When you’re bored on a Friday night and left with nothing to do, your best on-campus bet is to be aware of what Hurricane Productions (HP) is up to.
HP is one of the university’s largest student-run organizations, focusing on providing entertainment opportunities to students. The organization was named Organization of the Year at the COSO Student Organization Achievement & Recognition Awards in April.
The group’s goal statement says that it seeks “to create a venue for innovation, creativity and enthusiasm in large-scale campus programming, and to collaborate with UM departments, organizations, and the area community.”
In its quest to achieve that goal, HP is split into seven different sub-organizations that each handles a different form of on-campus entertainment.
Every Thursday at lunch time, live bands can be heard at the University Center’s patio thanks to “Patio Jams.”
When the annual Langerado Music Festival was canceled last winter, Umphrey’s McGee were wooed away from popular concert venues to the patio where the band performed a three-hour long show.
“We stole them away from the Culture Room and Revolution and such,” said Andrew Hunter, last year’s large venue concert chair of the HP Concert Committee.
For theater lovers, QuantUM Entertainment is a company that puts on student-led, directed, produced and acted theater productions throughout the year.
Auditions are held at various times during the semester, and shows include everything from famous musicals to student-written plays.
“Because it was student-led I feel that for the most part I had to be aware that my acting, singing and performing techniques were in line with what my professors taught,” said junior Annette Navarro, who starred in Fame.
If you want to see professionally made films, the Cinematic Arts Commission (CAC) provides showings of some of the year’s Oscar nominees as well as classics like Fight Club and Star Wars. You can catch a showing at the Cosford Cinema on campus every Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday night.
“The organization’s been around for well over a decade. It was started to provide students at UM with study breaks and entertainment with free movies,” Scott Sande R, last year’s CAC chair, said. “We get films through different distribution companies that license the rights to films. Once films are out of theaters, then the companies let us show films as a ‘second run’ movie theater.”
Those who want a different kind of movie-going experience need look no further than once a month at Canes Night Live, which shows films on a giant screen out on the green in front of the Otto G. Richter library as a part of “Screen on the Green.” It also sponsors entertainment events one Friday out of every month that range from concerts to carnivals. Past events have included the Wet and Wild Foam Party, Casino Night and SafeSex Carnival.
Hurricane Productions and its new president, senior Maria Perez, work to bring entertainment opportunities to the UM community. That’s what outgoing HP President Claudia Medina wanted to leave as her legacy here at Miami as she heads off to law school in the fall.
“When students think of HP, I want them to think of good times. When they see the HP logo on advertisements for an event, they can trust that it will be an amazing show, an inspiring speaker, a fabulous movie,” Medina said. “And hopefully they know that there is so much work put in to make those things happen. And that we do it for them.”
And best of all for students, HP events are always free.