The University of West Georgia’s Theatre Company has a plethora of exciting new plays and performances planned for their Spring 2014 season. The UWG Theatre Company is run by faculty and staff as well as student marketing assistants that aid in promoting upcoming shows and fund raising events.
Theatre Marketing Assistant Erica Randle, spoke of what her job entails and explained the first show of the season titled Snapshot. “Snapshot is our first production this semester. Bowers is our guest director and he’s directed here before. It’s a dramatic anthology of different parts and times. It’s based off of a picture of Mount Rushmore. They are looking at Mount Rushmore. A group of writers go together on that picture to write it. You also have a scene based on 9/11. The stage is set they are going to have pictures represent each scene. That’s what I’m trying to do with the poster for Snapshot.” Said Randle. Snapshot will have a preview on Feb. 11 followed by the first performance that runs from Feb. 12th to the 16th.
She along with two other student assistants Troy Chitty and Nick Suwalski run podcasts on the company’s website and plan events to raise money for the UWG Theatre Company. Weekly meetings will be held throughout the semester so the team can brain storm and think of different ways to advertise shows. “We are marketing Snapshot using traditional methods such as posters around campus and press releases to radio and news outlets in the greater Atlanta and Carrollton area as well as utilizing social media and guerrilla marketing techniques,” said Chitty.
Episodes in Sexuality is the next play that will be done after Snapshots from Feb. 26 to March 1st “ Episodes is student written, directed and designed. Every year there is a different topic and views. It’s kind of like improve. This semester is based on fantasies and nightmares on sexuality,” said Randle.
The Professor of Theatre and Department Chair Dr. Pauline Gagnon will direct the final show of the season called End Days which will begin on April 16th and end on the 20th “ End days is kind of like a clash between society and religion. Being a part of auditions you have some people who are confident and some are nervous,” said Randle. Auditions were held in the beginning of January at the Townsend Center. Students wrote down what experience they had in staging and light technology if they wanted to apply for a technical stage crew position. If a student wanted a role in any of the three plays they had to do a monologue and if the director was interested in them they would be then called back for a stage reading.
Karlie Clifton, a senior with a major in Theatre talked about the audition process and her role in End Days. “ For End Days particularly I read a couple of scenes with varying actors. This is so the director can see how actors interact with one another. After callbacks, the director makes a decision on who she or he wants to cast, and the cast list is posted the next day. The callback for End Days was an honor, but the real excitement for me was reading for the part of Rachel Stein considering that I had read the play prior to the audition, and had my sights set on Rachel. ” said Clifton.
