Get ready to pencil these events into your calendars, because UMBC’s spring semester is going to be full of fun, theatrical events – many of which are student directed or written.
Everything starts with Dog-Collar Comedy’s free improvisational comedy show, “Joe’s Dog’s Birthday,” on Friday, March 3, at 8:00 p.m. in ITE 104. This is a free event for all students and will be a great way to de-stress and laugh as the semester gets into full swing.
Next, campus MovieFest will take UMBC by storm starting on March 2 at 12 p.m. challenging students to make a film in one week with only a MacBook and Adobe Creative Cloud, a Panasonic camera and a tripod. There will be an informational meeting for MovieFest on March 1 from 5-6 p.m. in Commons 318 and a viewing event for the students’ final products on March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in ITE 104.
Directly following spring break, Studio 3 will be performing a one-act play titled “Suddenly Last Summer,” a Gothic thriller exploring the depths one mother will go in order to save her son’s reputation. Studio 3 (or Student Laboratory Theatre) gives theatre students a chance to direct or design a one-act play after competing in an extensive application process.
“Suddenly Last Summer” will be directed by Hannah Kennedy and performed in the Black Box Theatre. You can catch it from March 30 to April 2 at 8:00 p.m. The April 1 and 2 dates also offer matinee shows at 2:00 p.m. for which student comp tickets will be available at the box office or online through MissionTix.
The next weekend, April 7 to April 9, Musical Theatre Club will be performing the musical “Legally Blonde,” an adaptation of the 2001 Reese Witherspoon movie of the same name. “Legally Blonde” will be performed in Fine Arts 317, and tickets will go on sale later this semester at the Campus Information Center. Tickets will be free for UMBC students and $5 for any non-UMBC student.
An extension of the fall semester’s 24-Hour Playfest, TheatreCOM will present three one-act plays written and directed by UMBC students as a part of the New Playwright’s Festival. The festival will be held in the Sportszone on April 15 and 16.
The following week, on Thursday, April 20, TheatreCOM will present Friday Night Live, a sketch comedy show that is just like Saturday Night Live, but without all of the copyright infringement. The deadline for sketch submissions is still open, so if you would like to write a short comedic piece for the show, email it to theatrecom.umbc@gmail.com.
UMBC’s last official theatre department show of the season, “The Mail Order Bride,” will be performed by B.F.A. students on April 27-29 and May 5-7. This show tells the story of a wealthy widower who orders a young Asian woman to be his bride, expecting her to be docile and subservient, not the headstrong, opinionated woman he finds her to be.
The only matinee performance will be on May 7, for which comp tickets will be available to UMBC students at the box office or on MissionTix. Following the matinee, a talk-back event will be held with director Eve Muson, an assistant professor of theatre and head of the B.F.A. acting program at UMBC.
Rounding out the semester will be Acid Flashbacks Theatre Company’s presentation of an original zombie pop musical written by UMBC student Nell Quinn-Gibney. Though an official schedule has not yet been worked out, the musical will premiere the weekend of Saturday, May 13, the last weekend before finals week officially starts.
More information will be coming about these events as the semester continues, as well as inside looks into the vision behind the productions.
