1 of 5
Ansley Valentine
University Theater
Students at Northern Michigan University practice their swordplay for Forest Roberts Theatre’s production of “She Kills Monsters,” a fantasy tale that opens in April.
2 of 5
John Shibley
University Theater
The Arts Center at Lake Superior State University, in addition to hosting live performances like the one-woman play “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman” (February 4), is also home to concerts by both student and professional groups.
3 of 5
Bob Workman
University Theater
At Michigan Technological University’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, the Class Acts program produces shows for Copper Country kids. One of this season’s is “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,” with two performances on February 26.
4 of 5
John Shibley
University Theater
Lake Superior State University hosts children’s concerts for eastern U.P. students who otherwise have limited access to the performing arts.
5 of 5
Defined Visuals
University Theater
For Michigan Tech Theatre’s 2013 production of “Stealing Fire,” the school’s students created elaborate rigging systems so that actors could take flight.
University Theaters Enrich Our Cultural Arts
One of Susanna Brent’s first eye-opening experiences with the arts community in the Keweenaw Peninsula came in 2012, when Tibetan monks visited the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Michigan Technological University in Houghton.
“I came here from Las Vegas,” says Susanna, director of the Rozsa Center. “Community is not something I was really familiar with. … I was used to trying to keep people away from the performers.”
The monks set up in the Rozsa lobby and spent a week creating artwork, performing ceremonies and meditating. “And people were saying, ‘I’m part of a meditation group. Can I talk to them? Can I meditate in the lobby with them?’ And the monks were very welcoming. It was a great learning experience to see those interactions with the community.”
The colleges and universities by Lake Superior’s shores are economic drivers for the region, but they’re also culturally critical to their communities, even those that also have professional theater groups.
Beyond just hosting student productions, our university theaters’ sterling facilities draw world-class acting companies and musicians to cities and towns.
“We sort of serve two functions,” says Ansley Valentine, director of the Forest Roberts Theatre at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. “To prepare our students for careers in the entertainment arts, that’s a big part of our mission. But we’re also the largest theater in our community.”
Marquette has an award-winning summer theater, the Lake Superior Theatre, which NMU helped start and continues to support. The Forest Roberts Theatre, though, remains the biggest venue – and puts on the biggest shows, like the full-length “Les Misérables.” Since 1963, when it was built, it’s evolved to fill an important niche in the Upper Peninsula’s most populous city.
“We’re keenly aware of our place in the community,” says Ansley. “We do productions geared toward our students, but we always do one or two that are geared toward the community,” and the theater invites area residents to participate in those.
In Duluth, the College of St. Scholastica and University of Minnesota Duluth have some of the premier performance facilities in town. UMD’s Marshall Performing Arts Center has several outstanding venues, including a 715-seat main theater. Scholastica’s Mitchell Auditorium seats 585 and regularly draws singers like Lorie Line, Arlo Guthrie and Katie McMahon to the Twin Ports.
Says Sue Maki, director of Mitchell Auditorium, “When I am looking with our committee about what shows we want, we try to choose some world music and some artists that normally wouldn’t play in Duluth. One of our other initiatives is to grow and bring in younger arts patrons, so we try to get some things to attract a younger crowd.”
An advisory board of St. Scholastica students and community members helps choose the productions and performers each season, too.
Back in the Keweenaw, Dr. Jared Anderson, a professor in Michigan Tech’s visual and performing arts department, says university theaters bring in acts “from across the country, across the world, acts that bring global perspectives and high arts to our students” – and communities, too. “We’re two hours away from Marquette,” he adds, “and even Marquette isn’t a huge town. Because of that isolation, the Rozsa does so much to enrich lives and the arts over what is an extended winter season. And the first place people think about for an experience with the arts is the Rozsa Center.”
University theaters are also able to leverage their students’ talents to create unique productions. Michigan Tech’s engineering students, for example, have built complex rigging systems to send actors flying through the air, as in last year’s production of “Stealing Fire.” Where other venues might have to hire a team of professionals or an instructor, Tech can use students who’ve taken the aerial choreography class.
“We’re using our technological advantage,” says Susanna Brent.
Moreover, that means tickets to cutting-edge student shows often cost less than $10.
Like many other colleges and universities, says Sue, “we keep our tickets prices low so that more people can come.”
Adults aren’t the only ones who benefit from schools’ arts programs, though. Theater groups regularly put on shows for local schools. For children in the small towns of the Lake region – of which there are plenty – a traveling troupe, like the one Northern Michigan has, might be their only exposure to the live performing arts.
“We started our youth community program about three years ago,” says Ansley, “after hearing from teachers that they wanted opportunities to take their students to live theater. Last year we had a touring group to go out to the more remote schools in the U.P. … to take the arts to them.” This school year Northern Michigan is producing “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
The Rozsa Center’s Class Acts program is the same idea reversed. “The school system is really underfunded in this area,” says Susanna, “and the teachers told us they couldn’t afford to bring the kids to shows. So we instituted a busing program.” Teachers can now request funding from the Rozsa to attend educational shows like “Rainforest Reptile” and, this season, the classic “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.”
“We felt that was something that was really important for us to do, and the teachers appreciate it, the kids love it,” Susanna says.
Most of the time they do, anyway. Another one of those quirks Susanna experienced? “You see the people you know at the shows, and whether they love it or hate it, they’ll tell you,” she says with a laugh.