The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, September 10, 2015 — 3B

Artscapade leads 
arts engagement

Arts at Michigan 
brings art offerings 

to students

 

By GRACE HAMILTON

Daily Arts Writer

“Our product is the student,” 

said Joe Levickas, interim direc-
tor of Arts at Michigan. For 
almost 16 years now, Arts at 
Michigan programs have worked 
on shaping, guiding and improv-
ing their product.

An ideal product — each ver-

sion different in appearance and 
mechanics — is the well-round-
ed student who is engaged and 
inspired by things outside of his 
or herself. If you’re reading this, 
you may very well be one of these 
special models.

“Art presents the opportu-

nity for alternative perspec-
tives. It gives people the power 
to connect things around them,” 
Levickas said.

Artscapade, an event hosted 

by Arts at Michigan each Sep-
tember, carefully engulfs stu-
dents with such opportunities.

Aside from Saturdays at the 

Big House, graduation or events 
like 2 Chainz and the New York 
Philharmonic at Hill Auditori-
um, there are few events on cam-
pus that draw in students and 
other Ann Arbor residents by the 
thousands.

Artscapade has and contin-

ues to comfortably fit more than 
3,000 students in the University 
of Michigan Museum of Mod-
ern Art every year since 1999. 
Inspired by Escapade, a similar 
event for student organizations 
held at the Michigan Union, the 
goal of the program is to intro-
duce new freshman and other 
students to artistic groups on 
campus, and give them an oppor-
tunity to explore the ways other 
Michigan students are partici-
pating in the arts.

This year’s Artscapade, which 

took place Friday, Sept. 4, kicked 
off with a performance by per-
cussion group Groove, as well 
as WBCN DJs outside of the 
museum, where a picnic feeding 
thousands took place in front of 
Angell Hall.

I stopped by this year to check 

it out, the second time since I 
attended the event two years ago 
as a freshman. It was clear from 
the wandering and offensively 
bright blobs of yellow T-shirted 
friends that many of these stu-
dents, if not most of them, were 
also freshman.

The event is a sensory explo-

sion and tactile adventure. In 
addition to having the chance 
to view the impressive — and 
arguably underexplored — exhi-

bitions on display, there is live 
music, dance, film screenings, 
games and opportunities to win 
prizes from nearby businesses.

“Having thousands of people 

who are all suddenly saying, 
‘Oh let’s go to the museum,’ and 
for other students to be able to 
showcase their own work just 
creates a totally different atmo-
sphere,” Levickas said.

“The museum is packed and 

still everyone here is so involved, 
either watching the perform-
ers or doing the activities set 
up,” said Art & Design junior 
Elise Haadsma, a member of the 
dance group Cadence, said. “It’s 
so fun because to perform in this 
environment because the audi-
ence is so enthusiastic.”

Ann Arbor has long been 

recognized for its vibrant artis-
tic culture, one that is largely 
fostered by the presence of the 
University and its students. 
With K-12 arts education slip-
ping over the course of the last 
three decades — due to budget 
cuts and an increased focus on 
testing, among other things — 
the high level of engagement 
between student organizations 
and the arts is a big thumbs-up.

That being said, the number 

of students who haven’t made it 
to UMMA by their senior year 
(or any arts event on campus for 
that matter) is probably higher 
than it should be. I asked Levick-
as about what the major barriers 
to high engagement were.

“One of the big things that 

seems to be insurmountable is 
time — people talk about not 
having any time. But another 
major thing people say is that 
they can’t afford it or ‘I don’t 
know anything about it,’ so a 
number of the things that we do 
are meant to try and get around 
those barriers,” Levickas said. 
One of the finest examples of 
this mission in practice is the 
Passport to the Arts initiative. 
Students can pick up a Passport 

voucher every two weeks and 
attend one of the events listed 
with a free or discounted ticket.

Levickas, who has been with 

Arts at Michigan for six years 
and has a background in paint-
ing and arts education, empha-
sized that Artscapade is also 
an important part of solving 
these problems and the pro-
gram’s greater mission. “We 
want to connect undergraduate 
students to the arts; music, the-
ater, film dance, literary arts, 
whatever it may be,” Levickas 
said. “Our goal is to try and 
be that connective tissue, find-
ing ways for them to build their 
identities or to learn something 
new about what’s happening on 
campus.”

Measuring the effectiveness 

of this connection can be dif-
ficult. One of the things that 
Arts at Michigan does is survey 
everyone who uses a voucher. 
Questions 
are 
intentionally 

open-ended, giving way to some 
interesting results.

“We ask questions like, ‘Have 

you ever been to an event like 
this?’ And that can lead to many 
answers. But whatever it is, a 
third are saying they’ve never 
been to an event like that one, 
and literally 99.5 percent fol-
low that by saying they would 
go to an event like that again,” 
Levickas said.

With that idea in mind, the 

most important thing to know 
is that participation, or just 
observation, does not mean 
expertise. You need not under-
stand the art of film, contem-
porary painting, or be writing 
a dissertation on modern dance 
in order to criticize it, enjoy it, 
laugh at it or cry. Not only are 
these valid responses, they’re 
good ones.

And someone wants to hear 

about it. Don’t deprive them of 
your voice, and certainly don’t 
deprive yourself of realizing you 
have one.

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

Groove performs at Artscapade.

AACT revives classic 
Addams characters

By BAILEY KADIAN

Daily Arts Writer

The Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, 

an organization dripping in histo-
ry and opportunity since 1929, will 
open its next 
feature: 
The 

Addams 
Fam-

ily, the musical 
comedy 
based 

on 
the 
well-

known Charles 
Addams 
car-

toons. 

Written 

by 
Marshall 

Brickman and 
Rick 
Elice, 

with 
music 

and lyrics by 
Andrew Lippa, 
“The Addams 
Family” 
depicts the story created from 
Addams’s 
original 
cartoons, 

rather than from the numerous 
adaptations of TV series and 
film. The simplicity of his work 
leaves room for creativity while 
adapting these iconic figures to 
the stage.

“We stay true to the origi-

nal cartoon characters, but I 
really think people will forget 
halfway through the show that 
these characters are supposed 
to be weird.,” director Trish 
Fountain said.

Fountain described the story 

as relatable and she stressed 
that 
the 
characters 
should 

“come off as accessible, while 
also being fun.”

The original directors and 

designers 
of 
the 
Broadway 

musical, 
Phelim 
McDermott 

and Julian Crouch, described 
Addams’s reality as different 
and inverted. While bringing 
these cartoons to the stage, they 
hoped to properly represent the 
macabre world of the Addams 

cartoons, while bringing new 
elements to the Addams’s work.

There is a challenge with 

a work so well known to stay 
loyal to an audience’s expecta-
tions, but designers must also 
focus on taking risks in how 
the humor of the piece is rep-
resented, as well as the charac-
ters within it. This production 
should honor the simplicity of 
the Addams cartoons, without 

falling into the clichéd versions 
of these familiar characters.

“Because this is a modern ver-

sion of cartoons that were created 
decades ago, we wanted to freshen 
up the look a bit,” Fountain said, 
while explaining the approach to 
designing the show. These mod-
ern elements are incorporated 
into the stage design, as well as 
the costume, hair and make-up 
design.

The original Broadway pro-

duction of “The Addams Fam-
ily” opened in April 2010 at the 
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New 
York City, and closed in Decem-
ber of 2011 after 35 previews and 
722 performances. The produc-
tion won a Drama Desk Award 
for Outstanding Set Design and 
won multiple audiences awards 
including Broadway.com’s Favor-
ite New Broadway Musical.

The musical tells the story of 

Wednesday Addams, who has 
fallen in love with Lucas Beinek. 
Lucas and his “normal” family are 

invited to a dinner at the Addams’s 
mansion in Central Park. Wednes-
day’s father, Gomez, is put into 
further turmoil towards this visit 
when his daughter chooses to 
share the news of her recent love 
with him, begging him not to tell 
her mother. Gomez finds himself 
in a conflict between honoring his 
daughter’s request and keeping 
secrets from his wife Morticia, 
which is something he’s never 
done. The ensuing chaos is comi-
cal and wild, calling for actors 
that can portray distinct person-
alities and sell an audience on the 
story of a family of misfits as they 
attempt to interact with those 
considered “normal.”

“When casting a musical, 

vocal range and the color of the 
voice are just as important as 
the look and characterization 
of an actor,” Fountain said. “We 
were incredibly lucky to find 
people that fit each character 
really well, and complimented 
the other actors in the show.”

University of Michigan stu-

dents and recent alumni are 
involved in both the cast and 

production of this show, as 
A2CT aims to include as much 
of the Ann Arbor community as 
possible in their productions. 
And the humor and enjoyment 
of Addams’s original cartoons 
has no doubt rubbed off on 
A2CT’s team.

“I want audiences to know 

how much fun we’ve had creat-
ing this production, and I think 
that will show in each perfor-
mance,” Fountain said.

“I want 

audiences to 

know how much 
fun we’ve had.”

Comical and 

wild 

The 
Addams 
Family

September 
10-13

Lydia 

Mendelssohn 

Theater

Tickets: $19-

$25 (Adult) 

$13 (Student)

