Great reviews for The Kite Runner at Liverpool Playhouse and Brighton Festival

Dr. Spangler's stage adaptation of The Kite Runner is receiving great reviews at the Liverpool Playhouse and Brighton Festival (Theatre Royal).  The play was previously at the Nottingham Playhouse (for reviews at this venue, see previous blog post):

Sussex Express
“This is honestly the best play I have ever seen at the Theatre Royal and the best thing I have seen throughout the Brighton Festival. It was fascinating, intricate, with plenty of plot twists to surprise you, and made for compelling viewing. If you go and see one play this year, make it this one.” Read more >>

The Brighton Magazine
“The rousing standing ovation was richly deserved.” Read more >>

The Latest (U.K.)
“Spangler’s brilliant adaptation makes for one of the most intensely moving theatrical experiences I have experienced.” Read more >>

Brighton Fringe Review
“It is not often I give a standing ovation during a night at the theatre and it is even more infrequent that I am moved to tears by a live performance. Yet, at The Kite Runner last night I found myself doing both things simultaneously, along with the majority of the audience in the Theatre Royal.” Read more >>

Financial Times (London)
“Beautifully performed.” Read more >>

British Theatre Guide
“A phenomenally powerful piece of theatre.”  Read more >>

Liverpool Echo
“Utterly gripping.” Read more >>

Liverpool Daily Post
“Wonderfully told.” Read more >>

Liverpool Live
“It is with no surprise the production received a lengthy standing ovation.” Read more >>

Click Liverpool
“This production wrings every drop of emotion from the audience and was rewarded with a well-deserved standing ovation.” Read more >>

BBC Radio Merseyside
“It’s absolutely brilliant.  Go see it!” Read more >>

Liverpool Confidential
“A powerful tour-de-force.” Read more >>

What’s On Stage (Liverpool)
“Intensely, relentlessly gripping.” Read more >>

Exeunt Magazine (U.K.)
“Beautifully paced . . . Spangler’s scenes seem to fly by.” Read more >>

Reviews Gate (U.K.)
“Matthew Spangler has managed in his adaptation a synthesis which transfers beautifully to the stage.” Read more >>

Behind the Arras (U.K.)
“A wise adaptation flying high.” Read more >>

Kite Runner Play Produced in the U.K.

Dr. Spangler's stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's novel The Kite Runner opened this week at the Nottingham Playhouse in the UK.  This is the European Premiere of the play.  So far, reviews have been great.  It will also be produced at the Brighton Festival and the Liverpool Playhouse.  It runs through the middle of July.

BBC TV (2 min, contains a short interview with Dr. Spangler)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-22315123

Daily Telegraph (London)
"This show, a European premiere, stands shoulder to shoulder with the best work in the regions and judging by the thronging auditorium, the theatre has a hit on his hands that deserves to travel the country beyond its scheduled stops of Brighton and Liverpool."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10031491/The-Kite-Runner-Nottingham-Playhouse-review.html

Daily Mail (London)
"This play is worthy of Hosseini's bestseller."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-2318530/The-Kite-Runner-Nottingham-Playhouse-Play-adaptation-worthy-Khaled-Hosseinis-bestseller.html

The Stage (London)
"Magical moments that still the house"

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/38506/the-kite-runner

Left Lion (Nottingham)"This is a great production of a great adaptation of a great novel, and it's probably one of the best plays you are going to see performed in the city this year, so whether or not you've read the book, you really shouldn't miss it."
http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/id/5882/title/the-kite-runner#.UYMs-IKtI7B

Vietnamese-American author Andrew Lam at MLK Library, March 20, 2013 @ 12:00 noon

Leading Vietnamese-American author Andrew Lam will speak about his new book, Birds of Paradise Lost, in the Martin Luther King Library (room 255) on Wednesday, March 20 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm. 

This event is free and open to the public. 

Andrew Lam is the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, which won the 2006 PEN Open Book Award, and East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres.  He is an editor and cofounder of New American Media, an association of over two thousand ethnic media outlets in the U.S. He was a regular commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered for many years, and was the subject of a 2004 PBS documentary My Journey Home. His essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Times, The LA Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Mother Jones, and The Nation, among many others.

