News & Updates

Mehler and Mena Attend Theatre Technology Conference

At the Annual Conference of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Associate Professor of Theatre Michael Mehler began his first full term as vice president for communications, which includes oversight of TD&T, the journal for entertainment design, technology, and management. While there, he co-moderated an all-conference discussion among Theatre Communications Group executive director Teresa Eyring and Broadway designers Ken Billington, Jane Greenwood, Wendall Harrington, and Douglas Schmidt. Professor Mehler also co-chaired a panel on sustainable model building given by recent Tony Award winner Donyale Werle. Karina Mena ’16 participated in USITT’s Gateway Program, which connects 12 students from across the country with 12 professional mentors. Karina was paired with Sherry Wagner-Henry, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin, and met individually with Eyring and Terrence Spivey, artistic director of Karamu House, one of the oldest African-American theatre companies in the United States.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Mehler and Mena Attend Theatre Technology Conference

At the Annual Conference of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Associate Professor of Theatre Michael Mehler began his first full term as vice president for communications, which includes oversight of TD&T, the journal for entertainment design, technology, and management. While there, he co-moderated an all-conference discussion among Theatre Communications Group executive director Teresa Eyring and Broadway designers Ken Billington, Jane Greenwood, Wendall Harrington, and Douglas Schmidt. Professor Mehler also co-chaired a panel on sustainable model building given by recent Tony Award winner Donyale Werle. Karina Mena ’16 participated in USITT’s Gateway Program, which connects 12 students from across the country with 12 professional mentors. Karina was paired with Sherry Wagner-Henry, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin, and met individually with Eyring and Terrence Spivey, artistic director of Karamu House, one of the oldest African-American theatre companies in the United States.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Lights Out Special – CLYBOURNE PARK By Bruce Norris March 4 at 8:00 p.m.

Lights Out Special!

CLYBOURNE PARK
by Bruce Norris

The Playshop Theatre will be present a special lights-out encore performance of “Clybourne Park” on Wednesday, March 4 at 8 p.m. in the Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre.  General admission seating and tickets will be made available on a first-come basis beginning at 7 p.m. that evening.  All tickets from this past Sunday’s matinee will be honored at the door. For more information please call (814) 332-3414.

A DREAM PLAY AUDITIONS

Playshop Theatre Auditions

A DREAM PLAY
By August Strindberg,
adapted by Caryl Churchill

Vukovich 107

Monday February 16, 7-10 pm
Tuesday February 17, 7-10 pm
Callbacks
Wednesday February 18, 7-10 pm

 No Experience Necessary!

Scripts available in the Pelletier Library and in the Vukovich office
Scenes will be available at the auditions starting at 6:30.
Production Dates are April 23-26, 2015
For Further Information — kmcgerr@allegheny.edu

Picture Perfect

Students Connect Science and Humanities through Interdisciplinary Research

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Chris Schuchert ’16 stood in a semi-dark room, arms outstretched, while Laura Holesh ’16 snapped his photo.

Leanne Siwicki ’15 repeated the same pose, with Holesh capturing her image as well.

Although the two theater majors looked as if they were practicing for an upcoming performance, they actually were serving as subjects for a psychological study. Holesh and Annie Utterback ’16 are conducting this independent study with Associate Professor of Psychology Aimee Knupsky and Associate Professor of English M. Soledad Caballero.

According to Utterback, a psychology major and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies minor from Sewickley, Pa., the project came out of an interdisciplinary class she took last semester called “Cognitive Humanities – Expressions of Emotion: When Psychology and Literature Converge” with Professors Knupsky and Caballero. The course was created through the support of a New Directions Grant from the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

“The class was about the study of emotion during the 19th century to present day and the reciprocal relationship between science and the humanities,” Utterback says. “It was about how the study of emotion was shaped by literature and theater and medical records. That provided a basis for our project, where Laura and I are studying facial recognition and emotion.”

To conduct this research, Utterback and Holesh selected 20 poses from a manual on gesture and emotion written in 1806 by Henry Siddons, an English actor and theatrical manager now remembered as a writer on gesture. Each page in the book shows an actor making a gesture, with each page labeled with an emotion like “devotion,” “happiness,” anger,” “despair,” or “enthusiasm.”

Utterback and Holesh then asked theater majors Schuchert and Siwicki to recreate the gestures from Siddons’ book while they took photos of each pose.

