Creative studio at URock builds opportunities for students
April 11, 2025
Written by Chris Lindeke | Photos and video by Kyle Winter
Trevor Rees is a working professional and expert in motion capture — a technology that records the movement of people or objects and is used to create realistic digital models for films and other media — but his impact reaches beyond the contents of his IMDB page.
A lecturer of communication and theatre arts at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County, Rees is using his unique skill set — which includes a background in theatre and expertise in broadcasting — to enhance student success and provide a resource to the community.
The URock Creative Studio, established in 2024, is a space where people can record and stream podcasts, music, or videos. It’s a versatile, multimedia space built for students and community members to use that enriches the arts offerings available to students on the Rock County campus.
Rees came upon the idea of building the space — located in the Wells Cultural Center on the Rock County campus — because of his own experience in college radio and a visit to the Whitewater campus studio offerings of UWW-TV and 91.7 The Edge, the student television and radio stations, respectively.
He presented the idea for the Creative Studio to URock leadership and received the funding to build a custom studio for extracurricular, community, and academic use. His podcasting class was born out of the construction of the studio, which is used for other courses as well.
Rees worked with several colleagues on the Rock County campus to build the space.
“We hung the TVs, put the soundproofing treatment in, put all the cords together and all the equipment in general, trying to create a creative studio that does everything,” he said.
The result is a space that serves many purposes.
“We do podcasting, we can do video game streaming, we have video podcasting set up, we can do mobile units around campus and beyond as well,” said Rees.
Trevor Rees gives a tour of the Creative Studio to students Peyton Bishop of Fort Atkinson and John Venable of Milwaukee at the UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus on March 5, 2025.
Accessibility — a hallmark of UW-Whitewater’s mission — was a key consideration for the space.
“Pretty much anything goes here,” Rees said. “We're continuing updates with it to try to stay with the constantly changing industry, and it's been definitely supported from all levels.”
Rees’ podcasting course includes a look at the definition of podcasting, the history of broadcasting and how podcasting evolved from it, and the future of the podcasting industry. It also includes hands-on work with state-of-the-art equipment, including an array of audio and video equipment and computers.
“We’re going over how everything works in this space, so that way, students can take all that foundational work and the hands-on tech work to essentially go into full production,” Rees said. “They're doing prepping and scripting. They're doing audio, which is pretty much our minimum for the course, but they can go beyond that. They can do video elements, they can take over equipment to different parts of campus to use. They can find other interesting and fun ways of using this equipment for the podcasting realm and beyond.”
Rees wears many hats at URock. In addition to his role as lecturer, he currently serves as athletic director and director of theatre, offers audio/video assistance as needed, and teaches a motion capture performance class. Since 2013, Rees has been a motion capture performer, stunt performer, and stunt coordinator for Call of Duty, a best-selling video game franchise.”
Lecturer Trevor Rees demonstrates how to use the Creative Studio's podcast equipment on the UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus on March 5, 2025.
A native of Waukesha, Rees enjoys working in higher education in his home state, especially on a campus where he feels the strong impact of community.
“The idea of the overall community is super important here,” he said. “The other thing that’s great is that everyone pitches in. You might be wearing this hat and moving out of this, or maybe this is not really your area, but you can still help and influence and give insight.”
On top of his own ingenuity and hard work, Rees has collaborated with faculty in the College of Arts and Communication on the Whitewater campus to build something special in Rock County.
“Having that support from a four-year, larger institution, and being a part of that institution has been amazing,” Rees said. “Trading ideas and thoughts has been beneficial across the board.
“Knowing that we're all in this same mission — which is giving our students opportunities to continue into whatever discipline they want to go into and being prepared for that discipline in a full, worldly fashion — has been great.”
