New academic minor encourages collaboration
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new visual and performing arts minor – the Media Arts Minor – encourages the idea of the Renaissance person, according to Ryan Jackson, Music Industry. “The days of being a specialist are over,” he says.
Nine years ago, Jackson and Mike Ruth, a graphic communications professor in the Cinema Arts and Digital Technologies Department, continued a conversation that had begun earlier among faculty members about a media arts minor. The conversations focused on a desire to bring graphic communication students and faculty into regular contact with Film Studies, Music, and Art and Design students and faculty. The work that would come out of such collaboration would equip students for what they refer to as a “constantly evolving world.” “Any business that deals with images, like design and production companies, will want people who have multidisciplinary skills,” says Ruth. “Ad agencies don’t outsource anymore,” he adds, referring to the older practice of subcontracting with music studios, artists and designers.
Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson, a film studies professor in the CADT Department, notes that collaboration between MSUM students studying music, film, art, and graphic communications was already taking place to some degree. But there was no “prescribed path” for students who wanted a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to their educations, and courses were hard to get into, she says. The new minor resolves both issues. Media arts minors are introduced to a range of tools, software and arts disciplines that encourages experimentation and innovative creative research. They study digital filmmaking, graphic design, new media, technical theatre design, photography and sound arts, and then produce an interdisciplinary capstone project. The minor is available to all MSUM students.
Straw Hat Players are golden Anniversary events and reunion planned for 50th season
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ummer in the Red River Valley may look and sound a lot different to those who remember how it was in the 1960s. The pace of life is faster. Traffic is heavier. Farms that bordered Moorhead and Fargo have long since been replaced by housing developments and business districts. But some things are the same. Mosquitoes. Humidity in July. The draw of lake country. And The Straw Hat Players. Come June, The Straw Hat Players will celebrate 50 years as the area’s only professional summer stock theatre company. Since 1963, The Straw Hat Players have entertained thousands of audience members at the height of the community’s summer, first in Fergus Falls for a couple shows that summer, then in Moorhead at MSUM, where it’s been ever since.
So what’s planned for the golden anniversary season? Theatre Director Craig Ellingson has tentatively scheduled six productions listed below. Until performance rights are secured, he won’t guarantee the lineup. But you can probably look forward to:
Lend Me a Tenor, a comedy by Ken Ludwig.
My Way, a Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. This anniversary special event will feature Straw Hat alumni as performers, as well as guest director (and former MSUM Director of Theatre) David Grapes.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum closes the season. It’s one of Straw Hat’s most popular musicals, and debuted on New York’s Broadway in 1963, making it especially fitting for the 50th anniversary of Straw Hat.
Same Time, Next Year, a romantic comedy and the basis for the 1978 film starring Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda.
50 years
> Cast members from the first season of Straw Hat in Fergus Falls
The World Goes ‘Round. The Kander and Ebb musical revue features music from Chicago, Cabaret and several other musicals. Godspell, a musical by Stephen Schwartz.
A reunion of Theatre Department and Straw Hat alumni is set for July 20. Look for more information about the coming Straw Hat season and the reunion in a future issue of Alumnews and at www.mnstate.edu/theatre.
Minnesota State University Moorhead
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