Ransburg Auditorium
Located in Esch Hall, is our mainstage theatre and host for many community performances and events. It seats 780 in a traditional proscenium arch configuration and includes fly, wing, and backstage space. This theatre is used for larger scale productions. Although the theatre seems large, it has a surprisingly comfortable and intimate atmosphere for the performers. Renovated in 1997, Ransburg Auditorium has been an essential part of campus and community life. In addition to theatrical productions events in Ransburg have included conferences, band and choir concerts, dance productions and lectures.
The backstage facilities include a well-equipped scene shop, costume and prop facilities, and ample dressing and make-up rooms
Productions in this Ransburg Auditorium range from Shakespeare, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night and Hamlet, to other classics, such as Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Moliere's The Learned Ladies, to musicals such as Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, to larger scale contemporary plays. |
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Schwitzer Center
Schwitzer Center houses the student dining hall where we produce our annual Dinner Theatre production. We erect a stage, hang lights and bring in everything we might need for the production. The staging has been created in arena, thrust, and proscenium settings. The dinner theatre production provides valuable experience in creating theatre in non-theatrical spaces and emulates a touring situation. Patrons arrive for dinner at 6:45 p.m. and are seated at elegant tables complete with linen tablecloths and centerpieces. After a buffet dinner, the performance commences at 8:00 p.m. Schwitzer Center has recently undergone extensive renovations and expansion to become truly a student center.
The dining hall in Schwitzer Center becomes a theatre performance space every February for our Dinner Theatre production. This provides our students with the opportunity to experience a "road show" atmosphere. These productions tend to be more main stream "audience pleasers" and have included Little Shop of Horrors, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Nerd. |
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Studio Theatre
The Studio Theatre is a flexible three-quarter or thrust black box-style space, seating approximately 80. The Studio is used as a classroom, a performance space for faculty-directed productions, a showcase for acting and directing scenes, and a space for student-generated performances such as the Student Directed Productions. The studio can be reconfigured into a proscenium set-up, but its "standard" use is in a thrust configuration. This space also allows students an opportunity to enter the world of design in a less overwhelming scale than Ransburg Auditorium. In addition to department functions, the Studio Theatre has been used by various producing organizations in the city, including the Edyvean Repertory Theatre and the Phoenix Theatre.
Productions in the Studio Theatre tend to be more challenging for audience and performers, and have included Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Harold Pinter's Old Times. The Studio is very student oriented, and plays host to Student Directed Productions, Cafe Dionysus (student organized showcase), and various other performances. Many Studio productions offer younger and less experienced student actors, designers and technicians the opportunity to "get their feet wet" in a smaller, less formidable space.
The Studio also offers students experience working in a 3/4 or thrust environment and its smaller size fosters a greater sense of intimacy between performer and audience. |
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Wheeler Arts Community
The University of Indianapolis and Southeast Neighborhood Development (SEND) have formed a partnership to provide on-site programs and courses at the Wheeler Arts Community at 1035 Sanders Street in the city's historic Fountain Square district.
The 60,000-square-foot building, formerly a vacant factory, has been completely renovated into an artists' residence and UIndy community arts and service center--complete with classrooms, office space, 36 living/working studio lofts for artists, and a theatre space. |
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