Performing Arts

Elon University leaders on Monday formally announced the names of four distinguished professors named to endowed professorships. Eric Fink, Roland Smith, Brant Touchette and Catherine McNeela were recognized during the opening ceremony for Planning Week 2010.

Assistant Professor of Performing Arts Kirby Wahl is serving as a dialect coach in Raleigh for The Burning Coal Theatre Company's fall production of Conor McPherson's play, St. Nicholas.

Lynne Kurdziel Formato created the choreography for "All Shook Up," which opened Aug. 12 at Artpark, a professional theatre in Lewiston, N.Y.

The upcoming Broadway touring production of Spring Awakening, led by Christopher Wood '10 as the character Melchior, was showcased July 21 on the main page of Playbill.com, an information site for theater in New York City.

Associate professor of performing arts Linda Sabo recently presented a paper at the Society of Dance History Scholars Conference 2010, "Dance and Spectacle," held July 8-11 at the University of Surrey in Guildford, United Kingdom.

Associate professor Lynne Formato has returned from six weeks immersed in musical theatre overseas, directing an original musical in Denmark and teaching classes in Russia.

Lauren Kearns, associate professor of Dance and head of the dance program recently published Somatics in Action: How "I Feel Three-Dimensional and Real" Improves Dance Education and Training in The Journal of Dance Education, Volume 10, Number 2. Kearns participated in the 2009 Faculty Writing Residency sponsored by CATL.

Jess Duffy, a junior dance major, is blogging about her apprenticeship at the prestigious American Dance Festival. Please visit http://elondancecompany.wordpress.com and go to the student profile page that highlights Jess. Scroll down to the bottom and read about her humorous and eventful first week. Feel free to leave a comment - we'd love to hear from you!

A longtime Broadway stage manager has gifted to the university a collection of notebooks and other production material that will give students in the Department of Performing Arts an insider’s view of acclaimed shows such as “Equus” starring Daniel Radcliffe and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” with Kathleen Turner.