Weitzenhoffer Fine Arts Year in Review

The Weitzenhoffer School of Fine Arts finished the year off with a bang... or a pirouette... or twenty. The Oklahoma Festival Ballet company performed their annual show mixing many different styles of dance, from Spanish to contemporary, from classical ballet to comedic.

The show lasted around two hours and was a great closing to the school's successful year in allperforming aspects.

The Fine Arts School opened it's major productions with the School of Musical Theatre's performance of Rent. The famous ultra-contemporary rock opera drew a great mix of dramaticacting to a complex, yet simplistic sounding score. The music, accented by an incredible stage and subway set in the middle of the auditorium truly put the musical over the top.

The next major musical the students performed took place in the Spring. Titled, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, the light-hearted musical based in ancient Rome left myself and und

oubtedly many others still chuckling at the many role reversals the actors and actresses displayed. They also all seemed to truly master the art of satirical comedy.

The musical was directed by James Brennan, a well-known Broadway actor and choreographer.

Dean Rich Taylor of the Weitzenhoffer School of Fine Arts, talked about how great it is to have so many different well-known actors, directors, dancers and artists come to speak and teach the students.

"We bring a lot of guest artists in and guest lecturers in to talk to (the students) about the real world. Whether it's in art, art history or da

nce... We try to bring real-world people here... to help collaborate on things... the real world is collaborative and college isn't always real collaborative." Taylor said.

One of, if not the greatest fine arts collaborative performances the School has performed was

the Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. It combined the Colleges of Music, Dance, and Musical Theatre. The show was the first in the United States, and had one world premiere performance from an Andrew Lloyd Webber song. The "Music" was also led by one of Lord Webber's most trusted directors, Hugh Wooldridge.

The College of Drama, while taking part in just about everything that takes

place in the Performing Arts Center, had a few shows that were solely their students putting it on. Those were Ah, Wilderness! and The Odyssey: A Play.

The "Odyssey" used a more interactive stage set, by having a rotating stage, that allowed for spectators to sit on all sides of it as the action took place all around the Weitzenhoffer Theatre.

For the year, the Schools of Performing Arts had another successful run and it is certain that they are planning for bigger and better performances next year.

OU Preparing Pilots Amidst the Looming Shortage

There is a shortage of pilots in America, and the source of the problem is two-fold.

Robert Meltzer, a professional pilot senior from Frisco, Texas explained one side of the problem, "The mandatory retirement age for an airline pilot is age 65. And since all those 'Baby Boomers' are reaching that age they are going to be retiring soon. And they are all at the major airlines, meaning American, Delta, those kinds of carriers. . . they are going to be moving on and the regional captains are going to be moving up. So it's going to be opening up a large pool of available pilot slots in the regional carriers."

While that problem is tangible there are many facts backing this up. The Boeing Company projects there will be 30,000 more planes in the sky and upwards of 466,600 pilots will be needed to fly the planes. In Canada and the U.S. alone, they have estimated there will be a need of about 97,000 pilots within the next two decades.

In 2010, legislation passed the pilot-safety bill that required pilots to have at least 1500 hours of flying hours before they can hired by aircraft carriers. The previous required mark was 250 hours. However, this rule will not be required to be followed until year 2013.

This is clearly a marked difference for piloting schools around the U.S. where 250 hours is the accepted minimum for graduation. While that is still the case, most pilots will now be at the regional carriers for longer than ever before. Bloomberg Business Week reported that these changes might raise the cost for hiring pilots to national carriers because more experienced pilots demand more money generally.

That leads to the next problem, money. From the beginning of the process at the flight schools, to the national carriers, costs will be higher than ever. Coupling that with the demand for pilots and the weak economy at the moment, there is a problem.

Meltzer presented a different argument when considering this problem, "I can say that OU is one of the cheapest schools you can learn how to fly at. We run about $135 an hour for a Warrior Flight, which is our primary training aircraft... If you go somewhere else, it could be upwards of $150-160 an hour." He continued, "It's really just trying to get the word out there to have people enthused about joining and flying... because if you 're really that passionate about flying, you're going to find any means necessary to be able to do it."

