Sam Cole
Staff writer
Empty theaters seem to be a recurring theme the past couple of years, especially on college campuses. According to New York University, the pandemic lockdown was the longest theatre shutdown in New York City’s history, leading to city theatres facing significant financial losses. This caused many programs to close for good.
Dominican University’s theater department was not an exception to financial problems, facing several budget cuts. The department also did not receive any funding or specific assistance during the pandemic from the university.
However, with the era of COVID-19 slowly starting to fade away, shouldn’t university theater programs start to come back?
Krista Hansen claims as a department they struggle in the areas of recruitment and personnel. She is a professor and chair of the Theater Arts and Music program and artistic director of the Theatre Arts Lab Series. Her responsibilities are to help guide the department’s curriculum and students, as well as the academic aspect of the university’s performance-based public engagement with the community.
She believes the university has not made the arts a focus of endowment, even though the theatre arts provide the most public-facing examples of student work.
“There are currently no dedicated scholarships for Theatre Arts majors,” she continues. “In the competitive areas of performance and technical theatre, we must be able to offer scholarships in order to attract students to the program.”
She also described the effects of the university’s neglect of the program.
“Consequently, enrollments have been dwindling for years and we are now in a very precarious position; while some programs can continue with only a few majors, the collaborative work of theatre cannot,” said Hansen.
When discussing the personnel issue, she brought up how an exorbitant workload has been dumped on the current staff of the department due to low enrollment and a high number of events.
“The hours our faculty and staff invest in curricular productions far exceeds regular course or lab work, and yet these artists receive limited compensation,” she said.
When asked if there was anything that could be done to support the theater department and those working in it, she said we need “dedicated, significant scholarships for Theatre Arts majors; targeted marketing and recruitment efforts by the University; and a reduction of workload for those faculty/staff working on productions would all go a long way in aiding the wellness and future of the Theatre Arts department.”
Another thing everyone can do is simple: go to the shows! No matter the situation the show must go on.
Tickets can be found on Dominican University’s website by following this link: https://www.dom.edu/arts-minds/performing-arts-center/mamma-mia
