Hope After Hate: E-Media Professor Shares Father’s Holocaust Experience

CCM E-Media Professor and Emmy Award-winning journalist Hagit Limor shares her father’s Holocaust survival story with lessons to inspire action against hatred and bigotry today

The spring 2020 edition of UC Magazine features a cover story about the ground-breaking “Hope After Hate” project launched by CCM E-Media Professor Hagit Limor. The story is available to read online.

Inspired by her father’s story of struggle and survival during the Holocaust, Limor set out to create “Hope After Hate: Moniek’s Legacy” to share his experience through immersive theatre and virtual reality. In October 2019, Limor’s Media Topics class of 15 students traveled to Poland and Germany to retrace her father’s journey. They will use the photos, videos and research collected during the trip to create an immersive play and virtual reality experience for the “Hope After Hate” project.

“Hope After Hate” will be an innovative, new kind of theatre — part play, part video and part virtual reality. Projections of historical settings will surround the audience during the immersive play, creating a virtual set in which they sit and interact with the actor portraying Moniek Limor. The “Hope After Hate” team is also creating a separate 15-minute virtual reality experience that will immerse users in Moniek’s story with goggles and hand sensors.

Viewers will be transported into the attic where he hid with his family as a child, into the Hasag-Pelcery labor camp where he was enslaved for more than a year as an adolescent, into the cattle-car train that transported him to the Buchenwald concentration camp when he was 14 and into the camp itself, where he was an inmate for four months. The project explores how people struggle to hold on to their humanity when surrounded by hate and fear. It also shares historical lessons in an effort to turn bystanders into upstanders who will speak out against hatred and bigotry today.

“Hope After Hate” unites students, faculty and staff from across UC, including undergraduate and graduate students majoring in E-Media, Acting, International Affairs, Political Science, Geography and History. CCM Acting Professor Susan Felder is adapting Limor’s memoir of her father’s experience into a script for the immersive play. Additionally, the “Hope After Hate” team is collaborating with CCM Lighting Design and Technology Professor Sharon Huizinga on how to create projections for the play. UC’s Center for Simulations and Virtual Environments Research (UCSIM) is building the VR experience with the 360-degree photos and videos that students captured while on the trip.

Read UC Magazine’s cover story on “Hope After Hate” to learn more about the project. Readers can also view photo galleries of images taken during the study abroad trip and watch a student-created documentary on the project.

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“Hope After Hate” is sponsored by Cincinnati’s Holocaust and Humanity Center, and has already received support from private donors as well as Cincinnati’s Jewish Innovation Funds and the CCM Harmony Fund. This support offset travel expenses during the study abroad trip and funded some production expenses. However, the class is still actively collecting donations for projectors needed for the play and virtual reality equipment. Visit hopeafterhate.com for updates on the project and to learn how to get involved. 

CCM E-Media professor and student help UC Emeriti Center launch new website

The University of Cincinnati Emeriti Association and Center, headed by College-Conservatory of Music E-Media Professor Peter DePietro, unveiled a new website in April that showcases the work of recent graduate Jonathan Kilberg (BFA E-Media, ’20). As the center’s multimedia intern, Kilberg’s work included web design/development, user experience design, videography and audio production — a grouping of disciplines that are unique to CCM’s E-Media program.

Peter DePietro.

DePietro is the first non-interim executive director of the Emeriti Center, which advocates for the interests of emeriti, provides intellectual and social opportunities and strengthens ties between emeriti and the university, local, national and international communities. The new website includes videos from the Center’s YouTube channel as well as helpful resources for the university’s retired faculty members.

Since having a major role in the Center, DePietro has worked on creating connections between UC and community leaders as well as connecting deans from different colleges across campus. He is also focused on growth and expanding membership. At CCM he continues to educate his students through experience-based learning, which is why he recruited a student to help build the Center’s new website. DePietro enlisted the help of Kilberg because he believes that engaging students in practical learning is important.

“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to work for the Center,” Kilberg says. “I jumped at the opportunity. Every single member is supportive and kind and sociable. It was amazing to meet all these people from campus life and beyond campus life.”

Creating the UC Emeriti website was no small feat. The task required both Kilberg and DePietro to take classes and tests in order to train on the university’s web content management system and to meet the standards of UC’s Digital Communications office. In addition to the website, Kilberg and DePietro created a YouTube channel with original video content. The crown jewel of the YouTube channel is the EmeriTALKS series which Kilberg noted as one of the best parts of working on this project. The EmeriTALKS videos include a joint-venture between the Center and CCM, featuring the leadership of Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park, and another featuring former UC President Nancy Zimpher.

