As summer progresses, the Arts Blog wanted to catch up readers on some news. Many of our faculty have been honored recently, and the Granada artists-in-residence have been named. Additionally, we learned of the death of an alum who played the first trans character in a soap opera. Read all the stories below.
Stay tuned for the arts opening up in the fall, with a new exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum and the grand reopening of the Gorman Museum of Native American Art. Michael G. French, arts and theatre marketing specialist, contributed most of the content for this week's blog.
Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog Editor
Professor of music receives residency
Professor Mika Pelo has been selected for a composer residency by the Peterson-Berger Foundation at Sommarhagen, the home of the late Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. Pelo is in residence July 28 – Aug. 18.
As part of the residency, Pelo will compose a piece for Peterson-Berger’s grand piano and possibly more instruments. The piece is planned to be premiered in the summer of 2024 in connection with a public seminar on the Composer in society – yesterday-today-tomorrow. Pelo is the first composer to have a residency at Sommarhagen.
Sommarhagen was built in 1914 by the composer, critic and music writer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, who is remembered, among other things, for Frösöblomster with piano pieces such as Sommarsång, Vid Frösö kyrkaand Intåg i Sommarhagen.
The composer’s home, which is now a museum, features influences from national romanticism and art nouveau and characterized by Peterson-Berger’s ideas in terms of design, interior design and coloring. It has been compared to “a timber-lined fortress with a summer-light interior” and was named in 2000 by the magazine Forum as one of Sweden’s best interiors of the 20th century.
The composer residency is carried out in collaboration with the Association of Swedish composers and with the support of Region Jämtland Härjedalen.
New artistic director named to Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
Hofman is UC Davis lecturer
Matilda Hofman, a lecturer in music at UC Davis, has been named the new artistic director of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble beginning with their 2023–24 season. Left Coast is based in the Bay Area and has gained a reputation for bringing to light treasured works alongside new creations by living composers. Hofman, who chose the repertoire for Left Coast’s upcoming season, has been their conductor as well as the resident conductor for UC Davis’s contemporary music ensemble, Empyrean.
The ensemble will participate, for example, in the first-ever statewide California Festival, which features works written only in the last five years. Left Coast will conclude its season with another inaugural project called Pathways, which pairs emerging California composers with mentor composers in a workshop and performance setting.
Hofman co-directed Left Coast’s previous season with the ensemble’s longtime artistic director Anna Presler, who assures audiences Hofman will bring “wonderful musicianship, intelligence, energy, and spirit to the organization.”
Granada Artists-in-Residence 2024 includes alum
(photo at top of blog)
Professor Margaret Laurena Kemp, theatre and dance department chair, announced the Granada Artists-in-Residence for 2024, which includes an internationally acclaimed alumnus.
Scott Ebersold, who directs The Laramie Project in winter quarter, is a theatre director and former artistic associate of Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company in New York. Ebersold recently directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Max Vernon’s new musical The View UpStairs that was nominated for two Lucille Lortel Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical for which Audelco/The Viv nominated him for a Best Director. His other directing credits include: Charles L. Mee’s Imperial Dreams at Classic Stage Company, Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day for Columbia Stages at the Connelly Theater, Rare Birds by Adam Szymkowicz, Small Steps by Briandaniel Oglesby, a native of Davis, at Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival. Small Steps was previously presented online as part of Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank through the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance in 2021.
Alumnus Dahlak Brathwaite (B.A., English and theatre and dance, ’08) returns to UC Davis for a five-week workshop developing a new hip-hop musical performance piece in winter quarter. Since launching onto the national spoken word scene by appearing on the last two seasons of HBO’s Russell Simmons’ presents Def Poetry Jam, Brathwaite has showcased his seamless blend of hip-hop, theatre, and spoken word at over 100 universities throughout the United States and Europe, SXSW, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Smithsonian, Ars Nova, and Off-Broadway in New York. His latest work, Try/Step/Trip, was created in collaboration with legendary director Roberta Uno and premiered in February 2020 at Dance Mission in San Francisco and was supported by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, CalArts, and Victory Gardens. Recently, Dahlak was nominated for the 2019 United States Artists Fellowship and was awarded NEFA’s National Theatre Project Grant.
Irish theatre director and acting teacher Sinéad Rushe returns to UC Davis to collaborate with Kemp on a production of Thornton Wilder’s American masterpiece Our Town in spring. Rushe and Kemp’s previous project AntigoneNOW, produced online at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, was screened worldwide including an invited presentation at the Egypt International Experimental Theatre Festival. Rushe is the author of Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique: A Practitioner’s Guide, co-translator into French of four plays by Howard Barker and was senior lecturer in acting and movement at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She directed Concert, which was performed at The Pit at London’s Barbican and New York’s Baryshnikov Arts Center and on international tour winning a Gradam Comharcheoil TG4 2018 Award and a Bessie Award nomination in New York. In fall 2023 she becomes lead acting tutor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Launched in 1982, the UC Davis Granada Artist-in-Residence program is unique in American university theater, bringing prominent theater artists — directors, playwrights, or choreographers — to Davis each academic quarter to teach and create a work for public performance. A special opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to work closely with major theater and dance practitioners, it is a unique cross-cultural experience.
