The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 2000 Page: 6 of 24
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THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25,2000
Committee explores the future of theater
Search to replace longtime Players' director to commence this spring
by Susan Abramski
FOR THE THRESHER
The Future of Theater Commit-
tee is searching for two people to
replace Rice Players Director Sandy
Havens in anticipation of his April
retirement.
Havens has been involved with
the Players for 36 years, and this
April he will direct his last play, A
Man for All Seasons, which was also
the first play he directed at Rice.
According to committee head and
English Professor Dennis Huston,
the committee was formed in Sep-
tember to explore possibilities for
Rice theater. The committee offi-
cially became a search committee
Feb. 17 when President Malcolm
(iillis and DeanofHumanitiesJudith
Brown approved the recommenda-
tion to hire two faculty members to
replace Havens.
Committee members include
three-faculty members, the assis-
tant to the president, two under-
graduates and the chair of the Hous-
ton Society for the Performing Arts.
The first of the positions to be
filled is Sandy Havens's current po-
sition as director of the Rice Players.
"This person will have to be some-
body who can direct, teach acting
and perhaps theater history, and in-
teract effectively with students,"
Huston said.
In his time at Rice, Havens-has
given the Players a great deal of
independence in the production of
plays by letting them significantly
influence the choice of plays. He has
also been essential in the develop-
ment of theater in the colleges,
Huston said.
"We want somebody who can
establish comfortable, trusting rap-
port with undergraduates, who has
real skills as a director, who can
interact well with the rest of the
community and be able to make the-
ater more visible and viable here at
a time when it's hard to get people to
attend theater because there are so
many other things going on," Huston
said.
Liz Durham, a student coordina-
tor for the Rice Players, said that in
addition to directing, the director
currently functions as an expert
teacher and adviser to the Players.
"If there's something you don't nec-
essarily know how to do, he can help
you brainstorm different ideas,"
Durham said.
Currently, the committee is look-
ing ideally for someone who has
experience directing, acting and
working with students who are near
college age.
THE
"The job that Sandy has been
doing over the years is a job that has
taken on more and more administra-
tive work," Huston said.
A new position, Rice Players as-
sistant director, will be created to
take on this administrative work,
primarily involving the management
of Hamman Hall. As Hamman Hall
has become an increasingly popular
venue for many types of theater
events in the Houston community, it
has become more of a responsibility
to manage the building.
"[Hamman Hall] is used nearly
every weekend of the year that they
don't have Rice Players for some
kind of cultural event," Huston said.
When the building is reserved, some-
one must make sure that technicians
are on hand and that the facility is
accessible. The new position will also
require knowledge of technical the-
ater. ^
'This person will have
to be somebody who
can direct, teach acting
and perhaps theater
history, and interact
effectively with
students.'
— Dennis Huston
Future of Theater
Committee chair
"It would be nice Jo have some-
one in that office who is a constant
source of that knowledge as opposed
to just relying on students to pass it
down," Durham said.
"It is not common of people that
direct to know a lot of technical the-
ater. We need to have somebody at
Rice who knows how to do things
like set design and construction so
that the students can learn it,"
Huston said.
Because students often teach
other students these skills, it is con-
ceivable that students could continue
to do technical theater without pro-
fessional instruction.
"But since the administrative
work of running Hamman Hall is
time-consuming and energy-con-
suming,... it would be useful to have
somebody that knew technical the-
ater," Huston said.
Huston explained that this per-
son might also have ties with other
Houston theater groups such as the
Society of the Performing Arts and
the University of Houston, so that
guest performers or lecturers who
visit those groups could be hired to
come to Rice without travel ex-
penses. Depending on the skills and
time allowances of the person hired,
he or she might teach a course in
technical theater or possibly direct a
play.
Huston said he hopes that by
having a director and assistant di-
rector of the Rice Players, theater
will spread to more Rice students. If
this happens, it may also help
Durham reach her goal of increas-
ing student involvement in the Play-
ers. "One of the things that I've been
trying to do, that all of the student
coordinators have been doing, is try-
ing to get a larger number of stu-
dents involved," she said.
"It would be very, very nice if we
could expand our numbers and have
people who just come in and do one
or two shows every now and then as
opposed to having a small number
of people that do every show."
The committee is working under
a rigorous schedule, Huston said,
because both positions need to be
filled by sometime in May. The com-
mittee expects to hire a director be-
fore the students leave for the sum-
mer so the Players can begin the
process of picking a show for next
fall. In the interim, the committee
must place ads and conduct inter-
views.
