Public performances and receptions at Rozsa and McArdle Theatre canceled through April 17

HOUGHTON -- According to directives by Michigan Tech administration, all public concerts/performances/receptions in the Rozsa Center and McArdle Theatre in the Walker Arts and Humanities Center scheduled during March 16-April 17, 2020, are canceled. Student productions/concerts will not be rescheduled. The Rozsa is working with agents to reschedule Rozsa Presenting Series events for the next season. Following is a list of canceled events:

March 20:  Don Keranen Memorial Concert
March 20:  Superior Wilderness Reception (the art exhibition will remain open during the safety period)
March 25:  The Solidarity Question (Lecture series)
March 28:  Manual Cinema (In negotiation for reschedule in Fall)
April 3:  Audiopharmacy (Looking at rescheduling)
April 4:  Evelynn Glennie (Looking at rescheduling)
April 4:  Vieux Farka Touré (Looking at rescheduling)
April 15-18:  The Importance of Being Earnest
April 17:  Onomatopoeia (Student Art Reception)
April 19:  A Choral Kaleidoscope
April 21-22:  Student Art Opening (Studio Here Now)
April 26:  Theatre Appreciation Plays

Events outside the March 16-April 17 window are being considered. Updates on the status of performances and events can be found in the events calendar on the Rozsa Center webpage.

Refunds for tickets purchased for these events will be made. More information on processing these refunds will be shared within the next week. If an individual would like to donate their ticket refund to the Michigan Tech Fund (Friends of the Rozsa Center) this will be an option. Refund information will be sent out to subscribers and ticket holders within the next week. More information about the COVID-19 response at Michigan Tech can be found at www.mtu.edu/covid-19.

Tech Theatre to present "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" Oct. 12-14 and 18-20 at McArdle Theatre

Poster for Tech Theatre's coming performance of Picasso at the Lapin Agile courtesy Michigan Tech University.

HOUGHTON -- Art or science, what has more power to change the future? Come and have drinks with Einstein and Picasso, at the Lapin Agile, a bar in 1904 Paris, as delightfully imagined by actor, comic, musician, and yes, playwright, Steve Martin. In his first full-length play, Martin puts Picasso and Einstein on a funny and poignant collision-course to drink, laugh, and debate the genius and imagination that inspires both. Members of the audience can even "drink" at the bar! There will be seats at the café tables for a few lucky audience members each night, with refreshments and snacks served as part of the performance.

Tech Theatre, directed by Christopher Plummer, Michigan Tech professor in Visual and Performing Arts, presents Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a thoughtfully comedic look at the power of imagination at the start of the 20th Century, from the perspective of two giants of their time. The show, at 7:30 p.m. each night, will run for two weeks: Thursday - Saturday, Oct. 12 - 14, and Wednesday - Friday, Oct. 18 -20, in the McArdle Theatre, located in Walker 207 on the Michigan Tech campus.

A long-running and popular Off-Broadway play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile began with a first reading of the play at Steve Martin's home. Tom Hanks read the role of Picasso, and Chris Sarandon read Einstein. Following further development, the play opened at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago on October 13, 1993. The show then enjoyed a successful run in Los Angeles and then made its way to New York City. The New York Times wrote, "It’s important to remember that the playwright of Picasso at the Lapin Agile is Steve Martin, stand-up comic, actor, writer, banjo player and something of a genius in his own right. So when big questions are being addressed, you can be sure that a layer of silliness is always in place (and, subversively, a layer of seriousness beneath that)."

According to Alexandra Walker, Tech Theatre’s stage manager for Lapin Agile, "The play explores the question 'what is the power of genius?' As Picasso and Einstein argue over who will be able to change the century more with their work, we come to the conclusion: Both art and science are important, summed up in the words of Freddie, the Lapin Agile bartender/owner Freddie, proposing a toast with his patrons: 'No movement will be as beautiful as the note across the staff, the line across the paper, or the idea across the mind.'"

Tickets are on sale now, $13 for adults, $5 for youth, and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available by phone at (906) 487-2073, online at mtu.edu/rozsa, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex, or the night of the show at the McArdle door, which opens one hour prior to performances.

Tech Theatre Company to perform "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" Oct. 15-17 and 22-24 in McArdle Theater

Poster for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo courtesy Michigan Tech University.

HOUGHTON --  Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, a play by Rajiv Joseph, explores how the lives of two American Marines and an Iraqi translator are forever changed by an encounter with a quick-witted tiger who haunts the streets of war-torn Baghdad attempting to find meaning, forgiveness and redemption amidst the city’s ruins.

