Vassar College News and Announcements

Josh Radnor, star of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, and Tony Award-nominated Jennifer Westfeldt lead the cast of Finks, Joe Gilford’s play based on his parents’ romance and tragic struggle with the blacklist in the 50s, at Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater. July 23 – August 3, 2008

Tim — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:34:20 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—A sweeping tale of love and friendship, set against the trials and tragedy of the blacklist of the 1950s, is the basis of Joe Gilford’s Finks, directed by Charlie Stratton, that will receive its world premiere at Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater with a cast led by Josh Radnor (star of CBS’s How I Met Your Mother) and Tony Award-nominated Jennifer Westfeldt (Wonderful Town, Kissing Jessica Stein), July 23 – August 3.

“I deeply admire my parents’ courage,” said playwright Gilford about the inspiration for his choice to dramatize their story. “I also admired their acting talents. And the thing that I most admired was that despite everything, after years and years of struggle as artists and activists, they truly loved each other and stayed together for 40 years until my father’s death.”

Gilford remarked that the “intent of the play is to make sure the audience knows how horrible it was to be blacklisted; how tragic and wasteful.” He continued, “I wanted to show how arbitrary the HUAC [House Un-American Activities Committee] was in its actions; the absurdity of questioning anyone’s political beliefs or their right to free expression and how we have to be vigilant as this continues to happen time and time again.”

Josh Radnor will portray Mickey Dobbs, the character based upon Jack Gilford. Radnor is well-known for playing the central character on the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” He also is noted for his Broadway debut in The Graduate, as the title character opposite Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone, as well as for his work off-Broadway at Vineyard Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, and Blue Light Theater Company. In Los Angeles, he originated the roles of “Young Sandy” and “Sam” in the Ovation Award-winning world premiere production of Jon Robin Baitz’s The Paris Letter. Radnor, a 1994 alumnus of the Powerhouse Theater Apprentice Program, last performed at the Powerhouse during the 2000 season in Quincy Long’s The Lively Lad directed by Max Mayer.

The role of Natalie Meltzer, based upon Gilford’s mother Madeline, will be performed by actress Jennifer Westfeldt, who last appeared on Broadway in Wonderful Town, for which she received a Theater World Award, a Drama League Award and was nominated for a 2004 Tony Award. Westfeldt is best known for co-writing, co-producing, and starring as the title role in the 2002 indie hit Kissing Jessica Stein, released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Her second feature as an actress/writer/producer, the award-winning Ira & Abby, was released last fall to critical acclaim by Magnolia Pictures. Most recently, she starred on two seasons of ABC’s Notes From the Underbelly.

Other cast members include Ned Eisenberg (Awake and Sing, The Green Bird, Titus Andronicus) who will portray Fred Lang, an actor and painter and dear friend of both Dobbs and Meltzer; Kelly AuCoin (Julius Caesar, Copenhagen) will appear as Bobby Gerard, a choreographer; John Rothman (Prelude To A Kiss, Some Americans Abroad, Social Security) will take on the role of Rep. Francis Walter, chairman, House Un-American Activities Committee. The cast will also include Steve Rosen, Mitchell Greenberg, Nathan Mateus Duszny, and John Alix.

About the Production Team

Joe Gilford’s plays including Knockdown, Not Tunisia, In Aisle 4, The End of Our Rope, The Love Museum, and No Fault, have been presented at Naked Angels Theater Company, Roundabout Theater Company, Circle Rep Lab, The Westbank Downstairs Theater, and the Todd Mountain Theater Project. Gilford has had a long career producing television documentaries, and is the recipient of a New York Emmy Award in 1997 for his work on WNET’s “City Arts” series. He wrote the feature film adaptation of the French science fiction novel Operation Pertica; the pilot of Game, his new digital animation comedy series, is in pre-production.

For Naked Angels Theater Company, Charlie Stratton directed Love by Daniel Reitz, 187 by Jose Rivera, What I Meant to Say by Craig Lucas, and New Hope for the Dead by John Sayles, as well as pieces by Tessa Blake and Tony Horkins for Naked TV, a joint TV pilot development program between Naked Angels and Fox TV. In Los Angeles, he was the co-artistic director of The Wilton Project where he directed Neal Bell’s Therese Raquin; Laurie Lathem’s Slide; and April Vanoff’s A Kink in the Release. Stratton also writes and directs for television and film; his screenplay Formosa Betrayed is currently shooting in Thailand. Finks will mark Stratton’s return to Powerhouse, where he last directed Christopher Kyle’s Event Horizon.

Finks scenic design is by Neil Patel, costume design by Alix Hester, lighting design by Jason Lyons, and sound design by Darron L. West. Robert Marra will serve as movement consultant.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

Finks

By Joe Gilford
Directed by Charlie Stratton

Neil Patel, scenic design
Alix Hester, costume design
Jason Lyons, lighting design
Darron L. West, sound design
Robert Marra, movement consultant

With
Josh Radnor as Mickey
Jennifer Westfeldt as Natalie
Ned Eisenberg as Fred
John Rothman as Rep. F. Walter
Kelly AuCoin as Bobby
Steve Rosen
Mitch Greenberg
John Alix
Nathan Mateus Duszny

July 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31; August 1, 2 at 8:00 pm

July 26, 27; August 2, 3 at 2:00 pm
Powerhouse Theater
$35

Subscription, Schedule, and Box Office Information:

Tickets may be purchased either online at http://powerhouse.vassar.edu, by calling the Powerhouse box office on campus at (845) 437-7235 or (845) 437-5599, or in person at the box office.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations at Vassar should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.

About Powerhouse

The Powerhouse program is the result of a unique partnership between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. The program consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus during which more than 200 professional artists and some 40 apprentices live and work together to create new theater works. Powerhouse steadfastly supports both emerging and established artists.

Since its inception in 1985, Powerhouse has played a significant role in the development of hundreds of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for the Hudson Valley, the New York metropolitan area, and the surrounding region.

About New York Stage and Film

Founded in 1985 by Producing Directors Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer and Leslie Urdang, and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer, New York Stage and Film (SAF) is a not-for-profit company dedicated to the development and production of new works for theater and film. SAF has developed and produced premiere works by such writers as John Patrick Shanley, Jon Robin Baitz, Steve Martin, Theresa Rebeck and Eve Ensler.

About Vassar College

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs -- from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies -- encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses.

Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Apprentice Company presents a series of free productions this July, including two classic works by Brecht and Shakespeare, on the Vassar campus in Poughkeepsie. July 10 - 31, 2008

Tim — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:32:33 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—Theatrical performance—acting, writing, directing, and technical theater—is the daily focus of a group of almost 50 in the Powerhouse Apprentice Company, who will spend six weeks this summer immersed in studies, with daily morning classes, shadowing production team members of New York Stage and Film, rehearsals, and performances.

Each summer the apprentice company also stages free public performances of classic plays at the college’s Outdoor Amphitheater. In 2007, these performances were named the “Best Way to Introduce Kids to the Classics,” by Hudson Valley Magazine, in the annual “Best of the Hudson Valley.” This year the company will present Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan and William Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The apprentices also perform a special soundpainting program at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.

The Good Woman of Setzuan (July 11-14)

Beginning July 11-14, the public will be able to see the apprentices perform the first of two free productions, Bertolt Brecht’s Good Woman of Setzuan. The performances are offered each evening at 6:30 at the Outdoor Amphitheater on the Vassar campus. No reservations are necessary, and in case of inclement weather the performance will be given at the Mug (basement of Main Building).

The unabridged version of Good Woman of Setzuan, directed by Tomi Tsunoda, will be presented in two parts: part one on Friday and Sunday evenings; the second part on Saturday and Monday evenings. Don’t worry if you can’t attend both part one and two as the apprentices will provide either a coming attraction or recap, so everyone will be up to date on the story.

Brecht wrote Good Woman of Setzuan, while in exile from Germany, setting the story in China about a woman (Shen Te), chosen as the “good woman” by three visiting gods, who had to cloak her other “non-good” actions under an alternate identity. Through humor, Brecht explores “how to be good” in a sometimes hostile world.

The actors for Good Woman of Setzuan include 15 apprentices: Julia Anrather (Staten Island, NY), Patrina Caruana (New York City), Hannah Fordin (Rhinebeck, NY), Arianna Gass (Weston, CT), Wiley Gorn (Accord, NY), Gahlia Greene-Kaufman (Warwick, NY), Nadav Hirsh (Wynnewood, PA), Sarah Keyes (Louisville, KY), Lauren Lepow (Houston, TX), Martin Nikonoff (Paris, France), Carol Olsen (Richmond, VA), Sam Redway (Kingston, RI), Lillian Stein (Atkinson, NH), Katie Wallace (Ithaca, NY), and Rachel Zatuchni (Wayne, PA).

