Showtime: NIU theater, anthropology students get tours of Stevens Building

DeKALB – Northern Illinois University students who will take courses in the renovated Stevens Building enjoyed quite the opening act Saturday.

NIU staff proudly gave tours of the new home of the School of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Anthropology and showed off the finer points of the epicenter of NIU’s fine arts programs.

The $30 million renovation and addition nearly doubled the building’s size, from about 62,000 square feet to more than 106,000 square feet. The building gained a black box theater, expanded scene shop, movement lab and updated classrooms for both departments.

Alex Gelman, director of the School of Theatre and Dance, said he’s excited to have a large freshman class starting coursework Monday.

“We can’t wait to put our new home to good use,” he said. “With our old movement lab, we couldn’t jump, but with this new one, we can juggle, move, wield a broadsword or whatever else we need.”

Gelman said despite being displaced from the building the past few years, the level of instruction has held steady.

“We have an extraordinary faculty, and that hasn’t changed,” he said. “We had to invent ways to produce, but now we have a chance for our tools to catch up with our skills. We finally have a home where our community will grow.”

Construction began in April 2014 and was projected to wrap up in October 2015, but two state budget impasses and construction stalls caused substantial delays. The state-funded project originally was expected to cost about $27 million, but inflation took its toll over the past five years.

State-of-the-art performance spaces are long overdue for Joe Cambroni, an incoming junior in theater.

"When I was in high school, I performed in the cafeteria, and when
I came to NIU, I still performed in a cafeteria," he said. "Now with Stevens Building updated, I can feel what it's like to perform at a professional level."

Zoe Greenwald, another junior in theater, said getting everywhere she needed to be the past couple of years was a struggle.

“Now in one spot, we can work in this professional space, becoming stronger and more active in our community,” she said.

Trace Nunnally, Theatre and Dance’s technology director, is looking forward to the new school year. Nunnally said, “Before the new space, a large part of our jobs was learning how to function without a home. Not teaching wasn’t an option, so we made a way. Most of the focus was building things just to transports sets, costumes, people to other locations. Now with Stevens reopening, our focus can be on the actual projects and offering a complete education for our students.”

The School of Theatre and Dance’s first production, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “The Flick,” written by Annie Baker, opens Oct. 3.

Kendall Thu, chair of the Department of Anthropology, said his department also was displaced the past five years, as it was housed in Grant Towers, but classrooms were all over campus.

“Now we have a central location that opens up endless possibilities for our department,” he said.

On Saturday, Thu proudly showed new classrooms and laboratories filled with articulated primate skeletons and NIU’s bone collection, including what he said is the oldest fossil primate bone ever discovered.

A new lecture hall can seat 330 students and be reconfigured into three separate classrooms.

Thu hopes the renovations and additions can help NIU recruit more students – and more talent.

“We are looking for an increase in enrollment,” Thu said, beaming. “We are glad to have a space to continue our excellence in research.”