Month: August 2014

Film Festival Celebrates 10 Years with a New Name, Big Lineup

41 North Film Festival
41 North Film Festival

The 41 North Film Festival (formerly Northern Lights Film Festival) celebrates its 10th anniversary with a name change and an outstanding slate of recent award-winning films and special guests. It will be held Oct. 23-26 in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Kicking off the festival this year will be director Mark Levinson and his documentary “Particle Fever,” which follows six scientists involved in the launch of the Large Hadron Collider—the biggest and most expensive experiment in the history of the planet. The film provides an unprecedented window into this major scientific breakthrough as it happened. Edited by Academy Award–winner Walter Murch, the film celebrates human discovery and raises important questions about the limits of human knowledge.

For more, see the article on the Department of Humanities website.

From Tech Today.

The event is sponsored by the Humanities Department, the Visual and Performing Arts Department, the Office of Institutional Equity, and the College of Sciences and Arts. It is free and open to the community.

Rozsa Center announces 2014-2015 performance lineup

“We’re hoping that there’s something to fit everybody’s taste,” says Rozsa Center director Mary Muncil. “From the Class Acts Program where we’re reaching out to our local school district to get our students in the theater and excited about what’s happening on stage, to our V.P.A. (Visual and Performing Arts) productions of Anitgone, to the Acting Company’s Macbeth.”

Read more at Upper Michigans Source, by Sarah Blakely.

Rozsa 2014-15

Auditions for Baby with the Bathwater!

Auditions!!
for
Christopher Durang’s

BABY WITH THE BATHWATER

When:  Tuesday, September 2, and Wednesday, September 3,  7:00-10:00 pm (Choose one.)
Where:  McArdle Theatre, Walker 207
Who:  Any student, faculty, or community member!
How:

  • Arrive at 7 pm to fill out a contact form.
  • We will begin a group audition at 7:15 pm, followed by readings from the script.
  • You are welcome to perform a prepared scene, up to 5 minutes, with a partner, otherwise you will simply read from the script.
  • Tips:
    • Familiarize yourself with the script so you understand the plot and characters.
    • Practice so that you can make the most of eye contact when you read with a partner.  (Try to glance at the script and deliver the line to the other person and really listen and respond to them.)
  • Scripts are available in the VPA office, Walker 209.  You may check out a script for 24 hrs. or for a weekend.  (We need to keep them available for all.)

Performances will be October 16-18, and October 23-25.

Rehearsals are Sunday-Thursday, 7:00-10:00 pm beginning September 4.  We will also rehearse Friday and Saturday October 10-11.  Rehearsals during “Tech Week” (Oct 8-15) may be extended.  A cast list will be sent via email late Wednesday evening.

About the play:

Characters –

  • Helen, the mother
  • John, the father
  • Nanny, the nanny
  • Cynthia
  • A woman in the park
  • Another woman in the park
  • Mrs. Willoughby, the principal
  • Miss Pringle, a teacher
  • Young Man
  • Susan

Contact Patricia Helsel

BabyBathwater

Larson is a Creative Canvas Course Contest Winner

Last spring, the Center for Teaching and Learning’s second annual Creative Canvas Course Contest (C-4) saw students nominate Canvas courses from almost every department that they felt were intuitive and easy to navigate, provided convenient access to course information and materials, and offered resources and activities that helped them succeed.

Of the nine courses were selected, one was by Kalen Larson:

* FA3650, Assistant Professor Kalen Larson (VPA)

Read more at Tech Today.

Production on the 1913 Copper Strike at Calumet Theatre

Red Jacket 1913Associate Professor Patricia Helsel is directing Red Jacket 1913, a special production in collaboration with the Calumet Theatre. This play uniquely presents the history and conflict surrounding the 1913 copper strike, focusing on one family’s struggles. While fictional, Red Jacket 1913 is based entirely on historic events.

Dennis Kerwin, former VPA faculty, heads the cast comprised mostly of community members, while Jonah Mueller, a Tech sound design major, and Dollcie Webb, majoring in theatre and electronic media performance, are both involved in the play’s production.

Performances are tomorrow and Friday at 7:30 p.m. Contact the Calumet Theatre box office for tickets at 337-2610.

From Tech Today.

Two Tech Students on “America’s Got Talent”

 

Mothmen Dance
Mothmen Dance

Two Visual and Performing Arts majors, Josh Maiville and Devin Miller, will be part of the popular summer series, “America’s Got Talent,” broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall in New York this week.

They will be riggers and flying-effects operators for Mothmen Dance, an aerial performance group created by On the FLY Productions–the production company that partnered with Michigan Tech last year to produce the flying extravaganza, “Beautiful: A Cirque-Tale of How the Butterfly Grew Her Wings.”

Maiville and Miller were riggers and operators for the productions of Beautiful, and Maiville performed some flying stunts on stage. 

On the FLY was so impressed with Michigan Tech’s students that the production company invited several of them to work with Mothmen, according to Associate Professor Kalen Larson (VPA). Michigan Tech is one of the only schools teaching performer flying, Larson said.

The live broadcast of “America’s Got Talent” is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 12, on Charter Cable channels 6 and 785. An elimination round will follow at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 13. See the audition.

This is not the first time Michigan Tech has been represented at Radio City. Ken Showler, a 2007 Tech graduate in sound design, was a designer with 7th Sense for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular 2011. He received an Excellence in Live Design Award for that work.

From Tech Today.