The Two Gentleman of Verona (July 18-21)

From July 18 – 21, the apprentices will perform William Shakespeare’s The Two Gentleman of Verona, adapted and directed by Anthony Luciano. The free performances begin at 6:30 pm at the Outdoor Amphitheater, and in case of inclement weather the performance will be given at the Mug (basement of Main Building).

The protagonists Valentine and Proteus are the two gentlemen of Verona and best friends, who fall in love with the same woman, Silvia, the daughter of the Duke of Milan, when they travel to that city. However Julia (also of Verona) is in love with Proteus and travels there disguised as a young man to find him.

The ten apprentice actors for the performances of The Two Gentlemen of Verona include:

Aly Calder (Atlanta, GA),
Amy Crossman (New York City),
Maria Gilhooley (McLean, VA),
Mario Haynes (Athens, GA), Alexander Jacobs (LaCanada, CA),
Josh Joya (New York City),
Evan Maltby (New York City),
Shawn Palmer (New London, CT),
Hannah Rubinek (Tarzana, CA),
Didrik Soderstrom (Rochester, NY)

Soundpainting: Late Night at the Lehman Loeb (July 17, 24, 31)

In addition, on three consecutive Thursday evenings (July 17, 24, 31), as part of the weekly “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb” series, the apprentices will present innovative “soundpainting” performances in the Main Galleries of the college’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. These spontaneous and original performances will be inspired by the museum’s current exhibition, Facebook: Images of People in Photographs from the Permanent Collection, as well as other artworks in the collection.

“Soundpainting” is a live composing sign language created in the 1970s by Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, actors, poets, and visual artists. In this innovative, spontaneous type of performance, Mark Lindberg, the composer/conductor will utilize more than 750 gestures to indicate the type of improvisation desired of the performers.

All the “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb” programs will begin at 6:00 pm and are free and open to the public.

Bardavon Young Playwrights at the Powerhouse

The Bardavon Young Playwrights at the Powerhouse, directed by founder/playwright Casey Kurtti, will present their own, original program, performed by the apprentices, at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center on Thursday, July 10, at 6:00 pm. A reception follows the performance.

“These eight students from the Poughkeepsie Middle School have been immersed in the Powerhouse Apprentice Company and will present brand new material inspired by the current exhibit Facebook and other works from the permanent collection at the Lehman Loeb,” explained Ed Cheetham, producing director of Powerhouse Theater.

About the Powerhouse Apprentice Company

Drawn nationally and internationally for this acclaimed annual theatrical training program, the apprentices are provided the chance to “find your voice at Vassar.” “This is the challenge and opportunity we provide each summer,” explained Tom Pacio education director of the apprentice company, “The chance to explore unique opportunities in a nurturing environment, working with top professionals from every theatrical discipline.”

The Powerhouse Apprentice Company is a unique collaboration between a prestigious liberal arts college, Vassar, and an established professional theater company, New York Stage and Film. Apprentices in the Powerhouse program choose a discipline (acting, writing, directing, or technical theater) and then work alongside some of the country’s leading and emerging theater practitioners for six weeks, observing and participating in the process through which new works are brought to life.

About Powerhouse

Since its inception in 1985, Powerhouse has played a significant role in the development of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for the Hudson Valley, the New York metropolitan area, and the surrounding region.

About New York Stage and Film

Founded in 1985 by Producing Directors Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, and Leslie Urdang, and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer, New York Stage and Film is a not-for-profit company dedicated to the development and production of new works for theater and film.

About Vassar College

Performance Listings

Bardavon Young Playwrights at the Powerhouse

Directed by Casey Kurtti
Performed by members of the Powerhouse Apprentice Company
July 10 at 6:00 pm
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

The Good Woman of Setzuan

by Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Tomi Tsunoda
Performed by members of the Powerhouse Apprentice Company
Part 1: July 11 and July 13 at 6:30 pm
Part 2: July 12 and July 14 at 6:30 pm
Outdoor Amphitheater

Profile Pictures

Directed and soundpainted by Mark Lindberg
Performed by members of the Powerhouse Apprentice Company
July 17, 24, 31 at 6:00 pm
France Lehman Loeb Art Center

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

by William Shakespeare
Adapted and directed by Anthony Luciano
Performed by members of the Powerhouse Apprentice Company
July 18-July 21, 6:30 pm
Outdoor Amphitheater

Emmy nominee David Schwimmer will direct workshop of Stephen Belber’s Fault Lines as part of Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater season. August 2-3, 2008

Tim — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:40:27 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Emmy nominated actor and director David Schwimmer has just signed on to direct the developmental workshop of Stephen Belber’s Fault Lines (August 2–3) during Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater season. Also included in the workshop series are Alan Zweibel’s one-man show The History of Me, directed by Ron Lagomarsino (July 18–20) and Dael Orlandersmith’s Horsedreams, directed by Gordon Edelstein (July 25–27). This workshop series, called Inside Look, is intended to bridge the gap between a reading and a full production; works are presented with script-in-hand, with minimal production values.

FAULT LINES (August 2-3)

Playwright Stephen Belber describes Fault Lines this way: “Whole Foods. Enlarged prostates. The proactive delineation of loyalty and conviction. A play that approaches what it means to approach 40.” This workshop presentation will be directed by David Schwimmer (August 2-3). The cast of the four-character play will be announced shortly. Belber’s Geometry of Fire premiered on the Powerhouse Mainstage last season and will receive its Off-Broadway debut in the fall.

David Schwimmer recently directed Little Britain USA for HBO and acted in the film Nothing But The Truth for Rod Lurie. He is the cofounder of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, where he has acted in and directed many productions. Schwimmer starred in the premieres of Roger Kumble’s D Girl and Turnaround, Warren Leight’s Glimmer Brothers in Williamstown, and Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s) in London as well as The Caine Mutiny Court Martial on Broadway. Notable television and film credits include Madagascar I & II, Duane Hopwood, Big Nothing, Band of Brothers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Days Seven Nights, Apt Pupil, The Pallbearer, and the hit comedy series Friends, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor. His film debut as a director is the UK hit comedy Run, Fat Boy, Run starring Simon Pegg.

Stephen Belber’s upcoming credits include the film Management, which he wrote and directed, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn and Woody Harrelson, and the play Geometry of Fire (first produced at Powerhouse) at Rattlestick Theater (New York) this fall. Some of his plays include Match on Broadway, McReele at Roundabout, and Tape produced at Naked Angels in New York City, Los Angeles, and London, for which he also wrote the screenplay for the film directed by Richard Linklater (Sundance; Berlin), as well as for McReele, which is currently being developed by Will Smith’s Overbrook Productions.

THE HISTORY OF ME

(July 18-20)

Directed by Ron Lagomarsino, The History of Me (July 18–20) is a one-man show, written and performed by award-winning writer Alan Zweibel. This work traces Zweibel’s career from apprenticeship (selling $7 jokes to Catskill comedians), through his years as a member of the original Saturday Night Live team (including his wildly popular collaboration with his friend Gilda Radner), and the ensuing adventures of his professional and personal life.

Ron Lagomarsino’s Broadway directing credits include Last Night of Ballyhoo (Tony Award, Best Play) and the musical My Favorite Year at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. He also staged the world premieres of Driving Miss Daisy (Pulitzer Prize; Outer Critics Circle Award), Beth Henley’s Abundance, John Patrick Shanley’s Women of Manhattan, and Joseph Dougherty’s Digby. Lagomarsino was recognized by the Outer Critics Circle for his productions of Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild and Timothy Mason’s Only You and received the Directors Guild Award for the pilot of the Emmy Award-winning television series Picket Fences.

An original Saturday Night Live writer, Alan Zweibel has won multiple Emmy, Writers Guild of America, and TV Critics awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (which he co-created and executive produced), Monk, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He co-wrote the screenplays for the films Dragnet, North, and The Story of Us. In addition, he wrote the popular children’s book, Our Tree Named Steve and the 2006 Thurber Prize winning novel, The Other Shulman. His humor has appeared in such diverse publications as Esquire, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times’ Op-Ed page, MAD Magazine, and have been reprinted in numerous anthologies around the world. His theatrical contributions include the play Bunny Bunny – Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy, adapted from his best-selling book, that premiered at Powerhouse in 1995. Zweibel collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning play 700 Sundays, as well as Martin Short’s Broadway hit Fame Becomes Me.

HORSEDREAMS (July 25-27)

OBIE Award-winner Dael Orlandersmith’s Horsedreams (July 25–27) is directed by Gordon Edelstein. Orlandersmith will also portray Mira, the nanny of Luka (Sean Curley - Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty and the Beast), son of Loman (Scott Cohen - Drunk Enough to Say I Love You, Losing Louie) in this work that explores a story of addiction that crosses class, race, and gender lines to find a ten-year-old child who must invent an adult within in order to confront the devastation that surrounds him.

Director Gordon Edelstein has directed over 100 plays, musicals, and operas across the United States and Europe. He is currently in his sixth season as Long Wharf Theatre’s artistic director and previously served as artistic director of ACT Theatre in Seattle, as well as associate artistic director for both Long Wharf and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. His recent productions of Arthur Miller’s The Price and Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (which he also adapted) were on numerous best of 2007 lists, including the Wall Street Journal. As a director, he has garnered three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards.

“An otherworldly messenger, perhaps the sorcerer’s apprentice, or a heaven-sent angel with the devil in her” is how the New York Times has described playwright Dael Orlandersmith. She received an OBIE Award for Beauty’s Daughter, which she wrote and starred in at American Place Theater. Orlandersmith was awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Yellowman, which was commissioned and received its premiere at McCarter in a coproduction with the Wilma and Long Wharf Theatres. Her film and television credits include Hal Hartley’s Amateur and the film Get Well Soon, starring Courtney Cox. Orlandersmith has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poetry Café throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

The History of Me

By Alan Zweibel

Directed by Ron Lagomarsino

July 18, 19 at 8:00 pm

July 19, 20 at 2:00 pm

Susan Stein Shiva Theater

$20

Horsedreams

By Dael Orlandersmith

Directed by Gordon Edelstein

July 25, 26 at 8:00 pm

July 27 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm

Susan Stein Shiva Theater

$20

Fault Lines

By Stephen Belber

Directed by David Schwimmer

August 2-3

August 2 at 8:00 pm

August 3 at 7:00 pm

Martel Theater, in the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film

$20

Subscription, Schedule, and Box Office Information:

Subscription and single tickets may be purchased either online at http://powerhouse.vassar.edu, by calling the Powerhouse box office on campus at (845) 437-7235 or (845) 437-5599, or in person at the box office.

About Powerhouse

About New York Stage and Film

Founded in 1985 by Producing Directors Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer and Leslie Urdang, and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer, New York Stage and Film is a not-for-profit company dedicated to the development and production of new works for theater and film.

About Vassar College

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs – from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies – encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses.

Erik Schoonebeek’s small gouaches that portray the confrontational quality of monuments, signs, masks, icons, and modern ideograms will be on display in the exhibition, “Erik Schoonebeek: Selected Recent Works,” at Vassar’s Palmer Gallery. July 10 - August 15, 2008

Tim — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:44:58 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—Selected works by Highland, New York, artist Erik Schoonebeek, who was featured in exhibitions at Dia: Beacon and in Manhattan, Great Barrington, and Kingston, will be featured in a solo exhibition, “Erik Schoonebeek: Selected Recent Works,” at the James W. Palmer Gallery at Vassar College, July 10 through August 15. Schoonebeek explained that in these small gouache paintings on a variety of media, he seeks to “paint the confrontational quality of monuments, signs, masks, icons, and modern ideograms with the aim for the work to stare back at the viewer with a power that is sublime, yet humble, undeniable, but ultimately intangible.”

An artist’s reception will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 pm on Thursday, July 10, at the Palmer Gallery. The Palmer Gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and is closed weekends during the summer. Both the exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

On the surfaces of paper, old book covers, and worn boxes, Schoonebeek said he “creates images that revisit the original experience of geometry in the architecture of past, and imagined, civilizations. And, I explore the power that this original experience still holds by analyzing the omnipresence of simple geometry and the meaning of color in the modern human psyche.”

Schoonebeek’s works have been seen in the exhibitions, “It’s Gouache & Gouache Only” at the Jeff Bailey and Andrea Meislin Gallery in New York City as well as the Geoffrey Young Gallery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; “Erik Schoonebeek: Recent Paintings,” at the Firehouse Studios in Kingston, New York; “The Kitchen,” at DIA: Beacon; and “Small Works” at 80 Washington Square East Galleries in Manhattan.

Powerhouse Theater apprentices travel back in time at the Vassar-Warner Adult Home, performing a series of dramatic and musical sketches based upon interviews with residents. July 5-6, 2008

Tim — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:47:21 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—Powerhouse Theater apprentices are about to travel back to the 1930s and 1940s, in vignettes they’ve created based upon the lives of Vassar-Warner Adult Home residents. The apprentices will perform these original theater pieces at the Vassar-Warner Adult Home itself (52 South Hamilton Street in Poughkeepsie) on Saturday, July 5, at 2:00 pm, and Sunday, July 6, at 6:30 pm. The shows are free and open to the public, but space is limited, so reservations are required. Call Eliza Haun at 845-437-7645.

Under the direction of Maureen Towey, the apprentices have created a program – using the historic setting of Vassar-Warner as their stage – that is free to the public. The work – comprised of dramatic and musical sketches – is based upon interviews the apprentices conducted with the residents for the past two weeks. Towey describes the piece as vaudevillian in nature, made up of individual vignettes and sketches. Space is limited and reservations are required; please call Eliza Haun at 845-437-7645.

“The apprentices spent two weeks interviewing the residents at the Vassar-Warner Home. We focused on the timeframe when the residents were the same age as the apprentices and their stories and recollections focus mainly on the 1930s and 40s,” explained director Towey. “We chose Vassar-Warner for this project, because the residents are mostly natives of Poughkeepsie and it is the only nonprofit facility in the area. The building itself dates from the 1830s and the adult home has been there for more than 130 years.”

The Powerhouse Theater Apprentice Program is a unique collaboration between a prestigious liberal arts college, Vassar, and an established professional theater company, New York Stage and Film. Apprentices in the Powerhouse program choose a discipline (acting, writing, directing, or technical theater) and then work alongside some of the country’s leading and emerging theater practitioners for six weeks, observing and participating in the process through which new works are brought to life.

The apprentices who have worked on the Vassar-Warner performances are drawn from throughout the country. The company includes:

Aly Calder (Atlanta, GA), actor
Amy Crossman (New York City), actor
Maria Gilhooley (McLean, VA), actor
Mario Haynes (Athens, GA), actor
Alex Jacobs (LaCanada, CA), actor
Josh Joya (New York City), actor
Evan Maltby (New York City), actor
Shawn Palmer (New London, CT), actor
Hannah Rubinek (Tarzana, CA), actor
Didrik Soderstrom (Rochester, NY), actor
Katherine Pardue (Dayton, OH) - director
Jannie Kitchen (Concord, MA) - director
Graham Parkes (Santa Monica, CA) - writer
Sarah Wesson (Wellington, FL) - stage manager
Courtney Kersten - production manager

About the Director

Maureen Towey is the recipient of a Princes Grace Award that provided support for her work at the Sojourn Theater in Portland, Oregon, including directing Throwing Bones, and acting as assistant director for Michael Rohd on GOOD. Towey, a Fulbright Scholar for Directing in 2005-06, spent a year in residence Capetown, South Africa, where she adapted and directed Swallow What You Steal, which toured rural villages. Towey also assisted Brett Bailey on 7th Heaven for the opening ceremonies at the Harare International Arts Festival in Zimbabwe. She directed four works by Jess Lacher, including Incredible Flying Machines, A Is for Aardvark, JUMP, and The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, that was the recipient of the New York Fringe Festival’s Best Ensemble Award.

About the Vassar-Warner Adult Home

Vassar-Warner was founded in 1871 to provide a “true home for aged, indigent, women”. The residence was named for its major benefactors, the 19th century philanthropists Jonathan Rowland Warner, and John Guy Vassar and Matthew Vassar, Jr, who were nephews of Matthew Vassar, founder of Vassar College. Vassar-Warner has continued to operate without interruption for over 135 years and it is the only non-profit adult home in Dutchess County.

About Powerhouse

About New York Stage and Film

About Vassar College

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs – from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies – encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses.

Idina Menzel highlights casting for Powerhouse musicals, in the new work Nero by the Spring Awakening team Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, which has added a fourth performance on Sunday, July 13

Tim — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:48:42 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater announces the casting of Idina Menzel, the Tony Award-winning actress and singer from Broadway’s Wicked and Rent, in the new musical Nero, by Spring Awakening co-creators Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik. The cast will also feature Jeffrey Carlson (Taboo) as the title character, and Lea Michele (Wendla in the original cast of Spring Awakening) as Nero’s young wife Octavia.

An additional performance has just been added to Nero, on Sunday, July 13, at 7:00 pm, which will be presented in the Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, July 11-13, on the Vassar campus.

Menzel, who is currently on a tour to promote her new album, I Stand, will return to her theatrical roots for the role of Nero’s mistress Poppea in the musical, created by the dynamic team behind the Tony Award-winner Spring Awakening, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik.

