UNLV Students and Faculty Perform in Australia

The College of Fine Arts participated for the second year in the Adelaide Fringe Festival – the second largest fringe festival in the world. Seven faculty members and 28 students traveled to Adelaide in South Australia in March to participate in the performing arts events. In a truly unique experience, students and faculty were able to bring a little Las Vegas to Adelaide.

The UNLV group presented several different pieces at the festival, ranging from dance performance, to percussion, to short films. The highlight performance, titled “Sin City, the Golden Years,” was a collaborative performance written by Sean Clark, an associate professor in the film department. Set in the Moonlight Lounge in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve 1963, the student performers in this original take on a group of Las Vegas entertainers shared their talents through song, dance, and comedy.

Clark enjoyed working with the students and faculty on this collaborative project. “Richard Havey did a great job as choreographer working with the dancers,” said Clark. “All of the students performed incredibly well, which was very rewarding.”

“The students are integrally involved with the production from the initial ideas for the show, through costuming, stage design, adjustments in direction and the rehearsal process which gives them an appreciation of every aspect of mounting advertising and producing a show,” said Tim Jones, a UNLV visiting lecturer and a graduate of the University of Adelaide. “The cultural experience and being immersed in an environment rich in the arts gives them perspective of what is going on in the world today.”

The students aren't the only ones who benefit from attending the festival. Faculty members like Jones also have an opportunity to showcase their talents and perform. Jones and Alex Stopa, also an Adelaide native and doctoral candidate at UNLV, performed together in a percussion concert for their friends, family, and others who could follow their musical journey from Adelaide to Las Vegas. The performance was accompanied by a master class about the music performed during which they interacted with local percussion students.

The College of Fine Arts is able to provide this opportunity for its students in part because of a gift from Mary Healey Hayes. A Las Vegan, Hayes herself was a performer whose career spanned six decades in vaudeville, radio, television, and film. She provided a gift to the college to provide student development opportunities such as this.