Dialogue One Theatre Festival

2008

Artistic Director Omar Sangare

Schedule:

Friday, November 21^st

11:00 a.m. - Workshop with Obie Award winner John Clancy

7:30 p.m. - Portrait Gallery

Saturday, November 22^nd

2:00 p.m. - The Event

3:30 p.m. - A Fire as Bright as Heaven

6:00 p.m. - Male Gaze

7:30 p.m. - Portrait Gallery

8:30 p.m. – Closing Ceremony

Williamstheatre proudly announces the second annual Dialogue One Theatre Festival, directed by Omar Sangare. Dialogue One is an international theatre festival with the primary aim to establish a platform for Williams students and professional artists to share their theatrical works with a broad range of audiences.

“We believe that a global range of artists will inspire the artistic dialog among students, professionals, and audiences. Last year, artists from different backgrounds, different schools and different countries all had the opportunity to meet and share their work with one another, and there was a diverse audience that included people from Williamstown, Boston, New York City, Worcester and other places,” says Professor Sangare. The performers will explore essential dramatic themes, such as intellectual and emotional complexity, the subject of solitude and the uniqueness of human imperfection. It is an occasion to share diverse perspectives that span cultural, perceptional, linguistic, professional or personal similarities and differences between people.

Williams College students will present original solo pieces based on historical or contemporary public figures, and combined into one event entitled, Portrait Gallery. The works were developed in Professor Sangare’s course on Solo Theatre in which students explore the process of creating a solo piece and learn to author and design all aspects of the production. Students will be performing works ranging from Meredith Nelson ’09 as Britney Spears in You Want a Piece of Me?, Leungo Donald Molosi ’09 as the heir to the chieftaincy of Botswana’s largest ethnic group, Seretse Khama in Blue, Black and White, Andrei Baiu ’11 as the world-renowned British actor and man of extremes Oliver in Oliver Reed; and finally Lexie Hunt ’09 as the acclaimed poet and novelist Sylvia Plath in Integration.

2008 Festival artists include also, Tim Collins performing A Fire as Bright as Heaven, Kymbali Craig performing Male Gaze, and Matt Oberg performing The Event under the direction of OBIE award and Edinburgh Festival Fringe First award winner John Clancy. Mr. Clancy is also a founding Artistic Director of The New York International Fringe Festival.

Tim Collins’ performance is a 40 character, comedic and political solo show that chronicles the past seven years of American upheaval, from Sept. 11 to the 2008 elections. It spans our recent and tumultuous history through opinion, empathy and outrage. A Fire as Bright as Heaven has won numerous awards including selection for publication in "Plays and Playwrights 2009” and was featured in the 24th Annual National Storytelling Conference at Tang Center, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass.

Male Gaze is a solo hip-hop theatre performance piece, inspired by the 1970s film documentary War Zone. New York-based Kymbali Craig is a performance artist fusing spoken-word, comedy, theatre and music to create projects that address social and political issues. Craig presents us to an array of characters as she portrays variations of young women affected by the issue of consistent unwanted advances from men. We are led on this journey through the main characters: Old Wize, a conservative/traditional woman who has transcended history, and Kitty Kat, the seductive modern image of today’s women, power and beauty. During the duration of the piece she introduces us to several characters and as the characters change, we are privy to their inner dilemma and are taken into various moments of these women’s lives.

A comic, transparent examination of the act of theatre is projected through The Event, starring Matt Oberg. What starts as a straightforward deconstruction of the one-man show transforms into an honest attempt at communion with those gathered. Dealing directly and humorously with the technician, the stage manager, the critics and the audience, the actor moves into dangerous and slippery territory. Armed only with his memorized words, can an actor say something else? The Event premiered at The P.I.T. Theatre in New York City and went on to play The Undergroundzero Festival at Collective:Unconscious.

2008 Awards:

Best Guest Performer Award: Tim Collins
Best Student Performer Award: Leungo Donald Molosi
Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theatre: John Clancy

The Berkshire Review for the Arts

The Berkshire Review for the Arts review

Press Release 2008

Dialogue ONE 2007

Dialogue ONE 2007 images 1

Dialogue ONE 2007 images 2

Dialogue One 2008 - Portrait Gallery

Dialogue One 2008 - Misc.

Dialogue One 2008 - Guest Artists

Dialogue One 2008 - Closing Ceremony

Dialogue One 2008 - John Clancy Workshop

Dialogue ONE 2009