Even though it’s winter, a new stand of birches has appeared on campus. But unlike their arboreal neighbors on Alumni Walk, these trees aren’t rooted in soil.

Instead, within the warmth of Schaeffer Theatre, they rise from boards, held in place by ropes threaded through their hollow interiors and affixed to fly rails high above.

The clever cardboard and paper recreations are the handiwork of Sophie Hafter ’25, a theater major from New York City, the stage manager for the �ֲ���ý production of The Seagull, Anton Chekhov’s classic tale about a gathering of artists, lovers, and dreamers at a Russian country estate.

Hafter’s work on the play is part of her senior thesis in theater stage management, and it’s all-encompassing. During rehearsals, she’s onstage setting up props one moment, and perched in the sound booth above the theater the next.

Between collaborating with to notate blocking and running sound effects, she briefly disappears into the carpentry shop below the theater to fulfill another of her many responsibilities: the trees.

The birches are key part of the set that has been designed by Associate Professor of Theater Christine McDowell and Kerrigan Anuszewski ’25, a double major in economics and theater from Winthrop, Maine, whose work on the play’s scenic design is part of her own thesis work. 

When McDowell was in graduate school at Yale, she had the opporunity to travel through rural Russia, where she saw for herself how clusters of birches interrupted immense, rolling fields. The trees, often depicted in Chekhov productions, have long been symbolic of Russian culture.

On stage, the realism of the white birches stands out starkly against the dark undertones of The Seagull. Without branches and with their tops intentionally obscured, the tree trunks subtly evoke both the natural and the surreal.

“I wanted something that reminded one of birch trees, but that felt a little more abstract,” McDowell says. “There’s a certain amount of romanticism in this play, and we didn’t want it to be hyperrealistic.”

In working with set designers McDowell and Anuszewski, Hsu seeks to explore the tension between reality and distortion. “I wanted to respect the realism that is often associated with this play, but also offer a pathway into the more avant-garde,” says Hsu, who is at �ֲ���ý as part of the Learning Associates program. “And so there are layers to this production that are not typical to The Seagull.”

Striated patterns painted across the stage and a mountainous backdrop — designed in the colorful, phantasmic style of children’s illustrator Ivan Bilibin — enhance the suspension of disbelief, drawing the audience into the story.

“We live in a world of CGI, but theater is never CGI, and I don’t believe in trying to lean into that idea of photorealism theater,” McDowell says. “People are more interested in something that feels evocative or magical.”

To “grow” each tree, Hafter started with three cardboard tubes connected to make a 20-foot trunk, with the middle tube cut to fit snugly inside the other two. 

“It took me a while to figure out how to get them to connect,” Hafter says. “I cut one of them all the way down the middle and curled it into itself so that it became thinner to fit into the other two.” 

With a piece of real bark from one of the many birch trees on campus resting nearby as a loose guide, Hafter dampened a large sheet of paper and base-painted it white. She then flicked black, white, and yellow paint onto the paper, using a dry brush to move the colors around and mimic a birch’s texture and colorings.

Once the paper was dry, Hafter affixed the “bark” around the cardboard rolls, and the tree was complete. She repeated each step — with help from Technical Director of Theater and Dance Justin Moriarty, engineering major Melinda Kostrinsky ’26 of Miami, Fla., and economics major Rohini Kandasamy ’27 of Neshanic Station, N.J. — until she had 12 trees. At times, the carpentry shop below the theater rivaled an arboretum. 

“There’s a lot of trial and error, but I think they look pretty good,” Hafter says.

Hafter has training in scenic arts — the art of crafting scenery, props, and backdrops for theatrical productions. She learned how to create textures like the faux bark while studying abroad at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, England. She spent both semesters of her junior year studying scenic arts at the performing arts school 12 miles outside of central London.

Across the pond, Hafter put her hands to work learning the basics of carpentry, welding, sewing, and painting. She tackled mixed-media projects, including an ornate crown of wires and beading modeled after a Chinese wedding crown, a 3-foot loafer shoe made from polystyrene, and a miniature door scaled down from a door she measured at Oxford University. 

Hafter and peers also welded a 20-foot-wide turntable — a revolving stage platform — with a central divider so that different sets could be built on each side.

