International Initiatives

UM Theatre students in Paris for ‘Inside French Theatre’ course, Summer 2005

International Initiative Fund 

The University of Maryland is committed to playing a significant role in the global community and to engaging our students in international opportunities.  The Department of Theatre has embraced this international vision. The Clarice Smith Center is strongly committed to bringing work from around the world to local audiences.  Our students are increasingly diverse, accomplished, and globally-oriented.

The Department of Theatre's International Initiative Fund supports two-way exchanges, providing research and performance opportunities abroad for our students while also bringing international artist/scholars to College Park. Opportunities envisioned include:  

 

CURRENT PROJECTS

2009-2010 Professor Walter Dallas; Accra, Ghana

• Research on Concert Party Theatre, a popular form of traveling theatre (music, comedy, education)
• Artist/festival organizer, Morrison Glover, from Ghana, will return to UMD with Professor Dallas for open student workshops and seminars
• Development of future exchanges between artists/students/faculty (Ghana-UMD)

2009-2010 Professor Leslie Felbain & Professor Laurie Meer; Havana and Cumanayagua, Cuba

• Professor Felbain's company, Infinite Stage, performing the the play Winter Under the Table in the International Theatre Festival of Havana
• Theatre workshops (given and received) in rural Cuba with Teatro de los Elementos (Theatre of the Elements), a professional community/political theatre group working in the Escambray Mountain region
• Research presentation by Dr. Meer in the theatre festival's conferences/roundtable discussions
• Development of future UMD collaborations with Teatro de los Elementos (in a theatre production) and/or other Cuban artists
• Participants include 4-6 professional actors, one MFA grad student, 1-2 PhD grad students, one undergrad student playwright, and 1-2 undergrad student performers

2009-2010 Professor Frank Hildy; London, England

• Research into building an ongoing relationship with the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London.
• Developing internships and other opportunities for students (grad/undergrad) and faculty to work with the Globe in future
• Participants include one PhD graduate student and one faculty member.

2009-2010 PhD student Karalee Dawn; Edinburgh, Scotland

• Researching Scottish identity through the "Homecoming Scotland" Festival performances
• Establishing contacts and developing an undergraduate course on the "National Theatres of Europe" with an emphasis on England, Ireland, and Scotland, to be delivered at UMD next year
• Development of contacts for potential student exchanges with Scottish universities and/or theatres in future

 

PRIOR PROJECTS

Spring 2009 Course: “Russian And Soviet Scenography: Context And History”

This course explored the visual history of Russian theatre from the mid-19th century through the late 1930s. Students studied the birth and development of the Russian/Soviet theatre design school, an artistic phenomenon which, while being highly idiosyncratic and closely related to the revolutionary work of specific directors (Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Tairov), has deeply influenced theatre designers and visual artists around the world and contributed to the emergence of modern scenography as both a profession and an interpretive art form. Russian scenogaphy was viewed in the broader context of Russian and Soviet theatre and Russian cultural and political history; however, the most important context the instructors of this course brought into focus was the place itself, its genius loci. The class was structured to include a 10-day trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Students went on backstage tours of the famous theatres discussed in the class (Moscow Arts Theatre, Bolshoi, Mariinsky, Alexandrinsky, Hermitage Theatre), visited the Bakhrouchine Theatre Museum in Moscow and the St. Petersburg Theatre Museum, The State Hermitage etc.

 

Inside French Theatre

The Department of Theatre and Study Abroad Program co-sponsored Inside French Theatre (IFT) in conjunction with Friches Théâtre Urbain in Paris during summer 2005 and 2006. Students learned an imaginative approach to the development of a text using physical theatre techniques, and created an energetic and unique performance to take place "en déambulation" (promenade) in the Paris streets and parks.