As an E-Media student at CCM, Kilberg has enjoyed multiple opportunities to participate in hands on learning experiences. In October 2019, Kilberg traveled to Germany and Poland with CCM E-Media Professor Hagit Limor’s multi-disciplinary Media Topics class. The group of 15 students set out to create “Hope After Hate,” an immersive play and virtual reality experience that shares Limor’s father’s experience during the Holocaust with lessons to inspire action against future acts of hatred.

CCM’s BFA E-Media program encompasses the integrated media arts of film and digital cinema, television and broadcast media news, audio production and new media design. Students are given the opportunity to study in the track of their choosing, including Broadcast and Media Production, Multimedia Production and Film and Television Production. Internships are a key part of the curriculum and take advantage of the professional resources in Cincinnati and other areas across the country. With its emphasis on experiential learning, students acquire the hands-on skills and a digital portfolio necessary to transition successfully into the professional world.

Kilberg plans on going into the film industry and feels that one of the biggest skills E-Media has taught him is how to effectively work with a team. “E-Media pushed me to work with other people, which is so necessary in the field that I want to go in. The program taught me the importance of working as a team.”

“The professors are talented and they work hard at creating community,” Kilberg says. “They also offer great resources and there is support from the alumni of E-Media. Going forward they are going to continue to do an amazing job preparing students.”

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Story by CCM Graduate Student Kelly Barefield

Featured image at top: An aerial view of CCM Village. Photo/Jay Yocis

Hope After Hate: E-Media Professor Shares Father’s Holocaust Survival Story

Moniek’s Legacy captures the journey of a Holocaust survivor with lessons to inspire action against hatred and bigotry.

For decades Holocaust survivors have shared stories about the horrors they experienced during World War II in educational, historical and personal presentations. As the years pass, survivors rely more on their children and grandchildren to recount their narratives and ensure this history is not forgotten.

Hagit Limor and her father, Menachem “Moniek” Limor.

Inspired by her own father’s experience, CCM E-Media Professor Hagit Limor set out to create Moniek’s Legacy, a multimedia tool that captures the journey of a Holocaust survivor with lessons to inspire action against future acts of hatred. With support from the CCM Harmony Fund, Limor and 15 students in her fall 2019 Media Topics class will travel to Poland and Germany in October to work on the project.

“For years, I’ve watched as my father lost the words to a story that only grew in relevance,” says Limor. “Eventually he could no longer share his wisdom with students as he had for decades before. I want to create a mechanism for relating these lessons to outlive not only my father, but his daughter as well.”

WCPO-TV will air a special broadcast about the project titled “Hope After Hate” at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 17, 2019.

Moniek’s Legacy will create an immersive virtual reality experience, bringing viewers inside the survival story of Limor’s father through chapters such as Invasion, The Ghetto, Cattle Car Death Train, The Concentration Camp and Liberation. Each chapter will create a platform for civil discussion, challenging participants to consider their actions when confronted with acts of hatred and bigotry. Limor is working with UC’s Center for Simulations and Virtual Environments Research (UCSIM) to create a 360-degree virtual reality experience for Moniek’s Legacy.

Sponsored by the Cincinnati Museum’s Holocaust and Humanity Center, Moniek’s Legacy will serve as an online resource for educators to inspire engaging, civil discussions in classrooms and community groups. Cincinnati’s Jewish Innovation Fund awarded Limor a $25,000 grant to support the project in August 2017, and she has since raised more than $70,000 in additional funding.

The attic where Menachem Limor hid until he was discovered by Nazis during WWII.

CCM’s Harmony Fund awarded a generous grant to offset travel expenses for the 15 students who will participate in the study abroad trip for Moniek’s Legacy. They will travel from Cincinnati to Warsaw, Poland, then to Czestochowa, Poland, and to Frankfurt, Germany, to research and film the project from October 4 to 13, 2019.

The class is open to all UC students. It includes students from CCM’s Acting and E-Media programs as well as students who study history, political science, international affairs, journalism and other disciplines. Each student can teach and learn from their peers, giving them an engaging cross-collegiate experience.

In March, Limor and Jodi Elowitz, Director of Education at the Holocaust and Humanity Center, traveled to Europe on a scouting trip to plan for the study abroad class. They retraced her father’s journey of horror and survival through multiple stops in Poland and Germany. They saw where Limor’s father hid from Nazis in the attic of a Polish ghetto, the Treblinka extermination camp where her grandmother and uncle were murdered and the concentration work camp where her father was taken when he was 12 years old.

