Alfred University Division of Performing Arts

CenterStage

Fall 2006

An exciting season ahead
The Division of Performing Arts at Alfred University is excited to announce a new season of theatre, music and dance through its many performances and residencies. We are extremely pleased to introduce Marketa Fantova, Assistant Professor of Theatre Design, and celebrate the return of Robert Bingham, Artist-in-Residence in Dance. Our fall season begins with the highly acclaimed NYC company, nicholasleichterdance, funded through the Marlin and Ginger Miller Dance Residency. Other highlights for the fall include violinist Emil Altschuler, The Alfred Trio, the return of the Susquehanna String Band and the Division’s production of The Cripple of Inishmann and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Our spring Guest Artist Series includes tenor JR Fralick, the Fredonia Percussion Ensemble, and a program of medieval music La Vita Femina. As always, the season will be brimming with numerous performances presented by our many talented and energetic students and faculty in dance, music and theatre including the musical Once on This Island in April. As Chair of the Division of Performing Arts, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to another breathtaking season of dance, drama and music. Through the generosity of Marlin and Ginger Miller, David Miller, and the support of our many Premiere Club members, we are thrilled to bring an eclectic and diverse season of visiting artists and residencies.
Lisa E. Lantz

First Miller Dance Residency:
nicholasleichterdance
The Marlin and Ginger Miller Dance Residency Program is opening this year's season with world-class dancing by New York City’s nicholasleichterdance. Celebrating their tenth anniversary season, this international company will be performing Friday and Saturday, September 8 & 9, at 7 p.m. in the CD Smith III Theatre in the Miller Performing Arts Center. Slow and sensual, insistent and intertwined, athletic and aware, Nicholas Leichter's dance pieces are filled with provocative pairings. Whether exploring race and gender, the relationship between two dancers, or between street and traditional dance styles, the movement evokes a cultivated culture clash. According to the NY Times, Mr. Leichter works with “the fusion of concert and popular dance forms with imagination and authority”. Dance Magazine says “Nicholas Leichter’s choreography is joyfully infectious”. Admission is free but reservations are strongly recommended. Seating is limited. Email performs@alfred.edu or call 871-2828.

Celebration of New Bells
Set for Homecoming Weekend
On June 10th, twenty new upper carillon bells, replacements for lower quality bells, were dedicated as part of Reunion 2006. The wonderful event featured guest artist Adrian Gebruers, past president of the World Carillon Federation and carillonneur at St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, Ireland. Alumni carillon players, Doris Burcyzki Aman ‘75, Susan Gates ‘69, William Snowden ‘69, and Stephen Crandall ‘74, as well as Carillonneur Emerita Joanne Droppers and current University Carillonneur Laurel Buckwalter also played during the day. The sound of the bells made a charming and satisfying musical ambiance for Reunion Saturday.
A Celebration of New Bells for students and those alumni returning for Homecoming Weekend will be held on Saturday, September 30. The festivities will start at 3 p.m. with a recital by alumna Doris Burcycki Aman ‘75 from Webster, New York, who is now playing the carillon at the University of Rochester. At 4 p.m., University Carillonneur Laurel Buckwalter will give a recital that will feature the first collaboration of dance and carillon with choreography by AU Dance instructor Chase Angier.
During the recitals (3 to 5 p.m.), refreshments will be available in Howell Hall, where, with the doors open, listeners can hear the music while enjoying bell cookies and watching the video of the arrival of the bells in 1937 as well as a power point presentation of the history of the carillon. Guests are welcome to climb to the top of the tower to enjoy the beautiful view and watch the players in action. All are invited to this event to celebrate the more beautiful, clear and in-tune sound of the carillon that was made possible by the generosity of alumni and friends of the carillon who contributed to the purchase of the twenty new bells. Any alumni players who would like to try out the new bells are welcome to play. Please contact University Carillonneur Laurel Buckwalter (fbuckwal@alfred.edu) to make arrangements.

Susquehanna String Band
Returns for Contra Dance and Performance
They’re back! The Susquehanna String Band, a group dedicated to the promotion and performance of American Folk Music, will be in residence at Alfred University October 19-20. Comprised of Rick Bunting, banjo, concertina and vocals; John Kirk, fiddle, guitar, banjo and vocals; and Dan Duggan, award winning hammer dulcimer player, the band will be performing with the AU Chamber Singers in concert Friday, October 20 at 8 p.m. at St. Jude’s Chapel. The free concert will feature the premier of “Suite of Autumn Songs” for choir and string band by composer, Laurence Pallman, a resident of Honeoye Falls and personal friend of the band. Rick Bunting spearheaded the commission of the songs with funding from the William Wakefield Fund for Traditional Music and the AU Music Department.
The Band will be offering a contra-square dance Thursday evening from 8 to 9:30 p.m. in the Knight Club. The dance is free for students and open to the public with a freewill offering. The musicians will also be guests in music and dance classes. Each time the Susquehanna String Band visits Alfred the response is overwhelmingly positive. The interaction of these three crazy guys with the audience is something not to be missed!