The play will be performed by the Tech Theatre Company at 7:30 p.m. Thursday - Saturday, Oct. 15-17 and Oct. 22-24 in the McArdle Theater (second floor of Walker Humanities building) on the Michigan Tech campus.

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo examines both the power and the perils of human nature.

The New York Times writes, "Set in the chaotic first days of the American invasion of Iraq, this boldly imagined, harrowing and surprisingly funny drama considers the long afterlife of violent acts, as well as the impenetrable mysteries of the afterlife itself."

According to Director Roger Held, "While depicting a devastatingly cruel and venal world [the tiger] offers hope of redemption and meaningful life after a history of complacency and compliance. What we must do is not easy; we must find and risk being ourselves…"

Tickets for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo are on sale now: $13 for adults, $5 for youth, and no charge for Michigan Tech students with the Experience Tech fee. Tickets are available by phone at (906) 487-2073, online at Rozsa.mtu.edu, in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex, or at the McArdle Box Office the evening of the performance. Please note the McArdle Box Office only opens one hour prior to performances.

Nobel Laureate Dr. Henry Pollack to present "A World Without Ice" lecture, multimedia installation, film at Michigan Tech

Iceberg Drums. Part of the installation "A World Without Ice," opening at Michigan Tech's McArdle Theatre Friday, Sept. 25. (Photo courtesy Rozsa Center)

HOUGHTON -- Michigan Technological University’s Rozsa Center in collaboration with The Department of Visual and Performing Arts, The Provost’s Office, and The Great Lakes Research Center present Nobel Laureate Dr. Henry Pollack’s lecture and multimedia installation "A World Without Ice." The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. The lecture is free, but due to limited seating reserved tickets are required.

The multimedia installation will take place in the McArdle Theatre, on the second floor of the Walker Center, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from Friday, Sept. 25, to Tuesday, Sept. 29. The installation is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. A variety of additional lectures, classes, and campus forums will also take place as a part of this event, including a panel lecture and discussion at the Forestry Friday Forum from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, in the Forestry Building G002.

Emeritus Professor of Geophysics Henry Pollack -- co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) colleagues and Al Gore -- musicians and composers Michael Gould and Steven Rush, and multimedia artist Marion Traenkle, have collaborated to create a multimedia exhibit that captures our planet’s precarious moment in global warming.

Part science, part music, part art, the collaboration is a groundbreaking, multi-sensory experience that is thought provoking and compelling. Using photographs taken at both poles of our planet by Dr. Pollack and his team, an original composition written by Dr. Rush whose patterns and structure are derived from 120 years of climate data, and an ice-melt actuated rhythm created by ten ice domes melting onto drums created by Dr. Gould, the exhibit creates a different space in which visitors can contemplate a warming planet. Using Pollack’s climate data, the music allows the listener to hear the large leaps in temperature, and the melting ice provides an immersive, beautiful, random companion sound. A film by Traenkle used photographs of both poles by Pollack and his team to provide a stunning backdrop for the installation.

Tickets for the lecture are available by phone at (906) 487-2073, online at Rozsa.mtu.edu, or in person at the Central Ticketing Office in the Student Development Complex. Click here for a full schedule of related events.

Film: PROJECT: ICE by William Kleinert

Michigan Tech's Rozsa Center in collaboration with The Department of Visual and Performing Arts, The Provost’s Office, and The Great Lakes Research Center will present the film PROJECT: ICE by Director and Executive Producer William Kleinert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Rozsa Center. Immediately following the screening, Kleinert will join Emeritus Professor of Geophysics Henry Pollack (co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with IPCC colleagues and Al Gore), and Dr. Guy Meadows, Great Lakes Research Center director and Robbins Professor of Sustainable Marine Engineering, in a panel discussion of the film and the ongoing "World Without Ice" multimedia installation. The movie and panel discussion are free. No tickets will be required.

PROJECT: ICE views North America’s fresh water inland ocean through the prism of ice, from the crossroads of history, science and climate change. North America’s five Great Lakes contain a staggering twenty percent of all the fresh surface water on the planet. Lake Superior by itself holds ten percent of Earth’s fresh water at the surface. The cast and crew of PROJECT: ICE explore this shared Canadian-American resource that holds a timely and telling story of geology, human movement, population growth, industrialization, cultural development, recreation and the profound impact people have had on the very environment they cherish and depend upon. Kleinert is a committed environmentalist, avid student of history and a 40-year veteran of the media business.

The "World Without Ice" presentation is supported by the Van Evera Distinguished Lecture Series. 