The cast will also include:

Laila Robins as Agrippina (Heartbreak House, Frozen, The Herbal Bed, Antony and Cleopatra)
OBIE Award-winning actor David Patrick Kelly as Seneca/Narcissus (Festen, Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya, Flags of our Fathers)
Michael Arden as Britannicus (Big River, The Times They Are a Changin’)
Paolo Montalban as Tigillinus (Cinderella opposite Brandy, Camelot, Pacific Overtures, The King and I).

Director Daniel Kramer, noted for his work in Britain in theater and opera (Punch & Judy at English National Opera, Hair and Woyzeck at the Gate Theater, as well as work at the Young Vic, Glasgow’s Citizen’s Theater and St. Ann’s Warehouse in NY) will be working for the first time with Sater and Sheik on Nero at Powerhouse.

Nero

A black comic tale of the bad-body Emperor who fiddles as all faith in his country burns.

Script and lyrics by Steven Sater, Music by Duncan Sheik, Directed by Daniel Kramer. Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. $25

Friday, July 11, 8:00 pm
Saturday, July 12, 8:00 pm
Sunday, July 13, 2:00 pm
Sunday, July 13, 7:00 pm

with:

Jeffrey Carlson as Nero
Lea Michele as Octavia
Laila Robins as Agrippina
David Patrick Kelly as Britannicus
Paolo Montalban as Tigillinus
Idina Menzel as Poppea
Tim Jerome as Claudius
Fred Williams as the Guard

Subscription, Schedule, and Box Office Information:
Online sales at http://powerhouse.vassar.edu. Subscriptions and single tickets also may be purchased either by calling the Powerhouse box office on campus at (845) 437-7235 or (845) 437-5599, or in person at the box office.

About Powerhouse

About New York Stage and Film

Founded in 1985 by Producing Directors Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer and Leslie Urdang, and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer, New York Stage and Film (SAF) is a not-for-profit company dedicated to the development and production of new works for theater and film. SAF has developed and produced premiere works by John Patrick Shanley, Jon Robin Baitz, Beth Henley and Theresa Reback, among many others.

About Vassar College

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs – from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies – encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses.

The emotional outpouring of an artistic movement will be examined in Impassioned Images: German Expressionist Prints, at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. August 22 - October 26, 2008

Tim — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:11:08 +0000

Poughkeepsie, NY — In the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany forged a vital, multifaceted movement in the arts that encompassed architecture, painting, printmaking, sculpture, poetry, prose, music, theater, and film. This pluralistic modern movement, Expressionism, was visionary and rebelled against the staid constraints of a German Empire society that retreated from the destitute populations crowding into industrialized cities. During these years, the arts became a tool to encourage a freer, fairer, and more spiritual world, and a world where the emotions were integral to life. As Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a key artist from this era, stated, Expressionists wanted to “express inner convictions…with sincerity and spontaneity.”

Prints became a favored medium among German Expressionists, who found that powerful utopian or critical messages could be relayed to numerous audiences through individual sheets, print portfolios, posters, manifestoes, or literary journals (the latter primarily based in Berlin). Religious, moral, social, and political issues were confronted in these prints with an energy and immediacy not seen in the art academies. Even the media they used – woodcut, drypoint, lithography, and etching – were handled in a startlingly more direct manner, often resulting in distorted and exaggerated forms not found in the technically more refined prints of the day. Aggressive and new use of the media became the hallmark of the German Expressionist artist.

The touring exhibition Impassioned Images: German Expressionist Prints, to be seen August 22-October 26, 2008 at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, explores the visions of numerous artists who engaged their charged emotions with printmaking. Organized by the Syracuse University Art Collection, Impassioned Images presents fifty woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings by many of the seminal German artists of the early twentieth century, including Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Erich Heckel, George Grosz, Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and Wassily Kandinsky. The Expressionist groups Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke, and the post-war trend of Neue Sachlichkeit, are all represented by a range of vigorous works. Impassioned Images will be presented in the art center’s Prints and Drawings Galleries, and this showing is generously supported by the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Exhibition Fund.

“Expressionist artists confronted their themes and issues head-on with the media they chose. By rendering brittle lines into copper, gouging bold shapes into wood, or drawing quick marks onto plate or stone, they responded in their styles and subjects to a new, fast-paced, and increasingly materialistic age,” said Patricia Phagan, the Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. “Through these bold advances, they truly revolutionized the printmaking processes. They were aware of the lauded traditions in German Renaissance printmaking, particularly the virtuosic woodcuts and engravings of Albrecht Dürer early in the sixteenth century. However, Expressionists modernized the print into an immediate, driven, and often harsh statement of the inner life.”

By entering the psychological world of the individual, these artists managed to uncover the tragedy and turmoil of the period, marked by insecurity, loss, as well as by hope. This period extended roughly from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the Weimar Republic in 1933.

Over time, Expressionist artists looked as well to non-European cultures, especially in Africa and the South Seas region (which were common travel destinations for many of these artists). Recent European prints were also of interest, especially to the Die Brücke group who looked to woodcuts by Edward Munch, Paul Gauguin, and Félix Vallotton. Many also sought out Japanese woodblock prints with their flat shapes, saturated colors, and jutting diagonals.

Actually, Expressionism was never a cohesive movement; rather, there were various centers of activity. The groups involved were all informed and inspired by the varied artistic, social, political, and natural environments in which they lived. Die Brücke (bridge) was the first of these groups, a community that emerged in 1905 in Dresden and collapsed in 1913 in Berlin. At the beginning, its founders were all fellow students of architecture and included Kirchner, Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Restrained by the historic nature of architecture, however, they ventured into the visual arts and made works based on their freely-recorded feelings and emotions.

They were joined later by Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Otto Mueller (whose works are also in Impassioned Images), and others. The Brücke artists were largely self-taught in woodcut, and their woodcuts introduced this modern printmaking renaissance in Germany. With their relatively quick process of carving into wood and printing the inked block by hand, they made prints with simplified lines or stained-glass colors that recorded their raw, bohemian lives unified with their surroundings, all the while defying academic standards of draftsmanship and traditional notions of illustration. Kirchner is represented in the show by Woman, Tying Shoe, for instance, a pulsing woodcut melding a figure to her surroundings, both inside and outside. Heckel and Schmidt-Rottluff also contributed profoundly to the development of the woodcut in Die Brücke. Heckel is represented by five woodcuts in the exhibition, while Schmidt-Rottluff’s powerful living line can be observed in two. Pechstein brought his experience as a painter into the group. His woodcut, Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, boasts the kind of highly linear flowing line that boosted the emotional quality of his works.

Above all, Die Brücke consisted of intellectuals who saw academic and mainstream art as superficial and false, and sought its complete renovation. This included a rejection of academic, impressionistic, and realistic styles. These expressionist artists believed that self-expression equaled completeness of life, and therefore, they honored intuition, and spontaneity. Their philosophy was transformed into real life – the Brücke artists came to live together in a communal setting, and they were ruled by both momentary inspirations and the chaos of everyday life.

The group’s major successor, Der Blaue Reiter (blue rider), was formed in Munich in 1911 and lasted until the beginning of World War One in 1914. Its founders included Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and August Macke, and they were joined later by Heinrich Campendonk and others. The movement takes its name from Der Blaue Reiter, an almanac edited by Kandinsky and Marc of new art and music, fostered by the expressions of the “inner wishes” of artists rather than through conventional styles. Cézanne and Matisse were featured, for instance, as were works from Die Brücke and children’s art. In the almanac, Marc spoke of fighting like “wild ones against an old, organized power” and promoted, like Kandinsky, spiritual matters over materialism. The group held exhibitions and wrote manifestoes, and in 1912 Kandinsky’s theoretical work Uber das Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) was published in Munich. At the same time, Kandinsky was making paintings and, to a lesser extent prints, without recognizable subject matter but with visual symbols drawn from his search for a new world of the spiritual rather than the materialistic. Impassioned Images includes four prints by Kandinsky, which demonstrate his lively sense of rhythm between colors, lines, and abstract shapes.

It is interesting to contrast these works with those of Lyonel Feininger, an American artist living in Germany. This artist explored light and structure in unprecedented ways among the Expressionists. Many of his works call forth fragmented, shard-like surfaces with a characteristic fragility and precision. The common ground between Feininger and Kandinsky, then, lies in the search for an understanding of the spiritual essence of all things, which is the underlying goal of the artists from Der Blaue Reiter.

