Local actor participating in AU Theatre productions – Graham Poore

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Students from six Upstate high schools including a student at Palmetto High, will participate in an exciting three-week theatre experience for High School theatre artists being offered by the Anderson University Summer Repertory Theatre. Two full productions will be produced in three weeks in the flexible Belk Theatre on the Anderson University Campus. Based on classic comic plays, the AU Rep is a summer celebration of the theatre.

The program is part of the Anderson University’s South Carolina School of the Arts college course intended for high school students earning college hours this summer.

Under the direction of Professor David Larson and Associate Professor Robert Homer-Drummond, students will participate in A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare and two genius one-act plays by the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, The Marriage Proposal and The Bear.

The same performers will act in three entirely different plays on alternating nights. A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare is the great romantic comedy as you have never seen it before! Two genius one-act plays by the great Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, The Marriage Proposal and The Bear, are side-splitting comedies about men, women and romance.

“The students are amazing and dedicated,” said Bryanne Barker, production Assistant with the Theatre Department of the South Carolina School of the Arts. “One of the students passed up his family vacation to the beach so he could take part in this. While his family is laying on the sand, he’s working from 9-5 on these plays and going home to work on his lines after that.”

Palmetto High student Graham Poore is one of those who will perform in the shows.

Poore said he is excited to be a part of the first South Carolina School of The Arts Summer Theatre Repertory Program at Anderson University. Poore lived with his family as IMB Missionaries in Puebla, Mexico until the age of 8. Upon returning to the US, he appeared in his first play at Anderson University as Little Jake in “Annie Get Your Gun.”

He has since performed in roles as Bert in “All My Sons” at Anderson University, Kurt in “The Sound of Music” and John in “Peter Pan” at SC Children’s Theatre, Arty in “Lost in Yonkers.” He has alsp performed as Nick in “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t” at Warehouse Theatre, and The Candy Man and Mike TeeVee in “Willy Wonka” at the Christian Youth Theatre of Anderson.

Poore also serves on the production staff as an actor at NewSpring Church were he delivers the message through drama each Sunday to 1-5th graders. He said is looking forward to attending the SC Governor’s School for Acting in July and hopefully the residential program in 2014.

Students from the following high schools are participating. Belton Honea-Path, Crescent, Dixie, Palmetto, Pendleton, and T.L. Hanna. The students were evaluated and selected by a team of University professionals to merge their talents with Anderson University’s student actors.

Robert Homer-Drummond has been teaching theatre related courses since 1993 at the University of Louisville, The University of Illinois, Parkland College, Palm Beach Atlantic University, and Anderson University. He has directed multiple productions, including The Piano Lesson, Hamlet, As It Is in Heaven, Macbeth, and The Hallelujah Girls. Most recently he directed Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children.

Before coming to Anderson University in 1985, Dr. David Larson was a Theatre professor at Judson University, in Elgin, Illinois. During his tenure at Anderson, he has directed over thirty productions and currently serves as Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. During the fall of 2011, he was a visiting professor at Hokuriku Gakuin University, in Kanazawa, Japan. Dr. Larson teaches theatre history classes for the Department of Theatre.

Performance dates are June 26 – 29 at 7:30 pm. Tickets can be reserved by contacting Stacie Turner sturner@andersonuniversity.edu or 864-231-2125.