Walk into the auditorium. The lights are dimmed. Wait for a world-class musician to take to the stage. The crowd applauds as he walks on, holding his instrument. He lifts the instrument, ready to take flight and bring the audience into an uplifting world.
Joshua Bell, a world-renowned classical violinist, will perform at Hancher at 7:30 p.m. Friday. He performed at Hancher’s previous incarnation in 2003.
For Bell, this love of music began early. As a child, his parents found him in his room, plucking rubber bands he had tied to his dresser drawers. Young Joshua was trying to play the music he had heard, and his parents immediately took action. Thereafter, Bell and his violin took on the world.
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The Daily Iowan - Monday, October 16, 2017
Sandy Boyd, the president emeritus of the University of Iowa and our dear friend, has long said Hancher Auditorium is the largest classroom on campus. I’ve always been inspired by that notion, and it has motivated me to raise funds for the many programs at Hancher that change lives.
Our work inspires the lives of elementary, middle-school, high-school, and University of Iowa students — as well as people of all ages throughout our wider community, region, and state.
Little Village - Monday, October 16, 2017
On the day of the Women’s March, Jan. 21, 2017, King and I lead actress Heather Botts was onstage in L.A. playing Anna. When she said the line, “I believe women are just as good as men — just as intelligent, just as important,” Botts remembered, the show stopped. The audiences started cheering, roaring in her ears. She knew then she was a part of something, in a time in history that it was important to be telling the story of The King and I.
The Gazette - Wednesday, October 11, 2017
IOWA CITY — “The King and I” is something wonderful, from the orchestral overture to the bittersweet ending.
The Lincoln Center’s 2015 Tony Award-winning revival breathes new life into the classic elegance of the beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. More than a dozen actors, including Jose Llana as the King, have moved from the Broadway cast to the first national tour, onstage through Saturday at Hancher Auditorium
Daily Iowan - Monday, October 9, 2017
Five years ago, Wilson received a phone call from two editors at Marvel who wanted to see if she was interested in writing her own comic series.
Editor Sana Amanat and Wilson conversed for months about who the lead superhero would be. The only vision Wilson and Amanat had from the beginning was that the superhero would be a Muslim female, Wilson said.
“To me it sounds like a crazy proposition,” she said. “My first thought was to tell them to hire an intern just to open all of the hate mail that we were going to get.”
The Daily Iowan - Monday, October 9, 2017
On Oct. 5, La Santa Cecilia performed at Hancher to a packed house. The band had been around the Iowa City area during the week, touring the city and visiting the campus and campus resource centers such as the Latino Native American Cultural Center.
La Santa Cecilia is a Latin rock group from Los Angeles. Its music is a mix of Latin American and Pan-American styles such as cumbia, bossa nova, rumba, bolero, tango, jazz, and klezmer.
The Gazette - Thursday, October 5, 2017
Heather Botts has been whistling a happy tune ever since she saw the 2015 Broadway revival of “The King and I.” And now she’s living her dream.
The day after opening in “Dr. Zhivago” on Broadway, she scooted a mile or so up to Lincoln Center to see Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic musical unfold in all its shimmering glory.
The Walla Walla, Wash., native, now based in Manhattan, won’t be on standby when the show comes to Hancher. She’ll step into Anna’s hoop skirts and iconic songs for all six performances Tuesday (10/10) to Oct. 14 in Iowa City.
The Daily Iowan - Thursday, October 5, 2017
“Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, getting to hope you like me.”
Generations of people have been swept away by the classic beauty of The King and I. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical was recently revived, and it will sweep into Hancher from Oct. 10-14.
The plot centers on a widowed English teacher named Anna Leonowens and her son, Louis. They are called to Siam by the king in order to teach the king’s wives and children English and to help ease Siam into a more modernized country.
The Daily Iowan - Tuesday, October 3, 2017
On the first day of October, Leslie Odom Jr. took to Hancher’s outdoor stage and wooed the hundreds of audience members.
Odom is not a stranger to the Iowa City area. In March 2016, he came to the university and spoke as a part of the University Lecture Series.
He originated the role of Aaron Burr in the hit Broadway show Hamilton, about the life of one of the country’s Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton. Odom left the show on July 9, 2016, alongside fellow actors Lin-Manuel Miranda and Philipa Soo.
Little Village - Tuesday, October 3, 2017
G. Willow Wilson, one of my favorite authors, is coming to Iowa City to talk about my favorite superhero.
Wilson will give a free lecture at Hancher Auditorium on Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. titled A Superhero for Generation Why. The lecture is a part of Hancher’s Embracing Complexity series, which focuses on Muslim art and Islamic artists like Wilson, and also kicks off the Iowa City Book Festival, which runs through Oct. 15. It is also part of the One Community, One Book program sponsored by the UI Center for Human Rights (which focuses specifically on Wilson’s memoir, The Butterfly Mosque). On the morning of the lecture at 11 a.m., Wilson will do a signing at Daydreams Comics. She will also sign after her lecture.