Calendar

Sep
1
Sun
RC Drama: Twelfth Night @ Arboretum (Peony Garden entrance)
Sep 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

A special performance for students of Shakespeare in the Arb on Labor Day weekend. Play is Twelfth Night, directed by Graham Atkin and Carol Gray, with Kate Mendeloff of the Residential College. Takes place in Nichols Arboretum, 1610 Washington Hts., Ann Arbor. Free but student ID required.

Now in its 19th year, Shakespeare in the Arb is directed by Kate Mendeloff of the U-M Residential College, Carol Gray, and Graham Atkin, and performed by U-M students and community players.

For member and non-member questions and information, visit mbgna.umich.edu

Shakespeare in the Arb came into existence in the summer of 2001, when Residential College Drama faculty member Kate Mendeloff was asked to direct an outdoor production as part of a three year Ford Motor Company grant for Arts in the Nichols Arboretum. She chose Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its structure — the characters were transformed by the power of the natural world. The production was such a popular success that Mendeloff remounted it the following summer, and “Shakespeare in the Arb” became an Ann Arbor tradition!

The unique experience of Shakespeare in the Arb comes from the environmental staging of the plays. There is no fixed stage; instead, the audience follows the action through different locations in the Arboretum. The staging takes advantage of the vistas and valleys, the special arrangements of the natural settings.

The wide open space of the Arb becomes a panoramic stage, creating a more realistic setting than if every scene was played out directly in front of you. As one critic commented, “The actors used the vastness of its Arb stage to full advantage, making entrances from behind trees, appearing over rises and vanishing into the woods.”

Every year, many UM students, alumni, and faculty members gather to act in Shakespeare in the Arb. The RC offers Spring term class credit to students who participate. The experience blends community, student, and professional-style participation in a theatrical production with the delicate ecology and beautiful environment of the Arb, providing dynamic educational value for participating students.

Auditions occur every April, with rehearsals starting in the Spring term. Performances occur over 3 weekends in June. For information about participation, please contact founder Kate Mendeloff.

To find information about this year’s production of Shakespeare in the Arb, go to Matthei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA) , or like Shakespeare in the Arb on Facebook for updates on the production!

Sep
3
Tue
The Moth Storyslam: Neighborhoods @ Greyline
Sep 3 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Open-mic storytelling competitions. Open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night’s theme. Come tell a story, or just enjoy the show!

6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin

*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.

*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.

Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.

NEIGHBORHOODS: Prepare a five-minute story about communities.Nosy grandma two doors down, kids on the stoop, block parties and other local flavors. The guy at the corner store, the church down the road, the playground down the block. Keeping up with the Joneses, glass houses, cups of sugar, banging on the ceiling, parking spot battles or the girl-next door.

 

Sep
13
Fri
Millenials Are Killing – Revival! @ Riverside Arts Center - Off Center Studio
Sep 13 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Missed “Millennials Are Killing” earlier this summer? Fabulous news! These murderous buds are bringing you two extra performances – same cast, same place, at Riverside Arts Center’s “Off Center” studio! Please note that we will be starting one half hour earlier than our previous performances, at 7:30 PM!

Five directionless twenty-somethings – high-maintenance free spirit Jess, impish heartbreaker Joshua, timid gossip Amanda, softhearted activist Nick, and strange newcomer Michael – are content to pass their evenings together in listless, alcoholic stupors. Surely they can have nothing to do with the series of terrible disappearances and deaths happening around their college town?

“Millennials Are Killing” is the newest play to be workshopped by Ann Arbor playwright and director Skyler Tarnas. Tickets will be $10 at the door, $7 for students. The “Off Center” studio can be accessed directly off of Huron Street in Ypsilanti, and is directly under the marquee! There will be a sign on the door and a chalkboard out front!

Show Dates and Times:
Friday, September 13th – 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 14th – 7:30 PM

CAST:
Jessica: Laurie Perrin
Joshua: Kyle Stefek
Amanda: Allison Burley
Nicholas: Sebastien Butler
Michael: Mitchell Salley
Mom: Grey Hendry

The History of Physics in 13 Songs, From Galileo to Dark Matter @ East Quad Keene Theater
Sep 13 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Join us for a 45-minute interdisciplinary musical performance that highlights the turning points in the history of physics.

The show combines fragments (excerpts from writings by some of the most prominent physicists in history) read and interpreted by a narrator (a role played by Lynnae Lehfeldt in the premiere), with original songs, based on each fragment, composed by Alberto Rojo, and performed by Alberto Rojo (guitar and voice), Michael Gould (percussion), and Dave Haughey (cello). The project explores the intersection between the arts and the sciences, and postulates that art and science are not antagonistic alternatives in the search for truth; rather, there is a broad territory of coexistence.

The movements are as follows Galileo (The Book of the Universe); Isaac Newton (From the Principia); Pierre Maupertuis (Least Action); Rudolf Clausius (The Limiting Condition); Ludwig Boltzmann (Atomic movements); James Clerk Maxwell (From letters to Faraday); Marie Curie (Radioactivity); Albert Einstein (From the 1905 paper); Max Planck (The quantum of action); Werner Heisenberg (Analogies); J. S. Bell (Remote Instruments); Richard Feynman (Trees are made of air); Vera Rubin (Dark Matter)

 

Sep
14
Sat
Millenials Are Killing – Revival! @ Riverside Arts Center - Off Center Studio
Sep 14 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Missed “Millennials Are Killing” earlier this summer? Fabulous news! These murderous buds are bringing you two extra performances – same cast, same place, at Riverside Arts Center’s “Off Center” studio! Please note that we will be starting one half hour earlier than our previous performances, at 7:30 PM!

Five directionless twenty-somethings – high-maintenance free spirit Jess, impish heartbreaker Joshua, timid gossip Amanda, softhearted activist Nick, and strange newcomer Michael – are content to pass their evenings together in listless, alcoholic stupors. Surely they can have nothing to do with the series of terrible disappearances and deaths happening around their college town?

“Millennials Are Killing” is the newest play to be workshopped by Ann Arbor playwright and director Skyler Tarnas. Tickets will be $10 at the door, $7 for students. The “Off Center” studio can be accessed directly off of Huron Street in Ypsilanti, and is directly under the marquee! There will be a sign on the door and a chalkboard out front!

Show Dates and Times:
Friday, September 13th – 7:30 PM
Saturday, September 14th – 7:30 PM

CAST:
Jessica: Laurie Perrin
Joshua: Kyle Stefek
Amanda: Allison Burley
Nicholas: Sebastien Butler
Michael: Mitchell Salley
Mom: Grey Hendry

Sep
17
Tue
The Moth Storyslam: Cars @ Greyline
Sep 17 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Open-mic storytelling competitions. Open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night’s theme. Come tell a story, or just enjoy the show!

6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin

*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.

*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.

Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.

CARS: Prepare a five-minute story about the most American way of getting from point A to point B. Tell us about drag-racing on empty neighborhood streets, dropping keys down a sewer, getting away just in the nick of time. Driving though, driving in, turning around, turning back, circling around and around. Tells us about riding in your precious hunk of metal.

 

Sep
22
Sun
Theatre Nova: Frederick Glaysher’s The Parliament of Poets @ Theatre Nova
Sep 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Celebrating our common humanity uniting us all.

On September 22, 29, and October 6, 7:00 pm, the theatre company, Apollo’s Troupe, will stage the theatre adaptation of the critically-acclaimed epic poem, The Parliament of Poets, written by Michigan poet Frederick Glaysher and published in 2012 by Earthrise Press. Fresh from performing in May at Wayne State University’s Studio Theatre, this stage adaptation of Mr. Glaysher’s epic work in verse keeps intact much of the beautiful poetry that exemplifies this spectacular book while seeking to reach a new audience with its message of how poetry and artistry from all times and cultures can elevate the world and redefine our lives for the better.

Glaysher studied with Robert Hayden during the last year of his life, worked for him as a secretary, and editing his Collected Prose for the University of Michigan Press and his Collected Poems for Liveright. Glaysher holds two degrees from U of M, the latter a Master’s in English. When it came time for writing his epic poem, Glaysher knew he had to include Robert Hayden to try to honor his former teacher, mentor, and friend.

