VCU opened a $25 million basketball practice facility on November 2nd. VCU dining services installed two iris scanners for students upon their entrance into Shafer Dining Court, but I unfortunately could not find any evidence on the cost of the iris scanners. As a student of VCUArts, I pay a $900 arts fee. I trust that such an established university knows how to properly budget its large amounts of money to most aid its students. However, as a student of TheatreVCU, I can say that I do not feel like I am getting my money's worth in the facilities and budget provided to TheatreVCU.
I'm not here to bash VCU's basket ball team or dining services. Both of those programs are clearly assets to the university as a whole. VCU basketball is the pride and joy of our school and brings a lot of money and attention. And dining services have obvious purposes in that, well, they feed us. While I think iris scanners may be a bit gratuitous compared to some other pressing financial problems our school could solve, I'm not here to bash other programs getting new facilities and valuable equipment; I think it's great. The basketball team has a fantastic place to practice and prepare for games that bring a great deal of money and notoriety to our school. I'm simply here to state the lack of funding for TheatreVCU.
On that same note, I know many programs are underfunded, including other veins of VCUArts. I am speaking about the lack of funding for TheatreVCU as a someone who is putting thousands of dollars and hours into an education at VCU. I'm getting my money's worth in acting training, production opportunities, and many other aspects of VCU. However, what the theatre department lacks is proper facilities.
The theatre department primarily uses two buildings on campus, The Singleton Center Performing Arts (also known as PAC) and Shafer Street Playhouse. Both located relatively close to the Compass, these two building house most performance and tech classes. Other theatre classes have to outsource; for example, History of Theatre took place in the ALC this semester and switches venues every semester. PAC is split between the music and theatre departments. On the theatre side, PAC houses the Raymond Hodges Theatre (where Mainstage shows take place), box office, costume shop, scene shop, three classrooms, the light lab, and faculty offices. Shafer Street Playhouse includes Newdick Theatre (where SALT, the student-led theatre, produces plays and the bi-weekly No Shame Variety Show), four classrooms, graduate student offices, paint shop, makeup studio, and library.
We theatre students are incredibly grateful for the facilities we do have and for all the learning and opportunities we experience within their walls. However, Shafer Street Playhouse has become a bit of a problem in recent years. The building is extremely old, though renovated, and literally falling apart. The women's bathroom was completely out of commission for a couple weeks this semester, and it took too long for the school to send someone to fix it. The second floor men's bathroom (with only one toilet and one urinal) became the unisex bathroom for the many, many students who have classes and rehearsals in the building every day. Additionally, the ceiling is falling apart in many rooms throughout the building. The women's bathroom ceiling was finally fixed after students complained of plaster falling on their heads while using the bathroom. Below are some photos of the ceiling before it was fixed, but other parts of the building still have a similar problem.
I was sitting in acting class the other day in one of Shafer's classrooms and little bits of plaster slowly rained down on my professor. It looked like it was snowing right above him. Now, little bits of thin plaster don't hurt anyone, but it's only a matter of time before bigger pieces start to fall and people get hurt. Also, Newdick theatre has many broken seats in the audience, most notably the front row seats which are becoming unhinged. Shafer has many more problems that I can't fit in this article, but it is quite literally falling apart and possibly a danger to students.
Like I said, we are grateful for our facilities. However, every week students have trouble finding rehearsal space to work on scenes and monologues for classes. There are six total rooms in PAC and Shafer available to students for rehearsals. On any given weekday, 1-3 rooms are booked for Mainstage or SALT rehearsal. That leaves usually around 3 rooms for students to rehearse for class. I have rehearsed scenes in hallways and practice rooms in the music department many times because no theatre rooms were available. The lack of rehearsal space has become a large problem when many students need to work all at once.
These problems are not going unnoticed. Students have been taking action all semester about the many problems with Shafer Street Playhouse. They have had meetings with the Dean of the Arts and are continuing to find other ways to speak out. We need our buildings. We need Shafer Street Playhouse. We can't lose these facilities, but they need vast improvements soon for the safety and well-being of students.
So how do we fix this problem? Students need to speak out. We have more power than we know. We give this college thousands of dollars every semester, and that fact alone gives us a strong voice. It's time to stand up for our education.
