New technology brings ‘The SpongeBob Musical’ to life at Bismarck State College

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - “The SpongeBob Musical” opens at Bismarck State College Wednesday. It’s been in the works for nearly a year, and the cast has been rehearsing for about 10 weeks. The popular characters from the Nickelodeon cartoon will come to life on stage.

While that’s good news for lots of kids, it’s not really what this story is about.

This story is about the technology being used to bring the musical to life, and how working on “The SpongeBob Musical” is preparing students for the real world.

Dean Belin is using his cell phone to control the stage lights in the Sidney J. Lee Auditorium. Other lights are controlled from his laptop. It’s a hands-on experience he hopes might prepare his students for all sorts of careers.

“If you’re in automation, if you are in robotics, if you’re in any of these sorts of fields, technical theater has something for you,” explained Belin, the technical director for the performance. “This is what STEAM education is all about. This is incorporating the arts into technology and melding them all together.”

This technology is a step up from anything ever used before at Bismarck State College. Directors say as a polytechnic institution, this is a natural fit.

“We look at integrating all these things and like I say, this is STEAM education. This is putting the arts in these STEM fields. This is integrating it all together and giving the students an opportunity to work hands on with these things,” said Belin.

“Theater is really a place where art and technology meet,” added director Danny Devlin. “The ever-increasing amount of technology in theatrical production is it’s not going away. And we really think that what we have implemented here so that when students go off elsewhere, they feel comfortable and normal and used to all that technology.”

Because if that technology can make a stage at BSC look like a pineapple under the sea, imagine the possibilities off stage.

You can catch “The SpongeBob Musical” in the Sidney J. Lee Auditorium on the BSC campus.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Sunday’s performance begins at 2:30 p.m.

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