The Virtual Platform

A digital space for creativity and experimentation.

The Performing Arts Department is proud to present this virtual venue for dance, drama and vocal video productions, as well as radio plays. These can be in the form of independent pieces, or group projects. Think of it as a place where performances can push theatrical boundaries, or as a home for just having some simple fun. Traditional and experimental works are welcome. Perhaps you have an urge to create a piece and want to share it here? We hope you do.

Songs You'd Never Sing:
Finding Forward

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Cast Photos for Songs You'd Never Sing Episode 4

In these heavy times of global pandemic, social and racial upheaval, and a country struggling to define democracy, a light now glimmers at the end of the tunnel to give hope and inspire us to find forward. The characters in this episode each had to reconcile with their past before finding their way forward. They are songs of encouragement, making choices and determination.

Musical Direction by Henry Palkes
Performances by Amanda Sherman, Elle Schantz, Evan Moss, Sofia McGrath, Tomasso Maiocco, Nina Silverstein, Isabel Koleno, Sarah Wilkinson, Nathaniel Holmes, Brenna Jones, Jo Palisoc

click here to view "songs you'd never Sing: finding forward"

Visual Performances

Focus

A remarkable mix of radio play and performance art, Focus is about sound and silence, stillness and movement. A student struggles to follow a lecture, contending with distractions, thoughts, emotions, and the overstimulation that comes with trying to drown out the rest of the world.

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Cast Photos for Songs You'd Never Sing Episode 3

Songs You'd Never Sing: Distance ≧ Connectivity

Perhaps more than most of us might enjoy, we have all come to a new understanding of both “distance” and “connectivity”. The songs on this third episode were written well before the current crises of health, social turbulence, and a country more divided than unified. The lyrics become even more salient through our current lens and particularly so through when expressed from a different gender point of view.

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Songs You'd Never Sing Cast of Second Episode

Songs You'd Never Sing: Betrayal and Paled Rainbows

Songs You’d Never Sing explores a world of circumstances that did not go particularly well. In this second episode, a forty-six year old Jewish housewife discovers her husband has a gay lover, Cinderella is confined to the freedom of her imagination, a husband disappears on his cheating wife, a jailed con man, a man in despair with his Maker, and well… crazy King George! Join the cast and band for this sassy and compelling reflection on ‘playing the cards you’re dealt’.

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Songs You'd Never Sing - Premiere Episode

This is the PAD’s riff on the popular celebrity gala, Miscast. Many have dreamt of singing songs from musicals that no one would ever cast them in, but with this show, such dreams come true. Songs You’d Never Sing offers bold permissions for simply having some fun. It can be campy and outrageous at times, but it may also be downright beautiful and astonishing, especially when the chemistry between singer and song proves to be perfect. Perhaps you have a song like this in you?

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The Lament of Bathsheba

This is a figure skating program examining the dual identity of the biblical Bathsheba as both queen and commoner (represented by the use of both an ornate purple costume and a plain black dress as the program progresses) as she navigates her grief following the loss of her son. The program is set to two versions of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, which references the story of Bathsheba. This was filmed prior to COVID-19. Choreographic Consulting: Carly Muñoz; Music: Leonard Cohen, K.D. Lang, and Kyle Landry; Videography: Carly Muñoz and Sami Winawer; Acknowledgements: Kelly, Scott, and Alex Requadt

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The Dreaming Bird

The Dreaming Bird is a dance film that explores the sensory and expressionistic nature of dance through visual-technology and whose ethereal aesthetic elicits a felt sense of reverence and beauty. Camera Operator: Kat Seal; Music: New York- Mad Rush by Philip Glass, Thibault Cauvin, and Adélaïde Ferrìere; Acknowledgements: A special thanks to David Marchant for his many pop-up windows of wisdom and eccentricities.

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