Another Opening

A Midsummer Night's Dream opened to a enthusiastic almot full house in the Strayer-Wood Theatre this past Thursday evening. Performances of both Midsummer and Cloud 9 throughout the weekend have been well received by audiences and Cloud 9 received a glowing review from the Waterloo Courier earlier in the week. I am so proud of the work that everyone involved has done this semester on these two productions. Although it has been exhausting to produce two shows of a large scale at the same time with somewhat limited resources, I believe we have do so with great success.

Although there is another week of performances, work has already begun on Theatre UNI's next two productions, The Crucible and Death of a Salesman. Designs are due Friday for The Crucible, an opera version of Arthur Miller's play of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthy hearings of the 1950s. The scenic designer, Leonard Curtis, is designing a simple, stark, yet breath-taking set that supports the emotional landscape of the opera beautifully. And Amy RohrBerg's working designs for the costuming contrast nicely to place the characters in the appropriate time-frame while not hendering the story's timeless theme.

There are also several student projects in the works, produced by UNISTA, the UNI Student Theatre Association. Best of Broadway, a musical revue, is already in rehearsal with performances scheduled for the first weekend of December in the Strayer-Wood. A workshop production of LUV will open just days before Broadway in the Acting Practice Room. Watch for more information about both productions. On November 10, UNISTA will present the stand-up comedy of guest Josh Fitkin and Tim Cahill, a senior theatre major. TAP, the department's service fraternity, will host a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on November 10 in Lang Hall. This has become a fairly successful annual event for the organization.

The first round of auditions for Death of a Salesman will begin Thursday, November 8. Because Salesman is to be directed by alum Larry Paulsen, who is currently performing in Denver, Colorado, and therefore able to return to UNI for only one day in December for auditions, the first round will be taped and sent to Larry. Students have been asked to prepare a monologue in the style and period of the show and identify which character or characters for which they wish to be considered. Larry will identify those students he wishes to "call back," or see audition a second time, on Sunday, December 2. While this is not the way in which we traditionally have auditions for main stage productions, the experience of creating a recorded audition will be a good one for our students and one they may well experience several times throughout a career in performance.

Classes also continue with plans being made for final projects and portfolio reviews not far off. Theatre majors will have an opportunity to take the Department's level II reading exam next month that will test their knowledge of a set of plays and other theatre related literature that the faculty feel those studying theatre should be familiar with. In the newest curriculum requirements, a passing score on the level II exam is necessary in order for a student to declare an emphasis area of study within the theatre program.

Two weeks ago, I happened to remember that I had reached an anniversary at Theatre UNI. I have been here for 12 years. This may not seem like a very important anniversary, except for the fact that when I arrived here in October of 1995, during the week between performances of Praying Mantis, it was for a 9 month temporary job. And since then, I have been almost constantly looking forward to the next job, the next move, and wondering where I would be in another year or two. During this past year, my personal life has changed in a way that will now allow me to settle down here at UNI and in Cedar Falls if I so desire. There is no "next" move on the horizen if I don't want there to be. I've got a big decision to make now, but fortunately, no deadline to be concerned with.