Moniek’s Legacy will be filmed on-site at various locations during the study abroad trip. After Limor and the students return to Cincinnati, they will work on editing the footage and putting in the production elements. Limor says that it will most likely take a year to complete Moniek’s Legacy. When the project is completed the Cincinnati Museum’s Holocaust and Humantiy Center will use Moniek’s Legacy in its educational outreach. In the meantime, Limor is working with CCM Acting Professor Susan Felder to write a script for an interactive play about the project.

My personal motivation for this project has to do with my students and son, and the world into which they are growing. There is so much disappointment with some of the hatred and bigotry in media, politics and the world stage right now. This project seeks to fight hatred wherever it exists. It is not political at all. It is about humans caring for other humans.

Tune In: Watch WCPO’s “Hope After Hate” Special

Limor will talk about Moniek’s Legacy in a 30-minute special broadcast on WCPO-TV at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 17, 2019. The “Hope After Hate” special will feature Moniek’s Legacy, the study abroad class and the CCM Harmony Fund.

When: 7:30 p.m. on Monday, June 17, 2019

Where: WCPO-TV Channel 9 or download the free WCPO 9 On Your Side mobile app from the Apple Store or Google Play.

About the CCM Harmony Fund

Founded in 2002, the CCM Harmony Fund supports artistic works that fight hate and prejudice through the performing arts by bringing together audiences of different backgrounds around controversial topics and situations with the goal of inspiring meaningful conversations. This special fund was created as both an acknowledgement of the continuing existence of hate and prejudice within our world and, more importantly, the ability of the arts to help us better understand and transcend these emotions. The goal of any Harmony Fund project is to inspire imaginative thinking, encourage conversations, present contrasting attitudes and help us examine our own viewpoints. The Harmony Fund supports the students and faculty at CCM to explore these issues and encourage them to find a voice. Past Harmony Fund-supported performances include The Laramie Project, Tan Dun’s Water Passion After St. Matthew, Dadaab Theatre Project, Sphinx Virtuosi Orchestra, Falsettos and more.

Support the CCM Harmony Fund by giving online

Featured Image: Monument in the Czestochowa Warta train station by Paweł “pbm” Szubert

Emmy Award-Winning Producer Donald Hancock is Named Assistant Professor of Film and Television Production at CCM

CCM Dean Stanley E. Romanstein has announced the appointment of Donald Hancock to the position of Assistant Professor of Film and Television Production in CCM’s Division of E-Media. Hancock joined CCM’s faculty as an adjunct in 2012. His new appointment will begin on Aug. 15, 2019.

Hancock is an Emmy Award-winning producer, professor and an active member of the media community. He has an MA in Film and Television from Savannah College of Art and Design and a BFA in E-Media from CCM. Hancock currently works as a producer at CET, Cincinnati’s PBS Member Station. He has produced “The Art Show,” CET’s weekly art magazine program, since 2013. He also produces content for a variety of partners with CET, including ArtsWave and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Hancock won a Regional Emmy Award for “Cincinnati’s Music Hall: The Next Movement,” a 60-minute documentary that he co-wrote, produced and shot. The documentary details the historic $150 million renovation of Cincinnati’s National Historic Landmark. Watch a promotional spot for the documentary below.

In 2013, Hancock was chosen as one of 25 producers from around the country to participate in the PBS/CPB Producer’s Academy, whose goal is to engage a talented pool of diverse producers in public broadcasting. Hancock has also partnered with WGBH and PBS to produce content around national programming including “Finding Your Roots,” “American Experience” and “Downton Abbey.”

For the past seven years, Hancock has been an adjunct professor at CCM, teaching Digital Video and Integrated Media Production courses to sophomore and junior-level students. In his spare time, he serves on the Executive Board for the UC Center for Film and Media Studies, as well as the community advisory board at Elementz Urban Arts Center. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, a member of the Broadcast Education Association and volunteers as a Big Brother in the Big Brother Big Sisters Program.

Dean Romanstein thanked search committee members Kevin Burke (chair), Peter DePietro, John Hebbeler, Tondra Holt and Hagit Limor for their work on finding CCM’s new Assistant Professor of Film and Television Production.

Please join us in congratulating Donald Hancock on his new appointment!

CCM Announces ‘Furnish the Future’ Seat-Naming Campaign

Arts advocates have a new way of supporting CCM in its mission to fuel the future of the arts. Purchase a commemorative plaque through the Furnish the Future campaign and your support will be displayed on one of the newly-installed seats in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.

