Curtains up. Take a bow, Detroit. Encore, encore. The city's creative
industries -- theater, film, dance, music, art, design -- are more than
holding their own in a rapidly changing regional economy: they are
taking a leadership role. One institution helping to move things along
is Wayne State University's
College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts Department.
The academic and performance history runs deep at Wayne and its venues of international renowned -- the
Hilberry,
Bonstelle and
Studio
theaters. The college boasts equally stellar programs in music, art and
dance and has a list of impressive alums to rival any school in the
country. It makes perfect sense that WSU would be an ideal partner for
the state's fledgling film industry, which has found talent galore
creeping beneath the floorboards of historic Old Main and throughout
its sprawling urban campus.
The roster of WSU alums in Hollywood is impressive. The list includes Tom
Skerritt, Lily Tomlin, Jeffrey Tambor, and Ernie Hudson. S.
Epatha Merkerson from the class of '76 is best known as Lt. Anita Van
Buren in the long-running TV series "Law & Order." Merkerson won a
Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild award in 2005 for her
work in fellow WSU alum Ruben Santiago-Hudson's HBO movie "Lakawanna
Blues," which also featured Hudson.
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