Full Name:
Brian C. Fahey
Major/Year:
M.F.A. Candidate in Drama and Theatre for Youth
Favorite class in Theatre & Dance and why:
Not sure I have a particular favorite so far (they've all been great in their own way), but I'm gonna give a shout out to Research Methods with Doctor Canning. I know a lot of people might give me flack for that – "your favorite class was the one where you had to write a 25-page annotated bibliography?" – but I can take it. What I enjoyed so much about that class were the discussions – we had a great class and we were reading from some really excellent and provocative texts from authors like Anne Bogart and Anne Lamont. It was a great way to get to know my class of T & D graduate students and the different fine arts facilities that UT has to offer. We had classes at the HRC and the Blanton. We got to see a first folio Shakespeare and the notebook in which David Mamet wrote Glengarry Glenross. We came from different areas – design, playwriting, P.P.P., DTY – but we really formed a community. I miss that class a lot!
Favorite thing about Austin:
Where do I begin? It's really become the city where I live rather than just the city where I go to school, and that's great! I love the eccentricity of Austin. It really is genuinely weird and that's not something you can say about a lot of cities in America. I love Town Lake and Barton Springs, all the great restaurants and coffee shops, the fact that on any given night you have so much live music to choose from, and of course – The Alamo Drafthouse – it's incredibly difficult to see a movie anywhere else after going to the Alamo!
Favorite place to study:
Mozart's on Lake Austin Blvd. is great. They've got a big patio on the water and plenty of space to spread out, hunker down, and get some work done. The Spider House is cool too, but it's probably better for people watching than studying. The Fine Arts Library always induces productivity in me and it's usually really cold in there when it's really hot outside. I even like the comfy couches at TexExpresso, but I've been sick of their paninis since like the second week of school.
Brief biography (including projects, awards, accomplishments):
I hold a BA in Theatre Arts from Northeastern University in Boston, where I lived for three years after graduating. During that time I founded Gurnet Theatre Project, a Boston based fringe theatre company that produces work at the Boston Center for the Arts, even in my absence. For GTP I've directed The Illusion, Miss Julie, and This Is Our Youth, as well as the Boston premieres of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Essential Self–Defense. While GTP isn't focused directly on producing work for youth, every summer we produce a free outdoor family friendly production that has served as many children's first taste of theatre. After founding GTP the area of theatre for young audiences became a huge part of my work. At UT I serve as a teaching artist for Drama for Schools, a TA for Dr. Jennings' undergraduate Children's Theatre course and next semester I am an Assistant Instructor for a section of Applications of Improv. I also played the role of the Memory Mender in my DTY colleague Wendy Bable's production of Steven Dietz's Still Life for Iris. That was a blast!
Current projects/research/interests:
Depending on the day you'll get an entirely different answer. I am working on plans for my thesis production, There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, which will be part of UT's upcoming '09 – '10 season. Over the winter break I am assisting David Saar with his production of Tomas and the Library Lady at the Seattle Children's Theatre and traveling to Galena, Alaska with the Drama for Schools program. Next semester I'm playing the role of General Yepanchin in Scott Kanoff's production of The Idiot and directing Wendy Bable's play/ballet for young audiences, Funky Snowman, for the New Works Festival. My thesis document will examine the role of mentorship and collaboration in the development of emerging leaders in theatre for young audiences.
