Theatre and Dance announces fall season

The Department of Theatre and Dance has announced its fall season of dance, musicals and drama featuring nationally recognized directors and choreographers working with UB faculty and emerging student talent to produce innovative original productions that entertain audiences and explore the human condition.

The Theatre and Dance'S season is sponsored in part by Fox Run at Orchard Park.

Zodiaque Dance Company Celebration 50 Gala

Oct. 26

Pre-show awards, 6:30 p.m.; curtain, 7:30 p.m.
Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts
All seats $50
Tickets

The Zodiaque Dance Company, UB’s eminent pre-professional dance company, is celebrating five decades of innovative, creative performances on gala night. Gala tickets access to the pre-show awards ceremony in the Center for the Arts atrium, the “Celebration 50” fall program and a post-show dance party.

The program features a diverse array of dance styles, including modern, contemporary, jazz, African, tap and other percussive forms. Works will be created by a varied and accomplished group of choreographers, including Cesar Salinas, associate artistic director, Giordano Dance Chicago; Brittney Griffin, associate choreographer, Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway; Rich Ashworth, Chicago Tap Theatre; Robin Hibbert, African dance educator and performer; and Liz Borom faculty, Western Carolina University. 

The program includes the contributions of former UB dance faculty members Thomas Ralabate, immediate former artistic director of Zodiaque and professor emeritus, and Bill Thomas, former UB director of dance, Philadanco. The concert is co-directed by faculty members Kerry Ring and Michael Deeb Weaver, who will also present works.

Directors Awards will be presented to Ralabate, Thomas and Elka Dintcheva, former director of advancement, UB College of Arts and Sciences.

Distinguished Alumni Awards will be presented to Cesar Salinas and Lindsay Guarino, associate professor and chair of music and theatre and Dance, Salve Regina University.

The concert includes a video and photo history of the Zodiaque and will showcase collaborations with UB’s Theatre Design and Technology program and its alumni.

Fall 2024 productions

Prices for all shows:

$22 adults; $17 seniors/veterans/UB employees; $12 students; $7 UB students
Ticketmaster fees apply when purchasing online.

‘No Exit’

By Jean-Paul Sartre
Adapted from the French by Paul Bowles
Directed by Tobias Pfluke as part of the Student Directed Series
Sept. 20-21, 7:30 p.m.
Katharine Cornell Theatre
Tickets

Two women and one man are locked up together for eternity in one hideous room in Hell. The windows are bricked up, there are no mirrors, the electric lights can never be turned off and there is no exit. The irony of this Hell is that its torture is not of the rack and fire, but of the burning humiliation of each soul as it is stripped of its pretenses by the cruel curiosity of the damned. Here the soul is shorn of secrecy and even the blackest deeds are mercilessly exposed to the fierce light of Hell. It is an eternal torment.

“No Exit” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French Inc.

‘Almost, Maine’

By John Cariani
Directed by Scott Borish as part of the Student Directed Series
Sept. 27-28, 7:30 p.m.
Katharine Cornell Theatre
Tickets

Welcome to Almost, Maine, a place that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. It’s almost in Canada. And it’s not quite a town, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So, it almost doesn’t exist. One cold, clear, winter night, as the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, the residents of Almost, Maine, find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways.

“Almost, Maine” is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.

‘Ride The Cyclone, The Musical’

Music, book and lyrics by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell
Directed and choreographed by Doug Weyand
Music Direction by Matt Marco
Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.
Nov 2-3, 2024, 2 p.m.
Black Box Theatre, Center for the Arts

Tickets

In this hilarious and outlandish story, the lives of six teenagers from a Canadian chamber choir are cut short in a freak accident aboard a roller coaster. When they awake in limbo, a mechanical fortune teller invites each to tell a story to win a prize like no other — the chance to return to life.

“Ride the Cyclone” is presented through special arrangement with Broadway Licensing Global.

“Three Sisters (Ruhl), A Theatre Studio Ensemble Production”

“Three Sisters” by Anton Chekhov
A new version by Sarah Ruhl based on a literal translation by Elise Thoron with Natalya Paramonova and Kristin Johnsen-Neshati
Directed by Lana Sugarman
Nov. 8-9, 7:30 p.m.
Rehearsal Workshop, Center for the Arts
Tickets

Transplanted from their beloved Moscow to a provincial Russian town, three sisters — school teacher Olga, unhappily married Masha and idealistic Irina — yearn for the city of their childhood, where they imagine their lives will be transformed and fulfilled. “Three Sisters” is the portrait of a family grappling with the bittersweet distance between reality and dreams.  

“Three Sisters” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French Inc.

Emerging Choreographers Showcase

Directed by Anne Burnidge
Choreographers: Shannon Brien, Kenny Harrison, Juliana Hassouna, Charity John, Olivia Lopez, Gia Maresca, Ariana Mullin, Kelly Quinn and Mya Tran
Nov. 15-16, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 16-17, 2 p.m.
Black Box Theatre, Center for the Arts

Tickets

Celebrating diversity in both genre and theme, Emerging Choreographers Showcase features new dance works created and performed by BA, BFA and MFA dance majors.

“Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine”

By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Thembi Duncan
Nov. 21–23, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 23–24, 2 p.m.
Drama Theatre, Center for the Arts
Tickets

“Fabulation” is a social satire about an ambitious and haughty African American woman, Undine Barnes Calles, whose husband suddenly disappears after embezzling all of her money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, Undine retreats to her childhood home in Brooklyn’s Walt Whitman projects, only to discover that she must cope with a crude new reality. Undine faces the challenge of transforming her setbacks into small victories in a battle to reaffirm her right to be.

“Fabulation” is presented by arrangement with Dramatists Play Service.

MFA Fall Dance Showcase

Co-directed by Joshua Ikechukwu, Amelia Rojek and Dani Schofer
Nov. 22-23, 7:30 p.m.
Katharine Cornell Theatre
Tickets

The MFA Fall Showcase offers a peek into the creative process of dancemaking, featuring works in various stages of completion by current MFA dance students. The works are often generated collaboratively with other artists and the Showcase offers a space for choreographers to experiment and innovate movement-based performance.