SSA Conference Schedule: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM, Performances

Location: Johnson Theatre, Lenfest Center
Moderators: Laura Galke, David Millon, Brian Richardson, Lucas Morel

2:00 - Vocal Recital: Mozart


Participants:
Lisa Zevorich

I will perform a selection that I am preparing for my senior vocal recital this spring. The piece is the aria "Deh vieni, non tardar" from Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). After a brief introduction to the piece in the context of the opera and in the context of Mozart's career, I will perform "Deh vieni, non tardar."

2:15 - Film: What Kubrick Left Out of His Lolita


Participants:
Micah  Fergenson
Harry St. John

In regards to Nabokov’s novel, the text of Lolita is, in many ways, inescapably and fundamentally shaped by the foreward written by John Ray.  This foreward is traditionally coupled with Nabokov's afternote, which establishes an essential connection to John Ray's foreward.  Alfred Appel, a former student and eminent critic of Nabokov, believes the combined effect of the foreward and the afternote so critical to an understanding of the novel that he instructs readers of his The Annotated Lolita (1970) to begin with the foreward, then read the afternote, and finally to start Humbert's memoir.  In the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation of Lolita, this foreward is entirely cut from the film. 

A fictional foreward as well as the consequent effects on the novel is translated into film for this project.  Nabokov's postscript to Lolita, another atypical literary construct, has also been adapted.  The selection to adapt these two scenes made it possible to distinguish this film created from Kubrick's and to emphasize central themes of Lolita largely untouched by his version.  It also presented the creative challenge of adapting particularly unusual and unique examples of literature.  An audience interested in how literary concepts of "the author" transfer to the medium of film would have much to say about this project. 

2:30 - Dramatic Performance: My Name Is Rachel Corrie


Participants:
Paten Hughes

Rachel Corrie was an American who was killed in Palestine by a bulldozer while doing humanitarian work amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This show is a compilation of her journal entries and letters to her parents, edited and originally directed by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner. The show premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London for a sold-out run in 2005 and just finished up a two-month run in New York.

It is a political piece and very controversial, which is why the original New York run was canceled. Many people see her as a meddler, anti-American, etc. Her journal entries and letters give insight into Rachel's humanity--her imperfections, her passions. Rachel's parents wrote about the play: "Theater can reach people in a different and deeper place than reading a news article or listening to a speech: there is an emotional aspect that for some people can be more long-lasting and motivating. The play, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, is not just about how Rachel died, even if that is why she is known and remembered. It also illuminates her humanity, tracing her evolution from typical teenage self-exploration through to her search for a political voice." For me, this piece is fantastic because it shows her as a raw human being protecting the lives of others...who the other people are is not the point of the play.

3:30 - Dramatic Performances: Women, Comedy and Social Justice


Participants:
Emma Axt
Richard Cleary
Rebecca Hatchet
Lauran Hughes
Suzanne Humphries
Rebecca LeMoine
Christina Merchant
Katherine Michaels
Jennifer Schieltz
Taylor Walle

This panel proposes to share various performative presentations developed by the students enrolled in the advanced French seminar on Women and Comedy across the centuries in French and Italian theater. Some will be reconstructed scenes from original commedia dell'arte scenarios, others reconstructed, improvised scenes from French classical comedies or Italian modern feminist plays, and some will be the students' original creations.

Some of the work presented will have also been the result of a special workshop on theater for social justice that performance artist Norma Bowles, the director of the LA based theater company Fringe Benefits will have developed with my class, following commedia dell'arte techniques and methods developed at the Le Coq Institute in France.
The performances will be followed by discussion with the audience.

4:00 - Choral Arrangement: The Water is Wide


Participants:
Catherine Swan

I arranged the American Folk Song "The Water is Wide" as a project for my advanced composition class. The arrangement is for SATB choir. The arrangement also features part of the Shenandoah melody. Members of the University Chamber Singers will perform the composition.

Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia 24450
(540) 458-8400
Contact Us