Assistant Professor and Director of Theatre
History of Period Style is like a treasure hunt through the past.
I provided virtual interactive scenery for the Internets Consortium’s Virtual Halloween at the Rialto a few years ago.
My hobbies are riding my Harley and photography, neither of which I do enough.
Things are exciting in the theatre building. It’s just the third week of classes and last night we opened our second show of the semester. Drew, Paula, Erin and Sapphire have been rehearsing EXTREMITIES over the summer and last night they took stage to a full house.
Our summer production of the musical Pippin opened the week before classes started and ran two weekends. We had auditions this week for THE CRUCIBLE and 24 students were cast. I’m working on finishing the scenery designs for GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR and MUSEUM so we can start building those shows Monday.
September is a great time in the theatre. We have a show opening every weekend this month for the rest of the month. ART happens next week and GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR the weekend following. October is a bit more calm with CHLDREN OF EDEN the first two weekends (including Wesleyan Weekend) then we have a weekend off for fall break and close out the month with two weeks of MUSEUM.
Rehearsals are happening all over the building and the rehearsal house every day and night. I think there are around a hundred roles currently in rehearsal so with all that and the classes it’s not unusual to hear songs, scenes and monologues echoing down the halls, in the shops and outside (when the rain stops).
It’s fall break this weekend — first weekend without a theatre production since September 6th. I took the Road King for a bit of road time and was surprised that autumn had arrived. I had a great time on the back roads seeing the crops being harvested and the leaves changing. A week ago was Wesleyan Weekend and we had a great time at the tail gate party and the homecoming game. We took an ensemble of students to entertain at four alumni and friends events and capped homecoming with four wonderful performances of Children of Eden by Stephen Schwartz.
I started back into the production mode today with lighting for Museum by Tina Howe. We’ve got dress rehearsals tomorrow and Wednesday and open Thursday 10/23. The show runs through November 2. Then on November 6th we open Arthur Millers The Crucible and it runs through November 16th. Even though we are still in fall break, rehearsals are happening all over the building. Following The Crucible seventeen directing students will be presenting a week of one–act plays.
It looks like today will be the last sunny day for this week so I better finish the lighting and go for a ride. If you are in the neighborhood, stop on by and see a show — there’s always something on stage if classes are in session.
This morning the theatre faculty had a meeting where we talked of all manner of things of great import. One of the topics was the auditions we held last Monday. The cast lists will go up before noon today and there is a great energy of anticipation in the halls and classes. We also discussed a number of student proposals for the spring including a production of a student written full length play, a senior project for three students featuring a play to be performed in Spanish as a capstone project for both their theatre and Spanish majors and a group of sophomores and juniors wanting to mount a student directed, acted and designed full length play. Exciting times to be sure.
THE CRUCIBLE ends it’s run on Sunday so we will strike that production and get ready for technical rehearsals of the student–directed one–act and short plays that will open on Wednesday. Next week seven of the fifteen students in the directing 2 class will present a one–act festival and the remaining eight directors will present longer plays the first two weeks in December on the days CHRISTMAS CAROL doesn’t perform. That works out to 41 performances between today (November 12) and finals week in 32 days (including five days off for Thanksgiving break.) We like to keep ourselves busy.
It is also a great time to visit with high school students who are interested in continuing their study of theatre. Jack Parkhurst and Joan Korte will be visiting with theatre students at the Iowa Thespian Festival this weekend, the Arizona Thespian Festival the following weekend and the Colorado Thespian Festival the first weekend in December. If you are attending any of those festivals please stop by and say hi to Joan and Jack – tell them Mike sent you and they will give you some nifty stuff about the theatre program.
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Lucas Hall few years ago. I tell everyone that I was meditating and it started to snow. |
| Pepper, our short hair cat. |  |
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Our Himalayan, Pookie. |
| Me on my motorcycle in the scene shop five years ago. |  |