Bethel The­atre and Mu­sic De­part­ments Can­cel All Spring Pro­duc­tions

MISHAWAKA- Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty’s The­atre and Mu­sic De­part­ments have can­celled all up­com­ing Spring pro­duc­tions due to the school’s clos­ing caused by the novel COVID-19.  

Bethel Uni­ver­sity, along with many other col­leges, busi­nesses, and stores, has made quick de­ci­sions to close for the next cou­ple of weeks.  

With the in-per­son classes be­ing can­celled, both the the­atre and mu­sic de­part­ments were pre­pared to sim­ply post­pone spring pro­duc­tions to the weeks fol­low­ing stu­dents com­ing back to cam­pus; how­ever, with the school clos­ing un­til next se­mes­ter, all pro­duc­tions have been can­celled and per­for­mance classes have all moved on­line. 

Don Hunter, Chair of Mu­sic, is chal­lenged with classes be­ing moved on­line.  

“It has been chal­leng­ing putting lec­tures up on Can­vas and fig­ur­ing out how to change courses that are usu­ally graded by face to face in­struc­tion.”  

Classes have been adapted to use video sub­mis­sions or video chat­ting ap­pli­ca­tions. Due to the cir­cum­stance, many per­for­mance classes have changed due to the on­line set­ting. 

With the chang­ing cir­cum­stances, pro­duc­tions for the spring were can­celed and many stu­dents were left up­set.   

The pro­duc­tion Wiz­ard of Oz was set to be per­formed at the end of March. Now the pro­duc­tion has been resched­uled as the Mu­si­cal for next sea­son, and any role lost due to stu­dents grad­u­at­ing will be re-casted to fill the spot.  

Ac­cord­ing to Mor­gan Mc­Donell, as­sis­tant pro­duc­tion man­ager for the the­atre, many stu­dents are up­set be­cause of the can­cel­la­tions.  

“Stu­dents are up­set in a lot of ways,” said Mc­Donell. “We have missed out on the fi­nal per­for­mances of the year which is a huge loss. The se­niors have it the worst be­cause they are los­ing their fi­nal per­for­mances at Bethel... [I’m] mourn­ing the losses and try­ing to adapt to the on­line sched­ule.” 

The de­part­ments are look­ing for­ward to next year’s pro­duc­tions and are ex­cited about the in­no­va­tion of the staff and stu­dents as we switch to on­line in­struc­tion.  

For more in­for­ma­tion or clar­i­fi­ca­tion, please email Don Hunter at don­ald.hunter@bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu.