Today’s News from the University of Kansas
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‘Jayhawk Theatre on the Air’ turns contemporary plays into radio-style dramas for remote audiences
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance will debut the series “Jayhawk Theatre on the Air,” a live, script-in-hand reading series presented in radio-drama style and livestreamed for remote audiences. The series will open Feb. 25 with “Kingdom City,” a tale of a high school theatre production that sparks controversy in a small Midwestern community. The “Kingdom City” cast includes students from Atchison, Basehor, Manhattan, Overland Park and Salina.
KU Debate qualifies teams for National Debate Tournament
LAWRENCE — For the 54th consecutive year, the University of Kansas has qualified teams to compete at the National Debate Tournament. The KU Debate teams of junior Azja Butler, of Lansing, and senior Ross Fitzpatrick, of Leawood, and senior Nate Martin, of Lansing, and freshman Graham Revare, of Shawnee, were selected as automatic qualifiers for the National Debate Tournament by the NDT National Committee.
Full stories below.
Contact: Lisa Coble-Krings, Department of Theatre & Dance, 785-864-5685, [email protected], @KUTheatre, @KUDanceDept
‘Jayhawk Theatre on the Air’ turns contemporary plays into radio-style dramas for remote audiences
LAWRENCE — During the Great Depression, Orson Welles’ “The Mercury Theatre on the Air” brought new, exciting dramas to communities that couldn’t otherwise afford to attend theatre. Fast-forward to the current pandemic, with theatres mostly closed and so many people out of work. The University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance Chair Henry Bial hopes to provide audiences with similar inspiration through “Jayhawk Theatre on the Air,” a live, script-in-hand reading series presented in radio-drama style and livestreamed.
Bial curated the “Jayhawk Theatre on the Air” in conversation and collaboration with the playwrights, including two at KU.
“In this time of scarcity, this series celebrates abundance: the wealth of great stories in the American theatre, the wide range of talents among KU’s students and faculty, and the tremendous possibilities of engaging a broader, more diverse audience through livestreaming,” Bial said. “By doing less – no sets, no costumes, minimal rehearsal time, only one performance per play – we get to showcase more: more student voices, more great stories and more engagement with the playwrights.”
The series
Feb. 25: The series begins with “Kingdom City” by Sheri Wilner, a serio-comic tale of a high school theatre production that sparks controversy in a small Midwestern community.
March 9: Students take the stage again for “Lot’s Daughters,” an original, psychological exploration of a woman disillusioned by the collision of myth, memory and reality, by KU doctoral candidate Alysha Griffin. Cousins sort through boxes of family treasures recalling different details of their family’s histories.
March 24: “March Madness,” a work-in-progress about race and college basketball by Darren Canady, KU professor of English, premieres. The production is not sponsored by or related to the NCAA or NCAA basketball tournaments.
April 14: The series concludes with “Goodnight, Tyler,” a ghost-love story about family, friends, grief and discovering what’s important in life.
A discussion with the playwright follows each performance, which all begin at 7 p.m. For information about the talkback with Wilner, a widely published playwright whose work has been produced around the world, please visit http://kutheatre.com/jta-1. Additionally, the directors and many of the student performers will take part in these discussions.
The readings are directed by Bial (“Kingdom City,” “Lot’s Daughters”), Griffin (“March Madness”) and doctoral student Jenny Sledge Harris (“Goodnight, Tyler”). Like all of productions of University Theatre this semester, “Jayhawk Theatre on the Air” is free and open to the public, though a digital ticket will be required. More details are available at kutheatre.com.
A KU faculty member since 2005, Bial has served as chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance since May 2019, following appointments as director of Jewish studies, chair of American studies, senior associate director of the University Honors Program and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His research and teaching specialties include religious performance, Jewish popular culture, theatre history and performance studies. He is the author or editor of five books, including ”Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen.”
Other members in the “Kingdom City” production are Samantha Gotskind, a sophomore from Overland Park, as Miriam Bloom; Mickey Pluta, a junior from Broomfield, Colorado, as Daniel Bloom; Petricia Hall, a senior from Salina, as Crystal Mathis; Annika Wallace, junior from Atchison, as Katie Merkle; Lane Barrette, a first-year student from Basehor, as Matt Ross; Nathan Paukstelis, a first-year student from Manhattan, as Luke Overbey; and Bailey Dobbins, a recent KU graduate from Edmonds, Washington, as stage manager.
The University Theatre is a production wing of the University of Kansas’ Department of Theatre & Dance, offering eight public productions throughout the academic year. The University Theatre and University Dance Company productions are funded in part by Student Senate fees, and the theatre’s season is supported by Truity Credit Union.
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
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Contact: Scott Harris, KU Debate, [email protected], @KansasDebate
KU qualifies teams for National Debate Tournament
LAWRENCE — For the 54th consecutive year, the University of Kansas has qualified teams to compete at the National Debate Tournament.
The KU Debate teams of junior Azja Butler, of Lansing, and senior Ross Fitzpatrick, of Leawood, and senior Nate Martin, of Lansing, and freshman Graham Revare, of Shawnee, were selected as automatic qualifiers for the National Debate Tournament by the NDT National Committee. The top 16 teams in the country as selected by the NDT National Committee receive automatic qualification to the National Tournament.
In 1973, the National Debate Tournament began recognizing the top 16 teams in the country as automatic First Round At Large Qualifiers for the tournament. Butler/Fitzpatrick and Martin/Revare are the 40th and 41st KU teams to be recognized as First Round At Large Qualifiers. This is the second time that Butler and Martin have been selected as automatic qualifiers. This is the eighth time that KU has had two teams receive automatic invitations.
KU joined Emory University, the University of Michigan and Wake Forest each with two teams selected as First Round qualifiers this year. The other automatic qualifiers are Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Northwestern University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, the University of Texas and the University of Southern California.
The remainder of the 78-team field will be selected over the next three weeks. KU hopes to qualify a third team to the tournament, according to Scott Harris, the David B. Pittaway Director of Debate at KU. A maximum of six schools are allowed to qualify a third team for the National Debate Tournament. KU has been among those qualifying three teams for the past six consecutive years.
The National Debate Tournament will take place online March 25-28. Last year the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19 after teams had qualified.
KU last won the National Debate Tournament in 2018 and reached the Final Four in 2019.
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