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(04/13/12 1:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dancing their way back to the Roaring Twenties and Dirty Thirties, the IU Department of Theatre and Drama opens “Cabaret” for its final production of the 2011-12 season at 7:30 p.m. today. Director and choreographer George Pinney said he is very excited to open the highly decorated show this weekend.“‘Cabaret’ first opened in 1967 and has been revived countless times, most recently in 1995 on Broadway with mass success,” Pinney said. “There is a really catchy musical score by John Kander, and the story is excellent. It deals with the human condition in such a base way, it’s still relevant to audiences today. “History tends to repeat itself again and again, and we often wonder, ‘Will we ever learn?’ Cabaret really puts that forth.”Pinney has been choreographing for many years with IU Theatre and also has experience working with Broadway and major theaters in London. “I am absolutely ecstatic for the shows to begin,” Pinney said. “The shows are very well cast, and the company is extremely talented, and they have really risen to this challenge in a very positive, artistic and powerful way.”“Cabaret” is set in war-torn Germany in the 1930s and focuses on the relationship between an American writer, Clifford Bradshaw, and an English singer, Sally Bowles, who performs at a seedy cabaret, The Kit Kat Klub. Due to a conflict with bachelor of fine arts seniors going on their Musical Theatre Showcase trip in New York this weekend, the show was double-casted and features both senior Jamie Anderson and sophomore Hannah Slabaugh as Sally. While in New York, the seniors will perform in front of almost 200 casting directors.“It’s been fun because Jamie and I both play the role so differently,” Slabaugh said. “It has really challenged me to be confident in my choices and the way that I interpret the character.”Anderson said she agreed that being a part of a double-casted show has proved to be a great learning experience for her and the rest of the cast.“This show is really fun to perform because Sally is so multidimensional,” Anderson said. “She goes through a really big revelation during the show, so it’s been both exciting and challenging to fill this role.”Anderson said she believes that this musical is still relevant because of current political controversy between the two polar parties in the United States. She said it resembles the strife between the Communist Party and Nazi activists of World War II Germany. “It’s not a bright and shiny musical,” Anderson said. “It definitely wraps you up into this dark and scary world. The struggle for power resembles the current political state of this country, and it’s frightening to see how many of us choose to be like my character, Sally, and just remain ignorant to all of it.”Slabaugh said she agreed that “Cabaret” raises serious questions while still being an entertaining show for the audiences. “This is such a great show, and it’s so challenging because it’s so dark and creepy with the whole concept of ‘Life is a Cabaret,’” she said. “It examines whether you should live your life from moment to moment and questions whether you should live it solely for yourself.”The cast has been in rehearsal for eight weeks, and extravagant sets and costumes have been created during that time, Anderson said.“The design of this production is absolutely magnificent,” Anderson said. “Abby Wells controlled the lighting for this show and is using it as her thesis production, so the lighting is absolutely fantastic. The set and the costumes are also very well put together.”Slabaugh also talked about the high quality of the production and said she believes the audience will enjoy every aspect of the show.“All of the dance numbers that include the whole ensemble are so exciting, with all the costumes and all of the individuals that make up the whole cabaret,” Slabaugh said. “It is just really fun to watch, and I think the audience will really latch on to that.”
(04/11/12 4:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two films produced by IU students will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year in southern France. “Freaks” and “All We’ve Built” began their journey earlier this semester at the Campus MovieFest, a national competition that encourages students to create a short film in a week at universities across the country. The films are first judged within their respective universities and then sent to Campus MovieFest headquarters in New York City to be judged on a national level.Senior Tom Miller, junior Mike Brophy and junior Ryan Black controlled every aspect of the filming production for their short film “All We’ve Built.” Miller said the inspiration for their film came from stories of people returning to their daily lives after the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima, Japan, during WWII. ”We wanted to do a story about a guy who goes back to his house after a nuclear reactor melts down,” Miller said. “A guy that, after it’s all said and done, just wants to walk back home and see his house.”Junior Matthew Gunselman served as the writer, producer and gaffer for the short film “Freaks,” a quirky love story.“We wanted to discuss an interesting love story, one that encompasses a lot of mystery and intrigue,” Gunselman said. “So, when the couple finally meets at the end of the film, the audience is still trying to figure out their relationship and if they know each other.”Gunselman said this was his first time participating in Campus MovieFest and that he really enjoyed seeing the film come together.“Working on the film was really fun, but I wasn’t expecting to go further than Campus MovieFest,” Gunselman said. “We hoped that it would move on to the national level, but when they told us it was going to Cannes, it was really, really exciting.”