The­atre De­part­ment Tran­si­tions to New Dance Stu­dio, Re­hearsal Lo­ca­tion

MISHAWAKA--Many tran­si­tions are tak­ing place in the Fine Arts De­part­ments at Bethel Uni­ver­sity. One of those is the new lo­ca­tion for dance, the­atre re­hearsals and act­ing classes. This new space is the for­mer art stu­dio. The art de­part­ment and the the­atre de­part­ment de­cided to switch some spaces around to al­low for bet­ter work­flow and ac­ces­si­bil­ity for stu­dents. 

Stu­dent An­drew Cora said that, while he would like to see the build­ing made more ac­ces­si­ble so that there are op­tions be­sides the cur­rent two stair­cases used for en­ter­ing the build­ing, there are many pos­i­tive tenets to the new lo­ca­tion. Cora loves the fact that there are lit­tle to no in­ter­rup­tions. When stu­dents would have the­atre re­hearsals or dance prac­tices in FA 150, the space would pre­sent the chal­lenge of nois­i­ness which would be a detri­ment to try­ing to hear when per­form­ing or prac­tic­ing.  

Mor­gan Mc­Donell, the as­sis­tant pro­duc­tion man­ager of the The­atre De­part­ment, dis­cussed all the prepa­ra­tions still in ef­fect in mov­ing the dance stu­dio from FA 150 to the new build­ing. She was in the process of putting up the all-im­por­tant signs of, “NO STREET SHOES on the DANCE FLOOR.” And that can­not be stressed enough. Mc­Donell is an in­te­gral part to the mov­ing process. 

“I help set up, fig­ure out or­ga­ni­za­tion and how the space is go­ing to be used,” Mc­Donell said. “It’s a smaller space but it feels more spa­cious.”  

Cora and Mc­Donell both agreed that things will run smoother fol­low­ing the tran­si­tions. They will be able to have their re­hearsals with no in­ter­rup­tions and a place to call their own, while the art de­part­ment can join their fine arts fam­ily in the Ever­est-Rohrer build­ing.  

Grace Cole, the ad­min­is­tra­tive as­sis­tant for the The­atre De­part­ment, talks of many fea­tures of the new space that were ex­cit­ing and novel to those who were used to us­ing FA 150. There are two Green Rooms in the space, one near the front of the build­ing clos­est to the main street and one in the back on the left. Those spaces pro­vide ac­tors or dancers space to put on shoes and pre­pare for per­form­ing, re­spec­tively. An­other as­pect Cole is ex­cited about is the three ad­di­tions to the room, the props cab­i­nets. She says it's go­ing to be a good spot to have some much-needed or­ga­ni­za­tion for stage left and stage right props. And it is right there for the per­form­ers.  

Cole fin­ished with ex­plain­ing how the rest of build­ing will be used. The base­ment of the build­ing will be used for stor­age for the Main­te­nance De­part­ment, who also played a pri­mary role in mak­ing this tran­si­tion hap­pen, bring­ing the floor from FA 150 to the Dance Stu­dio.  

This dance stu­dio is bring­ing many pos­i­tives to work­flow for the per­form­ers at Bethel Uni­ver­sity, and many can­not wait for what great per­for­mances it will help fa­cil­i­tate.