[Usittne] Brandeis Graduate Design Program to be Eliminated

Mon Feb 22 23:57:14 EST 2010

John J. Conlon, Ph.D.
UMass Boston, Theatre Arts (Retired)
USF St Petersburg, English
President, Board of Directors, St Petersburg Little Theatre

From: David Wilson
Sent: Mon 2/22/2010 11:36 PM
To: USITT New England Section Mail List
Subject: Re: [Usittne] Brandeis Graduate Design Program to be Eliminated

WTF indeed. We had just received approval on our 5 year plan, which for the first time, included parity in tuition remission for Design and performance students, which had been a very large hurdle in recruiting all these years. We instituted many new undergraduate design courses to get them more involved in the program, including allowing them access to grad design courses and assistantships (without hiring additional faculty). We were just re-admitted back into URTA (we had left URTA 15 years ago when our budget was cut in half in the early 90's in an attempt to eliminate graduate design). The recent peer review by URTA was extremely positive on the design side of our program. At the very bottom of the facebook page is an eloquent letter of support from 
Ming Cho Lee and Susan Hilferty. I've also heard Cornell and University of Washington are also gutting or completely eliminating their programs:

http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2010/01/university_of_washington_puts.html

http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2010/02/03/students-faculty-respond-performing-arts-cuts

On Feb 22, 2010, at 11:06 PM, John Conlon wrote:

HI, I have joined the FB page...Design is/was, to my mind, the essential difference in the Brandeis Program and its chief virtue...I will write to one of my UMass Boston alums who then went on to Brandeis in tech design, taught at Stanford Univ and was TD there, and is now the TD of the largest arts venue in FL, in Miami...as my USF students might put it...WTF???   John

John J. Conlon, Ph.D.
UMass Boston, Theatre Arts (Retired)
USF St Petersburg, English
President, Board of Directors, St Petersburg Little Theatre

From: David Wilson
Sent: Mon 2/22/2010 10:41 PM
To: tiala at mindspring.com; USITT New England Section Mail List
Subject: [Usittne] Brandeis Graduate Design Program to be Eliminated

Crystal, I don't know how much word has gotten out yet about our situation here at Brandeis. I'm enclosing a letter from the design faculty, and
we have a facebook page up at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=340628071843

David Wilson
Brandeis Theater Company
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA

http://people.brandeis.edu/~wilson/DW-Design/Home.html

21st February 2010
Dear Alumni, Students, Friends, and Donors,
We have been informed that Brandeis has a plan in place to cut the theater program by 35-40% by closing  the Graduate Design Program in the Department of Theatre Arts. 
As you can imagine, the shock at this news is felt by us all, and I'm sure will be felt by all of our alumni, students, friends, donors and supporters as well. The Design Program has a long and illustrious history, a national reputation, and many distinguished alumni including many of you.
Adam Jaffe's statement:
            "The Brandeis 2020 Committee is considering phasing out the MFA program 
            in Theater Design, and focusing the Department of Theater Arts to a 
            greater extent on undergraduate theater.  No new MFA students would be 
            Admitted for fall 2010.  By October 2010, we would determine whether 
            with no design students and significantly scaled back production 
            resources it is possible to have a quality MFA Acting Program.  If yes, 
            we would continue the Acting Program in the new structure.  If not, we 
            would terminate the Acting Program when the current class graduates in 
            May 2011."
The faculty of the design program is very concerned about the effect of this cut on the legitimacy of a theater program tearing the very fabric of the university itself. Without design you ostensibly eliminate the ability to have production and thereby undermine the integrity of the acting program.  The Theater Department becomes a narrowly academic exercise where rehearsal never realizes its full potential through production and is unable to engage the spirit of its community.
The Arts have been an integral part of the core of Brandeis' educational vision from its founding, and the elimination of one of the classic Arts programs is a very troubling sign of the lack of support by the University to its founding principals. As with the controversy over the Rose Art Museum last spring, the first course of action seems to be an impulse to balance the budget through the elimination of the Arts on the Brandeis campus. There seems to be little will or vision to defend any Arts programs and more discouragingly, the value and role the arts play in education and in the world.  What hope is there for a culture where the arts are so marginalized?
A recent study, a joint project of Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, found that most Americans believe that colleges today operate like businesses, concerned more with their bottom line than with the educational experience of students. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/education/17college.html?emc=eta1
Unfortunately, this decision only seems to reinforce this impression.
At this point, we believe that Brandeis University needs to hear from friends and Alumni of the Theatre Arts program and all those who care about the Arts. Both the Acting alumni and the Design alumni have different experiences, but all were a part of the school, and all benefited from each other's work. Having Brandeis University hear from a broad range of alumni and friends, from many parts of the country and many fields within all of the Arts, will help to reinforce the importance of this program within the educational mission of the University. Please help by writing to following people: 

Jehuda Reinharz
President
Brandeis University
415 South Street MS100
Waltham, MA  02454
mailto:jreinhar at brandeis.edu
Marty Krauss
Provost
Brandeis University
415 South Street MS 134
Waltham, MA  02454
mailto:krauss at brandeis.edu
Malcom Sherman
Chairman of the Board of Trustees. 
Brandeis Unviersity
415 South St MS 102 
Waltham, MA 02454
or at his office:
Gordon Brother's Group LLC
101 Huntington Avenue, 10th Floor
Boston, MA 02199
mailto:msherman at brandeis.edu

We are sorry to have to report this news, but please join us in trying to ensure that this recommendation does not become a reality. 
Sincerely,
Deb Booth, Head of Design
Michael Chybowski, Head of Lighting Design
Jennifer von Mayerhauser, Head of Costume Design
Robert Moody, Head of Scene Painting
Charles Schoonmaker, Costume Design
Denise Loewenguth, Head of Costume Shop
David Wilson, Head of Sound Design
We need help organizing and getting the word out:
Post your thoughts to Brandeis' Facebook page:
            http://www.facebook.com/brandeisuniversity
Post your thoughts on the Brandeis Theater Facebook page
            http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37043649499&ref=ts
Post on Twitter.  
Write to the Boston Globe, write the New York Times
Forward this message to your friends in the theater
Get the word out.  
If you know how to set up a website to save Theater Arts-please do it to.  
Set up a petition drive.  
Key points:
That theater is a collaborative art form, an acting-only department will not be viable 
That undergraduates will not be able to take advantage to a professional design faculty as they currently do. 
That a narrower focus and lack of production will reach fewer and fewer students across campus and diminish the educational importance of the department and meaningful training in theater as an art for undergraduates as well as graduate students. 
That the assault on the Theater Department is a further marginalization of the Arts and a continuation of the same policies that produced the Rose Art Museum crisis. 

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David Wilson
Brandeis Theater Company
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA

http://people.brandeis.edu/~wilson/DW-Design/Home.html
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