With a pledge payable over five years, supporters of the Furnish the Future seat-naming campaign can play a leading role in continuing to provide a first-class facility for CCM’s students, faculty members and audiences. In recognition of your support, a plaque bearing your name or the name of someone you choose to honor or memorialize will adorn one of the seats in the beautifully-renovated Corbett Auditorium.

A Cause For Applause

Your support is cause for applause in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.

Originally opened in 1967, Corbett Auditorium has provided a space for generations of aspiring artists to refine their skills. Countless alumni have made their debuts on the stage of Corbett Auditorium and hundreds of thousands of audience members have been whisked away on musical journeys in its seats. The iconic performance hall was recently renovated as part of a $15-million slate of enhancements to CCM Village, ensuring that CCM will continue to have the state-of-the-art facilities required to educate and inspire future generations of world-class performers, producers, educators, researchers, composers, designers, technicians and media personnel.

• CCM’s Renovated Auditorium at Cutting Edge of Theater Technology (Cincinnati Enquirer)
• Theater Upgrades at CCM Earn Bravos (Janelle’s Notes | WGUC 90.9)
• CCM Transitions to LED with ETC (Live Design)
• UC To Make $15 Million Upgrades to Corbett Center Theaters (Cincinnati Business Courier)

Funds raised through the Furnish the Future campaign will help CCM continue to recruit leading student scholars, provide travel opportunities for students and faculty members and support special collaborative projects at the college.

Securing Your Seat

CCM is now accepting pledges for its Furnish the Future campaign. Pledge opportunities vary in price from $250-5,000. Refer to the chart below for details. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Quantities are limited and additional restrictions may apply.

Each seat plaque can accommodate up to two lines of text including a maximum of 25 characters (including spaces and punctuation) per line.

The purchase of a seat plaque does not guarantee the corresponding seat for performances.

Make your pledge by emailing sarah.mizelle@uc.edu, calling 513-556-4441 or visiting foundation.uc.edu/furnishthefuture.

Photography by Andrew Higley/UC Creative Services

Video by Kevin Burke/CCM Division of Electronic Media

CCM E-Media and Acting students win NATAS Student Production Award

The Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) awarded a team of CCM Electronic Media and Acting students the 2018 Regional Student Production Award for Best Long Form – Fiction for a film they created in class. The students competed in the College/University category, which includes Ohio University, Xavier University, Asbury University and other schools in the Ohio Valley area.

Integration Episode 1: The Update is a science-fiction drama that was created in the Spring 2018 Capstone Film course (EMED 4003), taught by Electronic Media Division Head Kevin Burke. The professor is no stranger to having his students’ work honored at prestigious events and film festivals.

“Projects produced in the class have won multiple Student Emmy Awards at both the regional and national levels, have been entered and won awards in a number of film festivals and have won in a variety of student production competitions,” Burke says.

Integration Episode 1: The Update is set in a future where computers are even more ubiquitous than they are today. A charismatic but less-than-ethical CEO instructs one of his employees, an unsuspecting computer programmer, to create a dramatic software update to one of the company’s programs. The 22-minute film follows the consequences of this update.

Nine E-Media students and four Acting students participated in creating the film, with assistance from Burke and CCM Acting professor Bob Pavlovich. The E-Media students are Matthew Harris, Austin Baker, Javert Valbarr, Nile Ross-Watson, Jared Bailey, Connor Smith, Caleb Smiley, Jamila Flowers and Jesse Circelli. The Acting students in the film are Isaac Hickox-Young, Sarah Durham, Landon Hawkins and Briley Oakley.

“I think Matt Harris did a great job writing, directing and editing the film. Austin Baker’s cinematography, Caleb Smiley’s lighting, the sound design by Connor Smith and visual effects by Javert Albarr all helped the film receive recognition by the Student Emmy Awards,” Burke says.

However, Burke is quick to point out that this film involved the work of both E-Media and Acting students. He refers to the project as a “CCM Collaborative Film.”

“I believe the outstanding performances by the CCM Acting students really set the film apart from the other entries,” Burke adds. “The talent, range and discipline of these students allow the audience to suspend their disbelief, care about the fictional characters and buy into the premise of the film.”

Producer Nile Ross-Watson fondly remembers the moment that he and fellow students decided to work on a science-fiction film, a challenging genre that he thinks no other E-Media students have attempted before for their final projects.

