Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Program is proud to present MUD and SPRINGTIME by playwright María Irene Fornés, directed by student Colm Summers.
In the dustbowl of America’s first Great Depression, trapped by her poverty and the men around her, Mae will stop at nothing to make meaning of her life. Twenty years later, a forbidden relationship disintegrates as two women try to understand what will make them free. Told across two plays, MUD and SPRINGTIME by María Irene Fornés is the story of the power it takes to break free of destitution, moral judgement, and the people whose love will drown us. Director Colm Summers examines America’s greatest sin — disparity — in an evening of plays that force us to reckon with our comfort in the safety of the American Dream.
Content Warning
For the awareness of all audience members with hearing, visual, and all other sensitivities and disabilities, this production will contain strobe lighting effects and loud noises. In addition, this production will also contain strong language and sexually explicit language and content, including full nudity.
Running Time
1 hour and 30 minutes
Featuring
Mazvita Chanakira (student), Mike Gerbi, Delano Montgomery, and Kate Vozella.
Production Team & Crew
Director Colm Summers (student)
Dramaturg Austin Tooley ‘21
Co-Producer Sean Anthony Chia ‘21
Co-Producer Anthony Massa (student)
Production Stage Manager Harry Corthell (student)
Assistant Stage Manager Tesia Childs (student)
Company Manager Taeeun Yeo (student)
Composer Daniel Bindschedler
Scenic & Props Designer Richard Oullette
Lighting Designer Betsy Chester
Costume Designer Camilla Dely
Sound Designer Liam Bellman-Sharpe
Projection Designer Hamilton Guillén
Intimacy Consultant Christina (Cha) Ramos ‘21
Directing Thesis Interview: 'MUD' and 'SPRINGTIME'
For his thesis production, student Colm Summers directs two rarely-staged short plays by María Irene Fornés. Read more.
About the Artist
Colm Summers (Ó Somacháin) is an Irish stage director based between New York and Dublin. He is also a writer for and about performance. Recent credits include The Kill One Race, (Playwrights Horizons, NYC), La Clemenza di Tito (Grand Théatre de Geneve), The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (National Theatre of Ireland, The Abbey), Bite/Scratch (Live Collision International Festival), Dike by Hannah Benitez (Urbanite Theatre, Florida), Love à la Mode (Smock Alley and Trafalgar Square), Gays Against the Free State! (Dublin Fringe Festival), Enemy of the Stars by Wyndham Lewis (Dublin & Fes, Morocco), God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz, (Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin). Colm has worked with The Wooster Group, Milo Rau, Dead Centre, and Pan Pan (Dublin/New York), and continues to work with the feath3r theory. Read his essays in Études, Blast at 100 (Brill) and in Charles Macklin and the Making of the 18th Century. As a playwright, Colm can be found in Fresh Cuts: A Selection of New Plays from Dublin Fringe (Oberon). Colm is currently assisting Raja Feather Kelly on Wednesday, and writing his second full length When David Buckel Saved the World. He is a Dublin Fringe Festival Radical Spirit Award Nominee, and was recently selected for the Next Stage: Forecast cohort at Dublin Theatre Festival. He founded Felicity, a Dublin-based live performance company, in 2016. Next: The Wind in the Trees by A.A. Brenner '21, love is hard and absolutely (probably) worth it by Johnny Lloyd '20 at Clubbed Thumb, The Inheritance at the Geffen Playhouse 2022–2023 season.