The Toledo City Paper depends on readers like you! Become a friend today. See membership options
Shaina Taub will bring her experience as a Tony Award-winning composer, writer and performer to Bowling Green State University this week for a discussion about how theater can engage with history and social change. Taub, the creator and star of the Broadway musical Suffs, will speak as part of BGSU’s Edwin H. Simmons Creative Minds Series.
Taub’s presentation, “Theater as a Tool for Social Change,” is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at the Thomas B. and Kathleen M. Donnell Theatre in the Wolfe Center for the Arts. The event is free and open to the public. Suffs, which tells the story of the American women’s suffrage movement, earned Taub two Tony Awards.
William Mathis, dean of BGSU’s College of Musical Arts, said Taub fits the purpose of the Creative Minds Series, which brings artists to campus whose work connects creativity with broader questions in society. “Her remarkable range, accomplishments, and commitment to using art as a force for connection and change make her an ideal guest,” Mathis said. The series, Mathis said, seeks guests who are recognized in their fields and who can speak meaningfully about the larger role of the arts in public life. He said Taub’s work reflects that purpose through the way it brings together music, theater, history and contemporary social questions.
James Stover, a BGSU theatre professor, has seen Taub’s work across several productions. He recently saw her as Emma Goldman in the Broadway revival of Ragtime, a performance he described as “stirring, nuanced and full of life.” Stover has also watched the recorded version of Suffs and listened to Taub’s musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. His experience with her work gives him a perspective on Taub that extends beyond the recognition she has received for her Broadway work.
“I consider her one of the brightest and most exciting composers working in musical theatre today,” Stover said. He said he is particularly looking forward to BGSU students having the opportunity to hear Taub speak and work with her directly during her visit. For students studying musical theatre, composition and performance, that access offers an opportunity to see how a professional artist moves between different roles within the field.
That student interaction will extend beyond Thursday’s public presentation. On Friday, Oct. 2, Taub will lead two masterclasses in the Donnell Theatre, where students from the College of Musical Arts and Department of Theatre will perform musical theatre repertoire for her critique and instruction. Two composition students will also present original songs for Taub’s feedback. The masterclasses will give students an opportunity to put their own creative work in front of an established artist and receive direct guidance on their performances and compositions.
The format also reflects the broader educational purpose of Taub’s visit. Rather than limiting the Creative Minds Series to a public lecture, BGSU is using the residency to create opportunities for students to interact directly with the visiting artist. The masterclasses will allow students to observe Taub’s approach to performance and composition while also giving selected students the chance to receive individual critique. Other students will be able to learn from the process by watching the sessions and participating in discussion.
Mathis said the Creative Minds Series is intended to give students access to artists in settings that allow for direct interaction and practical learning. He hopes Taub’s visit will encourage students to draw on their own experiences and interests as they consider how they can contribute to their communities through the arts. The goal, he said, is for the arts to inspire, instruct and entertain while also moving people toward positive action.
Taub’s visit comes at a time when her work has placed historical subjects and questions of social change at the center of a contemporary musical theater audience. Suffs uses musical theater to bring the women’s suffrage movement to a contemporary audience, while her other projects have drawn from Shakespeare and worked across different parts of the theater industry.
At BGSU, that work will become the subject of a public conversation, while the masterclasses will give students an opportunity to engage with her creative process firsthand. For Bowling Green audiences, the Oct. 1 presentation offers a chance to hear directly from an artist whose work has moved between history, Shakespeare, performance and contemporary musical theater.
