Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre announces its 2022-2023 season, which focuses on the exploration and celebration of community. “These scripts are intended to provoke discussion and drive our students and audiences to challenge our intellectual and emotional responses to the social conditions in which we live and champion traditions that bind us as neighbors and make us stronger together,”…
Alexis Black is always up for a good fight. And since February 2022, the Assistant Professor of Acting and Movement at Michigan State University has been choreographing stage combat for the Tony Award-nominated production of Macbeth, currently on Broadway, starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga. Working alongside her long-time mentor David Leong, Black is the Assistant Fight Director for the production, which runs…
In this Faculty Voice, Brad Willcuts, Associate Professor of Musical Theatre and Choreography in the MSU Department of Theatre, shares how theatre pushes the limits of human emotion and why Pride Month in June is important to him and the greater theatre community. In the role of choreographer, Willcuts also discusses being a part of a new interpretation of one of the…
The Michigan State University Department of Theatre concludes its successful 2021-2022 season with Monsieur d’Éon is a Woman, a biting political comedy and sexy, swashbuckling romp that tells the true story of Charles d’Éon de Beaumont, an 18th-century soldier, spy, and diplomat for the French courts of Louis XV and XVI. The production runs April 21–24 in the Pasant Theatre…
The Michigan State University Department of Theatre presents Ike Holter’s Hit the Wall, a story of the Stonewall Uprising and the generation that disrupted the marginalization and invisibility of the LGBTQIA+ community. The production runs from March 18-20 and 22-27 in the Auditorium Building’s Arena Theatre. Masks are optional but encouraged for audience members. It’s the summer of ’69, and…
The Michigan State University Department of Theatre begins its spring semester of performances with the musical comedy Head Over Heels, set to the music of the iconic 80s all-female rock band The Go-Go’s. Performance dates are February 18-20 and 22-27 in the Auditorium Building’s Fairchild Theatre. Attendees must be masked and show proof of vaccination or a negative test within…
Safoi Babana-Hampton, Professor of French and Francophone Studies in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, is the first recipient of the Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) large-scale development grant. Presented for the first time in 2021, the $100,000 award is funded through MSU’s Office of Research and Innovation in support of faculty who are engaged in large-scale arts and humanities projects.
Four collaborators from Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre have teamed up to help bring the world premiere of MacGyver: The Musical to Stages in Houston, Texas. Kirk Domer, Professor of Scene Design at MSU, is the scene designer for the production. MSU alumna Kristina Ortiz Miller is the costume designer and is being helped by Mona Jahani, an MFA…
A degree in Art History doesn’t usually lead to an Emmy Award, but for alumna Amy Williams, her MSU education helped catalyze an acclaimed career in production design. Over the past decade, Williams has worked as a production designer on an array of films, TV shows, commercials, and music videos, using her background in art history as a creative foundation…
Julia Isoniemi, a sophomore double majoring in Theatre and Film Studies, and Ben Barber, a sophomore Theatre major, received a CREATE! Micro-Grant to produce a short film addressing mental health, loss, grief, and life transitions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film, entitled Acceptance: Our Pandemic Story, covers the story of a student, Lime, who is going to therapy to process…