Curtain call: Performing Arts senior graduating from USI stage

Antonio King watched the USI Performance Center rise to completion during his last three years at the University of Southern Indiana and, just a few months before graduation, took the stage in the lead role of its first production. Family and friends traveled from as far as Indianapolis to watch King portray Hal in William Inge's Picnic, which opened in February.

"It really puts the icing on the cake of graduating, because this is my senior year, it's the only play I'm doing this semester and it will be my last at USI," he said. "It's so exciting to finally see it come to fruition."

For the last several years, USI Theatre staged productions in the Mallette Studio Theatre, a 100-seat black box theatre within the Liberal Arts Center. That intimate space was a change for King, whose early training was at an Indianapolis high school with a large auditorium.

"I became comfortable in being smaller with my acting. USI taught me how to truthfully react to other acting partners. In high school, it was very mechanical and rehearsed; when I got to USI Theatre it was more about being spontaneous and listening."

In the 300-seat Performance Center, King said, "The challenge is taking the listening aspect and acting as natural as possible, but making it broad and big enough that everyone can see it."

The new space demands that performers "scale up" their performances for the space, concurred Elliot Wasserman, chair of Performing Arts. "As a training ground, as a means of anticipating the true demands of a professional actors, the Performance Center is a much more realistic test," he said.

"It replicates the kind of demands they will face going forward. It is still a very intimate space, but demands amplification of gesture and vocal projection on the part of the actor."

King agreed. "It amps up all the dramatic scenes in the play because they have to be seen from the back of the theater as opposed to just two feet in front of you."

Sharing the stage with professional actors, King's role in Picnic allowed him to gain valuable points toward qualifying to join the Actors Equity Association as part of USI Theatre's Repertory Project, a partnership with New Harmony Theatre.

Wasserman said because the Performance Center is so well-equipped it also will serve as a "proving ground" for students studying the technical aspects of theatre.  "When they graduate, these students will be at the top of the academic learning curve and ready to work. They will be prepared for any professional situation they may confront after graduation."

When King talks to would-be students about USI, he doesn't focus on the fabulous new performance space, access to Equity professionals or other amenities. "Those are perks," he said. "I tell them what drew me to USI: the faculty. When you're in class Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m., it's your professor who is really going to teach you your craft, and that is the most important thing.