Havens is currently listed as an
art history professor even though
he has no contact with that depart-
ment. "We expect to attach the new
faculty members to the Fine Arts or
English Department, whichever fit
looks better," Huston said. He said
there is no possibility of forming a
theater department at Rice.
Huston said the appointment is
for two years and renewable for three"
years. If the position is renewed once,
it may or may not be renewable after
that.
"It will not be a tenure-track job
because we don't want this person to
have to compete in the publish-or-
perish universe of publication, while
she or he is doing all of this other
work," Huston said.
Splitting Havens'job into two will
increase the number of man-hours
available for advancing theater at
Rice.
"We are hoping that it will bring
more theater expertise to the Rice
community and so make available to
more students the possibilities of
learning about theater in all its many
forms," Huston said.
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Celebrating diversity
pipii
~' tw?
LAUREN BARTEL/THRESHER
Students perfbim traditional Indian dances as part of the Culture Fair
Feb. 18, sponsored by Advance. Held in the Grand Hall in the Rice
Memorial Center, the Culture Fair was one of the final events of Unity
in Diversity Week, sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Choreographer will create
dance to celebrate building
u i\ n .
m i t , e ci u
by Kristina Groennings
FOR THE THRESHER
When the new Humanities Build-
ing officially opens next October,
the event will be celebrated by danc-
ing about architecture.
The university has commissioned
Steve Koplowitz to create a work to
be presented at the opening cer-
emonies of the Humanities Building
next fall.
Koplowitz is a director and cho-
reographer from New York and a
professor at the Packer Collegiate
Institute. His specialty is "on-site
choreography," which is the artistic
interpretation of architectural works.
Koplowitz visited campus Feb.
18 to discuss the possibilities with
some Rice students.
Typically, Koplowitz said he first
assesses the character of a building
and the size of his audience before
deciding on the number of dancers
involved and the music for the pro-
duction. However, the project at Rice
will be a first for the artist, in that he
has seen only a digital rendering of
the site.
"I've never done a project where
the building didn't exist before I did
the work," Koplowitz said.
Koplowitz choreographed for
seven years before getting his first
big break — New York's Grand Cen-
tral Station. Since then, he has done
work worldwide, including the open-
ing of the new British library, for
which he was featured in a 1989 PBS
special.
On-site choreography is gaining
acceptance as a Mrm, becoming
more well-known in the last 12 years,
Koplowitz said.
Koplowitz projects that he will
need 50 to 60 dancers for the open-
ing of the Humanities Building. The
group will consist of dancers from
Rice, the University of Houston and
professionals from the Houston
area.
"I hope that my largest group of
dancers are from Rice," Koplowitz
said. He strongly encourages any
students interested to audition.
"No matter what happens, there
is definitely something to be learned
and gained from it. Especially as a
student here, you'll develop a rela-
tionship to that building that no one
else on campus will have," Koplowitz
said.
Koplowitz already has a vision of
what he intends4:o do with the per-
formance.
All three floors will tj£ used. In
each room, different groups of danc-
ers will highlight various architec-
tural aspects of the building.
Additionally, each room will have
its own distinct lighting, music and
theme. The dancers will interpret
the structure's educational purpose
aS well as the history and compo-
nents of the humanities depart-
ments. Koplowitz said he will also
try to convey a sense of the Rice
experience.
"I think it'll be a really cool thing
to do, getting to work with him and
getting to dance with Houston pro-
fessionals," Kristen Dybala, co-presi-
dent of Rice DanceTheater and a Sid
Richardson College junior, said. "I
think it's unusual, but I think that's
what's cool about it."
This type of performance will be
different and in some respects more
challenging. "We've all grown
accustomed to what to expect—the
stage, the audience," Koplowitz
said. "In thi£"line of work, I never
know what I am going to encoun-
ter."
Auditions for Rice students will
be held March 20 and 21 at 7 p.m.
and March 22 at 4 p.m. Not all audi-
tions will be on campus. Inquiries
should be directed to Kinesiology
Professor Linda Phenix, who will
help coordinate the Rice dancers.
The Rice group will most likely
be working with Koplowitz during
the last few weeks of August as well
as in September and October.
"All of the work I've done on sites
is making history and you will be
making history,... history on cam-
pus and dance history," Koplowitz
said.
The first of three performances
will be open to donors and individu-
als affiliated with Rice. The remain-
ing two will be open to the public.
"We're giving the audience our views
on academics and life, and to me
that's fun," Phenix said.
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 87, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 25, 2000, newspaper, February 25, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246669/m1/6/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.