Tom Stoppard’s internationally celebrated play won the Tony Award and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best play. It focuses on Hamlet from the perspective of the two flummoxed courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who are bewildered by the action surrounding them. Part Shakespearean tragedy, part Laurel and Hardy comedy routine, and part Waiting for Godot absurdity, it leads its two honorable, adventurous and inept characters to their unfortunate, unavoidable fate.
SMU Theatre’s production, directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni, runs through this first weekend in March of 2018 at SMU Meadows. Photographer Kim Leeson got a sneak peek of the production, and we’re here for these photos.
Left to right, Light Talk hosts Steve Woods, SMU Meadows; David Jacques, California State University Long Beach; and Stan Kaye, University of Florida.
By Mary Guthrie
You know you’ve got a good thing going when your brand-new podcast gets 7,000 downloads within three months. And the subscribers are tuning in from all over the world. And you get an invitation by the world’s biggest lighting convention, LDI, to live-stream your podcast at their next conference, which will be attended by 13,000 lighting designers from over 80 countries. It’s then when you realize your lighting design colleagues had been waiting for a podcast exactly like Light Talk to come along.
Steve Woods, professor and head of stage design in the M.F.A. Theatre program at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, is one of the show’s three hosts, collectively called “The Lumen Brothers.” Inspired by the light, fun and entertaining tone of NPR’s of Car Talk, Woods and fellow lighting pros David Jacques (California State University Long Beach), Stan Kaye (University of Florida) and their guests hold forth — or, according to Woods, “rant, muse and pontificate” — on the latest developments in the world of live entertainment and architectural lighting design. The seasoned professionals share their considerable experience and perspectives and offer shop talk and advice to professional lighting designers and students.
Light Talk caught the ear of LDI (Live Design International) and featured the show and its hosts in an article on the LDI website, saying “The format is like a fireside chat. These three guys are pretty funny, their lighting anecdotes and kernels of information interspersed with personal ramblings …” Light Talk, says the article, “… is a cross between Lake Wobegon and Greater Tuna, with a 45° lighting angle, lighthearted banter, and some nuggets of serious info infused. Listen in to Light Talk. You’ll be amazed or amused, and might even learn how to make a really good pot roast!”
Scene from the 2014 performance in SMU Theatre’s The Rep
Every year in SMU Meadows Division of Theatre, three contemporary American plays are presented in rotation over a two-week period. It’s called “The Rep,” and it’s a staple of the student experience in our theatre program.
To tease the shows, Meadows student Marcus Piñon created a two-minute teaser:
