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Tennessee Williams @ 100
Join the UM Department of Theatre & Drama as scholars, playwrights and theatre artists gather to share their perspectives on Tennessee Williams’ impact on American theatre, the American consciousness, and the world theatre, and his enduring influence on writers throughout the last century and continuing into the present one. Presented in conjunction with Suddenly Last Summer, the Tennesee Williams @ 100 conference is a celebration of the work of this prolific playwright. For more detailed information on the conference, please visit www.music.umich.edu/williams
Events
Jeff Daniels, the stage and film actor, playwright, musician and founder of the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea spoke with Theatre & Drama students on November 23 in the Arthur Miller Theatre.
 Daniels received a Doctor of Fine Arts from the U-M at the 2009 Winter Commencement in recognition of his contribution to the arts and support of his home state of Michigan. Raised in Chelsea, Daniels studied theater at Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan University.
Daniels is concluding a sold-out run of the Tonyi Award-winning Broadway play Gods of Carnage. His many films include The Purple Rose of Cairo, Infamous, State of Play, Good Night and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale, Gods and Generals and Dumb and Dumber. He also is a playwright and songwriter, who has garnered several awards and nominations. He has received Drama Desk and Obie awards, was nominated for a Tony Award for his current role in God of Carnage, three Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Satellite Awards, the London Critics Circle Awards and Independent Spirit Awards.
In 1991 he established the Purple Rose Theatre Company in his hometown of Chelsea, MI, to bring opportunities to Midwest professionals and to provide the community with affordable theater, according to the company's Web site. He is actively involved in the theater, writing more than a dozen plays for it, including his newest, Escanaba, the third play in a trilogy about life in the Upper Peninsula.
More recently, Daniels can be seen on television ads promoting Michigan as a great place to do business. The Michigan Economic Development Council ads can be seen across the country.
Honors and Awards
Alumni 2010 Tony nominees and winner
Nominees: Martin Pakledinaz (MFA 1975 ) - Best Costume Design of a Play, Lend Me a Teno; David Alan Grier (BA 1978) - Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play , Race
Wendy Goldberg (BA 1995), Artistic Director, National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center - Winner Regional Theatre Award
John Hill (Ph. D. 2009) presented his paper on Russia’s medieval performers, the skomorokhi, during the papers in progress session at the March 2010 Mid-America Theater Conference in Cleveland.
2009 Emerging Artist Award in Theatre -
Benjamin Klein, BFA ‘02
Awarded by the SMTD Alumni Society, the Emerging Artist Award is for a graduate within the past 15 years who has made significant contributions in their artistic field and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Benjamin Klein works as a director in New York City, with associate or assistant director credits for the West End Premiere of Hairspray, Lincoln Center Theatre’s The Coast of Utopia and its Broadway national tour, and regional productions of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Director credits include Sick at the New Jersey Rep, Notes to MariAnne at the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference, and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Old Globe. In 2006, he was awarded the Mike Ockrent Fellowship by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and in 2007 the Paul Green Foundation Award presented by the National Theatre Conference. This year, Benjamin begins work with fellow U-M alum Jack O’Brien on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s much anticipated sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies.
Theatre at Michigan Newsletter
Take a look at our recent newsletters. Included in each issue are program highlights of the year, articles about our students and faculty, alumni news, photos from our mainstage productions, and more …
Theatre at Michigan 2008/09 (pdf)
Theatre at Michigan, 2007 (pdf)
Theatre at Michigan, 2006 (pdf)
Theatre at Michigan, 2005 (pdf)
Theatre at Michigan, 2004 (pdf)
Theatre at Michigan, 2003 (pdf)
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