Starting March 21, a three-day theater workshop – the first of its kind in the Midwest – hosted by Cirque du Soleil will be held on campus.
The event is presented by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology Midwest Regional Section, which creates theater symposiums that allow attendees to directly interact with talented professionals. From Elliott Hall of Music to Loeb Playhouse and Fowler Hall, nine different workshops will be simultaneously happening all over campus during the three-day event. One of the companies that the School of Visual and Performing Arts has done workshops with in the past recommended Purdue to Cirque du Soleil. From there, all Purdue had to do was say “yes.”
“We are the luckiest people on the planet,” said Rick Thomas, professor of theater and director of the upcoming workshop. “The fact that we’ve been selected for something like this is quite an honor and shows that they have a lot of faith in what we do at Purdue.”
Instructors at the workshop will include the artistic director and assistant head of rigging for “O,” Cirque du Soleil’s aquatic show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, as well as the dance master for “LOVE,” Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. The workshops will cover topics from acting and dancing to lighting, automation, sound and carpentry. This kind of hands-on interaction will be invaluable for all who attend, said Thomas.
“If you’re somebody who’s going into the performing arts, you’re probably wishing, hoping that you get an interview with Cirque du Soleil,” said Thomas. “They are the crème de la crème of large scale theatrical events. Outside of some shows on Broadway … There’s nobody who creates shows as large and spectacular as Cirque du Soleil does.”
Already popular on the East and West coasts, the workshop will give Midwest theater students a chance to gain experience on the level of their competition.
Additionally, Purdue faculty and staff will be volunteering their time to assist in the workshops and act as liaisons between the University and the Cirque du Soleil professionals. Katharine Engelen, a graduate student in the College of Liberal Arts, will be spending her Spring Break volunteering with the wardrobe and makeup aspects of the event.
With the collaborative efforts of the faculty and staff in the performing arts and people at the Elliott Hall of Music, Joel Ebarb, department chair and associate professor of theater, said this program will help bolster the reputation of Purdue’s Visual and Performing Arts program.
“Most people know Cirque du Soleil – it’s a name that when it’s in the paper or on the radio or something, people automatically go ‘oh, wow this is something that’s exciting,’” said Ebarb. “We do exciting things here all the time … But hopefully we’ll bring in people who maybe didn’t even know there was a theater program here at Purdue. People are coming from all over the country for this so it’s a pretty big deal.”
Registration is free but limited to the first 300 applicants. Anyone interested can register at midwest.usitt.org/cirque.
{ SOURCE: The Purdue Exponent | http://goo.gl/kkbbdt }
