NIU Today

The Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance upcoming Studio Series play, “Measure for Measure,” by William Shakespeare, is a dark comedy written by the most important playwright of the English Renaissance, according to its director, Alex Gelman. “It’s one of the greatest,” Gelman says, “written by one of the greatest ever.” Opening Thursday,...

It took a British playwright and satirist named Peter Barnes to find humor in one of the darkest events in all of human history. Opening Thursday, March 26, the NIU School of Theatre and Dance presents Barnes’ “Red Noses,” a darkly comedic take on the five-year period when the Bubonic Plague, or Black Death, decimated...

NIU officials and partners will dig shovels into dirt at 11:45 a.m. Monday, Sept. 22, to commence construction of the new Stevens Building. The groundbreaking ceremony continues the long-awaited process to turn one of NIU’s most-dilapidated buildings into a modern learning and performing space for the Department of Anthropology and the School of Theatre and...

NIU School of Theatre and Dance alumna Charlotte Kate Fox (MFA ’13), who’s hit it big in Japan, is the cover star of the current issue of Backstage magazine. “When Fox submitted for the role of Ellie in the Japanese television drama ‘Massan,’ about the founder of Japan’s whiskey industry, Masataka Taketsuru, and his wife,...

Three years, nine months. That, said Alex Gelman, is the sum total of time between tonight and the next time that Monday’s new freshmen and their parents will return together to the NIU Convocation Center. “You’re going to wear funny gowns and ill-fitting hats, and you’re going to be nervous – not like now, when you’re...

Rich Holly, dean of the NIU College of Visual and Performing Arts, and his colleagues in the School of Theatre and Dance are paying close attention to the demolition of the Stevens Building. Holly posted photos of the work Monday under the headline “Excitement Mounts as Stevens Building Demo Gets Serious.” Gov. Pat Quinn released...

“We’re not trying to justify a murderer but rather to understand him,” Director Alexander Gelman says about the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance’s upcoming play, “Woyzeck.” Opening Thursday, Feb. 20, “Woyzeck” tells the story of Franz Woyzeck, a lowly German soldier and wig maker who is slowly driven to insanity and who...

After years of deterioration and a dubious two-decade reign atop NIU’s capital budget request list, the Stevens Building is drawing nearer to its long-awaited transformation. Construction will begin after Jan. 1, 2014, following an environmental survey planned for early in the fall and the letting of bids in October. First, though, the two departments that...

Alex Gelman, director of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance, has been elected treasurer of the University/Resident Theatre Association (URTA). Gelman’s term is for two years. The NIU School of Theatre and Dance is a proud member of URTA, the most elite group of theater schools in the country. URTA is the nation’s oldest...

The upcoming mainstage theatre production of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance explores how far politics can become intimately intertwined with individual values and personal judgment. Playwright Tony Kushner’s “A Bright Room Called Day,” based on Bertolt Brecht’s 1938 play, “The Private Life of the Master Race,” will run from Thursday, Jan. 31, through...

Lawyers and clowns share the stage in the first play of the Northern Illinois University’s School of Theatre and Dance 2012-2013 production season. An adaptation of Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby the Scrivener” runs Thursday, Sept. 27, through Sunday, Sept. 30, and from Thursday, Oct. 4, through Sunday, Oct. 7, in the Stevens Building O’Connell...

Murder, witchcraft and deception color the dark yet deeply human tragedy, “Macbeth.” Northern Illinois University’s School of Theatre and Dance will present a new production of the classic drama Thursday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 19, in the Stevens Building Corner Theatre. Director Alexander Gelman says the play will challenge the actors and entertain the...