Solo Explorations of MFA Acting Candidates Premieres at Mondavi Center
03-13-2009
Contacts:
Hope Mirlis 404-822-8578 hmirlis@ucdavis.edu
Janice Bisgaard 530.752.5863 jbisgaard@ucdavis.edu
Photos: http://theatredance.ucdavis.edu
The UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance presents Solo Explorations, four new interdisciplinary works by graduating MFA Acting candidates Rebecca Michelle David, Hope Mirlis, Timothy Orr, and Christine Samson. Solo Explorations is the annual performance of the second-year MFA actors, which acknowledges the creativity of performers who devise work from the interplay of their body, compelling themes, and challenging text. Solo Explorations runs Friday - Saturday, April 3 – 4, in the Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center. Both performances are free of charge at 8:00 p.m.
“An actor's process is an extraordinary investigation of ‘self’ and 'other,'” says MFA Acting adviser, Dr. Jade McCutcheon. “In order to play a character the actor needs to know their only tool, the self, physically, mentally, emotionally, and as Stanislavsky, one of the great actor trainers of the twentieth century would say, spiritually. While most of us are gathering some notion of this along life's path, the actor is dedicated to diving deeply into their own being, a little like a 'journey to the centre of the earth.'”
In Titania: A Solo Exploration, Rebecca Michelle David investigates intuition and love. She also explores female power and sexuality, and how they are linked, as well as pagan earth religions and female power. As an actor, Rebecca is exploring several acting and voice techniques such as Fitzmaurice, Linklater, Laban, and the BECs technique. She is interested in creating a powerful, female character who is deeply connected to the earth physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Rebecca also explores Shakespeare's text, particularly the nuances of his imagery and the feel and flow of his poetry and writing.
Hope Mirlis’ When You Hit Your Funny Bone takes on the theories and practice of comedy and laughter. What do we as humans find funny and how does the resulting laughter affect our body? The exploration began with a desire to merge ideas of being a funny person versus a funny performer. Using physical comedy, dictionary definitions, extended laughter, and comedic rants, Hope takes the audience on her own personal humorous journey. Her performance also includes live music performed by Wyatt Hesemeyer of Miss Lonely Hearts.
Timothy Orr’s solo piece, The Train Station, is an exploration of storytelling through movement alone, rather than text, using a range of performance mediums. His piece explores how physical expression, and lack thereof, in acting enhances audience engagement in a humorous and accessible story-aesthetic.
Christine Samson continues to explore Elizabethan text in modern performance with a solo study of Shakespeare's Queen Margaret in her piece titled, Margaret. Originally, Margaret's journey of love, passion, power, and loss ranges over four of Shakespeare's history plays and thirty years of Margaret's life; Christine's goal is to embody the essence of this journey in her twenty-minute solo exploration.
Biographies
Rebecca Michelle David is an actress and playwright, having worked with companies in Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. As an actress, she has worked with such companies as Classic Greek Theatre, Miracle Theatre Group, Tears of Joy Theatre, and Integrity Productions. Favorite roles include Lysistrata in Lysistrata 3000 (American Demigods), Leann in Piece of My Heart (Integrity), Tosca (dancer) in Tosca (Portland Opera), Mariana in Measure for Measure (UC Davis), and Rebecca/Beatrice in her one-woman show, rise, descend, rise (self-produced). She has a BA in Theatre with a minor in Dance from the University of Oregon, and has trained at RADA’s short summer Shakespeare course in London. Rebecca is a graduating MFA candidate in Acting at UC Davis.
Hope Mirlis is a native New Yorker, who spent the past 16 years in Atlanta where she co-founded the theatre company, Synchronicity Performance Group. Past performance projects at UC Davis include April Lansky in Rinde Eckert's Fate & Spinoza, Elizabeth in Nest by Bathsheba Doran, and John Jasperse’s Beyond Belief. Hope is a second-year Acting MFA at UC Davis where she teaches Intro to Acting, Fundamentals of Movement, and Hip Hop dance. Upcoming projects include playing Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! and leading the helm of The Dada Cabaret, an artistic walking tour and cabaret in Downtown Davis on Saturday, May 16, dadacabaret.com.
Timothy Orr has worked with Capital Stage (Sacramento), The Foothill Theatre Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, and the Lake Tahoe, Sierra, and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association. Among his favorite roles are Watson in Dirty Story, Jake in Stones in His Pockets, Dylan Thomas in A Child’s Christmas in Wales, The Duke in Measure for Measure, and Frederick Bates in Grinder’s Stand. Tim is currently a graduating Acting MFA candidate at UC Davis.
Christine Samson has lived and worked in the Sacramento area for fifteen years. Originally from British Columbia, Christine studied acting at Studio 58 and dance at Simon Fraser University before moving south and completing her undergraduate degree at CSUS. She has acted in local plays and independent films and her growing focus on theatre education led to the past three years as head of the theatre program for the School of the Arts at Sacramento High School.
In 2007 Christine was a member of the Mondavi Center's first Globe Education Academy, and she is currently working with the Artsbridge scholarship program to develop active approaches to Shakespeare for K-12 students. As an Artsbridge mentor Christine develops curriculum and leads educator workshops; in addition, she is continuing to research and develop best practices for non-boring introductions to Shakespeare. Upon completing her MFA in Acting at UC Davis this year, Christine plans to continue specializing in theatre education, but right now she is delighted to have this time to explore and grow as an artist.
What: Solo Explorations, Acting Thesis Presentations by UC Davis MFA Candidates
Where: Mondavi Center Studio Theatre
When: Fri 4/3 ~ Sat 4/4, 8pm
Tickets: Free of Charge
More information: http://theatredance.ucdavis.edu
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