Inside Iowa State
August 28, 1998
Memorial Union wired to host satellite events
by Steve Sullivan
A new Memorial Union satellite entertainment service is bringing educational events, live concerts, comedy shows and movie sneak previews to campus.
The service, called Network Event Theater (NET)®, is a national network of satellite-linked, campus theaters. Iowa State is the only Iowa university offering NET. The Memorial Union Great Hall is the campus NET site.
Among the first NET events will be a sneak preview of Without Limits, a Tom Cruise-produced film about runner Steve Prefontaine (Sept. 30). It will be shown at 8 p.m.
As a back-to-school introduction to NET, the Memorial Union is sponsoring a showing of the comedy The Full Monty at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1.
NET has supplied the Memorial Union with a satellite, projection and sound system to create a real theater experience in the Great Hall.
NET events are free. Students, faculty and staff can get two tickets to NET events by showing their university IDs at the west student office desk in the lower level of Memorial Union. Tickets are available up to two weeks prior to NET events, which will be announced via the Iowa State Daily, campus flier postings and the university Web site. Seating at events is on a first-come basis. The Great Hall can accommodate approximately 600 people.
NET events usually have a corporate sponsor that gives away free merchandise at the event. Marketing materials for films shown, including posters and soundtracks, also are often given away, said Eric Yarwood, Memorial Union program adviser. No tobacco or alcohol products are promoted at NET events.
Past NET events have included interactive lectures featuring first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, filmmaker Milos Foreman and Princeton Law Review seminars. Music events have included live rock and country concerts and documentaries on such acts as REM and the Indigo Girls.
Most NET movies are shown on campuses several days before they open in theaters. In some cases, a film's cast and director will participate in interactive discussion following the showing. Some viewers will be asked to be part of focus groups responding to the movies, Yarwood said.
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