Come Winter Term, non-curricular theater groups will no longer have to rehearse in such haphazard places as dorm lounges, abandoned closets and vacant bathrooms. The Student Performing Arts Center committee has successfully, and at long last, convinced the school to renovate the basement of South dormitory into two rehearsal rooms and a scene shop.

The SPACE committee was formed by the College about five years ago because the administration was planning to build a new theater. But in the wake of 9/11, investors pulled their money out of the project and the plans were dropped. SPACE broke away from its College charter and has been advocating and fundraising for a new, fully-outfitted facility ever since. Therefore, the plans for South dormitory reflect a considerable victory for the committee, if not a complete one.

This basement, which has formally been used as a cafeteria and a bookstore, currently acts as storage space. It needs renovation before it will be ready for student use. Necessary refurbishments include replacing existing cloth partitions with solid walls, substituting carpeting for hard floors, electrically outfitting the scene shop and supplying rehearsal rooms with furniture and ventilation. The Facilities Department intends to begin work on the space after finishing their existing project on South: fixing the roof. Basement renovations are scheduled to be complete by the end of fall semester.

The project developed after the committee recognized “a definite, desperate need for more rehearsal space,” says junior Jon Levin, chair of the board. Current rehearsal rooms, such as Hall Auditorium and Little Theater, are only given to department-sponsored groups, leaving student-organized groups with no adequate facilities in which to practice. The SPACE committee believes that the new rehearsal studios and scene shop will foster more student-initiated creativity, as well as attract more theater and tech-oriented students to the college.

The committee is currently working with student theater groups to determine the administration of the space.

“We have our own proposals for it, but we figure that we should be more like facilitators and, in the end, the students should be in charge,” says senior Josh Luxenburg, member of the board.

Access to the space will be distributed either through a swipe-card system or a combination lock. Groups will sign up for time slots, with first priority given to student productions, then to improvisation and sketch comedy groups, and lastly to students rehearsing for curriculum-assigned projects.

The renovation of the South basement remains only part of the committee’s larger goals. In the spring of 2003, members of SPACE pitched a completely student-run arts center, with a cabaret theater, second stage, rehearsal rooms, scene shop and art gallery, to President of the College Nancy Dye. Although Dye supports the plan, a current lack of funding prevents the project’s enactment. The administration is in the process of fundraising, and the SPACE committee continues to fight for the project’s completion.

“Dye has a million things on her desk every day,” said Luxenburg. “Our job is to make sure this stays on top.”