Volume LII Number 1 • Winter 2011 • $8.00 INSIDE: 2011 College, University & Professional Training Program Directory Is Study Abroad for You? Yes, You Can Afford It! How Study Abroad Can Help Your Career Programs Offered by SETC Institutions Plan Your Own Trip to London 32054_SETC_DeannaOrignal.indd 1 11/3/10 9:36:37 AM The West Georgia Theatre Company at UWG The Professional Degree Program Where Success is an Attitude! NAST Accredited Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Write, call or e-mail for more information Costume Design & Lighting Design by Senior Theatre Majors Costume Design & Lighting by Senior Theatre Program University of West Georgia www.westga.edu/~theatre 1601 Maple Street [email protected] Night – Twelfth Carrollton, Georgia 30118 678-839-4700 2008’s department of theatre & cinema at Virginia Tech We will surprise you. Discover a brand new flexible performance space opening fall 2009 newly renovated teaching studios and classroom facilities innovative theatre/cinema studies, production and practice faculty-student creative collaborations individualized professional training a commitment to new pieces and reenvisioned traditional works The experience can be yours. B.A. in Theatre Arts | www.theatre.vt.edu | 3-year M.F.A. Uncommon Experiences • Unexpected Opportunities Immediate hands-on training: Performance - Acting, Directing | Design - Scenography, Costume, Props, Sound | Technical Design and Production | Cinema Studies and Production | History, Literature and Playwriting | Stage Management | Arts Administration CVolume LII Number 1ontents l Winter 2011 l Southern Theatre – Quarterly Magazine of the Southeastern Theatre Conference Focus on Study Abroad 6 Is Study Abroad for You? Departments SETC Schools Offer Broad Array of Programs by Paul B. Crook 4 400 Words Enjoy Your Night at the Theatre ... 14 Chart: Study Abroad Programs or We’ll Make You! by Bret Jones compiled by Paul B. Crook 32 Words, Words, Words... 20 10 Ways Study Abroad Gives You a Jump Review of Stage Money: The Business of on Your Career the Professional Theater by Tim Donahue by Tessa Carr and Jim Patterson reviewed by Philip G. Hilll 24 Paying for Study Abroad Yes, You CAN Afford It! 36 Index to Volume LI by Scott Crawford 30 London Calling Cover Tips for Planning a Study Abroad Trip to England by George Hillow This photo of the final tableau of Marisol by Jose Rivera, shown during its run at the Forum Theater on the Ohio University (OU) campus in Athens in February 2010, 31 Resources was chosen from more than 130 photos submitted by Surfing for Study Abroad Programs colleges and universities. The play, part of OU’s mainstage season, was directed, designed and photographed by by Amile Wilson students. The director was Vanessa Mercado Taylor (MFA thesis); scenic design was by Sarah O’Brien (MFA thesis); costume design was by Kimberly Parkman (2nd year MFA student); and lighting design was by Brittany Shemuga (undergraduate senior). The photo was shot by Kelly Cline, Special Section currently a senior majoring in commercial photography in the School of Visual Communication, as part of her work in OU’s Program to Aid Career Exploration (PACE). This D-1 2011 SETC College, University & Training Program internship-like program provides the School of Theater Directory with photography majors who learn to do performance photography by shooting mainstage productions under the Find the right school for you in this comprehensive directory listing SETC member direction of theatre professor emeritus Robert Winters. The institutions and the degrees they offer. photos are used to create lobby displays, provide portfolio (Special section begins after Page 18.) photos and preserve archival records of all shows. (Cover design by Deanna Thompson) 400 Words from Bret Jones, Director of Theatre, Wichita State University Enjoy Your Night at the Theatre ... or We’ll Make You! heatre folk have The rules, such as they are, go something Denis Diderot propagated the concept of Tbeen bemoaning like this: Sit still, turn off your cell phone, the “fourth wall,” we have gone to great the decline of our field take out crying babies, laugh when it’s ap- lengths to push our audiences away from for decades now. Groans about lack of propriate, don’t when it’s not, clap at the our performances, causing them to be artifi- funding, support and audience members end of scenes, don’t be a distraction to the cial, things to be admired from afar and not punctuate the conversations we have ev- actors, no visiting during the show … and partaken of directly. The fourth wall shifted ery day. Our chagrin is aimed at the lack the list goes on. We have made attending our focus from being audience-centered to of people in our seats, but when we do the theatre like going to the doctor’s office being actor-centered. We expect audiences get them there, we grumble about poor to give blood and urine, instead of an event to pay good money and admire us and, by behavior, cell