Magic Carpet Ride Transports Participants to New Adventures!
BOONE, N.C. – The Department of Theatre and Dance at Appalachian State University is proud to introduce their incoming class of students in the annual First Year Showcase with 6 p.m. performances from Thursday through Saturday, September 25 – 27 in the intimate I.G. Greer Studio Theatre, located at 401 Academy Street on Appalachian's Boone campus. Tickets are $7 for students and $12 for adults, and are now available online through the T&D department website, as well by phone or in person at the Schaefer Center for the Arts.
The First Year Showcase is a short, immersive, welcoming process for incoming first year and transfer students. Working with upper-level students and faculty mentors, students create a collaborative, site-specific promenade performance. Participants work together to frame how we look at architecture and our environment through movement and performance.
This fall, the unifying theme for the performance is Magic Carpet Ride and will specifically work to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and crossover between theatre and dance to form a new artistic community. This production incorporates anyone who is interested in majoring or minoring in any of the six-degree concentrations within the department.
Dr. Gina Grandi
Coordinators of the showcase who are mentoring students through the process are department faculty members Dr. Gina Grandi, assistant professor of theatre arts, and Chris Yon, assistant professor of dance studies. They state that this year's First Year Showcase, "blurs the line between theater and dance by finding a common language in movement. A joyful, collaborative, physical storytelling has been bubbling up through the cross pollination of dancers and actors in rehearsals."
They noted that the intimacy of the Greer Studio Theater makes artists and audience members feel alternately like you are inside their creations and thrillingly, dangerously close to the action.
Chris Yon
Grandi and Yon said that the ensemble of first year performers is being led by upperclassmen Liefke Carwyn, Elsie Currie, Louise Fullwood, Taylor Quackenbush, and Darby Shaw into wide ranging explorations from trickster faeries to poetry cycles to acrobatics to the aesthetics and politics of the 1960s to the nostalgia and longing for home."
A full listing of the Department of Theatre and Dance Fall 2025 season is available at theatreanddance.appstate.edu. Directions and parking information may be found here.
Media Contact
For media inquiries, please contact Michael Helms, Chair, Theatre and Dance at helmsml@appstate.edu(link sends e-mail), 828-262-7461 or P.J. Wirchansky, CFAA Communication Director, at wirchanskypj@appstate.edu(link sends e-mail), 828-262-7249.
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About the Department of Theatre and Dance
One of seven departments housed in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Department of Theatre and Dance's mission is to facilitate transformative experiences for students and the public, which cultivate compassionate, creative, and collaborative communities through theatre and dance. The department also offers coursework for integrated learning through the arts to the general university student population. Its dynamic co-curricular production program provides exemplary theatre and dance experiences to departmental students, the university community, and the region. www.theatreanddance.appstate.edu.
About the College of Fine and Applied Arts
Appalachian State University's College of Fine and Applied Arts is a dynamic and innovative group of seven academic departments, bringing together a variety of perspectives, experiences, and real-world education to provide unique opportunities for student success. The college has more than 3,500 undergraduate and graduate majors. Its departments are Applied Design, Art, Communication, Military Science and Leadership, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment, and Theatre and Dance. Learn more at cfaa.appstate.edu.
About Appalachian State University
As the premier public undergraduate institution in the Southeast, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls nearly 21,798 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio, and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.
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