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This is Inside M-Side, your favorite podcast for all things Morningside.
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Here's stories from students, alumni, faculty, and more about what makes the
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Morningside experience so special.
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Hello, hello.
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Welcome back to Inside M-Side.
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I'm one of your hosts, Alison, and today we're going to be talking about all
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things theater, Lamb Theater, Morningside, all of the great stuff.
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So with me today, I'll let you guys introduce yourselves.
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Heath, do you want to go first?
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My name's Heath Weber.
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I'm the Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts.
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And my name is Brock Borick.
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I'm the Manager of Theater Operations for Lamb Theater, as well as a proud
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Morningside alum, class of 19.
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Woo!
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Love it.
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Okay.
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So we have this wonderful partnership with Lamb.
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Can you guys both kind of walk me through what that is, what it looks like?
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Heath, I'll have you start.
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Absolutely.
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We have been in partnership with Lamb for the last two years when they had a rather
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unfortunate incident at their, their former building.
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Uh, and we obviously had space and, and wanted them to be a part of what we're
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doing and have now officially, um, finalized that, that partnership to make
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it a permanent piece of Morningside's campus.
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Um, what that has allowed us to do is really broaden, um, our, our
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production season at Morningside.
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Um, previously we were doing a two or three productions a year, and now we're
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up to nine, uh, which is really outstanding and it gives our students a
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really incredible opportunity to not only act and tech for shows, but also
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really understand what a, uh, a not-for-profit, uh, professional
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theater can, can offer for them.
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Um, I'll, I'll let Brock talk a little bit more too about some of the, the
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neat, like intergenerational things, but, um, we're so pleased to have,
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to have Lamb on campus.
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Yeah.
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And we're really excited to be on campus.
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It's been so fun.
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Yeah.
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And as you're talking about, again, this is a massive change from doing
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only two or three productions a year to now doing nine or even 10, because
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we're always looking and trying to find new ways to do performances and bring
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very, um, performance venue type of experiences to the stage.
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So this next year that we have coming up, we will have a closer to 11
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opportunities that people can perform in on the main stage, which is very exciting.
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It's a little daunting too, but, um, it's so exciting because, you know,
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you talk to any institution, even vaguely in the area and beyond.
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And a lot of them, their eyes glaze over.
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They go, whoa, that's, that's a lot.
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We go, yes, it is a lot, but that's also the beauty of this partnership
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is not any one thing falls onto one person's shoulders.
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You know, it's not just lamb.
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It's not just Morningside.
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Both of us.
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And it's very joint.
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And so we're, we're very excited because there's so much promise and
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opportunity in kind of all these avenues that, you know, we get to work
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with the students and the students get to work with us, um, we just recently
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in our March production that we had, you know, we just had a student who
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got to work alongside a community member.
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Yeah.
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And he is, he's a counselor in this very area and she wants to
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go into psychology and counseling.
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And so she was kind of picking his brain after a couple of rehearsals
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and asking like, Hey, if I wanted to get into this field, what should I look into?
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And so he was just kind of guiding her and talking her through some of the
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things, and it was so rewarding to just kind of get to see this partnership,
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really do what, what we want it to be, which is just students making these
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lifelong connections and kind of getting their foot in the door before
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they even step off campus.
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And then our community members that they get to interact with and
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collaborate with these students.
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It's just, it's a wonderful, warm process.
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Yes.
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I love it.
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Um, and talking about community, LAM does a lot of community engagement
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with like younger school kids and just across the board does a lot, just
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for the community outside of just putting on the shows, can you kind
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of talk to me about some of like the programming that you guys do?
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I know you guys have the LAM camps and some of that stuff.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So we have, uh, afterschool classes that we teach, um, and those range
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anywhere from kindergarten, first grade up through graduating high school students.
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Um, we have classes Monday through Thursday, depending on the semester,
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we may offer a Saturday class as well, but yeah, so we have various
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different options, um, this kind of beginning learning acting.
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We do a little bit of voice lessons.
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We have a musical theater class.
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So the kids that really enjoy singing and dancing, we, we can,
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uh, incorporate all of that for them.
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We have a high school acting class, but then we also do this thing.
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It's kind of weird.
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Now that we're here on campus, it gets a little confusing when we have our
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staff meetings and we're talking about university and we go, okay, this
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university or the LAM university.
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Cause you, you know, it's, uh, kind of the baby version of LAM EWE.
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Um, so we call our LAM U university and it's where we have a three week
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summer camp in June and July for our students, uh, and that's
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first grade through 12th grade.
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And these students, they just come together and we kind of do a, again,
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it's not necessarily like a show, like a typical show, but we perform all
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of these songs and dances and we kind of put together a showcase.
