The Fall 2024 Theatre Newsletter is out!

D Rebecca Lingafelter, Theatre Department Chairear Fir Acres Theatre and Dance Community,

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” - Goethe

I have always loved this invitation to be bold - to begin before you are ready - that in committing to something, we open up the possibility that something transformative will happen. This has been my experience of our department this semester; boldness, commitment, generosity and the power of dreaming things into being.

The semester began with a phenomenal series of student-written, student-directed One Act plays that were also, for the very first time, student-produced! Pushing back against our department policy to cancel Student One Acts when we produce the mainstage, a group of students approached me and asked if they could self-produce the slot. This meant that in addition to rehearsing, marketing and performing the One Acts themselves, they were also coordinating all the logistics of design, planning and coordination.

And it was brilliant! Three plays, all written in Štěpán S. Šimek’s Playwriting class and addressing themes that focused on the variability, complexity and heartbreak of relationships. I am so proud of the students’ initiative and the incredible work that they brought into being. I was also thrilled to be able to help bring one of the productions to the Willamette View Senior Living facility across the river from us in Milwaukie.

Student One Act Festival- Fall 2024In collaboration with alumni Dylan Blanchard (CAS ’24), we brought Jaime Kushnick’s Nine Years Again to perform for a group of over 100 seniors in our first ever community partnership of this kind. We are looking forward to organizing another event for the spring!

This student produced work was followed by an extraordinary faculty directed production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. In collaboration with the Music Department and directed by our very own Cristi Miles, the production reimagined Sondheim’s world of fairy tales for the 21st Century. The design by resident designers Miranda Hardy and Jenny Ampersand was surprising and visually stunning and reclaimed the musical from its dusty chest of fairy tale tropes and made it relevant and meaningful to our college community. Miranda’s concept of a forest of 1,500 wishes contributed by the campus community was a design choice that perfectly exemplified our commitment to creating performance that enriches our connection and understanding of each other.

Lewis & Clark's production of Into the Woods, Fall 2024The music was incredible, and Sondheim is no joke (IYKYK), but under John Cox’s brilliant musical direction, the orchestra and singers rose to the challenge and created an incredible evening of performance. Over 70 students participated in the production from actors to design assistants to production to front of house to marketing! The production performed to sold out audiences and raucous standing ovations.

The semester finished up with a fantastic Dance Extravaganza showcasing the work of six incredible choreographers under the mentorship of our new Director of Dance, Tiffany Mills. Tiffany has been a transformative addition to our department, and in addition to bringing her years of professional experience into her work as a teacher and mentor, she has helped to craft a NEW Dance Concentration for the Theatre Major! Students can now Major in Theatre and Concentrate in Dance, allowing students the freedom to pursue their disciplinary interests within the program. This spring will see our first graduating senior with this major! Dance X 2024

In addition, we are hard at work designing a new concentration in Applied Arts for Social Justice to connect students to curriculum that looks at the way the arts can be used to make impactful change in the world. Look out for an announcement about this new concentration in the spring.

And these are just the highlights of our production season and doesn’t even touch on all the extraordinary work happening in classes; Contact Improv demonstrations in the library, 14 directing scenes in collaboration with our first ever costume class, dynamic and moving renditions of Ovid’s Metamorphosis in Voice + Movement, creating board games in Fundamentals of Design, a Once Upon to remember and on and on! There is so much more to tell, but I am going to stop here and just say how grateful I am to be a part of this learning community; a community that engages with such commitment to the rendering of new things.

It is magic indeed!

See you at the Theatre!

Rebecca Lingafelter
Chair, Department of Theatre

Fall 2024 Theatre Newsletter