It is an absolute disgrace that after eagerly combing the pages of our yearbook we did not come across a single picture of a theater production. Not a single picture. There wasn't any reference to the theater at all.

Excuse No. 1: The events took place too late in the year.

Let us list for you the productions that have happened in the last two semesters, not including this weekend's Oedipus Rex which, understandably, would not have made the deadline:

"Taming of the Shrew," "As You Like It," "Good Night Desdemona," "Good Morning Juliet," "Lost in Yonkers," "Love's Fire," "Comedy of Errors," "Shirley Valentine," "All in the Timing," "I Hate Hamlet," "Guys and Dolls," "Romeo and Juliet," "One Man Shows," a performance workshop, "Just Browsing," 15 directing finals, plus last spring's "Love of the Nightingale" (Reg Bain's last directing project, an esteemed member of the Notre Dame faculty, retired, now emeritas).

Some great things are going on within the department which would be of interest to students today, as well as in the future. The new performing arts center is breaking ground soon and the plans have been made public. This includes a multi-million dollar black-box theatre donated by Regis Philbin. In addition, Actors from the London Stage have made Notre Dame their "home base" in the United States and next year's season includes a visit from an esteemed international director.

Excuse No. 2: The yearbook though has a limited amount of space and not every event is able to be covered.

Somehow there was enough space for D6, the parking lot, as well as the ducks that wander around (they, incidentally, do not pay tuition). Apparently, the Dome has their priorities mixed up and we the students are paying the price. Maybe there are some students who would rather see their cars than themselves in their senior yearbook, but we have yet to run across any such people.

Lots of time, energy and man-power goes into a production and that time is taken away from other events like sports, "hanging out" on the quad or in La Fortune, going to movies or even pep rallies. Mainstage productions require at least four to five hours of rehearsal a day, six days a week. According to our calculations, that is just as much, if not more, than some varsity athletics. Efforts and sacrifices like these deserve notice. We do not simply perform for ourselves but for the benefit of the entire student body. Unfortunately, when we go back to our yearbook, it will not be acknowledged.

This is a terrible non-memory for the graduating senior theatre majors and a real let-down for the rest of the department as well.

Babs Smith, Kathy Koch and Jeni Rinner

FTT Mainstage student representatives

April 27, 2001

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• No theater coverage
  
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