Kleinau theater's spring season opens Feb. 7

The spring 2008 lineup at the Marion Kleinau Theatre at SIUC kicks off with an evening of improvisation.

The performance "Yes; And..." runs Feb. 7-9, with performances beginning at 8 p.m. General admission is $7, students get in for $5.

Doctoral student Nicholas J. Zaunbrecher, hailing from Baton Rouge, La., challenges his audience to challenge his cast as the audience helps determine the scope of the spontaneous performances.
Zaunbrecher worked in improvisational theater as an undergraduate at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he studied English and philosophy.

Here is what else is on the bill at the Kleinau theater:

March 20-22: Blood from a Stone: Mining Elemental Geologies

Certainly not improvisational, this performance is the culmination of research into the culture of coal mining communities. Shauna MacDonald, a graduate student and teaching assistant from Cape Breton, Novia Scotia, Canada, blends narrative techniques and traditional song with political and economic theory, history and her own experience to tell the story of coal.

March 26-29: Visiting Artist Shannon Jackson

Jackson is a professor of dance and performance studies in the rhetoric and theater departments at the University of California Berkeley. Her recent research includes performance studies, social movements, oral performance and narrative, and intercultural citizenship in the United States. She was the Comparative Drama Association's Author of the Year in 2007. In 2005, she won Best Book awards from the National Communications Association and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

There is no admission charge for these events.

April 24-26: Why Not Rule the World: An American Romance

This performance is written and performed by Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, an associate professor of performance studies in the speech communication department. The director is Sandra Calderon-Garza, a doctoral student. Gingrich-Philbrook, and "special guests," use a multi-media approach to present monologues from various characters talking about world domination.

April 30: Performing Culture Spotlight Performances

The best of undergraduate performance classes take the stage on this night. There is no admission fee.

May 3: Advanced Classes Spotlight Performances

This free night of performance art showcases the best from the advanced performing arts classes.
All the above performances begin at 8 p.m. Unless listed as free, general admission is $7 and student admission is $5.

Kleinau Theatre is on the second floor of the Communications Building on the SIUC campus.

- Andrea Hahn