“If you liked Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ Celebrates the Arts 2017, just wait until you see 2018,” said Steven Chicurel-Stein, interim director of the School of Performing Arts and artistic director of the festival. “We’re having a postmortem meeting today [Monday]. There’s that much energy to get started.”

The April 7-14 festival was based at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando and for the first time at nearby art galleries.

“People responded to the variety of events that ranged from the larger events such as Oklahoma! and the Flying Horse Big Band, but also enjoyed the more intimate concerts and panels. They also responded well to the visual arts in the lobby and public areas at the center,” Chicurel-Stein said.

Several of the events were at capacity. The biggest performance drew nearly 2,700 people to each of the two Oklahoma! shows, a collaboration of the music and theatre departments.

Attendance to the festival was free, but this was the first year visitors could buy a limited number of reserved $20 seats.

“People took to that very well and appreciated the fact that they had earlier access to the theater,” Chicurel-Stein said.

Live streaming also was offered for several events, which made it possible for students’ families living far away to see the performances.

The festival featured more than 1,000 university students, 100 faculty members and some collaborative programs with outside partners showcasing theatre, dance, orchestra, choirs, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film.

The purpose of the festival, Chicurel-Stein said, is to highlight what Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ has to offer and spread the word how Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ celebrates the arts.

The eight days of music, performances and visual displays, which are open to the public for free, will feature a production of the musical Oklahoma!, concerts, student-created plays and films, a fine arts showcase, panels and other events.

“This shows the growth and maturity of our student groups, and shows the public what we can do,” said Steven Chicurel-Stein, interim director of the School of Performing Arts and artistic director of the festival.

“We have two goals: We want to highlight what Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ has to offer, and we want to take Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ to downtown to spread the word of how Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ celebrates the arts.”

The festival will showcase the university’s involvement in a variety of ways through theatre, dance, orchestra, choirs, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film.

Kicking off the week is Oklahoma!, the award-winning musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The duo won a Pulitzer Prize for the play, and a subsequent film adaption won Academy Awards for best music, scoring of a musical picture and best sound recording.

The Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ version will be a collaboration of the theatre and music departments, including an orchestra. There will be two evening showings of the play April 7-8.

“With this we’re able to show a really large contingency of students,” Chicurel-Stein said.

A couple events during the festival will be geared toward raising awareness about hunger in the community.

Puddin’ and the Grumble, a play about how hunger affects a young girl, will be at a 1 p.m. matinee April 8. The performance is suitable for viewers of all ages and will be in collaboration with the School of Performing Arts students and Second Harvest food bank, which will collect food for those in need.

The school also will present a reading from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, the story of a family’s flight from the dust bowl in the 1930s. The 3 p.m. April 8 performance will have a cast of more than 30 students, alumni, faculty members and guest artists, and is part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read program.

Here are some of the festival’s other highlighted events:

While the public can see all the festival events for free, this year for the first time a limited number of $20 reserved tickets are being offered.

Tickets and lobby passes will be available beginning March 1. There will be three types of tickets available:

For a complete schedule, ticket reservations and other information, go to the festival’s website at .

Jeffrey M. Moore, who has been the director of the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ School of Performing Arts since its inception in 2013, has been named as the new dean of the College of Arts & Humanities.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to join Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s outstanding senior academic leadership team,” Moore said. “Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed collaborating with faculty, students and our community partners. This new position will allow me to expand on those activities and enhance our presence even more.”

Steven Chicurel-Stein, professor of theatre and associate director of the School of Performing Arts, has been named interim director of the school while the university conducts a national search for Moore’s permanent replacement.

Chicurel-Stein’s new position grants him oversight over the school’s music and theatre curriculum, facilities and faculty. “I’ve been teaching at universities for 25 years now, and I’ve always been a professor in theatre, but my degrees are in music. For me, it’s an easy fit—I understand the cultures of both music and theatre. There’s still a learning curve, but I’m comfortable working within both worlds.”

Professor of Music David L. Brunner will assume Chicurel-Stein’s associate director duties for the interim period, complimented by Dr. Keith Koons, who remains in his associate director position.

Theatre professor Julia Listengarten has been named as the artistic director for Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝. The artistic director is typically responsible for conceiving, developing, and implementing the artistic vision of a theatre company.

