Students enrolled in the University’s theatre program can expect sweeping changes in coming semesters as the department prepares for a new curriculum and for renovations of the Music and Dramatic Arts building.
Since 1999, enrollment in the undergraduate theatre program nearly has quadrupled in size to approximately 160 students. As a result, classes are filling up quickly.
“It’s always a challenge to meet that demand, not only in this department but throughout the University,” said Adam Miller, the department’s director of marketing. “But we are getting everybody into the classes they need right about the time they need them.”
To accommodate the new students, the department hired a new round of faculty in fall 2001, including a new costume shop manager, a vocal/dialect specialist and an undergraduate acting instructor.
This semester, the department is searching for a new scene designer, costume designer and associate artistic director for Swine Palace, said Miller.
The new curriculum, which takes effect in fall 2003, is focused on creating concentrations within the department in areas such as performance, history, criticism and literature, as well as in several technical aspects of theatre.
Though some of these concentrations are already in practice, they will become official under the new curriculum, said Miller.
Kristin Sosnowsky, managing director of Swine Palace Productions, will be teaching a new Introduction to Non-Profit Arts Administration class this semester that will offer interactive practical experience for students interested in managing non-profit arts firms.
In addition to marketing, fund raising and budgeting, the class will cover mission statements, organizational structure, union agreements, contracts and working with Boards of Directors and volunteer groups.
“When I arrived at LSU in June 2001, my hope was that eventually the Theatre Department would offer a concentration in arts management,” said Sosnowsky. Her new class is a single step in that direction.
“We’re excited to do it and hope people are interested in it,” she said.
Next semester, the department will be utilizing the new 1,000-seat classroom in the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes to teach Introduction to Theatre, a general education class.
Leigh Clemons, assistant professor of theater, will be teaching the class, which only will half-fill the auditorium with approximately 500 students.
“The technology in the room will make it possible for everyone to feel like part of the class in this huge lecture hall,” said Miller.
The major external change in the department will be the $23 million renovation of the M&DA building, which is scheduled to begin in December 2003 and will last approximately three years.
All of the classrooms will be gutted and modernized, but the Claude L. Shaver Theatre will remain intact and be restored.
The theatre, an example of art deco design, will be “restored to its 1930s brilliance,” according to Michael Tick, theatre department chair.
“It’s going to be a labor of love between the architects and theatre consultants,” said Tick.
Some planned improvements to the theatre include new seating, a steeper floor for better visibility and restoration of the original artwork. The balcony, which is currently out of use because of poor visibility, also will be made ready for patrons.
A black box-style theatre also will be added to replace Theatre 150 and Theatre 106.
“Those rooms were never intended to be theatres,” said Miller. “They were really classrooms adapted for an audience.”
The new theatre will be made with performance in mind, he said.
In the meantime, the department will find its new home in Hatcher Hall. Plays will be performed in a makeshift theatre in the basement and in the Reilly Theatre, which is undergoing changes itself.
The Reilly Theatre, where Swine Palace performs its plays, enters into Phase Four of construction this year, which includes moving the restrooms, installing flexible seating and improving the acoustics, said Tick.
“Once the construction is complete, LSU will boast some of the finest and most unique facilities in the South,” said Tick.
Amid all of this change, the Theatre Department will continue to produce shows, including Tracy Letts’ “Killer Joe” in February and Irving Berlin’s “Louisiana Purchase” in March and April.