MSU Billings Faculty Member, Student Part of Innovative Performance Art Collective

Show this weekend at Venture Theatre features Assistant Professor Tami Haaland and student Betsy Harris

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — One of Montana State University Billings’ professors and one of its students will be featured in an innovative art performance this weekend at Venture Theatre.

The special performance art collective Feb. 8 and 9 at the Venture Theatre includes Assistant Professor Tami Haaland and Betsy Harris, a communications student.  The shows are at 8 p.m. each day.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students and are available by calling or stopping at Venture Theatre, 2317 Montana Ave.  

The performance art collective, “A Feast for the Hunger Moon,” is a part of Venture Theatre’s Independent Artist Series. Poet Dave Caserio this weekend gathers friends from Billings , Seattle and Nashville to present performances filled with dramatic energy, humor, rhythm and improvisation.

Caserio is a former recipient of a Fellowship in Poetry award from the New York State Foundation of the Arts.  A member of Seattle ’s 1998 National Slam team, Dave has been an invited poet to festivals around the country, from the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, to The High Plains Book Festival in Billings , where he currently lives.

Haaland will be among the notable writers who will be presenting poetry and the performance. Haaland teaches creative writing at MSU Billings and her first book of poetry, “Breath in Every Room,” won the Nicholas Roerich Prize from Story Line Press. She will be joined by Bart Baxter, who is the author of five poetry collections, most recently, “A Man Ostensibly,” (Egress Studio Press 2005).  He was elected Poet Populist for Seattle in 2001 and won the 1994 MTV Poetry Grand Slam.

MSU Billings communications student Harris will provide some visual art for the event. She is a professional dancer with many TV credits to her name, including the Emmy Awards as well as music videos for Prince, Reba McIntyre and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

A live band will add to the feeling of a cabaret style, subterranean nightclub.  The Sweet Jelly Jesus Ensemble includes local musicians Parker Brown from the Tyler Burnett Band and Richelle Stricker on trumpet.  Nashville percussionist Matthew Burgess has recorded with musicians like 3 Doors Down, Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors, and Ann Wilson of Heart.

Guest actor Alicia Pugh will also perform and artists Margaret Myhre, Lael Berner and Emilie Fuller will create improvised visual art inspired by the poets and music.

Caserio will teach a workshop for adults and students in 7th grade and up on delivering poetry as a performance on Saturday, Feb. 8 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The workshop is $12.

For details on the workshop or the show, visit www.venturetheatre.org or call 591-9535.