skidmore theater living newsletter
Fall 2016 Playwright’s Lab: “You’ll Be Fine”
Today on STLN, Editor-in-Chief Caity Cook sits down with this semester’s Playwrights Lab creative team BIlly Winter ’18 and Rebecca Rovezzi ’18 to have a chat about writing real people, challenging each other, and the importance of collaboration.
Fall 2016 Black Box: “The Orphan Sea”
Caridad Svich’s poetic dance-theater piece The Orphan Sea asks us to stop for a moment and exist in solely the present.
Fall 2016 Studio Lab #2: “The Secret in the Wings”
Secret, Strange By Caity Cook “Samantha, will you marry me?” Mr. Merrick, played by Philip Merrick ‘19 (in this world, characters are named after the actors who play them), asks this question while slowly picking up a single red rose, plucked from his garden by Samantha’s father. He repeats this question, an allusion to the […]
Jon Bernthal ’99
Living Newsletter Editor Gabe Cohn ’16 sits down for coffee with Walking Dead and Wolf of Wall Street actor Jon Bernthal ’99 to discuss Skidmore theater, Scorsese, and baseball.
Keira Naughton ’93 and Liz Wisan ’02
Keira Naughton ’93 and Liz Wisan ’02, who recently acted together off-Broadway in These Paper Bullets, talk to Living Newsletter Editor Gabe Cohn ’16 over a between-show dinner.
Elizabeth LeCompte ’66
The award-winning theater maverick, MacArthur Genius, and doyen of downtown theater tells never-before-heard stories from the vault–from having Spalding Gray pose for her Skidmore drawing classes to her rebellious turn towards the theater and, ultimately, toward the birth of The Wooster Group.
Embracing and Structuring the Abstract: The Design Team Behind “The Orphan Sea”
Svich’s writing allows designers to find unorthodox and innovative ways to share the story. This freedom has been an exciting opportunity to discover new ways to be storytellers.
Faculty Spotlight: Julia May Jonas
By Sarah Rabinowitz ’17 Skidmore Theater’s newest lecturer Julia May Jonas planned on being an actor when she began her undergraduate studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. In her second year in the acting program, however, Jonas realized that she wanted to have a larger hand in all aspects of making […]
A Mind Onstage: Guest Director Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly
By Caity Cook ’18 When I meet with Rebecca Marzalek-Kelly, she is emerging from a production meeting with a mischievous smile on her face. “We were working on some magic,” she says coyly. Marzalek-Kelly, who graduated from Skidmore in ‘02, has returned to the JKB this fall to direct the mainstage production Who Will Carry […]
DNAWorks’ HaMapah and Questions of Identity
By Nina Slowinski ’19 It can be difficult to establish an identity, both for others and for oneself. It can be especially difficult when one comes from many diverse backgrounds— such as African American, Native American and Jewish cultures—that are not thought to “traditionally” go together. The question of identity concerns not only our current […]
Fall 2016 New Works Lab #1: “A More Perfect Union”
Staff writer Kallan Dana ’19 on the semester’s first New Works Lab A More Perfect Union and the power of love to conquer all.
Rebel Director: Ian Belton’s Nomadic Journey
BY: CAITY COOK ’18 Late afternoon in the JKB: Actors are running lines, electrics crew members are calling to each other from the catwalks in the Mainstage, and “wet paint” signs adorn doors everywhere. When I finally spot Ian Belton, he’s emerging from a huddle with his stage management team. Sporting a black t-shirt and jeans, ruffled […]
JKB Life: Columbinus
This week in JKB Life with the opening of Skidmore Theater’s third Studio Lab columbinus, we talk to the creative team about the challenges of representing an actual event and the benefits of playing Four Square at rehearsal everyday!
Senior Spotlight: Rigel Harris
BY: Nina Slowinski ’19 The opening psyches the audience out. When Bernadette (Rigel Harris ’16) enters, it seems like she’s just returning home from a long trip. Standing with her back to the audience, Bernadette takes in the set: an ornamental living room that feels only a tad outdated for 2016. The audience soon learns that […]
JKB Life: A More Perfect Union
Launching Skidmore Theater’s New Works Lab Program this week in the Tang Teaching Museum is Michael San Roman’s A MORE PERFECT UNION. The cast and crew discuss both their personal relationship to the show and its value in our greater societal context.
Michael Zegen ’01
Living Newsletter Editor Gabe Cohn ’16 goes backstage on Broadway to chat with Michael Zegen ’01 about A View From the Bridge.
JKB Life: The Secret in the Wings
This week in JKB Life we go behind the scenes of the second Studio Lab of Fall 2016, THE SECRET IN THE WINGS. Lab Director Rebecca Rovezzi ’18 discusses why she chose the play and the ensemble talk about working with a student driven team.
JKB Life: Who Will Carry the Word
Based on playwright Charlotte Delbo’s real experiences in the camps of Auschwitz WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD tells the tale of 23 French Resistance fighters who search for hope and strength in a quest for survival. In honor of our production’s opening night, watch the cast members discuss what they each admire the most about […]
STLN STAFF 2022-2023
Editor-in-Chief: Kiersten Simpson ’27
Founding Editor: Gabe Cohn ’16