“I remember sitting with Matthew and Austin, thinking of what we were going to do for our final project,” he shares. “After some time, we came up with the idea of a Sci-Fi project! We were instantly bouncing ideas back and forth. One of the big ideas that we knew we wanted to do was have a color scheme throughout the project. Matthew looks at me and says, ‘What’s a good color that says futuristic?’ I instantly said, ‘Teal.’ From there, we had a good idea of what our project was going to look like.”

The students approached this class project as they would approach any professional project, says Ross-Watson. They spent many days studying all aspects of the film until they were satisfied with the final product. CCM’s E-Media program emphasizes hands-on learning so students will have plenty of experience and preparation for their future careers. Alumni from CCM E-Media have recently been recognized at the Academy Awards, the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and the Grammy Awards.

Learn more about CCM E-Media at ccm.uc.edu/emedia.

About the Ohio Valley Chapter
The Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was established in 1962. It is dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. The Chapter presents the prestigious and coveted Emmy® Award to television professionals in thirteen markets in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, honors industry trailblazers with the Silver and Gold Circle and makes scholarships available to students at colleges and universities throughout the region.

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Story by CCM Graduate Student Alexandra Doyle

CCM Summer Electives Bring Arts Experiences to All

Do you need to fulfill your fine arts credits? Have you always wanted to learn to dance but couldn’t get over the stage fright? Do you have free time this summer to jam with a virtual band on your laptop or study the music of The Beatles, all while earning class credit?

This summer, you can complete your arts elective requirements on campus or online. UC’s College-Conservatory of Music offers more than 20 different general studies and fine arts elective courses during six different sessions this summer. These credit-granting courses cover a wide range of topics and are open to UC and non-UC students alike!

Learn the basics of modern dance in on campus or online classes designed for beginners or experienced dancers. Film a digital video, create your own podcast or learn about the evolution of Japanese Pop, anime and video game music in movie and media appreciation courses.

CCM’s music appreciation courses cover the music of Prince, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and more.  You can also turn your laptop into a musical instrument and jam with a virtual band in music performance classes.

On-Campus and Online arts courses are just a click away: visit ccm.uc.edu/summerarts to learn more!

CCM 48-Hour Film Festival Celebrates Fourth Year

Audience members filled UC’s MainStreet Cinema to watch original, student-created short films during CCM’s 48-Hour Film Festival.

On Friday, Nov. 17, 2017, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music kicked off its fourth annual university-wide 48-Hour Film Festival, spearheaded by Richard Hess, Chair of the CCM Acting Department. This year’s festival attracted 100 participating students from across multiple UC colleges who came together in one weekend to create eight short films.

Participants included 45 students from the CCM Acting department, as well as students from CCM’s Electronic Media, Musical Theatre, and Theatre Design and Production programs. The festival also welcomed student participants from other areas of UC, including International Affairs, Biology, English Literature, Aerospace Engineering and more.

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The festival challenges students to quickly solve problems and the fast turnaround of the project helps eliminate the second-guessing often involved in creative work, says Hess. “There is so much that works against creativity at a large and busy school,” Hess adds. “The 48-Hour Film Festival is a perfect chance to say, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’”

“With your creativity, a space, a camera and some people interested in storytelling, you can make a beautiful short film together in a short period of time, and that’s glorious!”

Participants were divided into eight teams and were each required to incorporate a NASA T-shirt, a mini mirrored disco-ball ornament and the phrase “I was hoping you’d say that” into their films. Each unique film lasts approximately seven to eight minutes in length. From there, the potential for creativity is limitless.

In the event’s first year, filmmaker and actor Fraser Kershaw launched the festival with a screening of his documentary, Behind the Water. For the next 48-Hour Film Festival, CCM welcomed six film and theatre students from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

This year, CCM Musical Theatre alumnus Mickey Fisher, who worked on the CBS show Extant and is currently working on the upcoming NBC show Reverie, shared a virtual masterclass with participants on the making of short films.

The eight finished films in this year’s CCM 48-Hour Film Festival were screened at a packed house on Sunday, Nov. 19 in the MainStreet Cinema at UC’s Tangeman University Center.

Visit the festival website to watch the films from the 2017 CCM 48-Hour Film Festival.

