Production Positions Production opportunities provide beginning and inter-
mediate students with hands-on experience in lighting, scenery, costumes, sound, and stage management. Advanced and qualifying production students are often given opportunities to hone their designing skills prior to graduation.
Facilities The Theatre Department is located
in the $12 million Paul W. Ogle Cultural and Community Center. This facility includes the Paul G. Robinson Theater, the Richard K. Stem Concert Hall, the Recital Hall, and the Ronald L. Barr Art Gallery. The Robinson Theater offers a thrust stage, a 340 seat house, state of the art lighting and sound systems, and affords the performer, director, and designer a host of artistic choices in production, and its thrust design allows for a strong actor-to-audience relationship. The Ogle Center also houses the Theatre Department’s acting studio, scene and lighting design studio, and the scene and costume shops.
Scholarships
The IU Southeast Theatre Department awards several scholarships each year to talented students, providing half and full-tuition scholarships — the equivalent of up to 15 credit hours of in-state tuition per semester. Kentucky residents of Bullitt, Jefferson, Oldham, and Trimble counties pay Indiana in-state tuition rates at IU Southeast. Recipients are selected on the basis of past participation and success in theatrical production or performance, grades, strength of recommendations, audition and/or portfolio presentation, and commitment to participation in a broad range of theatre. Scholarship auditions are generally held in March of each year.
Other Opportunities The IU Southeast Theatre Department feels strongly that
learning is not limited to the classroom on campus. Students have attended regional and national conferences and festivals to further their skills and to seek employment and internship opportunities, including: ■■ NETC (New England Theatre Conference) ■■ USITT (United States Institute for Theatre Technology) ■■ SETC (Southeastern Theatre Conference)
812.941.2655
■■ KC/ACTF (Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival)
■■ MATC (Mid-America Theatre Conference)
www.ius.edu/theatre
The Theatre program at Indiana University Southeast
is committed to providing a wide variety of opportunities for students to explore and develop expertise in performance and design . All theatre majors are active participants in the theatre department’s productions, which serve as a laboratory for the major. Students are able to acquire skills and specialize in design, directing, and performance as they receive individualized attention and one-on-one interaction with the theatre faculty. The program offers an intense course of study designed to give each student the opportunity to become an active member of the theatre community. The Theatre Department produces at least two main stage productions each year in addition to numerous smaller productions, such as student-produced theatre. In order for our students to gain the most well-rounded education possible, our programming features classics, Shakespearian dramas, contemporary dramas and comedies, and musicals. Recent productions have included: Julius Caesar, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Noises Off, Proof, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Sweet Bird of Youth, Bus Stop, Lend Me A Tenor, The House of Blue Leaves, The Shadow Box, Company, and The Good Doctor.
Faculty
Our faculty is comprised of working professionals in the theatre industry. Each of our faculty holds a minimum degree of an Master of Fine Arts in their area of specialty and continues to work professionally during the year. Due to this fact our faculty and staff have a strong idea of what is currently happening in the theatre industry and can fully help our students to better understand what is expected of them upon graduation. When not in classes or working on shows, our faculty and staff pride themselves on remaining open and available to our students. We feel that learning is something that happens both in and out of the classroom. Through the professional ties maintained by the faculty, students often have the opportunity to shadow and assist their professors at these theatre companies. This creates invaluable working experience, professional connections, and a clear insight into the industry.
Internships and Employment The Theatre Department faculty is committed
to aiding students in finding internships with professional theatre companies. Many of these internships have lead to permanent employment positions with numerous regional and nationally recognized theatre companies. Former students have held internships and employment positions with such companies as: ■■ Des Moines Metro Opera ■■ Stage One ■■ Actors Theatre of Louisville ■■ Trinity Repertory Company ■■ Kentucky Repertory Theatre ■■ Derby Dinner Playhouse
■■ Bunbury Theatre ■■ Kentucky Opera ■■ Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre ■■ Quantum Theatre ■■ Annex Dance Company ■■ Lakes Region Theatre
■■ Tecumseh Outdoor Drama ■■ Chamber Theatre Productions ■■ Sugar Creek Symphony & Song
Student Productions
The Theatre Department is very proud to offer our students the unique opportunity to create Student Theatre at IU Southeast. Once a year, Junior and Senior students are eligible to apply to create a Student Theatre production. This production becomes part of the main-stage season and is fully funded. A faculty committee reviews the proposals and interviews the candidates, selects the winning proposal, and mentors the student directors and designers through the production. Student designers may apply for positions in all areas: costumes, scenic, lighting, and sound. The positions of Technical Director and Stage Manager are often available, and often this production is created in part with the Senior Capstone project.
Capstone The capstone is the culmination of a student’s undergraduate theatre
work. The capstone is a major theatrical project that can greatly enhance a student’s resume and/or portfolio. Capstones are designed to display the knowledge and skills acquired while attending IU Southeast. Since no two students are alike, no two capstones will be exactly alike. The Theatre Department requires that each student tailor their capstone around their achievements and skill sets in order to best demonstrate what they have learned.
Broadway actress Sharon Murray e class. (Romaine in the original cast of Grind ) addresses a theatr
Classes
The Theatre Department at IU Southeast offers a full range of classes that will prepare students for intensive on-stage and off-stage experiences. Class sizes are small, affording plenty of one-on-one attention from professors, and are taught with hands-on components for every class. Students don’t have to wait until their senior year to fully experience theatre. Freshman are encouraged to audition and sign up for production roles in order for them to become part of the IU Southeast theatre family as early as possible.
Capstone experiences may include, but are not limited to: a role deemed important by the theatre faculty in a department production, direction of a play within the main-stage student theatre slot, a design component, technical direction of a main-stage production, or a major research/dramaturgical project. Capstones are often completed during the student’s final year at IU Southeast.
Mission The Theatre Department
In February, the music and theatre “depart ments of Indiana University Southeast
in the adjacent town of New Albany presented a tart, affecting Company, directed by Jim Hesselman, co-author of Kaye Ballard’s memoir, How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years. In the pivotal role of Joanne, Hesselman cast Sharon Murray, who played Romaine in the original Broadway cast of Grind and who does the song “Timing” with Joey Faye on the show’s CD. Murray’s acerbic style powerfully informed her cynically potent “Ladies Who Lunch.” —The Sondheim Review, Fall 2009
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Actress and former Miss America, Lee Meri wether drops by the set of the IU Southeast production of House of Blue Leaves.
at Indiana University Southeast gives the opportunity to students in both performance and technical concentrations to leave the department with a full grasp of not only their own area of expertise, but of theatre as a whole.
Casting All students at IU Southeast are guaranteed equal consideration for all available roles, regardless of class standing.
Upon graduation, students have a good, honest understanding of where their talents lie, how far they have come, and what skills they will need to continue to improve in order to achieve their own particular goals.
On The Front Photos from the following IU Southeast Theatre productions (clockwise, from top left): The Nerd, The Shadow Box, Noises Off, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Lend Me a Tenor, Proof, Julius Caesar, Sweet Bird of Youth, Noises Off, House of Blue Leaves, Bus Stop, Company, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, The Shadow Box.
The Theatre Department provides students with the knowledge and skills to grapple with issues of integrity, ethics and the relationship between life in the theatre and the “outside world” in terms of self expression, responsibility, and their involvement in making a positive contribution to society as a whole.