Naropa University MFA in Contemporary Performance Department Presents
Mad Forest: A Play from Romania by Caryl Churchill
BOULDER, Colo. (November 5, 2010)
Naropa University's MFA Theater Contemporary Performance 2nd Year Ensemble will be performing Caryl Churhill's play MAD FOREST November 19–21. Previously performed in Bucharest, London, and New York, the play examines the events leading up to and following the fall of Ceausescu and the Romanian Democracy Revolution of 1989. The play focuses primarily on two families, one of laborers and one of intellectuals, and explores the reactions of ordinary people to the confused events and mayhem caused by the political upheaval. Ultimately, the play gives poetic voice to the crisis of a society in which the old totalitarian order has splintered into an equally corrupt disorder.
WHAT: Naropa University MFA in Contemporary Performance presentation of Mad Forest: A Play from Romania by Caryl Churchill
WHO: Performed by Naropa University’s MFA Second Year Ensemble Students
Directed by SITI Co. Member, Leon Ingulsrud
WHEN: Thursday, November 18, @ 8 p.m.; Friday, November 19, @ 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 20, @ 8 p.m.
WHERE: The Space of Liberation Warehouse, 4843 Pearl Street, Boulder Colorado. For directions to the theater and further information about the performance please click here.
Director Leon Ingulsrud, a member of the New York City based SITI Company, has a longstanding collaborative relationship with Naropa. He states that “The play explores and explodes history with a firm grasp on the prismatic and kaleidoscopic nature of reality. Although set in Romania and dealing with a very specific set of circumstances, by focusing on the particular, the play reaches the plane of the universal, which allows it to resonate with our particular circumstances. So ultimately it is a play about us, now.”
Playwright Caryl Churchill (1938-) is one of the most respected dramatists in the English-speaking world and is the author of more than twenty plays. A 70th Birthday retrospective was held at The Royal Court Theater in London showcasing her use of non-naturalistic techniques and recurring themes, including the alienation between parent and child and the possibility and failure of revolution.
Naropa University’s MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program, founded in 2004, and chaired by Wendell Beavers, focuses on the creation of original work and critical re-digesting of the theater and dance canon. Students experience rigorous conservatory style training in physical theater, postmodern dance and techniques for the extended voice. This innovative program has included a number of experimental collaborations including work with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, Meredith Monk and The House, Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project, Katsura Kan (Butoh artist and Master Teacher).
Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution dedicated to advancing contemplative education. This approach to learning integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.
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