n i o jpack the
pack
UNR s tudent guide
2018
TURN UP
THE VOLUME
Jo i n
the
ON YOUR NIGHT WITH BURLESQUE
UNR student guide 2018 elcome to our annual Join the Pack guide. It’s something we put together every year for new and returning students at the University of Nevada, Reno. On page 11, we have a story from regular RN&R contributor Jessica Santina about a new theater program in the works. Andrea Heerdt also looked at a fairly new program on campus. Nevada Teach aims to get college students in STEM fields into teaching professions. The program just graduated its first cohort of new teachers in May. You can read the story on page 5. Matt Bieker contributed a story about an interdisciplinary research team at UNR that aims to make the emerging field of virtual reality more accessible to women by examining the reasons why women are more likely to
JULY 19 - SEPTEMBER 8
EVERY THURSDAY, FRIDAY & SELECT SATURDAYS | 8PM $30 TICKETS | $40 VIP SEATING
PURCHASE TICKETS AT HARDROCKCASINOLAKETAHOE.COM Must be 21+ Live entertainment tax of 9% not included in ticket price. Show dates subject to change. No shows on 7/28, 8/4, 8/11 or 9/1.
844.588.ROCK 50 HIGHWAY 50 STATELINE, NV 89449
2
join the pack
#MADEFORMUSIC @HRHCLAKETAHOE
HardRockCasinoLakeTahoe.com
07.26.18
A speciAl supplement to Reno news & Review
JOB #: HRT-11881 AD TITLE: VOLUME PRINT AD COLOR INFO: CMYK
PUBLICATION: NEWS REVIEW HALF V
experience VR sickness, with symptoms like nausea, drowsiness and disorientation. That’s on page 3. On page 8, you can read about this year’s Mandela Washington fellows—25 young African leaders who’ve spent the last six weeks at UNR. Our cover photo is from Eric Marks. The guide was designed by Sarah Hansel. There’s also a map of campus on page 6—and, I have to say, it’s worth a look even if you think you know the grounds of UNR. With all of the new construction on campus, this map changes every year. Happy reading and studying! Go Pack!
Jeri Chadwell Rn&R Special pRojectS editoR (and pRoud unR alum)
oin jpack
the
Dr. Paul MacNeilage, Dr. Eelke Folmer and Dr. Lars Strother have been studying VR sickness in women at the University of Nevada, Reno.
2018
PHOTO/MATT BIEKER
in
reality
UNR professors study virtual reality sickness by Matt bieker
a
team of researchers at UNR believes virtual reality (VR) technology, much like the smartphone and the laptop before it, is poised to change the way that humans interact with computers. With applications ranging from gaming to trainingsimulations and medical therapy, to name a few, VR technology is a growing field of interdisciplinary study within the university’s STEM departments. In one of their new classes, however, Dr. Eelke Folmer and Dr. Paul MacNeilage noticed that accessing VR technology might not be a level playing field. “We had several girls in the class come to us and say, ‘Oh man, I’m getting motion sick so much, do I really have to do this assignment?’” said Folmer, professor and chair of UNR’s computer sciences department. “So there was some evidence there that women might get more motion sick—but, of course, more studies need to be done.” After creating a class on understanding and developing VR interfaces in the spring of 2017, Folmer and MacNeilage, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology’s Cognitive Brain Sciences Program, realized a noticeable number of female students suffered from motion sickness while using VR devices— usually a visor-like headset with a screen that encompasses the wearer’s entire field of view. Some also work by positioning a cellphone screen in a similar manner. “It’s been reported often that there are gender differences in susceptibility to simulator sickness, or cyber sickness is another term for
