Past Projects

2018 Spring

Spinal: MFA New Works in Theatre April 26th-May 5th

 

Horse People

Written, Directed, and Performed by Lindsey Griffith

Lindsey finds a cool rock and spirals into neurotic obsession. To solve the mystery of its allure, she dives deep into the substance of the rock and her own memories of texture, food, her mother, her mother's mother, and her mother's mother's mother.  She climbs back through generations of strange women to seek out the root of her family's neurosis, with prop comedy, projections, Yoplait Whips, and google eyes.

 The Contemplative Mapping Instruction Adventure 

By Laura King-Pazuchowski

A series of self-guided walks inviting you to mindfully experience spaces, community, and connection.  The guides are comprised of choose-your-own-adventure style instructions and maps contained in small booklets.   The piece provides individual and group experiences that uncover the depths of everyday surroundings and lead to discovery.  

Blackfish

Conceived and Directed by Jesse Baxter

Text by Jason Williamson | Developed in workshop with the ensemble cast

A new ensemble-devised play conceived by Jesse Baxter, Artistic Director of Dramatic Adventure Theatre.  This new work features the use of heightened poetic language, live folk music, carefully choreographed movement, and shadow puppetry.  The play — set in Cape Cod, over the last 500+ years — follows the unlikely story of a salty fisherman, a pod of whales, an ancient giant, and one determined linguist as they journey across a sea of myths, realities, memories, and dreams in search of who they are. 

<ph><f>reaking 

Conceived and Directed by Julia Katz

A live performative game designed to address hacking, web culture, and cyberbullying on academic campuses that hopes to establish an environment of co-creation and to redefine expertise for the participants. Audience members who come in as mothers, students, administrators, and more will see each other as colleagues and team members in the game, leading to a sense of camaraderie that can foster more productive, multigenerational dialogue about adolescents, the Internet, and higher education.

 

2016 Spring

THRESHOLD: MFA in Theatre Arts Final Project Festival: April 28-May 7, 2016

One Letter at a Time

Directed and created by Kevin G Becker, Digital design: Chaz Krivan

The Hammersmith Bridge, 1913. In the moonlight we see a shadowy figure walk to the railing. His breath can be seen in the cold night air. He stares at the Thames as the water rolls under the bridge…The incredible story and mystery of the Doves Type Press is the backdrop for a compelling look at theatre and media. With emergent technologies rapidly changing our world, Transmedia theatre is developing in the liminal space between analog & digital realities. One Letter at a Time offers the opportunity to observe and reflect on each of the elements analog, mixed media and transmedia theatre have to offer. Find out what it is that you are drawn to in each of these three types of theatre

story of my eye

Conceived and directed by Zach Trebino
Created by Zach Trebino and Jenni Messner

story of my eye is a vaudevillian meta-pageant, a saturnalia of excessive grotesquery that occasionally dips its toe into pseudo-sincerity, a self-conscious romp into taboo and human animality that's equal parts art performance, reality television, game shows, and bad pornography all filtered through the aura of a discarded VHS tape. (Recommended for mature audiences.)

Untitled #52

Director / writer: Rebekah Lane
Ensemble: Yakima Rich, Liam Watkins, Kasper Cergol

Untitled #52 is an inquiry into mindfulness.  What is mindfulness?  What does it promise that is absent from American life? Together, we explore these questions through images, sounds, and moments.  This movement performance will slow down time while you indulge in your personal interpretation of mindfulness.

The Broken Clock

Written and directed by Sarah Bourne
Starring Alexandra Press

Puppet and scenic design by Sarah Bourne and Bridget Lindsay

The Broken Clock is told through the memories and mementos of a girl. Watch as she brings objects and books to life to give us a window into her dreams, and her choices. Time bends as she takes us on her journey through her world of found objects and light.

This is a 40 minute solo puppet show for an intergenerational audience.