During her time abroad and at �ֲ���ý, Hafter has sharpened skills that build upon interests she’s had since childhood. Growing up in New York City, Hafter had many friends who loved to act, but she was quiet and had stage fright. In middle school, her art teacher introduced her to set design and fabrication, and Hafter quickly took to the art and “the magic of theater.”

As she grew in her craft and worked alongside other energetic, talented thespians, Hafter became more confident. 

“Being around those kinds of people has really helped bring me out of my shell and learn to not care as much about how I’m perceived in not just theater, but in life,” Hafter says. “The people in theater have very interesting perspectives on life, and I appreciate it a lot.”

In addition to her work as The Seagull’s stage manager, Hafter is writing a two-part paper to fulfill her thesis, for which Associate Professor of Theater Courtney Smith is her advisor. The first part of the document will explain the ins and outs of stage management and the critical role of the job, while the second part of the thesis will discuss the importance of diversity and representation in theater productions. 

For this latter portion, Hafter will draw from her own experience, the existing literature, and interviews with diverse people who have worked as stage managers, a role historically held by white women. She hopes to exhibit the power of theater as a means for bringing about social change.

“Theater and art in general, whether it’s performance or visual, is such an important tool for activism and making people aware of other experiences that they might not know about,” Hafter says. 

Theater in particular, she says, has the unique ability to merge the outrageous with the serious for an entertaining lesson.

“I love the spectacle of theater,” Hafter says. “It doesn’t have to be real. It can still be telling a story that has a moral at the end, but can be this happy, crazy thing.”

When the final panel discussion wrapped up and the credits had rolled on the last of the more than 20 films screened at the 2022 �ֲ���ý Film Festival, the �ֲ���ý students who produced the festival as part of their coursework still had some work to do. 

But their assignment was a fun one, namely the business of counting ballots, choosing winners, and sending out awards in six categories. 

The awards aren’t just about giving recognition to the filmmakers — although that is essential — they are part of the educational experience. The students became the “jury” for BFF. 

“The deliberations led students to mobilize ideas they learned in their �ֲ���ý classes in a practical discussion that had real-world implications for the films being considered,” says Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies Jonathan Cavallero, whose course “Film Festival Studies,” teaches students how to produce a festival from start to finish. 

“The debates around awards tend to define the post-festival discussions in a wonderfully appropriate way,” Cavallero says.

Namely, students advocate for the films they love, put the scholarly theories they’ve studied to use in practical ways and consider a range of perspectives, including each other’s. “They reach a consensus and, ultimately, see the results of that work immediately,” their professor says.

The jury’s top prize for narrative feature went to The 24th, a historical drama released in 2020. It’s about an all-Black military unit in Houston in 1917 and their mutiny over racism within the military and the community.

The 24th was directed by Kevin Willmott who co-wrote BlackKklansman with director Spike Lee; the duo share the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. Willmott visited �ֲ���ý in 2017 to show and discuss another film he and Lee co-wrote, Chi-raq, a riff on Lysistrata of Aristophanes, but set in modern day Chicago amid gang violence.

Best Short Film went to Her Dance (2020), and the documentary award was awarded to a 2020 film about students at Lowell High School in San Francisco going through the admissions process, called Try Harder! “We feel very honored and can’t wait to tell the whole team — especially cannot  wait to tell your alum, and our Field Producer, Lauren Kawana,” director Debbie Lum, told the class. 

Audiences also had a chance to reward the films they loved. At the venues for this year’s festival, on campus and, for the first time, at a satellite location in Freeport, the Nordica Theatre, audiences filled out ballots that the students collected at each screening and tabulated after the festival to determine the three Audience Award winners. 

Audiences awarded the film Bébé’s Kids (1992), directed by the festival’s special guest, Bruce W. Smith, the award for narrative feature. It’s 30 years old but earned a following after its release. 

“I am honored and flattered that this film sits as a fond memory for animation fans around the nation,” Smith said in a statement. He’d traveled to Lewiston and participated in multiple interviews, including a panel discussion at Schaeffer Theatre on the closing day of the festival. 

“When directing Bébé’s Kids I certainly didn’t know how it would be received, but it’s heartening to know that people have good feelings while watching the film. Thank you, �ֲ���ý College, for having me and for embracing all of us at this festival.” 

