The real joy in Our Lady of 121st Street is taking a peek into these awful people and their regret-filled lives. Even the successful characters are melancholic and searching for hope.

Iman Aoun, co-founder of Ashtar Theatre, recently presented a lecture on the Theatre of the Oppressed and how it manifested through an idea called “The Gaza Monologues.” Through Ashtar Theatre’s youth training program, Palestinian children of all faiths were recruited for a series that helped them give voice to their trauma. Aoun’s mission of making theatre a fundamental need to Palestinian society meant navigating as many as 741 checkpoints on the way to a destination, but the work was vital.

In the fourth of a series of Q&A sessions with SFUAD students, Jackalope Magazine speaks with Performing Arts Department senior Alan Littlehales, who shares his thoughts on Our Lady of 121st Street, plans for the future and Oregon.

By Sarah Ruhl; directed by Performing Arts Department senior Corbin Albaugh In an age of nearly infinite technological convenience and possibility, rarely do we stop and think of associated consequences. Dead Man’s Cell Phone is the story of Jean, a middle-aged woman, who is forced to encounter her own internal truths after the discovery of a dead man at the café at which she was dining. In turn, this surrealist comedy forces us to confront our own fixation with digital technology and the reality from which it disconnects us. Performances run Nov. 1-2 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 3 at 2 p.m in the Weckesser...

For three nights, Oct. 25-27, the Rocky Horror shadow cast, 20 promiscuously dressed student performers, heated up the Screen with an uncensored salute to the ’70s British musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. With fishnets, speedos, wigs and an “Oh my goodness, what am I looking at?”expression from the Rocky Horror audience, the shows acted as the perfect Halloween prelude, conjuring the horrifyingly sexy side in all of us. “You gotta have some of the biggest balls to do this show,” says Rocky Horror student director Peter Crowder, who with film major Jack Brinkley initiated the shows on campus last year. “I’m referring to this metaphorically, but if you wanted to go physically too,” Crowder continues, “you gotta be strong to put on this show because you’re gonna get flack from people who aren’t used to it, who don’t like it, but at the same time you’ll be dealing with people who love it so much and so intensely that if you don’t do it right, you’re going to get smashed and pulverized.” Crowder, who watched the shows all three nights, was able to participate as an audience member, shouting out jokes that accompanied lines in the film. As well as being liaison for the Screen, Crowder’s right-hand-man Brinkley played the part of the creepy Lurch-like character Riff Raff, “a vengeful handyman,” Brinkley says, who gets particularly crazy during the Time Warp, a dance involving pelvic thrusts. “I also liked coming out in drag with oblivion in my hand.” What’s oblivion? Brinkley laughs. “It’s a 14.5-inch dildo. During one rehearsal I said, ‘say goodbye to all of this and say hello to oblivion.’” The cast called the dildo Oblivion ever since. To get a perspective of just how crazy the show is, it may help knowing that the...

Middletown, the latest SFUAD Performing Arts Department production, opens with Curtis Williams’ Public Speaker waxing philosophic about the nature of small towns. It’s a fun digression that captures the high energy and inherent sadness of the mostly plot-less but emotionally poignant show that follows. The play has an ensemble cast, but there are a few characters given the most time to shine, including: Mathew Eldridge’s John Dodge; Porscha Shaw’s Mary Swanson; Michael Phillip Thomas’s Cop; and Jade Lewis’s Mechanic. Eldridge and Shaw did a phenomenal job carrying the emotional weight for much of the play. Due to the structure of the play, many of the actors had the difficult job of taking what could easily be one-note characters and adding pathos. It seems lazy to make such a blanket statement, but the whole cast was really up to the challenge. Not every joke landed, and not every character left the same impression, but the batting average is so high, it is easy to brush off the shortcomings. Maia Rychlik’s Librarian and Yusef Seevers’s Doctor, in particular, breathed such life into simple characters that leave one combing through all of their dialogue for hidden meaning long after you leave Greer Garson Theatre. The two scenes that stood out most were the scene in space and Lewis’s scene with Tallis Geohegan-Freifeld’s Doctor. The scene in space, featuring Matt McMillan and Robert Henkel Jr. is nestled towards the end of Act One. The scene is by far the most removed from the plot, but is the first point where the themes are front and center. McMillan and Henkel Jr.’s subtle performance prevents the message from being overbearing. Chelsea Kuehnel’s sets are also a delight in their simplicity, giving the space scene a magical feel and the dusty...

