WT Theatre Students to Perform in Scotland, Offer Free Preview Performance May 5

WT+Theatre+Students+to+Perform+in+Scotland%2C+Offer+Free+Preview+Performance+May+5

CANYON, Texas — About a dozen West Texas A&M University students and faculty members will perform this summer in the acclaimed Edinburgh International Festival.

To preview their “Still Life: A Gallery in Motion” and to raise funds for the trip, the group—performing as The Canyon Collective—will offer a free performance at 7:30 p.m. May 5 in the Jerry Williams Acting Studio, Room 175 in the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex on WT’s Canyon campus.

Donations will be accepted at the door, and raffle tickets will be sold for $1 each.

In “Still Life,” performers bring classical and contemporary paintings to life through dance, abstract movement and a combination of pre-recorded and live music.

“Both actors and dancers will present vignettes that explore aspects of humanity present in the painting’s subject, in the artist that created it—even in the paint itself,” said Echo Sunyata Sibley, assistant professor of theatre.

Students and faculty have created every aspect of “Still Life” in collaboration with each other during a weekly, three-hour class.

The Edinburgh International Festival, founded in 1947, is a celebration of the performing arts that presents some of the finest performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theater in August.

The WT contingent will leave Aug. 1 and return Aug. 13. While in Scotland, they will perform four times in front of international audiences and see a wide range of theater, dance and performance art.

The trip is made possible through a collaboration with the International Collegiate Theatre Festival, a Virginia group that helps high schools and universities bring their work to the festival.

To donate to their trip, visit giving.wtamu.edu.

The Canyon Collective is comprised of faculty and students in WT’s Department of Art, Theatre and Dance in the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities.

In addition to faculty members Sibley and Bradley Behrmann, assistant professor of musical theatre, student members include Savannah Bohl, a junior musical theatre major from Muenster; Kaitlyn Frausto, a junior theatre major from Hereford; R.J. Flud, a senior musical theatre major from Midland; Camila Gutierrez, a freshman musical theatre major from Canyon; Leah Ingram, a senior theatre major from Plainview; Peyton Jewett, a sophomore musical theatre major from Monahans; Mary Knowlton, a sophomore physics major from Dallas; Alexandra McPhillips, a senior dance major from Conroe; Mason Shields, a sophomore theatre major from Salinas, California; Carley Venter, a senior musical theatre major from Midland; and Leigh Hanah Womack, a junior theatre major from Hereford.

Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign. To date, the five-year campaign — which publicly launched in September 2021 — has raised more than $120 million.