Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television, and Theatre (FTT) announces the FTT Student Theatre Festival, a new initiative designed to promote student artistic leadership and encourage a broader range of students – majors and non-majors alike – to participate in theatre-making on campus.
“We know there are students who love theatre but have not found a way to connect with us,” says FTT Director of Theatre Kevin Dreyer. “This festival is for them.”
The festival will kick off on March 26 with the No-Experience-Necessary Turbo Theatre Challenge, an opportunity for students to collaborate over a weekend to create and perform a new ten-minute play. On Saturday, students will receive guidelines and be matched with collaborators; on Sunday at 7:00 pm, they will perform their new plays for a live audience in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center’s Philbin Studio Theatre.
Platform, a production company started by FTT students at the onset of the pandemic to provide a space where theatre-makers could continue to create and perform via various virtual platforms, will present their first in-person performance, a new play by Sophie McIntosh. In Eleven Months of Nuclear Summer, the staff are just starting to settle into their roles at Camp Aster when an unfortunately-timed nuclear apocalypse derails their summer plans and strands them in the Maine wilderness. As the months wear on and the hope of rescue grows slimmer, the camp director and her team of young employees must fight for survival while navigating interpersonal relationships, decision-making responsibilities, and disaster after disaster. Performances will take place April 1-3 in the Philbin Studio Theatre and will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
Next in April, junior Nick Buranicz directs Tom Stoppard’s absurdist tragicomedy, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Winner of the 1968 Tony Award for Best Play, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead echoes the absurdism of Waiting for Godot and the comedy stylings of Abbott and Costello while exploring the human condition and the prospect of free will. Performances take place April 8-10 in the Philbin Studio Theatre.
The final project of the Festival will be a staged reading of a new student-written play, In Search of My Homeland《失路他乡》by FTT major Zhanqi Zhang 张湛琪’23. In early 2020, a British Chinese high school student, John Jin, returns home to China to visit relatives, but gets stranded in Beijing due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There he embarks on a winding yet mysterious journey of self-exploration. John’s ancestor, the last Chinese emperor Aisin-Gioro Puyi, frequently appears in his dreams, revealing to him the cruel order of the world. John’s conflicts with his peers and the grudges of his parents' generation make him realize the challenges and responsibilities that youth will face in the post-pandemic era. Readings take place April 22-23 in the Philbin Studio Theatre.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE AND TICKETS
Turbo Theatre Challenge
Sunday, March 27 at 7:00 pm
Free; no tickets required.
Eleven Months of Nuclear Summer
Friday, April 1 and Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, April 3 at 3:30 pm
Tickets $5 (Information about streaming tickets will be posted at ftt.nd.edu when available.)
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, April 10 at 2:00 pm
Tickets $5 (on sale by March 31).
In Search of My Homeland 《失路他乡》
Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 pm
Free, but tickets are required (available by March 31).
All performances take place in the Philbin Studio Theatre at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
Tickets may be purchased online at http://performingarts.nd.edu/, by phone at 574-631-2800, or in person at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center ticket office. Ticket office hours are Monday-Friday, 12:00-6:00 pm.
PARKING: Free parking is available daily after 5:00 pm in the Stayer Center parking lot, just north of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, as well as the Stadium Lot and the Visitor Lot located on the west end of the Walsh Architecture lot. Patrons may receive free event parking at the Eddy Street Commons Parking Garage by bringing your event tickets and parking ticket to the DPAC Ticket Office to receive a pre-paid parking voucher.
Designated parking spaces for vehicles with valid state disability parking permits are available adjacent to the center. Parking spaces are available on a first-come basis. There are also accessible spaces in lots just north of the center.
Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television, and Theatre seeks to inspire intellectual inquiry and nurture creativity. We offer both a scholarly and a creative context for the general liberal arts student at Notre Dame as well as those students seeking intensive preparation for advanced study in these fields. The hands-on nature of our curriculum, coupled with a very high degree of student-faculty interaction, provides students with a singular educational opportunity at a university known for its teaching excellence. The FTT performance season is a direct outgrowth of the department’s academic program and an integral component of our students’ artistic development.
Follow FTT on Twitter @NDFTT. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NDFTT.
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