University of Alabama Productions
Scene from Moby-Dick
|
In 2011 the University's Department of Theatre and Dance produced their first new play in over a decade, an adaptation by Steve Burch and directed by Seth Panitch marshaling the forces of the department in a theatre event. Utilizing a cast of sixteen actors (7 principals, 9 ensemble) and fourteen dancers, plus four musicians, this powerful re-telling of an American classic. The full script, still photographs from the production and video excerpts, news articles and reviews are all linked to this site.
Moby-Dick (2011) |
The Dining Room
Playbill for The Dining Room
|
Dining Room by A. R. Gurney is composed of 18 separate scenes with 57 characters played by 6 actors. It is a dramatic comedy of manners that focuses on the lives of several families played in and around and under the dining room table. Gurney views WASP American life with an affectionate, yet critical eye.
View photos and more |
The Rude Mechanicals
Scene from The Tempest
|
The Rude Mechanicals is a local unincorporated theatre company made up of graduate and undergraduate theatre students from UA and Shelton State College, faculty, staff, Theatre Tuscaloosa veterans, and locals. Started in 2003 by a desire simply to perform Shakespeare and for free, this has continued since then and in the Park at Manderson Landing since 2005 (when Steve joined as co-artistic director). From 2005-2011 one full-length play was performed each summer, usually followed later in the summer by Shake-Scenes, a collection of scenes, songs, and soliloquies. In 2012 two full-length plays were offered and and this has continued since then. For articles, reviews, and photos, read on . . .
Julius Caesar (2014); The Winter’s Tale (2013) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2012) The Tempest (2011) Measure for Measure (2010); Macbeth (2009); Taming of the Shrew (2008); As You Like It (2007); Comedy of Errors (2006); Pericles (2005) |
Improbable Fictions
Scene from Hecuba
|
In 2009 Nic Helms a graduate student in the Hudson Strode Studies in Early Modern Literature program in the UA English Department joined the Rude Mechanicals to assist Steve in the production of Macbeth. Nic also was given a few small roles to play as well. From this experience, Nic continued to perform with the RMs, but he also began a new project through the Hudson Strode of adapting and staging script-in-hand readings of Shakespeare's plays, which have been performed in several locations on the UA campus and in Tuscaloosa. Recently the readings (which now include more than Shakespeare) have been performed at the newly opened Dinah Washington Arts Center in downtown Tuscaloosa. Steve has performed with them on many plays and twice directed his adaptations from the classical Greeks: Hecuba by Euripides and Lysistrata by Aristophanes. For articles, reviews, script adaptation, read on.....
Hecuba (2011) Lysistrata (2012) |
Inside the Tornado
Scene from Inside the Tornado
|
Inside the Tornado, a collection of plays written by Steve's students in response to the April 27, 2011 tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa and was sponsored and produced by and at Shelton State College one year later, May 3, 2012. Photo courtesy of Shelton State.
Read the review |
Appropriate
Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, stage production directed November 15, 2016, Marian Gallaway Theatre, Dept. Theatre and Dance, UA.
Dramatic Action
Written and directed by Steve Burch as part of an AIDS Benefit, Live and Let Live, an evening of 10-minute plays produced by Alpha Psi Omega in 2004 in the Allen Bales Theatre.