A temple to theater

On Jordan Avenue, just across from the admissions office, next to Delta Gamma sorority, IU is building a temple.\nOpening next spring, this temple will be holy, rough, immediate and alive. It houses a worshiping center for Dionysus and pays homage to the memory of Thespis.\n This is a place of Shakespeare, Sophocles, Brecht, Mamet and Bob Fosse. \n It is a place where the celebration of humanity through voice, diction, song, music, movement, ritual, action and emotion takes place.\nThis building has been in the works for more than 30 years, planned for 10 and built in the last three, but many people do not know of its existence. They are unaware of the magic in its empty space.\nThis is a place where, "The difficult must become habit, habit easy, and the easy beautiful." Prince Sergei Volkonski's words speak of what has intrigued man since the dawn of time -- Theater.\nThe avenue that brought forth the most ingenious author challenges us as human beings. Not merely entertainment, it speaks in a voice other arts cannot. It is alive in a moment and gone the next.\nStephen Sondheim wrote as a lyric, "Art isn't easy, even when you're hot. Advancing art is easy, financing it is not. A vision's just a vision if it's only in your head. If no one gets to see it, it's as good as dead. It has to come to life."\nOne of the few things in life I'll never forget was when I went to London during spring break. For eight days, I spent time in one of the most historic, vibrant and culturally fascinating cities in the world. I knew the theater in London was among the best in the world. There, I saw five shows: "Les Miserables," "The Lion King," "The Pearl Fishers," "Art" and "The Merchant of Venice."\nAs a Jew, "The Merchant of Venice" interested me the most of all. It was the best play I've ever seen staged. When I could look down on the characters on stage, care about them and hate them at the same time and leave not knowing who to feel sorry for, who to hate and who to love, I knew it had struck a remote chord in my soul.\nWhen the new Theatre/Neal-Marshall Education Center opens next year, it will also house the offices and facilities of the Afro-American Studies major. The Center is named after the first male and female African-American graduates of the University and provides the department some much-needed space.\nAnd IU will have one of the most advanced performing arts space in the collegiate community. \nBut as director Peter Brook said, "I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theater to be engaged."\nUntil this space opens, the theater community in Bloomington and IU continues to strive for pure theater. Nevertheless, many students and people in the community have never even set foot inside of a theater. Those who do, imbibe themselves with the most potent and addictive of drugs.\nTheater at IU ranges from opera to plays to improvisational comedy. I urge everyone to take an evening, and go to the theater. Before leaving this space, this campus, go to the Auditorium and buy a ticket to see a play or an opera -- and I don't mean "Rent."\nI mean something where fellow students, people still learning their craft the same as everyone else at this University, perform a piece of theater that will last for a few performances and then close, never to be seen again.\nIn an age where reality television has become an abhorrent part of popular culture, there still exists an entity of entertainment where reality is face to face. It exists in a moment and then is gone forever. This exists in the theatre. When an actor can be smelled, his or her sweat so close it can almost be tasted and at that moment, they explode -- not even Richard Hatch could win that match.\nTake those moments, and let the magic that can overwhelm in a theatrical performance enter and engulf. The euphoria, fear, love and excitement from it will make anyone feel more alive.\nArthur Miller once said, "The body has to have a spirit. The eye must have a vision. If it doesn't, it's dead. The theater's about people -- human beings -- aspiring to something better"