The Division welcomes
technical theatre faculty Marketa Fantova
The Division of Performing Arts welcomes scenographer Marketa Trosterova-Fantova as technical theatre faculty. Born in Prague in the Czech Republic, Marketa graduated with a BFA in Scenography from the Theatre Academy in Prague and an MFA in Scene Design from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She started her professional career in Prague where she worked as a scenographer for Nonverbal Theatre 22. After moving to the US, she designed for Hilberry and Bonstelle Theatres in Detroit; Circle Theatre in Forth Worth; Kitchen Dog Theatre, Undermain Theatre and the Water-tower Theatre in Dallas; and the Redbud Theatre and University of North Texas Opera in Denton. Marketa has taught scene and costume design at the UNT and Texas Woman’s University. She also has been invited to design for the University of Toledo and Ohio State University as a guest artist in spring 2006.
Marketa has continued interest in design for dance and has developed a long lasting work relationship with several dancers and choreographers, including Mary Williford Shade, Elisabeth De Moraes and Sarah Gamblin. She is seriously interested in learning and developing her skills in any aspect of theatre design and has been pursuing her goal through both professional design work as well as educational experience.

Costume design (left)
and scenic design (right) for The Dragon
by E. Schwartz
by Marketa Fantova

Choreographer Lani Fand Weissbach
Brings Butoh to Alfred
Lani Fand Weissbach, a dance artist based in Erie, PA, will be at AU for a three-day residency running October 25-27. She will teach, lecture, and show an excerpt of her work, which is based in butoh, a contemporary dance form that emerged in Japan shortly after WWII. Unlike western dance forms that shape movement with attention to its outer appearance, butoh focuses on the inner experience of the performer, allowing movement to flow from that interior space. The results are often dramatic, startling and beautiful.
Lani, who received her MFA in Dance from Arizona State University, applies her backgrounds in butoh, modern dance, somatics, and yoga to her teaching and choreography. She is founding director of Shen and Bones Performance Group and a solo artist whose work has been performed widely throughout the U.S. All of her work illustrates the potential for movement to ignite the imagination and awaken the spirit. Dance critic Steve Sucato writes,
“Lani. . .creates works that challenge the psyche and invigorate emotion. [Her] repertoire contains works of quiet introspection, raw power, evocative imagery, and dark themes...Shen and Bones Performance Group is a most welcomed divergence.” The Butoh Workshop will be held Friday, October 27, from 10 a.m. to noon in Miller 300. This workshop is free and open to the community, no experience necessary. The free Lecture/Performance will follow from 1 to 2 p.m.

Join Premiere Club 2006-2007
Category: Amount of gift: You will receive:
Benefactor: $1000+ _____________ Unlimited season tickets
Champion: $200 - $999 _____________ 4 season tickets
Sponsor: $100 - $199 _____________ 3 season tickets
Supporter: $50 - $99 _____________ 2 season tickets
Friend: $25 - $49 _____________ 1 season ticket
Please make your contribution payable to Alfred University and mail to:
Premiere Club, Division of Performing Arts, Miller Performing Arts Center, Alfred, NY 14802
Name: ______________________________
(Please print name as you want it to appear in the programs.)
Address: ______________________________________________________________
Phone: _____________________ Email: ____________________________________
Suggestions for possible special benefits for Premiere Club members
or the name of someone who might be interested in joining.

Guest Artists Recital
Violinist Emil Altschuler and friends
On Friday, September 29, the Guest Artists Series will feature violinist Emil Altschuler, multi-instrumentalist Josiah Altschuler and pianist Issa Stemler. In combinations of violin and piano, violin and guitar, violin and cello, and voice, guitar and mandolin, the three musicians will perform a very eclectic program of music ranging from Paganini to Primus, Massenet to Monroe, with some Beethoven and Vivaldi as well.
Emil Altschuler has presented numerous solo violin concerts throughout the US and Europe. He holds degrees from The Julliard School of Music and Yale and has been a featured soloist with the Aspen Young Artist Orchestra, the Binghamton University Chamber Orchestra and the Binghamton Philharmonic. Josiah Altschuler performs with his brother Emil in the band Il Brutto as a singer, drummer, cellist, guitarist and pianist. He is an accomplished visual artist and professional graphic designer, and works as a scientist for Harvard University Bauer Center for Genomics Research. Pianist Issa Stemler grew up in California and has accompanied members of the San Francisco Opera and the Oakland East Bay Symphony. She has been a featured soloist with the Humboldt Symphony Orchestra and held a staff accompanist position at Humboldt State University in northern California. The free recital will be held in Howell Hall at 7:30 p.m.

