Crimson and Gold Connection; Joe Firman

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection, keeping you connected with the people and current events at Pittsburgh State University. It's going to be another busy season for the staff at the Big No Family Center for the Arts on the campus of Pittsburgh State. From the modern American dance company visiting Southeast Kansas in early September to former U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice visiting in October and the fifth anniversary of the Big No Family Center for the Arts. This upcoming December, Joe Furman, the director of the Big No Family Center for the Arts, is in studio with me this week. It is my pleasure to be here again. When I look at the upcoming schedule for the Big No Center family for the Arts, it seems like there's something going on at the center, at least every other day. Could you tell us what you and the staff at the Big No Heaven store for the visitors this upcoming season? Oh, absolutely. We are super excited for our right out of the gates for a show and that is September 7th, which is Madco. It is one of our first times we're bringing in a professional dance group to Pittsburgh.

We've been blessed to have the Moscow Ballet before, but to have a professional dance group coming like this is phenomenal. I hope that everyone in Pittsburgh will give it a try because they'll never forget it. When you brought up the Moscow Ballet, I want to jump in and say they're coming back this season. Yes, they are. They've loved this so much. This will be, I want to say, year four. They have really enjoyed being in Pittsburgh and it has been amazing to have them and the nutcracker is just one of those holiday traditions that's getting to be literally a tradition here in Pittsburgh as well. I also must, they must sell out too if they're coming back for this four season. If you're interested in that now in August, it might be a good idea to get those tickets now. Absolutely. What made you want to book this modern dance company here at the Big No this year? The Big No Center has had a lot of great dance. The PSU Dance Miner is a new program on campus, only a few years now and they do a dance review each spring and that has brought in dance groups from all over the region and to see the children of Pittsburgh in this whole region on stage is really amazing and

we wanted to continue to build on that dance culture. Yeah, speaking about the Big No, the building itself, when you're on stage, that's a large stage for a performance stage and one of the things I like about the Big No is that you're no matter what seat you're in, there's always a good seat in the house, at least to me. Absolutely. There's not a bad seat in the house and when we do Broadway, we have these large speaker stacks that the touring shows bring in and then we don't sell the wing seats that are impaired. So we always make sure that the sight line is perfect for every event. Every seat that's available for sale is a great seat to be in. And I was speaking with Cliff Worth of Connect to Culture yesterday and their first performance is a ballet also. So there must be a trend of having dancers that must be on the rise somehow. And it really is. There are so many children involved in it and it is such an amazing art form because it takes such athleticism and it takes such a beautiful part of the human form and to be able to express yourself through movement is magical. And when you combine the music and the lights and the dancers, some of the things they do,

you just don't even think a human body should be able to do and they make it look seamless and effortless and then I challenge anyone to give it a shot. Well, you bring this. Please check with your doctor beforehand. Yeah, you bring up athleticism and go into this performance at the BICNOL, the first performance of the season and seeing those dancers up close, you can see the athleticism and the strength that they have. Exactly. And this is a professional group. This is what they do. And to be able to have them come over from St. Louis is just something that we have not had before. Well, that's exciting to say then. Absolutely. And also something really exciting is that it's also being supported by a grant. So we have received a $5,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Midwest Arts Alliance. So, to be able to say that they also are recognizing the BICNOL center and the work here at PSU is really amazing. So what are some of the other performances coming up later this fall? Well, we are really excited about Condolece Rice coming. And last time I looked, it was almost sold out. I'm pretty sure that if anybody else wants to get in, it might be gone already, but they

might want to give it a shot. And we're going to be, that's October 3rd. And we are super thrilled to have the United States Air Force Falcon years coming. They're going to be here on October 9th. And this year they called us. The Air Force Academy band was here a few years ago and they said it was the best facility of their entire tour and they really wanted to come back. And that's equally exciting for us because I sometimes think that people here in this region don't realize that we built the finest building anywhere. Any city, any place would be proud to have it. And it's right here for everyone to use, and the Air Force band concert is free. We do give away tickets to it to make sure we don't have 5,000 people show up. But we do want to make sure everyone knows it's free. They just need to stop by and pick up tickets. And I don't even have them yet, but they should be done with the printers any day now. So as soon as they're in the building, we'll be giving those out to anyone who's interested. So that's coming up in about really a month and a half. That's right around the corner. So you get tickets when they're available. And then of course, we are thrilled with Broadway this year. We are doing three shows.

Broadway has been so popular, so well received that we decided that it was time to go for three. And so we are going to be doing bandstand on November 4th. And of course, these are also sponsored by CDL. We could not do it without their corporate support. And so we can't thank CDL enough for their help. And so on November 4th, we've got bandstand, which is an incredible story about World War 2 vets coming home to the US and starting a band. And how they deal with reintegrating into life and society and the great music that they produce. So some would have a love story. And then we're going to be having Finding Neverland right out of the gates in the spring on January 26th. And anyone who doesn't know that story, there's a wonderful movie called Finding Neverland. It's about the author of Peter Pan and how he creates the characters when he meets the future love of his life, you could say. And then on March 4th, we're going to be having a classic, incredible show, which is American in Paris. And I watched that movie and that's what the Broadway play is based off of. And as a child, I watched that and said, wow, that would be just incredible to see. And we're going to have it live on stage right in front of our entire audience.