Each year the festival offers awards to the students involved in the audience’s favorite films. This year’s Audience Awards go to:

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION
Olivia Passafiume, Where We Left Off

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY
David Lehn, Where We Left Off

OUTSTANDING EDITING
Lindsey Ballou, Umpha Koroma and Darius Dudley, Randy the Reference Guy

OUTSTANDING WRITING
Sarah Durham, Where We Left Off

OUTSTANDING ANIMATION AND GRAPHICS
Devon Whalen, Where We Left Off

OUTSTANDING COMPOSITION/SOUND DESIGN
Peter Glassmeyer and Steven Rimke, In and Out

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Cameron Nalley, Where We Left Off

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Madeleine Page-Schmit, Where We Left Off

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR
Reid Robison, Going Up?

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS
Jenny Yue Shi, Randy the Reference Guy

OUTSTANDING FILM
Where We Left Off
Produced by
Kellie Bartle & Sarah Durham

CCM Announces Sesquicentennial Studio Series of Acting, Dance, Musical Theatre and Opera

CCM presents nine eclectic and electrifying productions as part of its 150th Anniversary Studio Series of Acting, Dance, Musical Theatre and Opera. This annual series of performing and media arts events features CCM’s acclaimed “stars of tomorrow” in a collection of scaled-down stagings set in the Cohen Family Studio Theater and other intimate performance spaces.

Composer, lyricist, playwright and CCM alumnus Todd Almond.

The 2017-18 series opens in October with the musical revue Sondheim on Sondheim, which showcases the songs of legendary musical theatre composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. In November, CCM proudly presents The Earth is Flat, a touching coming-of-age story written by CCM alumnus Todd Almond (BM, 1999) and set in UC’s Calhoun Hall. November also sees the return of the 48-Hour Film Festival, which showcases 10 student-created short films produced over the course of a single weekend.

The series continues in early 2018 with productions of the operas Trouble in Tahiti, The Telephone, Tale for a Deaf Ear and Ariodante. CCM’s popular Dance Student Choreographers’ Showcase and TRANSMIGRATION Festival of Student-Created New Works both return in March. The 150th Anniversary Studio Series concludes in Spring 2018 with the unconventional and moving musical drama The Theory of Relativity (directed and choreographed by CCM alumna Katie Johannigman) and the debut of an original 60-minute play created by CCM Acting for the 71st Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The Studio Series is just one part of the yearlong CCM Sesquicentennial Celebration, which includes world premieres, guest artist performances, a series of off-campus concerts and a one-of-a-kind alumni showcase event. For an initial overview of CCM’s 150th anniversary programming, please visit ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/notations-ovations/sesquicentennial-celebration.

The complete 2017-18 Studio Series lineup is listed below. Titles and dates are subject to change.

Tickets and Parking Information
All Studio Series performances are free and open to the general public, but reservations are required and seating is limited. Reservations can be made the week of each show by visiting the CCM Box Office in UC’s Corbett Center for the Performing Arts or by calling 513-556-4183.

Unless otherwise noted, all Studio Series productions take place in CCM’s intimate and versatile “black box” performance space, the Cohen Family Studio Theater.

Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates. For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.
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CCM’s 150TH ANNIVERSARY STUDIO SERIES
Acting, Dance, Musical Theatre, Opera

8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5
8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7
• Studio Musical Theatre Series •
SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Conceived and originally directed by James Lapine
Aubrey Berg, director
Stephen Goers, music director
Katie Johannigman, choreographer

A “revelatory revue full of wonderful moments,” Sondheim on Sondheim is an intimate portrait of the famed songwriter in his own words… and music. Ranging from the beloved to the obscure, the songs are interspersed with in-depth video interviews, delving into Sondheim’s personal life and artistic process. Far from the typical song cycle, Sondheim on Sondheim has massive theatrical potency, as well as inarguable staying power. A “funny, affectionate and revealing tribute to musical theater’s greatest living composer and lyricist” and a wonderful showcase for CCM’s Musical Theatre stars of tomorrow.

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 2. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.
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8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2
8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4
• Studio Acting Series •
THE EARTH IS FLAT
Written by Todd Almond
Richard E. Hess, director

The CCM Sesquicentennial celebrates the work of accomplished alumnus Todd Almond! A love letter to the University of Cincinnati written by Almond, The Earth is Flat explores the universal awkwardness of the American college experience. The search for identity by those least prepared with answers resonates with unexpected comedy in this new play commissioned by CCM Acting as part of the Cincinnati Playwrights Conference in 2016. A coming-of-age story set in Calhoun Hall, The Earth is Flat follows purple-haired Ethan as he takes his first tentative steps toward self-knowledge.