it,” said MacNeilage. “There’s various theories The vestibular system is a set of tiny organs out there; it’s a common theory, like, ‘Males within the inner ear that influence a person’s are more macho. We don’t want to admit when perception of moving through space, as well as we’re getting sick.’ But more and more we balance. It’s believed that a disconnect between think that that’s not the case.” what the vision tells the brain to expect and Folmer knew from previous research what the vestibular system actually feels could that motion sickness is still one of the be the root-cause of motion sickness. biggest barriers to widespread VR adoption, After receiving grants from both Google and MacNeilage’s work on the and Mozilla to fund their efforts, physiological components of the the three researchers set out to brain—called the vestibular test 32 subjects on their system—behind the reactions when the field phenomenon meant of view within a VR “It’s been they were in a posidevice was narrowed. tion to address the “The idea is reported often problem. They that perception of quickly reached motion kind of that there are out to colleague happens mostly in gender differences Dr. Lars Strother, the periphery, and assistant professor so if you block in susceptibility to of psychology, that, then it’s less and put together a likely there will simulator sickness.” formal study in the be some kind of fall of last year. visual-vestibular DR. paUl macNeilage “I have some conflict,” said Folmer. assistant professor of psychology expertise in sex differAs women generally ences in the brain, specifirely on a wider field of cally with visual processing,” vision than men while navigatsaid Strother. “I’m kind of ing, the team posited that narrowcoming from the visual-only standpoint. ing the field of view would adversely affect I mean, I know a bit about the vestibular stuff, female users more than male ones. but [MacNeilage] is the expert. Between the While the official results have yet to be two of us, we’ve got the visual and vestibular published, Folmer said the study concluded systems covered, and with respect to the sex that, actually, neither females nor males differences in particular.” were found to be more obviously affected by
narrowing the field of view—and that doing so helped both groups feel less sick. The researchers nonetheless believe the results are valuable in understanding the processes at play, but the success of the study, and the departments’ current VR program,
comes from its interdisciplinary nature. “It’s a collaboration between engineering, psychology and neuroscience,” said Strother. “This is a fantastic example of it, and, I think, the first example of it at UNR. So regardless of how it turns out—whether it validates something or not—it doesn’t really matter. It’s demonstrating feasibility and progress.” Psychology students and computer science students primarily take the class and are paired together for final projects in developing a VR app. The marriage of technological understanding and neuroscience theory is one of the goals of the class, the professors said. “There’s a very nice fit there in terms of kind of the human side and the technology side,” said MacNeilage. “That way, we could kind of create greater understanding among computer science students of the human aspects of it, and vice-versa.” The collaborative nature of the program also serves to broaden opportunities for women, who have historically been underrepresented in STEM in general and computer sciences, specifically, though they’re wellrepresented in neuroscience—at least at UNR. “I do think it was kind of a unique situation where we were seeing maybe more females coming in and trying computer science technology and kind of running into these problems,” said Folmer. “If this was a VR course that was solely taught to computer science students, then maybe we wouldn’t have seen it.” Increasing women’s access to VR and other areas of science and engineering is a priority that all three men would like to have for their departments, and they hope identifying accessibility issues will not only encourage female participation in the sciences, but require it in order to find solutions. “I wish we had more females, certainly in my field,” said Folmer. “This is probably not the barrier that prevents women from participating in STEM, but it is a very small but significant one. So far as I know, it’s the only accessibility barrier there is, so we need to slay it.” But while mechanical barriers can present interesting challenges for scientists, factors like professional stereotyping, sexual harassment and a certain “brogrammer” culture that might keep women away from STEM could be harder to combat. “Engineers can slay a technical barrier, and a social barrier—that’s much harder,” said Folmer. “Changing people’s opinions about something is much harder.” Ω 07.26.18
join the pack
3
ONE PACK. ONE FAMILY. WELCOME TO THE PACK! Dolan Auto Group is proud to support the University of Nevada, Reno.
