The Year in Theater: InCite Festival Provides Arts Network for Students, Young Alums

This year, Boston University’s actors, directors, and playwrights brought an exciting year of theater to campus. From the Opera Institute’s production of The Magic Flute to the week-long InCite Arts Festival produced by the College of Fine Arts, the performances showcased a wide array of BU talent. This week, BU Today is revisiting the year in theater at Boston University.

InCite Festival Provides Arts Network for Students, Young Alums

On the first night of the InCite Arts Festival, the cast of the operetta The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, based on an essay by neurologist Oliver Sacks, faced an intimidating challenge: the author was in the audience.

“It was very nerve-wracking,” says Gideon Dabi (CFA’07), the baritone who played the “man” of the title — the patient in the famous neurological case study. “This was the first time I’d done a role like this — I had just finished The Magic Flute, and I was a bird-catcher with feathers coming out of my head — and I wanted to honor this man, not exploit him.”

The challenge of performing and exhibiting in front of new and daunting audiences — which included Boston University alumni, current and prospective students, and casting agents — was part of the excitement of the InCite festival, conceived as a way to showcase the strengths of the young up-and-coming artists from the College of Fine Arts. The festival, which ran from March 9 through 15 in New York, featured plays, concerts, gallery exhibitions, and theater showcases from current students and young alumni. The CFA administration hopes to hold similar festivals in major metropolitan areas around the country annually.

“This is an exposure and an experience that we hope enhances their training and that they can take with them through the rest of their artful lives,” says Walt Meissner (CFA’81), CFA dean ad interim. “There are so many agendas going on here: the training of our students, reconnecting with our alumni, and using this to reach the students who have inquired about coming to the College of Fine Arts next year.”

The events, attended by about 1,600 people, showcased work from CFA’s schools of visual arts, theatre, and music. Besides The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, the festival featured the plays Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, These Worlds in Us, and Sow and Weep, by Nitzan Halperin (CFA’07), and a selection of works performed by the Boston University Chamber Orchestra.

A weeklong exhibition at the Robert Steele Gallery displayed the work of eight first- and second-year M.F.A. students from the school of visual arts. Lynne Allen, the school’s director, says that the festival allowed students to experience the selection process, but mostly it was a way for them to celebrate their peers.

“It’s just about us, making them feel like they’re part of a family at BU,” she says. “And that’s really nice.”

The festival also forged links between the undergraduates and young alumni. For example, young actors, casting directors, and playwrights working in New York participated in a panel discussion for acting and theater majors. Panelists included actress Tala Ashe (CFA’06), currently appearing on As the World Turns, playwright Daria Polatin (CFA’00), whose play A Fair Affair won the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival prize for best one-act play, and Kaipo Schwab (CFA’93), an actor and director.

After the discussion, students said that the week in New York had been fun, but more important, the interactions with other students and alumni had made them feel more secure about their artistic careers after college.

“It was nice to see the different levels people are at and the decisions you can make after you graduate from this program,” says theater arts major Danya LaBelle (CFA’08). “And there are people we can go to to help us out. I didn’t realize that the BU network was so strong.”

Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu. Edward A. Brown can be reached at ebrown@bu.edu.

This article originally ran on March 20, 2008.