Performing Arts Department announces 2021-22 calendar

09/28/2021 

SUNY Cortland’s Performing Arts Department opened its 2021-22 season with “Cortland New Voices: Remix Vol. 3” on Saturday, Sept. 25 in Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre.

The event, with direction and music direction by Visiting Assistant Professor Jacob Carll, introduces Cortland’s newest musical theatre majors.

“Cortland New Voices: Remix Vol. 3” was streamed live to Facebook and is online for those who want to watch the show online.

The Performing Arts Department will host two musicals, one play and several concerts and demonstrations throughout the 2021-22 academic year.

“We are all thrilled and excited to welcome audiences back to our theatre after 18 months,” said Professor Kevin Halpin. “For our student artists to come back home to the stage, performing live for a live audience, brings all of us great joy and a renewed hope for what theatre can accomplish. The show must go on.”

Face coverings will be required for all audience members at all times. Attendees must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and ID or proof of a recent negative PCR test and seating will be socially distanced. All tickets and playbills will be distributed digitally. More information about tickets is available online.

A musical, “Big Fish,” based on the novel by Daniel Wallace and the 2003 Tim Burton film starring Ewan McGregor, will run from Nov. 12 to 21 in Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre. The production will be directed and choreographed by Jeff Whiting, who was the associate director on the original Broadway company in 2013. Carll will serve as music director. It tells the story, on multiple timelines, of a family patriarch facing his mortality, his fantastical tall tales and his son, who is about to become a father himself.

A play, “Possessing Harriet,” which was written by Syracuse, N.Y.-based playwright Kyle Bass, will be performed in the Dowd Fine Arts Center Lab Theatre from Feb. 24 to 27. Commissioned by the Onondaga Historical Association, “Possessing Harriet” is a dramatization of the story of Harriet Powell, an enslaved woman who escaped from a Syracuse hotel in 1839 and her search for safety across the Canadian border. The play touches on topics such as race, gender, identity and equality.

The play, which debuted at Syracuse Stage in 2018, will be directed by Rodney Hudson.

“Company,” the 1970 musical comedy by Stephen Sondheim, will be performed from April 1 to 10 in Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre. Halpin will direct and choreograph the show, with Carll serving as music director. It tells the story of a single person who is unable to commit to relationships, contrasted with five pairs of married couples and the main character’s three romantic interests. The musical received a record-setting 14 Tony Award nominations and was lauded at the time for addressing adult themes in ways that many other musicals of the era did not.

Other events happening during the 2021-22 season include:

• Wednesday, Nov. 17: A voice and acting demonstration, location and time to be determined
• Friday, Dec. 10: College Singers concert, Dowd Fine Arts Center performance studio, Room 110, 7 p.m.
• Sunday, Dec. 12: Choral Union concert, Old Main Brown Auditorium, 3 p.m.
• Friday Dec. 17: College-Community Orchestra concert, Old Main Brown Auditorium, 7 p.m.
• Friday, April 22, 2022: College Singers concert, Dowd Fine Arts Center performance studio, Room 110, 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 26, 2022: College-Community Orchestra concert, Old Main Brown Auditorium, 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 6, 2022: Dance demonstration, Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre, 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 13, 2022: Commencement Eve Senior Showcase, Dowd Fine Arts Center performance studio, Room 110, 5 p.m.

For more information, visit the Performing Arts Department’s On Stage website.