The Audience Award for documentary was a tie, between 2020’s On the Record and 2022’s Framing Agnes, both of which received perfect scores.

Each winner receives a cash award of $500. The awards are “modest by film festival standards,” Cavallero says. But meaningful. “The monetary part of the award is important to us. The �ֲ���ý Film Festival would not exist if filmmakers were not willing to share their work with us.”

Most festivals charge filmmakers a submission fee, he says. �ֲ���ý does not. And many festivals ask filmmakers to attend but pay for only a portion of the trip, or nothing at all. “The �ֲ���ý Film Festival does everything it can to pay for the entire cost of a filmmaker’s trip to our festival,” Cavallero says. “I sincerely hope that we can raise even more money for awards at future festivals because they help to support some truly extraordinary work.”

Gabriel Cuillier, co-writer and director of 2021’s Buy Sell Trade, which won the Audience Award for short film, plans to put his “awesome” honor, along with that cash award, to good use immediately — by submitting his now-award winning film to other festivals. “It would definitely be helpful for some of the submission fees,” he wrote to Cavallero.

The awards are specifically funded by a group that includes alumni who work in the entertainment industry:

Marco Black ’92 is a producer whose credits include film (Old School and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and television (The Rookie, currently running on ABC), and Taylor Blackburn ’16 is a television writer.

Several parents contribute to the award fund as well: Ed Decter P’20, a screenwriter and showrunner; Steve Brookman P’21 who is co-director of Motion Picture Business Affairs at CAA; and Trey Callaway P’20, who contributes on behalf of his father-in-law, the late, legendary Mace Neufeld. Neufeld’s career went back to the 1970s and his more than 50 producing credits include several Jack Ryan movies, starting with The Hunt for Red October. The Harraseeket Inn in Freeport was also an awards sponsor.

The next �ֲ���ý Film Festival is slated for 2024. “Ideas are circulating and conversations are already being had,” Cavallero says. “The one area that was repeatedly identified by students is the need to promote the panel discussions in the future. Without fail, some of the festival’s most memorable moments occur at those discussions, which are typically student led. Bigger audiences at those events would lead to even better conversations, so marketing that aspect of the festival is something we’ll look at next time.”

Here’s a full list of winners:

Jury Award for Narrative Feature: The 24th

Jury Award for Documentary Feature: Try Harder!

Jury Award for Best Short Film: Her Dance

Audience Award for Narrative Feature: Bébé’s Kids

Audience Award for Documentary Feature: On the Record and Framing Agnes (both tied with perfect scores)

Audience Award for Short Film: Buy Sell Trade

Andrucki discusses Schaeffer’s present and past, including a nod of gratitude to the building’s namesake, the late �ֲ���ý theater professor Lavinia Schaeffer. “She had the drive and energy to push the College into building this theater,” Andrucki says.

The �ֲ���ý theater department production of Molière’s 1672 satire The Learned Ladies continues through March 20, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 18-19, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 20. The performances take place in Schaeffer Theatre, at 305 College St.

Tickets are $6 for the general public and $3 for seniors and students, and are available at . For more information, please call 207-786-6161.

Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater, directs the production, which honors French culture and marks the 50th anniversary of �ֲ���ý’ mainstage theater and dance venue, Schaeffer Theatre. The piece, says Andrucki, is “a wonderful Molière play. It’s got all the Molière hallmarks — the wit, the elegance, both broad and refined humor.”

With intellectual pretension its theme, the play tells the story of two young lovers, Henriette and Clitandre, whose marriage is blocked by Henriette’s mother, aunt and sister. These would-be learned ladies, who embrace a bogus kind of “intellectuality,” have been captivated by Trissotin, a pseudo-scholar and mediocre poet. The ladies want Henriette to marry this fraud instead of the handsome and commonsensical Clitandre.

“It’s a good production for students because it’s about intellectual vanity, intellectual folly, true and false values,” says Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater at �ֲ���ý. “These are all issues that students wrestle with as they figure out what it means to be educated. It’s about finding intellectual balance.”

Andrucki has reset the play into the 1920s, an era with its own brand of intellectual absurdity. But, he adds, “the play is surprisingly modern in tone at times. One project that the ladies want to do is to create a body of forbidden words that may not be uttered because people may find them offensive.”

