Renovated theater opens new possibilities, cinema

Amid a weekend of traditional homecoming festivities, IU officials will revitalize an old structure with new plans.

IU President Michael McRobbie and Provost Karen Hanson will lead a ground-breaking ceremony to kick off renovation of the Theatre and Drama Building and construction of the new IU Cinema at 2 p.m. Saturday. The event, open to students and the public, will take place on the north side of the IU Auditorium.

“Anytime the University is embarking on a major construction project, students can come back decades from now and say, ‘I was here for the ground-breaking,’” Associate Vice President Tom Morrison said. “It’s a generational kind of event. We’re not going to do it again next year.”

After its projected completion in fall 2010, the project will provide new classrooms and performance space. In addition, an entirely new film cinema will seat 300 and allow for several variations of the latest film formats.

“IU’s reputation in the arts and humanities is also based on the superb facilities,” McRobbie said in his inaugural address in 2007. “There is one art where IU has, for decades, had a superb scholarly reputation, but no facilities. This is film.”

McRobbie said the renovations will benefit future generations of students with a venue for the exploration of the humanities, world cultures and social sciences.

Kelly Kish, research specialist in the office of the IU president, said McRobbie has been promoting the theater renovation since the start of his presidency in 2007. But Jonathan Michaelsen, professor of theatre and drama, said the idea has been considered at IU for decades.

“While a long road, it has been exciting to see things come into place and know what this will mean to our students,” Michaelsen said. “It will have a huge impact on the way we can teach and students can learn.”

He said taking the current theater and redefining the space in a creative way is a great idea.

“The renovation will not only open up new possibilities for our students and faculty in the classroom, but provide the public with additional opportunities to see theater on our campus,” Michaelsen said in a letter to IU communications.

Kish said the space, largely dormant since audience performances stopped in 2002, will feature innovations new to campus.

Remodeling efforts will completely repurpose the backstage and fly loft areas of the University Theatre, she said. The area will be equipped with a black box theater for student work and independent projects, as well as a new “Movement Studio” designed to resemble a New York-style loft with mirrors, brick and skylights.

Renovation will also connect the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center to the Theatre and Drama Building, granting easy access to drama students, according to a press release.

“This is an excellent project of adaptive reuse of an existing building,” Morrison said. “The concept is really quite innovative.”