Theater and Dance Needs Interns

To the Editors:

I’m writing to request the return of the interns in the theater and dance department. The two positions held by interns in this department serve as our Assistant Technical Directors. These interns build, rig, and run all of the shows that happen in Hall Auditorium (under the current technical direction of Michael Grube), as well as supervise and instruct any students who work in the shop, and help students who need advice or materials to build shows in other places. They also have helped to design several shows on campus this year, including Drag Ball.
As a theater major, with an emphasis on technical theater, I’ve had the good fortune to build on my experiences in technical theater by working on faculty productions in Hall. Working with faculty lets me gain experience that is closer to professional experience than student theater, and has somewhat more accountability. Aside from the initiative necessary for participating in student theater, these experiences have helped me to build a portfolio comparable to my peers at institutions with much larger theater departments. Without these interns, the technical aspect of every show in Hall will be in jeopardy, and the experiences I have had here will not be able to be repeated by incoming students.
By having one-on-one supervision in the shop, our student technical directors are able to go to other venues and safely build sets. These venues include Wilder Main, Little Theater, Shipherd Lounge and any of the other basically unsupervised student performance spaces. With the loss of these positions, students will no longer have the expertise necessary to safely construct scenery in unsupervised venues. The scenic element of shows running from T+D to OSTA/OMTA to Drag Ball will be virtually non-existent.
Without the technical side of theater, there would have been no reason for me to continue in my major, and since I am now considering grad school for technical theater, it seems unlikely that I would have stayed for four years at this institution. Please do not make this mistake. Reinstate the theater and dance interns.

–Charlotte Phillips
College senior