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Um, and so we have kind of one night, a one night performance where we just
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invite all of their families to come in and it's a wonderful time.
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But within those three weeks, it's a Monday through Thursday, um, 9 AM to
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noon, and these students kind of attend various different classes and workshops.
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And so, okay, we really fine tune the music here.
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We learn the dance.
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And so I actually, I've taught our dance, our choreography for these, uh,
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workshops for these summer classes for the last couple of years.
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So it's fun, really fun to have this LAM university, but again, I think
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just this last week, Keith and I were in a, um, in one of our staff meetings
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and we were talking about the university and I had to go, are we, oh, we're
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talking about this coming summer's university, not the university.
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Yeah, so it's all fun.
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Good problem to have.
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Yeah.
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Great problem to have.
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And it's just, it's so fun.
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I know Heath has said this as well as other people.
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It's so exciting to, to just see all these young students, um, on campus.
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And I know that it's a great opportunity for Morningside that we have all of this
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potential perspective students that these kids can kind of grow up from, you know,
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they can come beyond our campus in third grade and, you know, so it's kind of
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slowly sets into like, Hey, Morningside is a viable option.
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Like you're familiar with this place.
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Come be a part of our family.
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Um, but it's just, it's so rewarding just to see these kids singing and
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dancing and running around campus as if they have already been going here.
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And it just warms my heart as an alum, you know, that I'm like, well, this is my home.
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This is my alma mater.
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And I'm like, I love that you kids feel comfortable and safe and welcomed here.
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I love it.
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That's the best.
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I love it.
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Um, can you, uh, one of the big parts of this release in this partnership is that
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LAM has also committed nearly a million dollars of grant money to some of the
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like fundraising efforts, kind of like changing up the seats.
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And there's been talks of new lighting, new sound system.
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That is so exciting.
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Tell me more.
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I, uh, I like going to see shows in Clinger Neal.
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So more comfy seats.
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I love all of that.
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Tell me all about it.
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Yeah.
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Um, the, this is the hard part about this is there's only a couple of things that
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will really be like seen by our patrons, by the audience that they get to fully
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kind of touch, if you will, that they're like, Oh, Hey, like these are the updates
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and the changes.
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So we are getting all brand new seats in the auditorium, which is just really
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exciting for, yeah, for, yeah, exactly.
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For Clinger Neal.
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And we still have the original seats from the sixties.
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So we're really excited to update those.
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I know we have a lot of patrons that are like, Hey, these seats are a little rough.
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We're like, yeah, they are, but we're so excited to be getting some new ones.
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So we're, we're so excited to be a part of that process.
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Um, we're going to be getting kind of some new, um, drapery kind of along the side
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walls.
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So that's something the audiences will see.
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We also are going to be getting a massive screen wall.
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Um, I don't even know how, how massive to, uh, explain it's 30 feet by 20.
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Yeah.
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30 feet by 20 feet.
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Yeah.
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It's, um, all this, all these led screen wall.
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And the best part is now we can deconstruct it into smaller panels if we want.
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So we can use it out in the lobby.
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We can bring it over to other buildings if we want to do things, you know, on the
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spot or on the fly, you know, we're, that's part of the, the plan is to, you know,
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collaborate with other, um, programs on campus of like, Hey, how can we work together?
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Those people who, who have seen Christmas at Morningside and understand that giant
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screen, it's the same thing.
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It's actually the same company.
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So we're really excited about, about those pieces.
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And, you know, like Brock said, the, uh, what it offers that, that, that
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intergenerational piece is that our audience, like Brock said, isn't going to
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really know what it is that's new, but they'll go, Oh, Oh my goodness.
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That's super cool.
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And well, that's our new lighting system, or I can hear this.
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The microphones are super crisp and super clean and there's no feedback.
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Well, that's the new sound system.
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And, you know, it, it really allows for, um, so many great new opportunities in
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production that we, we currently don't get to offer, gives our students an
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opportunity to work on cutting edge equipment, uh, which just doesn't happen.
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You know, like I think one of the pieces that, that is so exciting for us as a, as
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a theater institution will be that, you know, local high schools are updating,
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um, their, their facilities at a pretty high rate, you know, there's new, new
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auditoriums going up and new this and new that, but these kinds of pieces that we
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are putting into the, uh, into the theater, no one has, you know, these are
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absolutely professional level kind of opportunities for students, um, for.
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For professionals too.
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There, there isn't a, a 30 by 20 foot video wall.
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There, there isn't a turntable there.
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There isn't, you know, brand new led lights or those are pieces that we are
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going to be so fortunate to get to share with our patrons also that we
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get to share with our students.
