| The UO’s venerable Robinson Theatre will soon be undergoing renovations and expansions totaling 7.9 million dollars. The new James F. Miller Theatre Complex—named for a generous private benefactor and longtime Portland businessman—will include a new studio theatre, a costume and scene shop, lobby and classrooms, helping support the largest theatre program in the state. This transformation will be made possible by a combination of generous private donations, University of Oregon funds and Oregon Senate bill 5514. Much-needed upgrades to the fifty to 100-year-old facilities will include revamping the current building’s obsolete infrastructure, ventilation and acoustics.
Theatre has been an integral part of campus life since the UO’s first performance in 1876, and today’s students continue the tradition, winning regional awards in lighting design, costume design and acting. Alumni and community members who wish to be involved may join the “Friends of University Theatre” group to assist in the final fundraising needed for completion of this project. As the new complex’s namesake states, “I want other people to have the opportunity I never had.”
The flexible new complex certainly guarantees opportunities for both students and faculty, allowing for innovative lighting, staging and directing techniques, new shop space to support scene and costume instruction, and the additional performance space needed to stage over a dozen productions each academic year. With the completion of the James F. Miller Theatre Complex, the UO will have the facilities necessary to train future artisans of our nation’s theatre community. As Jack Watson, associate professor and head of the Department of Theater Arts promises, “…we will all have a new sense of pride and purpose, a new momentum to allow us to not only maintain our current high standards, but also to raise those standards and explore new and exciting forms of production.” The UO is proud to ask you to join us in celebration of our new facility.
|
