skidmore theater living newsletter
Switching Hats in the 24-hour Play Festival
BY: ZIGGY SCHULTING ’18 With Skidmore College’s third annual Together We Can Do So Much More 24-hour play festival, producers Sonya G. Rosen ’17 and Brandon Bogle ’16 made the nearly impossible happen once again. The event featured a series of plays that were written, cast, rehearsed, and performed in the space of 24 hours. This year, […]
Spring 2016 Director’s Lab: “Kaspar”
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT BY: CAITY COOK ’18 The story is a disturbing and powerful modern myth. Kaspar Hauser appears on the streets of Nuremberg, Germany, with an anonymous letter addressed to a high-born army captain. The letter asks the captain to take Kaspar in and give him a position in the army. Apparently, the […]
A Post-Show Discussion With “Kaspar” Director Aaron Ardisson ’16
BY: GABE COHN ’16 KASPAR opened last night in the JKB black box. Written by 20th-century Austrian playwright/novelist Peter Handke, the play explores language and communication, often in intense and multi-sensory ways. It was directed here by Aaron Ardisson ’16. After the first performance, I met with Ardisson to discuss his experience in directing the […]
Moment-To-Moment: “Kaspar”
BY: KELLINA MOORE ’18 Peter Handke’s KASPAR, directed by Aaron Ardisson ’16, opens tonight in the JKB Blackbox. We sent staff writer Kellina Moore to one of the show’s final tech rehearsals to observe the cast and crew’s creative process. The following are her observations, presented in chronological order: 2:32 – I walk into the […]
“As You Like It” Takes Us Into the Woods
BY: PHILIP MERRICK ’19 I cross over the stream behind Wilson Chapel and into Northwoods, gazing around at the still-bare trees. As sun shines on my neck, I breathe in the clear spring air. We’re barely even in the woods, and already I’m struck by how free I feel. Here with nothing but fallen leaves […]
Spring 2016 Mainstage: “Hecuba”
In Hecuba: Bloodshed, Budweiser, and Raconteurs By: Gabe Cohn ’16 We tell ourselves stories in order to live. I thought of those words from the opening of Joan Didion’s “White Album” as I experienced Irish playwright Marina Carr’s new version of Eurpides’s Hecuba. Carr’s radical shift of perspective—which aligns us with the Trojans and paints them as […]
A Reflection on “Hecuba”
By: Allyson Schult ’17, Assistant Stage Manager When I first got on board with the Hecuba project, I had no idea what the process would require. I was as green as you could get—untried as an ASM, and still fairly new to the world of theatre production in general. But, Stage Manager Kendall Gross ’16 was more […]
Spring 2016 Workshop #3: “Love & Information”
What constitutes love and what constitutes information? Can we love without information? Can information amount to love? Are “love” and “information” inseparable? Composed of a series of thirty-seven unconnected vignettes, Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information poses many questions, most indirectly, through its brief glimpses into the private lives of a wide range of characters. At first, […]
Behind-the-Scenes: Researching “Hecuba”
Dramaturges Nick Graver ’16 and Francesca Parker ’17 discuss their experience preparing for Marina Carr’s Hecuba.
Moment-To-Moment: “Love & Information”
BY: KELLINA MOORE ’18 Caryl Churchill’s Love and Information, the third student-directed workshop production of the semester, is currently running in the JKB. The show, directed by Kate Glowatsky ’16, is comprised of 37 vignettes. Though rehearsal for any show is a multifaceted process, a show like this one results in rehearsals being particularly scattered and […]
Q&A With “Hecuba” Makeup/Hair Designer Alyssa Hagerbrant ’16
In advance of Hecuba‘s Friday night premiere, Staff Writer Nina Slowinski ’19 spoke with Makeup/Hair Designer Alyssa Hagerbrant ’16, who began work on Hecuba immediately after finishing up makeup design for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot last month. How did you get into makeup? Freshman year, I signed up for Theater Company and I […]
A Director’s Love Letter to “The Feminist Monologues”
A Director’s Love Letter to The Feminist Monologues By: Kellina Moore ’18 During the first read-through rehearsal for The Feminist Monologues, seventeen women (myself included) squished into a misshapen circle on the floor of a classroom and stood, one by one, to read their pieces. The motions were simple, the room was simple, and many of us […]
Spring 2016 Workshop #2: “Peter/Wendy”
In Peter/Wendy, Imagination Runs Wild By: Callum Lane ’16 “All children, except one, grow up.” These words begin this wonderfully whimsical production of Jeremy Bloom’s Peter/Wendy, an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s famous Peter Pan novels, directed here by Michael San Roman ‘17. This sentiment is sure to resonate with many. Who, as a child faced with […]
9 Questions for “Peter/Wendy” Director Michael San Roman ’17
A meta-theatrical adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Jeremy Bloom’s Peter/Wendy stands as the second student-directed workshop of the semester, as well as the first workshop for director Michael San Roman ‘17. STLN contributor Chris Naughton ’17 sat down with Michael the night before opening to discuss his process and passions for the show, which […]
A Conversation With “Peter/Wendy” Designer Chloe Brush ’18
The second student-directed workshop of the semester, Jeremy Bloom’s Peter/Wendy opens this week in JKB Studio A. Michael San Roman ’18 directs the show, which is an interpretation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. STLN Staff Writer Kallan Dana ’19 talked with Stage Manager/Lighting Designer/Makeup Designer Chloe Brush ’18 about the experience of working on the show, […]
Spring 2016 Black Box: “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”
In Judas: Morality, Mortality, and the DMV. By: Rachel Karp ’18 The sound of rain. Filing cabinets. An assortment of cardboard boxes labeled “confidential,” neatly numbered with dates from the past century. Here is a divine courtroom reminiscent of your local DMV. But despite its apparent familiarity, we have been transported to a little corner […]
Invisible Art: Designing “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”
An Inside Look at the Design Team Behind “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” BY: Kallan Dana ’19 The less you think about theater design in performance, the better the designers have done their jobs. Such is the nature of theatrical design work, which strives to enhance the characters, story, and mood of a show. […]
6 Questions For “Judas Iscariot” Actor Chris Naughton ’17
What is it like having to portray a real-life historical and biblical figure? There is literally a line in the show that says “Not much is known about Judas Iscariot.” So not much is know about him. But I’ve done a lot of research into the way Judas has been portrayed over the past couple […]
STLN STAFF 2022-2023
Editor-in-Chief: Kiersten Simpson ’27
Founding Editor: Gabe Cohn ’16