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Yeah.
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That's going to be really exciting to just really amp up and boost our production
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value.
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I was just going to say, especially the value of it.
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And like you guys talk about like, oh, you're going to see stuff and the
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mics are going to be crisper.
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It's like, it helps with the immersiveness of seeing a show.
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And some of that, I feel like it's like almost kind of getting lost that it's
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like, we need people like you guys in the world to like reinvest into the arts
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and really like, you know, see the value and going and seeing a live performance,
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especially, you know, where we are right now with technology.
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I so would just mother much rather watch a live performance than scroll on my
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phone.
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I just see more value in that.
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And I think a lot of people are getting to that point as well.
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So it's very exciting stuff for Morningside, for LAM.
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I love it.
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Can you guys kind of tell me about, you know, coming from Morningside, you get to
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LAM.
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What did that journey look like for you?
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Yeah.
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So it was really exciting.
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I got my job at LAM three days before I walked across the stage to get my diploma,
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which was the most exhilarating and panic-induced moment, just like I need job
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security.
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I'm about to graduate.
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And so it was just such a sigh of relief.
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And it has been such a wonderful process because since I have graduated, we have
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been in collaboration with Morningside every year since.
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And so it just, you know, this collaboration didn't come out of nowhere.
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We were already in conversations and, you know, we were talking about, you know, we've
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had Taylor Clemons, you know, our acting artistic director and, you know, jack of all
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trades for our theater company.
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He's come over and done scenic designs, lighting designs at LAM Theater.
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We've collaborated, you know, we've borrowed equipment from you guys, so on and so
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forth. You guys have borrowed things from us, furniture pieces, set pieces.
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So we've already been in conversations.
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And before we made the transition to be over here long term, when our building was
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kind of in its final stages, we had actually had a kind of precursor conversation with
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Morningside of like, hey, is there any chance that we could come over and just be here
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for a year? And we would, you know, we're thinking maybe starting off the season in
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August or September and we'll be over here.
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And that would have been 2024, I believe.
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So we're like, hey, you know, so if we can start that season and then we'll just be
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here for a year and then we'll be out of your hair and we'll go off.
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And then push came to shove and things kind of fell into place in a beautiful,
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serendipitous way that we went, hey, it's March and so we're about nine months ahead
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of schedule. Can we move in now?
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And Morningside was like, absolutely, we're here for you.
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And it was you guys were just such a wonderful saving grace.
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And just they opened the doors and just were like, what can we do?
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How can we support you?
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How can we aid this collaboration and really uplift you guys and make sure that the
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theater is strong and it keeps going?
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And so that was a very daunting experience of, OK, well, we're in the middle of a
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season and we got to rush in and we got to kind of fine tune.
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And so it was a lot of working with one another of Morningside has its ways of doing
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things and LAM has its ways.
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And so that has been kind of this weird dichotomy that we've been figuring out the
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last couple of years of like, OK, where are our two identities similar and where are
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they separate? And so it's just making sure that like Morningside, their productions,
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their two to three productions they do a year, those are Morningside productions.
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So those are only going to be productions for the students.
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And we really try to make sure that the students are very heavily involved behind the
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scenes as well as on the stage.
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So we have a lot of assistant designers, a lot of programmers.
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They're working as crew members, whereas LAM's productions, it is still the community
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members. It is LAM kind of in charge of everything.
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But we're making sure that there are still opportunities that the students can be
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involved should they wish to.
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And some students are like, no, I'm OK.
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Like, I want to hang out more with my with my buddies.
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And and the wonderful thing about doing nine to eleven productions is that it is
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impossible for anyone to do all of them.
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And we are just so grateful that we have this opportunity, that the students have the
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chance that they can kind of pick and choose and go, well, I'm not just stuck with doing
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these three productions a year.
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Now I have eleven.
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I have nine. I have however many productions I want to participate in.
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And I can go, OK, with my schedule, I can do this and I can do that and I can still do
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student government. I can still be an R.A.
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I can be on the soccer team.
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And that's I think that that's what we love so much about Morningside is, you know, I
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always talk about Morningside.
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We always encourage our students to have your hand in as many cookie jars as you can, as
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long as you can still eat those cookies and not get yourself sick.
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You know, it's like obviously you got to find a point where you can't do everything.
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But Morningside does such a great job of collaborating and working with the students.
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And so with us, with Lamb Theater being on campus, that's our job, too, is we want to
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make sure that we're working with the students as best as we can to.
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And what other place can say that, you know, you go to school here, you do some shows,
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you're leaving with collegiate theater credits and you're leaving with professional
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theater credits. That is the coolest thing around.
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I was just going to talk about the scalability is very, very impressive.
