Thank You America: Fire & Ice

Directed and created by Julie Rada

Based on essays written by immigrant and refugee students at the Community College of Aurora.

Produced by the Department of Theatre at the Community College of Aurora & ThankYouAmerica. ThankYouAmerica is a student group, focused on celebrating immigrant contributions to the civic life of our communities, both the college and the City of Aurora. 

Cultural Celebration at the Rotunda, Community College of Aurora, Aurora, Colorado, March 7th, 2017

Aurora Municipal Center, Aurora, Colorado, March 15th, 2017

The Collective Heart Project

Co-Directed by Julie Rada, with Stacey D'Angelo

Produced by the Department of Theatre at the Community College of Aurora

Fine Arts Building, Community College of Aurora, Aurora, Colorado

November 3rd — November 12th, 2016

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The Collective Heart Project is a collaborative community performance and dialogue. Throughout fall 2016, installation booths will be placed around both CCA campuses in which community members will record their responses intended to get to the heart of what the community is thinking about a variety of contemporary issues, from gun violence to racial tensions to the 2016 election. A core group of students will generate an original performance based on the source material gathered in these booths. The process will result in a 48-hour performance festival. 

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Conceived by Stacey D'Angelo

RESIDUE

A new devised performance by members of the Department of Theatre, University of Utah, directed/facilitated by Julie Rada, performed by a student ensemble of ten. 

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF-Region 7), Denver, Colorado

University of Utah, February 12th & 13, 2016; KCACTF at Metro State University, February 17th, 2016

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Taking its title from the idea of what is left after someone dies, Residue explores the situations of love and loss, and what’s left after passing. Georgia Powers and a coroner trace back through Georgia’s life in attempt to put together her narrative after she has died; all this told in a 20-minute world premier which features movement and poetic storytelling. 

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ensemble/co-creators:  Beret Brems, Monica Goff, Louis Hillegass IV, Kelsey Jensen, Emily Nash, Cece Otto, Ashley Marian Ramos, Tori Sicklick, Katryna Williams, Benjamin Young, Dominic Zappala

director/faculty facilitator/co-creator: Julie Rada

poster design by Katryna Williams

sound design by Dominic Zappala

all designs developed by Julie Rada and the ensemble

whispering gallery

A new devised performance by members of the Department of Theatre, University of Utah, directed/facilitated by Julie Rada, performed by a student ensemble of nine

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF-Region 8), St. George, Utah

University of Utah, February 6th & 7th, 2015; KCACTF at Dixie State University, February 14th, 2015

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Based on the national prompt provided by KCACTF, "sometimes it's easier to hear when we whisper," members of the ensemble interviewed each other, wrote poetry and prose, developed choreography, learned contemporary performance techniques such as the Viewpoints, and generated scores of material clustered around the idea of whispering.  Taking its title from the unique architectural spaces in which one person can whisper on one side of a room and be heard by a listener impossibly far away from the speaker, whispering gallery explores the situations of love and loss in which whispered secrets and confessions take place. Lovers speak through tin-can telephones, Bob Ross paints his happy trees, and a subculture of whisper fanatics detail their obsessions; all this told in a 20-minute world premier which features movement and poetic storytelling. 

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ensemble/co-creators: Daniel Amsel, Jeffrey Black, Coltyn Giltner, Steven Jones, Samantha Mitsi Kofford, Cece Otto, Tori Sicklick, Kali Scott, Joshua Wood

director/faculty facilitator/co-creator: Julie Rada

poster design and photography by Samantha Mitsi Kofford

whisper trees constructed and designed by Steven Jones

clouds constructed by Shelley Edwards

all other designs developed by Julie Rada and the ensemble