Proceeds from a silent auction in late 2011 to benefit relief efforts in Joplin, Mo. have been donated to the southern Missouri region of the American Red Cross. The silent auction raised $1,129 to support rebuilding efforts in the city after the devastating May 22 tornado. Chris Harmon, the region’s chief emergency services officer, received the donation.

“This donation really speaks to us about the compassion of our community, and in such a unique and creative way.” Harmon says.

Nine art and design faculty members — Iwona Duszek, Roman Duszek, Judith Fowler, Jacek Fraczak, Kevin Hughes, Marcus Howell, Maria Michalczyk, Cedomir Kostovic, and Eric Pervukhin — donated 24 pieces for an auction hosted by the Paw Prints Bookstore in the Plaster Student Union. Bidding began in late November and winning bids were announced at “A Dickensian Christmas,” a special event hosted by the English Society on Dec. 5 with help from the theatre and dance and music departments. The event included period costumes, readings from Charles Dickens’s famous work A Christmas Carol, and musical performances. In promoting the event, English Society students and their faculty co-sponsors, Dr. James S. Baumlin and Dr. Lanette Cadle, also generated publicity for the auction.

“I was proud of the way that our students pitched in,” Baumlin, professor of english, says. “It was truly a college-wide collaboration: students and faculty in music, art and design, theatre and dance, as well as in english gave of their time and talent.”

“I offer humble thanks to my colleagues for their generosity in donating art,” Jacek Fraczak, assistant professor of art and design, says. Visiting Joplin as a photographer, Professor Fraczak “was stunned by the extent of the destruction,” which inspired him to organize the art auction.

“In my native Poland,” Fraczak notes, “we have experienced devastations of war, but never have I seen such a force of nature. The tornado taught me not just the power of nature, but the power of the American spirit in helping and rebuilding.” His photographs of conditions in Joplin after the tornado comprised an entire wall of his exhibition, “Midwest Habitat,” which chronicles the lives of people in the Midwest through the places where they live. Fraczak exhibited “Midwest Habitat” in Poland, including the cities of Warsaw and Bialystok, and also displayed portions of the exhibit at the Capitol Building in Jefferson City. He has revisited Joplin to chronicle the rebuilding efforts.

“My colleague, Professor Fraczak, was one of the first professional photographers allowed in town to record the devastation, and his photographs have been on public display in Jefferson City,” Baumlin says. “Fraczak has since revisited Joplin and is preparing a photographic history of the rebuilding. The Missouri State English Department will continue to collaborate with him in relief efforts, and I hope that we have the chance to publish his Joplin photography in book form.”

With rebuilding efforts continuing, the need for further Joplin relief remains. The University’s Joplin Relief blog contains donation links for organizations actively assisting in relief efforts and lists volunteer and donation opportunities. Several upcoming Bears and Lady Bears basketball games will feature bucket donations for Joplin relief.

Read more about contributions to Joplin relief efforts in the Fall 2011 issue of Expressions.

This year’s program includes student choreography and faculty works by Ruth Barnes (“Slippages”), Darryl Clark (“Ponderings Upon a Pear With Prickly Heat”) and Carla Williams (“The Transformative Properties of Grief”). Three of the student pieces — Jason Ngo’s “Reverie,” Martin Almaraz’s “Reconciliation,” and Abigail Lind’s “Memories of a Tent” — will be presented at the upcoming ACFDA Central region conference, which will take place on campus from March 21-24.

Proceeds from the Vandivort shows will cover travel expenses for Inertia to attend a special performance with Northwestern University’s Tonik Tap ensemble in Chicago in May 2012. In addition to these performances, Inertia has also planned a show for Friday, March 16 at the West Plains campus.

MSU production in N.Y. held at ‘elite venue for musical performances’ Musical theatre faculty and 24 students traveled to New York City for Spring Break.

The University program celebrated its first 15 years with a sold-out evening of cabaret held March 6 at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan. The evening featured performances by alumni and current students.

The pub, which is run by The Public Theater (a New York arts organization), served as the perfect host for the standing-room-only gathering of MSU alums, friends and theatre industry professionals.

The audience, which included hundreds around the world who watched the showcase via the Internet, was treated to three decades of MSU talent, from Dale Hensley (1976) to graduating seniors Natalie Baughman and Thomas Hogan. Nathan Tysen, the first graduate of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre program, directed the production. Heather Luellen, MSU’s musical theatre pianist, served as musician and musical director for the evening.

