Celebrating student achievement in the arts, June 2

Transcription

1 Celebrating student achievement in the arts, June 2 Photos (from top): Sharon Washington, courtesy of the artist; Michael Blum, Amanda Young, Evan Griffith, W. Spencer Janes, and (L-R) Max Gottschall and Max Samuels, by Rob Strong. HANOVER, NH, May 27, 2015 Who are those students who haunt, all hours of the day and night, the hallways, studios, rehearsal rooms and performance venues of the Hop and the Black Family Visual Arts Center? What are they doing? More importantly, what are they prepared to do once they finish their four years? The annual Arts at Dartmouth Awards Ceremony which this year takes place Tuesday, June 2, at 4:30 pm in The Moore Theater of the Hop is a lively snapshot of some of the most dedicated and accomplished graduating members of the college s arts community. While at Dartmouth, they have directed complex productions, launched recording and filmmaking careers, contributed significantly to the Upper Valley s community arts scene, and employed cutting-edge technology and entrepreneurial ideas. The Arts at Dartmouth Awards are free and open to the public and include along with the presentation of dozens of awards in theater, music, visual arts, art history and film and media studies a fully staged performance of Opening Doors, a rousing song from the musical Merrily We Roll Along, starring current students and directed and accompanied by Max Gottschall 15, plus remarks by Sharon Washington, Dartmouth class of 1981, an accomplished theater, film (The Bourne Legacy, Michael Clayton) and television (Gotham, Blue Bloods, Law & Order) actor and a featured writer and performer in this summer s New York Theatre Workshop three-week Dartmouth residency. Below is a sampling of graduating seniors who are among the approximately 70 undergraduates being recognized in this year s awards. Quality Opens Doors Raised in a musical household on Long Island, Michael Blum came to Dartmouth a committed jazz guitarist and leaves it launched as a professional musician. Playing in a pit band for a theater department musical his freshman year led to a job in the pit band of a summer theater, his first professional gig. He dug into long hours of practice and off-campus lessons with Berklee College of Music Professor Jim Stinnett and, in his junior year recorded a CD that earned rave reviews in DownBeat Magazine, All About Jazz and Vintage Guitar Magazine. A Music Department residency last fall with jazz musicians John and Jeff Clayton further crystallized his vocation. My teacher [Stinnett] always used to tell me, As

2 my friend John Clayton always says, The doors of opportunity will open to you based on the quality of your work. Then I got to meet John Clayton, and he said, The doors of opportunity will open to you based on the quality of your work, Blum laughed. It really gave me faith that what I spent so many hours on each day would show some benefits down the road, if I kept raising the level of my playing. He will be awarded the Music Department s Macdonald-Smith Prize, which recognizes high achievement in musical performances. Carving Her Own Path Entering Dartmouth with a strong interest in media, Amanda Young found her way into new media the online, digital and interactive variety and at the College has blazed a trail others with like interests might follow. On campus, she immersed herself in game design in The Tiltfactor Lab, film in the student film production club Stories Growing Films, and entrepreneurship as part of the student leadership team of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network (DEN). Off campus, she has interned in venture capital and in marketing and business development at a startup, and was also among the 16 students who took part in the first Film and Media Studies offcampus program in Los Angeles the winter of 2014, which included an internship at Hulu. After graduating, she hopes to pursue a career at the intersection of business and innovation. Even though Dartmouth is a liberal arts school, I ve been able to work with cutting-edge media, Young said. It s been great to really experience carving my own path. She will be awarded one of the five Maurice H. Rapf 35 Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Film and Media Studies. The Power of Extracurriculars A typical Sunday for Evan Griffith involves accompanying choir rehearsal at the West Lebanon Congregational Church, followed by the church s morning service, then back to campus to lead a rehearsal of the Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra (DCO), then to Rollins Chapel to play organ at the evening service, and then to the Roth Center to lead a rehearsal of the UVJC-Hillel Choir, the Jewish liturgical ensemble he started his freshman year. It s all extracurricular, as is his passionate participation as a singer, this time in the Handel Society of Dartmouth College; likewise his organization last fall of the DCO s first-ever New York City community outreach tour, where the student-led ensemble played for firefighters, school kids, seniors and more; and the hours he has been spending lately writing and recording his own compositions, which range from choral to orchestral, from Jewish to electronic dance pop, and have been premiered at Dartmouth events as well as New York s Temple Emanu-El, his home congregation. A double major in music and psychology, Griffith will receive the Handel Society Chorus Award, given to an undergraduate who has helped the Handel Society most in a musical or managerial capacity; and, in the music category, the Marcus Heiman Martin R. Rosenthal 56 Achievement Award in the Creative Arts.

