The Role of Being Assistant Director

I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Ben Farha, a senior here at Adelphi. Ben was the Assistant Director on the show "Steel Magnolias" and in this podcast he discusses the procedure of casting roles and the role of an Assistant Director.

Performing Arts Center News Video

This is a news video I was able to put together, interviewing different people from the Theatre Department. This video's purpose is to tell the challenges and obstacles to get a job in the area of performing arts after college.

This link below will take you to Youtube where this video can be viewed in full screen.

Performing Arts Center News Video

Why Adelphi?

I had the opportunity to interview, Brennan Gallagher, a junior acting major here at Adelphi. The thing I wanted to know the most was, why he chose Adelphi's Theatre program out of all the other schools he could have gone to. With this, i put together a small interview in a slideshow. I hope you enjoy!

Don't Forget "Tartuffe" Comes to Adelphi

"Molière is the second most produced playwright after Shakespeare and Tartuffe is a favorite. An exposé of the religious fervor and hypocrisy, it has been performed for more than 350 years. Reset in this production from Paris to modern, money-soaked Texas, Christopher Hampton's wonderful blank verse translation tells the story of rich businessman Orgon’s devotion to the radical preacher Tartuffe, who is in fact an arch-con-man." (Adelphi Performing Arts Center)

"Tartuffe" is directed by Brian Rose and will open up Tuesday April 6, 2010 at 7:30pm in the Black Box Theatre.

Performances:
4/6–7:30 p.m. | 4/7–7:30 p.m. | 4/8–7:30 p.m. | 4/9–11:00 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. |4/10–8:00 p.m. | 4/11–2:00 p.m.

A Great Jazz Pianist

Adelphi University is proud to announce, Fred Hersch, "A master who plays it his way" (New York Times) is coming to Adelphi, Saturday April 17, 2010 at 8:00pm.

(www.mansionvitraux.com/.../)

Hersch has been heard sporadically over the past two years. This is because Fred is very sick from AIDS and a severe case of pneumonia that the people closest to him, his partner, Scott Morgan, and his brother, Hank, as well as his parents, thought, on the worst of his bad days, that they had seen him for the last time. Early in 2008, the H.I.V. virus migrated to his brain, and Hersch developed AIDS-related dementia. He lived for a time in mental and physical seclusion, hallucinating under the delusion that he had the power to control time and space and that everyone around him was plotting his demise. In fact, he came so close to dying that his paranoia seemed practically justified. At his sickest, Hersch fell into a coma and remained unconscious for a full two months. While incapacitated, he was bound to his bed in St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York. He lost renal function and had to undergo regular dialysis, and he required a tracheotomy. He was unable to consume food or liquids of any kind, including water, for eight months. He could not swallow a thing or speak above a whisper. As a result of his unconsciousness and inactivity, he lost nearly all motor function in his hands and could not hold a pencil, let alone play the piano.

( keepswinging.blogspot.com/ 2009/07/fred-hersch...)

Hersch has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Dr. Billy Taylor and on a variety of National Public Radio programs including Fresh Air, Jazz Set, Studio 360 and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. Hersch has also been awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, grants from The National Endowment for the Arts and Meet the Composer, and six composition residencies at The MacDowell Colony. He conducted a Professional Training Workshop for Young Musicians at The Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall in 2008 and was awarded the Branigan Lectureship at Indiana University in 2004. A committed educator, Hersch was a faculty member at the New England Conservatory for ten years, and has taught at The New School and Manhattan School of Music; he is currently a visiting professor at Western Michigan University and on the Jazz Studies faculty of the New England Conservatory.

This amazing performance can be witnessed Saturday April 17, 2010 in the Performing Art Centers Concert Hall.

Nobel Prize For Peace Winner Comes To Adelphi

Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor once said, "I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead, and anyone who does not remember betrays them again."

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April 14, 2010 at 7:00 p.m., Adelphi University welcome's Nobel Prize for Peace winner and author of "Night" Elie Wiesel to the Adelphi University Center for Recreation and Sports for a highly anticipated lecture.

( warthroughthegenerations.wordpress.com/.../)

Due to the likely high demand for tickets, Adelphi will hold a two day Adelphi Student Pre-Sale, open only to currently enrolled students with a valid ID, January 28-29 at the AU PAC Box Office, in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center

"There's No Such Thing as Natural Beauty"

The six female actresses closed up shop Sunday night for "Steel Magnolias." The cast made things lively and positive as you can see their enthusiasm when they exited the stage after the show and cheered loudly among the six of them. The Assistant Director of the show, Benjamin Farha, commented on the ladies performance stating, "Words can't express how proud I am of these women. Being a part of their growth in this production, watching those 'Ah ha!' moments in rehearsal was fabulous. These actresses went onstage every night and gave everything they have to this story, and I think the audience was riveted every time."

Lenore Nemirow (Administrative Assistant in the Learning Disabilities Program at Adelphi) attended the show on opening night and was left in great amazement. Lenore says, "I remember seeing the movie when it came out which of course had well over of a cast of six, but these six girls put on a great show and I thoroughly enjoyed my night watching their performance." Benjamin Farha said, "Opening night was fabulous for us! The girls had been working so hard during tech week, I think it was a real thrill for them to get an audience because that's the final element to the show."

As the show came to its end, the production team set forth on taking down the set which is projected to take anywhere from two to three days to take down.

In order from left to right:

Back Row

Brittney Jade Massari (Truvy Jones), Leana Rachelle Simpson (Clairee Belcher), Emma Dubin (Ouiser Boudreaux), Alexandra Resnick (Assistant Stage Manager), Stephanie Clark (Stage Manager), Jessica Gray (Shelby Eatenton Latcherie), Anna Smith (M'Lynn Eatenton), Jillian Kerkhoff (Annelle Dupuy Desoto)

Front Row

Nicholas Petron (Director), Benjamin Farha (Assistant Director)

Farha's overall thoughts on the show was, "Steel Magnolias was a great success. All of the different elements really came together to collaborate and what we ended up with was a truthful and honest way to tell the story of these Southern women and their relationships and feelings toward each other. I'm honored to have been in the room with them, and of course Nick Petron, the director. Watching him work alone was worth it for me!"

In progress is the preparation to the Performing Art Centers next show, "Tartuffe" which will open up Tuesday April 6, 2010 at 7:30pm and run right through to Sunday April 11, 2010 in the Black Box Theatre.