Tech Theatre to present Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of "Antigone" Feb. 19-21, 26-28

HOUGHTON -- The Tech Theatre Company will present Antigone, a contemporary retelling of the ancient tale of conflict between the political terror of dictatorship and the vision of humanity at its very best. In spite of the sham and lies, the twisting of facts and rewriting of events, truth finds a way in this conflict of opposing visions of humanity, depicted by Jean Anouilh.

The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 19-21, and Feb. 26-28 in the McArdle Theatre, in the Walker Center for Arts and Humanities on the Michigan Tech campus.

General admission is $13, youth tickets (17 and under) are $5, and Michigan Tech student tickets are free with the Experience Tech fee. To purchase tickets, call 487-2073, go online or visit Ticketing Operations located in the SDC. Tickets will also be available at the McArdle Theatre box office, located on the second floor of the Walker Center for Arts and Humanities, prior to the show.

Michigan Tech Theatre Company to present "Alternate Realities" Nov. 13, 14, 15

HOUGHTON -- The Michigan Tech Department of Visual and Performing Arts’ Tech Theatre Company will present Alternate Realities -- A Trip Through 20th Century Avant-Garde Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 13, 14, and 15, in the McArdle Theatre.

The production is composed of short Expressionist, DADAist, Surrealist, Futurist, Absurdist, Existentialist, and Neo-Futurist plays by each movement's famous artists. Enjoy the bizarre, funny, ridiculous, and little bit scary romp of leading edge artists who helped shape the modern view of the world.

Director Roger Held explains the evening’s themes: "The theatre, film, and television of today are the descendants of the avant-garde plays of the early 20th Century’s revolt against naturalism. Those plays reveled in fantasies of the mind and both bazaar serious subjects and ridiculous zany humor. Expressionism, Dadaism, Futurism and Surrealism blasted their way through the traditional theatre scene. They shaped the Absurdist, Existentialist, and Neo-Futurist attacks on stuffy style currently in vogue. If you’re looking for something different, join us for Alternate Realities, a startling review of theatre on the cutting edge. You will be whisked along in a fast-paced 90-minute trip through the worm hole of avant-garde theatre and on into our century."

The McArdle Theatre is adjacent to the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts, in the Walker Arts and Humanities Center.

Tickets are $13 for adults, $5 for youth (17 and under), and free for Michigan Tech Students. To purchase tickets, call (906) 487-2073, go online at rozsa.mtu.edu, or visit Ticketing Operations at Michigan Tech’s Student Development Complex (SDC), 600 MacInnes Drive, in Houghton. SDC box office hours are 8 a.m. - 9 p.m., Monday-Friday, and 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday and noon - 8 p.m. on Sunday. Please note the Rozsa Box Office is closed during regular business hours and will only open two hours prior to show times. Tickets may also be available at the door of the McArdle Theatre before performances.

Theatre Review: Excellent cast, crew present charming whirlwind of events in "Rose and the Rime"

By Joe Kirkish, Michigan Tech faculty emeritus
Posted Feb. 11, 2014 on Tech Today
Reprinted with permission

Rose (in red) is lifted into the air for her journey to find the rime witch who has cursed her town with perpetual winter -- in Michigan Tech's production of Rose and the Rime. It will be performed a second weekend at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13, 14, 15. (Photos courtesy Patricia Helsel, director and Michigan Tech associate professor, Visual and Performing Arts)

The other night I saw a production in Michigan Tech's McArdle Theatre. It's called Rose and the Rime, a charming mix of fairy tale, music, Cirque du Soleil, Noh Play and critters of every sort. It is set within an eye-popping, ever-changing setting of yards of voluminous material on which moving abstract projections appear and disappear to suggest a variety of places -- all of them around a Michigan town that's been cursed with perpetual winter by a hideous rime witch. It's up to Rose, a sweet young girl in red, to find the witch, take battle (high in the air) and return the town to its previous four seasons.

With Patricia Helsel conceiving, supervising, and directing a large cast and exceptional tech crew, a simple fairy tale has been turned into a whirling, fast-paced event that grabs you from the opening scene. There, mysterious creatures in blue-grey tights slither in and out of the huge ice-bound arena center stage, and the play moves to Rose's journey, battle with the witch, a falling in love, and, finally, a return to a normal spring back in Rose's home town. It's a whirlwind of events so excitingly and charmingly accomplished by an excellent cast that you are left stunned and very pleasantly entertained with the magic of it all.

Rose confronts the rime witch, who is dramatically suspended in the air.

Everyone from children to adults will truly enjoy this perfectly created dramatic spectacle. It will be presented again at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13-15. For tickets and more information, call Ticketing Operations, 487-2073.*

*Editor's Note: Click here to read more about the play and the special backstage tour for children on Saturday.