Dear Community Members and Friends of the Elon Performing Arts Department: 

It is with a heavy heart that I announce we have made the difficult decision, in consultation with the Elon Emergency Operations Center and our senior administration, to cancel the remainder of the Elon Department of Performing Arts production season: Grand Night (A Music Theatre Review), Hamlet, Senior Dance Thesis Concert, Violet, Instant Laughter, and all of the student directed and class based productions.

While we are all disappointed, we are confident this decision is the right one. It is consistent with what other cultural and educational institutions across the nation are doing. We want to do our part to flatten the curve of COVID-19 and ensure the health and safety of our community.

Thank you very much for your support of this decision and we look forward to your continued patronage of the Elon Department of Performing Arts. For continued updates on how Elon University is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit this website.

 

Our Department wishes you the best during this difficult time.

Professor Lauren W. Kearns
Chairperson, Elon Department of Performing Arts

 

 

 

September

Collage (Music Theatre Review)

Performance Dates: September 20 & 21, Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West

Director—Dan Callaway; Music Director—Valerie Maze

Dancing in the Landscape

Performance Date: September 27 & 28, 2019

Artistic Director: Jen Guy Metcalf

“Falling into Place” is a site-specific dance concert that takes place on the Elon University campus. The production features original and experimental work by faculty and students. Unique aspects of each location serve as inspiration for the movement generation or choreographic adaptation. The motivation behind the entire entire production is the idea of a series of events that cohere, connect, or fall into place. Please join us for this production that explores beautiful places and campus and engages the audience members in new and meaningful ways. Visit www.elonperformingarts.com for more information about the concert location and time.

Themes: Architecture, environment, nature, community, culture, multimedia performance, postmodernism, chance, social responsibility, place, identity.

October

Clown Bar

Performance Dates: October 3-9, 2019, Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West

Director—Kevin Hoffmann

Clown Bar is a play about clowns but there will be no clowning around. This is not a laughing matter. Timmy’s murder won’t solve itself and someone’s got the pie on their face to prove it. With this many suspects, it’s a bit of a circus and Happy’s not happy. Told in a film noir style and set in a bar full of clowns, this story is deadly serious. Come join us for a performance that’ll leave you in stitches.

Themes: Clowns, circus, crime, murder mystery, film noir, comedy, irony, drama, betrayal, justice, absurdist.

Damn Yankees, Book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop, Words and Music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross

Performance Dates: October 31- November 2 & November 7-9, McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts

Director—Doug Hall; Music Director—Valerie Maze; Choreographer – Deb Leamy

Based on the novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Douglass Wallop, Damn Yankees the Broadway mega-hit and winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, hits it out of the park! The winning score by Adler and Ross and a devilish book by George Abbot have made this sporty musical comedy a true American classic.  Middle-aged baseball fanatic Joe Boyd, trades his soul to the Devil, also known as Mr. Applegate, for a chance to lead his favorite team to victory in the 1957 pennant race against the New York Yankees. As young baseball sensation, Joe Hardy, he transforms the hapless Washington Senators into a winning team, only to realize the true worth of the life that he’s left behind. Joe ultimately outsmarts Applegate, returns to his former self and shepherds the Senators to the World Series.

Themes: Temptation, ambition, loyalty, home, escape, redemption.

November

Fall Dance Concert

Performance Dates: November 14-17, 2019, Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West

Artistic Director—Renay Aumiller

The Fall Dance Concert features Elon BFA dance majors performing original work by faculty, guest artists and select students in a creative and entertaining show.

Themes: Faculty and undergraduate research, student and faculty partnerships, community.

December

Senior BFA Acting Showcase

Performance Dates: December 5 & 6, Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West

Senior BFA Music Theatre Showcase

Performance Dates: December 5 & 6, Center for the Arts, Black Box Theatre

Cabaret

January

Elon Cares (In support of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS)

Performance Dates: January 10 & 11, Yeager Recital Hall, Center for the Arts

The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe

Performance Dates: January 18-22 & February 4-8, Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West

Director—Kim Shivley

After multiple successful off-Broadway runs, The Wolves, an exciting new play by Sarah DeLappe, comes to Elon! This fresh and raucous script chronicles one season of a girls’ indoor soccer team. The team warms-up and dribbles while dealing with the cut-throat, competitive world of high school sports. As the teens straddle the unsteady terrain between adolescence and adulthood, they struggle and sweat their way through this funny and poignant 90-minute play.  Adult language and themes. Not recommended for audiences under 13.

Themes: Collegiate sports, women’s issues, adolescence, grief and loss, identity formation, self and community.

February

We Will Rock You, Story and Script by Ben Elton, Music and Lyrics by Queen

Performance Dates: February 13-16, McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts

Director—Paul Stancato; Music Director—Valerie Maze; Choreographer –

A rock musical based on the songs of British rock band Queen with a book by Ben Elton. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought, fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and acts the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown.

Themes: Oppression, dystopia, fashion, conformity, non-conformity, rebellion, bohemian, love, British rock icons, restoration, music.

Black History Month Performance

Performance Dates: February 25, McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts

Artistic Director—Nekeshia Wall

March

Rites of Seasons: Spring Dance Concert

Performance Dates: March 5-8, 2019, McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts

Artistic Director—Lauren Kearns

“Spring” are the four scenes that are seamlessly woven together by dance, live and recorded music, video, and immersive theatrical environment. Associate Director Renay Aumiller, Original Music Composed by Clay Stevenson, Set Design by Charles Johnson, Lighting Design by Bill Webb, Costume Design by Heidi Jo Schiemer, Video Design by Michael Smith and Sydney Dye. New York City based choreographer Yoshito Sakuraba and new dance faculty member Casey Avaunt joins Kearns and Aumiller as the choreographic team. This project is sponsored in part by a Fund for Excellence Grant.

Themes: Seasons, ritual, environmental climate change and the impact on our seasons, music, interplay of design and dance, sustainable design materials, interplay of live musicians and dancers.

Grand Night (Music Theatre Review)

CANCELLED

April

Senior Dance Thesis Performance

Performance Dates: April 17-19, Center for the Arts, Black Box Theatre

Violet, Lyrics and Book by Brian Crawley, Music by Jeanine Tesori

Performance Dates: April 23-27, Roberts Studio Theatre, Scott Studios at Arts West

Director – Paula Kalustian; Music Director – Valerie Maze

Violet follows a scarred woman who embarks on a cross-country bus trip to be healed by a minister… discovering the true meaning of beauty along the way.  As a girl, Violet was struck by a wayward axe blade when her father was chopping wood, leaving her with a visible scar across her face. With enough money finally saved she’s traveling across the Deep South in 1964 towards a miracle – the healing touch of a TV evangelist who will make her beautiful. Although she may not succeed in having the scar on her face healed, Violet is able to repair those scars that are lying deeper than her skin. On the way, she meets a young, African-American soldier whose love for her reaches far past her physical “imperfections.”

Themes: Acceptance, self-realization, friendship, forgiveness, love, memory, fortitude, pilgrimage.

May

Instant Laughter (Improvisation)

Performance Dates: May 1 & 2, Yeager Recital Hall, 6:00 p.m.

Artistic Director – Fred Rubeck

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

Performance Dates: May 2-3, 2020 at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m., Roberts Theatre, Scott Studios

Director—Kevin Otos

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark depicts Prince Hamlet and his revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet is considered among the most powerful and influential works of world literature.

Themes: Self-actualization, love, grief, revenge, acceptance, tragedy, ghosts.