Costume Shop Manager Melissa Panzarello readies her work for SMU student Alissa Roca--one of the stars of the Opera Theatre's production of Alcina.
Costume Shop Manager Melissa Panzarello readies her work for SMU student Alissa Roca–one of the stars of the Opera Theatre’s production of Alcina.
There were awards, electric blue lights, and tears of nostalgia. In the final hours of the 2017-2018 academic year at SMU Meadows, as Dean Sam Holland delivers his commencement speech, we will reflect on the events of a challenging and rewarding year. Jazz dance artist retires in May after 13 years of teaching at SMU. Ignite/Arts Dallas, our community engagement movement, celebrated its third year. There was swing dance. We talked the future of the word “entrepreneurship” at an event called MPower. We saw Frankenstein’s monster. This was the year in photos. All photos by Kim Leeson unless noted.
In Eurydice, playwright Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. the SMU Meadows Division of Theatre presents three contemporary American plays that will take turns sharing the black-box stage. The Rep: Three Contemporary American Plays Performed in Rotation.“Meadows at the Meyerson celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018, and has continued to be a musical highlight of the year,” said Dean Holland. “It is an opportunity to showcase the skill and dedication of our gifted students and the critically acclaimed Meadows Symphony on a world-class stage, and to raise scholarship funds for our Meadows Scholars Program.SMU Meadows School of the Arts hosted an Open Studios event. It showcased the works of undergraduate and graduate students in the Division of Art. There was a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics, representing different subjects, styles and levels of experience. Attendees visited with student artists in their studios and viewed artworks on display in hallways and classrooms. SMU alumnus Shelby David Meier provided music.Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and best-selling powerhouse author Peggy Noonan presented a public lecture, “An Evening of Perspective: Women and the Political Process.” The lecture was presented by SMU Meadows School of the Arts’ Division of Journalism and SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility.Part Shakespearean tragedy, part Laurel and Hardy comedy routine, and part Waiting for Godot absurdity, SMU Theatre’s Production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” leads its two honorable, adventurous and inept characters to their unfortunate, unavoidable fate. SMU Theatre’s production, directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni wowed audiences in March, 2018.On February 19, 23 students from multiple Texas high schools gave it their all on the Bob Hope stage at Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas as they vied for an all-expenses-paid trip to the national August Wilson Monologue Competition finals in New York City. (Read the full story)Meadows hosted a special event–MPower–featuring SMU Meadows Alumnus and 2017 Tony Award Winner for Best Featured Actor in a Play, Michael Aronov. Faculty, staff and students discussed how to launch careers in a new era of content.SMU Meadows Division of Theatre joined forces on the Dallas premiere of the hit London play Frankenstein, February 2 through March 4 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Meadows faculty and students in both the B.F.A. and M.F.A. theatre program performed in the play alongside Dallas Theater Center professional actors.Meadows Opera Theatre presented Georg Friedrich Händel’s Alcina.Meadows students walk the Boulevard at 2017’s Homecoming celebrations.SMU Dance alumni, parents, faculty, friends, and patrons honored renowned jazz choreographer and retiring faculty member Danny Buraczeski after enjoying a retrospective of his works at the Spring Dance concert. Professor Patty Harrington Delaney was also recognized for her contributions as Chair of the Division of Dance. (Photo by Ace Anderson)Film and Media’s Troy Perkins teaches classes in film and digital production and post-production–including a segment on VR/Immersive storytelling in Screenwriting.Derrick Horne. Professor of Practice in Music Director of the Meadows Jazz Orchestra, helped SMU re-live the classic era of the famous big bands and spend an evening dancing to the music of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and other legendary artists of the 1930s and ’40s.The 2017 Fall Dance Concert opened with Division of Dance Faculty Christopher Dolder’s new version of Bolero, set to a London Symphony recording of Ravel’s famous work. With its circular stage space, curving ramps and central spire, Bolero is equal parts architectural art and biomechanical physics experiment.
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