Everything Nac

East Texans can be among the first to hear the newest works by three acclaimed playwrights during the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre’s 2016 Festival of New American Plays scheduled for Tuesday through Saturday, April 26 through 30, on the SFA campus.

This biennial event showcases the work of some of the best playwrights in the nation in a five-day festival during which each selected play is presented twice in staged readings by SFA theatre students, according to Jack Heifner, SFA School of Theatre’s playwright-in-residence, director of the festival and one of the featured authors.

“Since 1998, we have brought playwrights to our campus to see their new works,” Heifner said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for our audiences to view ‘theatre in the making.'”

This year’s festival features Heifner’s play “Bury Me In This,” along with “cul-de-sac” by John Cariani and “Julia & Ellie” by Chiori Miyagawa.

“The Festival of New American Plays is one of the most distinctive and exciting aspects of our programming, and we’re so grateful to Jack Heifner for creating it at SFA,” said Scott Shattuck, director of the School of Theatre. “We always look forward to welcoming world-renowned writers and seeing our students participate in the development of their next major plays.”

The festival will open with Heifner’s play “Bury Me In This,” which will be read at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 30. Cariani’s “cul-de-sac” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28, and Saturday, April 30. Miyagawa’s “Julia & Ellie” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, and Friday, April 29. These plays are recommended for mature audiences.

Heifner is best known for his play “Vanities,” which ran for five years in New York and became one of the longest running plays in off-Broadway history. He is also the author of “Patio/Porch,” “Natural Disasters,” “Running on Empty,” “Bargains,” “Boys’ Play,” “Home Fires,” “Heartbreak,” “Comfort and Joy” and more than 30 other plays produced in New York, Los Angeles and theatres around the world. Heifner has written the book to six musicals, including “Leader of the Pack” on Broadway and “Vanities – A New Musical,” which opened in New York in 2009. He has also written for television and film.

Since 1997, Heifner has been playwright-in-residence at SFA where he teaches play, screen and television writing one semester each academic year. At SFA, he has directed “Home Fires,” “The Seagull,” “The Member of the Wedding,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Stage Door” and “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

An actor and a playwright, Cariani has appeared on and off Broadway and in several films and television shows. He won an Outer Critics Circle Award and earned a Tony Award nomination his performance as Motel the Tailor in the 2004 revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” starring Alfred Molina. He received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for his work in “Something Rotten!” He’s been in movies with Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Ed Asner. He’s probably best known for his role as CSU Tech Julian Beck on NBC’s long-running drama, “Law & Order.” He played Professor Otto Bahnoff in the final season of CBS’ “Numbers,” and many people know him as reporter Michael Falk on IFC’s “The Onion News Network.” He’s guest-starred in many TV shows, including “Homeland,” “The Good Wife” and “The Blacklist.”

As a playwright, Cariani is best known for his first play, “Almost, Maine,” which premiered at Portland (Maine) Stage Company in 2004 and opened off Broadway in 2006. It has since become one of the most frequently produced plays in the United States and has been translated into nearly 20 languages. Other plays include soon- to-be published “Last Gas” and “LOVE/SICK.”

Miyagawa is a New York City-based playwright. Her plays have been produced by off-Broadway theaters, at renowned performance spaces in New York City and regionally. Twelve of her plays are collected in two books: “Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays” and “America Dreaming and Other Plays.” She is a recipient of many fellowships, including a McKnight Playwriting Fellowship, a Van Lier Playwriting Fellowship, a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellowship in Italy, and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard University. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, American Theater Magazine, Huffington Post and other publications.

Among her plays and productions are “This Lingering Life,” “I Came to Look for You on Tuesday,” “Dream Acts,” “I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour,” “Thousand Years Waiting” and “Leaving Eden.”

All performances of the festival will be in the Downstage Theatre of the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive. The festival is sponsored in part by Tipton-Ford-Lincoln. For more information, visit theatre.sfasu.edu.

The festival is part of the SFA School of Theatre’s Mainstage Series. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students and youth. For tickets, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The SFA Friends of Music will accept reservations through noon Monday, April 18, for Extravaganza 29, Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music’s annual gala banquet. The event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 22, in the Grand Ballroom of SFA’s Baker Pattillo Student Center.