In the cast are three students whose performances form part of their senior thesis, a distinctive capstone experience in the �ֲ���ý education. Playing Henriette is Alina Volobuyeva, a senior from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Schuyler Rooth of New Orleans portrays Armande, the sister who is bent on keeping Henriette and Clitandre apart. Both are doing yearlong honors theses in theater.

For her one-semester senior thesis, Sarah Dice-Goldberg of Matawan, N.J. is designing costumes for the production, under the direction of Christine McDowell, assistant professor of theater.

Andrucki chose Molière to honor the 50th birthday of Schaeffer Theatre, home to most theater and dance productions at the college. The first piece presented in the 324-seat theater was also by that playwright: a December 1960 presentation of Tartuffe by the Robinson Players, the student theater company at �ֲ���ý.

Built as the Little Theatre in 1960, the space was renamed in 1972 to honor Lavinia Schaeffer. Retiring that year after 38 years on the �ֲ���ý faculty, Schaeffer was a moving force behind both the construction of the state-of-the-art venue and, more broadly, of the �ֲ���ý theater program as it stands today.

She was an advocate at �ֲ���ý of the “Little Theater” movement — “a movement to create smaller theaters that would be suitable environments for the serious and realistic plays that came along after Ibsen,” Andrucki explains. (Hence Schaeffer Theatre’s original name.)

“These were intimate spaces for probing psychological dramas,” he says, in contrast to the gaudier, more spectacular entertainments dominating commercial theater for much of the 20th century. “Lavinia was very much attuned to that spirit. That was the cutting edge of her generation.

“She wanted to be part of it and make �ֲ���ý part of it.”

The Learned Ladies, says director Martin Andrucki, is “a wonderful Molière play. It’s got all the Molière hallmarks — the wit, the elegance, both broad and refined humor.”

With intellectual pretension its theme, the play tells the story of two young lovers, Henriette and Clitandre, whose marriage is blocked by Henriette’s mother, aunt and sister. These would-be learned ladies, who embrace a bogus kind of “intellectuality,” have been captivated by Trissotin, a pseudo-scholar and mediocre poet. The ladies want Henriette to marry this fraud instead of the handsome and commonsensical Clitandre.

“It’s a good production for students because it’s about intellectual vanity, intellectual folly, true and false values,” says Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater at �ֲ���ý. “These are all issues that students wrestle with as they figure out what it means to be educated. It’s about finding intellectual balance.”

Andrucki has reset the play into the 1920s, an era with its own brand of intellectual absurdity. But, he adds, “the play is surprisingly modern in tone at times. One project that the ladies want to do is to create a body of forbidden words that may not be uttered because people may find them offensive.”

In the cast are three students whose performances form part of their senior thesis, a distinctive capstone experience in the �ֲ���ý education. Playing Henriette is Alina Volobuyeva, a senior from Kharkiv, Ukraine. Schuyler Rooth of New Orleans portrays Armande, the sister who is bent on keeping Henriette and Clitandre apart. Both are doing yearlong honors theses in theater.

For her one-semester senior thesis, Sarah Dice-Goldberg of Matawan, N.J. is designing costumes for the production, under the direction of Christine McDowell, assistant professor of theater.

Andrucki chose Molière to honor the 50th birthday of Schaeffer Theatre, home to most theater and dance productions at the college. The first piece presented in the 324-seat theater was also by that playwright: a December 1960 presentation of Tartuffe by the Robinson Players, the student theater company at �ֲ���ý.

Built as the Little Theatre in 1960, the space was renamed in 1972 to honor Lavinia Schaeffer. Retiring that year after 38 years on the �ֲ���ý faculty, Schaeffer was a moving force behind both the construction of the state-of-the-art venue and, more broadly, of the �ֲ���ý theater program as it stands today.

She was an advocate at �ֲ���ý of the “Little Theater” movement — “a movement to create smaller theaters that would be suitable environments for the serious and realistic plays that came along after Ibsen,” Andrucki explains. (Hence Schaeffer Theatre’s original name.)

“These were intimate spaces for probing psychological dramas,” he says, in contrast to the gaudier, more spectacular entertainments dominating commercial theater for much of the 20th century. “Lavinia was very much attuned to that spirit. That was the cutting edge of her generation.

