Beyond the towering Bunche Hall and the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden lies a campus mecca of creativity: MacGowan Hall, home of the theater department. It is here that inspiration and ingenuity are fostered, but it is also here where exclusivity is a defining element.
“There are areas where students congregate, and even our own freshmen are scared of those areas because it can be intimidating. … You’d love to make inroads and make a friend, but it seems so cliquey,” theater professor Gary Gardner said.
The theater department may seem intimidating, but the department is now becoming more inclusive for those longing to enter the theater world.
In the past, only third and fourth-year acting students enrolled in acting courses were allowed to audition for shows.
But now the theater department’s production committee, comprised of faculty members from different theater disciplines, is allowing students in the new theater minor program, nonacting-emphasis theater students and theater students of all grade levels to audition for theater department productions.
“For decades the theater department was pretty much closed to students who weren’t our majors, and the reason for that was because of the very small size of the courses we offer that is reflected in the kind of training involved when training an individual student,” said Bill Ward, theater department chair. “That might kind of seem cliquish but it’s just more focused on the work.”
On the application form given to those who try out at auditions, students only had to indicate their grade level and did not have to distinguish whether they were in the major or minor program. With auditions open to more students, directors of upcoming winter productions noticed a difference.
“There’s a lot more freedom there, and, as a result, we’re getting much bigger turnout (at auditions),” said Mary Jo Duprey, director of the theater department’s