Game of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is set to star in Ric Roman Waugh’s upcoming prison thriller Shot Caller. Coster-Waldau will play a gangster who is forced to commit a major crime shortly after his release from prison. Waugh went undercover as a volunteer parole agent to research prison gangs while he was writing the film’s script. For more on the project,…
Short film round-up
Although The Girl & The Tree loses something in cultural transposition, the two-minute short from Moin Samadi touches on universal themes of love, loss, and the ravages of both war and time. Samadi’s animation calls to mind both comic books and traditional Japanese art – a combination that is both beautiful and unique. Regardless of its esoteric details,…
‘Romantic’ musical with a Scottish influence opens
By Kayla McKenna, Staff Writer The musical Brigadoon, written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, will be the first main stage musical of the semester. Brigadoon tells the story of two men, “Tommy” and “Jeff,” who are unsure of love. The two men take a trip to Scotland before Tommy gets married and…
Short film round-up
Minka Farthing-Kohl’s seven-minute Stray Dogs is a very strange short about a very strange summer day. It follows “Frank,” whose mundane wait at the bus stop turns into something much more dramatic when a distraught woman asks to borrow his phone. Much of the film feels like a very obvious Tarantino knockoff, but there’s enough originality to keep…
Entertainment news round-up for Apr. 19
Penelope Cruz has joined the cast of Zoolander 2. Ben Stiller confirmed the news via Instagram and Twitter. Cruz joins Stiller and Owen Wilson in the film, which is set to open on February 12, 2016. For more on the project, click here. Josh Trank was a no-show at this weekend’s Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, CA….
Star Wars, Shakespeare combined for performance
By Taylor Rey, Staff Writer Star Wars and Shakespeare are an unlikely combination, but students will get the chance to see both in the next OCU Edge production. William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back is a play written by Ian Doescher. The show is actually the script of the second movie in the Star…
Entertainment news round-up for Apr. 15
Rumor has it that Patty Jenkins will step into the shoes vacated by Michelle MacClaren as director of the new Wonder Woman movie. MacClaren dropped out earlier this week due to creative differences with the studio. Production is still running on schedule, though, with the feature set to hit theaters in 2017. For more on the project,…
Student-run theater company forms, addresses societal problems
By Miguel Rios, Staff Writer A new, student-run theater company has formed on campus. The Shadow Collective is a devised theater company that focuses on addressing societal issues. “It’s an organization that challenges today’s problems through theater, while making it known that we are the change in the world,” said Taylor Blackman, acting freshman….
Short film round-up
Gwenn Germain’s two-and-a-half-minute Celles et Ceux des Cimes et Cieux is beautiful but empty. Though its fantastical tale of a boy who literally falls into a world of magic and adventure is lushly animated, it feels choppy and rushed, moving through the story so quickly that it’s quite difficult for us to keep up. In fact, the whole…
Entertainment news round-up for Apr. 12
Angela Lansbury took home her first Olivier Award for her supporting performance in the recent revival of Blythe Spirit. The prize for best new musical went to Sunny Afternoon, the show about rock band The Kinks, and the Young Vic’s A View from the Bridge won best play revival. For more from the Olivier Awards, click here. Paul Feig…
Short film round-up
Border, a one-minute short from animation studio plan78, is a brief but brilliant commentary on the absurdity of the lines people draw between each other. Two little critters, one blue and one yellow, are on either side of one such line, though each has his own ideas about exactly what the line means. It’s a sweet and silly little…
Entertainment news round-up for Apr. 5
Winnie the Pooh will be the latest Disney property to undergo a live-action transformation. The Mouse House is developing a new film starring the honey-loving bear and friends. The story will follow an adult Christopher Robin. For more information on the project, click here. HBO has released the trailer for its Bessie Smith biopic, starring Queen Latifah….