Bride To Be

Conceived and performed by Rachel Thomas-Levy
Outside Eye: Erinn Hartley, with JD Sivert as The Portal

This Bride-To-Be is anxious to make your acquaintance. Join her while she throws her own bridal shower to tune of Appalachian ballads, awkward laughter and stifling silence. Autobiographical narrative, Americana, and bridal traditions collide in this interactive, solo performance. Won’t you invite yourself in?

404

Performer/Creator: Corey Hennessey
Music Composers: Derek Vaughan Brown, Jeremy "Jerz" Durkin, Andrew McVey, Virtual Performer: Caitlin Rife

404 is your favorite mixtape fashioned through a single very anxious and easily distracted performer navigating a projected reality, while considering everything and nothing in its assemblage.

2015 Spring

The Hyacinth Girl

April 16 - April 18, 2015

Created and directed by Leah Englund

Marie does not clearly remember who she is. She's afraid that she is not a good person.  The world around her is burned and barren, and she isn't sure if it's her fault.  Prophets, soothsayers and gossips help her find her way.  This fanciful journey is inspired by Rothko paintings and T.S. Elliot's the Wasteland.

DRIFT

March 26 - March 29, 2015

Created and directed by Deirdre McAllister

DRIFT is the final Thesis Production conceived by Deirdre McAllister, MFA in Theatre candidate at Towson University.  The project will connect Towson students with individuals from the Man Alive Treatment Center to generate material inspired by elements of recovery. Through interviews, improvisation and collaborative writing exercises, the ensemble will empower each other to explore and celebrate new coping strategies and supportive artistic relationships. The script we create together will be performed in the basement of the center the weekend of March 26-29, 2015.  For more information, visit:

www.deirdremcallister.wordpress.com 

2014 Fall

While in America

October 31 - November 1, 2014

Created and performed by Trustina Fafa Sabah

In this physical theater piece Trustina Fafa Sabah recounts and explores her experiences in the States and how those experiences have affected her life and consciousness as a Ghanaian abroad and as an artist. Sabah uses movement, dance, music, projections, shadow puppetry and text to take her audience through her unique journey of surprises, lessons, homesickness, heartbreak, artistic discovery, growth and happiness . She invites her audience to remember and celebrate their own precious times both home and away, what they have cherished and lost. Sabah is collaborating with fellow MFA alumnae and theater artists Sarah Lloyd and Susan Stroupe in the creation of this project.

    2014 Spring

Altar/Alter

January 30 - February 1, 2014

Conceived and curated by amy Kronzer

Altar/Alter is the final project of the THEA 271 Immersive Performance course at Towson University. Drawing inspiration from ritual and play, Altar/Alter weaves together unconventional materials, text, and altered states of consciousness to create altars of performer/audience interaction. The result will be a mind-altering, immersive experience where audiences will be encouraged to participate in the live construction of the performance by various forms of interaction.

    2013 Fall

The Sadness of Small Cakes

Written and directed by Rowen Haigh

THE SADNESS OF SMALL CAKES explores the shifting identities, roles, and memories of three men who are each others' only company. As they struggle to subsist in an absurd and precarious landscape where language loses its meaning and time changes shape without warning, personal connections and kindnesses become essential survival skills.

  2012 Fall

Office Ladies

December 6 - December 15, 2012

Written and direvted by Lola Pierson

At St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Baltimore

A hilarious and touching rumination on work, love, ambition, obsession, ants, and the atomic bomb. Directed by by Ms. Pierson, with original music by Alex Scally of the Baltimore-based band, Beach House.

Co-produced with Acme Corporation

   2010 Fall

Apartment 213

December 6 - December 15, 2012

A new play conceived an created by Joseph Ritsch

performed by Joseph Ritsch and Will Manning

In the summer of 1991, a hideous killing spree ended with the arrest and conviction of a reclusive Milwaukee chocolate factory worker. With Apartment 213, movement theatre artist Joseph Ritsch takes us into this infamous home via a dream-like world, where time and space have no boundaries. A world where light, sound, video, dance, spoken, sung and recorded text collide to journey us through the nightmare inside the thoughts and emotions of a so-called "monster". Apartment 213 received one of 5 fellowships at the prestigious WordBRIDGE Playwrights Lab Summer 2010. A co-production between Iron Crow Theatre the Towson University MFA Theatre Program

 


The Experiment of Babette Miles

A story told in three mediums.

