The theatrical productions that a college or university put on can be thought of as the real world, hands on experience theater students receive in school. They truly help young adults prepare for the industry of theater. These school productions should also engage the student body by including them as an audience. The theater productions put on by Delta College do not appear to fully meet this capacity of higher education drama departments, considering that all the shows in recent years are geared toward children.
The productions are performed with the aim of solely entertaining children with a side “bonus” of attempting to provide experience for aspiring actors. Children’s shows such as “Cinderella Cinderella,” “The Reluctant Dragon,” and “My Name is Rumpelstiltskin” populate the list of productions by the department and draw a much much younger demographic than that of the students who attend Delta.
This is a bit upsetting for two reasons. First, knowing how to perform for the sole purpose of entertaining children is a skill all actors should have, but that does not mean that every single show that they participate in through their drama department should be shows written for children. This robs the drama students of the chance of tackling deep and complex characters in productions that are written for an older audience.
Second, by performing children’s production that are aimed toward entertaining an audience of young children, the department is unable to effectively tap into the captive audience right on campus. Instead of seeking to bring in local schools to enjoy the fruits of student efforts through children’s plays, the Delta Drama Department could reach a broader audience that is right on campus: college students and their friends. The secret to doing this is not so secret: perform and put on shows that are well known and that would appeal to an older audience.
Looking around the state, you can see high schools that put on more challenging productions than Delta College. On a community college level, across the state, colleges are producing shows that spark an interest in their student body to see the show. They offer training in theater and drama through plays such as “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Our Town” by Lansing Community College, “Man of La Mancha” by Northwestern College and “Hairspray” by Henry Ford, to name a few.
Colleges are putting these titles on and are drawing an audience. Their audiences are not only made up of students of those schools, but family and community members, who are there because they want to be. I believe the same thing would happen if Delta’s Drama Department would produce shows that actually appealed to college age students. Not only would students fill the theater, but friends, and family and community members as well.
As a theater enthusiast, it makes me sad to see a program with potential to do great things resign itself to amateurish children’s productions and basic staging. It seems not only a waste of potential of the talented individuals who make up the department, but also a huge missed opportunity to draw in students from Delta who may have never experienced a production or the wonder of theater.
Theater is a realm of excitement, of limitless possibilities and unlimited expression that is created to be shared with an interested audience. It is not something to be limited to the performance of one similar show after another.
-By Josephine Norris