College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Theater

Rick Davis

Wasiq Muhammad Muhammad Ali — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 17:12:11 +0000

Rick Davis Wasiq Muhammad… Fri, 12/10/2021 - 12:12

Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Professor, School of Theater

Contact Information

Email: rdavi4@gmu.edu
Phone: 703.993.8624
Mail Stop: Honors College, MSN 1F4
Campus: Fairfax

Biography

Rick Davis is Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Executive Director of the Hylton Performing Arts Center, and Professor of Theater. From 1991 until the company’s closure in 2012, he was artistic director of Mason’s professional theater company, Theater of the First Amendment (TFA). Under his leadership, TFA became one of the Washington area’s most respected theaters, winning twelve Helen Hayes Awards and producing more than twenty world premieres.

Before coming to Mason, Rick was Associate Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage, and has directed both theater and opera across the country. His books include Calderon de la Barca: Four Great Plays of the Golden Age, as well as two volumes co-authored with Brian Johnston (Ibsen: Four Major Plays and Ibsen In an Hour), and Writing About Theatre with Christopher Thaiss. His translations have been produced in regional theaters and universities from coast to coast. He is the librettist for Stations of Mychal, a song cycle premiering in New York City on the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, with music by Kevin Salfen, and Love’s Comedy, an opera with music by Kim D. Sherman, with whom he also wrote a critically acclaimed oratorio, The Songbird and the Eagle, premiered by the San José Chamber Orchestra. He has contributed entries to the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World and the Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, as well as writing essays and reviews for a variety of journals and magazines. He has received the Mason Teaching Excellence Award and was named Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year. He holds a B.A. from Lawrence University and an M.F.A. and D.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama.

CVPA's Young Alumni Commissioning Project Begins a Fourth Round

Emily Schneider — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 15:01:37 +0000

CVPA's Young Alumni Commissioning Project Begins a Fourth Round Emily Schneider Tue, 12/07/2021 - 10:01

Learn More About the YACP Award

George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) released today a request for proposals for the Young Alumni Commissioning Project, which provides crucial support for the artistic development of recent alumni.

This is the fourth year of the program, which will award up to five grants to CVPA alumni for the creation of original work that will be presented by the College at a Mason venue during the 2022-23 season. The deadline to apply is 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, February 11, 2022. The recipients will be announced in May 2022.

“The Young Alumni Commissioning Project is bearing fruit so beautifully after our first three rounds, adding new work to the world's store of artistic creation and helping advance the careers of Mason’s outstanding arts alumni,” shares Rick Davis, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “As we enter cycle four, I am excited to see what our community of artists brings forward for consideration. Each cycle represents and reflects a moment in time for both the artists and the world we work in, and I know that our alumni are busy doing what artists do: seeing, feeling, and thinking deeply about their world, and transforming those perceptions into significant work.”

All potential applicants are invited to participate in an online grant writing workshop designed and executed by CVPA staff, taking place on Wednesday, January 26 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Individual applicants can also reserve time to speak with CVPA staff about their project and the application process during scheduled office hours, offered during the week of January 31 and February 7.

Jada Salter, 2021 recipient of the Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award

During the 2020/2021 award cycle, Jada Salter (’20) received the Young Alumni Commissioning Project Award and $5,000 in support for Just the Two of Us, a documentary about multi-Grammy award-winning musician and her grandfather William “Bill” Salter. Nicole Daniell (Dance ‘17), Nicholas Horner (Theater ’18, MFA Candidate ‘21), Cristian Perez (Music ‘12), and Katherine Thompson (Visual Art ‘15) were awarded Young Alumni Creative Development Awards and each received $2,500 in commissioning support.

The Young Alumni Commissioning Project is made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of Linda E. Gramlich for the support of young artists, and by donors to Mason’s Giving Day, including Shugoll Research. Young Alumni Commissioning Project recipients may receive up to $5,000 in commissioning funds; as well as venue, production, and marketing support for a public showing of the work.

