These one-act plays, written by advanced playwriting students in the Creative Writing Program, are presented in collaboration with the Department of Theatre and Dance, student directors and actors and other Wheaton students. Via Zoom, registration required, 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. EST each day.

Saturday, March 6

12:00 p.m. Register Here

3:00 p.m. Register Here

Sunday, March 7

12:00 p.m. Register Here

3:00 p.m. Register Here

Calling all creatives, from every corner of the Wheaton College Community! The Theatre & Dance program spring 2021 mainstage production is entitled: The Wheaton X Series, and the subject of this theatrical experience is you and your responses to the events of our time.

The Wheaton X Series (xperimental/xperiential/xpression) is a multi disciplinary, community wide live virtual event spanning two nights of programming, comprised of ‘acts’. The stories reflected through the performance pieces (dance, song, word, music, and film) will be created in response to the prompt:

2020 and Beyond: Our Reflections. Our Responses.

We are inviting all Wheaton voices (students, alumnae/i, staff and faculty) to respond to the prompt through any form of creative expression.

All performances will be recorded, and edited into a two-evening event premiering April 8 & 9, 2021 celebrating the great talent and passion of our community. The premiere will be followed by a ‘Behind the Scenes’ event with the creative team on April 15.

Even if you do not wish to perform, you will have the opportunity to contribute work that may be performed by others (especially original music that can be used for dance performances, or other means of artistic expression.)

Questions? Contact Joe Wilison Jr. ([email protected])

Register here

Angie Mazakis’s first book, I Was Waiting to See What You Would Do First, describes the various experiences of a first-generation immigrant. Her work has been widely published, including in The New Republic and Boston Review.

Register on Zoom here.

Playwright Joyce Van Dyke, director Judy Braha, and actor Elaine Vaan Hogue talk about their collaboration on a new one-woman play featuring suffragist and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, who asks, “What does it do to your soul if you don’t have representation?” The play is a fever dream and a call to action by Howe, who was a playwright, poet, and founder of the American Woman Suffrage Association which supported voting rights for Black women as well as white women. The conversation will draw parallels between Howe’s mission and today’s election.

Register on Zoom here.

Brandon Shimoda has been widely recognized for the imaginative spirit he projects in his poetry. His most recent book, The Desert, was published in 2018. He has been awarded the William Carlos Williams prize for his second book, Evening Oracle.

Register on Zoom here.

Ten original plays—written, directed and performed by Wheaton students—will be showcased in our biannual festival.

Register on Zoom here

Longer form plays—written, directed and performed by Wheaton students—will be showcased at our annual festival.

Olga Livshin will discuss how culture, translation, history, current events and her own biography intermingle in her 2019 book of poems, A Life Replaced, which reflects on the experience of living as an immigrant under the Trump administration and with Putin’s war on Ukraine looming. Raised in Odessa and Moscow, Livshin writes witness poetry about xenophobia, war, and strongmen at the helm on both sides of the world. The book braids original poetry in English with translations from Anna Akhmatova, the great poet of 20th-century Russia, and Vladimir Gandelsman, fellow immigrant and winner of the Moscow Reckoning, Russia’s highest prize for poetry. Livshin’s poems, translations, and essays appear in The Kenyon Review and Poetry International, and are widely published. She holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literature, and taught at the university level for a number of years before focusing on writing and translation.

Please join us in the May Room for a reception immediately following the lecture.
Sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University and by the Russian Department at Wheaton College.

Emily Morse, Artistic Director of New Dramatists (NYC), engages in a conversation with Professors Charlotte Meehan and Stephanie Burlington Daniels about her work supporting contemporary playwrights and collaborating on ensemble-made theatre in her own practice as playwright, dramaturg, and performer. New Dramatists has been a major force in the development of US-based playwrights since 1949.

Tommy “Teebs” Pico describes himself as a poet (he guesses), a screenwriter (or whatever), a co-host of a dumb podcast for jerks, and begrudgingly as a performer. His books, IRL, Nature Poem, Junk and Feed have received numerous accolades including the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a Lambda Literary Award, an American Book Award and the prestigious Whiting Award.