Visual and Performing Arts News

“The Studio for Here and Now” Shares Art and Readings in an Open Studio Event

Published November 10, 2016

Announcements

The Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents an open house, exhibition and reception of “The Studio for Here and Now,” a space for work by Professor Anne Beffel, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today (Nov. 10) in Wadsworth Hall, G04W (located in the lower level of Wadsworth Hall across from the WMTU radio station).

“The Studio for Here and Now” serves as a place for creative community members to meet, share work and discuss ideas. This evening you are free to wander “The Studio for Here and Now” and experience some of the projects and thinking that evolves in the space.

Anne Beffel, professor of Art in Visual and Performing Arts, will give a short talk on her research from 7 to 7:20 p.m. Information on studio happenings will also be provided. “The Studio for Here and Now” is supported by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Michigan Tech. This event is free and open to the public.

By Bethany Jones

41 North Film Festival Opens Tomorrow

Published November 2, 2016

By Heather Powers

Owen Suskind is a young man on the autism spectrum. As a child he was unable to speak until he and his family discovered a way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of Disney Films.

Owen’s inspirational story is the subject of the award-winning documentary “Life Animated,” one of more than 20 films featured in Michigan Tech’s 41 North Film Festival which opens its four-day run tomorrow in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Owen Suskind is the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind on whose best-selling memoir “Life Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism,” the film is based. The film, directed by Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams, has won awards from numerous film festivals including Sundance, Telluride, Full Frame, Berkshire International and San Francisco International. Suskind and Williams will be in attendance when “Life Animated” is shown at 7:30 p.m. Friday. They will lead a discussion of the film following its showing.

Williams will also be on hand at 6 p.m. Friday for the showing of “Music by Prudence,” the documentary short for which he received the 2010 Academy Award.

Following “Life, Animated” on Friday, there will be a reception and party featuring music by the Kalamazoo band The Go Rounds.

Michigan native Jason Zeldes, an award-winning editor, will help kick off the festival with the showing of his directorial debut “Romeo is Bleeding” at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

The film follows poet Donté Clark as he attempts to mount an urban adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet” with the hopes of starting a dialogue about violence in his hometown of Richmond, California.

Director Brian Kaufman will participate in a panel discussion on his films “Predator/Prey: The Fight for Isle Royale Wolves “ and “Counting Wolves.” Kaufman will be joined by researchers Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich. The film takes up the controversy around how to respond to the island’s dwindling wolf population.

Now in its 12th year the 41 North Film Festival offers a wealth of quality films at no cost. Tickets are free, with donations accepted.

As it has from the beginning, Michigan Tech’s Department of Humanities is a major sponsor of the festival. Humanities Department Chair Ronald Strickland says the department is proud of the way it has grown.

“In the Humanities we explore what it means to be human and it is reflected and sometimes defined through art, literature and other cultural practices,” Srickland says.

He says the films in each year’s festival are carefully selected by Festival Director Erin Smith, a principal lecturer in Digital Media and Film and director of the Humanities Digital Media Zone.

“Erin chooses the films and the invited filmmakers with a view to connect with the academic interests of Michigan Tech students and faculty and current popular topics of interest to members of the local community as well. It’s a four-day smorgasbord of culture with something for everyone.”

Smith says this year’s films cross a variety of topics and genres. “These are films that have been winning awards in festivals across the country and even around the world. While the topics in many of them are serious and thought-provoking, most open up discussion by telling great stories about some very compelling characters. ”

Also featured this year is “Sonita,” the 2015 Sundance-award winning story of a young Afghan refugee in Iran who seizes her destiny through music.

The Festival concludes on Sunday with the 7 p.m. screening of “Generation Startup.” The 2016 documentary follows six college graduates as they put everything on the line to start their own businesses in Detroit..

Film festival tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online at Rozsa@mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticket Office in the Student Development Complex and at the Rozsa Box Office an hour before showtime.

A complete schedule of all films and their showtimes is available at 41northfilmfest.org.

Rozsa Gallery B Presents “Come In We’re Open”

Published October 27, 2016

By Heather Powers

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts presents the first Rozsa Gallery B show of the 2016-17 Season: “Come In We’re Open,” an open house exhibition of the work of student scuptors’ work in progress, as a part of the “Project Learning Lab” alternative classroom project.

The show opens on Tuesday (Nov. 1) and runs until Saturday, Nov. 5. There will be two public receptions from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3 and Friday, Nov. 4. These receptions are free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Aquila “Murder on the Nile” at the Rozsa

Published October 21, 2016

By Heather Powers

Start with air raid sirens. Add WWII BBC broadcasts. Sprinkle on morse code and British actors during the time of Nazi-occupied Europe and you’ve got the 25th Anniversary National Tour of the acclaimed off-broadway Aquila Theatre Company, who are bringing Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Nile” to the Rozsa Center stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 27).

“Murder on the Nile,” by one of the greatest mystery writers in world literature, features a masterful whodunit and Aquila’s clever signature style. Aquila’s production is set in the early 1940s during World War II at the BBC Home Service studios in London. Air raid sirens were a regular occurrence in London during this time as Great Britain was on constant alert to bombings by Germany. Members of the theatre troupe have arrived and are preparing for a live radio broadcast of “Murder on the Nile,” but another air raid has prevented the full cast from assembling and yet, the show must go on—somehow.

In Agatha Christie’s own staging of her famous novel, “Death on the Nile,” a paddle steamer is cruising the legendary Nile River in 1940’s Egypt. The passengers aboard are abuzz when the famous heiress, Kay Ridgeway, and her penniless new husband, Simon Mostyn board the ship.

Class, money, and reputation are all at stake in one way or another for the passengers and before they know it deceit, theft and murder quickly make waves on the river.

Spurned lover Jacqueline De Severac, protective uncle Canon Pennefather, a troubled German Doctor and a host of colorful and mysterious characters add to the drama and suspense of this classic Agatha Christie mystery.

Who can be trusted? Who holds the truth? Who is a suspect? Whodunit? Aquila Theatre brings its innovative touch to this deliciously dangerous murder mystery, with brilliant direction, superb acting, thrilling physicality and stunning designs. Aquila’s “Murder on the Nile” will be a classic all over again.

Tickets are $22 for adults, $10 for youth, no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech Fee. Tickets are available by phone at 7-2073, online, in person at the SDC Central Ticket Office or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. (Note: the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances).

By Bethany Jones

Visiting Artist Sarah Hewitt Presents a Lecture “The Rise of the Feminine: She Vows”

Published October 20, 2016

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The Rozsa Center and Department of Visual and Performing Arts present a lecture by visiting artist Sarah Hewitt entitled “The Rise of the Feminine: She Vows ” at 5 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 25) in the Rozsa Lower Level atrium.

Hewitt’s exhibit, “Flats and Rounds,” is on display in the Rozsa A-Space Gallery through Nov. 18. Hewitt is creating a weaving installation “so not a goddess” on-site in the Rozsa Lobby now through Wednesday. This lecture, installation and gallery exhibition are free and open to the public.

A-Space Gallery and Rozsa Lobby hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. This lecture is presented as part of the VanEvera Distinguished Lecture Series.

Backstage at Rozsa Celebrates 50 Years of Jazz at Tech

Published October 18, 2016

By Heather Powers

“Backstage at the Rozsa” again opens its doors to the groovin’ sounds of big band jazz to celebrate the 50th year of Jazz Studies at Michigan Tech.

The Research & Development Big Band and the Jazz Lab Band will present a program featuring both the old and new—vintage and contemporary. A wide variety of tunes will be featured; Latin, mainstream, funk, ballads, rock and swing.

The Rozsa stage becomes a pop-up jazz club, and the intimate club atmosphere is a perfect setting for the Research & Development (R&D) Big Band and the Jazz Lab Band to loosen the reins on creativity and capture the flow of jazz!

Join Jazz Studies Program Director Mike Irish and the Michigan Tech Jazz ensembles for Jazz Showcase, “Backstage at the Rozsa” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Oct. 21-22).

According to Irish, “There will be two ‘Backstage Jazz Series’ again this year, culminating in a finale concert on Saturday, March 25, featuring both big bands, guest artists and a return of the always popular Alumni Jazz Band.”

Elaborating about the history and excitement of Jazz, Irish says “Jazz was born in the ‘tonks and joints’ of Storyville in New Orleans, and has always found a home in the small but lively entertainment venues throughout the world—the “speakeasies” of Chicago, the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, Birdland in New York, Ronnie Scott’s in London, the Town Tavern in Toronto, the A—Trane in Berlin, the Shaft in Istanbul, the Blue Note and Vanguard in New York and the Orpheum in Hancock.”

Irish says “Jazz is now enjoyed and practiced all over the world, and is one of America’s greatest cultural exports. So sit back, and immerse yourself in the music. In the words of jazz legend Art Blakey, ‘Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life.'”

Tickets for “Backstage Jazz at the Rozsa” are on sale now, $13 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 at Rozsa.mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticketing Office or at the Rozsa Box Office the evening of the performance. Note the Rozsa Box Office only opens two hours prior to performances.

Tech Theatre’s “Silent Sky” Opens Tomorrow

Published October 12, 2016

By Heather Powers

Michigan Tech Theatre Company’s first production of the new academic year, “Silent Sky,” opens tomorrow at the McArdle Theatre in the Walker Arts and Humanities Center.

In “Silent Sky” playwright Lauren Gundeson tells the story of astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt. The play blends the discovery of how to measure the universe with the essence of the discoverer’s life story.

Set against the turmoil of the cry for social justice at the beginning of the 20th century, the chronicle of Leavitt counterpoints the power of a passion for work with the desire for love and family.

Join Tech Theatre for a play that contemplates the life, challenges and contributions to our understanding of the universe. Leavitt discovered the first way of measuring the universe, to demonstrate that heavens were larger than the Milky Way, the limit of creation in her day.

“Silent Sky,” will be performed six times over two weeks, Thursday – Saturday, October 13 – 15 and again Oct. 20 – 22, in the McArdle Theatre. Performance time is 7:30 p.m. each night.

According to Director Roger Held, “In spite of the confusion of everyday life with family, making a living, paying taxes, enduring schedules, surviving deadlines, coping with aged vehicles, navigating love and sex, being immersed in political realms of all kinds (science, arts and academia included) peopled with an over-abundance of unpleasant and damaged souls, we are buoyed by the passion for doing difficult things: Henrietta Leavitt is one of us; persons who throw a net, gathering in pieces of some realm of endeavor, envisioning the pattern of relationships within the flotsam they’ve caught and teasingly calculating an understanding of some small piece of a greater puzzle.”

Tickets are on sale now, $13 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 at Rozsa.mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticket Office in the Student Development Complex or the night of the event, one hour before show time, at the McArdle Theatre Box Office.

by Bethany Jones

Pep Band Pre-Celebrates “50 Years of Be-striped Peppiness!”

Published October 10, 2016

By Heather Powers

The Michigan Tech Huskies Pep Band pre-celebrates 50 years of be-striped peppiness in its inimitable concert style at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Oct.) in the Rozsa Center.

Not yet experienced the sound and sight sensation that is the Huskies Pep Band? They are a true sensory extravaganza. The Huskies Pep Band is a Michigan Tech point of pride and one of the most lauded pep bands in the Midwest. Members dressed in “bumble-bee” stripes perform at concerts, athletic events, parades and special events all around Houghton and support Michigan Tech teams on the road as well.

The Huskies Pep Band is a nationally-known Division I pep band of nearly 250 members that performs at all home football, basketball and hockey games.

The band was selected as the host band to the WCHA Final Five Tournament in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

What can you expect at the concert? According to Director of Bands Michael Christianson (VPA), “… As the Huskies Pep Band becomes ‘almost golden’ as a ‘scramble band,’ they are ‘concerned’ about their ‘legacy’ of ‘music-making’ and ‘stylish dress’ and their ‘failure to yet achieve the gold.’ Please join us in our concert/therapy session as we loudly and flamboyantly try to work out ‘our issues’ in ‘our own special way'”

Tickets for Almost Golden at the Rozsa Center are on sale now, $13 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 at Rozsa.mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex.

by Bethany Jones

Grammy Winner Jerry Blackstone To Conduct Honors Choir Festival

Published October 6, 2016

By Heather Powers

Announcements

The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and the department of visual and performing arts (VPA) presents “Honors Choir Festival” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8 in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

The concert contemplates the forces of nature and weather in its many forms; springtime, a thunderstorm, a prairie fire and the Schoolchildren’s Blizzard of 1888.

The Choirs of Michigan Tech and the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra welcome singers from Northern Michigan University and upper peninsula high schools to perform Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Whispers on the Prairie Wind,” under the direction of Jerry Blackstone, the Grammy Award winning director of choral activities at the University of Michigan. The KSO will also present Beethoven’s Symphony no.6 in F Major (Pastoral), conducted by Jared Anderson.

By Bethany Jones

The 41 North Film Festival Returns to the Rozsa, November 3-6

Published October 6, 2016

By Heather Powers

From a family’s unique intervention into the silent world of autism to six intrepid young entrepreneurs building startups in Detroit, the 41 North Film Festival offers human stories that engage, inform, inspire and uplift.

Over the course of four days, the festival features more than 20 acclaimed films from around the world, as well as music, prizes and other special events.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind and Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams will be in attendance for the screening of “Life, Animated,” the documentary based on Suskind’s best-selling memoir “Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism.”

Award-winning editor, and Michigan native, Jason Zeldes will present his directorial debut film, “Romeo Is Bleeding.”

Detroit Free Press Executive Video Producer Brian Kaufman will be joined by Rolf Peterson (SFRES) and John Vucetich (SFRES) for a panel discussion following the screening of his film “Predator/Prey: The Fight for Isle Royale Wolves“.

Among other feature films included this year are “All These Sleepless Nights,” (Marczak, 2016), “Operator” (Kibens, 2016), “Kedi” (Torun, 2016), “Do Not Resist” (Atkinson, 2016), “Death by Design” (Williams, 2016), “A Stray” (Syeed, 2016) and “Sonita” (Maghami, 2016), which won both the 2016 Sundance Audience and Grand Jury prizes for World Cinema Documentary.

Now in its 12th year, the festival continues to be free and open to the public. Major Sponsors include the Humanities department, the Visual and Performing Arts department, the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, Student Affairs and Advancement, Pavlis Honors College, the Visiting Women & Minority Lecturer/Scholar Series and the Parents Fund of the Michigan Tech Fund.

Learn more about the films, events, sponsors and how to reserve your ticketonline. For more information email 41north@mtu.edu.

by Erin Smith