Fatal thaws: The decision to bring a child into the modern world, with its escalating climate change and varying degrees of global unrest, is the foundation of Duncan Macmillan’s smart, funny drama Lungs. Set on a bare stage, the play unfolds through a heart-to-heart talk between partners who debate with ferocity and vulnerability the pros […]
Fatal thaws: The decision to bring a child into the modern world, with its escalating climate change and varying degrees of global unrest, is the foundation of Duncan Macmillan’s smart, funny drama Lungs. Set on a bare stage, the play unfolds through a heart-to-heart talk between partners who debate with ferocity and vulnerability the pros […]
By Nina Richards Zoe is a bright and bold liberal arts college student enrolled in a class on the American Revolution. When she goes in to see her professor, Janine, to discuss an assignment, what ensues is a rich debate between a black student and an older white professor that touches on a wide range […]
Spelling bound: Contestants in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee process their dreams and self-doubts through song in this quirky, Tony Award-winning musical created by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin. The cast gives words new meaning as students, teachers, and townspeople belt out numbers such as “The Spelling Rules,” “My Unfortunate Erection/Distraction (Chip’s Lament),” […]
Over the course of her six years teaching dance in UVA’s drama department, lecturer and faculty member Katie Schetlick has noticed a shift in her students. More and more, she’s seeing students connect with the influential work of choreographer Merce Cunningham. “A large body of his work is from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. But […]
Cross examination: In Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly, tension builds over the course of a weekend family getaway to Martha’s Vineyard, where debates about race and privilege cause destructive secrets to be revealed. Director Jennifer L. Nelson says she appreciates the play’s focus on a segment of African American society not frequently seen onstage. “You […]
Through a collaboration between faculty and students, the UVA Department of Drama’s annual Fall Dance Concert offers a variety of works that explore sound, space, and movement. In Benevolence, guest choreographer Chien-Ying Wang examines communal bonding by “investigating the effects of a dysfunctional family, community, congress, and so forth,” she says. Other pieces look at shifting […]
The Wolves are a prickly pack of teenage girls—sharp, smooth at the edges, competitive, and biting. This locker-room drama unwinds around the routines of nine soccer players as they chat and stretch before their weekly games. Social cannibalism ensues when a new member of the team introduces topics of moral conflict and her peers struggle with […]
“Half of the people are stoned / and the other half are waiting for the next election. / Half the people are drowned / and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction.” This quatrain may bring a contemporary alternative-rock song or spoken-word critique on the political climate to mind, but it’s actually from […]
UVA Drama takes on satire, politics, capitalism and social justice as man’s desire to pee in private leads to revolution in the Broadway smash Urinetown. When a water shortage occurs, a lockdown on toilet flushing requires citizens to use paid public facilities, but not everyone can afford the fee to pee. A hero emerges, and […]
Theresa M. Davis directs Seven Guitars, the 1940s installment of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, which is centered around blues guitarist Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton, who leaves jail looking for his next hit record and the hope of repairing his relationship with his former girlfriend, Vera. The realism in Wilson’s lyrical script intimately relates the strife and […]