World War One shattered the lives of artists, many of whom volunteered or were drafted. After the war, numerous artists produced prints and print portfolios of their wartime experiences and of the ensuing political turmoil brought on by revolution. Many artists also formed into groups informed by political or utopian programs. The Arbeistrat für Kunst (working council for art) in Berlin, for example, promoted the idea of a democratic art under the aegis of architecture. Interestingly, former Brücke members Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff, and Pechstein were on its board. The architect Walter Gropius was on its executive committee, and in 1919 he established the Bauhaus in Weimar, attracting Feininger as faculty, among others, and, later, Kandinsky and Paul Klee. The Arbeitsrat für Kunst would eventually merge with the Novembergruppe (November group), made up of artists who worked in the new contemporary styles. Pechstein was on its executive committee. Both of these organizations and others of the time, including the Bauhaus, were built upon the search for community and creation of a better world—clear Expressionist aims.

German Expressionists continued to make prints in the 1920s and early 1930s, although the movement itself declined due to the devastating economic climate, and the development of new artistic concerns such as photomontage and advertising techniques. However, the social outlook familiar from Expressionism continued in Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity), a new trend that developed with Germany’s WWI defeat and the beginnings of the German Republic. These artists displayed the cynicism that reflected the tragedy of the war, and established an active shift from individual reality and hopes for a new world to a more socially engaged criticism. Rather than searching for new worlds, they sought “fidelity to positive, tangible reality,” and made paintings and prints, often highly detailed, of industrial and street scenes and of portraits. The Neue Sachlichkeit is presented in Impassioned Images by works of Otto Dix and George Grosz, who sometimes adapted the stylistic exaggerations of Expressionism. Grosz captured the chaos of post-war Berlin, a landscape of decay and vices, worthy of his trenchant satire. Dix’s themes were similar, as he was also disillusioned by an existence in a world of disgust, horrors, decadence, and indifference.

Max Beckmann exhibited at the Kunsthalle, Mannheim, in 1925 at a well-known exhibition that featured artists of Neue Sachlichkeit. His art had undergone a major transformation of style due to his front line war experiences (where he met Heckel). His work thereafter became aggressive and severe, tragic in an existential way. Käthe Kollwitz, working in Berlin, was also personally hurt from the war as she lost her son, Peter. She kept fighting against war throughout her life, engaging in radical socialist politics and proletarian themes in her works, as did many postwar artists. Impassioned Images also includes works by Ernst Barlach, Sandor Gergely, and Paul Kleinschmidt.

By 1933, German Expressionist artists were denounced by the new regime of the Third Reich, which promoted a heroic nationalism and naturalistic representation. It was not until many years later, after the Second World War, that German Expressionists’ distinctive and enduring works became accepted again as part of a vital, innovative art movement. Prints were essential to this movement, and they document these artists’ impassioned searches and observations and hopes.

The Syracuse University Art Collection is comprised of over 45,000 objects acquired over the past 130 years. Its primary focus is American art, but exhibitions like Impassioned Images demonstrate the great diversity of the collection. Most of the prints in the exhibition were Syracuse purchases, although several were gifts to the university from the early twentieth-century American printmaker Samuel L. Margolies.

Opening reception and lecture (free and open to the public)

Friday, September 5
Reception: 5:00pm
Lecture: 6:00pm, by Barbara C. Buenger ‘70, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie
(845) 437-5632, http://fllac.vassar.edu

About the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was founded in 1864 as the Vassar College Art Gallery. The current 36,400-square-foot facility, designed by Cesar Pelli and named in honor of the new building’s primary donor, opened in 1993. The Lehman Loeb Art Center’s collections chart the history of art from antiquity to the present and comprise over 17,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares. Notable holdings include the Warburg Collection of Old Master prints, an important group of Hudson River School paintings given by Matthew Vassar at the college’s inception, and a wide range of works by major European and American twentieth century painters. Vassar was the first U.S. college founded with a permanent art collection and gallery, and at any given time, the Permanent Collection Galleries of the Art Center feature approximately 350 works from Vassar’s extensive collections.

Admission to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is free. The art center is open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday. 1:00-5:00 p.m. Located at the entrance to the historic Vassar College campus, the Art Center can be reached within minutes from other Mid-Hudson cultural attractions, such as Dia:Beacon, the Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt national historic sites and homes, and the Vanderbilt mansion. The Art Center is wheelchair accessible. For more information, the public may call (845) 437-5632 or visit http://fllac.vassar.edu.

Farmer's Market, Every Thursday Through October

Tim — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:38:52 +0000

3:00-7:00pm
Alumnae House lawn

The farmer's market, which is located this summer on the Alumnae Lawn at Raymond and College Avenues, is open from 3-7pm every Thursday through October.

Select from among approximately 20 local vendors, who feature fresh baked goods and produce, along with an eclectic variety of other delicacies and crafts.

For more information, or if you are interested in becoming a vendor, please contact Bob Raisch at robertraisch@optonline.net. Bob Raisch is a board member of the ArlingtonBusiness Improvement District, cosponsor along with Vassar of the farmer's market.

Vassar and New York and Stage and Film present the world premiere of 1+1, written by Eric Bogosian and directed by Mark Brokaw, with Kelli Garner, Josh Hamilton, and Matthew Maher at the Powerhouse Theater. July 1 - July 13, 2008

Tim — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:42:01 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY -- Opening the mainstage of Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s 24th Powerhouse Theater season is the world premiere of 1+1 by Eric Bogosian, directed by Mark Brokaw, and featuring Kelli Garner, Josh Hamilton, and Matthew Maher, with thirteen performances to be presented July 1-July 13.

In the imponderable nature of relationships and human desire, does one plus one always equal two? Bogosian’s first production at the Powerhouse season explores themes of desire and greed, debating one’s responsibility to others, through the lives of a waitress aspiring to be an actress (Brianne), an assistant restaurant manager (Carl), and a photographer (Phil).

Bogosian, the Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning author of Talk Radio, SubUrbia, and Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, said of the characters in his play “Bri, Phil, and Carl are based on people I’ve found intensely interesting my whole life: a good-looking hustler, an ambitious pretty girl, and a ‘good guy’ who always seems to finish last.” He continued, “The story is a parable. All my plays are. My plays are not expositions of a specific time and place. Rather, I try to find a way to set them so that the audience can immerse itself in a situation. I don’t have answers. I have questions.”

Of the Powerhouse production, Bogosian said, “This is a wonderful and genuine laboratory situation. The ingredients are of the highest quality: great cast, great director. I love the process of actors and directors figuring out what I’ve written. There’s nothing I enjoy more.”

NOTE: 1+1 is recommended for mature audiences only. Contains strong language and adult situations.

Evening and matinee performances of 1+1 will be held in the Powerhouse Theater on the Vassar campus, including a special post-show discussion on Tuesday, July 8, with the cast and Powerhouse artistic staff. Tickets for this mainstage production are $35, and can be ordered online at http://powerhouse.vassar.edu, or through the Powerhouse box office at (845) 437-5599 and (845) 437-7235.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Eric Bogosian (Playwright)

Eric Bogosian currently stars as Capt. Danny Ross on NBC’S Law and Order: Criminal Intent, but is perhaps best known for writing and starring in the play Talk Radio, for which he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Bogosian has written a number of full-length plays including subUrbia, Griller, Red Angel, and Humpty Dumpty. He is the author of two novels, Mall and Wasted Beauty and a novella, Notes from Underground.

Mark Brokaw (Director)

Broadway credits include Cry-Baby and the revivals of The Constant Wife (Roundabout) and Reckless (Manhattan Theatre Club / Second Stage). He has also directed the New York premieres of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned To Drive and The Long Christmas Ride Home, Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero and This Is Our Youth, Craig Lucas’ The Dying Gaul, Douglas Carter Beane’s As Bees In Honey Drown, Lisa Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride, and Lynda Barry’s The Good Times Are Killing Me. His regional credits include the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Center (A Little Night Music); Arthur Miller’s The Price, View From the Bridge and American Buffalo at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland; as well as the Guthrie, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre, Seattle Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, and Berkeley Rep.

Kelli Garner (Brianne)

Kelli Garner recently received critical acclaim for her role in Lars and the Real Girl, opposite Ryan Gosling, that received its premier at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. Garner also appeared in Martin Scorcese’s Oscar® nominated film The Aviator opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and was dubbed Moviefone’s Rising Star. Garnner has also appeared in Return to Rajapur, Thumbsucker, Man of the House, Bully, Love Liza, and the independent features Dreamland and London. She also appeared in the Off-Broadway play Dog Sees God, directed by Trip Cullman.

Josh Hamilton (Phil)

Josh Hamilton’s New York theater credits include Coast of Utopia, Hurlyburly, Proof, This is our Youth, The Waverly Gallery, The Cider House Rules, As Bees in Honey Drown, Gone Home, SubUrbia, Evolution, and The Violet Hour at Steppenwolf. As part of the Sam Mendes-directed Bridge Project, a co-production of BAM and The Old Vic, Hamilton will be seen in both The Cherry Orchard and The Winter’s Tale. His film credits include Farlanders, Ten Stories Tall, Bourne Identity, With Honors, The House of Yes, and Urbania. On television he has appeared in “The 60’s,” “Online,” and “Absolutely Fabulous.”

