Archive: Arts & Entertainment

In a weekend devoted to student work, two back-to-back events at Cornell's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts will showcase select plays and screenplays written by Cornell students. The winning stage play, screenplay, and solo performance from this year's Heermans-McCalmon Dramatic Writing Competition will be presented Friday, March 20, at 4:30 p.m. in the Class of '56 Dance Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Then, on Saturday, March 21, staged readings of three new works by Department of Performing and Media Arts (PMA) students will be featured between 9:00 a.m. and 2:45 p.m., also in the Dance Theatre.

The presentation on March 20 includes readings of the first-place-winning play, Quinn Theobald's "Those That Left," and the first-place screenplay, "Take Away" by Cynthia He. This year for the first time, a piece in the spoken word/solo performance category will also be honored in the competition, "Hi my name is [Mee-ya]" by Miya Kuramoto. The readings are directed by PMA PhD student Caitlin Kane. A moderated Q&A with the winners will follow the readings.

Winning second-place in the competition are Caroline Hinrichs for the stage play "Audrey!" and Shannon O'Shea for the screenplay "Unidentified Flying Objects." An honorable mention goes to Natalie Slaiman for the stage play "A Tragedy behind the Gates."

Winners were selected by industry professionals Cheri Magid, Stewart Thorndike, and Professor Karen Jaime. Thorndike, a screenwriter and filmmaker and Magid, a playwright, screenwriter, and composer, will come to campus to meet with winning students.

On March 20 at 12:00 p.m., a public Professional Directions Series conversation with Thorndike will be held in the Schwartz Center's Film Forum.

The Heermans-McCalmon Dramatic Writing Competition, which has been around for 70 years, was established at the bequest of Forbes Heermans (class of 1878) in memory of George McCalmon, professor of speech and drama. First-place winners earn cash prizes of $500 and second-place winners receive $250.

In addition to the presentation of the Heermans-McCalmon Awards, the Drama Book Award will be presented during the March 20 event. This award is given annually to a Cornell University student in recognition of outstanding achievement in theatre, and the recipient will receive up to $100 for scripts and books from either Samuel French or Dramatists Play Service.

The following day, Saturday, March 21, staged readings of three new plays by current PMA students, directed by PMA lecturer Aoise Stratford and PhD student Rosalie Purvis, will be presented in the Class of '56 Dance Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts as part of the New Works Festival.

The festival also features two panel discussions with industry experts: one on copyright and writers' rights and one on the landscape of script development.

Both the Heermans-McCalmon Awards Presentation and the New Works Festival take place in the Class of '56 Dance Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts at 430 College Avenue in Ithaca. All events are free and open to the public.

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