The Doudna Fine Arts Center has new events planned this semester in the hopes of entertaining Eastern and community crowds.

Dan Crews, the administrative assistant of Doudna, said the way the department picks performers is varied.

“No.1, the Doudna Fine Arts Center is on the radar of a lot of agents across the country, and a lot of these agents we’ve worked with time and time again,” Crews said.

The agents choose Doudna for the size of the venue because it is perfect for a certain person or band, he said. Other times it is the group or person themselves that will self-promote by contacting them first.

Crews said the third way is for he and other Doudna workers to see performances at other venues.

“They have this thing called Arts Midwest, which is about a three or four day trade show with everything from musicians to dancers, you name it,” Crews said. “They put on a scaled down performance on what they do and they start at about 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. and they change every 20 minutes.”

There are other times when people, sometimes on the Doudna staff, have seen a performance or group somewhere and they thought the group would be a good fit to perform at Doudna he said.

For its humanities events, Dounda will be having a speaker who is a professor at Eastern, Crews said.

Jeannie Ludlow, the coordinator of women’s studies, will be talking about abortion and pro-abortion rights in the United States in today’s decade. She will be speaking at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Lecture Hall.

The first performance this semester is Sonic Escape.

Crews said it is a musical group of three people who graduated from The Julliard School who will be performing at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 in the Recital Hall; tickets are $7 for students.

He said the second group to come to Doudna will be Tango Buenos Aires Song of Eva Peron, which is a company of 25 dancers from Argentina that travels around the world and will be performing at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1 in The Theatre; tickets are $7 for students.

The Count Basie Orchestra will be opening the 56th annual EIU Jazz Festival, which will be celebrating its 80th anniversary. The group will be playing at 7:30 p.m. Feb 6 in the Dvorak Concert Hall; tickets are $10 for students.

The Cashore Marionettes’ “Life in Motion” is a marionette show that will be at 7:30 p.m. March 3 in the Recital Hall; tickets are $7 for students.

Throughout the semester the theater department will conduct plays such as “The Mousetrap” and “The Good Person of Setzuan,” Crews said.

The music department will be performing concerts throughout the semester as well.

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at sewhite2@eiu.edu.