DolanAutoGroup.com
4
join the pack
07.26.18
A speciAl supplement to Reno news & Review
oin jpack
the
2018
take
o w t
UNR dual degree program puts science and math majors in K-12 classrooms
Vigitta Manounyavong came to the University of Nevada, Reno from Las Vegas and substitute teaches in Washoe County. PHOTO/ANDREA HEERDT
by andrea heerdt
a
University of Nevada, Reno program created to address teacher shortages and increase teacher retention in K-12 classrooms graduated its first class of students in May. NevadaTeach is a dual major program between the university’s College of Education and its STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—programs. Initially funded in December 2014 through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute with a grant of $1.45 million, the program has since experienced significant growth as the number of enrolled students has increased and the program has expanded into a newly renovated facility on campus. Dr. Bob Quinn, professor of mathematics and co-director of NevadaTeach, said that— thanks to the passage of Nevada Assembly Bill 522—the program has also obtained an additional $300,000 to help sustain its growing numbers. According to Quinn, prior to NevadaTeach, secondary education students generally took a minimum number of credits in science or math required by the state to teach those subjects. Now, they can also get degrees in their respective STEM fields—agricultural science, atmospheric science, biology, chemistry, environmental science, geography, mathematics or physics—while also getting hands-on teaching experiences right away. Students don’t have to give up their studies in STEM fields in order to see what it’s like
to be a teacher. If a STEM student is curious about teaching but is unsure about whether he or she may like it, they can take a one-credit course to get firsthand classroom experience immediately. And the classes are risk-free, meaning students don’t have to switch majors or commit to the program right away. They’re also subsidized for the first two classes, which allows them to determine what it’s like to teach without the risk of paying for courses only to find out they don’t like it. Vigitta Manounyavong is a NevadaTeach student earning degrees in secondary education and biology from the university. She said she initially attended the university in hopes of earning a biology degree to get into pharmacy school. “For the longest time, I was pharmacy, up until maybe within the last year, when I decided maybe that wasn’t my path,” she said. “And I was just too much in the hole [with science classes], but what I think is cool about NevadaTeach is that you get the two degrees, so I didn’t have to choose between biology or education—I got to do both.” Manounyavong said that she didn’t want to commit to another four years of school after her bachelor’s degree to complete the education required to be a pharmacist, especially since she hasn’t had the chance to experience what it’s like to work in the pharmacy field firsthand and doesn’t want to risk putting in four more years of school to find out she
may not like it. But Manounyavong said she never pictured herself as a teacher, either. She remembers taking a campus tour and getting a flyer with information about NevadaTeach—what sold her was that she didn’t have to wait to see what it’s like to be in a classroom. She could experience teaching immediately to figure out if she was passionate about it or not. Manounyavong said the moment she knew she wanted to continue with the program came during her second semester of NevadaTeach while she was leading a chemistry review at Lou Mendive Middle School. “We did a March Madness bracket of elements,” she said, “Whichever element has the biggest number of protons moves on. I think because of that [the students] really got it. We put in a few trick questions, so the fact that they really understood it, it made it feel worth it, like I was actually doing something.” Aside from hands-on teaching, Manounyavong said one of her favorite parts of the program is the sense of community within NevadaTeach. You can catch her hanging out on campus in the NevadaTeach space with friends or bringing in Nothing Bundt Cakes to her professors. “Community is super important as teachers,” she said, “You need that community of teachers because you’re not going to write all of your lesson plans by yourself, and
sometimes you just need a shoulder to cry on when the days are rough.” NevadaTeach also offers other resources for students to utilize in order to maximize what they get out of the program. One of the resources is access to master teachers—experienced science and math teachers from Washoe County School District. Master teachers teach lower level classes, supervise apprentice teachers and provide program graduates who are employed by WCSD with two years of in-classroom support and feedback after they graduate. Quinn said that he wants students who really enjoy teaching but also have a deep curiosity and knowledge about their science or math discipline. “We want teachers who excel in their content area, who are excellent mathematicians or biologists or chemists, not necessarily that they’d be practicing that in a lab every day, but we want them to have that excitement about mathematics and science that’ll rub off on their students,” he said. Ω
NevadaTeach is a partnership with the UTeach program in Austin, Texas, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute as part of a national initiative to address teacher shortages and increase teacher retention in science, technology, engineering and math. Learn more at www.unr.edu/nevadateach.
07.26.18
join the pack
5
find
oin jpack
the
2018
6
join the pack
07.26.18
A speciAl supplement to Reno news & Review
your way
Go to: stopnewsprinttariffs.orG
tell congress that news matters. ask them to end the newsprint tariff.
Trump’s Tariffs threaten local news.
BEST OF FIRST PLACE ‘17
These tariffs are already being collected. Local newspapers, printers, and book publishers cannot absorb these costs. This will lead to fewer jobs and less access to local news in our community.
