After a public outcry, Tallahassee State College moved to restore one of its fall theatre productions. But the school’s president says the future of the drama program depends on student response.
It all began on August 17th. Just as auditions for the fall production of “The 39 Steps” were supposed to begin, the college cancelled both it and November’s performances of “Pride and Prejudice.” After significant public pushback, the school put the latter production back on the schedule. That was good news for people like Theatre TSC Prop Manager Marnie Earl.
“I’m really pleased we’re still going to have at least one show this fall. That makes a huge difference and obviously better than zero. But it makes me really nervous for the future and it makes me worry that the school really doesn’t realize how important and impactful the theatre program is.”
Tallahassee State College President Jim Murdaugh says he fully understands where folks like Earl are coming from.
“The fact that people were upset or concerned that we cancelled the productions is actually a very positive thing. We’re fortunate. We had a little trouble, but somehow there are some people who think we don’t have a commitment to arts at the college and nothing could be further from the truth.”
Murdaugh cites longtime support for such things as Word of South, Southern Shakespeare, Gadsden Arts and much more. But beyond the cutback in the school’s own theatre performance schedule, there was the matter of some drama course cancellations at the start of the semester. Here’s Murdaugh’s response.
“We had low enrollment in our theatre courses. Very low. In one class, we had 2. In another class we had zero.”
Why the lack of enrollment? Murdaugh has a few thoughts on that.
“They are not sought out by Florida State University as a transfer preference for people who want to go to FSU’s theatre program. They are purely electives. Having said that, sorry we had to do it. We offer these classes every semester and we will be offering them again in the spring hoping that they make it. We can’t control how many students register for classes.”
Answering those in the community who speculated there might be some backroom attempt to move money from the drama program to other areas, President Murdaugh describes the whole matter as a simple case of supply and demand.
“This is about what students are interested in. They’re the ones who register or don’t register and unfortunately, this semester didn’t pan out.”
Still, TSC’s performances of “Pride and Prejudice” will happen on the stage of Turner Auditorium November 12th the 22nd. Auditions will be held September 8th and 9th.