And for me as the director of the facility, I will sneak in during the show. We usually have other things we're busy with. But I sneak in for like five, ten minutes. Maybe I might be able to catch twenty minutes of it. And I just stand there and I stare out at the audience for a few seconds and I just say, wow, that is why we do this. And it's so amazing. And the audience is what this is all about. Being able to provide the stage for the performers and the audience to view it and be a part of it, it is amazing. It's amazing to see it all come together because you're the guy who goes to these conventions and programs, these things. Going in two weeks. Oh, you're going in two weeks. Where are you going this year? Minneapolis. The Midwest Arts Convention is a really amazing convention where they bring in hundreds of agents and each agent has 30 to 40 folks on their roster. So you're exposed to probably 30,000 possibilities and we have to pair it all the way down to just a few each year. It really is amazing to see all the great culture and art that's available to Pittsburgh now because we have a venue that can handle it. Going into those conventions, I'm sure you see trends as a programmer of the Big No Family

Center for the Arts. So, I mean, we're already looking at the 2021, if not beyond that. What do you see as coming to Pittsburgh or what do you have your eye on? Something already? Well, Broadway, Broadway, Broadway. It has been so popular. It's been such a resounding success with the audiences. We're going to really be focusing on bringing great, large theatrical programs to Pittsburgh that have never been here before. And the venue is just such a Broadway house. It's perfect for that kind of touring show. It's big, but not too big. Yes, it has a perfect size audience because when you're at that 1,000 to 1,100 seat capacity that we have, you are right there with the performers in front of you. But we have a very large stage. So we have what they call a roadhouse. The stage is designed to take these touring shows. And the stage is 100 feet wide, but the audience only sees 55 feet of it. So you have this great wing space and then the stage is very deep. From the front of the pit to the back is about 80 feet. You really only need about 40 to pull off a Broadway show. So we have all that space behind and it just makes it so wonderful for our students to

work on these shows. What people also don't realize is on the day of a Broadway show, we'll have 100 people backstage. And the majority of those that are working on the show are students at Pittsburgh State who are learning how to do the art, to do the craft, to learn how to be a part of a team and to work to a deadline. So the experiences that our students get is amazing. And a lot of our students are not music and they're not theater. They're from every major on campus and they all get to find that love of the arts while they're here with us and watching them develop over four years is a great joy in my position. That's what I enjoy about the arts. You can be a political science major like I was and it's still enjoy the arts or a business major or a physical education major. It's still enjoyable to so many people and it sounds like 100 people backstage working on something like that. Yep. And what happens is the buses... Well it actually takes multiple days because before they even show up we have to take all of our lights, all of our curtains down. And so you'll move roughly 50,000 pounds off of your system and then they bring in their system and we'll hang 50 to 100,000 pounds at seven o'clock in the morning we will start

loading in the trucks and we'll be working until minutes before the production starts at seven thirty that evening. And then as soon as it's over at ten o'clock when the audience leaves we take all of their stuff back down and load it back onto their semis and get them on the way by two o'clock in the morning. Wow. So it is a full day of seven a.m. to two a.m. and then the next day we've got to put our room back together to be ready for our next event. Like you say it's usually a day or two after so we spend about a year planning each one. We spend a few days running each one and the memories last the lifetime. Absolutely. Is there something on the the Bicknell 2019 2020 schedule that you know maybe it's not a Broadway show but something that you're personally looking forward to see performed? I am so looking forward to all of the Southeast Kansas Symphony performances and we recently changed the name of the symphony. So it is now the Southeast Kansas Symphony at Pittsburgh State University and they are gracious enough to be the group that's going to be performing and they're going to be bringing some friends in from the community for our anniversary.

So on December 3rd we're going to be celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Bicknell Center. We cut the ribbon in the fall of 2014 and it has been an amazing five years and to have the symphony on stage and be able to celebrate the birthday and have some cake afterwards going to be great. We're also going to be doing tours of the building so we want to make sure that anyone who has yet to stop by the building can come enjoy that free concert. We call it the holiday extravaganza concert and it's also going to be our anniversary. So free cake, great music, set off to the greatness of the holiday season and we're also going to have a little bit of music from Broadway shows during that. So I have a chance for Dr. Scott also to say a few words and to look at what we've been able to accomplish in the last five years and what we brought to Pittsburgh from former presidents to first ladies to secretary of states just to know that that dream of all those people who donated to build the building has come true. It's really amazing. Yeah, I spoke with President Scott last week on the Crimson & Gold connection and you can just see the pride that beams from him talking about the facility and the work that

you've done there and the acts that have come here is really elevated Pittsburgh state and the city of Pittsburgh to a new level. When I first saw the building, I had goosebumps and that's before the roof was on and when there was gravel where the seats are currently at. But I could see the vision and when you learn the history of all the folks that worked for 30 years after they tore down the last theater, it has been just an amazing process and amazing for my own personal life just to see all we've been able to accomplish. It always comes back to one central focus and that's our students. Whether it be the students who are hanging with the show in the art gallery or the students who are working on the stage or the students running the lights or sound, they are learning and they are a part of a great educational opportunity and to see that and the changes in their lives is what makes my getting up every morning and going to the building and going, every time I see it, it makes it all possible. Joe Furman is the director of the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts. Thank you for your time, Joe.

My pleasure. For a complete lineup of all the events coming to the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts, visit their website at bicknellcenter.com. I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro and you've been listening to the Crimson and Gold Connection, a production of $89.99 KRPS. Join us for Crimson and Gold Connection Wednesdays at 8.50 and Fridays at 350.