The Department of Commerce has assessed preliminary newsprint tariffs, which range as high as 32%.
VOTE # 1 BEST SANDWICH FOR 12 YEARS
3650 Lakeside Dr. · (775)826.4466 Open 5am-9pm · 7 days a week Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner · Party Platters
WWW.DELITOWNEUSA.COM
7
join the pack
07.26.18
oin jpack
the
2018
taking the
d a le
The fellowship is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative, begun in 2010 by President Barack Obama as a way to help African professionals ages 25 to 35 to get a leg up in the professional world. It offers three tracks for its 700 annual participants—civic leadership, public management, and business and entrepreneurship. Since 2014, this State Department-funded initiative has brought more than 3,000 people from across Sub-Saharan Africa to universities in the states to take part in six-week leadership programs that include academic work, community outreach and networking and collaboration with American professionals. And since 2015, UNR has hosted 25 fellows a year as one of several colleges on the business and entrepreneurship track. In addition to working with professors like Croasdell and talks with academics, professionals and politicians, and community outreach that included reading to children at the Downtown Reno Library, this year’s fellows visited Lake Tahoe, toured Tesla and a mine in Winnemucca, and went as far afield as the Bay Area to visit tech giants there.
Different Dreams
The 2018 Mandela Washington fellows pose for a photo with Governor Brian Sandoval outside of UNR’s Morrill Hall.
photo/jeri chadwell
Mandela Washington Fellows at UNR by jeri chadwell
j eri c@newsr eview.c o m
o
n a Friday morning in mid-July, a group of around 30 people from nearly two dozen different countries gathered in the Clark Room inside historical Morrill Hall on the University of Nevada, Reno campus. They’d come to speak with Gov. Brian Sandoval. Looking around the room before the governor arrived, one of the people from the mostly African delegation asked to know who was portrayed in the portraits lining the walls—all of them of white men. But the answer had to wait. It wasn’t until after Sandoval departed, having
8
join the pack
07.26.18
discussed his educational and political history with the group, that an answer was given. “Someone asked who all of the people in the portraits were,” said Dr. Dave Croasdell, a professor of in UNR’s College of Business Administration. “They’re the past presidents of the university.” “No women then?” asked Fatouma Ahmed Abdallah—a citizen of Djibouti—with a raised eyebrow, before nodding in response to an answer of “not yet.” Abdallah, like most of the people in the room that day, is an entrepreneur—one of 25 who came to Reno as a part of the 2018 Mandela Washington Fellowship. A speciAl supplement to Reno news & Review
While UNR’s fellowship program is geared specifically toward entrepreneurs and business professionals, the fellows’ individual interests and bus iness experiences vary widely. Among the 25 African leaders at UNR this year are a gemologist, a beekeeper and a commercial pilot. And what they intend to do with the knowledge they gain upon returning to their respective countries varies widely, as well. Semakaleng Mothapo—whose background is in social work—is from the township of Bela-Bela in South Africa. Geothermal springs near the town are a popular destination for tourists. And, in recent years, Mothapo has worked to find new ways of engaging these visitors in the hopes of bringing their tourist dollars to the town. “The area has been a tourist destination since the 1800s, and it has 112 lodges,” Mothapo said. “So when I looked at what was happening in the tourism market, it’s that the focus is around the mineral springs and the mountains and the wildlife around the area. … But there is so much beauty in the ghetto that is overlooked by the tourism industry.” Last year, Mothapo began offering “ghetto tours” to tourists—taking them into the township to visit local restaurants, bars, schools and historical sites and interact with residents. The goal is to give visitors a glimpse into what life is like outside the area’s resorts—and to drum up some business for local shops and workers who’ve previously not had much engagement with tourists. “I give tourists who come to the Bela-Bela area ghetto experiences using a walking tour, a public taxi ride and a donkey ride,” Mothapo said. “The tourists get to interact with the local people as they go about their daily lives. That is why I decided to introduce the three modes of transportation. Owning a car as a black person
