Category: Performances

News about Performances


Tennessee Williams Tribute

From the March 2015 Desktop News | UA theatre students performed dramatic readings from the plays of Tennessee Williams March 2-3 as part of a tribute to Williams and his friendship with Dr. Marian Gallaway, longtime professor of theatre at UA. Gallaway and Williams met in 1938 and became lifelong friends. The two-night tribute included performances in Demopolis and Tuscaloosa, including a performance in UA’s Marian Gallaway Theatre, which was named after Gallaway in 1976. The performances were sponsored by […]

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Anthony Braxton to Visit UA Feb. 18-25

From the February 2015 Desktop News | Legendary musician and composer Anthony Braxton will spend Feb. 18-25 at UA working with College of Arts and Sciences students and faculty as part of a weeklong residency presented by the Sonic Frontiers concert series. This event is the first major residency by Braxton in the Southeastern United States and will be one of the largest retrospectives of his work ever produced. Braxton will work with students from the College’s art, percussion, jazz […]

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Backward Thinking

Sondheim Musical Challenges Performers Merrily We Roll Along, running November 10-16 at the Allen Bales Theatre, is one of Stephen Sondheim’s most experimental musicals. The story of a composer and lyricist and their rise to prominence, Merrily We Roll Along is a show where time runs backward, beginning when the characters were in their 50s, traveling back through important events in their lives. This unique premise creates a challenge to actors, who must convincingly age in reverse onstage. Daniel Hulsizer, […]

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From Vancouver to Hawaii to Australia

From the August 2014 Desktop News | How does it feel to perform before thousands of people every night and wake up in a new country every morning? Jess Berzack has one word for it: incredible. Berzack, a 2014 musical theatre graduate, recently returned from a nine-month contract as a lead singer aboard Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas. The cruise ship sailed from Vancouver to Hawaii before spending the majority of its time in and around Sydney, Australia. Berzack […]

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Dancer Named Film Festival Finalist

From the July 2014 Desktop News | A University of Alabama senior was named among the top 14 choreographers who submitted short, dance-focused films to a national film festival this year. Whitney Thompson, a dance and biology major from St. Clairsville, Ohio, shares the honor with graduate students, teaching assistants and other undergraduates across the country. The Dance Shorts Student Film Festival was the first of its kind and was sponsored by the University of South Florida. It highlighted up-and-coming […]

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Gulf Shores Is “All Shook Up”

From the June 2014 Desktop News | In its 11th season, SummerTide Theatre will be shaking things up this summer in Gulf Shores, where The University of Alabama’s professional summer theatre company will present All Shook Up by Joe DiPietro. Performances will run June 6-July 4 Tuesdays through Sundays beginning at 8 p.m. at the George C. Meyer Performing Arts Center. Inspired by and featuring well-loved tunes from Elvis Presley, the production centers around a mysterious stranger who rides into a small […]

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Cuba Initiative Enters Second Decade With Research in Medicine

From the 2014 Celebrating Excellence | Why do some third-world countries have lower infant mortality rates than developed countries? What can Cubans tell us about Ernest Hemingway? What are some similarities and differences between the emergence of urban agriculture in the U.S. South and Cuba? How do rivers transport bacteria? These are just some of the questions University of Alabama researchers have tackled – and are tackling – alongside Cuban researchers as the Alabama-Cuba Initiative enters its second decade. The […]

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Dance Involves Sculptor and Musician

From the March 2014 Desktop News | Associate Professor of Dance Sarah M. Barry teamed up with a musician and sculptor for the spring production of Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, the College’s pre-professional dance company. Scott O’Toole, a graduate student in the School of Music, provided original live music for the dance, named “aeolian,” while Kelly Shannon, a graduate student in the Department of Art and Art History, provided original set design. Barry said she drew inspiration for the choreography […]

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Anthony Braxton Scheduled for Residency

From the February 2014 Desktop News | MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton will spend a week at the Capstone in spring 2015 thanks to a $40,000 grant won by Dr. Andrew Raffo Dewar, assistant professor in New College and the School of Music and co-director of UA’s Creative Campus. Braxton’s weeklong residency is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and plans are in the works to give University of Alabama music and […]

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Collaborama Event Highlights Writing, Dance, Arts

Charlotte Olson, a junior dance major from Jasper, Ind., wrote the winning entry in this fall’s “Class with the Dean” social media contest, which asked students to tell the dean about their favorite class in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dean Bob Olin accompanied Olson to Associate Professor Sarah Barry’s undergraduate choreography class in the Department of Theatre and Dance, where he witnessed final preparations for Collaborama!, an interdisciplinary performance and showcase. The Dec. 5 performance featured collaborative work […]

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