and Nov. 13-15, in the mainstage theater of the University Commons.

The Nov. 8 performance is part of a special “arts night” at EMU and will begin at 8:30 p.m.

Based on Ovid’s transformation myths, “Metamorphoses,” written and originally directed by Mary Zimmerman, mixes the ancient stories with contemporary language, humor, music and thought. Much of the action centers around a large pool of water that evokes natural and emotional turbulence, and the ensemble cast of actors create the illusion that it is as deep as the sea. Characters melt into this pool, and galleons are destroyed by storms. Timeless themes emerge, including the inevitability of change and the human ability to adapt to change.

Characters melt into this pool, and galleons are destroyed by storms. Timeless themes emerge, including the inevitability of change and the human ability to adapt to change.

Ingrid De Sanctis, assistant professor of theater at EMU, directs an 11-member cast in the critically-acclaimed play, which ran on Broadway in 2002 and earned a Tony award for director Mary Zimmerman.

Stage managers are Susan Alexander and Allison Turman; Phil Grayson is set designer and lighting design is by David Vogel.

“Zimmerman’s play has been called piercingly beautiful, and the ensemble cast of EMU students bring an elegance and honesty to these stories,” said De Sanctis. “In this constantly changing world, ‘Metamorphosis’ and its ancient myths of change remind me of the beauty in transformation. You won’t want to miss it,” she added.

The play runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

Tickets are $10/12 for adults, $8/10 for non-EMU students and senior citizens at the door. Advance tickets are available from the EMU box office, 540-432-4582. Information regarding age appropriateness is also available through the box office.

EMU’s theater department has announced the creation of a stimulating new program – the "Crash House Collaborative Theater Project."

Heidi Vogel Winters, associate professor of theater

According to Heidi Vogel Winters, associate professor of theater at EMU, its purpose is "to aid a diverse group of high school students in finding original, collaborative voices that will serve to bridge the gap between disparate subcultures and bring them together in a reconciling way.

In addition, she said, "Students will learn to draw upon important voices of the past and present while discovering how to mold these voices into a new instrument of peace."

Five Participating Schools

Crash House will select three student applicants from each of the five local high schools – Harrisonburg, Eastern Mennonite, Broadway, Turner Ashby and Spotswood – to take part in this theater experiment. The group will read and discuss Shakespeare’s "Othello" and then dissect and reshape the play in collaboration with director Heidi Winters Vogel, recent EMU theater graduate and playwright Pam Mandigo and others.

Following this process, Mandigo will take the generated material and synthesize it into an original text. While her work is in progress, students will reconvene and present the work-in-progress to family, friends, and community members in the EMU Mainstage Theater.

"We hope to then stage the play and tour the participating high schools during the 2008-2009 school year, Winters Vogel said.

Shakespeare’s tragedy, "Othello, The Moor of Venice," is believed to have been written around 1603. As a testament to its popularity, the play appeared in seven editions between 1622 and 1705. With its varied themes of racism, love, jealousy and betrayal, the work remains relevant today.

All Students Welcome

Participation in Crash House is not limited to those with theater experience. Students with broad interests, including communication, visual arts, writing, music, languages and storytelling, are welcome to apply. All student participation is free.

Group meetings will be held 3-5 p.m. on June 3, 5, 10, and 12 and from noon to 4 p.m. on June 16-20 and 23-27 in the EMU Studio Theater. Transportation will be arranged for students who need it.

"This four-week collaboration needs students willing to dig deep," Winters Vogel said. "It needs students who speak different languages, who come from different places and represent diverse cultures. It needs students who can come together and wrestle with their differences and create something that belongs to all of us.

"In essence, we’ll be shaking up Shakespeare to empower local high school students find their voice," she added.

The collaborative project is being funded in part by the Arts Council of the Valley and Teatro Chirmol, a bilingual theater workshop for area youth.

For more information, contact Winters Vogel at 540-432-4452; email: heidi.vogel@emu.edu.

The three-time Broadway smash hit, directed at EMU by Patrick K. Reynolds, theater department chair, will be presented 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 14-16 and the same time Feb. 21-23 in the mainstage theater of the University Commons.

The scene is a night club in Berlin, Germany, as the 1920’s draw to a close. The master of ceremonies welcomes the audience to the show and assures them that, whatever their troubles, they will forget them at the cabaret.

Backstage at the Kit-Kat Klub (l. to r.) Ingrid Johnson, Braydon P. Hoover and Rachel King.

Yet, the dawn of the new year finds new and troubling political forces rising in pre-War World II Germany. An urgency to choose sides grips members of the small community, even as they find joy and release through song and dance on the stage of the cabaret.

The 10-member student cast includes Braydon Hoover, Elizabethtown, Pa., as the emcee, Charlotte Wenger, Lancaster, Pa., as Sally Bowles and Steve Kniss, Chicago, Ill., as Clifford Bradshaw.

Assisting the director are Sarah Harder, stage manager; Ingrid Johnson, choreographer; Phil Grayson, set designer; Erin West, costume designer; and David Vogel, light designer.

“It’s a testament to ‘Cabaret’ that during its four decades of production this classic American musical has taken on so many shapes and supported so many different interpretations,” Reynolds said. “What attracted EMU Theater to the show – aside from the wonderful music and dancing – is the setting of the story on the very cusp of the Nazis coming into power.

“It’s a musical about incandescent good times in danger of consuming the most innocent people in society,” Reynolds added. “In that, it’s a pretty rare show, and one beautifully suited to the concerns of the program and the university.”

“Cabaret is a story that doesn’t shy away from mature themes that affect both the characters in the play and those in the audience,” said Heidi Winters Vogel, director of theater operations. “The hatred and fear endemic in the Weimar Republic of Germany between the wars resulted in conflict, racism and sexual exploitation that allowed the Nazis to emerge and flourish. Parents should consider the age and maturity level of their children before bringing them to this production.”

Tickets are $10 advance, $12 at the door; seniors and non-EMU students $8 advance, $12 at the door. Tickets are available by calling the EMU box office, 540-432-4582 or on-line at www.emu.edu/boxoffice. Information regarding age appropriateness is available through the box office.