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UI Theatre building to reopen next month

By Cole Cheney

After nearly six months of post-flood displacement, the University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts is poised to return to the Theatre Arts Building next month. Despite the millions of dollars in damage, thousands of hours of restoration work and hundreds of students concerned about their productions, the department was able to minimize its losses and postponed only one show.

Staff and students are scheduled to return to the Theatre Building during finals week, Dec. 18-19, for the building's first public entry since June 15. Full use of the first and second floors can be expected around mid-January, UI officials say.

The Theatre Department held its last off-site production, “Three Sisters,” at West High School earlier this month; other post-flood productions were moved to City High and four other locations.

Upcoming performances of “As You Like It” (Feb. 5-15) and “Kid Simple” (March 5-14) will play in Thayer Theatre and the department hopes to present “Intimate Apparel” (April 16-26) in the Mabie Theatre, now scheduled to reopen in March.

"These shows are so important to the students who act in and write these plays," says Alan Macvey, professor and chair of the UI Department of Theatre Arts. "While we had to stretch to make ends meet, we still managed to do it."

Since it was forced out of the Theatre Building, the department has utilized Brewery Square, 123 N. Linn St., as a practice stage and the new UI arts campus (the ex-Menard's facility) as a costume storage facility.

"Many students will be relocated many times throughout their career," says Macvey. "This was a chance for them to see what their acting career may well be like."

Macvey says department offices will be housed in trailers alongside the Theatre Building until December 2009. The building's fully demolished basement housed department offices, classrooms, costume storage and costume shops before the June flooding.

The Theatre Department has three options for the building’s basement: rebuild it to serve its original function, restore the basement and add a Theatre Building addition to fulfill department needs or completely abandon basement reconstruction to focus on a larger add-on building.

"Our choice will rely heavily upon a UI report of flood mitigation," Macvey says.

In the meantime the Theatre Department is collecting donations through the UI Foundation.

"There are so many odds and ends that FEMA and insurance will not be able to pay for," says Macvey. "Paper, boxes and props are all essentials that we need help paying for."