Matt Maher (Carl)

OBIE Award-winning actor Matthew Maher’s New York credits include, among others, Richard III, Coriolanus, The World Over, Molly’s Dream, and the Foundry Theater production of The Race of the Ark Tattoo, for which he received an OBIE Award. He is an associate artist of The Civilians and his regional credits include A Seagull In The Hamptons at the McCarter, and The Pillowman at Berkeley Rep, as well as appearances at Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Portland Stage, New Harmony, and the CT20 Ensemble, receiving a Joseph Jefferson Nomination for The Fair Maid of the West. Maher’s film credits include Gone Baby Gone, Jersey Girl, Dogma, Bringing Out The Dead, and on television he has a recurring role on HBO’s “John From Cincinnati,” and has been seen on “The Jury,” “Deadline,” and all three “Law and Order” series.

ABOUT POWERHOUSE

The Powerhouse program is the result of a unique partnership between Vassar College and New York Stage and Film. The program consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus during which more than 200 professional artists and some 40 apprentices live and work together to create new theater works. Powerhouse steadfastly supports both emerging and established artists.

ABOUT NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM

ABOUT VASSAR COLLEGE

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country’s best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. Through more than 1,000 courses, the curriculum ranges from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services.

Vassar Hosting Conference of Career Advisors from Liberal Arts Colleges. June 11-13, 2008

Tim — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:16:27 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Career advisors from 28 highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities are gathering at Vassar College this week to plan how best to serve their institutions' students, including face-to-face conversations with employers.

Vassar will host the Liberal Arts Careers NetWORK (LACN) Summit from June 11-13, an annual event that combines professional development work among the career advisors, with the opportunity to directly discuss hiring practices and needs with a range of employers.

The LACN was founded in 1996 to help liberal arts students and graduates gain a competitive edge in the marketplace, develop and sustain innovative technological career resources and services. The organization not only offers students information on upwards of 20,000 internship and job opportunities, but it also provides employers services to match their hiring needs to well qualified candidates from LACN schools. Leveraging its pool of 60,000 highly competitive students, LACN makes it possible for employers to market job vacancies, as well as to locate and evaluate candidates.

In addition to Vassar, the LACN includes these top schools: Amherst College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, Carleton College, Clark University, Colby College, Colgate University, College of the Holy Cross, College of Wooster, Connecticut College, Hamilton College, Hartwick College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Hope College, Macalester College, Middlebury College, Mount Holyoke College, Oberlin College, St. Lawrence University, Skidmore College, Trinity College, Union College, Washington and Lee University, Wesleyan University and Wellesley College.

At http://www.lacn-group.org there's additional information on the LACN's activities, affiliate schools, and services for employers – including a free job and internship listing service.

Thirteenth annual Vassar summer music series to feature chamber and jazz programs on Sunday afternoons. June 15, 22, and July 6, 2008

Tim — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:56:34 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Vassar's thirteenth annual Summer Music Series will be held on Sunday afternoons June 15, 22, and July 6, featuring acclaimed musicians from Vassar's Department of Music faculty, including Todd Crow, Richard Wilson, Brian Mann, and Sophie Shao. The series will include two afternoons of chamber music, with works by Beethoven, Bartók, Debussy, Fauré, Stravinsky, and Wilson, as well as a piano trio performing new and standard jazz works on the third Sunday.

All performances will take place in Vassar's Martel Recital Hall in the Skinner Hall of Music, beginning at 3:00 pm, and are free and open to the public:

Sunday, June 15, 3:00pm
Music of Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Fauré
Stephanie Chase, violin
Dov Scheindlin, viola
Mark Shuman, cello
Todd Crow, piano

Sunday, June 22, 3:00pm
Jazz standards and original compositions
Brian Mann, piano
Craig Wuepper, drums
Pat O'Leary, double bass

Sunday, July 6, 3:00pm
Music of Beethoven, Bartók, Debussy, and Wilson
Joseph Genualdi, violin
Sophie Shao, cello
Moran Katz, clarinet
Richard Wilson, piano

For further information, call (845) 437-5900, or go to www.vassar.edu/summer.

The air conditioned Skinner Hall of Music is wheelchair-accessible, and people with disabilities requiring accommodations should call the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370. Free parking is available at Skinner Hall, and the campus's adjoining south parking lot. Directions to the Town of Poughkeepsie campus are available at www.vassar.edu/directions.

Photographs explore relationships, perception, and memory in Phyllis Crowley's "Shifting Realities" exhibition at the James W. Palmer Gallery. June 5-26, 2008

Tim — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:56:19 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Relationships, perception, and memory are examined in two series of twenty photographs – one in color and the other in black-and-white – for Vassar alumna Phyllis Crowley’s solo exhibition “Shifting Realities,” to be shown Saturday, June 7 through Thursday, June 26 in the college’s James W. Palmer Gallery. The New York Times, Washington Monthly, New Haven Register, Women’s World, and the Chicago Tribune have published Crowley’s photographs, and her work has been the subject of three recent exhibitions.

“Shifting Realities” at the Palmer Gallery coincides with Crowley’s fiftieth class reunion, and she will discuss her work at the gallery’s opening reception, on Saturday, June 7, at 4:30pm. Both the reception, from 4:00-5:30 on June 7, as well as the exhibition, are free to the public.

“The photographs in this exhibit began as two separate series with slightly different emphases,” explains Crowley. “In the [black-and-white] Earthly and Heavenly Bodies series I wanted to express ideas about relationships and different realities. While The Looking Glass color photographs focus more on perception and memory. My education taught me that everything correlates on some level of reality.”

Crowley’s recent solo exhibitions include “The Looking Glass” at the City Gallery, New Haven (2007); “Off Peak / New World” at Mark Murray Fine Art Painting, Manhattan (2007); and “Earthly and Heavenly Bodies” at 55 Mercer Gallery, Manhattan (2005). She has taught at Norwalk Community College, Quinnipiac College, and the University of Bridgeport, and is currently on the faculty of the Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven.

Vassar College announces new Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Chenette

Tim — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:10:09 +0000

Poughkeepsie, NY — Vassar College today announced the appointment of Jonathan Chenette, Associate Dean of the College and Blanche Johnson Professor of Music at Grinnell College, as Dean of the Faculty at Vassar College. Chenette, whose appointment will be effective July 21, also will be a Professor of Music on the Vassar faculty. He succeeds Ronald A. Sharp, who has served as Dean of the Faculty since 2003 and who is returning to his teaching and scholarship as a Professor of English at Vassar.

"We are extremely gratified with the selection of Jon Chenette, a gifted composer and highly respected teacher and administrator," said Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill. "His diverse experiences over a 25-year career at Grinnell, another top liberal arts college, will serve him and Vassar well as he assumes the Dean of the Faculty position here. I very much look forward to his joining us."

Chenette received his Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Chicago, following an M.M. in Music Composition from Butler University (Indianapolis, Ind.) and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago. He has had fellowships or grants from the MacDowell Colony, the Iowa Arts Council, the American Composers Forum, and the American Music Center, among others.

Chenette has composed vocal and instrumental works in diverse genres, often treating the relationships between people and the land as a central theme. His major choral-orchestral work, Broken Ground, written in collaboration with six Iowa poets, premiered with the Des Moines Symphony in a concert broadcast statewide over public television. His music has had international recognition, including performances on the ISCM World Music Days in Amsterdam, at the World Harp Congress in Vienna, at the Bishop Auckland Early Music Festival in the U.K., and on international tours by several ensembles. His courses include music theory, composition, electronic music, counterpoint, computer music, orchestration, technology and the arts, multimedia art, Celtic music, and a freshman tutorial.

Other major works include the opera Eric Hermannson's Soul (1993), the song cycle Oh Millersville! (1990), and the orchestral works Chamber Symphony for 31 Instruments (1983), Triple Feature (1994), and Rural Symphony (2000). Commissioned works include Elegy and Affirmation for the Iowa Arts Council's "American Spirit" project in memory of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a collaboration with folk singer Bonnie Koloc on a choral-orchestral arrangement of her Love Song for Iowa for the Blanden Memorial Art Museum, an orchestration of the song cycle Oh Millersville! for the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, and The Pale Queen of the Silent Night for the London-based early music group Virelai.

Chenette joined the Grinnell College faculty in 1983. He has served as department chair for eight years and was chair of the Humanities Division in 2003. He assumed the position of Associate Dean of the College in 2004.

As Associate Dean, his major responsibilities have included faculty contract review support, instructional and curricular support, off-campus study and internationalization, new faculty orientation and mentoring programs, and the oversight of a number of major grant-funded initiatives, including grants from the Lilly Endowment, the Freeman Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. He also has had active roles in Grinnell's strategic planning process and on its campus-wide budget steering committee.

