Recently, I made contact (technologically, not physically) with a few of our undergrads here in the TTU School of Theatre and Dance, offering a handful of questions for their perusal: senior Theatre Major Ethan Beam, sophomore BFA Acting Major Keandra Hunt, and junior transfer student Colin Thomas. Together we lamented what was lost, shared what we had left, and looked forward to a future that looks something like a combination of AMC’s The Walking Dead and a George Orwell nightmare.
As our students at the School of Theatre and Dance wrap up their spring semester of 2020, it is encouraging to hear that our artists are still learning, still creating and still sharing with the community through "No Shame Theatre: Zoom Edition."
We have been working hard on recruiting for our new low-residency Master of Arts in Dance Studies and I am happy to report that we have a cohort of four wonderful students starting with us online this summer. This degree is an exciting new addition to the program. I am confident our first cohort will be challenged both creatively and intellectually.
If you think that this is going to be a column that describes loss and overly sentimentalizes the past, you’re wrong. Sure, we lament losing opportunities that we worked hard to create, but I’m here to assure you that, in the process of adapting to new challenges, we’ve proven that we are flexible, resilient, and imaginative.