Royal Purple

Issue date: 10/3/07 Section: Arts & Lifestyle

Media Credit: Brad McAllister Jim Butchart, UW-Whitewater theater professor and director, gives a quiz to his vocal production and stage speech class.

Before Jim Butchart became a theater professor at UW-Whitewater, he was an extra for major motion pictures, he worked as a touring actor and acted in industrial films.

"This is my first real job," Butchart said. "I graduated in 1981 from UW-Milwaukee with a MFA and was a freelance actor until I came here."

Butchart came here in 1989 as a part-time lecturer; 10 years later, he was asked to teach full time. Butchart teaches mostly performance classes such as acting for the camera, how to read a script, and vocal production and stage speech.

The best thing for Butchart is getting to see the students come into their own with the material.

"I love being able to watch students get it and learn," Butchart said.

Along with teaching, Butchart also directs three plays a year at UW-Whitewater, two during the academic year and one during the summer term. Since becoming a full-time lecturer in 1999, Butchart has directed roughly 40 plays. "As You Like it," "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," and "Polish Joke" are only a few plays he has directed here.

Christopher Warren, a senior and theater performance major, has worked with Butchart on and off the stage.

"I have been in three other plays with Jim and have taken almost every class he teaches," Warren said. "He has got a lot of experience and know how; he really does a good job at showing us the real world. He has a really great directing style as well."

Butchart said he loves the process of making plays work and come together. He especially enjoys getting to choose plays that he wants to do. He also enjoys hearing input from others while directing the plays.

Tyler King, a sophomore and theater BFA, said working with Butchart on a play is a fun experience.

"A director has no idea what it's like to be on stage ... Jim knows the problems we would have to face," King said. "Ultimately it's his decision, but he gives us the chance to try it a different way. He is open to suggestions."

Butchart is currently directing "Terra Nova," which is based on a true event that took place in the early 1900s. A small group of Englishmen and a small group of Norwegians raced to see who could make it to the South Pole first. The play is taken from one of the Englishmen's journal, Capt. Robert Falcon Scott.

The play has only eight characters, seven males and one female, but it has a large set. It also has a different take on how the material is presented.

"The writing sets up in a way that gets inside Scott's brain," Butchart said. "The actors have to translate the immediacy of it to the audience. It's a very visual play."

"Terra Nova" is playing Oct. 9 through Oct. 13 at the Barnett Theater. Tickets are $10 for the public, $8 for seniors, $5.50 for children and $4.50 for students. They can be purchased online or by calling UW-Whitewater Ticket Services.

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