DC Wright directed "March Tale" by Tim Slover at Illinois College, which went up in March.
Wright also directed the fights for Knox College's production of "Hamlet", May 7-11.
May 12th, Wright begins teaching at the Central Illinois Stage Combat Workshop, co-sponsored by WIU and Eureka College. DC is the Co-coordinater of the workshop and was instrumental in arranging for it to be held in alternating years in Macomb, begining 2009. The workshop draws participants from all over the country. Two current MFA students and one MFA alum will be working as interns at this years workshop.
Wright will also begin work as the Fight Director for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in May. He will be choreographing the violence for Titus Andronicus, Taming of the Shrew, and the Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged). WIU MFA student Jamie Stiers will be his Assistant for the festival.
Bill Kincaid, associate professor and head of acting in the department of theatre and dance, was inducted into the WIU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi. Kincaid came to WIU in August 2003. Kincaid has worked as an actor, director and musical director for numerous theatres around the country, including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, New England Shakespeare Festival, Chicago's Vitalist Theatre, the Brown County Playhouse in Indiana, New York's Cortland Repertory Theatre, Seacoast Repertory Theatre in New Hampshire, Johnny Appleseed Outdoor Drama, Theatre Works of Sarasota Florida and McLeod Summer Playhouse. His particular interest in original performance practice of Elizabethan scripts led to him to found Macomb's "Bard in the Barn" project with the support of the Macomb Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and grants from the Performing Arts Society and the University Research Council. At Western, he has played Benjamin Franklin in "1776," directed productions of "Fuddy Meers, "Henry IV, Part One," "Bach at Leipzig" and "The Visit." Recently he received a Faculty Directing Fellowship from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), and was honored by the National Partners of American Theatre with a Classical Acting Coach Award. Kincaid is actively involved in regional leadership of the KCACTF, serving frequently as a production respondent and also as the Illinois state chair.
Ray Gabica and MFA student Andrew Christopher Hampton co-directed a production of "The History Boys" in support of the West Central Illinois Arts Center initiative in Macomb in April. The production was assisted by theatre faculty Christiane Morel and Carolyn Blackinton. Cast members included theatre students
Caleb Slaga-Schwarz, Corey Michael-Morrison, Josh Huppert, Kyle Motsinger, Lee Bussie, Mike Jones, Samuel J. Weller, Sean O'Connell, and Andrew Christopher Hampton. Ray Gabica, and fellow COFAC faculty
Lynn Thompson, School of Music, and Nancy Crossman, Communication, completed the cast.
Student News
Jonathan Self (MFA 09) will play the lead role in A FEW GOOD MEN (directed by faculty member Bill Kincaid) at the Cortland Repertory Theatre.
Nathan Grant (MFA 10) is a company member with the Timber Lake Playhouse this summer.
Jared McDaris (MFA 10) will return to the Black Hills Players to play Horace Vandergelder in HELLO, DOLLY.
Peter Johnson (MFA 07) is returning to the Texas Shakespeare Festival as a company member.
Nicholas Schell (MFA 08) will join the company of the Great American Melodrama in California.