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Prague Quadrennial 2019 Display of “Macbeth” Model, Dan Conway (Czech Republic)

Image of the set design for a production of "Macbeth."
Scale model of the set for Macbeth at The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, by Dan Conway.

In the summer of 2019 I travelled to Prague, Czech Republic to participate in an exhibition featuring my work on Macbeth as produced by The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in 2017. My work was chosen for this juried exhibition to represent the United States by members of The United States Institute of Theatre Technology. Other American set, lighting, and costume designers included Todd Rosenthal, Anna Kuzmanic, Gregory Gale, Marcus Doshi, Ehrard Rohm, and Tyler Micoleau. This trip was funded by the IPPCR and School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies faculty travel support. Held once every four years since 1967, the Prague Quadrennial is the world’s largest event in the field of scenography and offers a competitive presentation of contemporary performance design — including costume, stage, lighting, sound design, and theatre architecture for dance, opera, drama, site-specific, multi-media performances, and performance art. Over 80 countries were represented in 2019. The exhibit is now hosted on The USITT website and be found at http://pq19.usitt.org/professional/.

At the exhibit in Prague I had the opportunity to view work of stage designers from all over the world and to attend dozens of live performance events at the exhibit pavilion as well as throughout the city of Prague. When I returned to The University of Maryland in the fall I created several exhibits for the students of TDPS and gave an hour-long presentation to the faculty and twenty MFA Design students.

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Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig, “A Curious Invasion/San Juan” (Puerto Rico)

Dancers cling to the ramparts in "A Curious Invasion/San Juan."

We set out to create a site-specific dance performance throughout the UNESCO World Heritage site Castillo San Cristóbal in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Having pioneered and created site-specific dance performance for over 25 years, this project would mark the 13th distinct full-scale iteration of our long-standing series A Curious Invasion, the 22nd site-specific/site-adaptive work overall, and the second at a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our collaborators were Yanira Martinez and Héctor Rivera of the National Park Service, which administers the two historic forts in San Juan. TDPS/MFA Dance graduate Allen Xing and his husband, Dennis Chyba, who have a home in San Juan and originally introduced us to the site, served as local liaisons to the Castillo and local dance artists.

Rehearsals and performances from May 25-June 2, 2019 were free and open to the public. The cast was comprised of three professional dance artists, all long-time PWDT (PEARSONWIDRIG DANCETHEATER) company members, and three current TDPS students. In addition to the local population, the audience was comprised of international tourists visiting the Castillo as part of their sightseeing activities during their cruise ship’s stop in San Juan. This most unusual arrangement led to a near constant flow of spectators throughout the days.  Many people were eager to engage in conversation with us about what we were doing, including commenting on their own connections to the University of Maryland. As a result, hundreds of people were exposed to the work as a UMD/TDPS project, some catching glimpses in passing, many staying for an entire rehearsal and/or performance of the dance.

This marking the second such project at a UNESCO World Heritage Site for us, we are very interested in keeping this connection alive and plan to create works at UNESCO sites in the future. Our connection to the National Park Service has already lead to new creative relationships at historic forts in the Washington, DC/Maryland/Virginia area and beyond. In fact, this spring we received a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to create a new work at Fort McHenry in Baltimore that would expand on our research in Puerto Rico.

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Christine Hands, “Dance and Disability in the United Kingdom” (United Kingdom)

Image of an aerialist performing while others look on.

While the first professional dance company featuring disabled dancers was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, since then the United Kingdom has far surpassed the United States in the field of dance and disability. While there is a large research push in the US for representation of dancers with physical disability, there is an equally large gap in the training and development of these dancers. Research shows that one of the largest barriers for disabled dancers is training opportunities. Also lacking are opportunities for the training of dancers with intellectual and cognitive disability. In England, regular dance classes for dancers with and without disabilities (mixed abilities) abound.