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Oct. 30. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Acting Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman and Margaret Straub
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7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19
• Studio Acting/Digital Media Collaborative/E-Media Series •
FOURTH ANNUAL 48-HOUR FILM FESTIVAL
Richard E. Hess and John Owens, producers

Join us for our annual celebration of original film work by students. After random team placement, student authors, actors, directors, editors, and composers have 48 hours from 7 p.m. on Friday night to 7 p.m. on Sunday night to create finished original short films. All UC students are invited to participate.

Location: MainStreet Cinema, Tangeman University Center
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are not required, but space may be limited.
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8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4
• CCM at 150 Celebrates Bernstein at 100/Opera d’arte Series •
TROUBLE IN TAHITI + THE TELEPHONE + TALE FOR A DEAF EAR
Music and libretto by Leonard Bernstein/Music and words by Gian Carlo Menotti/Music and lyrics by Mark Bucci
Brett Scott, conductor
Amy Johnson, director and co-producer
Kenneth Shaw, co-producer
Gabriela Sam, assistant director

The CCM Opera d’arte Series of undergraduate productions proudly presents a triple bill of one-act American operas! Featured works include Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, a one-act opera that candidly portrays the troubled marriage of a young suburban couple. Written between Bernstein’s biggest Broadway successes, Trouble in Tahiti draws upon popular song styles to deliver an uncompromising critique of Mid-century American marriage. The triple bill also includes Gian Carlo Menotti’s bit of froth, The Telephone, and Mark Bucci’s rarely produced, but haunting Tale for a Deaf Ear. Taken together, Opera d’arte’s triple bill offers three vastly contrasting views into the extremes of human relationships.

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Jan. 29. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit
two tickets per order.
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8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb 17
2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18
• Studio Opera Series •
ARIODANTE
Music by George Frideric Handel
Libretto based on a work by Antonio Salvi
Aik Khai Pung, conductor
Robin Guarino, director

Hailed as one of Handel’s finest operas, Ariodante presents a tale of royal intrigue and betrayal set in the remote Scottish Highlands. The daughter of the King of Scotland is happily engaged to Prince Ariodante, but the scheming Duke Polinesso plots to take the princess’ hand in marriage and seize the throne for himself. Intrigue ensues in this celebrated opera seria, but true love wins the day!

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Feb. 12. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Opera Department Sponsor: Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Rosenthal
Opera Production Sponsor: Genevieve Smith
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8 p.m. Thursday, March 1
8 p.m. Friday, March 2
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 3
• Studio Dance Series •
DANCE STUDENT CHOREOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE
André Megerdichian, director

Come experience the next generation of emerging choreographers as CCM dance majors take the stage with exciting and diverse new works.

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free. Reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, Feb. 26. Please visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.
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7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7
7 p.m. Thursday, March 8
7 p.m. Friday, March 9
• Studio Acting Series •
TRANSMIGRATION 2018
A Festival of Student-Created New Works
Richard E. Hess and Brant Russell, producers

TRANSMIGRATION, so named for “the movement from one place to another” or “the transition from one state of being to another,” is a festival of new works created by the students in CCM Acting. Six teams of actors craft and perform six original 30-minute shows. Performed simultaneously in different locations throughout CCM Village, this 10th Anniversary Edition of TRANSMIGRATION will allow the audience to sample four different new works of their choosing in one spectacular evening. “Thanks to the [Acting] program at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music, theatre fans were offer a jolt of onstage vitality,” observed CityBeat’s Rick Pender.

Location: CCM Village
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, March 5. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Acting Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman and Margaret Straub
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8 p.m. Thursday, March 29
8 p.m. Friday, March 30
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31
• Studio Musical Theatre Series •
THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY
Music and lyrics by Neil Bartram
Book by Brian Hill
Katie Johannigman, director and choreographer
Stephen Goers, musical director

From Drama Desk Award nominees Neil Bartram and Brian Hill (The Story of My Life), The Theory of Relativity is a joyous and moving look at our surprisingly interconnected lives. Whether you’re allergic to cats, in love for the first or tenth time, a child of divorce, a germophobe or simply a unique individual, audience members and actors alike are sure to find themselves in this fresh new musical. Created using the real-life experiences and struggles of Millennials, The Theory of Relativity introduces a compelling array of characters experiencing the joys and heartbreaks, liaisons and losses, the inevitability and the wonder of human connection.

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, March 26. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.
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8 p.m. Thursday, April 19
8 p.m. Friday, April 20
2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 21
• Studio Acting Series •
EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL PROJECT
Susan Felder and Richard E. Hess, directors

Every year thousands of performers take to hundreds of stages all over Edinburgh, Scotland for the largest arts festival in the world. For the first time, CCM Acting will present an original 60-minute piece in August of 2018 in the 71st Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Join us at CCM in April as we present our original creation for Cincinnati audiences.