phone interference and lack filled with energy, excitement and, dare I golly, we want them to tell us so. Our work of theatre courtesy. say it, entertainment. No wonder hordes is for the audience. We are there for them, At the start of a recent show I attended, a of people bemoan their state if attending not the other way around. If we spent more young actor came out and read a list of rules a night at the theatre. I’m a theatre person, time cultivating this relationship, instead of on how to behave correctly in the theatre. and I dread going because it’s become clini- laying down ground rules for how to enjoy Theatres everywhere are doing similar cal, as opposed to seeming like a hot date. theatre, we might have audiences again. n things: newsletters to patrons on theatre Theatre practitioners have laid the blame rules and regulations, announcements at the feet of “uneducated” audiences who Have an opinion you would like to share with your colleagues on a topic related to before a show about silencing cell phones lack the intelligence to enjoy our art form. theatre? Send your column of 400 words and other devices, and classes on the The reality is, we are to blame for our re- or less to [email protected]. university level that teach proper theatre lationship with our audiences. Ever since conduct as part of their curriculum. Letter to the Editor Dear Editor: and it is the publishers/leasing agents who Ray Paolino’s “400 Words” in the Fall are inserting into their contracts efforts at 2010 Southern Theatre raises important such control. I talked recently to a very moral and legal questions. I addressed famous playwright who was not even some of them in my article in the Fall aware of such restrictions, and who agreed 2005 Southern Theatre, but sadly little has that his own scripts were not intended to changed since then. control a director in that way. Paolino is mistaken, however, when Paolino is right that we should model he says that “copyright laws” prohibit for our students respect for the law and changes in the script. All that the laws do for playwrights’ intent (if we can figure is to reserve to the playwright control over out what that is). More playwrights need whether such changes will be allowed. to discuss with their leasing agents how Understandably, most playwrights will much they really expect to control in not want the words of the script changed productions they will never see. The leasing without permission, but stage directions are agencies, as far as I can tell, are protecting often not even written by the playwright, themselves by blanket prohibitions in their and instead are a record of an early pro- contracts that ridiculously limit directorial duction. And controlling the words of the creativity. Sadly, at the rate at which the stage directions may be understandable in legal complexities of directing a play are any reprinting, but can the playwright, by piling up in our litigious society, we will copyrighting his words, control the move- all be in court unless we revert to cookbook ments of the actors on a stage? The design directing – simply following the recipe. of the scenery and costumes? Philip G. Hill The law is less than clear on that point, Professor Emeritus, Furman University s o u t h e r n heatre FromFrom the the SETC SETC President President … TSETC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Elizabeth N. Baun EDITOR Deanna Thompson ADVERTISING The opportunity to study in another country can be a life-changing experience Claire Wisniewski, [email protected] for theatre students. Emerging artists (and seasoned ones) need a broad and BUSINESS & ADVERTISING OFFICE diverse perspective if they are to create, advance and advocate for theatre. In Southeastern Theatre Conference PO Box 9868 our sixth annual College & University issue, Southern Theatre takes an in-depth Greensboro, NC 27429-0868 Tlook at the value of study abroad in our increasingly global society. Paul B. Crook 336-272-3645 PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE offers an overview of overseas study opportunities offered by SETC member Chris Hardin, Chair, Austin Peay State University (TN) institutions that responded to an e-mail survey, and more detail is provided in David Balthrop, Murray State University (KY) an accompanying chart. J. Caleb Boyd, University of West Georgia Sam Sparks, Independent Theatre Artist (TX) What benefits does study abroad provide for a student? Tessa Carr explores Scott Phillips, Auburn University (AL) the advantages from the standpoint of professors and graduate school program EDITORIAL BOARD Jesse Bates, Alabama School of Fine Arts directors. In brief sidebars sprinkled throughout the magazine, students and Sonya/Tim Bixler, Washington School/Delta Center Stage (MS) professors who have been overseas for study share the impact that the experience Doug Brown, Freelance Technical Director (NC) Tessa Carr, Lees-McCrae College (NC) had on their lives and careers.