“Freaks” and “All We’ve Built” skipped the national judging stage and were sent directly to Cannes. “We weren’t even going to enter, we started so late in the game,” Miller said. “The film was due on Wednesday. But we knew we would kick ourselves later if we didn’t participate in this. “We shot the film on Monday, edited it on Tuesday and had it finished in time to submit on Wednesday.”The crew members said they were fairly confident with their final cut of “All We’ve Built” when they had finished filming. “We were pretty confident in our abilities,” Miller said. “We figured we would probably get the top 16 at Campus MovieFest, but then there was so much talent. We had no idea where we would end up. When we were nominated for Best Drama at Campus MovieFest it was really exciting, and then when we found out we were going to Cannes, it was unreal.” Miller said the crew was able to film the majority of the scenes on campus. “We shot a lot of scenes with postapocalyptic imagery,” he said. “We used a lot of places around campus that look like they’ve been abandoned for years and went to a couple local high schools.”Brophy said the crew faced a few challenges when filming the futuristic flick. “It was hard to make sure there weren’t any signs of civilization,” Brophy said.Brophy, Miller and Black have operated a professional production company since January. The trio has created videos for congressional campaigns and has done work for the Indiana Democratic Party. “We would really like to expand our filmmaking into areas other than politics,” Miller said. “Hopefully, we will be able to make money doing commercial stuff and then have time to do more creative films like ‘All We’ve Built,’ maybe even create a full-length film one day.”Both creative staffs said that although they would love to go see their films presented at Cannes, they will not be in attendance because there are limited scholarships available for the groups to travel to the festival. “This entire process has been exciting,” Gunselman said. “I really enjoyed considering the creative possibility of video. It’s been a really good experience that has really got me thinking about moving forward.”
(04/03/12 3:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dan Savage, author and popular “Savage Love” columnist, knows college students are having sex.“If we taught driver’s education the way we teach sex education, nobody would survive their first trip in the car,” Savage said. “It would be all about the internal combustion engine works and nothing about how to drive. What we do with sex education is we teach all about how the internal reproduction system works and nothing about how to get laid.” In his new MTV series “Savage U,” Savage travels with co-star and producer Lauren Hutchinson to 12 colleges to tackle “taboo” subjects such as sex, abstinence, and Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender relationships. The series aims to educate, through frank conversations, about topics too often “swept under the rug.” MTV advertises the series as, “There’s no Q Savage won’t A.”“Everyone wants to pretend like they know everything, they’re good at everything and that they’re an expert already,” Savage said. “People are afraid to admit that they don’t know what to do because they don’t want to seem inexperienced.” Questions range from “How do I have a threesome?” to “How do I get a boyfriend?” The show is a compilation of anonymous auditorium sessions and intimate, Q&A conversations with students. Regardless of individual sexual experience, Hutchinson said she believes everyone is curious, and all are looking for information that lets them feel normal.“We are a part of a culture that has promoted being unaware about sex as a virtue,” Savage said. “There is this idea that sex should come naturally, and you shouldn’t have to be prepared for it or do any reading. And when you let it ‘just kinda happen’ is when you ‘just kinda get in trouble.’”Savage said he finds the country’s current state of sex education “pathetic,” with too heavy an influence on abstinence education. This leaves people lacking information.“I always joke that if I’m going to speak at a college, the health department will bring me in, not the GLBT organization. Because they know I can undo the damage done by abstinence education in 2 hours, just by talking about consent, safety and responsibility, and also talking in a positive way about how to get laid,” Savage said.Co-creator of the “It Gets Better Project,” an online support community for GLBT youth, Savage believes GLBT individuals have less information than heterosexual students regarding romantic relationships. For Savage, friends should act as individuals’ ultimate support system, and people should be able to turn to their peers for dating advice and encouragement.“I went to University of Illinois in the ’80s,” Savage said. “I was gay and out when I arrived during a time when most people weren’t coming out until after college, so dating was hard. But I managed. I went to my friends for advice. Sometimes it was drunk sex talks in a bar, but I really think there is some wisdom in that. It’s the idea that there is wisdom in crowds. That’s what ‘Savage U’ is. It’s crowd sourced.”Hutchinson, who went to Boston University, said she maneuvered her way through college by participating in a sorority. Because her university was situated within a city, she said it was much more common to hook up with someone once and never see them again. She was really surprised when people on the show admitted to doing things “really detrimental,” such as not using protection or saying “they would just handle something bad when it presented itself.” The ultimate message of the show is responsibility, Savage said. And if the unmentionable sexual content of the show isn’t alluring enough for viewers, they can be sure that they will learn something new about romantic relations. “Abstinence education angers me because it makes people’s sex lives seem more dangerous,” Savage said. “The people that promote abstinence education look at the damage done by abstinence education as proof that we need more abstinence education to prevent people from having sex. Even right-wing douchebags like Mr. (Newt)Gingrich, who are promoting abstinence, aren’t virgins on their wedding night. Young people today need information, and I’m going to help them find it.”