The thirteen stories in Birds of Paradise Lost shimmer with humor and pathos as they chronicle the anguish and joy and bravery of new Americans, the troubled lives of those who fled Vietnam and remade themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Past memories -- of war and its aftermath, of murder, arrest, re-education camps and new economic zones, of escape and shipwreck and atrocity -- are ever present in Andrew Lam’s wise and compassionate stories.  Birds of Paradise Lost is an emotional tour de force, intricately rendering the false starts and revelations in the immigrant experience, and in so doing, the human heart.

“Read Andrew Lam, and bask in his love of language, and his compassion for people, both those here and those from far away. He reminds us that we have history in common; we can laugh and cry together.”

-- Maxine Hong Kingston

“Andrew Lam’s Birds of Paradise Lost brilliantly engages the fundamental theme of much great literary work: who am I and what is my place in the universe? His stories are elegant and humane and funny and sad. Lam has instantly established himself as one of our finest fiction writers.”

-- Robert Olen Butler

Contact: 

Matthew Spangler

Associate Professor of Communication Studies

matthew.spangler@sjsu.edu

 

Kite Runner play in Canada (Citadel Theatre, Edmonton)

Dr. Spangler's play, The Kite Runner, will open this week at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Canada.
http://www.citadeltheatre.com/the-kite-runner/

Proceedings for the First Annual iResearch Department of Communication Studies Invitational Scholar Slam

I am happy to announce that the Proceedings for the First Annual iResearch Department of Communication Studies Invitational Scholar Slam are now on SJSU Scholarworks!

Here is the link to the main page: http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/iresearch/
The 2011 conference is here: http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/iresearch/2011/

Submitted student papers abstracts can be accessed by their title, full papers are in pdf and
can be downloaded.

Special thanks to our awesome Com Studies librarian Crystal Goldman for offering to set this up.

COMM 198/280 Opportunity

COMM 198/280:

Difficult Dialogues Opportunity

for Spring 2012

Who is Eligible?

Students who have already taken a course from Professor Shawn Spano or Minna Holopainen that was based in SJSU’s Difficult or Diversity Dialogue Project (COMM 105P, 115P or 141P). 

What are the Requirements?

Students who enroll in COMM 198 or 280 will assist Professors Spano Shawn.Spano@sjsu.edu and Holopainen Minna.Holopainen@sjsu.edu in training the students in his COMM 141P course to design and facilitate difficult dialogues on campus.

Specifically, this requires attending a half-day dialogue training on Friday, February 17, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm, and at least one campus difficult dialogue event (date and time TBA). Depending whether you enroll for 1 or 2 units, additional activities will be required, including attending other campus dialogues and some of the COMM 141P class sessions (meets on Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:00 – 4:15 pm).

Note: 1 unit of COMM 198 or 280 represents 40 hours of work; 2 units represent 80 hours.

 

How Do You Enroll?

Obtain a COMM 198 or 280 contract from Professor Spano or the Department of Communication office staff (HGH 108). Fill out the top part asking for you name, student ID#, etc.

In the middle section, indicate whether you want to sign up for 1 or 2 units for the “Research Project.”

In the bottom section, indicate that you will be under the supervision of Professor Shawn Spano, and that you propose this project:

Assist Professors Spano and Holopainen in designing a half-day dialogue training for COMM 141P students, and work as a trainer/facilitator for that session. Also assist in designing and facilitating at least one campus difficult dialogue.

Give a copy of the completed contact to Professor Spano for my signature. Then drop the contract off at the Communication Studies main office (HGH 108) for the Department Chair's signature and the add code.

Note: Complete all paperwork by Thursday, February 9, to meet the add deadline of Monday, February 13.

Marjorie Hazeltine receives Top Debut Paper Award at NCA

Marjorie Hazeltine and her co-author Kurt Zemlicka received the Top Debut Paper Award from the Performance Studies division at NCA last month in New Orleans. Their paper is titled "The Reality of Contingency: Performance as Materialized Trope and the Theorization of Rupture." Congratulations to the great folks who represented San Jose State at our national conference!