Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Andrew Holland first had the idea to create a theatrical piece with a focus on architecture after reading about a Berlin play which took inspiration from the Bauhaus architecture of the planned community at which it was performed. Holland brainstormed for locations to conduct a similar play at Hamilton College with Professor of Theatre Carole Bellini-Sharp, and the two decided the perfect location would be the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School in the Cornhill section of Utica.

Hamilton College’s Bicentennial Initiatives campaign exceeded its $117 million goal 16 months ahead of its scheduled conclusion on June 30, 2013. The funds raised in the first two years of this brief three-year effort now surpass $119 million.

The spring theater production of Orestes 2.0 by Charles Mee debuted on April 12 in Minor Theater.  Directed by Professor of Theater Craig Latrell and featuring a cast of 14 Hamilton students, the production is a postmodern version of Euripides’ classical tragedy.

The Gotham Chamber Opera has revived their inaugural production of Mozart’s Il Sogno di Scipione in celebration of company’s 10-year jubilee season. Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Andrew Holland designed the scenery for the American stage premiere of the rare Mozart offering 10 years ago.

The Hamilton College Theatre Department will present its Spring Theater Production, Orestes 2.0 by Charles Mee. Performances will run Thursday, April 12, through Saturday, April 14, at 8 p.m., and Wednesday, April 18, through Saturday, April 21, at 8 p.m. There is an additional performance at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 14. All performances will take place in Minor Theater.

Actor and screenwriter Nat Faxon ’97 won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants during the Feb. 26 Academy Awards. The award, which he received with co-writers Alexander Payne and Jim Rash, is given to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel, play, short story, or TV show but also sometimes another film). Faxon, who majored in theatre at Hamilton, started comedy troupe Bobby Peru. He was profiled in the Spring 2007 Alumni Review article “Roll Credits.”

The M-Theatre production of The Last Minstrel Show by John D. Davidson concludes its run tonight with another sold-out performance.  The dinner-theatre show is a musical treatment of the 1920 lynchings of three black circus workers in Duluth. This 5th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day production is aimed at promoting diversity and serving as an entertaining way to educate on culture and history.

The construction of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, which began in mid-summer of 2011, is scheduled to be finished next August, according to Associate Vice President for Facilities and Planning Steve Bellona.

Hamilton’s Board of Trustees voted at their December meeting to proceed with design construction documents for a new theatre and studio arts building.