News From
Around the Institute
To Lead Cirque Company
We wish Kim Scott great success in her new position with Cirque du Soleil. Kim, who serves on USITT's Board of Directors, is now company manager for Cirque du Soleil's Criss Angel BeLIEve, the most spectacular illusions from the magician of the century. The show is now open at the Luxor Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.
Designs Exhibited in Austin, Texas
Congratulations to Karen Maness on her recent solo exhibition - "to sea" - which ran in April and May at the West Austin Studio Tour #93 and at dwg, a landscape architecture firm in Austin, Texas.
Additional work by Karen, who is USITT's Scene Design Co-commissioner, can be found at www.karenmaness.com
How to Stage a Production When the Audience Is Canoeing
Sometimes we receive information about performances, but we never hear about how they turn out. Here's one recent example: just what did occur on May 18 when PlaceBase Productions and performers from the Upper Minnesota River Valley area staged a Paddling Theater Production on the Minnesota River as part of Minnesota River History Weekend and Minnesota State Water Trails 50th Anniversary?
From their canoes, the audience was engaged with stories, songs, and characters from local river lore, presented both as live theatre and live-action radio drama in the original production: With the Future on the Line: Paddling Theater from Granite Falls to Yellow Medicine. Characters from throughout history emerged on the river's banks to lead the audience on an interactive journey into the past, bringing the stories of the Minnesota River Valley.
The audience joined the plot when river ruffians from Granite Falls rounded up a posse of paddlers to help steal the county seat from Yellow Medicine City. Other famous river personalities that day included Jacques the Voyageur, Joseph Nicollet, and Henry David Thoreau.
So – did it rain? How do you stage manage a cue for Henry David Thoreau when the entire audience is moving? We wish we had been closer so we could have signed up.