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Admission: Admission is free, but reservations are required. Tickets become available at noon on Monday, April 16. Visit the CCM Box Office or call 513-556-4183 to reserve. Limit two tickets per order.

Acting Studio Series Sponsor: Neil Artman and Margaret Straub
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CCM Season Presenting Sponsor: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation
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A preeminent institution for the performing and media arts, CCM is the largest single source of performing arts presentations in the state of Ohio.

All event dates and programs are subject to change. For a complete calendar of events, please visit us online at ccm.uc.edu.

This is our story. This is your season. Join us for a celebration 150 years in the making…

E-Media Professor’s Technology Article Wins International Award for Excellence

Assistant Professor of E-Media Peter DePietro.

Technology is changing the social fabric of cities in Central Europe and pushing them into a new cultural renaissance, according to University of Cincinnati Electronic Media Professor Peter DePietro. His research into this renaissance was praised by the Technology, Knowledge & Society Research Network, which recently awarded DePietro an International Award for Excellence for Volume 12 of The Technology Collection for his article “Tech in Europe: Cultural Reboot.”

The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society offers the annual award for newly published research or thinking that has been recognized to be outstanding by members of the Technology, Knowledge & Society Research Network. DePietro’s winning article was selected from the ten highest-ranked articles that emerged from the peer preview process. Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Technologies in Society, DePietro’s research compares Europe’s “cultural reboot” of today to the existential movements of the past.

“German existentialist Friedrich Nietzsche advocated for cultural rebirth in Europe,” DePietro wrote. “Europe is experiencing such a rebirth with digital media: creating artistic and social cultures that are wildly interesting and progressive and have technology integrated in them.”

His article argues that Vienna is a “hotbed” of innovative applications of digital media in art. Vienna is creating a new kind of “digital modernism” by creating things that are “different, weird and strange.” DePietro also states that Berlin is poised to become a leader in digital media in Europe by integrating it into art, commerce, education and lifestyle.

“Digital media is bringing together high society and bohemianism, in an effort to create a new economy,” DePietro wrote.

The professor has taught within the E-Media Division at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music since January 2009 and is the founding Director of Digital Innovation Lab: A New Media and Technology Incubator. He’s taught courses at UC that focus on social media, new media, interactive media, electronic game design and development, and digital storytelling and innovation.

“In my career as a scholar, tech artist, digital media leader and teacher, I have known innovation to be the all-important foundation of significant new work,” he said. “Innovation is authentic. Innovators are makers.”

DePietro is especially attuned to the effects of innovative digital media and interactive technologies on culture. He previously served as the founding Director of Digital and New Media for the Clinton Foundation in New York and the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. DePietro analyzed new technologies and implemented those that best communicated former President Bill Clinton’s post-Washington message, and led a team in the design and development of new media platforms to support Clinton’s initiatives, among other responsibilities. His team’s work won an international award.

DePietro is also the author of the book Transforming Education with New Media, published by Peter Lang International Publishers. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, and his research on new media and emerging technologies has been published internationally in academic journals, as well as the mainstream press.

For more information on DePietro’s research, visit www.depietro.com.

About the Technology Collection:
The Technology Collection has an acceptance rate of 58 percent and a circulation of over 64,000. This collection explores innovative theories and practices relating technology to society. The collection is cross-disciplinary in its scope, offering a meeting point for technologists with a concern for the social and social scientists with a concern for the technological. The focus is primarily, but not exclusively, on information and communications technologies. Established in 2005 and currently publishing its 13th volume, The Technology Collection is indexed by EBSCO, the Australian Research Council, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Cabell’s, Genamics Journal Seek and Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. This collection offers both personal and institutional subscriptions and is published electronically and in print. For more information, please visit www.cgnetworks.org/journals/slr.

About Common Ground Research Networks:
The Technology Collection contains four among the 70 scholarly journals published by Common Ground Research Networks. Common Ground, which was founded in 1984, seeks to take the pivotal ideas and challenges at play within established disciplines and create spaces for interaction that cut horizontally across legacy knowledge structures. As a result, in addition to providing a space for publication within its catalog of journals and their associated book imprints, Common Ground encourages researchers and practitioners to meet at the annual academic conferences that it organizes around the world and then connect and share their work virtually using Scholar, Common Ground’s innovative social knowledge software. For more information, please visit www.cgnetworks.org.