NIU Today

Dance, visual arts, theater and instrumental jazz are on the summer camp agenda at Northern Illinois University this summer. These six-day residential camps for junior and senior high school students are scheduled in July. Campers work with faculty, alumni and students and gain a greater appreciation for the life of an artist. Dance Camp is...

“We’ve laughed our way through rehearsals,” Patricia Ridge says of her upcoming theater production of “The Underpants” at NIU. “There are a lot of fun surprises along the way.” Adapted from Carl Sternheim’s classic farce, “Die Hose,” by renowned comedian and actor Steve Martin, “The Underpants” is a fast-paced comedy that will kick off the School...

Registration is open for the spring semester at the NIU Community School of the Arts, sponsored by the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The community school offers year-round programming, with 80 teachers and 400 students who come from 50 towns and cities for classes, lessons and ensembles. Programs for children and adults begin in...

Two NIU students’ worlds of memories and dreams will burst forth from the doors of two household cabinets in the Holmes Student Center Diversions Lounge at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, through Sunday, Nov. 24. NIU School of Theatre and Dance seniors Caitlin Cavannaugh and Christie Coran will present “In Progress,” a two-woman physical theater...

NIU School of Theatre and Dance seniors are throwing their annual Halloween sketch comedy show from Thursday, Oct. 31, through Saturday, Nov. 2, in the Diversions Lounge of the Holmes Student Center. All performances are at 10 p.m. The show is also an important fundraiser for the seniors to help pay for their acting reels...

“We’re going back to the place where we fell in love with theatre,” said Ryan Massie, director of the first theater production of the NIU School of Theatre and Dance 2013-2014 Mainstage Series season. The season opening play is “Almost, Maine,” by Tony Award-nominated actor John Cariani. It opens Thursday, Oct. 17, and will be...

A delightful midwinter’s night dream, a Steve Martin adaptation of a classic farce and a tender story of a youth coming of age are a few of the plays that comprise the schedule for the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance’s upcoming 2013-2014 Mainstage Series season. The Mainstage Series will include “The Emigrants”...

Registration is open for the fall semester at the NIU Community School of the Arts, sponsored by the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The community school offers year-round programming, with 80 teachers and 400 students who come from 50 towns and cities for classes, lessons and ensembles. Programs for children and adults begin in...

A week jampacked with theater activities awaits middle schools students attending the Theatre Arts Camp Junior at Northern Illinois University the week of July 7 to July 12. The camp is for those who have completed sixth- through eighth-grades. Production rehearsals, daily workshops, acting classes, theater games and improvisation exercises are just a few of...

Presenting its final production of their 2012-2013 Studio Series, the NIU School of Theatre of Dance will stage the one-act farce, “The Real Inspector Hound,” by Tom Stoppard, opening April 18. Stoppard’s classic play takes satirical aim at several conventions of live theater. “The Real Inspector Hound” opens to an apparent play-within-a-play, quickly becomes a...

The Third Onion – the student-run production scheme of the Northern Illinois University School of Theatre and Dance – has announced an ambitious schedule of plays to be performed over a four-week period beginning the first week of April. Students will present four original plays and another by playwright James McLure in NIU’s Stevens Building Corner...

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...