First Theatre Production:
The Irish comedy The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Cripple of Inishmaan, an ingeniously funny, suspenseful, and moving play written by one of of the world's most celebrated young playwrights, Martin McDonagh, launches the Division of Performing Arts 2006 – ’07 theatre season. Directed by theatre professor Stephen Crosby, the play will run from October 4 thru 7, Wednesday thru Saturday in the C. D. Smith III Theatre, Miller Performing Arts Center, with a curtain time of 8 p.m.
The Cripple of Inishmaan, first performed in the US in 1998 at The Joseph Papp Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, is simultaneously uproariously funny and bleak as it portrays the cramped lives of those who live on this rocky, desolate island off the western coast of Ireland. Set in 1934, the people of Inishmaan learn that Hollywood director Robert Flaherty is coming to a neighboring island to film his documentary Man of Aran. No one is more excited than Cripple Billy, a disabled and ridiculed orphan boy whose chief occupation has been gazing at cows and yearning for a girl who wants no part of him. Billy is determined to escape his isolated, hemmed in life and seizes his chance when the American film crew arrives. As news of his audacity ripples through the rumor-starved community, and the story of the play unfolds, we are absorbed into the harsh yet sympathetic, cruel yet hilarious world of those poverty stricken residents of this barren island.
Tony award winning playwright Martin McDonagh has taken the English-speaking theater by storm in the last few years. Pegged by the American Repertory Theatre’s Robert Brustein as “destined to be one of the theatrical luminaries of the 21st century”, McDonagh at one point had four of his plays, including The Cripple of Inishmaan, playing in London's West End, a remarkable achievement for any playwright this side of Shakespeare. McDonagh demonstrates a quality of writing that doesn't come along very often and goes far beyond “Irishness”. He utilizes our assumptions about Irishness, the Irish storytelling tradition, and the Irish playwriting tradition to make us think one thing is going on and then flips that completely, and, in a very modern way, reveals truth through comic means. The Division of Performing Arts is pleased to be sharing McDonagh’s work with our audiences for the first time.
Tickets for The Cripple of Inishmaan can be secured online at the Division of Performing Arts Website, or by calling 871-2828. Non-student ticket prices are $5, students are $3 and AU students with ID and children under 12 are admitted for $1. For further information, contact the Division of Performing Arts at 871-2562.

Performing Arts Faculty and Staff
D. Chase Angier, Dance
Todd Bialecki, Music
Carlos Bido, Theatre
Robert Bingham, Dance
Laurel Buckwalter, Music
J. Stephen Crosby, Theatre
Luanne Crosby, Music
Vicki Eaklor, Music
Marketa Fantova, Theatre
Nancy Freelove, Secretary
Ben Howard, Music
Lisa Lantz, Music, Chair
Debra MacCrea, Costumes
Ken Maracek, Music
Peter O’Connor, Music
Becky Prophet, Theatre
Rebecca Weaver, Music

Earth Cloud by Wayne Higby
installed in Miller this summer
This past summer the Miller Performing Arts Center saw a flurry of activity as Wayne Higby and crew installed Earth Cloud on the wall to the left of the grand staircase descending to the CD Smith III Theatre.
More details will be provided in the next issue of CenterStage.

Wayne Higby with Earth Cloud before installation

Division of Performing Arts
Fall 2006
September
8-9 nicholasleichterdance. 8 pm, CD Smith III Theatre.
Tickets required.
29 Guest Artist Emil Altschuler, violin, with Josiah
Altschuler, voice, guitar and cello, and Issa Stemler,
piano. 7:30 pm, Howell Hall.
October
4-7 The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh.
8 pm, CD Smith III Theatre. Tickets required.
19 Susquehanna String Band Contra Dance.
8 pm, Knight Club.
Susquehanna String Band with AU Chamber Singers.
8 pm, St. Jude’s Chapel.
27 Dance Workshop with Lani Fand Weissbach
10 a.m. to 2 p.m, Miller 300.
November
12 The Alfred Trio. 3 pm, Howell Hall.
15-18 Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.
8 pm, CD Smith Theatre. Tickets required.
17 AU Chorus. 8 pm, Seventh Day Baptist Church.
19 Student Recital. 3 pm, Howell Hall.
30 Informal Dance Concert. 8 pm, CD Smith III Theatre. Limited seating.
December
1-2 Informal Dance Concert, 8 pm, CD III Smith Theatre.
Limited seating.
1 AU Jazz Band Concert. 8 pm, tba.
2 AU Concert Band. 8 pm, tba.
8 AU Orchestra. 8 pm, tba.
9 AU Chamber Singers. Treats, Sweets...and
All That Jazz! 7 pm, Howell Hall. Reservations required.

Division of Performing Arts
Alfred University
Miller Performing Arts Center
Saxon Drive
Alfred, NY 14802

Non Profit Organization
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At Alfred, NY
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