is life-changing in my country, so I wanted people to actually get a feel for what it’s like to be a black person in Bela-Bela township while experiencing the beauty of the township.” After completing the fellowship, Mothapo will return home and begin work on another project designed to bring tourists to BelaBela—a hotel in the township proper where they can stay, rather than returning to the nearby resorts after their ghetto tours. For Mothapo, the hotel will be a first venture into real estate. But for others among the cohort, it has been a primary business. For Osman Elbashier from Sudan, the hope is that his career in real estate will help him build the recognition and acumen he needs to accomplish his real dream. “You’re looking at the future president of Sudan,” he said. Elbashier holds a master’s in business administration from the European University in Barcelona, Spain. And while he’s currently the chairman and executive manager of OZ Real Estate based in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, he plans to return to school for a PhD in political science. Unlike many of his cohort in the fellowship, Elbashier’s business is well past its nascent stage. “I have 23 staff,” he said. “I don’t have problems not being at home because I’ve been in Barcelona on and off for one and a half years, and my business is growing at the same time. I don’t have to be physically there—for the last two years—so it affords me flexibility. I like to travel around.” When the fellowship concludes, he plans to spend three weeks traveling in the U.S.—in part for fun but also to see which American universities might appeal to him for his doctoral studies. While Elbashier is engaged in one career and contemplating another in the future, many of the other fellows juggle multiple jobs and startups in unrelated fields.
Power Players Daniela Rakotomamonjy from Madagascar has more than a decade of experience in project development, business management and public relations. She holds an engineering degree, a certificate in international business management, and is chief executive officer for a group of five companies from different business sectors that work together on publicprivate partnership projects in ecotourism, agribusiness and renewable energy. She’s also the current fellowship cohort’s resident beekeeper. “That is also my main interest in being in the United States,” she said. “I would like to learn more about the American experience in terms of beekeeping—and the business side.” When she returns to Madagascar, she intends to work toward growing her beekeeping pastime into a business with an emphasis on organic honey and other bee products. Like Rakotomamonjy, Safiatou Nana from Burkina Faso is an engineer. Her master’s is in energy engineering—and with her new startup,
SG Energetics, she hopes to provide power solutions for rural residents in her country through off-the-grid solar systems. “My country—our economy is based on agriculture,” Nana said. “Eighty percent of the population works in agriculture. So when you go to rural communities, like, 90 percent of rural communities are all farmers.” And, she said, almost all of them face the problem of a lack of power and the related infrastructure needed to provide electricity to their farms. “Some projects are coming to our country. NGOs are helping with solar pumping systems,” she said. According to Nana, the big problem with the solar systems that are most often used to pull water from the ground for irrigation is that they’re not mobile. “The big challenge with those fixed solar systems is that you’ll find a farmer who has a solar system on his farm, and he goes back home in the evening, and … he has no light in his house, so the children can’t even study in the evening,” she explained. Her goal is to develop a solar pumping system with a trailer unit equipped with batteries farmers can charge during the day and take home with them to power their houses at night. “The batteries are used to power electricity for his life,” she said. “He also can have a radio and a small TV. The children can now study in the evening. Women can also have extra activities late in the evening.” Nana is another Mandela Washington Fellow with diverse business interests. In addition to her work in energy engineering, she’s the CEO of a small company called Yiri Accessories. It’s a fashion brand that designs, produces and sells handbags and accessories made in Burkina Faso with African materials. During the fellowship, Nana said, she’s had the chance to make connections with professionals in both the energy and fashion professions, including Britton Murdock—owner of the Biggest Little Fashion Truck—to whom she hopes to supply Yiri Accessories in the future. A particular boon for Nana was a tour of Tesla and the opportunity to learn more about its lithium batteries. It’s something for which many of the fellows, especially those in energy-related fields, expressed excitement. For three of the fellows, it was an opportunity to see a final product made from a resource their country, Zimbabwe, has in abundance.
Yours and mine “Zimbabwe has the fifth largest deposit of lithium in the world,” said Garikai Chinake, who’s a certified gemologist and also runs several small mining operations. “But the story of Africa at large has been pretty sad when it comes to minerals—because we don’t add value to our minerals. We just export them as raw, and we don’t value-add them.”
