A number of UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance alumni are
working on the Big Idea Theatre’s upcoming production of William
Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night. The
play is being presented March 3-April 1.
Professor L.M. Bogad’s play COINTELSHOW: A PATRIOT
ACT is a biting political satire about COINTELPRO,
the FBI’s counterintelligence program with which they sabotaged,
disrupted, and repressed domestic groups like the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense, the American Indian Movement, along with
individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred
Hampton. The play is being presented by ArtsEmerson as a virtual
event March 8-12.
Alumna Sonya Eddy (B.A., Afro-American studies, ’94), best known
to television audiences for her long-running role as head
nurse Epiphany Johnson in the ABC soap opera General
Hospital, has died. She was 55.
For their final project, Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp,
Department of Theatre and Dance chair, along with the students
and guest artists from the fall quarter course DRA 199:
Theatre for Social Change and Social Justice have created a video
inspired the striking UC graduate students and teaching
assistants.
Kristin Orlando (B.A. theatre and math ‘08) and the New Jersey
Symphony Orchestra won a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award in 2022
for their long-form video of Mozart: Piano Concerto No.
21. She is Vice President of Operations at the NJSO, and in that
capacity, the film company, the orchestra and Orlando
jointly won the award.
Branwen Okpako, associate professor of cinema and digital media,
has adapted Helon Habila’s The Chibok Girls
into an experimental documentary, Return to Chibok.
The film re-enacts the journey to visit those left behind after
the shocking kidnapping of 276 girls from Chibok Girls School in
2014. It will be screened at UC Davis on Feb. 27 by the
Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspective on Social
Sciences, Arts, and Humanities (CAMPSSAH).
Professor L.M. Bogad has been awarded a grant from the Creative Work Fund. The
grants are given to Greater Bay Area artists collaborating with
nonprofit organizations to develop new works of theater,
traditional art, dance, poetry, arts activism and more.
A quartet consisting of two theatre and dance alumni and two
current undergraduate students worked behind the scenes at
California Shakespeare Theater this summer on the company’s
production of Lear, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s
classic tragedy by Marcus Gardley. The students were
supported by Steven Schmidt, lecturer in theatre and dance,
and technical director for Cal Shakes.
Poetry by doctoral student Diego Martínez-Campos (M.F.A, dramatic
arts, ‘20) has been selected to be part of Catalyst New
Music, an innovative music collaboration, along with the work of
14 other artists across the U.S.A.
Katherine Halls (B.A. theatre and dance and English, ‘20) is
currently rehearsing in Belgium with a TIE (Theatre in Education)
theatre company called Emerald Isle Theatre Company.
Olivia Caserta (B.A., theatre and dance, ‘22) is appearing as a
contestant in Hulu’s new baking competition series, Best
in Dough. Caserta is featured in episode 4 “College
Kids.”
Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp, Department of Theatre and Dance
chair, is pleased to announced two guest artists and presenters
for DRA 199: Theatre for Social Change and Social Justice in fall
quarter.
Ranked: The Musical, which was developed in part at UC
Davis through Catalyst Theatre/Ground and Field Theatre Festival,
is the subject of a documentary film My So-Called High School
Rank, produced by HBO. The film was recently presented at
DOC5 Film Fest in Menlo Park, CA, and is making the rounds at
numerous festivals this fall including the
Woodstock Film Festival.
The Department of Theatre and Dance has selected the Granada
Artists-in-Residence for 2022-2023. Erika Chong Shuch will be
the fall quarter guest artist and David Adam Moore and
Victoria “Vita”
Tzykun will be the joint guest artists for winter 2023.
Tom Munn, professor emeritus of theatre and dance, died on June
24 at 78. He was a pillar of the UC Davis Department of Theatre
and Dance, where he co-created the M.F.A. program in theatre,
design. An acclaimed designer in the San Francisco Bay Area, he
designed lighting and scenery for the San Francisco Opera for
nearly a quarter century.
Chris Oca (B.A. dramatic art, ’04) has been named production
manager at the Robert and
Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, just ahead of
the building’s 20th-anniversary season. He has worked in various
technical roles for the parent presenting program since the
building’s opening.
Jordan Brownlee (B.A., cinema and digital media ‘20) is
a cast member for the New York premiere of Jim Henson’s
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas which plays at the
New Victory Theatre Dec. 10- Jan. 2.
The Department of Theatre and Dance production of The Bluest
Eye will be presented at the Chicago International Puppet
Theater Festival in January 2022. The show was originally
performed at UC Davis in spring 2018.
Professor Mindy Cooper is the chair of the Ann
Reinking Scholarship Program which honors the late
actress/dancer/choreographer. The program presented its first
scholarship at a fundraising event in New York on Nov. 8.
The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of
California, Davis is dedicated to integrating consent-based
practices into all classroom, studio and production environments.
The 180 Series of courses provide exciting practical instruction
and participation in all aspects of theatrical and dance
production. Whether you are exploring these courses as a
Theatre & Dance Major, Minor, or are simply an interested
non-affiliated student, you will find passionate people working
to create art and tell stories on stage. We invite you to
join us at this link.
