Sonoma State’s Department of Theater Arts and Dance made its debut of their Spring Performance Festival this past weekend. The event is held at Person Theater on campus and will continue through May 5-7. The performances feature students’ senior projects, dance performances and Eurydice, a performance piece. 

The Senior Project Festival is student driven and gives students an opportunity to showcase all of their talents. There will be five senior projects performed during the event, including dance pieces and a theater arts performance. Each senior project is unique, showcasing the talents of each individual. The performers for the senior projects include Alessandra Balestrieri-Jennings, Jay Haralson, Marissa Salinas, Gabe Fernandez, Terra Bransfield and Jasmine Kaiulani. 

The Spring Dance portion of the event is run by SSU faculty Christine Cali and Kristin Daley. They invite professional guest artists each year to collaborate, express and perform dance pieces that will also feature student performers. This year’s guest artists include Byb Bibene and Farrah McAdam. 

“The one thing I ask from the body of dancers I work with is to remain curious and open-minded because the magic in creative dance dwells outside the comfort zone and developed habits,” said Bibene, a passionate dance educator, performer and choreographer. 

SSU’s website includes biographies from both facility members and this year’s guest artists, on their personal experiences through expressive dance and performance. 

Jennifer Martuscelli, a sophmore performing in the festival, expressed her gratitude about being able to be on stage again after the pandemic: “It’s nice to be back in person, to interact and vibe with the audience. I was excited to get to perform with a large audience.” 

With the reality of COVID-19, the performers had concerns that this would affect the Spring Performance Festival.

“I honestly didn’t think [the performance] would happen because of the pandemic. Now that it’s here, I’m very proud and I’m looking forward to everyone being able to see our work,” said one student, requesting to remain anonymous. After having to stream their performances last year, being able to be back on the stage has been anticipated for many of the performers. 

Following the Spring Dance and senior projects, Eurydice is the final piece of the performance and is presented by Sarah Ruhl. 

“Eurydice reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice from Eurydice’s perspective with contemporary characters, boldly imaginative images and lyrical language”, as described on Sonoma State’s Theater Arts website. “After she dies on her wedding day, Eurydice journeys to the underworld, where she is reunited with her beloved father even as she struggles to remember her time on earth with Orpheus, who is crossing from the land of the living to find her. Eurydice is a hallmark play by this great contemporary American dramatist.” This piece will be the final performance concluding the Festival, on May 7 at 2 p.m. 

The Spring Performance Festival not only lets students and faculty showcase their talents and hard work, it brings them together as a community by working together and performing on stage to create a unique experience for the audience. 

“I was most excited to actually get to be on stage again because live performances give me so much adrenaline and I feed off the audience’s energy to really give the performance my all and leave it all on stage” said performer Aleen Phelps. 

With the final weekend of the showcase coming up, tickets for this event are available online at https://tickets.sonoma.edu or by calling 707-664-4246. Admission is $12 but tickets are free for students, faculty and staff.