Ohio University hopes to expand even more to the Columbus area, giving theater students an opportunity to study there after severing its ties to a professional theater company this summer.
Ohio University hopes to expand even more to the Columbus area, giving theater students an opportunity to study there after severing its ties to a professional theater company this summer.
Officials are brainstorming what property they will acquire next, after ending its nearly 60-year relationship with the Monomoy Theatre in Chatham, Massachusetts for academic and economic reasons.
The contract for the theater, located more than 650 miles from Athens, was not renewed beyond Dec. 31, accelerating the talks about moving to Dublin because the program has to be associated with a professional theater company to be reaccredited with the National Association of Schools of Theater.
Monomoy was not the only internship opportunity, but it was vital, said Michael Lincoln, artistic director of the Division of Theater.
“It was a prudent decision about looking into the future and seeing where our efforts might bear the most fruit,” said Margaret Kennedy-Dygas, dean of the College of Fine Arts.
Each summer, OU students accounted for the majority of a 37-person company to perform eight shows in 12 weeks. Students were provided housing, meals and a stipend. Graduate students received $2,000; the amount given to undergraduates was not available as of press time.
The university and college were piling up about a $250,000 deficit in maintaining Monomoy. University officials estimated that necessary construction to bring the multiple buildings on the site up to code would cost about $2 million.
The past three years alone have been the most costly, Lincoln said.
Elizabeth Baker, wife of OU’s 14th President John Calhoun Baker, purchased the property for the theater students more than 50 years ago. But Baker’s heirs decided three years ago to charge the university rent for using the property.
The lease was agreed to for a three-year term and cost $60,000 each year.
Monomoy’s “historic affiliation” with OU was why the ties were not cut years prior, Lincoln said. OU students can still apply to the Monomoy program.
“No one wanted to be the bad guy and cut a program that had such a long history with the university,” Lincoln said in an email. “It was a legacy program of a very important president of OU.”
OU is now considering establishing a theater company in Dublin. The university recently expanded to the city outside of Columbus with a new medical school.
Kennedy-Dygas said the greater Columbus area is a “natural choice” for the university, but the Dublin campus wouldn’t be the ideal location for a potential professional theater company.
“Athens is simply too small a city to support a theater company of the scope that we envision in the long term. Besides, there are already a couple of smaller theater companies here with very focused missions,” Kennedy-Dygas said.
“We are interested in the Columbus area because of the economic vitality of the area, the large population size which would support a nationally recognized resident theater company, and the fact that (surprisingly) Columbus does not have a nationally recognized, year-round resident theater company,” she said.
University officials have toured Dublin high schools as a temporary location for this year’s program during the summer. However, the long-term goal is to have a permanent arts facility in downtown Dublin.
The permanent arts space is envisioned to be a part of Dublin’s Bridge Street Project, a $300 million plan to renovate its downtown area, which will create a large area for housing, offices and restaurants, a new roundabout and a pedestrian bridge to connect it to historic parts of Dublin.
“Naturally, we would want this professional theater company to have a permanent home someday in the center of an active arts and culture area,” Kennedy-Dygas said. “Thus, if we could be partners with the city and/or private developers, we would have fiscal responsibilities but not be the primary proprietors of this space.”
Alycia Kunkle, a third-year graduate actor, said she was heart-broken by the decision to end OU’s affiliation with Monomoy. She and third-year graduate director Ryan Holihan both wrote letters to Kennedy-Dygas — and Kunkle even sent one to OU President Roderick McDavis — about their disappointment.
Lincoln said the decision was hardest on the students because they hadn’t been a part of the behind-the-scenes conversations that had been going on in the previous academic year and were thus “blindsided.”
“It was like please break up with me in person, don’t send me a text message,” said Lisa Bol, a third-year graduate actor who attended Monomoy in the summer of 2013. “Have the respect to talk to me as a professional and an adult because that’s what you’re training me to be. Know I’ll be upset, but at least let me have a conversation with you.”
Kennedy-Dygas did respond to the letters written to her, but the students said since school has begun, they have not been brought in to the conversation about the plans for the future.
Kennedy-Dygas said this is because a foundation and model needs to be built before students can be brought into the picture. A steering committee has been formed and is meeting at the end of September to create a structure for a company that can stand on its own feet and to establish a business model for how the project will be funded.
Holihan, who went to Monomoy twice, said he is most worried about the absence of reputation at this point.
“I think it will be a long time for them to establish any kind of reputation, which is unfortunate for the students who come here in the near future,” he said. “My colleagues and classmates care about making (the program) top notch so when people look at our résumés and see we went here, it means something.”
Administrators are aware of those concerns.
“Can we recreate a Monomoy experience in 2015 in Dublin? Of course not. That’s not realistic,” Kennedy-Dygas said. “But if you want to ask how we can build a company that, in a 5 to 10-year period, is going to have a very bright future and a professional scope of natural stature, then we can begin to talk about how we’re going to proceed.”
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