Listengarten envisions her role as working with the theatre faculty to reimagine artistic goals of the department and develop a vision for upcoming seasons. Theatre associate professor Bert Scott, as director of production, will facilitate the technical production needs of the season.

“One of the exciting parts of this position for me is the fact that now we’re a School of Performing Arts—so there are theatre and music,” says Listengarten. While her position does not directly impact the music department, she looks forward to bringing the two areas closer together. “I’ve always tried to collaborate with musicians in the productions that I’ve directed, and I see artistic collaboration as a very important part of the merger.”

Tremon Kizer has been hired as associate director of bands and director of athletic bands. In this role, he will oversee all aspects of the athletic band program and teach courses in music education. As an award-winning educator, Kizer hopes his students take the skills they learn and apply them to every area of their lives. “I want to help our students become the best doctors, lawyers, educators, musicians, mothers, and fathers they can be,” he said. “Hopefully, they will apply what they learn into their path of life.”

Kizer earned his doctorate in musical arts from the University of South Carolina, his master of arts in music from the University of Central Missouri and his bachelors in music education from Kansas State University.

While the School conducts a nationwide search for a new director of bands, Dr. Chung Park, director of orchestras, will lead Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s Wind Ensemble in addition to the orchestra.

Assistant Professor Si-Yan Darren Li has been added to the music faculty, where he will be leading the cello studio. Li holds his bachelor of music degree from The Juilliard School, and his master of music degree and artist diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Li started studying cello at age 5 and now holdsĚýprizes from numerous prestigious competitions around the world, such as the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. He is also the recipient of the “American Masterpieces” Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“Teaching cello has really become my biggest passion in life,” said Li. “I find it incredibly rewarding to help my students to grow as a cellist, a musician and a human being by sharing my experience, knowledge and wisdom. I believe that passion, devotion and honest communications are essential elements to great teaching.”

The theatre department also welcomes Assistant Professor Shawn Boyle to the faculty, where he will be teaching lighting design and working on Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s productions. Boyle has an extensive background as a projection and lighting designer, working in theatre, musical theater, opera, dance, installation, and architectural projects, as well as designing for several theaters and theme parks in the United States. As an associate projection designer for Elaine J. McCarthy, Boyle worked on productions of Wicked in the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Holland and the United Kingdom.

Boyle earned his MFA in projection design from Yale School of Drama in 2015 and his BFA in Lighting Design from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Cynthia White, who has been serving on the theatre faculty as interim professor focusing on acting and directing, has been awarded the permanent position of lecturer in directing. The position is a shared one with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, where she will also serve as the director of new play development. She was associate director and director of play development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and taught at Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Western Washington University in Bellingham. She has directed professionally at numerous Shakespeare festivals, universities, and regional theatre around the country.

David Willmore will be Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s master electrician. Willmore holds a B.A. in theatre and dance with a concentration in design and technology from James Madison University and has been working in the electrics department at the Glimmerglass Festival in New York.

In that space-dominated era, that handful of actors, set designers, professors and others in the performing arts literally “set the stage” for today’s highly regarded Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝.

Now more than four decades later, some of those theatre participants will gather to reminisce about their experiences and the campus productions that were first presented in a tent on a sandy field and later in a science auditorium.

“We were part of something that was unique. It was a brand new school so there was a first time for everything,” said Mary Monroe, ’76, who acted and directed in campus plays and recently set the reunion into motion.

She said there were 12 theatre students when she joined the program. After graduation she went on to a 35-year career as a director and producer in New York, including being the recipient of a Kennedy Center bronze medal, and is now a writer in Rhode Island. “You became a pioneer because you were immersed in something for the first time. Because it was new, there were no restrictions,” she said. “Whatever was the outcome, you opened the door for other possibilities down the road. ”

Monroe said she has heard from about 40 people around the country planning to get back together the second weekend of June to reminisce, tour today’s theatre facilities, attend a play and catch up on what has happened through the years.

She said that during the brief time they spent together the theatre folks formed strong relationships, but many of them later lost touch with each other and some of them have not visited Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ since graduation. And when she heard that one of their fellow theatre students died, she thought it was time for a reunion.