To be eligible, applicants must be a graduate of the College of Visual and Performing Arts from the class of 2011 and after. Proposals should be for original new work in any art form suitable for performance, exhibition, or screening in a Mason venue. The size, length, duration, magnitude, and content are at the artist’s discretion. Potential venues include Mason’s traditional theater spaces, galleries, and cinemas, but proposals for non-traditional venues will also be considered.

Topics

Young Alumni Commissioning Project. alumni support

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

computer game design news

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Theater

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) Arts Management Program

At Arts Emerging, the Arts Return In-Person to George Mason

96ab7f9b-ab13-4dd3-9135-4ecdce10b5cf (Pam Muirheid) — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 15:31:57 +0000

At Arts Emerging, the Arts Return In-Person to George Mason 96ab7f9b-ab13-… Thu, 09/30/2021 - 11:31

In This Story

Shaun Boyle D'Arcy

Gregory Washington

Dr. Michael Nickens

Arts Emerging raised more than $155,000 to support the arts at Mason.

School of Dance students performing Pause: Reset on Holton Plaza. Photo ©Sean Hickey.

A welcome return to live, in-person arts performances and exhibitions was celebrated September 25 at the George Mason University Center for the Arts.

Arts Emerging: A Celebration of Renewal brought more than 300 people to the Fairfax Campus on a Saturday evening for a festive event that pulsed with artistic energy and the spirit of community.

Combining outdoor and indoor performances by students, faculty, and alumni, art exhibits, film screenings, hands-on activities, and more, Arts Emerging launched the 2021-22 Center for the Arts season, while also marking the 20^th anniversary of the university’s College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“The arts have become one of Mason’s signature tools for the university to engage with its community,” said Rick Davis, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “Arts Emerging is a powerful example of that in action.”

A highlight of the outdoor performances presented on Holton Plaza was a performance of Pause: Reset, delivered by School of Dance students and choreographed by faculty member Shaun Boyle D’Arcy. One performer, senior dance major Hadiya Matthews, reflected afterward on the challenges of the past year and how students have rallied. “During Covid and everything that was happening in the world, it was pretty heavy and kind of sad,” Matthews said. “I think that when we had discussions and ‘collabbed’ and really talked about how we felt, a big thing that kept us strong was community, and how—no matter what we’re going through—we’re all related to one another. That’s something that we can come back to, so building this piece of community was really special.”

Meanwhile, in the adjacent Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery, viewers enjoyed a major exhibition, Women of the Same Blood, combining photography and family history by Zia Palmer, BFA Photography ’19, with the opportunity to meet and talk with the artist. Buchanan Hall also hosted screenings by Film and Video Studies alumni, and an interactive virtual reality experience by the Computer Game Design program.

Later, inside the Center for the Arts, Mason President Gregory Washington welcomed a mix of students, supporters, and Mason faculty and staff. “The arts are the front door to the university,” Washington said. “Many of you found that great big front door and you came through it to become involved with our College of Visual and Performing Arts. And then that introduced you to the larger university.”

Guest appearances on the Concert Hall stage included a duet by Green Machine alumni Chelsea Mohindroo, BS Mathematics ’16, MS Operations Research ’20, and Brandon Showell, BA Music and English ’14, both of whom have been contestants on NBC’s The Voice. They were followed by School of Theater alumni Garvey Dobbins, BFA Theater ’20, and Lauren Fraites, BA Theater ’20, and a finale performance by current Dewberry School of Music opera students. Members of the Green Machine, led by associate professor of music and director of the Green Machine Ensembles Michael W. Nickens (Doc Nix), also played throughout the event.

Finally, School of Dance alumna Sasha (Hollinger) Henninger, BFA Dance ’09, who made her Broadway debut in Hamilton as #thebullet, spoke about her career and her time at Mason. “I was blessed to spend 11 years in New York making a living doing what I love. I toured the country, I toured the world, and I spent my last few years there performing in two incredible shows on Broadway—easily one of my biggest dreams come true,” Henninger said. “My time, my teachers, my peers here at George Mason prepared me for that. My time at George Mason prepared me well.”

