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Novelist, essayist, playwright, queer activist, and Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the College of Staten Island, Sarah Schulman.

The Book Club Play, written by Karen Zacarías and directed by Kirk Jackson, will open on March 4 at Hubbard Hall.

Backstage.com featured the College in their top 25 “amazing” school for theater list, along with Juilliard and NYU, as one of the country’s “best acting programs.”

On Monday, February 20th at 8 pm at The Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City, 51��������, in association with The 24 Hour Plays, will present The 24 Hour Plays®: A Bennington Tribute to Spencer Cox. This one night–only event will take place at The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre and will bring together 51�������� alumni and friends—including Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Obie winners and nominees—to write, cast, rehearse, and present six one-act plays within a 24-hour period. Ticket sales and donations will benefit the Spencer Cox ’90 Scholarship for student activists at 51��������.

In her role as Artistic Director of the Dorset Theatre Festival, faculty member Dina Janis received an award from the State of Vermont earlier this month. 

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Dorset Theater Festival, headed by Artistic Director Dina Janis, was nominated for the first ever Berkshire Theatre Awards. The award ceremony took place on November 13 at Mr. Finn's Cabaret in Pittsfield, Mass and including performances by acclaimed actors such as Debra Jo Rupp. 

Tim Collins spoke on WKVT in September about performing The Bystander, a one-man-show based on the bystander effect, at 51��������. 

This summer five Bennington students from Bosnia explored the intersections between peacebuilding and theater through their work with The Center for Peacebuilding (CIM) in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Now, they are bringing what they’ve learned back to Bennington. They will present their work at the Peacebuilding in Action panel on October 1 at the Center for the Advancement of Public Actions (CAPA).

The winning plays from Dorset Theatre Festival’s Jean E. Miller Young Playwrights Competition, which is supported by 51�������� faculty, students, and alumni, will be performed on Wednesday, September 28, 6:30 p.m., at the Manchester Community Library. 

Dina Janis and Kirk Jackson were awarded grants from the Vermont Arts Endowment Fund for their upcoming work on a Dorset Theatre production and a one-man-show, respectively. 

Lady Day, the newest production from the Dorset Theatre Festival, directed by Dina Janis and with lighting design by Michael Giannitti, recently received an enthusiastic review in The Berkshire Bright Focus. The review praised both Janis and Giannitti's work, calling the show "as perfect a production, as keen a realization as any I've seen and will ever see." 

Sherry Kramer, faculty member in drama, was interviewed on WNPR's The Colin McEnroe Show about the alternative history class she teaches, and whether it’s possible that we can learn more about our present from a fictional past than we ever could from a history book.

Emmy nominations were announced, and two Bennington alumni made the cut: Peter Dinklage ’91 is once again nominated for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones, and Shawn Paper ’90 received a nod for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series for his work on Veep

For her senior work, Sarah Goone '16 wrote, produced, and directed a processional puppet show that led the audience on a "hero's journey" across the 51�������� campus.

If theater is about being fearless, then those responsible for it must be as well. Enter this year's production of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize–winning opus, Angels in America—2 full-length plays, presented consecutively over 2 weekends, by the same 17 actors, with 2 directors.

Faculty, students, and alumni collaborate to support freedom of expression in Belarus. This project, consisting of 11 short plays presented over 3 nights, was developed as part of an international theater action coordinated by Ensemble Free Theater Norway to raise awareness about conditions in Belarus. 

In a production performance class directed by Dina Janis, students developed, explored, and presented a new work by playwright Sherry Kramer.

Dina Janis, theatre faculty member and the artistic director of the Dorset Theatre Festival for the past six years, was interviewed in Manchester Vermont's website about her work reversing the fortunes of the formerly declining theatre. 

Brooks Ashmanskas ’91stars in the adaptation of the 1921 hit musical and 2016New York Times critics’ pick, “Shuffle Along,” which also stars six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald. Ben Brantley singles out Ashmanskas’ performance in his New York Times review.

Bret Easton Ellis '86 recently saw the Broadway musical adaptation of his novel “American Psycho."

LA Weekly did a feature on Melissa Rosenberg '86, around the successful launch of Jessica Jones. 

Peter Dinklage ’91 hosted Saturday Night Live on April 2.

Sheila Lewandowski '97, longtime arts advocate and co-founder of The Chocolate Factory, an award-winning incubator for experimental performance in Queens, New York, has been awarded the 2016 Elizabeth Coleman Visionary Leadership Award at 51��������.

Students make news for their FWT jobs at cultural institutions: Carling Berkhout ’19 in The Manchester Journal about the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Sarah Jack ’17 in the Bennington Banner about Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY, and Sam Wood ’19 in the Cape Cod Times about the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre.

Elizabeth Swados ’73, whose groundbreaking work began while still a student at Bennington, is described in an obituary in the New York Times as “a composer, writer and director who fashioned a unique style of socially engaged musical theater."

Carol Channing ’42 is being celebrated by the New York City Center on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of her stage debut. In this podcast, she describes auditioning for her first role, a comic chanteuse in a political play, while still a sophomore at 51��������.

Joan Tower '61 has been nominated for a Grammy award in Best Contemporary Classical Competition, while Peter Dinklage '91 and Joel Marsh Garland '97 have both been nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Justin Theroux '93 recently spoke with Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air about his role on the HBO series, The Leftovers: a police chief trying to hold his small town together after the sudden disappearance of 2 percent of the people on Earth.

Road to Paradise, a dance and theatre piece written and choreographed by Carson Efird ‘05, was restaged at the 10th annual Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival and featured Bahar Barharloo ‘14, Rory Cullen ‘15, and several students and faculty.