(03/30/12 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Performing favorite numbers from the past 60 years, the Singing Hoosiers will perform their final concert under the direction of retiring Jacobs School of Music Choral Director and professor Michael Schwartzkopf at 8 p.m. Saturday in the IU Auditorium. After serving as director for 17 years, Schwartzkopf said his departure is bittersweet. “It’s time. I’ve reached the age of retirement,” Schwartzkopf said. “I look at it as a time for a new director, a new perspective and new ideas for the Singing Hoosiers.”The Singing Hoosiers ensemble was founded in 1950 and is composed of about 90 student voices. Schwartzkopf said the search for a new director is ongoing. “We’ve kept the same format and traditions that have been with the Singing Hoosiers since before I was a director, or even since I was a member of the Singing Hoosiers in the ’60s,” he said.Schwartzkopf attended IU for a degree in choral conducting and performed with the ensemble during his stay in Bloomington. In 1995, after completing his doctoral work, he became director of Singing Hoosiers, and said he has enjoyed it every step of the way.“Every year, the group has different strengths and weaknesses, and it’s up to the director to pull those strengths and improve those weaknesses,” Schwartzkopf said.Cody Butcher, senior vocalist and social chairman of the Singing Hoosiers, said Schwartzkopf did just that.“He is so much more than a director,” Butcher said. “Yes, he does make us sound amazing, he does care about how professional we are and that we are good ambassadors for the University, but he also cares for us on an individual level. If we are struggling with anything, he has always been there to listen and talk about it. He is just such an amazing person.”Sophomore vocalist Chris Yousif said he participated in show choir during high school and wanted to be a part of the traditions and legacy of the Singing Hoosiers. “The sense of kinship that everyone brings is a great atmosphere to be a part of,” Yousif said. “Everyone is really involved, we all really love being there and I think it really shows when we perform.”Butcher, who has participated in Singing Hoosiers for four years, said the tradition and legacy of the ensemble created a unique bond between the singers. “We have a motto — once a Singing Hoosier, always a Singing Hoosier,” Butcher said. “At alumni events, we will talk with past singers, and it’s crazy how much our experiences overlap. They’ll ask us if we’re still practicing at the same time in the same room that they did. And we are. It’s just a really great set of traditions that bond all of us together regardless of when we participated.”Yousif said he is looking forward to the final show with mixed emotions.“I’m really excited for the final show this weekend,” Yousif said. “It’s going to be sad, but, as always, it will be really fun, too.” Butcher agreed.“I think it will be exciting because Singing Hoosiers can take a new direction but also because Dr. S will be leaving after such a long time, and it is going to be the final performances for the seniors,” he said.Butcher said he will look back on his time with the Singing Hoosiers and Schwartzkopf fondly because of the experiences both have given him.“Dr. Schwartzkopf is one of the most amazing men I know,” Butcher said. “He has been my constant mentor since I’ve been here. There will be times in the middle of class when he’ll just pause and look around at all of us and just say, ‘You know what? I love you guys.’ And I think moments like those are really what makes him stand apart.”
(11/10/11 2:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This year, Project Jumpstart is sponsoring several discussions and dynamic-based workshops geared toward helping student musicians define what they do and connecting them with future fans, employers and supporters. Doctoral student Jerome Sibulo, a member of the Project Jumpstart student team, said the organization’s goal is to connect students with career resources and individuals with significant experience in the field.The organization creates individual advising appointments for students to help them progress in their field and find the best resources in the community. “We love to incorporate our very illustrious and enthusiastic staff in our workshops, as well as gain more student participation with these workshops,” said Peter Thoresen, interim coordinator of Project Jumpstart. “We want there to be a clear takeaway from these events.”Thoresen said the team was really excited about starting the year off with Kevin Woelfel’s presentation Nov. 7 to 8. Woefel also was available for individual advising with Jacobs School of Music students.Woelfel is the director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho and served as the director of the Entrepreneurship Center of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the past. His workshops discussed how to be successful as an entrepreneurial musician. “This is a valuable program because right now in the music program, there is nothing else that can provide this knowledge,” said Sibulo. “It’s always good to have outside opinions. We are bringing in people who are experts in the field and their input is so valuable.”Anyone who is in the music school receives emails regarding the Project Jumpstart workshops, but Sibulo said they encourage anyone in the community to attend the free sessions. Senior Forrest Wu leads the student team. He said Project Jumpstart’s aim is to give perspective on what the performing arts world looks like today.“Things are changing so quickly, it’s important to be well-informed and prepared,” Wu said. Wu thinks it’s important to offer these workshops for musicians because the entire music profession is changing faster than people might realize.“Music is a field that is changing so rapidly, and it’s mainly because of how rapidly technology is changing,” he said. “It’s important to figure out how this technology will effect the future of professional musicians.”