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It's a great thing for Siouxland.
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It's a great thing for Morningside.
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It benefits all of us. So I just think it's really wonderful.
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And we keep getting better at it.
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You know, I think that's the best part about the the the partnership overall, is that, as
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Brock said, there there were strange moments at the beginning, as there often are.
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Right. Anytime you're doing something new and and there's one way of doing it, there's
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another way of doing it. But we got to find this way of doing it.
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And as we have really become comfortable with how each team works and and absolutely
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meshed those two ideas, which is ultimately what we want our our students to know, too, is
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that those things are possible.
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You can have two very different ideas and make them come together in a way that's going
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to benefit so many more people.
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But that has been a really wonderful outcome in now year two point five of this
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partnership is that now we know that it's it's here for good.
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And and how that has impacted our ability to to collaborate on the season, to work with
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Brock. Brock teaches some of our courses in in intro to theater and in some voice and
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movement pieces. So we're so lucky to have a an alum, but also an alum working in
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professional theater who's getting to teach our our students.
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Here's here's some of the reality of what of what this is about.
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And so, again, to your scalability piece, it it's just going to get better and better and
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better. And we're so excited and thankful and and grateful for for the opportunity to
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to work together.
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00:17:51,239
And that was going to be my last question is, you know, forward vision in 10 years.
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You know, where do you guys think theater at Morningside with Blam?
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Like, what's your guys's vision for the future?
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Oh, wow. That is a it's a big question.
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I mean, ultimately, the the main one that I really just care about is just to be doing it.
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You know, it's just it's we're very fortunate to just be in our demographic, to be in this
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part of the country that, you know, theater.
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Obviously, we're not New York City.
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We're not Chicago, right?
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Like theater is not as big or as important to the community as it is in certain areas
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of this country.
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And so to me, the most important part is just being able to show up every day and, you know,
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getting to do what I love and getting to work with people that I love and getting to share
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my my passion for the arts and the craft and getting to work with people.
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And, you know, and as you were saying, like, it's a huge joy of mine is being an adjunct
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professor here at Morningside of like, I get to kind of give back a little bit to my
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own alma mater.
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And it's so fun to help shape the minds of students.
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And my favorite days of class are where we just have open conversations.
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And I'm like, hey, have you considered this?
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Have you thought about this topic in this way?
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And they go, whoa, no, I haven't.
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And I'm like, great.
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I'm like, because for me, the most important part of any class that I teach and when I
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work with these students is like, I just want you to justify your thoughts and opinions.
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I want you to have your own thoughts and opinions.
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And what is art?
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But if not that, you know, if like, you're not always going to love every single movie,
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TV show, theatrical piece, every artwork.
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If you go to an art museum, you're not going to be in love with every single piece.
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But can you engage with it in a way that allows you to move yourself forward in this world?
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Whether you go, oh, I don't like this and be able to critically understand
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why you don't like something.
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Or can you go, wow, I really enjoyed that.
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That evoked something in me.
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And I want to continue to explore that in any way.
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But that's to me, that is what 10 years down the line.
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That's what I want is I just I want to continue to allow the art itself to just
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touch people and be there for them and support them and whatever they need it to be.
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Gosh, from an institutional perspective, we want to be able to offer all of these shows,
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not only for our students, but for the larger Siouxland community.
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The power behind the arts on campus at Morningside is significant, well over 100 years old.
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00:20:33,040
We just celebrated 100 years of the Morningside Choir.
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The Morningside Wind Ensemble is well over 125 years old.
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Lamb is going on its 47th season this next year.
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00:20:48,000
So clearly we have organizations that are rooted in the history of this place.
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The Sioux City Symphony started at Morningside.
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That's we are the symphony is there because of Morningside, Leo Kaczynski.
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00:21:02,560
And so we are so intertwined with the arts on campus.
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And while we love how strong our athletic presence is in the region and nationally,
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we also know that we we have an equally powerful artistic presence regionally and nationally.
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And so these kind of opportunities are are not a dime a dozen.
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Right.
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So our students will be getting something that they will not get in another place.
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And that's, I think, the most powerful thing.
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And in 10 years.
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Wow.
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I mean, look, where could we be?
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And that's, I think, the thing that is the most exciting is really the sky is the limit.
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I would love to see every single show sold out.
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And the students who are chomping at the bit to be in productions and a community that supports
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live theater in a way that that makes us very proud.
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Thank you guys so much for coming on and chatting with me about theater.
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I love theater.
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I'm a former theater kid, so I love talking to you guys.
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And yeah, that's all.
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We'll see you guys in a little bit, about a week or two.
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And thanks for tuning in.
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Bye.
