Sarah Sullivan is a third-year Master of Fine Arts Theatre for Youth candidate in the Arizona State University Herberger Institute School of Theatre and Film. During the 2009–-2010 academic year, she served as artist-in-residence at the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development's Phoenix Drop-in Center, an organization that provides basic needs and services for homeless and at-risk youth. As the culminating event of this residency, she directed an original play, collaboratively created and performed by clients from the Drop-in Center.

Titled, "Live Out Loud," the play explored the personal stories and experiences of the young people who created it, and provided a personal perspective on the issue of homelessness in the Phoenix community. The show performed to sold-out crowds as part of the Phoenix Fringe Festival, then toured to Mesa Community College and The Learning Center in Phoenix. This project received a 2010 Entrepreneurial Advantage Project grant, and more than 200 people saw the work during the course of its performances. Download Full Image

Xanthia Walker earned her Master of Fine Arts in theatre for youth in May 2010.

She was featured in The State Press May 2, 2010 article about her Master of Fine Arts applied project: "Not Too Late: A Play Creation Process with Teen Mothers and their Children in Pacoima, California." Download Full Image

TEMPE, Ariz. - The ghosts of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, roosters running amuck and rousing norteño music set the stage for a story about a town reawakening when ASU Herberger Mainstage Theatre presents Waking up in Lost Hills: A Central California Rip Van Winkle Story, March 31-April 9.

Los Angeles-based playwright José Cruz González, familiar to Valley audiences for his Childsplay productions Tomás and the Library Lady , Old Jake's Skirts , Salt and Pepper and The Highest Heaven, adapted the story of "Rip Van Winkle" for the play - which reveals the struggles of the small rural California community of Lost Hills. Victorio Valenzuela, an almond farm worker who has just awakened from a 37-year sleep, meets a traveler who has just awakened from a car wreck.   Together they must rescue themselves, their families and the town. Zarco Guerrero as Old Victorio in the ASU Herberger Mainstage Theatre production of Waking Up in Lost Hills: A Central California Rip Van Winkle Story. Photo by Tim Trumble, courtesy Herberger College of Fine Arts Download Full Image

"I grew up in a farming community much like Lost Hills," said González. "It many ways, this project was a return to my own roots."

Lost Hills residents were among the original cast and crew when the play premiered in their town in 2004.

"José wrote the play for Cornerstone Theatre Company in collaboration with the residents of Lost Hills in a process known as community-based devising," said Linda Essig, artistic director and chair of the School of Theatre and Film. "This is the first time that a Cornerstone devised community-based project has received a second production."

Mesa, Ariz. resident Zarco Guerrero plays Old Victorio. He is joined by ASU student actors and several children and teens from the community. Michael Archuleta, a well-known Los Angeles singer and band leader, composed the original music for the play and is teaching songs to the student performers as an artist-in-residence in the School of Theatre and Film. Herberger College theatre professor Pamela Sterling directs.

Appropriate for ages 10 and up, Waking Up in Lost Hills is a magical, inspirational tale of a community's rediscovery and the people who made it happen.

Tickets for Waking up in Lost Hills are $5-$20 and available online at http://herbergercollege.asu.edu/mainstage/ or through the Herberger College Box Office, 480-965-6447.   Show times are 7:30 p.m., March 31 and April 1, 7, 8; and 2 p.m., April 1, 2, and 9; at the Galvin Playhouse in the Nelson Fine Arts Center, southeast corner of 10 th Street and Mill Ave.

The Herberger College School of Theatre and Film production program moves the art of theatre into the future with student production opportunities; curricula; and professional productions that enrich the cultural life of the university, the community and the region. For more information, go to http://theatre.asu.edu .

Media Contact:
Denise Tanguay 
480.965.7144
denise.tanguay@asu.edu

WHAT: Herberger College of Fine Arts Department of Dance at ASU presents “Fall Dance Collection,” a modern dance concert comprising seven pieces.

This concert’s showcase piece is the acclaimed work created by New York-based Israeli choreographer and guest artist Neta Pulvermacher, “Goodbye and Good Luck,” set on six dancers. In this sarcastic, sweet, hungry work, each dancer performs while carrying, playing or swinging a violin.

“Goodbye and Good Luck” delves into the Jewish/Yiddish heritage of humor, hope, fate, despair, guilt and longing. This ancestral work is layered with personal and inherited memories.

WHEN: Nov. 21-23, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 24, 2 p.m.

Special Preview! The second dress rehearsal, Nov. 20, 2002, is open to the public. Same admission charge; show time is 4 p.m.

WHERE: Dance Theatre, PE East 132, 551 E. Orange St. on the ASU campus in Tempe.

TICKETS: $14 adults, $12 seniors, faculty and staff; $5 students.

INFORMATION: 480-965-6447.

“Wherever you go, whatever you do, always remember that you are a Jew,” proclaims an ASU dancer in Neta Pulvermacher’s acclaimed work, “Good Bye and Good Luck.”

The piece is one of six diverse works in the Herberger College Department of Dance’s “Fall Dance Collection,” a concert performance of highly acclaimed faculty and student choreography. The department is known for its inventive choreography that captures the imagination and touches the spirit.

A dancer, choreographer, director and writer, Pulvermacher was born and raised in Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan and began to study dance with Ariel Peled in Tel Hai, Israel. She came to New York in 1982 and graduated from Julliard in 1985. She founded her New York-based company, The Neta Dance Company, in 1987 and has since created over 50 works for her company’s repertory.

Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times calls “Goodbye and Good Luck,” a piece with “style and pizzazz… [a] pretty, nutty dance.” Back Stage dance critic Lisa Jo Sagolla writes, “The well-crafted, image-driven movement phases are punctuated by sardonic text and interrupted by brief freeing sequences in which the performers discard their violins and dance with abandon.”

Pulvermacher set this piece on student dancers during her August guest residency in the Department of Dance. The work is double-cast, so one set of six dancers performs on two nights and another set performs on three nights.

The other pieces in “Fall Dance Collection” are:

- “Metal Garden,” choreographed by dance professor Cliff Keuter and set on six dancers.

- “Celebration,” an energetic work choreographed by dance professor Elina Mooney and set on seven dancers. The choreography puts unusual attention on the hands.

- “Storm in the Bottle,” choreographed and performed by Kimberly Karpanty, a graduate student and returning professional who is also as assistant professor at Kent State University. Inspired by the “impulsive spirit of women,” Karpanty calls the piece, “an exciting trio of dancer, music and light.” 

- “Suzy Q,” choreographed by senior Natalie Greene and set on three dancers; described by Greene as “outlandish, frightening and hilarious,” the work follows three dolls and their comedic and aggressive awakening.

- “Leaving Minutia,” a piece inspired by pictures of dancers in motion as well as the music of Henry Cowell; choreographed by senior Lona Lee and set on three dancers. 

- “Atonement,” a solo choreographed by Whitney Tucker.

The Department of Dance is committed to providing a stimulating and diverse environment where students develop as scholars, educators and artists through participation in innovative programs, residencies, performances and partnerships.
The department is nationally ranked in the top 10 by Dance Teacher Now magazine. Its graduate program is ranked 5th and its undergraduate program is ranked 9th. The ARCO Performance Arts College Guide calls the department one of the “most highly recommended programs” in the country.

This project is generously supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, with funding from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts; ASU Public Events; the City of Tempe; and Meet the Composer program.  Special thanks also to Desert Dance Theatre and String Shop of Arizona for their contributions to this project.

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Media Contact:
Megan Krause
480-965-8795
megan.krause@asu.edu