I traveled to England and Scotland and connect with some of these organizations. I interviewed students, teachers, and directors, and observe and take class. I observed and participated from the standpoint of a scholar who considers education, community engagement, and choreography as part of the fabric of disability and dance. I asked what these companies are doing and what we can do better at home to expand the field. I sought opportunities for collaboration, whether that be teaching, assisting, or otherwise engaging with these organizations.

I focused on education and the training of dancers with disabilities. I looked particularly at youth education though I will also engage in and with adult classes. (Many dancers with disabilities, for a number of reasons, find dance later in life.) While I attended a range of classes, I specifically aimed to engage with companies and organizations training and presenting dancers with intellectual disability since this is the largest gap I have found in my research.

In London, weekly youth and adult classes are offered through Candoco Dance Company, Magpie Dance, and Amici Dance Company. In Guilford, England, Stopgap Dance Company has open classes as well as regular youth classes. In Glasgow, Scotland, Indepen-dance offers classes nearly every day of the week, including classes specifically geared for peoples with sensory processing disorders (autism). I researched how classes can be geared for peoples with specific disabilities, and how this alters the class structure and outcome. Far Flung Dance Theater in Southwest England is disability-led and offers a range of classes for peoples with disabilities. Nearby, in Cornwall, Shallal Dance Theater also has classes and performance opportunities for disabled dancers. I researched how these smaller coastal towns engage with their communities in meaningful ways.

Amici Dance Company in London and Anjali Dance Company in Oxfordshire, England both work exclusively with performers with intellectual disabilities. Both of these companies train intellectually disabled dancers for the stage. (David Leventhal, Director of Dance for Parkinson’s at the Mark Morris Dance Center, has offered to give me an introduction to Colm Gallagher, education director for Amici Dance which I utilized to make a connection.) I researched the innovative practices that these companies utilize for the onstage success of their company members.

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Leigh Wilson Smiley, “Puppet Cinema: When Film and Puppetry Meet on Stage” (Israel)

Image of two presenters in a classroom with another person projected on screens above.

This course was taught on location and virtually by long time collaborators Zvi Sahar and Leslie Strongwater. This course, “Puppet Cinema: When Film and Puppetry Meet on Stage” was the first employment of the IPCCR World Outreach Classrooms to use technology to bring in a teaching artist from abroad over an entire semester. Using puppetry and live-feed cinematography, this course explored the question of how we tell stories. Students investigated practical and theoretical studies to employ these multi-disciplinary mediums with the understanding that it takes a delicate balance to juggle two very different but complimentary mediums. The class was part lecture, part studio work. Both the Midterm and Final Exams were performance/film based. The focus of this course was on how to best integrate the elements of theater, puppetry, object theater and cinematography onto a multidisciplinary performance with artistic synergy. By the end of this course, students became fluent in the PuppetCinema technique of animating objects, operating a live feed camera and presenting a multi-layered story on stage and screen.

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Christen Mandracchia, Paul Deziel, Qmars Haeri, “‘Triumph of Isabella’ Immersive Experience at the 2019 V&A Performance Festival” (United Kingdom)

Image of people passing by projections on a wall.

We aimed to present and highlight components of the IPCCR digital humanities project “The Triumph of Isabella: An Immersive Experience” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This includes the animation of the original painting, a documentary of the making of the animation, a documentary on the making of the ship model, and the augmented reality app. The goals were to foster the University’s relationship with the V&A, and provide us, the students, an opportunity to showcase our work at a high-profile institution.

Through this project and experience the three students involved were able to grow the
international relationships that Dr. Hildy had made with the V&A on this Triumph of Isabella collaboration. The project allowed us to show the kind of high-quality work that University of Maryland graduate students do, and there was talk of possible collaborations with us in the near future.

We learned how to use international connections to their fullest and how to produce and curate a digital humanities project which blends theatre history, technology, and tourism. We learned about the accessibility of the visual arts for an audience that spoke many different languages –something that gives us historical insight into the power of the Ommegang in 1615 for a multi- national, multi-cultural audience. Christen wrote extensively of her findings in a paper titled“’The Triumph of Isabella:’ Digital Immersion into a Renaissance Mass-Spectacle”, which she presented at ASTR in Fall 2019.