Chenette also has been active in the broader context of higher education, giving presentations on place-based education and teaching with technology at annual meetings of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, serving as the Grinnell College representative for a Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges conference on "Teaching with Technology" and for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest conference on "Engaging Today's Students with the Liberal Arts: the First Year and Beyond," as well as serving as Grinnell's liaison to the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education. He served as chair for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest task force for revising the Chicago Arts Program and serves on a Fulbright Senior Specialists Peer Review Committee for Music.

He is married to Jeanmarie Kern Chenette, a harpist and music educator. They have three children, ages 25, 23, and 21.

Vassar College Confers 638 Bachelor's Degrees. Sunday, May 25, 2008

Tim — Sun, 25 May 2008 14:52:05 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — President Catharine Bond Hill presided over the 144th Vassar College commencement ceremonies today, conferring Bachelor of Arts degrees to 638 graduating students on the grounds of the college's outdoor amphitheater. Among Vassar's class of 2008:

Sixty-two students were elected to Phi Beta Kappa for overall academic achievement, with majors in Anthropology (1), Astronomy (1), Art (2), Biochemistry (1), Biology (2), Chinese (4), Classics (1), Cognitive Science (3), Drama (3), Economics (9), English (5), Environmental Studies (2), Film (2), French (6), Geography (1), German Studies (1), Hispanic Studies (1), History (3), International Studies (2), Italian (1), Japanese (1), Latin American Studies (1), Mathematics (5), Media Studies (1), Music (2), Neuroscience and Behavior (2), Philosophy (3), Physics (2), Political Science (2), Psychology (8), Science, Technology, and Society (1), Sociology (2), and Urban Studies (1).
The college's Phi Beta Kappa Prize for 2008 was awarded to Jessica Gem Linden Swienckowski, who majored in Neuroscience and Behavior.
Twenty-two graduates were elected to the Sigma Xi national honor society for the sciences, with majors in Anthropology (1), Astronomy (1), Biochemistry (2), Biology (4), Chemistry (6) Cognitive Science (3), Geology (1), Mathematics (1), Neuroscience and Behavior (3), and Physics (1).
Five graduates were selected for both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.
One hundred and twenty-nine graduates were awarded General Honors.
Departmental honors were awarded to graduates majoring in Africana Studies (3), American Culture (4), Anthropology (3), Anthropology-Sociology (1), Art (11), Astronomy (1), Biochemistry (4), Biology (11), Chemistry (8), Chinese (6), Classics: Greek (1), Classics: Latin (2), Cognitive Science (5), Computer Science (4), Drama (6), Economics (15), English (7), Environmental Studies (5), Film (4), French & Francophone Studies (8), Geography (4), Geology (2), German Studies (2), Hispanic Studies (3), History (8), Independent Program (4), International Studies (9), Italian (4), Japanese (3), Latin American & Latino/a Studies (4), Mathematics (5), Media Studies (7), Medieval and Renaissance Studies (1), Music (5), Neuroscience and Behavior (8), Philosophy (4), Physics (3), Political Science (14), Psychology (12), Religion (3), Russian Studies (1), Science, Technology & Society (2), Sociology (10), Urban Studies (3), Victorian Studies (1), and Women's Studies (3).

Vassar and New York Stage and Film’s 2008 Powerhouse Theater season will debut new plays by Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio), Vagina Monologues creator Eve Ensler, and Doubt playwright John Patrick Shanley, as well as a new musical by the Tony Award-winning Spring Awakening creators Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, and a one-man show by comedy writer Alan Zweibel. June 27 - August 3, 2008

Tim — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:49:19 +0000

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — A combined Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, two Pulitzer finalists, the team whose musical just about swept the 2007 Tonys, the creator of the iconic Vagina Monologues, and an award-winning comedy writer will all debut new theater works this summer on the Vassar College campus.

New plays by Eric Bogosian, Eve Ensler, John Patrick Shanley, and Dael Orlandersmith, a new musical from the Spring Awakening team of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, and a one-man show by comedy writer Alan Zweibel will be among the 20 works featured in the 2008 Powerhouse Season, to be presented June 27 – August 3 by Vassar and New York Stage and Film. Subscription sales for the season begin May 21 through the Powerhouse website, and beginning June 4 both subscriptions and tickets for individual shows may be purchased online or from the Powerhouse box office.

Powerhouse is one of the nation’s leading programs dedicated to the development of new work for theater and film, and its 24th season will also include plays by Joe Gilford, Michael Weller, and Stephen Belber, as well as a new musical by David Rossmer and Dan Lipton.

Artists contributing to the 2008 Powerhouse season have received some of theater’s highest accolades:

Spring Awakening won co-creators Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater the 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as seven other Tonys, including Best Score and Best Book
Eric Bogosian won Drama Desk and Obie awards for his play Talk Radio, and both he and Dael Orlandersmith (Yellowman) have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.
Eve Ensler is the Obie-winning playwright of The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in 45 languages and performed in over 120 countries.
Alan Zweibel collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning one-man show 700 Sundays.
John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Drama, and had its first public reading in the 2004 Powerhouse season.

[Complete bios on Powerhouse artists are available upon request.]

At the Powerhouse’s “Mainstage” productions, “Martel Musicals” concert readings, “Inside Look” workshop presentations of plays with partial production values, and its weekend-long readings festivals, audiences are usually the first to see a new play or musical performed, often before it goes on to a larger stage -on or off Broadway, or in theaters across the country. In addition to John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, Powerhouse audiences have been the first to see such Tony Award-winning plays as Tru by Jay Presson Allen, and Side Man by Warren Leight, as well as new plays by such notable writers as Richard Greenberg, Theresa Rebeck, Steve Martin and Jon Robin Baitz.

Once again the season will also offer free performances by the Powerhouse Apprentice Company – including two classic plays performed at Vassar’s magnificent Outdoor Amphitheater, and a series of unique “soundpainting” performances inspired by art on exhibit at the college’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.

Mainstage Productions

(Held in the 145-seat Powerhouse Theater, 12 performances, $35)

1+1

By Eric Bogosian
Directed by Mark Brokaw
July 1 – July 13

This world premiere explores a young woman’s quest for fame in Los Angles and the unexpected turn her journey takes. How far can you go to get what you want? Are you responsible for other people’s actions? When do you stop being good?

NOTE: this play is recommended for mature audiences only since it contains strong language and adult situations

Finks

By Joe Gilford
Directed by Charlie Stratton
July 23-August 3

In the summer of 1952, a stand-up comic on the verge of a big TV breakthrough and an actress/activist fall in love. But the House Committee on Un-American Activities is about to present the terrible choice that tests not only their love, but the friendships, loyalties, and convictions of a generation. Based on events from the lives of the author’s parents, Jack and Madeline Gilford.

Martel Musicals

(Concert readings held in the 325-seat Martel Theater, in the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, 3 performances, $25)

Nero

Script and lyrics by Steven Sater
Music by Duncan Sheik
Directed by Daniel Kramer
July 11-13

A black comic tale of the bad-body Emperor who fiddles as all faith in his country burns.

notes to MariAnne

Book, music, and lyrics by David Rossmer and Dan Lipton
Directed by Jeremy Dobrish
July 18-20

A modern musical fairytale about a brother and sister torn apart by their dark past, and reunited by undying love. A haunting tapestry of hope and loss woven together by an emotionally rich book and a gorgeous popular score.

Inside Look! series

(Held in the 125-seat Susan Stein Shiva Theater, 4 performances, $20)

The History of Me

By Alan Zweibel
Directed by Charlie Stratton
July 18-20

Television comedy writer, playwright, and Thurber Prize-winning novelist Alan Zweibel traces his career, from apprenticeship as a seller of $7 jokes to Catskills comedians, through his years as a member of the original Saturday Night Live team, including his wildly popular collaboration with his friend Gilda Radner, and the ensuing adventures of his professional and personal life, in this hilarious and moving one-man show.

Horsedreams

By Dael Orlandersmith
Directed by Gordon Edelstein
July 25-27

A story of addiction that crosses class, race, and gender lines to find a 10-year-old child who must invent an adult within in order to confront the devastation that surrounds him.

Fault Lines

By Stephen Belber
August 2-3
(**NOTE: Fault Lines will be held in the Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, for two performances only.)

Tequila. Whole Foods. Culpability. Prostates? The tortured integrity of reaching 40, and what it means for men to be friends.

Readings Festivals

(Held in the 125-seat Susan Stein Shiva Theater, free to the public with reservations strongly recommended)

Readings Festival 1

June 27 – 29

Above the Fold by Bernard Weinraub
Beast by Michael Weller
Moving On by Anton Dudley
O.P.C. by Eve Ensler
Whisper from the Book of Etiquette by Claire Chafee

Readings Festival 2

August 1-3

Enough by Deborah Rennard
Knowing Cairo by Andrea Stolowitz
Little Black Dress by Ronan Noone
Mean Time by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros
Veronica by John Patrick Shanley

Powerhouse Apprentice Company Performances

Apprentice Performances at Vassar’s Outdoor Amphitheater

The Powerhouse Apprentice Company will perform abbreviated versions of classic plays at the Outdoor Amphitheater on the Vassar campus. All four performances of each work are free and begin at 6:30pm, weather permitting.

The Good Woman of Setzuan

by Bertolt Brecht
Adapted and directed by Tomi Tsunoda
July 11-July 14

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

by William Shakespeare
Adapted and directed by Anthony Luciano
July 18-July 21

Apprentice Performances at Vassar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

On three consecutive Thursday evenings, as part of the weekly “Late Night at the Lehman Loeb” series, the Powerhouse Apprentice Company will present innovative “soundpainting” performances, in the Main Galleries of the college’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. “Soundpainting” is a live composing sign language created in the 1970s by Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, actors, poets, and visual artists. In this innovative, spontaneous type of performance, the composer/conductor utilizes more than 750 gestures to indicate the type of improvisation desired of the performers.

Profile Pictures

Directed and soundpainted by Mark Lindberg
July 17, 24, 31
6:00pm

Profile Pictures is inspired by the art center’s concurrent exhibition Facebook: Images of People in Photographs from the Permanent Collection, as well as by other artwork on exhibit.

Subscription, Schedule, and Box Office Information

Online sales at http://powerhouse.vassar.edu begin May 21, strictly for season subscriptions. Beginning June 4, subscription and single tickets may be purchased either online, by calling the Powerhouse box office on campus at (845) 437-7235 or (845) 437-5599, or in person at the box office.

About Powerhouse

About New York Stage and Film

Over a century of photographic portraits traces the shifting medium in Facebook: Images of People in Photographs from the Permanent Collection. June 27 - August 10, 2008

Tim — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:30:40 +0000

Poughkeepsie, NY — While the Facebook social networking website has proven to be enormously popular, linking millions of photographs of faces to searchable biographical data, the notion of collecting and cataloguing pictures of people is not a new one. In the 1920s August Sander created a typological catalogue of more than six hundred photographs of German people from all walks of life, in his monumental lifelong project to document the residents of his native Westerwald, near Cologne.

Through fifty photographs from the nearly 3,000 in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center collection, the new exhibition Facebook: Images of People in Photographs from the Permanent Collection examines the development of the photographic portrait from the nineteenth century through today. Facebook will be presented June 27-August 10 in the museum's Prints and Drawings Galleries, and will only be seen there.

The exhibition features many of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century: from very early formal portraits to the iconic photographs taken in the early 1900s by August Sander and Walker Evans (the famed chronicler of rural and laboring Americans); from the unique personalities captured by visionary artist Diane Arbus in the 1960s, to the theatrical fictions created by Cindy Sherman in the 1980s; as well as the deadpan views of ordinary New Yorkers shot by Rineke Dijkstra in the 1990s.

"This exhibition not only reflects photography's diversity, but also reveals the many changes in both style and technique that the medium has undergone," explains Mary-Kay Lombino, the Art Center's Emily Hargroves Fisher '57 and Richard B. Fisher curator.

In addition, Facebook presents photographs by several lesser-known artists. For example, Jerry L. Thompson's own brand of street photography comprises nighttime portraits of lively individuals at the Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn during the summers of 1972 and 1973, as well as his portraits taken on New York City streets (the latter works part of his nearly 20-year project that began in the early 1980s). The exhibition also includes works from the Art Center's new acquisition of Polaroids by Andy Warhol, which depict the famous faces of John Denver, Liza Minnelli, and others.

Althea Thauberger's work often features solo and group portraits of young adults in subtly performative poses, engaging with the environment. The individual personality of her subject comes across strongly in her large-scale color photograph Dani, made in 2005 (and one of the most recent works in the exhibition). Berenice Abbott, Walead Beshty, Richard Avedon, Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Lee Freidlander, Nan Goldin, Mark Goodman, Lewis W. Hine, Sherrie Levine, Helen Levitt, Sally Mann, Lee Miller, Thomas Ruff, Laurie Simmons, Paul Strand, Larry Sultan, Weegee, and Garry Winogrand are among the other artists whose photographs are seen in Facebook.

The photographic portrait – once defined by aristocratic formality or anthropological and utilitarian documentation – is now more often characterized by do-it-yourself experimentation, the result of the medium continually responding to new technologies and materials. But the shift in how we now use and understand photographs is perhaps even more revealing.

Prior to the information age, photographs were helpful tools for research, record keeping, and documentation. As photography has increasingly shifted to digital imaging, the medium has been marked by a growing percentage of the population owning a camera (or at least having one on their phone), and taking pictures on a regular basis. Today, with the proliferation of photographic material and its endless availability, we find ourselves inundated with pictures.

"One wonders whether a website such as Facebook actually helps us sort through visual material or if it has made our relationship with images more complex by virtue of its shear enormity," said Lombino.

Exhibition reception and curator's tour

(free and open to the public)

Thursday, June 26

Exhibition reception: 5:00-9:00pm
Exhibition tour led by curator Mary-Kay Lombino: 6:00pm
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center
124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie
(845) 437-5632, http://fllac.vassar.edu

About the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center was founded in 1864 as the Vassar College Art Gallery. The current 36,400-square-foot facility, designed by Cesar Pelli and named in honor of the new building's primary donor, opened in 1993. The Lehman Loeb Art Center's collections chart the history of art from antiquity to the present and comprise over 17,000 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and glass and ceramic wares. Notable holdings include the Warburg Collection of Old Master prints, an important group of Hudson River School paintings given by Matthew Vassar at the college's inception, and a wide range of works by major European and American twentieth century painters. Vassar was the first U.S. college founded with a permanent art collection and gallery, and at any given time, the Permanent Collection Galleries of the Art Center feature approximately 350 works from Vassar's extensive collections.

Vassar earns $1.5 million grant to support the sciences from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Tim — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:25:35 +0000

Poughkeepsie, NY — A broad initiative to deepen Vassar College's historic excellence in both undergraduate science education and science education outreach has been awarded $1.5 million from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The grant, one of the college's most substantial to date for science curriculum and programming, comes from the nation's largest private supporter of science education: HHMI has invested more than $1.2 billion to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges.

Vassar's $1.5 million award is nearly the largest from HHMI's newest $60 million funding initiative. Over 220 colleges were invited to apply for funds from this pool, and Vassar was one of only 48 colleges to receive awards, ranging from $700,000 to $1.6 million. Distinguished scientists and educators selected the grant winners through a stringent review process.

"This outstanding support from HHMI will help us extend in several important ways how we educate the next generation of scientists, as well as how we further scientific literacy on campus and in the community," said Vassar president Catharine Bond Hill. "We look forward to new opportunities for student-faculty collaboration, and enhancements to our curriculum and facilities that will keep us on the cutting edge. And I'm very gratified that HHMI is supporting our outreach programs with the Poughkeepsie public schools."

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teaching, research, and inquiry are hallmarks of the Vassar curriculum, and a key focus of the HHMI grant. Another emphasis of the grant is to expand opportunities for students to conduct original research with professors; Vassar's science graduates consistently say such projects are transformative experiences.

More specifically, the grant will support several initiatives:

The new "Science Education Teams" program will help Vassar professors develop new team-taught interdisciplinary courses, both within the sciences and spanning science and non-science disciplines. The college expects these courses to expose a greater number of students to science and scientific inquiry.
Through the college's new "Research Collectives," professors will receive teaching credit for mentoring student researchers, and all of the student researchers will earn credit for a graded course, an option previously available only to seniors in most Vassar departments.
Vassar has found that an effective way to attract and retain students in science majors is to involve them as early as possible in research opportunities. The college's faculty members also recognize that students who conduct independent research are more inquisitive in class, and have more highly developed critical reasoning skills. With these goals in mind, the HHMI grant will also make possible:
The new "Diving into Research" summer program, an annual 4-week on-campus research opportunity for minority and economically disadvantaged students due to be freshmen in the fall. Each participant will work alongside a Vassar professor and student. The faculty member will also serve as a pre-major advisor/mentor, and the student will become a peer mentor throughout the freshman's first school year.
After its first year, "Diving into Research" will expand to include Poughkeepsie High School juniors in research and enrichment opportunities. When they're not in the lab or the field, the students will attend lunch talks and discussions about careers in science, applying to college, and related topics. The program will also provide stipends to the high schoolers, and cover their housing and meal costs (the public high school for the City of Poughkeepsie has a 70% minority student body).