For him and fellow Zimbabweans Nicola Grace Hove and Peter Kamurai Chibayamombe—both of whom also have experience in mining—the Tesla visit was an opportunity to see what might be done with their country’s lithium deposits were they not exported directly after being mined. “What we have going on right now in Zimbabwe is a situation where the country is strategically positioned to become a leader, especially in value addition of lithium—beyond just merely exploring and exploiting it,” said Hove. “We have a vast opportunity as Zimbabweans to also become significant global players in the technology paths around lithium batteries.” The trio also had the opportunity to speak with representatives from Barrick Gold Corporation and Nevada Mining Association when the fellows visited a Winnemucca mining site. And they’re hoping to keep those lines of communication open after their fellowships end. “We want to create relationships between the Nevada mining community and the Zimbabwean mining community,” said Chibayamombe. “Our hope is that at some point in the future we might have some representatives coming from Zimbabwe to learn about the latest mining technologies and that we might also have people from Nevada coming to Zimbabwe to also teach us about the latest technologies that you have. We do have the deposits, but we don’t have the knowledge. We know that if we could start that proper dialogue, we would be able to learn more, and the relationship would be mutual.” “Our ask is simple in Nevada,” said Hove. “We’ve come here. We’ve seen what is here. We’ve learned as much as we can. We’re so grateful for the opportunity, but we feel there’s a huge opportunity between the Nevada mining community and the Zimbabwean mining community. I think the low-hanging fruit here will be lithium. We hear there’s a shortage of lithium—and Zimbabwe is open for business. We have what you need. So how much more exciting can it get?” Hove, Chibayamombe and Chinake— who’ve dubbed themselves “the Zim team”— intend to continue working together after they return to Zimbabwe. But, in the meantime, they’re preparing to finish their fellowships before heading with the rest of their cohort to Washington, D.C. on July 29—where they’ll attend a three-day summit that will include all 700 of this year’s Mandela Washington fellows. Hove has been selected to represent the UNR cohort during presentations to be given by fellows from each participating institution. “I’m also grateful to the fellows at UNR for entrusting with the opportunity to represent them at the Washington, D.C. summit,” she said. “It’s been a great six weeks of learning and networking with the fellows and also the phenomenal people of Reno and Nevada at large.” Ω
07.26.18
join the pack
9
be with the
best
’18
by advertising in our
Best of NortherN Nevada Issue If your business happens to be one of the BEST IN NORTHERN NEVADA or if you’d just like to have your business associated with the Best, it’s THE place to be.
ContaCt your aCCount exeCutive for more information
Help prevent HIv
Don’t sHare tHese. Don’t abuse tHese.
BEST PIERCINGS IN TOWN!
any drug can be abused. If you or a friend are abusing drugs, get help. never share needles. Drug use increases your risk of getting HIv.
Free & ConFIDentIal HIv/stD testIng 775-328-6147
This ad is supported by the Nevada State Division of Public and Behavioral Health through Grant # 2B08TI010039-17 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Division or SAMHSA.
10
join the pack
07.26.18
www.blackholereno.com Call: 775.329.6010 or visit us at 912 S. Virginia St. Reno Nv
A speciAl supplement to Reno news & Review
oin jpack
the
2018
s s a clacts
Camden Mauer and the cast of The Book of Mormon take the stage during last year’s Turning Points: An Evening in the Musical Theatre, a cabaret staged by the department last year.
COURTESY/LUIS MORENO
by jessica santina
New musical theater degree shines spotlight on the triple threat
W
ith a prestigious annual jazz festival, an award-winning publisher, and a permanent collection of artwork, the University of Nevada, Reno’s School of the Arts has been an important player in Northern Nevada’s arts and culture scene. But now it’s gaining prominence on the national stage, thanks to a recently completed $4 million renovation of the Church Fine Arts building, an appearance at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and a new dance major launched last year. And this fall, a new set of faculty will be hard at work establishing the Silver State’s first four-year degree program in musical theater. “The Department of Theatre and Dance is in this great transformative moment,” said Gavin Mayer, the department’s new assistant professor of theater who will direct the new Bachelor of Arts program in Musical Theatre. Originally from Colorado, Mayer is an award-winning professional theater director who was resident director at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, founding co-artistic director for the Historic Elitch Theatre New Works Festival, an adjunct theater faculty at the University of Northern Colorado and a high school drama teacher. His work in both musical theater and curriculum development earned him this UNR position in 2017.