The Cutting Edge News found that the majority of pilots, who entered the field over thirty years ago, have taken significant pay cuts when transferring from one carrier to another. In fact, some of the pilots are being paid at entry-level wages after having flown for over thirty years.

Likewise, the desire for young pilots who are hearing about these trends is waning. Over the past few years the FAA experienced a decline of about 13-percent of the student pilots getting their certificates. The decline was a little under 10,000 students from 2006-2008 average to 2009.

In 1964, when we were experiencing a pilot shortage the outlook was very positive. TIME Magazine wrote, "The pay is high, and can become skyhigh. Pilots who handle the large jets begin at $6,000 to $6,720 the first year, then soar to some $35,000, plus many benefits, by the ninth year–for 85 airborne hours a month."

But with two years left before legislation comes into action, there are many questions that need to be answered.

Jeanine L'Ecuyer

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As a journalist, writing hard-hitting, late-breaking stories is exciting, but with each story one has to make ethical decisions with the information they are given. Jeanine L'Ecuyer, the Director of Communications at Ziemba Waid Public Affairs spoke to about 30 students and faculty about crisis communication and the importance of making critical ethical decisions in such times.

The main problem at hand was the information the media wanted to release, and how much information L'Ecuyer and her PR team thought was necessary to release throughout the conflict.

The conflict L'Ecuyer and many members of the media team dealt with was a two-week prison hostage situation. Two prisoners held two prison guards captive in a guard tower at the Arizona Department of Corrections. The prisoners raped the hostages and hardly fed them for the two weeks they stayed in that tower.

L'Ecuyer knew information like this and more and the conflict arose when reporters wanted to release this type of information and L'Ecuyer felt the information, which was extremely personal had no reason to be released to the public. The prisoners of the jail, actually used the media, in the beginning to communicate to the public and to state their terms. This was one of the first times the media actually played a part in the actual hostage situation. The main members were Andy McKinney, a radio host from KTAR Radio, and Ilona Carson who was a fox anchor in Arizona. The men in the tower would only listen to McKinney and they initially only wanted to talk to Carson.

Jeanine and crew knew that this was an unprecedented act and the way they dealt with the situation, albeit not perfectly, was one of the most important public relations events of that time. One can learn moving forward that although some people look down on Twitter and Facebook for its lack of professionalism from some users, this would have been one of the more important tools in a situation like this one where information was not coming from many places. Twitter would have been able to share information in a quicker and more global manner and hopefully, a more simple way to communicate with the public and hopefully it would have kept more people involved.

In the School of Musical Theatre, the students allow the school's success. Dr. Greg Kunesh, the Interim Director and Regents professor of the School explained it this way.

"It's part of the school's mission statement. The first sentence of our mission statement is to identify, recruit and train talented and bright high school students. So that they are prepared to enter the musical theatre performance career in a highly competitive manner when they graduate. Down and dirty, that's who we are."

Dr. Kunesh and his staff travel around the country, from June to March to look at over 2,000 musical theatre student auditions. After that process, they invite 130-140 high school students to campus to audition in front of the entire staff of the school.

This year, they took twelve students- six men and six women.

Richard Taylor, the Dean of the Weitzenhoffer School of Fine Arts talks about what kinds of students the School of Musical Theatre and the other fine arts schools invite to attend.

"I think you look for a good grade point in high school. You look for someone that has really been involved in a lot of things. You look for a person that has natural talent, that we believe we can make better. And you look for scholars too.... (We look for) people that want to work hard..." Taylor said.

It seems over the past decade the schools have gotten the exact students they are looking for because with each year they have put on bigger and more challenging productions.

"You can only do what your student body is capable of doing... There is no way we could have done 'Rent' ten years ago," Kunesh said.

With the growth in production, the demand for flexibility also becomes apparent. The School of Fine Arts are always collaborative, with this week's U.S. premier of Andrew Lloyd Webber, it has never been more apparent.

"The collaborative nature of between the (three performing arts schools) is really driven by production demands- whether we are doing a dance production, just drama or musical theatre. But I would like to think the collaborative nature of the art form goes beyond just production demands."

But each student works with each school to learn each other's skill to become more skilled in the practice. Especially the Musical Theatre majors.