The Department of Theatre and Dance is part of the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. For information about other department productions, visit arts.ucdavis.edu/theatre-and-dance.
Bogad receives grants for farmworker project
Professor L.M. Bogad has recently received two major grants for his project Sinfonia de la Justica/Symphony of Justice, a performance with farmworkers in the vineyards of Sonoma County about their struggles around issues of labor and climate justice and immigrants’ rights. Bogad won a $50,000 Creative Work Fund Grant, and a $100,000 San Francisco Foundation Creative Corps Grant.
The project will engage indigenous farmworkers in composing and performing trilingual monologues, Oaxacan/Zapotec music, and digital looping “economusic,” all based on the economic data of their lives and working conditions.
Bogad is collaborating with the nonprofit group North Bay Jobs With Justice on this project.
Backed by a one-time $60 million investment from the State of California General Fund, the San Francisco Foundation is one of 14 partners with the California Arts Council that are creating programs for organizations for artists, creators, and cultural practitioners to advance equity and build a sustainable workforce.
The Creative Work Fund was initiated in 1994 by four Bay Area foundations that wanted to contribute to the creation of new artworks and support local artists. It is now a program of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund that also is supported by generous grants from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Creative Work Fund grants celebrate the role of artists as problem-solvers and the making of art as a profound contribution to intellectual inquiry and to the strengthening of communities.
One of the most important priorities of the music department today is establishing a fund to cover the otherwise out-of-pocket expenses for individual music lesson instruction for UC Davis students. These students gain necessary one-on-one instruction from a career professional in their field and use those skills in individual and group performances—including the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, Choruses, Percussion Ensemble, Baroque, Early Music, and more. We seek everyone’s support in this endeavor.
To make a gift now to the Music Lessons Endowment Fund, please visit the companion page with the Office of University Development. Or, feel free to contact Christine Tebes, Senior Director of Development at the College of Letters and Science via cmtebes@ucdavis.edu or by calling (530) 754-2221.
Full story here.
Contribute to music lesson fund
One of the most important priorities of the music department today is establishing a fund to cover the otherwise out-of-pocket expenses for individual music lesson instruction for UC Davis students. These students gain necessary one-on-one instruction from a career professional in their field and use those skills in individual and group performances—including the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, Choruses, Percussion Ensemble, Baroque, Early Music, and more. We seek everyone’s support in this endeavor.
To make a gift now to the Music Lessons Endowment Fund, please visit the companion page with the Office of University Development. Or, feel free to contact Christine Tebes, Senior Director of Development at the College of Letters and Science via cmtebes@ucdavis.edu or by calling (530) 754-2221. More here.
In memory: alum and soap opera star passes
Alumnus Jeffrey Carlson (B.A., dramatic arts, ‘97), who achieved acclaim for his portrayal of
one of the first transgender characters on daytime television in the series All My Children, died
on July 6. His career spanned Broadway, regional theatre, television and film.
Originally entering UC Davis in order to pursue a career as a veterinarian, he shifted his focus
after performing in various theatre department productions including West Side Story as
Tony, Falsettos as Whizzer andTwelfth Night as Sebastian. After leaving UC Davis, he continued
his training by attending Julliard in New York.
Carlson made his Broadway debut in Edward Albee’s Tony Award-winning The Goat, or Who Is
Sylvia? originating the role of Billy, and also appeared in Taboo, a musical by Boy George, and a
revival of Tartuffe. He worked extensively in regional theatre including the Goodman Theatre in
Chicago, the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Shakespeare
Company in Stratford-upon-Avon.
In 2006 Carlson made his mark in television when he first appeared on All My Children. His
groundbreaking character was a British rock star named Zarf, who discovered through an arc
on the series that she was a transgender woman, transitioning as Zoe. The character is believed to
be the first transgender character on daytime television to come out and go on a transition
journey. All My Children received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Daily Drama in
2007 due to Zoe’s storyline and Carlson’s performance.
His film career included a role in the romantic comedy Hitch starring Will Smith.
SpongeBob comes to Woodland
Aug. 11-27, 2023 - Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., Woodland Opera House, 340 Second Street, Woodland
Get ready to dive into the underwater world of Bikini Bottom as The SpongeBob Musical comes to the Woodland Opera House this summer! Based on the beloved Nickelodeon animated series, this musical adaptation brings all your favorite characters to life in a colorful and vibrant production that's perfect for the whole family.
Featuring a catchy original score by a team of renowned musicians including David Bowie, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, and John Legend, The SpongeBob Musical follows the loveable pineapple-dweller, SpongeBob SquarePants and his best friend Patrick Star on a quest to save their hometown from destruction. Along the way, they encounter a cast of zany characters, including the scheming Plankton, the karate-chopping Sandy Cheeks, and the greedy businessman Mr. Krabs. The show has been praised by critics for its high-energy performances, imaginative staging, and infectious humor.
Performances are set for Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. All seating is reserved, ticket prices are $20 for Adults, $18 Seniors (62+), and $10 for Children under 17. Balcony pricing is Adults at $12 and, children at $7.
Purchase tickets online at www.WoodlandOperaHouse.Org and at the Box Office (530) 666-9617. Located at 340 Second Street, Woodland.
The musical is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
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Karen Nikos-Rose, Arts Blog editor, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu