Thursday, December 22, 2011

Upbeat arts in a down economy

Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson, director of theater at University of Illinois Springfield, is determined to continue providing another kind of artistic experience for Springfield theatergoers with a taste for something different.

“In Springfield, we realize that our niche is continuing to be: we do the plays. A lot of people do the musicals around town, and we love musicals, but we’re a little more the place for dramatic literature onstage,” he explains. “Not just the classics like Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, but also the newer work that’s winning Tonys and Pulitzers on Broadway, from playwrights like Neil LaBute and Rebecca Gilman. I love a good production of Annie or Fiddler on the Roof, but we want to complement that with other things that theater can be.”

Thibodeaux-Thompson's comments were featured in an December 22, 2011, edition of the Illinois Times.

Read the article online