Houghton College’s English, Writing, and Communications departments are conducting a search for a Theater Workshop Director who would produce a spring 2016 theater production. Communication Professor, Douglass Gaerte said, “This new initiative is intended to bring a bit more continuity as well as professionalism to the drama offerings on campus.”
Although there has never been a stand-alone theater department at Houghton, there are two theater related classes, Introduction to Theater and Oral Performance of Literature, which students can be involved with. Students interested in being in the college play can sign up for the one credit class, Comm 236: Theater Workshop, and try out for the play in the fall. According to Gaerte, in the fall of 2015, the director will have auditions for actors, assign the parts, and interview others interested in being crew members for the production. This will allow students to begin working on their lines in preparation for the spring semester.
In the spring of 2016, the director would then teach a theater workshop where they would work with the cast and crew for about a month, running through rehearsals and preparing for the public performance of the play that would happen at the end of the month. English Professor, James Wardwell said, “[We are] inviting a different voice into our community…This person will be really in touch with outside experiences and [will] bring that voice in and give that voice a means to communicate with the entire community.”
Over the years, Houghton has had various student theater groups who performed some original productions of dramatic pieces they wrote. This has allowed students to have more opportunities to direct and perform. According to Gaerte, in the past, there were around eight or nine drama productions on campus consisting of School of Music productions, college plays, series of one-acts directed by students, and a Broadway musical revue directed by students. According to Kaitlyn McKinney ‘17, there was a collection of skits put on by a drama club last year that lasted for about thirty minutes in the recital hall. However, not many people attended. McKinney, who starred in the “Odd Couple” at the Fire Hall last year said one of the reasons she loves theater is, “You build a family in theater and become really close to the people in the production.”
According to Gaerte, a student Shakespeare club was formed from a Shakespeare class that Wardwell taught. Wardwell believes theater is a “potentially marvelous community building activity where people interact with one another in significant ways about significant ideas” and then “invite a larger community [an audience] to come in and interact with those relationships through a performance.”
The English, Writing, and Communication departments hope that bringing a guest director to campus each spring to direct a play will help get more students interested in theater here at Houghton. Wardwell hopes, “this can stimulate a growth path that can lead to something legitimate academically in theater.” Gaerte said, “We will be advertising for this position, as well as reaching out to our alumni who work in theater as we try to identify good candidates for this position.” According to McKinney, an individual who knows how to advertise and get people interested in theater will help develop the theater program.