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Christina Robson, “Powerdown” (United Kingdom)

Image of a person sitting on a bench, looking into the sunset.

While participating in the UMD-Winter Documentary Filmmaking program, I aimed to explore the intersection of my personal choreographic practice and the creative process and production of documentary filmmaking. I hoped to bring light to mundane, everyday aspects of human experience, juxtaposed with the tensions of the UK’s sociopolitical climate and investigate the spaces where those points of view converge.

Though my original goal was to get strangers dancing on camera, I learned that approaching strangers in public is nearly impossible with the current level of dependence on technology. The goals of my project shifted. After very few successful attempts to approach strangers and turn their attention away from their screen. I became less motivated to get people moving and more captivated by observing what screens are doing to our bodies. My project still upheld my intentions to juxtapose everyday humanity with the sociopolitical tensions of UK. However, what began as a proposal to get people moving turned into a project that questioned why we are so distant from our bodies and the role technology plays in the mind/body divide of a digital culture.

This project was an incredible opportunity to learn about the unpredictability of a creative process. This was the first time that I proposed specific goals of a project in advance of the creative process itself. As I confronted difficulty realizing my proposed goals, it was challenging to release my grip on the original aims of my inquiry. By opening myself to the questions underlying those challenges I was able to expand my intentions by infusing unexpected content with my perspectives on movement. Ultimately, I am quite pleased with the authenticity of the outcome and the honest direction the trajectory of the film took on.

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Leslie Felbain, “In the Attic” (Brazil)

Image of a poster for "In the Attic," featuring a woman looking directly into camera.

In the Attic was developed through a devised ensemble process, which involved three undergraduate students, two graduate students, and three alumni from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS). The piece, inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, focuses on a woman in the final moments of her life as she moves between resistance and acceptance. In the Attic integrates a language where movement, text, sound and visual elements are seamlessly interwoven to create a simple narrative. Touring the piece in Brazil involved six people. Leslie Felbain, TDPS faculty directed and performed. Alumni, Daniel Pinha designed the piece, and Alumni Kristy Leigh-Hall designed costumes. Undergraduate, Daniela Gomez was stage manager and production coordinator, Christina Banalopoulu PhD, was the dramaturg, Colleen Harris, adjunct/guest artist in TDPS was the composer and performed. Another production coordinator from Rio joined us in Brazil.Several other TDPS graduate and undergraduate students, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in the School of Music were involved in the development of the piece, but to minimize costs, this tour was with a smaller core group of the ensemble company.

My research as a faculty member in our School focuses on the intersection between creative and healing arts, and applied theatre. This project is the central focus of my current research. In the Attic is a project that focuses on aging, illness, death and dying- the five daily reminders in Buddhism. The material to create the piece was derived from interviews and research with various populations who focus on these topics; hospitals, hospices, cancer support centers, and a wide variety of individuals. -A continued development of the piece, learning from the communities where the piece was presented in residency-Shared the process of developing work in this way with our School community-Created creative collaborations between TDPS and cultural institutions, a theatre company and a school in BrazilThe process of helping to develop the piece has been and will continue to have an impact on our TDPS community, our College and the University-Plans are in discussion with other units on campus to present the research and developments of the piece, and perhaps a performance.-We have been invited to an extensive tour through the Centro Cultural dos Correios throughout Brazil

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Victoria Scrimer, “TA for UK Study Abroad” (United Kingdom)

Image of people standing on a long gravel stretch between a garden and large building.

As originally proposed, this project had three objectives. First, I sought to gain
experience adapting and delivering lessons for an interdisciplinary study abroad
program. Second, this project aimed to foster collaboration between TDPS and the
Communications department at the University of Maryland. Third, this project’s
ultimate purpose was to provide a high-quality study abroad opportunity for TDPS
students seeking to expand their skill set in real-world practical settings.

