A message to students about fall quarter Theatre classes and productions

Classes

Fall quarter theatre classes will be held remotely, face-to-face (F2F), or a hybrid of remote and F2F. As we plan for the fall, and constantly adjust with the latest information, our top priority is the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff.

Most of our classes will be taught remotely at their scheduled time via Zoom (synchronous). This includes lecture, discussion, and seminar-based curriculum. A select few classes will also be offered asynchronously.

Our skills based, experiential learning courses, will be offered either F2F, or a hybrid of  F2F and  online.  This includes our performance and theatre education curriculum.

All F2F teaching will adhere to strict state, local, and university guidelines regarding Covid-19 preventive measures. Students will follow protocols for social distancing, mask wearing, daily self-reporting, hand sanitizing, and others. In addition, classes are being staggered to allow for our studios to be fully disinfected between classes.

All students and faculty have the right not to participate in F2F instruction. Students who chose this option will be provided remote access via recordings or live streams of the work done in their F2F class.

Productions

Kennedy Center Undergraduate National Award winner how to clean your room (and remember all your trauma), written by Theatre alumni j.chavez, will be our first fall production. The live streamed show, directed by Evan Mueller, is scheduled to be performed  in the DUG Theatre, with a fully realized design, including costumes, scenery and lighting created through a collaboration of faculty and students.   

Due to the constraints of social distancing, we have replaced Cabaret  with a Playwrights’ Reading Series which will be performed remotely by our student actors in collaboration with professional playwrights (playwrights TBD). Faculty members Mark Kuntz and Kamarie Chapman  are  collaborating on a series of three to four weeks of staged readings featuring a new play each week. This combination of professional playwrights from across the country working with WWU students presents an exciting opportunity for educational and artistic growth.

When faculty return in the fall, we will establish deadlines to make decisions regarding the remaining production slots for our mainstage season.

Like all of you, we are eager for all of our courses to return to F2F, but this careful approach back towards normal is necessary to ensure the health and safety of us all.

-Rich Brown
Professor, Chair, Theatre and Dance