Visual and Performing Arts News

Category: News

LA Theatre Works Presents “The Mountaintop” at Rozsa

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Martin Luther King 50 years of the dreamThis year, in conjunction with Michigan Tech’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, and the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King, the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and Michigan Tech’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion present LA Theatre Work’s brand new production of Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop.”

On the evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. What happened inside room 306 the night before the killing is a mystery. In her internationally acclaimed play, Hall imagines what may have transpired in the overnight hours between the legendary civil rights leader and a seemingly inconsequential hotel maid.

“The Mountaintop” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23 at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Immediately following the play, there will be a panel discussion and Q & A in the Rozsa lobby with student members of Michigan Tech’s National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), members of the cast and staff from the Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Beverages and dessert will be served.

“The Mountaintop,” is directed by award-winner Shirley Jo Finney and stars Gilbert Glenn Brown (CBS TV’s “The Inspectors” and the upcoming feature film “The Best of Enemies”) and Karen Malina White (“The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” “Malcolm and Eddie”). The production will travel to 38 cities across the United States.

This performance is supported in part through funding from the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Crane Group. Also sponsored by WGGL, Minnesota Public Radio and Michigan Tech’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion.

Tickets are on sale now: $22.00 for adult, $10.00 for youth, and no charge for Michigan Tech Students with the Experience Tech Fee. To purchase tickets in advance, call 7-2073, go online at mtu.edu/rozsa, or visit ticketing operations at Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex (SDC). Tickets will also be available at the Rozsa Box office the evening of the performance.

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Alumnus Appears in Skit on Jimmy Kimmel Live

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Curtis Fortier speakingMichigan Technological University alumnus Curtis Fortier, BSME ’91 and MSME ’94, currently working as an actor and comedian in Los Angeles, was featured on the ABC late night program “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Fortier was in a skit that spoofed a recent incident on the game show “Jeopardy.”

While at Michigan Tech, Fortier was active in theatre productions and was a member of “The Troupe” improvisational comedy group. He was the 1991 winner of the Claire M. Donovan award, the last current student to be so honored.

In the skit, Fortier is seated at the far right and is featured at the very end with rap artist Coolio. Watch the skit here.

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Ken Steiner Memorial Concert at Rozsa

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kenA benefit concert in memory of Ken Steiner will be held Friday (Jan. 12) in the Lobby of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Steiner, a well-known local musician, chef, and volunteer, died on New Year’s Day, 2017.

Friday’s concert will benefit Steiner’s favorite charity, Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly. The evening will feature good food, a cash bar and music by many of Steiner’s friends. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with music playing until 11:30. The lineup features:

  • Steve Jones and the Garden City Hot Club, 7 p.m.
  • Uncle Pete’s All Star BBQ Blues Band, 8:15 p.m.
  • OUTLAW’D, 9:30 p.m.

Tickets are priced at $10, $20 and $30 with 100 percent of ticket sales donated in Steiner’s name to Little Brothers. Ticket purchases are considered donations and are tax deductible. Tickets are available online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the SDC, by phone at 7-2073 or at the Rozsa Center box office the night of the concert.

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“The Sound from Within Us” Saturday

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soundThe Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and the Department of Visual and Performing Arts present a concert by the Michigan Tech Concert Choir and Superior Wind Symphony. “The Sound from Within Us,” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 16) in the Rozsa Center.

The concert celebrates themes of common humanity and features music by American and British composers, including Vincent Persichetti’s “Celebrations,” Lee Hoiby’s “Hymn for a New Age,” Charles Ives’ “Psalm 90” and “Circus Band,” and John Rutter’s “Gloria.”

According to Michael Christianson, Michigan Tech’s director of bands, “From the many possible ways humans have invented for making music, groups of singers and wind instrumentalists have in common that the human breath initiates all sounds. There are many more instruments that are struck, bowed, plucked, etc. that are ‘inspired by expiration.’ And the human voice is the first true musical instrument, the most universal, so it seemed like a logical conclusion to concertize together.”

VPA Chair Jared Anderson adds “‘The Sound from Within Us’ celebrates the fact that wind players and singers both create music by using perhaps our most common trait, breath. The capacity to make beautiful sounds is within us all. The texts of the music that will be performed emphasize what we share as individuals and communities, the need for connection and kindness. It is a great opportunity to hear beautiful music and to celebrate in the midst of the holiday season.”

Tickets are on sale now, $15 for adults, $5 for youth and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex or at the Rozsa box office the evening of the performance. Note: the Rozsa box office only opens two hours prior to performances.

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Rozsa Center Architect Dies at 92

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George and Rozsa Plans 20170713_0023Latvian-born architect Gunnar Birkerts, known for dramatic expressionist buildings and elegant use of light, died Tuesday (Aug. 22), of congestive heart failure.
 
The internationally acclaimed architect’s projects include the Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the US Embassy in Venezuela.
 
A protégé of Finnish-America architect Eero Saarinen, Michigan Tech’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts is his only Upper Peninsula project. Read the full obituary in the Washington Post. 
by UMC
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Work of Katie Hargrave in Rozsa Gallery

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Screen Shot 2017-09-21 at 5.22.55 PMWho owns the wind? The leaves on the trees? When a paper company cuts down a 75-year-old tree, or a landowner clears brush for a better view of the lake, how is an entire ecosystem affected? What ethical, cultural and social questions are raised?

Artist Katie Hargrave, a professor of art at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, explores these questions in her exhibition, “It’s nothing personal (space).”

The exhibition opens at the Rozsa Center’s gallery A-Space, on Friday, Sept. 22. “It’s nothing personal (space)” is an exploration of the competing ideas of ownership and stewardship as they relate to public and private land, trees and deserts, and individual and corporate voices.

Inspired by a road trip to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, the site of militia protests during the winter of 2016, the exhibition includes fiber, audio, video and drawings.

A reception which features a discussion of her work by the artist will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. The show will remain open through Nov. 11. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturdays.

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Rozsa Calendars for 2017-18 Season Now Available

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20170911_122723Rozsa Center calendars for the 2017-2018 season are now available — both full-size wall calendars and the handy pocket/desk calendars!

Featured this year are 12 Rozsa Presenting Series events, more than 33 Visual and Performing Arts events including music, theater and visual arts and the ever-popular 41 North Film festival.

Season Ticket Packages are on sale now, with the best discounts available on all the season has to offer! There are four Season Ticket Package options this year, offering savings of 18 to 37 percent off single-ticket prices.

Single-ticket sales begin Sept. 1. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Michigan Tech Ticketing Services at the Central Ticket Office (SDC), at 7-2073, or visit our website.

You can pick up one of each or both at the Rozsa Center or at any of the more than 120 local Houghton and Hancock businesses who display and distribute them each year.

For Michigan Tech faculty and staff, we would like to make it easy for you to get your copies of the calendars. If you would like a calendar delivered directly to your campus mailbox, please click on this link and fill out the google form. We will gladly send a calendar to you in inter-campus mail.

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Auditions for Two Tech Theatre Plays Sept. 6 – 7

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Michigan Tech’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts’ Tech Theatre Company will hold auditions September 6 – September 7th in preparation for their first two plays of the 2017-18 performance season.  Auditions will be held at 7:00 PM each evening, those who wish to participate are asked to arrive 15 minutes early, at 6:45 PM. The auditions are open to anyone, and include opportunities for students and community members to perform in plays that will be held in the McArdle Theatre. The plays are Picasso at the Lapin Agile, by Steve Martin, and Fires in the Mirror, by Anna Devere Smith.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile  (McArdle)

Play run dates are October 12 – 14 & 18 – 20. Picasso at the Lapin Agile auditions will be in the McArdle Theatre, on Sept. 6 & 7, 7:00 PM. Play summary: Steve Martins’ thoughtfully comedic look at the 20th century. Sitting down for a few drinks at the Lapin Agile major and imaginary figures of the 20th century join us and in an evening we live through the perspective shifting experience of the 20th century. A century in an evening that makes it impossible to experience reality in the same way ever again. For questions regarding Picasso at the Lapin Agile, please contact Christopher Plummer, cplummer@mtu.edu, 906-487-3282.

Fires in the Mirror (McArdle)

Play run dates are November 15 – 16 & 30 – December 2. Auditions for Fires in the Mirror will be in Room 210 across the hall from the McArdle Theatre, Sept. 6 & 7, 7:00 PM. Play summary:  How can these things happen?  A child is hit by a car while playing on the sidewalk.  In retaliation, a young man is stabbed to death.  A community turns inward upon itself, neighbor set against neighbor.  Can an out of balance world be set right?  Anna Devere Smith interviewed members of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights Community and using their own words assembled a retelling of their solemn road from hate and violence to understanding.  At once poignant and colored by powerful feelings, Fires in the  Mirror is an unusual evening of theatre taking us to the heart of disaster and understanding and bringing us home safe.  For questions regarding Fires in the Mirror, please contact Roger Held, rheld@mtu.edu, 906-487-3283.

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Play the Cello? Love to Sing? Join a Music Ensemble at Michigan Tech!

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The music ensembles at Michigan Tech will hold annual ensemble auditions from August 30 – September 7th in preparation for the 2017-18 performance season.  The ensembles include opportunities for students and community members to perform band, choral, jazz, and orchestral literature in concerts from September 2017-April 2018.  Some ensembles only include students and others are open to participants from the community.

Michigan Tech Choral Auditions (Walker 209C)

Audition times are available on the following days:

  • Wednesday, August 30, 1:00pm-5:00pm
  • Thursday, August 31, 1:00pm-5:00pm
  • Friday, September 1, 8:00am-12:00pm
  • Tuesday, September 5, 9:00am-12:00pm
  • Rehearsals begin on Wednesday, September 6

Please prepare a vocal solo that highlights your voice.  Use our signup spreadsheet to sign up for a 20-minute audition appointment. Contact Dr. Jared Anderson (jaredand@mtu.edu) for more information. For general information on the choirs at Michigan Tech visit our Choirs page on the VPA Music website.

Superior Wind Symphony Auditions (Rozsa 208)

Auditions will be held Sunday, Sept. 3 from 10:00am to 9:00pm in the Band room. Please contact Dr. Michael Christianson (mchristi@mtu.edu) for more information. For general information on the Superior Wind Symphony please see our Bands page.

Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra Auditions (Rozsa 205)

Auditions will be held by appointment August 30 to September 5 in Rozsa 205. Please contact Dr. Joel Neves (jbneves@mtu.edu) for more information.

Michigan Tech Jazz Auditions (Rozsa 208)

Jazz auditions will be held by appointment during the first week of classes Tuesday, September 4 – Friday, September 7.  Audition sign up sheets and instructions will be located outside of the Visual and Performing Arts Department office (Walker 209) beginning on Monday, August 28.  Jazz rehearsals will begin on Monday, September 11, 2017. Please contact Mike Irish (mjirish@mtu.edu) for more information. For general information on the Jazz ensemble please see our Jazz page.

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