“This was an outstanding opportunity for us to ‘sell the brand,’ ” Michael Casey, musical theatre coordinator and producer of the event, says. “Joe’s Pub is recognized as an elite venue for musical performances, especially related to the Broadway community. To see it packed on a Sunday evening during a rainstorm exceeded all expectations.”

Student Natalie Baughman was excited to display her talents on a New York stage: “It was an amazing opportunity and allowed me to network with many of our alumni that are currently working on Broadway or in regional theater. It was the next step for me on a professional level and helped me progress forward in so many ways.”

The showcase was the beginning of four days of events held for the musical theatre program. The trip included master classes with Broadway composer/lyricist Craig Carnelia and vocal teacher Andrew Byrne. In addition, the seventh-annual alumni reception brought together generations of  MSU alumni living in New York City.

Two weeks after the New York trip, the acting program made its way to Hollywood for the Los Angeles Industry Showcase.

Students dined with alumni at The Cat & Fiddle (a landmark Hollywood restaurant), toured Paramount Studio, attended workshops with casting and talent agencies, performed at the Hudson Theatre and studied with Sean McEwen, a noted alumnus and feature film writer/ director/producer. The group even found time to search for stars during lunch in the Paramount Lot Café.

“The event was very successful, and another important and vital step in the right direction for our acting program, the students within, and the department/college as a whole,” Dr. Kurt Heinlein, coordinator of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting program, says. “As one agent put it: ‘In five years you won’t even have room to invite alumni.’ Though we always want, and intend, to include alumni in this important event (as they are a very important bridge in building student success), the agent’s sentiment was appreciated — that each year we’re building a stronger foundation of industry recognition in Los Angeles.”

“The L.A. showcase exceeded all my expectations,” student actor Hannah Duncan says. “I was able to connect with, and get advice from, real industry professionals who taught me to be my own business. My career is my responsibility and no one will work harder for me than me. It taught me that, in order to do well in this industry, I must not only stay active in my training, I need to establish superb networking skills and above all, be myself.”

Justin Hundley, BFA Dance 2009, is currently a member of 940 Dance Company in Lawrence, Kan. Hundley has choreographed a new duet, “Back to You,” that premiered Feb. 5 in “A Modern Night at the Folly,” an annual juried event presented by City In Motion Dance Theatre at the Folly Theatre in Kansas City, Mo., that showcases the area’s most talented choreographers.

Hundley is mentioned in a positive review of the event by the Kansas City Star: “Justin Hundley debuted with his work ‘Back to You,’ set to music by Olafur Arnalds, an angular duet exploring the ebb and flow of human relationships.” Read more online.

While attending Missouri State, Hundley was a member of the Inertia Dance Company and a featured dancer in Springfield Little Theater’s production of “The King And I.” 

“When I found out Laramie was part of the season, I contacted him immediately to see if he would be willing to come,” Sarah Wiggin, associate professor of theatre and dance, says. According to Wiggin, Paris was a great speaker to bring into the community to promote the public affairs mission.

The history behind “The Laramie Project” is what brought Paris to campus. In October 1988 in Laramie, Wyo., Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, became a victim of assault because of his sexual orientation according to “The Laramie Project” Director Stacy Joyce. He was beaten and tied to a fence in a field and wasn’t found until the next day. Shepard died in the hospital a few days later. Paris is a member of the group, the Tectonic Theatre Project, who conducted more than 200 interviews of people in the town. They discovered the breadth of people’s reactions to what happened to Matthew Shepard, which inspired them to write the play.

Open to students and the public, Paris’s conversation was based on these events and his experiences with the crime. He made it clear that his appearance would not be a lecture, but instead an active question and answer forum where he asked the audience questions too.

Paris also facilitated talk-back discussions after each performance of “The Laramie Project” during opening weekend. These talk-backs were similar to the conversation Paris hosted but the talk-backs also involved the cast of the show. Questions posed by audience members were more about the production of the play rather than its history. Approximately one-third of the house audience stayed for each talk-back according to Wiggin.

Part of Paris’s visit included conducting a 15-hour workshop for students about creating moments in theatre. He based his workshop around how the Tectonic Theatre Project builds theatre, by using moments. The three day workshop began with breaking down theatre into its basic elements so they can be isolated and drawn upon. By isolating the different elements, specific responses are born that can create a moment for the audience.

