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K-State Today

September 4, 2020

K-State MTD production season adjusts to mix-media performances

Submitted by Jennifer Vellenga

Kansas Theatre Works

In a new partnership between the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, the production season for live theatre, dance, and opera — normally in McCain Auditorium, Chapman Theatre and the Purple Masque Theatre — is adjusting to mixed-media delivery for the academic year 2020-2021.

The theatre program is launching the "Kansas Theatre Works" podcast, similar to L.A. Theatre Works, an international leader in audio theatre production. The adjusted theatre season provides students the opportunity to learn new storytelling methods, voice acting techniques and broadcasting standards.

The podcast season begins with the performance of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" on Oct. 15, directed by assistant professor and head of acting and directing David Mackay. Biweekly episodes will feature plays written by alumni playwrights, including television writer Nathan Louis Jackson '97 ("Luke Cage," "13 Reasons Why," "Resurrection") and Broadway producer and writer Laura Camien '94 ("Title of Show," "Blue Man Group"). Promotional spots are available for purchase to support the program. Interested colleges, departments, programs and businesses should contact associate director Jennifer Vellenga at vellenga@k-state.edu

The dance program will be screening three original dance works created for the camera by K-State dance faculty, as well as a dance-for-the-camera staging of Anna Sokolow's seminal 1955 choreography "Rooms," which examined the psychic isolation and unfulfilled desires of characters isolated in their small city apartments when the threat of atomic annihilation, polio and the Red Scare loomed large. The K-State dance program is one of seven university dance programs involved in a nationwide project to explore the new resonance that 2020 has brought to Sokolow's masterpiece.

More information about the complete School of Music, Theatre, and Dance concerts, performances and special events will be made available on its website and social media platforms.

The School of Music, Theatre, and Dance is a part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Go to k-state.edu/mtd/ to learn more about music, theater and dance at K-State.