Among many other organizations on campus, the theater department and the office of multicultural affairs have a lot to offer students, starting fall semester.
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Theater
Alexiss Turner, administrative assistant to the theater and film department said that during the summer her department becomes the Idaho Reparatory Theatre.
“It’s our professional theater company and residence,” Turner said. “We’re the only college that has one in Idaho.”
The summer program, IRT was founded 59 years ago. The point of the program is to give students a chance to work with professional actors, directors and designers, as well as bring the professional theatre into the community.
This year, IRT had a short season due to the remodel of the Hartung Theatre.
The pulley system used in the theatre to fly objects and people across stage needed to be renovated and replaced with stronger materials.
In August, they will have their last production; “Circle Mirror Transformation.” “It will open August 16 through the 26, and it is a contemporary drama set in the theater classroom, so you get to watch all these people from different walks of life come together and play these sort of interesting theater games, watch how they interact, and get an idea of what really creates great theater.
On August 10, IRT will have their backstage barbeque. We’ve had it every year, it’s kind of our opening celebration to open up the season.
“But since we had such a short season, we are using the event to celebrate the completion of the renovation. We will be having theater tours and free food for everyone. You can also get a sneak peak of Circle Transformation,” Turner said.
To kick off the academic year, there’s a production written by Jane Martin titled, “Anton in Show Business.”
“It’s a really interesting play in that there are 13 women in it. Six principle women who have all the minds. And then seven women who are called changers and movers,” David Lee Painter said.
Painter said the play is known as being a comedy, which he doesn’t find fair.
“It’s very political and it’s got a lot of satire in there. I think the primary issue is ‘what do you value’ in terms of; where do we put our money?” he said. “Martin is asking us to decide if we really value art, or if we say we value art but don’t support it.”
The first production of the semester will run Sept. 27 through Oct. 7.
“I think audiences will really love it because it’s provocative, and it’s so funny. It’ll be interesting to see actresses play roles in it they don’t usually get to play,” Painter said.
Multicultural affairs
Leathia Botello, coordinator for the office of multicultural affairs, said they work closely with about 18 student organizations.
Those organizations range from multicultural Greek students, to different academic, multicultural groups.
On August 18, OMA will be invited to the diversity, equity and community (DEC) “welcome back” barbeque, Botello said.
The on-campus offices participating in the barbeque will be the Women’s Center, Native American Student Center, LGBTQ, OMA and CAMP.
“The main purpose of the barbeque is to welcome back returning students and to welcome new students,” Botello said. “All of our offices, excluding CAMP, are open and to be utilized by any student coming to U of I.”
Throughout the year, OMA puts on events for Hispanic history month, Black history month and MLK.
“We hope that students are able to attend. We also hope to serve as a resource to them and their classes,” she said. “What they learn in the classroom, we hope some of our programming will help reinforce that.”
Molly Spencer can be reached at [email protected]