A New Year - A New Name

You may have noticed that Theatre UNI has a new name: the Strayer-Wood Theatre. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the building, the faculty and staff of the UNI Department of Theatre elected to change the name of our production program to honor our home, the Strayer-Wood Theatre. We hope that this change will strengthen our identity and remind our audiences that we continue to produce quality theatre in the Strayer-Wood. We will, of course, continue to answer to Theatre UNI in honor of the past seasons.

As the fourth week of the 2008/09 season and academic year begins, rehearsals for the fall semester main stage productions are well under way. Steve Taft, UNI professor of theatre, directs John Guare's comedy, The House of Blue Leaves, for the Strayer-Wood stage. Special guest artist, Alisa Ivanova, from St. Petersburg, Russia, has returned to UNI to direct Anton Chekhov's classic drama/comedy, Three Sisters, in the Bertha Martin Theatre. For more information about this unique opportunity, see the blog entry by Eric Lange, Head of the UNI Dept of Theatre.


The Design and Production committee hosted the 2008 fall regional conference of USITT (United States Institute of Theatre Technology) Northern Boundary this past weekend. More than 60 university theatre faculty, students and professionals from Iowa, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota congregated at UNI for workshops and networking.

Following a cookout on the Strayer-Wood loading dock, the conference kicked off with a slide show of work from schools in the region. Mark Parrott put together a presentation of production and work call photos from the past two Theatre UNI seasons to share with the audience. The region’s semi-annual business meeting was held earlier in the evening, during which I was elected to fill the remaining term of the Vice President of Programming and Amy RohrBerg and Leonard Curtis volunteered to serve on the region’s scholarship committee this fall.

Saturday’s activities began with a makeup workshop, Blood and Gore, led by Amy RohrBerg. Dani Jo Stephenson volunteered to allow Amy to make her up with bruises, burns, and a bullet hole in her forehead. A sound workshop, Mixing Sound for Live Theatre, was offered by Sandy Nordahl and Travis Duncan at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center and later in the morning, Amy joined Mark for a mask workshop. Tours of the Strayer-Wood and Gallagher-Bluedorn were offered as well.

During lunch, Carol Colburn led a discussion among faculty on student outcome assessments and how the different programs are working the assessments into their curriculums.

Later, a group of attendees were shuttled to the UNI Museum for a tour and discussion of the Visions of Africa: Art and Ritual exhibit while others participated in the student-to-student tech olympics. Tom Kobes, Jessica Van Essen and Ronnie Wells organized the event around a costume quick change, during which participants had to change two actors from one costume to another in the shortest time possible. Amanda Juhl and David Harnois volunteered to be the actors redressed while their dressers were timed. Meghan McKinney had the best time when changing Amanda.

Amy RohrBerg led a workshop on Kabuki Theatre and kimonos later in the afternoon while several representatives from ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls) held a training sessions on the Congo and Congo Jr. light boards.

Eight students displayed their design and production work in a combination exhibition/competition for three scholarships to the national USITT conference. Six were UNI theatre students: Chad Albert, Will Azbill, Tom Kobes, Aaron Mayer, Meghan McKinney, and Jessica Van Essen. Meghan and Jessica received two of the three scholarships for the displays of their work.

The conference concluded with the announcement of the scholarship recipients, tech olympic winners and an invitation to attend the national conference, to be held in Cincinnati in March.

The success of the conference is thanks in large part to the more than twenty UNI theatre students who volunteered several hours to planning, organizing, publicizing, setting up, running and participating in the conference and cleaning up after.


Coming this weekend, light hang for The House of Blue Leaves.