This project met all three of its objectives to varying degrees. Over the course of the three-week program, I was able to deliver eight mini-lectures (30 minutes each) on the following topics: developing a topic, identifying dramatic need, interview techniques/crafting interview questions, storytelling/archetypes and narrative, writing and delivering voice over scripts, conducting scholarly research, rhetoric/using ethos, logos, and pathos in visual storytelling, activism and advocacy in the arts. These lectures were all adapted from lectures I’ve developed over the course of my time in TDPS, particularly THET285, The Art of Communications and Presentation. In addition to these more formal lectures, I offered office hours during which I was able to provide one-on-one support to students as they developed and executed their projects.

From an administrative perspective, I also gained experience organizing and promoting a study abroad project from start to finish. On the front end, I helped Adam Nixon plan the itinerary and adapt the syllabus. I visited classrooms to promote the class, tabled at the study abroad fair, and followed up individually with interested students. During the trip, I chaperoned all of the group activities, maintained a running group chat with the students to flag any emerging issues, and kept track of attendance for activities and events. Following the trip, I helped to organize the final showing of the student films at the Global Crossroads Café in HJ Patterson.

In terms of our second objective to foster collaboration between communications and theatre departments, I think this was a very successful start. I was happy to be able to collaborate with a former alum of the TDPS PhD program and to contribute to a course that emphasized the theoretical and practical intersections between theatre, live performance, anthropology, journalism, and film. In the process, I identified a number of ways to further enhance the course’s appeal for theatre and performance students in upcoming semesters.

Finally, while only two out of the ten enrolled students in the course were from TDPS, support from the IPCCR allowed for all of the students to enjoy an enriching educational experience. This included theatre in the West End of London and trips to the British Library, Oxford University, the British Museum, the British Film Institute, Stonehenge, Hampton Court Palace, Bath, the Tate Modern, and the Globe Theatre.

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Laurie Fredrick, “Book Translation to Spanish: Trumpets in the Mountains: Theater and the Politics of National Culture in Cuba” (Cuba)

My first book, Trumpets in the Mountains: Theater and the Politics of National Culture in Cuba, was published by Duke University Press in 2012. The book is based on years of ethnographic research conducted in and about theatre artists and artistic culture in Cuba, and it was awarded Honorable Mention for the Best Book of 2012 by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). The IPCCR funded part of what was needed to hire a professional translator to convert the book into Spanish. Translation is a specialized skill. It is very difficult to do well, and it is exceptionally time consuming. Academic books are even more challenging, given the amount of detailed information, discipline specific terminology, and theoretical analysis. The English version of Trumpets in the Mountains contains 296 pages of content, with an additional 50 pages of front matter, bibliography, appendices, and index.

Translation is essential in order to share research about Cuba, since most Cubans do not speak or read English. This translation allows me to share the material with those who are the subjects of the book, as well as those who have collaborated with and assisted in the work for over 20 years. It will also make the research available for other Spanish speaking artists and scholars in the rest of Latin America and in Spain. I will be publishing it with a Cuban press so that the book is first distributed in Cuba. This element is important, since Cuban academics and theatre artists are often not able to travel off the island, and the cost of foreign press books is prohibitive for them even if they become available locally ($30 is the average monthly salary in Cuba).

The process of translation was very interesting, since one’s words, even in academic writing, can never be translated literally: interpretation, cultural nuance, linguistic differences by country, and author style must be adapted as accurately as possible.

The Spanish-language translator, Julio Durán, is a writer from Peru. He holds a Master’s degree in Literary Translation from Universidad Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona and also in Specialized Translation at Universidad Menendez Pelayo of Sevilla. He will be listed as the translator on the published version, titled: Trompetas en las Montañas: Teatro y la Politica de la Cultura Nacional en Cuba. I will be presenting the original book and its translation in November 2019 in Havana, Cuba, and also at an international conference in Baracoa, hosted by the University of Guantánamo. I am extremely grateful to the IPCCR for helping me complete this project. Without its support, I would not have been able to translate or publish the Spanish version of the book.