The project includes a 21,000-square-foot addition to house a new rehearsal hall, lecture hall, classrooms, practice rooms and studios, and storage space. The structure will be located to the south of the existing building, which on UM’s north campus. The project will also include renovation of the first floor north wing to increase the number of practice rooms, and the west side of the second floor north wing, where offices will be added. The firm Integrated Design Solutions will handle the design for the addition and renovation.

The Brehms are donating $8 million to this project, with the university providing $14 million and the rest coming from other donations. According to a staff memo, the couple has given more than $60 million to the university in the past for a variety of projects, including an addition to the Kellogg Eye Center – named the Brehm Tower – and the founding of the Brehm Center for Diabetes Research & Analysis. The Brehms had been honored at the September 2011 regents meeting for their ongoing contributions.

The school’s dean, Christopher Kendall, attended the Nov. 15 meeting but did not formally address the regents. He received a round of applause for his work on the project.

This report was filed from the Anderson Room at the Michigan Union on UM’s central campus in Ann Arbor, where the regents held their November meeting.

Wooden prop at University Productions sale – make an offer!

Just in time for Halloween, University Productions is holding one of its relatively rare sales to purge unwanted parts of its costume collection. On Friday afternoon, one customer was buying a half-dozen hot pink fuzzballs sewn to elastic bands, at 50 cents a pop. “I’m going to wear them in my hair and around my ankles,” he grinned.

Shoes, jackets, dresses and other clothing – vintage or slightly worn– hung from racks amid assorted props, like the life-sized two-dimensional wooden figures from some long-since-shuttered play.

The two-day sale continues Saturday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We want to make sure there’s nothing left,” says Renae Skoog, costume stock manager for University Productions. “Everything’s got to go.”

University Productions is part of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance. It provides behind-the-scenes support for student performances, including costumes, props, set design and more. In addition to buying what they need for specific productions, they also accept donations, Skoog says. But every two years or so, they purge their stock, getting rid of things they don’t need or want. They try to hold the sales just before Halloween – customers include students, of course, as well as others in the community who are part of theater groups or who for whatever reason need some glitter-covered high heels.

Renae Skoog, costume stock manager for University Productions.

“Do you guys have spats, by any chance?” a customer asks Skoog while she was talking with The Chronicle.

“We used to have knee-high gaiter spats…” she replies, but apparently those were sold earlier in the day.

Skoog’s goal for the sales is to raise $3,000 – that was the highest amount ever earned in the past. The funds will go toward future productions. They work on a tight budget, Skoog says. For example, they were extremely efficient in creating the “steampunk” style for the upcoming musical, “Ella Minnow Pea.”

And ever the saleswoman, Skoog notes that if shoppers stick around on Saturday, they can also catch a production of “Madmen and Specialists” by African playwright Wole Soyinka. The show starts at 8 p.m. at the Arthur Miller Theatre.

Both the sale and the theater are located in the Walgreen Drama Center, 1226 Murfin Ave., on UM’s North Campus. The entrance to the sale is in back by the parking lot. The theater entrance is in the front of the building.

From left, UM undergraduates Jessica McKinley, Maia Wertenberger and Rachel Niemeyer at the University Productions sale on Friday.