“She wanted to be part of it and make �ֲ���ý part of it.”

March is a month for theater classics at �ֲ���ý College.

Elizabeth Castellano, a �ֲ���ý junior from New Suffolk, N.Y., directs the college’s production of David Mamet’s Oleanna, a highly charged story of sexual politics in the halls of academe. Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, March 10 and 13, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 12, in Gannett Theater, 305 College St.

Meanwhile, the theater department honors French culture and marks the 50th anniversary of its mainstage venue, Schaeffer Theatre, with a production of Molière’s 1672 satire The Learned Ladies. Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor of Theater, directs. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, March 11-12 and March 18-19, and 2 p.m. Sundays, March 13 and 20. Schaeffer is also located at 305 College St.

Admission to Oleanna is free and first-come, first-seated. Tickets for The Learned Ladies are $6 for the general public and $3 for seniors and students, and are available at . For more information, please call 207-786-6161.

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�ֲ���ý College presents John Reed’s All the World’s a Grave, a new play weaving together some of Shakespeare’s most compelling characters and language, in performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday, Nov. 12-13 and 15-16, and at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Professor of Theater Paul Kuritz directs this theater department production. Admission is $6 general admission and $3 for senior citizens and non-�ֲ���ý students. For more information, please visit or call 207-786-6161.

Playwright John Reed holds a public “talkback” at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, in Schaeffer Theatre. His visit is sponsored by the college Learning Associates program.

“At �ֲ���ý we like to do classics and new plays,” says Kuritz. “All the World’s a Grave fits both categories.”

is a darkly humorous imagining of the ultimate Shakespearean tragedy. Published in 2008 as a book and staged in full productions only twice to date, Reed brings characters from Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and other of Shakespeare’s greatest hits together into a dark and twisted piece of theater.

As director Kuritz summed it up at the first production meeting, “They all die — everything turns out badly.”

In Reed’s story, Hamlet has gone to war for his wife Juliet, the daughter of King Lear. Hamlet returns home to find that his mother has murdered his father and married Macbeth. Then enters the ghost of his murdered father, the King, who torments the prince — who is further provoked by Iago who persuades Hamlet that Juliet is having an affair with Romeo. As the prince goes mad, a tale far too familiar unfolds.

Kuritz chose the play in part, he says, because “a review of the book mentioned the experience of reading Shakespeare as a new work. Familiar words in a new context cause us to rethink the words without the historical baggage of popular and critical opinion which often, and unavoidably, frames all discussion of Shakespeare’s works.”

He adds, “Students working on this play will have to confront questions not faced by actors in over 400 years of acting Shakespeare. We all come to the play without the knowledge of past productions or critical responses. We must discover what it means and how it means just as Shakespeare’s actors did.

“The audience will have a similar experience.”

At the same time, both Kuritz and the playwright note that no special knowledge of the Bard is necessary to appreciate the play. “My feeling is that Shakespeare buffs may get a little more in the way of the intricacies,” says Reed, “but that many of the lines are so familiar to everyone that their shifted contexts are obvious.”

Two students in the play, Caroline Servat of San Francisco (the Queen) and Marielle Vigneau-Britt of Canton, Conn. (Juliet), are performing as part of their senior honors theses in theater.

Designing costumes for the production is Carol Farrell, co-director of Freeport’s , known for its imaginative productions that combine puppetry and other theatrical forms. Michael Reidy, a lecturer and technical director in the �ֲ���ý theater department, is the set and lighting designer.

Reed teaches creative writing at New School University in New York City and is books editor of the , a monthly journal covering arts and politics around New York and the world. He wrote the critically acclaimed and best-selling novel “Snowball’s Chance,” a parody of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”

In its first-ever concert held during the academic year, the internationally acclaimed �ֲ���ý Dance Festival collaborates with the �ֲ���ý College Concerts Committee to present Beautiful Me by the renowned South African company Vuyani Dance Theatre Project at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, in �ֲ���ý College’s Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

The performance kicks off the troupe’s North American tour. Tickets, at $20 for the general public and $12 for students and seniors, can be purchased on line at: . (One hundred free tickets will be available at the door to �ֲ���ý students on a first-come, first-served basis.) For more information call 207-786-6135.