Henninger presented a special merit scholarship to current Film and Video Studies senior Taj Kokayi, whose film Woken From a Dream won the Best Student Film Award at the London Web Fest. Kokayi was a producer on the short film The Vine, which premiered during Saturday’s event. The Vine featured current Masters in Arts Management student Bobby Lacy, BA Music ’16, in a stirring spoken word performance inspired by the question of what it means to be an arts manager.

Sandy Spring Bank returned as the event’s presenting sponsor for the fourth consecutive year. “By sponsoring events like this we’re literally helping the students you saw tonight on stage realize their hopes and dreams, or give them an opportunity to,” said Jay O’Brien, executive vice president for commercial and retail banking at Sandy Spring. O’Brien has three daughters currently attending Mason—two graduate students and one undergraduate.

Arts Emerging raised more than $155,000, with proceeds supporting CVPA student scholarships, the Mason Community Arts Academy, Green Machine Ensembles, and the Great Performances at Mason season at the Center for the Arts. The event was co-chaired by Arts at Mason Board members Steven Golsch, a vice president at NowSecure, and Annie Bolger, a bank officer at Sandy Spring Bank.

Topics

arts emerging

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

CFA

forward together

giving to Mason

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Theater

Computer Game Design

Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music

Her activist gene forced her to get involved

Damian Cristodero — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Her activist gene forced her to get involved Damian Cristodero Thu, 06/18/2020 - 05:30

Theater major Jordyn Caldwell, who organized a Black Lives Matter rally in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 7, took a lesson from her parents and grandparents. Photo by Kevin Krisko.

When Jordyn Caldwell was 10 years old in Avon Park, Florida., her grandparents and parents took her through their neighborhood, gathering names on a petition to reform the local police force Caldwell recalled as “so corrupt.”

“That stuck with me,” she said. “We didn’t have to sit there and take it. We could do things about it.”

That sensibility was front and center on June 7, when Caldwell, a rising junior theater major at George Mason University, saw more than 1,000 people attend a Black Lives Matter rally she organized in Old Town Fairfax, Virginia, with her friend, Sandy Shafik, a rising junior government and international politics major.

The rally was personal for Caldwell, whose father, Robert, was a friend of George Floyd, whose killing May 25 in Minneapolis, by a police officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, sparked worldwide protests against police brutality.

“The video was everywhere and he was, like, ‘I know him. That’s my Floyd,’ ” Jordyn Caldwell said of her father, who met Floyd at what is now South Florida State College. “I remember he fell into a deep depression. It was just so sad.”

Jordyn, who lives in Chantilly, Virginia, called her father “a talker.”

“That’s the way he gets through things,” she said, “so I wanted to provide a space where he could talk about his friend and be honest about race relations in America.”

Jordyn Caldwell (left) and her friend Sandy Shafik, a government and international politics major, lead the rally march. Photo by Kevin Krisko.

“I was blown away,” Robert said of the rally. “When we pulled in, my wife said, ‘Look at what your daughter did.’ ”

Other speakers included Caldwell; a member of the local NAACP; Caldwell’s mother, Felicia, who described how her uncle was a victim of police brutality; and a friend of Felicia’s, who is a motivational speaker.

The peaceful rally, which began at City Hall and included a march to Old Town Square, came together in five days, Jordyn Caldwell said, with the help of Daniel Grimm, deputy chief of police in Fairfax City.

Caldwell said she did not expect so much cooperation from the police. But Grimm said, “Our position has always been whoever would want to have an event, we want to see it be successful, no matter what, and we want to see it peaceful.”

Of Caldwell, he said, “There’s a lot of positive energy that comes from Jordyn.”

As for the rally, social media spread the word. Caldwell said the rally’s Twitter account had 200 followers two days after it was created. Friends amplified the message on their social media platforms.

“This is somebody who is not going to be deterred by obstacles and naysayers,” said Kristin Johnsen-Neshati, associate professor of theater at Mason who had Caldwell in several classes and who attended the rally with her husband. “She’s really going to stand up for what she believes in. This success is really going to fuel her.”

“Anybody can do this,” Caldwell said. “You don’t have to be a politician. You don’t have to be a lawyer, you don’t have to be an expert, but you can lift black voices. Go out, spread the word, donate, sign petitions, whatever you can do.”