PNC awards grant for arts and cultural education to Sangamon Auditorium

The PNC Bank Foundation awarded its first Grow Up Great grant in the Springfield area to Sangamon Auditorium, UIS during a May 18, 2011 press conference. The $90,000 grant will be awarded to the auditorium over a three-year period. 

The funded Arts Start program will have three distinct yet integrated goals:

• Involve 36 classrooms of Springfield Urban League Head Start students  (approximately 620 students) in age-appropriate school matinee performances
• Involve 60 Springfield Urban League Head Start teachers in teacher training related to use of the performing arts in pre-school classrooms
• Involve 100 Springfield Urban League Head Start families in family-appropriate evening/weekend performances

Sangamon Auditorium is so pleased to be able to provide these opportunities to such an important segment of our community.  For the UIS news item about this grant and program, please visit the UIS News page.

Monty Python's Spamalot

The cast of “Monty Python’s Spamalot” can always tell if you’re a fan.

“King Arthur and Patsy enter, and they hear the coconuts,” said Glenn Giron, who plays Patsy. “If they go crazy, I imagine they’re going to be a big Python crowd.”

If you’re a fan of Monty Python in general and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in particular, you’ll know that the sound of coconuts being banged together indicates characters clippity-clopping about on horseback.

We’ll find out whether Springfield is Python-friendly at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, when the musical comes to Sangamon Auditorium at the University of Illinois Springfield. The show originally was scheduled to be performed at the Prairie Capital Convention Center, but presenter Broadway in Springfield decided to change venues earlier this year.

Story by Brian Mackey
The State Journal-Register
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