Short film round-up
Based on a short story by Ádám Bodor, Hearth (Otthon), a five-minute short from director Bálint Gelley, is a typhoon of surreal images, death, and rebirth. It follows a man who is trying to save a young girl and three old women from drowning after an unexplained natural disaster. The short is visually stunning – despite its muted, watercolor-like…
Short film round-up
In Ngendo Mukii’s six-minute short Yellow Fever, the filmmaker uses real-life interviews, animation, and striking images of the human body to explore issues of race, identity, and self-image. Her main topic is the use of skin-lightening creams by African women. The short deals with the issue of feeling uncomfortable in one’s own skin – literally – and…
Short film round-up
Andre Hyland’s seven-minute Funnel is a neat little slice-of-life short about a man on a quest to fix his broken-down car. We hear the story through his side of a phone conversation as he treks to a gas station and back to his car. The short’s humor is based on its utter mundanity, though it’s…
Entertainment news round-up for Apr. 3
Disney’s Tangled is coming to the stage – though not the stage you’re probably thinking about. The show will be performed on the Disney Magic cruise ship later this year. Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater have written three new songs for the musical. For more on the show, click here. The Muppets may be…
Theater production pays tribute to OKC bombing
By Emily Wiley, Editor-in-Chief Twenty years after the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Downtown Oklahoma City was bombed, a new production will open to honor the victims and heroes of that day. This is the premiere of The 20th Anniversary Oklahoma City Bombing Project. The show opens at 8 p.m. April 16 in Burg…
Short film round-up
Benjamin Arcand’s five-and-a-half-minute Wackatdooo feels like an elaborate The Aristocats throwback with a sinister twist. It centers on an anthropomorphic, music- and wine-loving cat whose passion for raucous partying takes its toll – though it never gets him down for long. The silent short’s score is swell, and the animation is a fun throwback to the classics. Check it out…
Entertainment news round-up for March 29
Star Trek 3 cowriter and star Simon Pegg had a few words to say about the third installment in the film series. “I think we just want to take it forward with the spirit of the TV show,” Pegg said. “And it’s a story about frontierism and adventure and optimism and fun, and that’s where we want to take…
Short film round-up
Leonard in Slow Motion, an eight-minute film from director Peter Livolsi, is a lovely example of what a short film should be. It follows a man whose life is lived entirely in slo-mo and his struggles with love, labor, and legerity. It’s simple but beautifully executed. Watch it here. Seven-minute La Petite Maison, from director Isaac Holland,…
Entertainment news round-up for March 27
Although the official Cannes lineup won’t be released for another three weeks, a few selections have already been unveiled. Pixar’s Inside Out will premiere at the festival, along with Woody Allen’s Irrational Man, which – in keeping with Allen’s no-awards policy – will probably not be in the running for any prizes. For more on Cannes, click…
Changes made to annual NYC spring break program
By Lauren Matheny, Lifestyles Editor Many performance students will head to New York City during Spring Break to participate in the 10 annual Spring Break NYC program. In mid-December, the OCUNYC alumni organization, who organize the event each year, announced that the workshop would be canceled due to lost funding. In the weeks that followed…
Playwright connected to OCU to attend production premiere
The final Stage II production of the season is also a first for the state of Oklahoma and the OCU community.
‘Passionate,’ ‘violent’ baroque opera takes the stage this weekend
The Coronation of Poppea, a baroque opera, opens in the Burg Theater this weekend.
Why so serious? Investigating TheatreOCU’s sad plays
TheatreOCU is known for producing excellent theatre. But often times, the subject matter is deep, dark, and depressing. The 2014-2015 season has been especially dark. After seeing The Trojan Women, a tragic play about the battered women of Troy, and Night, Mother, a play about suicide, I wondered why we produced so many sad shows. So I asked.
Production focused on right to die laws to open in nursing school
A show taking place in the Kramer School of Nursing addresses right to die laws. Whose Life is it Anyway? is a play about a paraplegic man, Ken Harrison, who is being kept alive by his doctors and nurses. He faces the problem of having no control over his own life. “I think it’s a…