"All of our musical theatre majors, they have to take x number of years of acting, that's in the drama school. Our student's have to take production support classes like stagecraft and costume construction and stage lighting. Our students also have to take classes from our School of Dance- ballet and modern dance." Dr. Kunesh further elaborated.

The students of the School of Musical Theatre are special, with the tireless effort of the faculty OU has one of the more impressive powerhouse fine arts schools in the nation.

Dean Taylor Talks Andrew Lloyd Webber Show and More

The Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts is one of the strongest Fine Arts colleges in the nation for many reasons, The Dean of the College, Richard Taylor talks about one of many reasons with the the upcoming US premier of the show "The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber."

"The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" is primed to be one of the more significant shows The University of Oklahoma has ever performed. From the School of Dance preparing dances to the operas, to the School of Art preparing some of their works to be shown in conjunction with the music played, the Fine Arts College has put together one of the more diverse shows it has ever produced.

The director for the show, Hugh Wooldridge is one of the world's most renown directors. Based in London, Wooldridge is Webber's most trusted director and came to OU by the request of Regent Max Weitzenhoffer to put together a show that will highlight the strengths of the OU students.

Dean Taylor talks a bit more about the significance of having Wooldridge for the show in this clip.

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Although it is great that the University of Oklahoma possesses the ability to put on such an ambitious show with the great directors and designers they will have, this is not an every year occurrence.

That is what makes this show so special.

The Musical Director is Richard Zielinski, the Choral Director of Activities and the Chair of Graduate Choral Studies. He has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world and is the Principle conductor of the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria.

The Production Designer, Kasey Allee Foreman serves as OU's costume designer and Supervisor for the Oklahoma Opera Theatre.

From the students to the staff, this show is destined to be special.

Eric Stehl the Epitome of a Great Teacher

A couple of hours following Eric Stehl clearly shows that he possesses many facets of a great teacher, electrician and person.


Video: Dorion Billups, Runs 2:00

Of the many glowing remarks students made about their Lighting Design Lab Instructor and Master Electrician Eric Stehl, none were quite as remarkable than what University College Emily Maddox said, "He is the epitome of electrician."

Stehl is the man that makes the majority, if not all of the shows you will see on OU's campus look great. He is in charge of the technical aspect of the Drama department, which also works in conjunction with the other School of Fine Arts productions.

His students expressed love and respect to what many called his fatherly nature.

Sam Hughes, a Drama Major with emphasis in Sound production and an undergraduate assistant of Stehl's said this when describing his boss, "Eric's awesome. He's an awesome boss to have. He knows a lot. He's a big friendly teddy bear, he looks scary, but once you get past that tough outer shell he's a good guy."

Not only is he a good guy, but he is also very knowledgable. Stehl is in his fourth year with OU and he does not seem to want to leave anytime soon.

New idea on the Horizon for OU Fine Arts

Ground Lighting waiting to be connected in the Weitzenhoffer Theatre

The University of Oklahoma's Master Electrician Eric Stehl says members of the School of Drama are in the creation stages of an idea to create a School of Design and Production. The school would consist of theatre lighting, sound, staging and production.

"We are hoping to get a program that integrates all of the technical and design aspects for all the (fine arts) schools under one program, under one college," Stehl explained. "It would be a full college of design and production."

Stehl knows the idea is a long way from coming to fruition, but he believes it is an idea that would truly put OU's fine arts program over the top. "It's kind of a dream program, because there isn't really a model for that anywhere in the country," Stehl said.

OU would be the only University in the nation with that specific type of degree program, and Stehl thinks that would be an incredible opportunity for students who want to specialize in the technical aspect of theatre and fine arts.

This idea needs money to have a chance. Stehl understands that and has ideas of his own on how that could work.

"There's a major steel rigging company called Clancy... and they're based in Tulsa and it would be great if they could give us a million or a large amount of money and we could have a Clancy Rigging department, or Clancy Rigging school or program or workshop. And we could use their products and use them to teach students how to do theatre rigging."

While this is just an idea, expect to hear more about this news more in the next calendar year. With the school would come more teachers, and possibly an addition to some of the buildings on campus, so the idea would take more than a couple of years to become a reality. But what a good idea it is.
Eric Stehl looks out on the stage of the Weitzenhoffer Theatre