This year’s Extravaganza, “The Rising Stars of SFA,” celebrates the 29th anniversary of the gala and fundraiser, which features gourmet dining, performances by student soloists and ensembles, and the presentation of student awards in an exciting evening of music, according to Dr. Gary Wurtz, interim director of the SFA School of Music.

“There is no better way to experience a cross section of what the SFA School of Music has to offer than at our annual Extravaganza,” Wurtz said. “While enjoying a good meal, those in attendance hear performances by the top choir, band, orchestra, jazz band, student recitalists, opera performers, and more. Our fantastic students provide both dinner music and a dance to end the evening. It is really a lot of fun!”

Part music student awards ceremony, part formal dinner, and part musical potpourri, Extravaganza will feature jazz, harp, wind ensemble, choir, opera, string quartet and orchestra. Additional highlights include awarding the Outstanding Music Alumnus of the year and Outstanding Recitalists of the year.

As is tradition with Extravaganza, the music faculty has selected an outstanding alumnus to honor, and this year’s recipient is George Faber of Tyler, director of visual and performing arts for Tyler ISD, as well as a very active and respected musician throughout East Texas. Faber has performed with such notables as Grammy Award-winning song writer and trumpet player Tom Browne, Ray Charles, Chubby Checker, Percy Sledge, Glen Campbell, Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawls, Bill Cosby, Charlie Daniels, The Statler Brothers, The Oakridge Boys, “Blue Lou” Marini of the Blues Brothers, Jon Faddis (director of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and former trumpet player with the Doc Severson Tonight Show Orchestra), Mark Mullins (trombonist for Harry Connick, Jr. and founder of the New Orleans-based group Bonerama), and many others.

The Extravaganza 29 committee includes John and Melinda Rohrer, co-chairs, Habiba Awan, Caryl and Harold Hall, Carolyn King, Dee Allums, Gloria and Cecil Settle, Gloria Williams, MaryAnn and Farrar Bentley and Ed Cole.

“The Extravaganza is a wonderful opportunity for our community to enjoy performances by the gifted students of the SFA School of Music,” said Melinda Rohrer. “It is a fun event with excellent food and beautiful music.”

This year’s Friends of Music officers include Jackie Warthan, president; Caryl Hall, president-elect; Missy DeVine, secretary/treasurer; and Carrie Ventura, past president.

Tickets are $40 for adults and $10 for students. Patron level tickets range in prices from $65 to $140, and donations will be accepted for the Friends of Music scholarship fund. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

The University Band and the Symphonic Band at Stephen F. Austin State University will present the concert program “Inspiration” when the bands perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

The selected works to be performed were inspired by folk songs and dances, tragic life events and the dream of flight, according to Dr. James Dreiling, interim assistant director of bands at SFA.

The University Band will open the concert with “Into the Clouds” by Richard Saucedo and guest conducted by graduate assistant Dwight Watson of Lavon.

“This lively fanfare is filled with rhythmic energy and was inspired by the composer’s dream of flight,” Dreiling said.

The University Band will also perform “Festivo” by Czech composer Vaclav Nelhybel and the popular ballad for band “As Summer Was Just Beginning” by Larry Daehn, who was inspired to write the piece following the untimely death of gifted actor James Dean. Graduate assistant Taylor Goodwin of Ennis will guest conduct.

The University Band will conclude its portion of the concert with the march “Liberty Fleet” by Karl L. King.

“Along with John Phillip Sousa and Henry Fillmore, King is known as one of the most prolific march composers, having composed more than 180 marches,” Dreiling said. “This march, composed in 1942, is one of his lesser-known marches and was inspired by a fleet of war ships used in World War I.”

The Symphonic Band opens the second half of the concert with “Westport Overture” composed by SFA music faculty member Dr. David Campo, director of the Lumberjack Marching Band, who “has a growing reputation as a composer for wind bands,” Dreiling said. The Symphonic Band will also perform “Variations on a Korean Folk Song” by John Barnes Chance and “Heaven’s Light” composed by Steven Reineke.

“This moving piece was commissioned by Evans High School in Evans, Georgia, after the death of high school band member Holly Spivey and her parents in a house fire,” Dreiling explained.

The concert will conclude with the celebratory piece “Albanian Dance” by Shelley Hanson based on the popular Albanian folk tune “Shota,” which seeks to re-create the festive mood of a raucous village dance, Dreiling said.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.