CONWAY, Ark. (November 5, 2013) – World
renowned theatre artist Daniel Stein will direct a student production of his
play Still. Going Forward Backward
on Wednesday, Nov. 13 – Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Cabe Theatre.
The production is co-sponsored by the Hendrix College
Department of Theatre Arts and Dance and the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation for
Literature and Language, which provides yearly support for the visiting
director program.
Performances are free but reservations are
required. For more information, call 501-450-1343.
Still.
Going Forward Backward consists of repeated vignettes exploring
the complicated interpersonal relationships between men and women. As
Stein writes in his director’s notes, “It takes our thoughts, fantasies and
wishes about personal relationships and puts them into three dimensions.
Something that can be seen, instead of something that we usually only hold in
our imaginations…. This is not some kind of intellectual mumbo jumbo. It
is very down to earth – ideas shown on stage in a very visceral,
UN-intellectual way. The ideas that we will be looking at are those of
everyday communication between couples, or would be couples, or folks just
sniffing around to see if they might want to be couples; ideas
that highlight, for example, the differences in the way men and women
communicate.”
About the
Director
A
world renowned theatre artist, Stein is this year’s Visiting Murphy Director.
Stein is the head of movement and physical theatre at Brown University/ Trinity
Repertory Theatre MFA Acting Program. He is now also
the Director of theatre for the Accademia Dell'Arte Summer institute in Arezzo
Italy.
Since leaving his position as an actor with the French National
Theatre, Stein has been creating, directing and performing non-verbal and
verbal plays. Performing these plays and the teaching that often accompanies
them have taken him to more than 30 countries. His work has been seen at some
of the world's largest theatre festivals such as Singapore, Copenhagen,
Amsterdam, Budapest and London, and has had the distinction of playing extended
runs and performing at Lincoln Center.
At the founding conference of the National Movement Theatre
Association he was elected, by his peers, as that organizations first president
and continues to serve on its board of directors. Stein has taught master
classes throughout the world at institutions such as Juilliard School of Drama,
New York and The Institute of Dramatic Arts, Tokyo, also at international
festivals, and at his own studio. He was named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow
and most recently the recipient of a National Theatre Artist Residency Grant,
offered by The Pew Charitable Trust, and administered by Theatre Communications
Group.
Updated bio:
After studying in the
Professional Actors Training Program at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he
worked with Jewel Walker, Daniel went to Paris, France to study with Etienne
Decroux, becoming M. Decroux’s frequent translator. Subsequently making
his home in Paris for 20 years, Daniel started his professional career as an
actor with the French National Theatre. His solo performances have toured
in more than 30 countries, as well as in theatres such as the Kennedy Center
and Lincoln Center here in the United States. He has taught master classes
throughout the world at institutions such as Juilliard School of Drama and The
Shanghai Theatre Academy. Daniel has directed for Companies such as the
Berkeley Rep., Colorado Shakespeare Co. and Touchstone Theatres. and is a John
Simon Guggenheim Fellow.
Founded
in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and
sciences education. For the sixth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of
the country’s “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report.
Hendrix is featured in the latest edition of Colleges That
Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, as well
as the 2014 Princeton
Review’s The Best 378 Colleges, Forbes magazine's
list of America's Top Colleges, and
the 2014 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United
Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.
In the image (left to right):
Top:
Katie Shultz, Bryan Urban, Madeline Newchurch,
Megan Barker
Middle:
Marissa Stubbe, Anna Dirx, Ira Grace, Robert
Durante
Bottom:
Bonnie
Nolan; Amelia Grayson; Luke Conner