“Because you had this intense experience, you bond,” Monroe said. “The imprint was solid. I thought this was important to be able to come together again. It’s like a denouement.”

The first production in the theatre department’s tent was Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” in November 1969. The department followed with dozens of shows such as “Kiss Me Kate,” “Of Mice and Men” and the Gershwin’s “Of Thee I Sing” before FTU became Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ in 1978.

“The theatre department was small, and IĚýimmersed myself in it, doing every conceivable job. I learned so much,” said Julia Gagne, ’74, who had the opportunity to direct a show even though she had no experience as a director.

“I had great mentor/professors at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝, and the directing experience was very positive,” she said. “I got to work with my friends as cast and crew, experiment with rehearsal techniques, and experience the thrill of opening a show as a director.”Ěý

That experience and the encouragement of department chair Harry Smith and theatre director David Mays led her to pursue an MFA in directing. She later became the artistic director and theatre chair at Valencia College for more than 30 years, where she directed more than 90 shows.

Susie Findell, a staffer taking classes at the young university, said she auditioned for her first play after reading about it in the campus newspaper: “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off,” directed by Frances Johnson of the communication department.

“Being in theatre gave me confidence and poise,” she said. Her theatrical involvement at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ led her to do Orlando community theatre, a TV Christmas special, voice-oversĚýand TV commercials. “It all started from my Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ experiences and classes.”

Despite the challenges of improper facilities, low budgets and limited participants of four decades ago, Monroe said, “It was incredible the way we all came together. This doesn’t happen often. We were doing things then that were brand new. Whether we knew it, we were pioneers.”

Steven Chicurel-Stein, a professor of theatre and interim director of the School of Performing Arts, said the determination and dedication of those in the FTU theatre program cannot be underestimated because they set the foundation of what is now a nationally accredited department with more than 300 undergraduate and graduate students.

“The art that is created today at Theatre Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝, the teaching and learning of the craft of theatre, and the continued forward movement of the present students, faculty and staff has its footing on the shoulders of those who had the vision, passion, and energy to launch theatre at FTU and early Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝,” Chicurel-Stein said. “To those pioneers, we are grateful.”

Anyone involved with the early years of FTU Theatre who would like more information can contact FTUnions@gmail.com.

Moore joined Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ in 1994 as the university’s first full-time percussion professor. He became chair of the Music Department from 2009 to 2013, and he began his role as the director of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s newly created School of Performing Arts in 2013.

“From a pool of terrific candidates, Professor Moore stood out because of his strong leadership abilities and his innovative vision for strengthening the college’s academic and interdisciplinary research mission at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝,” said Provost and Executive Vice President A. Dale Whittaker.

During his music and teaching career, Moore has been involved with more than 60 literary and music projects as an author, composer or arranger, and is an international performer, lecturer, clinician and soloist. His work on several local boards and committees has helped build awareness of the arts and relationships with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ partners. In his new role, he will advance the college while continuing to enhance Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s arts presence in our community and beyond.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to join Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s outstanding senior academic leadership team,” Moore said. “Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed collaborating with faculty, students and our community partners. This new position will allow me to expand on those activities and enhance our presence even more.”

Moore holds a bachelor’s in music education from the University of North Texas and a master’s in percussion performance from the University of Wisconsin.

He is also the Region 7 chair of the National Association of Schools of Music, serving on its board of directors as well as the board of advisors for the Percussive Arts Society.

Under his leadership as director of Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s School of Performing Arts, both the theatre and music departments received accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association of Schools of Theatre and National Association of Schools of Music. Moore also helped create Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ Celebrates the Arts, a multi-week festival that highlights Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝â€™s arts and interdisciplinary programs that recently held its second season.

“When you consider our opportunities as we pursue recognition as a Florida preeminent university, along with campus performance-space construction and also our involvement with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝ Downtown, it is a very exciting time for the arts and humanities at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ă˝,” Moore said. “I can’t wait to get started!”

Moore will be taking over the role of dean from José Fernández, who will be stepping down and returning to the history faculty this fall. Fernández has been dean of the College of Arts & Humanities since 2006.

Dr. Steven Chicurel-Stein of the Theatre Department has been named interim director of the School of Performing Arts while a search is conducted to fill the role permanently.