The Rice Thresher

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March 31, 2006 > Arts & Entertainment > Lack of communication hurts campus theater

Lack of communication hurts campus theater

By Julia Bursten | Thresher Editorial Staff

My dear friends in campus theater programs, you are shooting yourselves in the collective, artistic foot. You have an easily fixable problem in scheduling and communication that is causing your actors, your audiences and yourselves undue amounts of frustration — not to mention putting a smidge of a kink in your reviewers’ schedules. And it has never been more evident than this weekend, when five on-campus productions will close two-week runs.

As it stands, directors of on-campus shows seemingly communicate in only the barest of terms, if at all. This has huge repercussions for both their casts and budgets. Because directors may not know when other shows are holding auditions or performing, they cannot schedule around them to maximize auditioners and viewers. They cannot coordinate stage set-ups or borrow props in the way that allows professional theater companies to thrive.

This lack of communication and coordination handicaps directors, actors and crew. But more importantly, it handicaps theater-goers at Rice. When shows run overlapping schedules, such as the productions this weekend and last, viewers have a more limited time frame in which to see each show. This forces the public to be more selective in the shows they attend, and inevitably most viewers are unable to see every production that interests them.

There is a simple and, in my opinion, elegant solution to this organizational crisis. Campus theater coordinators should form a listserv.

The coordinators could call it something creative, such as theater-l@rice.edu. Starting a mailing list is a fairly pain- less process — it takes one simple, 30 word e-mail to helpdesk@rice.edu to initiate and about half an hour to complete all membership management.

Theater coordinators could co-administer the listserv and receive e-mails sent to the account. Cast, crew and other interested individuals could join the mailing list for outgoing announcements. Other community theater programs could join in the fun and help to expand on-campus programs, as the London Players did with their recent collaboration with the Rice Players for a run of The Merchant of Venice.

Groups such as the Philharmonics, the LowKeys and Shepherd Singers could contribute their voices to create a more harmonious theater-choir relationship. And don’t forget Rice dance organizations. Directors could easily find talented dancers and ensure that they do not step on the toes of a previously scheduled dance program.

With better communication among performance programs, every college theater coordinator could get the word out on their show times, audition times, ticket prices, cast and crew needs and other necessary information with one short message. And people who are interested in getting a hold of all of the campus theater programs at once — say, your loving Thresher arts and entertainment editors — could send one e-mail instead of poring over the residential college’s Web sites to find the names of theater coordinators.

Rice has the theatrical talent and unique campus theater structure — the division of theater programs into small college groups — to foster a student-oriented, codependent environment not unlike Broadway. All that’s missing is a little organized publicity.

I realize some individual theater programs already have organized producers and good relationships with other individual theater programs. Ruddigore, closing this weekend, exemplifies a successful collaboration between Hanszen College and the Rice Light Opera Society. However, this sort of operation is currently the exception rather than the rule. Opening lines of communication between all of Rice’s performance groups, which seem to require more inter-program collaboration than the other fine arts at Rice, is a necessary first step to improving fine arts on campus. Not only would better director-actor communication improve the quality of auditioning players, it would also create a potential for inter-college production efforts and open the possibility of a large-scale theatrical show.

I love campus theater. Really, I do. That is why I think improving it in this small manner is so necessary. I want to see the promising talent on campus have better performance opportunities. I want the budding theater enthusiasts to be aware of their options for viewing and participating in theater on campus. I want an on-campus network of local performance events that will publicize and improve the arts scene at Rice.

Julia Bursten is a Lovett College sophomore and Lifestyles and Arts and Entertainment editor.

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