The student researchers then will project the photos onto a screen and ask study participants to choose which emotion the actors are expressing. Utterback and Holesh will use equipment in the College’s eye-tracking lab to study where participants are looking on the photos in order to make their guesses.

“The eye-tracker will produce what is similar to a ‘heat map,’ allowing us to see where people are looking in the image and for how long,” says Holesh, a neuroscience and psychology double major and biology minor from Gibsonia, Pa. “This will help us to capture their thought process to figure out what emotion it is.”

“We’ll then be able to see if they’re guessing the emotion that the book said it was and how that’s been congruent over time. We’ll also be able to see what part of the gesture is cuing them to the emotion,” Utterback adds. “It will be interesting to see how emotion has developed over several centuries.”

One of the unique components of this study is that it allows the students to conduct interdisciplinary research, meaning the study involves both science (psychology) and humanities (English and theater).

“The wave of the future is really interdisciplinary research, and Allegheny is leading the way by offering research with interdisciplinary courses,” Professor Knupsky says. “It’s about getting students to realize that humanities and natural sciences really are asking the same questions.”

“I’m very interested in the sciences, but I’m also interested in English and theater. So I really like the interdisciplinary focus,” Utterback says. “I like connecting all these subjects. It requires critical thinking and being creative to tie all these things together. It’s been an eye-opening experience.”

Even though the project is not yet complete, Holesh says she already has learned a lot.

“This project definitely has helped me to read scientific literature, analyze it, and see the process of thinking. The creative process also has helped me with my junior seminar,” she says.

“The study has helped me to realize that psychology and science are a lot different than what I thought they were in high school,” Utterback adds.” Science is a study and a way of thinking more than content. You can scientifically study anything.”

The pair also likes the ability to do hands-on research as an undergraduate student.

“I don’t believe other undergrads are doing research like we are and shaping it in the way we are. Laura and I are involved in shaping what the project is and what we’re researching,” Utterback says.

“One of the main reasons I came to Allegheny was to do research, because I knew the opportunities were incredible. Coming in freshman year, I started doing research. At other schools, I don’t think that’s the experience students get,” Holesh adds.

In addition, they appreciate the close relationships they have developed with professors at Allegheny.

“I truly value my relationships with my professors,” Holesh says. “I adore talking to them about their research. They are more than willing to have you come into the lab and see things and be hands-on.”

Holesh and Utterback plan to continue their research next semester and may use this work as a springboard for their comprehensive projects.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Playshop Theatre Auditions for “A Flea in Her Ear”

Playshop Theatre

AUDITIONS

for

A Flea in Her Ear

By Georges Feydeau,
in a new adaptation by David Ives

Directed by Mark Cosdon

7:30 – 10:30 p.m., Sunday, August 31

7:30 – 10:30 p.m., Monday, September 1

Gladys Mullenix Black Theatre, VCCA

Callbacks 7:30 – 10:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 2

Performance dates are November 13 – 16

Auditions will consist of a cold reading from the script.

No previous experience necessary.

Copies of the script are available at the Circulation Desk,

Pelletier Library.

For further information, please contact Mark Cosdon at mcosdon@allegheny.edu.

Samantha Hoderlein ’15 and Michael Mehler Co-Present at Theatre Technology Conference

Samantha Hoderlein ’15 and Associate Professor of Theatre Michael Mehler co-presented “Aesthetic and Economic Considerations for Greener Sheet Goods for Scenic Production” on the panel “Products and Ideas for Sustainable Stagecraft” at the Annual Conference of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. At the same conference, Mehler was presented with a Herbert D. Greggs Merit Award for his article (co-written with Paul Brunner of Indiana University) “Theatre Design & Production Reimagined: Four Principles for a Sustainable Future,” which appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of TD&T (Theatre Design & Technology).

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Samantha Hoderlein ’15 and Michael Mehler Co-Present at Theatre Technology Conference

Samantha Hoderlein ’15 and Associate Professor of Theatre Michael Mehler co-presented “Aesthetic and Economic Considerations for Greener Sheet Goods for Scenic Production” on the panel “Products and Ideas for Sustainable Stagecraft” at the Annual Conference of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. At the same conference, Mehler was presented with a Herbert D. Greggs Merit Award for his article (co-written with Paul Brunner of Indiana University) “Theatre Design & Production Reimagined: Four Principles for a Sustainable Future,” which appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of TD&T (Theatre Design & Technology).

Source: Academics, Publications & Research