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IRIS: A Drama Production by Students for Students

By: Raakhee Patel, First Year Experience Office Administrative Coordinator

Are you a student at McMaster looking

for a way to get involved with Welcome Week 2008? Are you looking for unique leadership opportunities this summer? If you have a flair for theatre and are interested in welcoming over 5000 first-year students to the McMaster community this fall, then IRIS is for you!

IRIS (Inspiration, Reflection, Integrity, and Success) is the First Year Experience drama production that aims to welcome new students to their first year at McMaster University by offering a glimpse of the issues, challenges, and lessons that they and their classmates might encounter during their first year at McMaster University.

IRIS has evolved throughout its four years at McMaster, but the message of inclusiveness, community and acceptance of everyone is clear in all of the productions. Written and produced by students for students, IRIS promises to continue it’s tradition of also informing first-year students of various resources and opportunities that are available to them. Through humorous and musical vignettes, IRIS will explore academic issues such as academic integrity, time and stress management, effective study strategies, and seeking assistance from professors and TA’s as well as the many campus resources (the Centre for Student Development, Campus Health, Career Services, etc.) Issues of a more personal nature will also be addressed, including health and wellness, alcohol, sex, drugs, safety, and security.

Cast members will also have the chance to make their own monologues according to their own personal revelations and experiences from their first-year at McMaster University.

IRIS will be collaboration of students, Student Affairs, and various campus partners in order to make a production that reflects all the concerns and challenges that first-years may be facing, and of essential resources that the university provides.

IRIS 2007 was well-received by first-year students and the Westdale community. Consequently of the 2007 production, a first-year student had said, “IRIS touched on every situation affecting new students and made me feel like I was not the only one experiencing these problems.”

If interested in becoming a cast member for IRIS 2008, please submit a cover letter and resume to fyeo@mcmaster.ca by midnight of June 12, 2008. Auditions will be taking place the following week. If you have any questions about the IRIS productions, please feel free to contact the First Year Experience Office at 905-525-9140 extension: 26691.

The First Year Experience Office is committed to creating an inclusive community. They encourage applications from all interested McMaster students, including Aboriginal students, GLBT students, students with disabilities, and students who are members of visible minority communities.