Brown University’s Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies’ Sock & Buskin announce their 2019 – 2020 season. This season marks the 118th Sock & Buskin season as well as 50-years of Dance at Brown.

Celebrating 50-years of Dance at Brown, the season will kick off with the annual Family Weekend Dance Concert performed in Ashamu Dance Studio, October 18 – 20. Featuring works choreographed by faculty, alumni and guest artists from the Providence community, Family Weekend Dance welcomes students and their families into the dance community at Brown and marks the beginning of a new year of art making and community engagement.

Running October 31 – November 10, MFA Playwriting students will present fully staged productions of their senior thesis plays. Dry Swallow by Lucas Baisch ‘20 MFA is made up of three intertwining narratives, all trapped in the confines of a shipping container. Kemps by Emma Horwitz ‘20 MFA is a contemporary queer epic set in the pine-wood of the Pennsylvanian forest during one four-week session at a summer camp. Initially developed during the 2018 Writing is Live Festival, Lucas Baisch’s Dry Swallow and Emma Horwitz’s Kemps will each receive a limited four-performance run in Leeds Theatre.

TAPS Fall Dance Concert, featuring all-student choreography, will run November 21 – 24 in Ashamu Dance Studio. Mentored by faculty, students will work in collaboration with production designers in a process that mirrors professional practice. This unique opportunity will provide students with an in-depth understanding of what a professional production process looks like, from conception to presentation.

In a process comparable to the Fall Dance Concert, each year a graduating senior concentrator in the department is chosen to direct a project of their choosing. This year Harrison Epstein ‘19 will direct the historical drama, The Diary of Anne Frank, a play by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett, based upon the book “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” newly adapted by Wendy Kesselman. In this powerful adaptation, Anne Frank emerges from history a living, lyrical and gifted young girl confronting the increasing horror of her time with wit and determination. With a team of all-student designers, mentored by faculty and staff, The Diary of Anne Frank will run December 5 – 8 in Stuart Theatre.

Opening the spring semester, the 1977 Obie Award winning Fefu and Her Friends, by Maria Irene Fornes, will run February 27 – March 8 in Stuart Theatre. Directed by Assistant Professor Sarah dAngelo, Fefu and Her Friends follows the lives of eight women attending a gathering at a country home. Part two of Fefu’s unique structure features four scenes which will be performed simultaneously. Audience members will rotate from scene to scene, offering each group a different perspective and culminating in each having seen every scene in varying order.

Race, by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet, turns the spotlight on what we think, but cannot say. When three lawyers find themselves tasked with the defense of a wealthy white man charged with the rape of a young black woman, dangerous truths are revealed as opinions explode to the surface. This provocative tale of sex, guilt, and bold accusations, directed by Professor Kym Moore, will be presented in Leeds Theatre, April 2 – 12.

In continued celebration of 50 years of Dance at Brown, the TAPS season will close with the annual Festival of Dance Concert, April 30 – May 3 in Stuart Theatre. The Festival of Dance will feature dance theatre works from historical and contemporary repertories as well as devised new works by students, faculty and professional choreographers from around the world.

Brown University’s 2019-2020 season is produced by the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies’ Sock & Buskin. A prime example of Brown University’s dedication to student-centered learning, Sock and Buskin is a dynamic board of students, faculty and staff, who select and produce the theatrical productions at Brown University’s Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. Founded in 1901 by Professor Thomas Crosby of the Brown University English Department, Sock & Buskin has since produced an unbroken record of 116 seasons.

Brown has an ambitious vision for the arts as an integral presence throughout our liberal arts education. We believe the arts are fundamental to critical inquiry into the most important questions facing humanity around the world. The arts create a spark that cultivates creative expression in all forms, stimulating discovery and fueling innovative thinking. At Brown, artists operating at the highest levels of their crafts learn from and inform scholars and students in disciplines across the sciences and humanities.

Performances typically take place Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and 2pm on Sundays, though there is some variation between productions and we strongly recommend going to our website to check performance times. Tickets are $15 (adults) / $12 (seniors) / $7 (students). For more information and performance details, please visit brown.edu/theatre.

###