Crimson and Gold Connection; Joe Firman

Welcome to Crimson and Gold Connection. My name is Dustin Triber and today our guest is Joe Furman He's the director of Bicknell Family Center for the Arts and welcome Joe. Thank you for having me. And we're actually your guest because we're actually recording this on stage at the Bicknell Center itself The main stage and if you've not had chance to see this beautiful facility It is a wonder to behold the technology and all the designs and everything that went into this It is a beautiful building and even the the technology going into this is just state of the art Very very nice facility that you have here. Thank you very much We are unbelievably proud of it and for anyone who hasn't seen it I always love to give tours so we'd love to have you stop by and especially we'd love to have you stop by to attend some of our great events And talking about that you have several Wonderful events coming up here in the next several months several weeks And that's what we'll be talking about here for the next few minutes So Joe the floor is yours go ahead and tell us about these awesome events you have going on Well, we're really excited because we're working to bring in national touring groups Working to bring in local groups. We're working to bring in all kinds of things that

Frankly, I've never been seen in Pittsburgh, Kansas before and the biggest thing coming up is once the musical Which is a eight-time Tony award winner on Broadway and that's leading off our best of Broadway series So we're hoping to completely sell that out But we still have tickets available. So I'm hoping everyone listening will go buy tickets And can you give a preview of what once is about? It is a wonderful love story set to Irish music and Boy meets a girl kind of story and then their love story and how it progresses from there But it is an exciting ride and we're also trying something rather interesting for those who come There is actually a bar on stage So you'll be able to come up on stage before the concert and buy yourself a drink. Well, there you go That's that's definitely different and after once what else do we have so on this coming Saturday We have the vote sisters and they're doing Americana and folk and they're actually alumni of PSU So that is a free concert

But we're having a free will offering at the gate and that goes directly to them So they were kind enough to agree to do the concert here and anything that is given in free will will be going to them And they will be in the Miller theaters So we're doing a more intimate concert series this year as well where we have singers and performers in the smaller space when we opened that up with polygibbons in the Miller theater She brought a quartet in and they did many faces of love those are really exciting because You're in the action you're enveloped by the performance and just really kind of off subject For those that don't know there are actually two stages here at the Bicknell Center for performing arts We have the big stage that we're on right now, which it's a huge monstrosity of a stage and you can see how many in this in this facility in this room 1100 1100 and then you have the smaller stage And the smaller stage is really fun because the seating is flexible We can change it any way we want it And so it is set for 281 for this common concert But we can add seats or take seats out

We can extend the stage into a thrust stage Or we can have it be more of a traditional theatrical stage Very nice What else do we have coming up here? Well after once We have one of our more exciting groups that I'm really excited about this one We have the US Navy band coming from DC the Jazz Band the Commodores And that's going to be really exciting on the 26th of October And almost immediately following that we move into October 29th with Big Hit Todd and the Monsters Now this is a huge national tour we're absolutely thrilled to have them here It is the biggest of all the musical events for doing this year And their music they were very famous back in the 90s But they are doing a lot of great work Kind of in the same line of jazz and blues But with more of a modern feel to it as well And then one of my favorites is going to be November 7th We've got the official Blues Brothers review And this one was put together by Dan Ackroyd and Jim Bluecey's wife

And so to have them on the stage will be really exciting I was trying to see if we couldn't get the university police to come in Stay at it all the doors But we're all really excited to have that here as well And those are anyone who's seen the movie I'm assuming a lot of the songs that were in the movie will be on this show Yep, full review And we're hoping the police don't haul them off the stage in the middle Very good And in conjunction with all of our events are all of the music department and theater department events And we are really excited with the theatrical productions is coming up in the end of October October 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th The PSU theater is doing Frankenstein Ah So in line with the Halloween theme And they're going to be trying some really fun things with the flexible space in the Miller Theater So they've got a whole bunch of ideas and I won't give away any of the surprises But it's going to be a show to remember Now that being Frankenstein could be scary is it for his family friendly? Is it more...

Is it horror? Is it comm musical? What are we looking for there? I have never seen Frankenstein before So it's going to be exciting and if it is not family friendly they will add it to the posters Okay So I'm not completely sure of the content Okay It may not be young Frankenstein from Mel Brooks at stage then It's definitely gonna have the PSU twist to it That'll be fun And then we also have the PSU music department Which the majority of our events on the main stage are performances by PSU music And so on October 3rd we have the PSU jazz band On the 9th and 10th we're going to be hosting the trumpet festival On the 10th we also have a Faculty artist is part of the trumpet festival coming in which is Alan Dean And then we have the wind ensemble performing in October 11th On October 21st we have the symphony on the stage So there's constantly something coming in from PSU music And I always tell people to keep a look at our website

Because we have the full listing there of all of our upcoming events And that website is Bicknellcenter.com Do you have anything else coming up that you can tease for the coming semester here in the next year or so? Definitely Next year in the spring semester we're going to be continuing the best of Broadway with 42nd Street Now 42nd Street is a famous musical It's been around for many many years and they have a national tour out now It is a great backstage musical And basically the way to think of a backstage musical is musical set in the stage That shows you what's going on behind the curtain And so there's quite a few musicals in that genre And this one has some of the most famous musical hits that people think of when they think of Broadway And so if you're wondering what it is I recommend everyone go on to YouTube and look up 42nd Street Because they have a full review of all the different songs And once you've heard the songs in once from this semester The songs in 42nd Street You won't want to miss it

Very good Another event we're very excited about this year is the Moscow Ballet And they are bringing in the great Russian nutcracker on November 28th So that'll be a great way to start the holiday season right after Thanksgiving And that is also going to be featuring some young performers from around the Pittsburgh area Who have been trying out to be a part of the show That'll be neat We're looking forward to it Great dance, great music, great theater All of it's available here for the entire region And it's really exciting to be a part of it And it's exciting to have this facility here in Pittsburgh, Kansas It's just amazing and a blessing that we can have this here in our own backyard I feel very All right I feel very blessed just to be a part of it And one of the great joys is We staff the facility with our students So they get a chance to learn everything that happens in the theater From lighting to sound to setting the stage Or running the sound and lighting You can guarantee that they're going to leave PSU

With world experiences that just can't be beat anywhere else Oh absolutely Well there's two ways to get tickets to all of our events One you can call the ticket office at 235-4796 And that also gives you access to your discounts So we have discounts for groups And we have discounts for students We have discounts for faculty staff and retired And the only way to access those is to go through the ticketing office directly Which is located in the wheat Now if you go online to buy tickets You're able to access the full regular price tickets And have those printed at home or sent to you So if you're looking for tickets Two best ways to do it Is to give a call to the box office at 235-4796 Or to look up our events at bichnellcenter.com Go ahead and repeat that phone number one more time 235-4796 All right Well Joe, we do appreciate you letting us come in here And steal your stage for a few minutes And again I really recommend anyone coming in

And visiting the Bichnell Family Center for the Arts And taking a tour And of course coming to see the wonderful shows That will be here throughout the year and the years to come Joe Furman, director of Bichnell Family Center For the Arts, thank you so much for talking to us today On Crimson and Gold Connection My name is Destin Treiber Thank you My pleasure