“We have a great musical theater performers, with excellent voices, voice person, CJ Greer, and in dance, acting skills and dance ability. We’re we have Nate Hodges. It’ll be housed building the skill set they need to with theater, but the bachelor of arts in go to New York, which is really musical theatre will be an interdiscithe epicenter of musical theater. … plinary degree with theater, dance and They’re getting a lot thrown at them, music,” Mayer explained. “Last year but it’s vital to understand how to was about getting the pieces in place. incorporate that training into any genre This year, we’ll finish designing of show, from Golden Age to the curriculum and hopecontemporary. So they can fully have Board of walk into any style of Regents approval show and be able by fall 2019.” to perform.” “We’re Mayer Greer building the skill explained brings nearly that the two decades set they need to go to four-year, of experiNew York, which is really 120-credit, ence to her eightposition as the epicenter of musical semester assistant theater.” major will professor encompass of music GaviN MaYer voice, piano, and vocal assistant professor of theatre music theory, director for acting, musical Musical Theatre. theater acting, Her work spans musical theater history, everything from theme audition technique, ballet, parks and cruise ships to regional modern dance and musical theater tours and Broadway. She holds dance courses. Though it’s not an an MFA in musical theatre vocal official degree yet, students can enroll pedagogy and an master’s of music in in courses that will be part of that Classical Performance/Pedagogy from curriculum, which will apply toward Pennsylvania State University. Her the degree once it’s approved. breadth of formal training and profes“Our goal is to be a presional experience hint at what she professional musical theater program,” intends to bring to the UNR program. Mayer said. “It’s basically a triple “As a voice teacher and profesmajor, because those people who do it sional vocalist, the idea of crossover professionally have to be well-rounded training is really important to me,”
Greer said. “I really believe singers should have good, classic foundations and a lot of variety in their training.” Greer will provide individual and group voice coaching at the freshman level, as well as with seniors in the integration of styles and skills for performances. She explained that the current plan is to produce one musical each spring, though she will actively push to add a second, and the team hopes to eventually push the degree beyond a BA to make it a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Nate Hodges brings experience to his role as UNR’s new jazz lecturer in the Department of Dance and dance specialist for Musical Theatre. His background includes founding professional dance company RhetOracle in Southern California, building a new dance department at Santa Monica High School and years of stage and commercial dance performance and choreography. Hodges believes it’s a rare opportunity to find not only a full-time jazz teaching position but also a position that involves creating a new program. “One of the things I’m really excited about is starting the program from the ground up, setting up the infrastructure and culture—that appeals to me, being part of that collaborative experience,” Hodges said. “This is really the first team UNR has created this way, and it’s a great step toward really having a cohesive art department in general.”
Hodges admires the way in which UNR’s theater faculty have mixed the conventional and unconventional—for example, setting last spring’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on the Black Rock playa. “I’m excited about finding ways that dance can help tell some stories in unconventional ways, and I want to hone in on new ways for dance to push a story along.” Both Greer and Hodges noted the emphasis on collaboration, progressive attitude and young, open-minded faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance as important draws to the new program. Mayer added that the increased programming and community engagement the Musical Theatre program will bring as valuable steps along UNR’s path toward earning the Carnegie Foundation’s highest research distinction, an R-1 ranking. Next spring’s production of Urinetown: The Musical will serve as an unofficial kickoff to the new major, though no official production lineup for the program has been announced. “Now we have faculty on staff, we can start talking about the details of the program roll-out,” Mayer said. “Musical theater is a collaborative art, so these decisions need to be made together. We’re excited about Urinetown, a musical satire about corporate greed, so it will be a great challenge, and it’s a great stepping stone to rolling out the program. I think audiences will get a kick out of it.” Ω 07.26.18
join the pack
11
LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER. GOOD THROUGH 9/7/18. MAY NOT BE COMBINED WITH ANY OTHER DISCOUNT.