by Brianna Langley | Sep 25, 2013 | News Slider
Lipscomb University’s theater department is gearing up for their fall production of Les Misérables. The musical will be held Nov. 6 – 8 in Collins Alumni Auditorium and will feature a host of talented actors and singers. Among the actors is guest Broadway star Chuck Wagner. Wagner will be playing the lead role of Jean Valjean. The musical is co-directed by Mike Fernandez, the chair of Lipscomb’s Department of Theatre, as well as Off-Broadway director and choreographer Justin Boccitto. Tickets will be available to purchase online, as well as Lipscomb University’s box office, located outside Allen...
by Cory Woodroof | May 21, 2013 | News Slider
The following is a press release issued by the University: Lipscomb University announces the creation of a Master of Arts in Film and Creative Media, the university’s first academic major in film and a graduate program unlike any other film program in Nashville. Currently, plans are to deliver the new 36-hour curriculum in a 17-month time frame beginning this fall semester. The inaugural enrollees will receive 20 percent off the cost of the program. Applications for the inaugural cohort are due by Aug. 2. “The master’s degree in film and creative media prepares graduate students to operate within all digital media, making their skills more marketable in today’s multi-platform world,” said Mike Fernandez, chair of the Lipscomb University Department of Theatre and acting director of the new program. “These students will be able to do so much more than just feature films. They will be prepared to film commercials, music videos, training and education videos as well as content for social media,” he said. The program takes a unique entrepreneurial and experiential approach to learning. Students will be expected to create digital content each semester. Additionally, they will be encouraged to find creative ways to make business connections and digital content for local companies and organizations or for university departments on campus that need it. As part of that approach, the program requires a one-year internship with a production company. AFFIRM Films/Sony Pictures Entertainment, Veritas Entertainment, Cartoon Pizza and Klausner Creative have signed on as Lipscomb’s first internship partners for the program. “I’m encouraged by the methodic and careful planning by Lipscomb University in launching the new master’s degree...
by Nicci Carney | Mar 9, 2013 | News Slider
Friday, March 8, Shamblin Theater hosted the opening night for Blackbird Theater’s production of Amadeus. The Peter Shaffer play, later adapted into the Academy Award-winning film, tells the story of the tumultuous life and death of Mozart from the perspective of his long time rival Salieri. Feeling he was cheated by God because he was not blessed with the gift Mozart had, the play shows the mental and spiritual battle Salieri fought. The Amadeus production at Lipscomb gives Blackbird Theater founders Wes Driver and Greg Greene an opportunity to work at their Alma Mater, as well as work with current Lipscomb students. The idea began with Lipscomb Theater department chair Mike Fernandez and his encouragement for the duo to create the theater production company and be artist-in-residence. Driver is the artistic director, and Greene serves as the managing director. The hope of Driver and Green is to inspire, yet challenge, the minds of the audience. “The type of theater we hope to produce is transformative. We want to produce productions that will initially challenge people but ultimately inspires them,” Driver said. For Greene, the expectation for the show is, “to transform the people’s thinking and give them an opportunity to reflect on the big issues in life. Having conversations after the show and the responses from social media is what makes a show successful.” The production is one of the many performances from the Nashville Symphony and Orchestra throughout the months of March and April. Mozart in the Music City will be a period of all things Mozart. This includes the production of Amadeus, the Orchestra performing The Magic Flute and the Symphony holding a piano concerto. Student tickets are...
by Emily Snell | Jun 9, 2012 | News Slider
The power of social media is all too evident to today’s teenagers. When technology abuse causes two girls to ruin each other, parents and school officials intervene, struggling to create peace and reconciliation. This reality is the center of “Exposure,” a play written, directed and performed by Lipscomb students. “I think it’s a play that speaks particularly to parents, and I hope parents in the audience are encouraged to be good parents, especially in a world that has changed a lot with social media and technology,” said Director Sawyer Wallace, a recent Lipscomb graduate. The play, written by senior Whitney Vaughn, a double major in theater and Law, Justice and Society, won the playwriting competition at last year’s Christian Scholars’ Conference. It was performed June 6-9 during the 2012 conference on campus. The Christian Scholars’ Conference annually brings together Christian scholars from various academic backgrounds “to develop their own academic research and to reflect on the integration of scholarship and faith.” As described in the play’s program, the work is “a riveting play about a high school guidance counselor’s attempt to reconcile two teenage girls who have used social media to destroy each other’s lives. It exposes the pervasive quality of social media and the damaging effects of poor parenting.” Vaughn, who is interning in Washington, D.C. with the Republican National Committee, said the idea for the play came last year when she was in Mike Fernandez’s playwriting class. Fernandez told the students to consider the big moments in their lives and find common denominators between the events. “The common denominator in all of the good and bad that I’ve been...
by Danielle Boyd | Nov 10, 2010 | News Slider
When Ragtime — with its predominantly black cast — opens Thursday it will be something of a landmark occurrence for Lipscomb, according to those involved. “I think it’s going to be an amazing work and a gigantic step forward for Lipscomb, especially for the theater department,” said Mike Fernandez, director of the play and chairman of the theater department. “It’s a powerful play, and that’s why I love it.” The curtain goes up at 7:30 p.m. for each performance of the play that begins this Thursday, Nov. 14, and runs through Nov. 17 in Collins Alumni Auditorium. The tickets are $5 for Lipscomb students, $10 for faculty, $15 for the public. Tickets are available at the Lipscomb box office or via Ticketmaster. Ragtime — based on the prize-winning historical novel by E.L. Doctorow –is a Tony award-winning play and perhaps the best-known contemorary musical featuring a mostly African-American cast. “This is going to be the best production Lipscomb has ever had,” said Lauren Waller. “The play is fun, lively and a real tear jerker. It is one that everyone will enjoy.” Ragtime mixes fact and fiction and takes place in the years 1900-1917 in, and around, New York City. “What I love about the play is how Doctorow weaves the story of three sets of different people together to tell us a story,” Fernandez said. “In one way [it is] very hopeful, and portrays the essence of what it is to be an American. On the other [hand], it reaches the pit of despair as we see the dreams of some of these people dashed because of racial inequality.” “Ragtime...