“He inspired a number of students,” Wiggin adds. “He was very honest and blunt about being an actor and the students respected his honesty.”

The cast for Missouri State’s production of “The Laramie Project” was selected last spring, but actors were not assigned specific roles until this fall, according to Joyce. For the 70 total characters in the play, there are only 14 actors to portray all of the roles. The actors spent the summer becoming experts on Laramie, Wyo., researching the history of the play, the town, what the weather was like, the trial and other aspects of the play. Only after completing the research were the roles finally assigned.

“We didn’t want to put on this really serious hat. We wanted to tell the story so everyone is the hero in their story,” Joyce said. “(The actors) are just responsible for telling the character’s story and letting the story speak for itself.”

Paris’s visit was made possible by a public affairs grant through the Office of Public Affairs as well as by the support from the College of Arts and Letters.

“The public affairs grants look to find guests who will serve above and beyond the department,” Wiggin said. “(Paris) could speak to the community at large and showed how theatre could create a dialogue with the community. He fits into the ethical leadership part of the public affairs mission.”

Kyle Dean Massey, who received his BFA in Musical Theatre at Missouri State University, is currently one of the stars in the Broadway hit rock musical Next to Normal, which recently received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Massey plays Gabriel “Gabe” Goodman in the show, and replaced Aaron Tveit in the role temporarily in July 2009 and permanently in January 2010. Massey’s other Broadway credits include a role in Wicked as the understudy to Fiyero, roles as Thalia and the understudy to Sonny in the recent production of Xanadu, and an off-Broadway role as Matthew in Altar Boyz. Massey has also performed in numerous regional theater productions.

Written by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal is a rock musical that depicts the struggles of Diana Goodman, a wife and mother, to raise her family amidst her depression and bipolar disorder. The play has also won the 2009 Tony Award for Best Score. In addition, Kitt received the 2009 Tony for Best Orchestrations and Alice Ripley won the Best Actress award for her portrayal of Diana Goodman. The play first appeared on Broadway in March 2009.

Robert Wechsler is a choreographer, dancer and developer of interactive methods of performing with technology. He holds a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase, and an MFA in Choreography from New York University. From 1979 to 1988, he studied with Merce Cunningham. His interest in sensors and electronic devices dates back to the 1970′s, when he used body-worn electronic devices to generate sounds through movements on stage. Wechsler has been honored with a Fulbright Fellowship, grants from the Marshall Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He founded Palindrome in 1982, together with like-minded artists and scientists.

Wechsler also teaches and writes about dance and technology. From 2004 to 2006 he was head of England’s first Masters program in Digital Performance, at Doncaster College, Hull University. He has published articles in Leonardo Magazine, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Ballet International, Dance Magazine, Dance Research Journal, Nouvelles de Danse, Der Tanz der Dinge and others, and a book, Motion Tracking: a practical guide for performing artists.

For more information about Spring Dance Concert, visit the Department of Theatre and Dance website.

Dr. Maples recently presented her research at the International Conference on Education and will present at the American Educational Research Association conference in April. She has received several honors during her time at Missouri State, including Awards for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service and several nominations for Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.  In addition to teaching, she directs during the regular season as well as summer Tent Theatre and is the director of the Performing Arts Institute.  Dr. Maples was recently elected to serve as president of the Board of Governors of the Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri.

“During my time on campus, I was very impressed with the commitment and vision of the administration, the dedication of the faculty and the enthusiasm of the students,” Willenbrink said.   “MSU is a prestigious institution and it will be an honor to work with so many quality people in the Department of Theatre and Dance, the College of Arts and Letters and the University.”

Willenbrink will succeed Mark Biggs, Associate Professor of Media, who is serving a two-year term as acting department head.

DR. BOB WILLENBRINK  holds the Ph.D. in Theatre from Bowling Green (Ohio) State University. He began his academic career at Hazard (Ky.) Community College and for many years served as Chair and Director of Theatre at the University of Central Arkansas. While there, he created the Youth Theatre of Central Arkansas, was the national director of the ARC Performing Arts Institute for disabled artists, and was the founder of ACTS, a theatre troupe for disabled performers.

Throughout his career he has directed over 80 productions of various styles and genres at numerous venues.  A former chair of Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region VI, he is a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council board of directors and serves as a director and first vice-president of the board of the Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg, Ky. He serves as the director for the Kincaid Regional Theatre in Falmouth, Ky. and received the 2008 Distinguished Creative Production Award at Morehead State University.