Conceived and directed by Jenette Isaacson.

Featuring Sarah Lloyd, Andrea Crnkovic, Adam Brody, and Jenette Isaacson.

   2009 Fall

Fup Duck

Adapted from the novella Fup by Jim Dodge

Adapted and crafted by Caroline Reck
Featuring Temple Crocker, Ben King, Sarah Lloyd, Julia M. Smith, Susan Stroupe, and the Bald Mountain Band.

One storyteller, five Bluegrass musicians, and six puppeteers recount in FupDuck the tale of: A cantankerous octogenarian named Jake, his hulking grandson, Tiny, their ornery pet duck, Fup, and a crafty wild boar (who may or may not be) the reincarnation of Grandaddy Jake’s old Indian friend, Seven Moons Johnny. Witty, raunchy, and full of transcendent charm, this tale captivated audiences ages twelve to one-hundred-and-twelve.

Presented by Glass Half Full Theatre in partnership with Towson University MFA in Theatre.

   2009 Spring

The Gears (Los Engranajes)

by Raúl Hernández Garrido

Translated by David Gregory

Directed by David Gregory and Julia M. Smith

In the last century alone, Spain has seen a Civil War, dictatorship, transition to a parliamentary monarchy, and the recent creation of a new constitution. The transition to a democracy in the last few decades has created a surge in new theatre movements by new playwrights, putting major cities like Madrid and Barcelona on par with international theatre capitals like New York. Spanish theatre is more than just Lorca.

As the focus of his final project, MFA student David Gregory undertook the first English translation and production of Los Engranajes (The Gears) by contemporary Spanish playwright Raul Hernandez Garrido.The Gears is loosely based on the true story of a couple accused of a heinous crime and the series of events, relationships, and disturbing history that led to those unspeakable acts.

Presented by Teatro101 in partnership with the Towson University MFA Program in Theatre Arts.

 


    2008 Spring

Lost in Electroland

When songwriter/playwright Michael Todd moved from Fairbanks, Alaska to New York City, he started writing ((( Lost in ElectroLand ))). "I was living in a tent on the side of a hill: no computer, no cell phone, and no connection to Western civilization. Two weeks later I'm drinking peppermint mocha lattes in a crowded subway, caring whether my shirt had buttons or snaps! I had never seen the hook of advertising and the pull of lifestyle obsession so clearly. I had to write a show about it. And I had to get out of New York."

Todd patched together original songs and a dense sound and video design to re-imagine J.M. Barrie's Neverland as a lifestyle-obsessed corporation where lost boys and girls grow up. "The Captain hooks us with advertising. And we all grow up. I grew up in ElectroLand for sure. You did too."

((( Lost in ElectroLand ))) was a live music-based production centered around the story of a hilariously tragic young man, Peter Pippin. It featured a live band, a fully integrated sound and video design, and the song-stylings of three burlesque-reminiscent lady-robots who were more than happy to give you a Twinkie or a tap dance. A story concert for the paranoid at heart.

 


Beyond the Simple Present

Beyond the Simple Present captured some of the true experiences Maggie Cleland's students have encountered as immigrants' adapting to life in the U.S. The play recounts their stories as they learn English and reshape their identities in a new country. The idea for creating a theatre piece about adult ESL students came to Cleland during her first week of teaching at Arlington Education and Employment Program (REEP), in 2003. She was moved by the students’ experiences, some of which were amusing, and some heartbreaking.

Cleland left REEP in 2005 to pursue her MFA at Towson. While there, she learned about community-based theatre and found a way for her two callings, ESL and theatre, to coexist. With the support of the REEP Program and Towson University, Cleland embarked on a seven-month project with 16 REEP students to collect, develop, script, and perform the personal stories of REEP students. Under Cleland’s direction, their work — Beyond the Simple Present — was performed for over 400 community members at the Kenmore Black Box in Arlington, Va.

Watch a clip from Beyond the Simple Present