"Directed by PSU faculty member Theresa Robbins Dudeck, almost all eight performances of the show's two-week run Feb. 27-March 7 sold out and received spontaneous standing Os, with the 2,364 attendees constituting "by far the largest audience a Theater Arts production has drawn in recent PSU history," according to PSU School of Music & Theater Associate Director Solomon Weisbard."
"PSU's theater program, part of the School of Music & Theater, offers three productions per year, including a smaller-scale annual show (often a musical) produced by a student-run group. But this was the first time PSU had produced a major musical on the Lincoln Hall Main Stage in 14 years. And its success may signal the advent of a more ambitious Portland State theater program than the university has seen in years."
"The return of musicals may have been sparked by Weisbard, who arrived five years ago and coordinates the Theater Arts program. But he and Dudeck (who came to PSU two years ago) credit the impetus to PSU theater students. "Every year, students have been asking, 'When are we going to do musicals?'" she says."
Portland State University’s Theater Arts program is experiencing strong momentum alongside broader arts funding pressures. The spring production of Spring Awakening, directed by Theresa Robbins Dudeck, ran Feb. 27 to March 7 with eight performances. Nearly all performances sold out and received spontaneous standing ovations. The 2,364 attendees represented the largest audience a Theater Arts production had drawn in recent PSU history. PSU typically stages three productions per year, including a smaller annual student-run show, but this production marked the first major musical on the Lincoln Hall Main Stage in 14 years. The renewed focus on musicals is credited to student demand and coordinated programming leadership.
Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]