Taking place on the moon at the Apollo 11 landing site, a lone poet finds himself charged by Don Quixote and “The Parliament of Poets” to spread a new message of beauty, unity, and love to all nations of our fractured modern world. He is then sent to meet with the great poets, myths, and characters from history, East and West, to be mentored on his quest towards enlightenment and understanding.

The cast is comprised of the poet himself, as a persona, The Poet of the Moon, as well as five talented actors playing multiple roles including Don Quixote, Merlin the Magician, Jane Austen, Ann Arbor Poet Robert Hayden, Leo Tolstoy, the Biblical prophet-poet Job, the great Chinese poet Du Fu, the African Queen Sogolon, and many more. These actors are Dennis Kleinsmith as Don Quixote and Tolstoy (Theatre Nova, JET, Shakespeare in Detroit, etc.), Krystle Dellihue as Robert Hayden and Queen Sogolon from the Mali epic Sundiata (Shakespeare In Detroit, Matrix Theatre, Redbud, PTD), Alexander Sloan, also as Robert Hayden and Jorge Luis Borges (Open Book, Water Works, Hope College), Marley Boone, as the Fairy Queen and the Chinese Tang poet Du Fu (Williamston, St. Dunstan’s, several Philadelphia theatres), Patrick Grimes, as the African Flying Tortoise Mbeku, Merlin, Virgil, and William Blake (Redbud, Morris, Young People’s Theatre). The stage manager is Briana O’Neal, the new resident stage manager at Theatre Nova (Eastern MSU, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre).

In the canto with Robert Hayden, he invokes the passage from Stephen Vincent Benet’s John Brown’s Body about one day there would be an American black poet who would sing for his people. Hayden then calls forth the fairies and magical beings from around the world, throughout time, to carry him and his “charge,” the Poet of the Moon, heavenward to the Apollo 11 landing site.

Based on staging by Jeff Thomakos, of the Michigan Michael Chekhov Studio, the show is a unique blend of poetry reading, protest play, and performance art with a powerful message of peace, love, and humanity on the tiny, blue marble floating in space that we all share together.

“I am very honored to try to bring this critically-acclaimed work, from one of Michigan’s most talented poets to life. I think it will be a unique and moving experience,” says Mr. Thomakos.

The show will be a Guest Production at Theatre Nova, 410 West Huron Street. Performances will take place 7:00 – 9:00 pm on Sunday evenings September 22, 29, and October 6. Tickets are at the door and online under Guest Productions,  https://www.theatrenova.org/guest-productions  $22 general, $15 students. Go to TheatreNova.org or EarthrisePress.Net for more information. Or call 248-453-4220. The Parliament of Poets  can be purchased at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore.

Sep
25
Wed
The Moth Michigan GrandSLAM @ The Ark
Sep 25 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

*Tickets for this event are available two weeks before the show, at 3pm ET athttp://themoth.org

*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.

“It is brilliant and quietly addictive,” says London’s Guardian newspaper. “New York’s hottest and hippest literary ticket” raves the Wall Street Journal. The Moth is an acclaimed not-for-profit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling. It is a celebration of both the raconteur, who breathes fire into true tales of ordinary life, and the storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it. At the center of each performance is, of course, the story—and The Moth’s directors work with each storyteller to find, shape and present it. Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth shows are renowned for the great range of human experience they showcase. Each show starts with a theme, and the storytellers explore it, often in unexpected ways. Since each story is true and every voice authentic, the shows dance between documentary and theater, creating a unique, intimate, and often enlightening experience for the audience. Moth stories dissolve socio-economic barriers, expose vulnerabilities, and quietly suggest ways to overcome challenges and see with new eyes. Tonight’s Moth show is the Moth Michigan GrandSLAM Championship—The Moth at its best!

Sep
29
Sun
Theatre Nova: Frederick Glaysher’s The Parliament of Poets @ Theatre Nova
Sep 29 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Celebrating our common humanity uniting us all.