Musicians from Vuyani offer a jam session in a �ֲ���ý Noonday Concert at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. Maqoma and other members of the Vuyani Dance Theatre give a pre-performance talk at 7:30 p.m. the evening of the performance in Schaeffer.

A global fusion of rousing live music sets the pace for this solo tour de force by the exquisite dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma, a rising star on South Africa’s dance and theater scene. Beautiful Me speaks honestly about the profound task of finding one’s authentic voice and redefining our notion of postmodern African choreography.

Maqoma invited three of the world’s most refreshing and articulate choreographers to contribute their unique voices to Beautiful Me: Akram Khan (U.K.), Faustin Linyekula (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Vincent Mantsoe (South Africa).

The result is an expansive movement vocabulary that layers influences of contemporary Kathak (classical dance from India), Afro-Fusion and visual dance theater with breathtaking precision and lyrical warmth. Against a soaring score for violin, cello, sitar and percussion, Maqoma traces the personal journey — and larger social history — that led to his own rich theatrical form. Incorporating movement, music and text, the production plays out as a series of conversations culminating in a heartfelt, kinetic reflection on African identity.

Born in Johannesburg, Maqoma is regarded as a visionary in South Africa. He started creating dance in a youth club in Johannesburg. He began his formal training with Moving Into Dance Mophatong, a Johannesburg-based school and company, in 1990, and was accepted into the company a year later. In 1994 he created his first work for them.

In 1997 he received a scholarship for a choreographic program, Dance Web in Vienna, and in 1999 a scholarship to study at Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Brussels. While in Brussels, Maqoma formed Vuyani Dance Theatre Project.

Works he has choreographed since then include “Layers of Time”; “Rhythm 1, 2, 3”; “Rhythm Blues”; “. . . and denial, and silence and ignorance. . .,” commissioned by the Pretoria Technikon Dance Department; “Autumn Harvest,” commissioned by the International School Company in Amsterdam; “Revolution,” for the Dunhill Symphony of Fire in Lagos, Nigeria; “Miss Thandi,” a tribute to Raymond Matinyane commissioned by the 2002 FNB Vita Dance Umbrella festival; and the recent “Beautiful Trilogy,” of which “Beautiful Me” is the final part.

Maqoma’s numerous awards include several from FNB Dance Umbrella and the 2002 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance Award. Also in 2002, he was nominated for the prestigious DaimlerChrysler Award, and in 2004 he was selected as a potential Protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Under Maqoma’s direction, the Vuyani Dance Theatre Project has grown to include the Vuyani Ensemble, a project-based experimental jazz ensemble that aims to create a language of music representative of the company vision and performance style.

In addition to working as a choreographer, in 2002 Maqoma co-produced New Directions, a dance program for the Standard Bank National Arts Festival, together with Moeketsi Koena, Sello Pesa and Mandla Mcunu. In 2003, he served as artistic leader for the Afro-Vibes Festival in Holland.

Today he is associate artistic director for Moving Into Dance Company. Additionally, Maqoma teaches and choreographs for other organizations and gives workshops internationally on African dance, culture and choreography.

Support for this project comes from the following �ֲ���ý College offices: the College Concerts Committee; the offices of the college president, Institutional Diversity, dean of the faculty and dean of students; the Africa GEC/Mellon Innovation grant; the Multicultural Center; Humanities Division; the dance and Learning Associates programs; Harward Center for Community Partnerships; and the International and Africana clubs.

A longtime favorite at the , the Bebe Miller Company returns to Lewiston with the mysterious, visionary piece “Necessary Beauty” in performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 31 and Aug. 1, in �ֲ���ý College’s Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Tickets are $20 for the general public and $12 for students and seniors and can be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 6.

Additional upcoming events — open to the public at no cost, except as noted — include:

• The annual “Moving in the Moment” concert, an evening of improvisational dance and music featuring contact improviser Nancy Stark Smith and artists in residence at the festival, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 4, in Alumni Gym, 130 Central Ave.
• “Different Voices,” a diverse evening of new works by international and emerging choreographers, at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Aug. 6 and 7, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. Among choreographers introducing dances are Opiyo Okach (Kenya), Qudus Onikeku (Nigeria), Jennifer Archibald, Kyle Abraham and Adele Myers. Admission is $20 for the general public and $12 for students and seniors.
• “Young Choreographers/New Works,” an informal, adjudicated showing of more than 20 new works by talented festival students from across the United States, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, in Schaeffer Theatre.
• The “Festival Finale” at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 8, in Alumni Gym. Admission is $6. Festival participants perform modern, Caribbean and hip hop works by Jennifer Archibald, Tania Isaac, Robert Battle, Mark Dendy and Bebe Miller, along with a new work by Youth Arts Program participants.