3 Swapping the Small Screen for the Large The small screen held W. Spencer Janes in thrall when he arrived at Dartmouth: shows in which the writer s voice mattered, like Friday Night Lights, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Six Feet Under. What he found was the big screen, as he immersed himself in film history courses, the Telluride at Dartmouth festivals and the Dartmouth Film Society, of which he s a member of the directorate and is known for his particularly artful film notes. A screenwriting class with Professor Bill Phillips led him to write for film and to his winning Dartmouth screenwriting awards three years in a row, including this year. The student film production club Stories Growing Films chose a screenplay of his to produce during his sophomore summer. He s ready for more, with plans to move to Los Angeles after graduation and pursue a career as a screenwriter. He will be awarded one of the five Maurice H. Rapf 35 Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Film and Media Studies. Who Had the Most Fun? Flip through the Flickr albums for the Hop s HopStop series of performances for young children and you can t miss one of a member of Vandana, Dartmouth s student-led South Asian dance troupe, being hugged by one of the preschool audience members. Julia Kannam received many such embraces that day after Vandana s performance, with the audience peppered with her professors children as well as kids she knew from working at Dartmouth s childcare center. She knows how she ll spend the cash award she ll receive as a recipient of the Erich Kunzel Class of 1957 Award: the same way she spent an award she received last June, with which she paid herself a salary for an otherwise volunteer position in a summer musical theater program for kids near her home town of Durham, Conn. In previous summers, she s been the music director. This summer, she s the director, period, for a production of Stephen Sondheim s musically challenging Into the Woods. Then, she ll return to campus in August for a placement in a local school, continuing the student teaching she has done this year as part of Dartmouth s elementary-teaching certification program. Her vocational path unfolded in steps during her Dartmouth years, starting with a class in music theory her freshman year. Although she had played piano all her life, theory was new to her; despite being way over her head, she loved the challenge. Deciding to combine her interests in music and child development, she crafted a music major modified with education, and she threw herself into the Hop s Students Teaching in the Arts (START) program. Last year, she and two other START volunteers taught American history through music, together planning and carrying out the 45-to-60-minute lessons, which took place once a week over the term. I think I had the most fun of all, Kannam said.

4 Maxed Out Since the arrival at Dartmouth four years ago of Max Gottschall and Max Samuels, there has hardly been a Dartmouth theater production that has not been maxed in some way. They have played leads in such MainStage productions as (Samuels) Hairspray, In the Next Room, The Liar, Romeo and Juliet and (Gottschall) Angels in America and Spring Awakening; and, in student-led productions, Gottschall directed Glengarry Glen Ross and musicdirected Cabaret, both of which starred Samuels. This spring they worked together on their biggest collaboration yet: the Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, which starred Samuels as a successful but jaded composer looking back on the decisions he has made since college, and was directed and produced by Gottschall. The production was funded by a grant from the Theater Department s Lazarus Family Musical Theater Program Fund, one of the two awards Gottschall will be receive at the Arts at Dartmouth Awards Ceremony. These very good friends and roommates are both named Max, both Jews from Connecticut, and both are doing theater degrees combined or modified in unique ways, said Gottschall, who is pursuing a double major in Theater and Government. Gottschall intends after a gap year funded in part by his other award, David Birney Award for Excellence in the Theatre Arts to go to law school and develop the business means and acumen to produce theater, an emphasis he grew to love this spring. Samuels is pursuing a double major in theater modified with business and economics, and Chinese. I want to pursue an acting career, and a big part of that these days is being entrepreneurial and controlling your brand, Samuels said. The combination of theater, business and economics courses he concocted might be a useful template for other Dartmouth students with similar goals, he added. Samuels will receive The Warner Bentley Fellowship Endowment & Henry B. Williams Fellowship Endowment, which is intended to help provide a bridge between the undergraduate experience and that of the professional theater world. Download Word.doc press release and high-resolution photos CALENDAR LISTING: The Arts at Dartmouth Awards Ceremony A celebration of Dartmouth student achievement in the arts with live performances and short film screenings. Awards presented on behalf of Hopkins Center Ensembles, Hopkins Center Student Workshops, Academic Departments, Art History, Film and Media Studies, Music, Studio Art, Theater and more! With guest of honor Sharon Washington 81, an accomplished theater, film and television actor. Tuesday, June 2, 4:30 pm The Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH Free Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or * * * Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and

5 the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50 th -anniversary season in , the Hop enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.