Such a ‘Bler: Theatre Town Hall 2018

By Minh Ha (Millie) Le | November 20, 2018

I missed both Theatre Town Halls last year, so I was definitely not intending to miss this semester’s!

Town Halls are held near the end of every semester to keep students of the Theatre Department up to date with the upcoming productions on campus. Updates range from the upcoming semester’s productions to the upcoming academic year’s productions. Main Stage Productions (staff directed shows that are performed in the Newhart Family Theatre) are chosen by the Theatre faculty. Students are given the opportunity to apply for positions such as Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager(s) of these productions.

There was something extra special about this particular Town Hall, which is why I’m so psyched that I was able to attend. Second Stage Productions are under construction – that is, the faculty have decided to make some adjustments to the program as a whole.

Second Stage Shows are student proposed projects that run for either 2 weeks, 5 weeks or 12 weeks and are performed in the basement of Mundelein – a rather smaller but cozier space compared to the Newhart. This does have its benefits and has proven to allow a large extent of creativity and experimentation for the students as it is a black box theatre space. However, after many discussions, the faculty came to the conclusion that the term “Second Stage” self rather “Second”, as if it were less important. It also came to their attention that this program had a lot of undiscovered potential!

And so, the program is being expanded into many different models for students to take charge on! Just to name a few (and ones that I’m particularly excited about):

Question Based Model: Student(s) proposing the project pose a question and a methodology for examining that question in a 2-week theatre workshop.
Follow-up from Class Model: Students develop a previously crafted class masterpiece.
Funded Research Model: Individually or in a small group: apply for an undergraduate research grant for a research trip over Summer or Winter break.

I’m very ecstatic to say the least and am eager to start constructing proposals. I’ll be honest and say that I was quite intimidated and hesitant to propose for a Second Stage Production. But this new development of the program has given me new confidence, and a clearer starting point to narrow for my myriad of scribbles.

The new program still does not have a name yet though, and T-shirts are up for grabs. Perhaps I’ll start on that first….

BY THE WAY, I made a new video about what I’m studying at Loyola. Watch it here: