Visual and Performing Arts News

Tag: Visual and Performing Arts

VPA Students win awards at Kennedy Center ACTF Regional Conference

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This January, Michigan Tech Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) students presented their work in the Design, Technology, and Management (DTM) Expo at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) Region 3 Conference, hosted in Madison, Wisconsin.  

VPA Sound Design and Audio Production & Technology students, along with their faculty mentor Assistant Professor Jeff Sherwood, received the Don Childs DTM Cross-Discipline Collaboration Award for demonstrating an exceptional level of collaboration on the recent Michigan Tech Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, directed by Assistant Teaching Professor Nich Radcliffe.  These students include Madison Brown, Ronan Higgins, Sam Matlak, Katelyn Roblee, Evan Meyer, and Aidan Sanders, who were members of the sound design and music composition team for the production.  

In addition to presenting in the DTM Expo, VPA students also competed in the Tech Olympics competition.  VPA Theatre and Entertainment Technology student Isaiah Hilkemann received the Fastest Knot Tying Award, and set the new all-time KCACTF Region 3 record at 20 seconds.  

As part of VPA career development and professional presentation travel courses, students have an opportunity to attend and present at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 3 Conference led by VPA faculty.  As part of the curated study away experience this year, Associate Professor Kent Cyr and Assistant Professor Terry Jachimiak also arranged facility tours, site visits, and industry professional meetups in the area.  

Our VPA students also worked as Conference Student Assistants, and our VPA faculty participated in the planning and execution of the conference.  Associate Professor Kent Cyr, serving as Festival Technical Director for the past seven years, provides support to the invited theatre productions from colleges within the region who attend and perform on the festival stages.  Assistant Professor Jeff Sherwood currently serves as Co-Vice Chair of Design, Technology, and Management of KCACTF Region 3 and assists with the preparation and organization of the DTM program areas.  Assistant Professor Terry Jachimiak currently serves as the Region 3 Webmaster.  Professors Cyr, Jachimiak, and Sherwood also presented several workshops at the conference to numerous students from Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio.  

Congratulations to our Huskies and their well-deserved recognition of excellence. 

Katelyn Roblee Presenting
Katelyn Roblee Presenting
Ronan Higgins Presenting
Ronan Higgins Presenting
Tech Olympics - Lighting - Marshall Huberts
Tech Olympics – Lighting – Marshall Huberts
Don Childs DTM Award Winners
Don Childs DTM Award Winners
Tech Olympics - Isaiah Hilkemann
Tech Olympics – Isaiah Hilkemann
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Congratulations Nate Lyons on Bronze Award in AES Student Recording Competition

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Nate Lyons (VPA Sound Design, ’25) brings home the Bronze Award in the Audio Engineering Society (AES) international Student Recording Competition, Sound for Visual Media category for his sound design audio replacement of the video game Celeste. This is the second year in a row Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) sound design and audio production and technology students have received awards in the prestigious international competition. As an award winner, Nate will receive a prize that includes audio software from Bettermaker, Empirical Labs, and Eventide.

As part of VPA career development and professional presentation travel courses, students have an opportunity to attend and present at the international Audio Engineering Society convention in New York City led by Assistant Professor Jeff Sherwood, Department of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).

This opportunity is well suited for students interested in studio recording and music production, video game design, live sound, theatre, and AV or acoustics consulting. The week-long study away experience includes networking with Grammy-winning and Academy-winning professionals at the convention and a curated experience including private meetups with AV consulting and acoustics firms, facility tours, backstage tours and shadow opportunities, Broadway and other live productions, sightseeing, and Michigan Tech VPA alumni meetups for our students to form industry connections as they launch their careers.

This year VPA students presented in the AES Student Recording Competition, Student Mix Critiques sessions, and participated in career fairs hosted by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the co-located National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference.

As part of the curated study away experience, Assistant Professor Jeff Sherwood (VPA) also arranged visits of international concert touring production company Clair Global, Broadway audio rental shops PRG and Masque Sound, backstage tours of Jazz at Lincoln Center and Little Island, and talkbacks with sound designers from Stereophonic (Broadway) and Bad Kreyol (Off-Broadway) after seeing both productions as a group.

Congratulations to Nate Lyons and Department of Visual and Performing Arts sound design and audio production and technology students in their presentations at the 2024 AES New York convention.

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New Music in the Mine Presented by Michigan Tech Music

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Hard hats are required — and provided — to hear this exciting new music by contemporary composers in the Quincy Mine hoist building. This annual sell-out show will contain some of the best music you haven’t heard yet! View Digital Program in advance.

Here is this year’s lineup:

THURSDAY
Pat Booth, saxophone
conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers
Adam Hall, cello
Adam Meckler, trumpet
Stephen Rush, piano

FRIDAY
conScience: Michigan Tech Chamber Singers
Susie Byykkonen, flute
Michael Christianson, tuba
Adam Hall, cello
Stephen Rush, piano

CONTENT GUIDANCE | instrumental and vocal new music; hard hats required
PRESENTER | Michigan Tech Music
VENUE | Quincy Mine No. 2 Shaft Hoist House
DURATION | Approx. 45 min
TICKETS | Pay As You’re Able ($20 Full Ticket Fee) What is this?
SEATING | General Admission

About

Michigan Tech Music has a long history of high-quality music ensembles open to students from all majors on campus. Its composition program, bands, orchestra, jazz, and choral ensembles expose students, faculty, and the community to the artistic and communicative values of music and the power it has to change lives. Each group performs regularly in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts and in venues in the community.

Living composers, unusual instruments, and unique spaces are all at the forefront of the bold, delightful, and innovative experiences the Keweenaw has come to expect from New Music at Michigan Tech. Led by Dr. Libby Meyer, New Music invites you to experience concerts, workshops, speaking events, and masterclasses by some of the greatest living composers and classical musicians.

Libby Meyer is a composer whose work reflects the natural rhythms and patterns of the world around her. Her music, including chamber, orchestral, choral, wind symphony, film, dance and theater, has been commissioned and performed throughout the United States. An avid equestrian, kayaker and distance runner, Libby currently resides in Michigan’s beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula with her husband Evan, a Pyrenees Mountain dog, a secretive cat, and thousands of honeybees. She holds a DMA in Composition from Northwestern University and is a Teaching Professor in Music Theory/Composition at Michigan Tech University. Listen to recordings of Libby’s work.

Sponsors

Support for this event provided by the Janet Locatelli Fund, the Visual and Performing Arts Department, and its supporters. View current donors to the Visual and Performing Arts Department.

Pay As You’re Able Ticketing

The Visual and Performing Arts Department believes that the foundation of an equitable and inclusive arts culture requires making events financially accessible to all. So, we are offering Pay as You’re Able ticketing for all of our Michigan Tech Music and Michigan Tech Theatre events. Learn more.

Accessibility

Accessible Parking
There are accessible parking spaces in the Quincy Mine parking lot.

Accessible Entry
The 1984 Hoist House is accessible by an ADA-compliant ramp, and a lift is available to access the 1918 Hoist House, where the performances will take place.

Print and Digital Programs

Digital Program
The full program will be available online at least one day in advance for all devices and is compatible with most screen readers.

Limited Print Program
Print programs containing limited show information will be available at the door.

Large-Print Program
A large-print version of the limited print program is available in advance online. A limited quantity is printed and available at the door.

Additional Information

Box Office Information
Accessibility Services
Parking Information​
View All Upcoming Events
Volunteer at the Rozsa
Donate to support events like this

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Color and Context collaboration with Professor of Art Anne Beffel

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The Seashore Psychology Training Clinic at the University of Iowa is pleased to announce that they will be continuing collaboration with Professor of Art Anne Beffel on an art installation entitled Color and Context. This extension of Beffel’s Color of Kindness project, currently exhibited in the Seashore Clinic, will engage graduate students as well as clinical faculty and staff.

Participants will be invited to recall a moment in which kindness, or its absence, was important to them and to describe colors present within their memory. In the updated project, Beffel will collect only the name of the color and its brief description through online survey. As Beffel creates a painting for each person’s named color, she will integrate its complement, located 180 degrees opposite on the Newtonian color wheel. The introduction of the complementary color is intended to embody both contrast and connection. Beffel notes, “Gullickson, and former training director Michael O’Hara, have been excellent collaborators and art stewards, extending themselves in countless ways. I’m particularly grateful for the opportunity to directly engage the clinic faculty, staff and students in articulating the colors that matter to them as we reflect upon the dynamic and evolving culture surrounding color in America.”

“We are thrilled at our continuing collaboration with Anne Beffel,” writes Seashore Clinic director Gregory Gullickson. “Anne has really brought such color and life to our clinic, and having students and staff inspire more of her work will add immeasurably to the beauty and healing spirit of our clinic space.”

Installation of Color and Context is planned for summer 2023 with support from Beffel’s academic department of Visual and Performing Arts at Michigan Technological University.

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Joel Neves Nominated for Michigan Tech Distinguished Teaching Award

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Professor Joel Neves

We are so pleased to announce Joel Neves, Professor, Visual and Performing Arts is among the Associate Professor/Professor finalists for the 2023 Michigan Tech Distinguished Teaching Award. The Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes outstanding contributions to Michigan Tech’s instructional mission.

To whittle the finalists to a single winner, The William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is seeking input on the finalists for its annual Distinguished Teaching Awards. Based on more than 40,000 student ratings of instruction responses, 10 finalists have been identified for the 2023 awards. The selection committee is soliciting comments from students, staff, faculty and alumni to be referenced during their deliberations.

Comments for the finalists are due by March 31 and can be submitted online.

The process for determining the Distinguished Teaching Award recipients from this list of finalists also involves the additional surveying of their spring 2023 classes. The selection committee makes the final determination of the award recipients. The 2023 Distinguished Teaching Awards will be formally announced in May.

For more information, contact the CTL at ctl@mtu.edu or 906-487-3000.

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Michigan Tech Theatre: Haunted Mine This Weekend

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Join us this Halloween season at the Quincy Mine for a haunted experience that you won’t forget! Tram will run about every 20 minutes from 6-10 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at www.quincymine.com, and it is HIGHLY recommended to do so, as the tours sell out quickly! Youth under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult.

Content Considerations //  jumpscares, flickering and strobing lights, loud sounds, and fog, appropriate clothing and comfortable footwear that can handle some dirt is strongly suggested.

ABOUT

Michigan Tech Theatre creates entertainment events for the Keweenaw, sharing the creative and scholarly work of students and faculty from the Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

Kent A. Cyr, Associate Professor, is the Technical Director at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI. He teaches courses in Technical Construction, Stagecraft, Rigging, Stage Mechanics, and Properties Artisanship.  He is the director of the B.S. in Theatre and Entertainment Technology program.  He is a member of the USITT Tech Expo committee and active in the Technical Production commission, Education commission, and the Emerging Creatives Showcase. In KCACTF region III, he is the Festival Technical Director, and a respondent to the technical load-in process. He has worked at Spoleto Festival USA, Bard Summerscape, The La Jolla Playhouse, Cyco Scenic, and continues to work professionally with Technical Theatre Solutions.

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Fundraiser Celebrates 25th Anniversary of VPA

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Circle with Gala surrounded by colored splashesThis academic year, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Michigan Tech. We will hold a celebratory 25th Anniversary Gala beginning at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, in the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.

Celebrate with an evening of cocktails, dinner and live arts entertainment. The VPA 25th Anniversary Gala will feature intimate performances in the lobby and on stage, and live auction supporting the Marian and John Irish Award for Environmental Art, the Visual and Performing Arts Department Theatre Scholarship Fund and the Rozsa Center’s Class Acts Program.

Come dressed for celebration. There will be a cocktail hour (cash bar), full dinner, live music throughout the evening both in the lobby and on stage, an auction of unique arts experiences, artists working during the gala and more.

Tickets for the evening are $75 per person. We will also be selling corporate tables (seating eight) for $1,000. Tickets can be purchased by calling the SDC Ticket Office at 7-2073 or following this link. More information can be found here.

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Scary Ideas Sought for Haunted Mine Tour

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Quincy Mine with Northern LightsThe Quincy Mine Hoist Association and the Michigan Tech Visual and Performing Arts Department are teaming up to offer the best Haunted Mine event ever. In preparation, the production team is looking for creative ideas for awesome and scary scenes. All are invited to toss ideas to the production team via an “idea pitch.”

Ideas will be selected based on feasibility and potential for the ultimate scare. Scenes will be under the direction of a professional theatre director and actors will be auditioned to fill the necessary roles.

This year’s theme is “Secret Portal to the 90th Level.” Tourists have been disappearing, only to reappear having passed through the eerie depths of the mine unseen for years. Tours will be Oct. 25-27. There will be some rehearsing this year that will require a few hours of commitment before the actual mine experience. Technical load-in will be Oct. 21-24.

There will be a mandatory meeting for all volunteers from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 20) in McArdle Theatre, Walker 207.

For more information, contact Patricia Helsel, 7-3283.

Fill out an information form prior to attending the meeting.

The team is looking for a very brief description of a mini-plot or scenario that might take between one and five minutes. These scenarios are partly improvised situations where one or more individuals interact with each other and/or the customers who enter the mine during the tour. Envision costumes, lights, props, sounds, special effects, etc. Individuals, partners and groups are all invited to submit ideas. There is no limit to the number of ideas.

If your idea is chosen, you and two friends will be invited to a special sneak preview of the whole mine tour before the event opens to the public.

If you are interested only in being a part of the Haunted Mine experience, just answer the survey questions in the form.

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Meditation Circuit Combines Mindfulness, Public Art

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Two men and a woman stand beneath a cloth banner in a pine tree grove.Imagine the sunlight slanting toward the forest floor, filtered through viridescent leaves and pine needles. Imagine walking slowly, meditatively, through the wedges of light, fully focused on the moment, completely present. Dust motes swirl in the light. Birds call to each other above. A fly buzzes by. Twigs and decaying leaves crunch under foot. From branches above, delicate hemp banners painted in many shades of green to mimic the landscape waft gently on the breeze.

Meditation, the practice of focusing solely on the present moment and letting go of the clutter of the mind, appears to have an increasing number of health benefits. Anne Beffel, professor of visual and performing arts at Michigan Technological University and director of Studio Here Now, intentionally looks for ways to create space for mindfulness within public art. Studio Here Now is a creative public art design studio and gallery located on campus in Wadsworth Residence Hall.

Read the full story on mtu.edu/news

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