As I've gone through second year, seen as many student performances and concerts as I could, and conversed with fellow arts-inclined students, it has become painfully clear to me that there is a strong consensus among student actors that the UVa Drama Department could be serving its students better in many ways. There seems to be a general feeling among students who would otherwise be fully immersed in the Drama Department that its goals and the desires of its students are not aligned. After many conversations, some to procrastinate on studying for finals and some just because, with those affected by the Drama Department's decisions, I've gathered several suggestions that UVa arts students would like to see implemented by UVa Drama in the near future.

1. Add the option for Acting and Tech concentrations within the Drama major.

I am consistently confused about why the UVa Music major offers a clearly delineated Performance concentration, and also a DMP program, and yet the Drama major does not have an equivalent Acting concentration. The major is heavily focused on providing Drama majors with a "well-rounded" experience in theater encompassing tech, production, and (minimal) acting classes.

However, it seems that the major is too spread out among these areas and thus satisfies no one's interests who might be interested in being a Drama major. I do believe that understanding the tech and production sides of theater is important for entering the field, but this major is remarkably sparse in acting requirements. By having an Acting, and maybe also a Tech concentration within the major, more students would feel that the department was catering to their specific learning desires as a student of the stage.

2. Give Drama majors credit towards the major for performing in shows.

I was not aware until recently that very few of the acting classes in the Drama department count towards the major, and I also did not realize that Drama majors acting in Drama department shows apparently get no credit towards the major, yet majors doing tech for Drama department shows do get major credit. This illustrates to me a hole in the UVa Drama department's curriculum because, once again, there seems to be no celebration of acting proficiency. If there were some way for acting in a Drama department show to perhaps replace one of the tech requirements, I think many students would be more inclined to declare the major.

3. Offer more consistent musical theater-related performance and academic opportunities.

Any UVa student who has interacted with the arts to any degree knows that the place to go for musical theater is to student theater groups, unfortunately because the Drama department only does one musical a year and offers only one musical theater class. I fully understand that musicals are extremely time and resource-intensive, but many students seeking a career in Drama have theater backgrounds primarily in musical theater and want an avenue for them to hone those skills.

4. Choose more shows that cause an instant "buzz" among potential student auditionees.

Whenever the Drama Department's new season is announced, I notice a general sense of confusion over its show choices, very few of which are recognizable by name to students. There is absolutely a place for avant-garde and experimental theater within Drama programs, and this year's selection of Urinetown for its Spring musical represents a show choice that, by familiarity alone, has made many students excited to potentially audition. The same I don't think can be said for most of the other shows listed for next year's season. I am sure that the rights for well-known show are much more expensive than those for newer or less established shows, but the benefits from producing more well-loved shows will ripple positively across its program for years to come.

5. Streamline and fully commit to its theatrical visions.

After many recent Drama department shows, I have heard from many audience members and actors that they felt confused by the vision of the show and were puzzled by the overall artistic aesthetic, feeling that it distracted them from becoming fully immersed in the show's content. This illustrates a bit of a problem to me if actors in a show do not fully understand the show's vision, or do not know why they are doing what they are doing. Once again, I'm all for artsy theater, but "artsiness" should have a clear purpose that adds meaning to the show for the audience and actors alike. There is no point, in my mind, to arbitrarily setting a show in the 1980s if it would be much better done in a traditional classical setting.

6. Condense its weekly rehearsal schedule for each show to largely eliminate Friday and/or Saturday rehearsals.

I've heard from many students involved with Drama Department shows that the atmosphere is very professional, which I have no problem with. However, I do take slight issue with their apparent insistence on having Friday and Saturday rehearsals from 6-11 pm. It is surely important to hone every aspect of a show, but it might be more conducive to the actors' sanity to allow them a bit more time to breathe, study, and recharge between rehearsals in the midst of a hectic semester.

7. Associate more closely with student theater groups at UVa.

This could take place in several forms, such as cross-promotion for Drama Department and student theater productions occurring in close time proximity, or (this might be a pipe dream) allowing student theater groups more regular access to Drama Department rehearsal and performance spaces. It frustrates me that most student theater productions are created from scratch in the Student Activities "Glorified Warehouse" Building, even while there are no shows in production at the Drama Department. I am not sure what might have severed the ties between these two divisions at UVa, but a cordial truce would benefit all parties involved

8. Consider the possibility of implementing a BFA program for theater at UVa.

I recognize that UVa does not currently offer a BFA program for Drama, and that a BA program for theater is inherently less specialized and performance-centric than a BFA program would be. However, UVa is clearly rich with artistic and theatrical talent bursting for the chance to be celebrated by the Drama Department, and a BFA program would be a much-celebrated step in the right direction of legitimization for the Drama program at UVa.

With all of this said, I am very thankful for the myriad of opportunities that the Drama Department at UVa does offer. Though I do not plan to major in Drama, I have many friends seeking degrees from the UVa Drama Department, and I relish the chance to see my friends perform in Drama Department shows throughout the year. It is with this perspective that I wonder if the Drama Department can recognize that many of my words here echo the sentiments of a large segment of arts-inclined UVa students.