News and Events
The Experimental Theater at Vassar will present two plays this spring: "Metamorphoses," April 2-4, and "Fighting from Never/Land," April 29-May 1, 2009.
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—This spring the Experimental Theater of Vassar College will explore the ancient myths of Ovid as well as the world of Peter Pan in two original productions. Both are free and open to the public and will be held in the Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater. Please note that seating is very limited and reservations are required. For information and reservations (accepted two weeks prior to performance), call the box office at 845-437-5584 or 5599 or visit http://drama.vassar.edu
Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman
April 2, 3 at 8:00pm; April 4, at 2:00 and 8:00 pm
Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater
Directed by Christopher Grabowski, Mary Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning play refashions Ovid’s ancient myths through post-modern storytelling techniques. “It is exciting to stage this profound and dreamlike tale,” noted Grabowski, associate professor of drama. “Metamorphoses explores the elemental and poetic aspects of Ovid’s classic, while underscoring the difficult, yet salutary, nature of change and changing.” Please note that there is strong adult content. Note: Very limited seating.
Fighting from Never/Land
A Badass Production
April 30, at 8pm; May 1 at 5 and 8pm
Hallie Flanagan Davis Powerhouse Theater
Created, directed, and choreographed by Julianna Allen, class of 2009, this new theatrical adaptation of J. M. Barrie’s novel, Peter and Wendy, will examine the connections of our childhood escapes with the roles we inhabit as adults. Fighting from Never/Land will explore the unique world inhabited by Peter Pan, who takes flight and fights along with and in between the lost boys, Indians, pirates, and animals. This is Allen’s Senior Project in Drama. Note: Very limited seating.
ABOUT THE VASSAR DRAMA DEPARTMENT EXPERIMENTAL THEATER
The Experimental Theater is a place to explore theories learned in the classroom and to experiment with theatrical forms. In the tradition of pioneering stage director Hallie Flanagan, students are encouraged to experience and experiment with all aspects of the theater. Flanagan, who accepted a position to teach drama at Vassar in 1925, founded the Experimental Theater following her visit to the theaters of Europe in 1926 on a Guggenheim Fellowship (http://drama.vassar.edu).
RESERVATION INFORMATION
Reservations for The Experimental Theater of Vassar College Drama Department performances are available in person through the Box Office located at the Powerhouse Theater. Box office hours are Monday through Friday, 1–5 pm. The box office may also be reached by e-mailing boxoffice@vassar.edu or calling (845) 437-5584 or (845) 437-5599. (Please note the box office cannot respond on weekends.)
Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370 and/or Box office directly x5584. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available. Directions to the Vassar campus are available at www.vassar.edu/directions.
Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Posted by College Relations Friday, March 27, 2009
About the Arts
Powerhouse Theater
The Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. It is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. During an intense eight-week summer residency on the Vassar campus, up to twenty different projects are publicly presented, typically engaging more than 200 professional artists and theater students. Plays, musicals, and screenplays are presented in a variety of forms: readings, workshops, and fully staged productions. Since the first Powerhouse Theater season in 1985, New York Stage and Film and Vassar have served more than 2,000 artists and over 175,000 audience members through the development and production of artistically exceptional and affordably priced performances.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
Located just inside Vassar's Main Gate, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center houses the college's permanent collection, over 18,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares, charting the history of art from antiquity to the present. The Permanent Collection Galleries feature 350 works, ranging from the sculpted Head of Viceroy Merymose from His Outer Sarcophagus (Egyptian, c 1375 BCE) in the Antiquities Gallery to Marsden Hartley's oil on canvas Indian Composition (1914-15) in the Twentieth Century Gallery. For information on current and upcoming special exhibitions, self-guided and curriculum-based tours, and group visits, please visit the website. The art center is open to the public, and admission is free.
James W. Palmer Gallery
Located in the College Center in Main Building, the James W. Palmer III '90 Gallery presents eight shows annually, including exhibitions by renowned artists and photographers, studio art faculty and students, and local arts organizations. Recent highlights included Andrea Baldeck’s black-and-white photo exhibit, Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn, organized by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Vassar Haiti Project’s annual exhibition and auction of imported arts and handcrafts; and Design Inside, showcasing the work of Vassar’s College Relations design team. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. For information on upcoming exhibitions, visit the website or call (845) 437-5370.
Music Department
Located in the Belle Skinner Hall of Music, the Martel Recital Hall is wonderfully suited, both acoustically and aesthetically, to music performance. With seating for 500, the Martel is home to the Vassar College Orchestra, Choir, Women's Chorus, Madrigal Singers, and numerous chamber groups and ensembles. The Martel concert schedule routinely includes distinguished guest artists, faculty recitals, senior recitals, and special musical events, such as last year's series of organ recitals celebrating the installation and dedication of the college's superb pipe organ, designed by masterbuilder Paul Fritts. For information on upcoming concerts and events (which are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted), please visit the website.
Dance Department
The Department of Dance sponsors several public performances each year. Among those, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) has a series of Works in Progress showings in the fall, a winter Modfest performance in conjunction with the The Department of Music, winter galas at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House, and two All Parents Weekend performances in the spring. The department's Master Class program annually invites at least one ballet and one modern expert to campus in addition to two people in other areas of dance. Public performances and lectures are often associated with these renowned visitors. Guest artists in the past have included: Irina Kolpokova, Arthur Mitchell, Helene Alexopoulos, Gregory Hines, Anna Kisselgoff, Donald Byrd, Edward Villella, Ronald K. Brown, Irene Dowd, Allegra Kent, Gelsey Kirkland, Pilobolus w/Adam Battlestein, Suzanne Farrell, Mummenschantz, Eldar Aliev, Deborah Jowitt, Bill T. Jones, Pascal Rioult, Clinton Luckett of ABT, Bill Irwin, and Donald McKayle. Many of the department's dance performances are in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater, located in Kenyon Hall.