, winner of the “Bessie” Award for dance and performance in New York, is considered one of the foremost creative forces in contemporary dance. Her vision is based on faith in the moving body as a record of thought, experience and sheer beauty.

Composed of intimate multimedia segments for five extraordinary dancers, “Necessary Beauty” investigates the convergence of dance, theater, music and digital technology through the rhythm of action and memory.

In creating a work, Miller relies on the interplay of a theme, its physicality and the contributions of company members to fashion its singular voice. Seeking to expand the language of dance, Miller integrates choreography with writing, moving images and digital media. Committed to keeping dance available to a wide spectrum of people, the company is dedicated to opening the creative process and expression to diverse people in a community.

The Bebe Miller Company celebrated its 20th year in 2005. After two decades as a traditional touring dance company, the troupe is now structured as a “virtual company,” with members living across the U.S.

New work is developed in long-term residencies that bring BMC dancers and collaborators together for creative exploration, rehearsals and community-based activities. The company has pioneered the use of digital media to provide “process bulletins” that allow participants to communicate effectively.

BMC has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and in eight other countries. The company has been commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival; The Joyce Theater and Dance Theater Workshop, both in New York; the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University; Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival; Dance Place in Washington, D.C.; and the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival.

In addition to mainstage performances, the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Additional information, including ticket prices and event locations, is available on the .

– Office of Communications and Media Relations

Hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the hottest new troupe emerging on the national scene, returns to the to perform two Maine premieres. This dazzling young group of formidable dancers presents works that explore contemporary life and pop culture with choreographic ingenuity and range. The festival presents Keigwin + Co. at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 18 and 19, in Schaeffer Theatre, 365 College St., �ֲ���ý College. Tickets are $20/$12 (students and seniors) and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 7.

Keigwin + Company’s performance includes excerpts from the ensemble’s latest works “The Elements,” commissioned by the festival. The program features two provocative and witty suites, inspired by the natural elements. Each features a different mood, style and look that juxtaposes urban and nature, reality and fantasy, animal and pedestrian, and classical and pop.

The program also features the delightful “Love Songs,” a suite of dances for four couples. Each couple highlights a different perspective of love in duets that range from cute to sexy to sad.  Choreographed to the soulful sounds of Aretha Franklin, Neil Diamond and Nina Simone, this suite presents a romantic and playful journey of falling in and out of love. Performed with tantalizing technique and performance bravura, each duet quickly becomes its own idiosyncratic gem.

Established in 2003 with its premiere performance at New York’s Joyce Soho, Keigwin + Company has performed at New York’s Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Thalia Theater at Symphony Space and NYU/Tisch School of the Arts. Their national appearances include the American Dance Festival, the �ֲ���ý Dance Festival, Summerdance Santa Barbara and Jacob’s Pillow.

Keigwin has performed at venues from the Metropolitan Opera House to downtown clubs, to Broadway and back. From 1997 to 2000, he served as associate artistic director of Dendy Dance & Theater and received a Bessie Award for his performance in “Dream Analysis.” He has danced in the companies of Jane Comfort, John Jasperse, Doug Elkins, Ben Munisteri and David Rousseve. His recent Metropolitan Opera engagements include Doug Varone’s “La Sacre du Printemps” and Julie Taymor’s “The Magic Flute,” as well as Taymor’s Oscar-nominated film “Across the Universe.”

The associate choreographer for the Radio City Rockettes production of “Carnivale,” a Disney musical workshop “When You Wish” and the Off-Broadway musical “The Wild Party,” Keigwin recently performed in the Broadway show “Dance of the Vampires.” In his spare time, Keigwin he created “Keigwin Kabaret,” a fusion of modern dance, vaudeville and burlesque acts presented by the Public Theater at Joe’s Pub and by Symphony Space.

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