The Screen Presents: Sept. 13-20 Presenting to Theater Majors: Beckett on Film Beckett on Film is a celebrated five-part series of Samuel Beckett’s 19 plays, filmed by some of the world’s most talented directors, and featuring actors like Julianne Moore, Jeremy Irons and John Hurt. Beckett was awarded ‘Best TV Drama’ at the Sixth South Bank Show Awards Ceremony in 2002 and is called a celebration of artistic achievement. FREE ADMISSION every Sunday of September at 11am. Doors will open at 10:30. This Sunday, Sept. 15 watch Come and Go, directed by John Crowley and Waiting For Godot, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.   Visual Artists and Mona Lisa Lovers, Resist the Mystery of The Missing Piece: Mona Lisa, Her Thief, The True Story Joe Medeiros’ documentary investigates the secret motives behind Mona Lisa’s 1911 theft from the Louvre. Creatively assembled and comically informative, Medeiros’ sources come straight from the lion’s mouth, the descendants of Mona Lisa’sthief, Vincenzo Peruggia. Opens this Friday, Sept. 13. Special Skype Q/A with filmmakers 1:30 pm, Sunday, Sept. 15. Tickets on sale at thescreensf.com   This Is Martin Bonner, Come Meet Him! Chad Hartigan’s live-action narrative between two estranged family men is, according to critic Andrew Lapic (The Dissolve),“beyond the hoary parable of most faith-based films.” It is an “understated drama with small words and big ideas.” Made in the US, this candid character sketch brings out the realism in film-based storytelling. Opens this Friday, Sept.13.   Visit thescreensf.com for movie times 505.473.6494 1600 St. Michael’s Drive Santa Fe, NM 87505 https://www.facebook.com/thescreen, https://twitter.com/thescreensf...

      By Nick Martinez/ Photos by Chris Stahelin  In the first of a series of Q&A sessions with SFUAD students, Jackalope Magazine speaks with freshman Performing Arts Department student Emma Baker. Baker muses on SFUAD, coloring books, and the new Jesus Christ. Jackalope Magazine: How does it feel to be in college? Emma Baker: It’s been really fun so far. Been real crazy. I’ve met lots of people, which is awesome. I love meeting people. It’s one of my favorite things, besides performing. Overwhelming for sure. We’ve already had auditions for the first show. That was really exciting and fun. It’s like a new audition process. Much different than high school, and I got two call backs, and one of them was for the part I really wanted, which is awesome. JM: Why theater? EB: That’s sort of a hard question. I’ve always loved to perform, and acting is my favorite kind. I started in dance. My mom is a dance teacher. She owned a studio all throughout my childhood and that’s kind of how the whole performance thing started. When I got older I started getting into musical theatre and acting, because it’s all those things: dancing, singing, acting. Now it’s just what I do and I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. JM: What actor or actress do you admire, or try to emulate? EB: Sutton Foster. Do you know who Sutton Foster is? JM: No, I don’t. Tell us about Sutton Foster. EB: She is like this generation’s Broadway Jesus Christ. Everyone loves Sutton Foster. She was the original Millie, in Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway. She was the original Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical. God she’s been in everything. She was on a television show–I think on...

By Luke Montavon After nearly two semesters of hard work, Water is finally here. Water is the story of the village of Agua Fria and their struggle for existence after losing their water rights to the city of Santa Fe. The play is split into two parts. Part one encompasses how different cultures celebrate having water as a resource. Part two details the story of the villagers of Agua Fria, a people without water as a resource. Water  raises the question of “what happens both as an individual and a community when a basic natural resource is taken away?”. The play was created entirely from found written documents and transcripts taken from interviews conducted by students of the documentary theater...

Walking up the stairs in the lobby of the theatre building, Senior performing arts major Corbin Albaugh and I exchanged pleasantries. Albaugh for the past week was in preproduction for the Weckesser Studio Theatre production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s classic No Exit, which he is directing. “This is the first time I’ve ever directed and I’m going into this pretty much blind other than having a decent all around knowledge of the play,” said Albaugh. “So this is a massive learning experience for me and at this point in the process I love it. It’s fantastic.” Seeing Albaugh’s excitement, I thought he had achieved a lifelong dream. “I wouldn’t say I’ve always wanted to direct,” said Albaugh. “One of the things that I would like to accomplish in my senior year is to stay out of my comfort zone as much as possible.” Albaugh’s comfort zone is an ever changing beast. Back in Iowa, in junior high, Albaugh auditioned for a model and talent agency. They liked him so much that they booked him a trip to New York for the International Models & Talent Association (IMTA), where managers and agents flock to find fresh clients. “So long story short, I did some contests, did some exhibitions, got hooked up with a management team that flew me to LA where I auditioned for two years for film and television. I ultimately got cast in a bit part. Have you ever seen the movie ‘Mr. Woodcock’?” I did, in fact, remember Mr. Woodcock, a 2007 comedy starring Seann William Scott and Billy Bob Thorton. It was a critical bomb but that could hardly be attributed to Albaugh’s small role as one of the gym students harassed by the title character. “That happened and that was an...

Story and photos by Luke Montavon Since last fall I have been following Victor Talmadge and his documentary theater class on their journey to create the show Water. Water is the story of a little known Santa Fe village of Agua Fria and its ultimate demise, as it lose its most precious resource to the city. However the story is not only about what happens when a community loses a resource, but also how the community members celebrate having a resource. The following images reflect the first 20 minutes of the play, how we celebrate having water. Talmadge’s students have created a symbolic, cross-cultural journey, with the use of silk cloth to reflect this...