Dennis Hassan, OLRC Artistic Director, to Deliver June’s Kiger Hour Talk June 21

 Dennis Hassan, associate professor of scenic design at Utah State University, will discuss his specialty of creating large-scale puppets for professional productions at the next Kiger Hour talk June 21. During his talk, “Breathing life into inanimate objects: puppetry in contemporary theatre design,”  he will share some of his recent designs, trends in contemporary theater and the teamwork involved in making 10 operators move like a single character.
           
“As film and television aim for ever increasing realism, many theater productions have gone in the other direction, tapping ancient puppetry traditions in combination with new technologies to create a unique form of expression,” he said. “Operators don’t hide behind the puppets, becoming a visible and accepted extension of the character. Large-scale puppets are manipulated by teams working silently and seamlessly together.”
           
Hassan designs puppets as large as 8 to 24 feet tall and operated by as many as 10 puppeteers and works as artistic director of the Old Lyric Repertory Company, a professional summer theater company based in USU’s Theatre Arts Department and the Caine College of the Arts. He has designed more than 140 productions for companies that include the Fulton, Maine State Musical Theatre, ACT/Hawaii, Hale Center, Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, the Old Lyric Repertory Company and Utah State Theatre. In 2011, he designed sets for “Amadeus” for the Old Lyric Repertory Company, “Xanadu!” for Maine State Musical Theatre and “Oliver!” for the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre.
           
During his sabbatical in 2008-09, Hassan studied traditional hand carved marionette building and contemporary puppetry technique in performance under puppet masters in Prague.          
 
Learn more about his experience designing sets at Kiger Hour, an intellectual program presented by Utah State University and sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Caine College of the Arts. The event will be held Thursday, June 21, from 5:15 to 7 p.m. at Hamilton’s Steak and Seafood, 2427 N. Main St., Logan.
           
There will be no Kiger Hour presentations in July or August. The series will return in September.
           
A buffet with appetizers, desserts and soft drinks, iced tea or coffee is available. Cost is $6.95 per person (plus tax and gratuity) and billed on an individual basis. Guests can also order from the menu, and a cash bar is available.
           
For planning purposes, please RSVP to Natalie Archibald Smoot in the college office, 435-797-2796, or email, natalie.archibald@usu.edu.