On September 22, 29, and October 6, 7:00 pm, the theatre company, Apollo’s Troupe, will stage the theatre adaptation of the critically-acclaimed epic poem, The Parliament of Poets, written by Michigan poet Frederick Glaysher and published in 2012 by Earthrise Press. Fresh from performing in May at Wayne State University’s Studio Theatre, this stage adaptation of Mr. Glaysher’s epic work in verse keeps intact much of the beautiful poetry that exemplifies this spectacular book while seeking to reach a new audience with its message of how poetry and artistry from all times and cultures can elevate the world and redefine our lives for the better.

Glaysher studied with Robert Hayden during the last year of his life, worked for him as a secretary, and editing his Collected Prose for the University of Michigan Press and his Collected Poems for Liveright. Glaysher holds two degrees from U of M, the latter a Master’s in English. When it came time for writing his epic poem, Glaysher knew he had to include Robert Hayden to try to honor his former teacher, mentor, and friend.

Taking place on the moon at the Apollo 11 landing site, a lone poet finds himself charged by Don Quixote and “The Parliament of Poets” to spread a new message of beauty, unity, and love to all nations of our fractured modern world. He is then sent to meet with the great poets, myths, and characters from history, East and West, to be mentored on his quest towards enlightenment and understanding.

The cast is comprised of the poet himself, as a persona, The Poet of the Moon, as well as five talented actors playing multiple roles including Don Quixote, Merlin the Magician, Jane Austen, Ann Arbor Poet Robert Hayden, Leo Tolstoy, the Biblical prophet-poet Job, the great Chinese poet Du Fu, the African Queen Sogolon, and many more. These actors are Dennis Kleinsmith as Don Quixote and Tolstoy (Theatre Nova, JET, Shakespeare in Detroit, etc.), Krystle Dellihue as Robert Hayden and Queen Sogolon from the Mali epic Sundiata (Shakespeare In Detroit, Matrix Theatre, Redbud, PTD), Alexander Sloan, also as Robert Hayden and Jorge Luis Borges (Open Book, Water Works, Hope College), Marley Boone, as the Fairy Queen and the Chinese Tang poet Du Fu (Williamston, St. Dunstan’s, several Philadelphia theatres), Patrick Grimes, as the African Flying Tortoise Mbeku, Merlin, Virgil, and William Blake (Redbud, Morris, Young People’s Theatre). The stage manager is Briana O’Neal, the new resident stage manager at Theatre Nova (Eastern MSU, Ann Arbor Civic Theatre).

In the canto with Robert Hayden, he invokes the passage from Stephen Vincent Benet’s John Brown’s Body about one day there would be an American black poet who would sing for his people. Hayden then calls forth the fairies and magical beings from around the world, throughout time, to carry him and his “charge,” the Poet of the Moon, heavenward to the Apollo 11 landing site.

Based on staging by Jeff Thomakos, of the Michigan Michael Chekhov Studio, the show is a unique blend of poetry reading, protest play, and performance art with a powerful message of peace, love, and humanity on the tiny, blue marble floating in space that we all share together.

“I am very honored to try to bring this critically-acclaimed work, from one of Michigan’s most talented poets to life. I think it will be a unique and moving experience,” says Mr. Thomakos.

The show will be a Guest Production at Theatre Nova, 410 West Huron Street. Performances will take place 7:00 – 9:00 pm on Sunday evenings September 22, 29, and October 6. Tickets are at the door and online under Guest Productions,  https://www.theatrenova.org/guest-productions  $22 general, $15 students. Go to TheatreNova.org or EarthrisePress.Net for more information. Or call 248-453-4220. The Parliament of Poets  can be purchased at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore.

Oct
1
Tue
The Moth Storyslam: Fraud @ Greyline
Oct 1 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Open-mic storytelling competitions. Open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night’s theme. Come tell a story, or just enjoy the show!

6:30pm Doors Open | 7:30pm Stories Begin

*Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 3pm ET.

*Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final.

Media Sponsor: Michigan Radio.

FRAUD: Prepare a five-minute story about fakes, liars, and hustlers. Tell us about a time when you felt like a phony or a sham. A moment where you struggled with impostor syndrome? Exposed a con? Catch Me If You Can or fake it ’til you make it.

 

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