SCHOOL OF THEATER

June 10, 1997

Submitted by Toni Dorfman, Director, School of Theater

The following goals were developed by the whole faculty of the School of Theater over the past eight years and reaffirmed in the School's 1995-96 self-study as part of the accreditation process of the National Association of Schools of Theater (NAST). Every program was subjected to intense critical review during the preparation of the NAST self-study, culminating in the visit of two NAST outside evaluators in 1996.

This process will culminate formally in accreditation, we are assured, this summer of 1997, the first time the OU School of Theater has received national accreditation.

The means of the School in assessing students' work has traditionally included tracking all students individually through the curriculum with multiple, ongoing faculty assessment. In the past three years the faculty has developed new and more stringent means of judging students' work by adding a series of different evaluators, including visiting artists, and internship supervisors in professional theaters, and by far more systematic tracking of alumni outcomes.

Almost every program at this point is under new leadership, except for the already high-achieving Production Design and Technology Program, under Professor Ursula Belden since 1987. That program has substantially clarified and codified for the first time this academic year its training goals and the means by which students' achievement of those goals are judged. (See below under Graduate Programs, "MFA Production Design & Technology Program.")

Every program has undergone improvement as a result of the self-study, a series of planning meetings by the whole faculty in 1995 and 1996, and the encouragement of NAST in imposing across-the-board academic standards to meet accreditation. Last year's 1996 Assessment Report for Ohio University, it must be acknowledged, has also been a spur to self-scrutiny and improvement.

As a result of an ongoing self-study in the School, the NAST self-study, the need to articulate our assessment procedures in-house, and our increasing awareness that we must train not only practitioners but also theater artists and thinkers, with a strong academic education, we increasingly emphasize academic studies, in addition to providing the already strong practical training Ohio's School of Theater has been known for.

For example, the final improvement leading to our accreditation this year is the requirement, beginning in fall 1997, of an additional 4 credit hours in theater history/analysis/criticism in the MFA design program, so that at least 10% of a student's theater studies are in this area.

All undergraduate programs, BA and BFA: to provide a broad and deep education in the arts and humanities for all our students, to prepare them for rigorous specialized graduate training in theater, and to provide theoretical and practical frameworks for understanding and making theater.

MA program in history and criticism: to prepare students for scholarly or research activity, especially those interested in dramaturgy in the professional theater, and those preparing to go on for a terminal degree, particularly the PhD.

All MFA graduate programs: to prepare students for careers in the professional theater.

There is increasing systematic evidence that we do a good job of accomplishing our goals: via yearly alumni questionnaires, the tracking via our own computer database of all alumni (new this year), a School of Theater home page Website that serves as an alumni bulletin board (new this year), our alumni newsletter, Stage Directions, which serves as a report on alumni and School activities.

Alumni regularly achieve national prominence: most recently Jonathan Freeman (Medal of Merit BFA '72 alumnus, film star, and Tony nominee); Eddie Pierce MFA '95, who was associate scenic designer on BRING IN 'DA NOISE, BRING IN 'DA FUNK and the subject of a profile in this February's Theatre Crafts International; and Charles Cooper, BFA '77, who won a Tony Award on national television last week for best featured actor in a musical for his work in Broadway's THE LIFE.

We rely much on the assessment by visiting artists of our students' and our own work. Kirk Bookman, Bob Jared, Ming Cho Lee, and John Bell are among the internationally recognized artists who have formally and informally evaluated our work.

An essential component of all assessment of our students is the professional internship, in place in every program, graduate and undergraduate. See below under individual program descriptions for more detailed evidence of how well we accomplish our goals.

In 1996 we received the great honor of being invited to join the University/Resident Theater Association, a consortium of training programs affiliated with professional theater companies. As one of the 31 training programs in U/RTA, we are already part of a more exclusive professional association than we will be as a member of NAST. It is indicative of our growing national reputation that we were invited into U/RTA despite the fact that we were not yet members of NAST, and we have been the only non-NAST U/RTA member since. I was asked to serve on the board of directors of U/RTA in 1996, and I was elected national treasurer of U/RTA this winter 1997.

We are encouraged to note that the undergraduate programs in particular show strong improvement in alumni evaluations over the last set of responses. Those graduating in 1993-94 rated bachelor's programs as excellent (29%), good (57%), or poor (14%).

Note: These are partial samplings: 14 respondents out of 30 graduates in 1995; 13 respondents out of 33 in 1993-94.

Examples of written comments from the Ohio University Survey of 1994-95 Graduates of the School of Theater:

"...[M]ost of the things I hoped would come to pass at OU's School of Theater are now happening. It has become a first-class program."

"Good portfolio preparation and interview preparation. Learned many things in a variety of costume-related skills."

"The Best!"

"I respect, love and miss the School. I see nothing but positive growth...."

"...[T]he school is an excellent training ground for serious theatre professionals.... I truly loved my experience there and feel that I learned more there than anywhere else in my education."

We shall poll our graduates annually every year with these questionnaires, to provide systematic ongoing assessment and a basis of charting qualitative and quantitative satisfaction from year to year with specific aspects of our programs.

With the encouragement of NAST last year and the generous support of the Interim Dean, James Stewart, of the College of Fine Arts, a new administrative position was added to Theater, that of School Secretary. (The former secretarial position was converted in 1995 to that of clerical coordinator, to oversee recruiting and development). Vicki Hanson, who fills the secretary position, is currently working with Rick Harrison to develop our own database of all Theater alumni, to enable us to keep in regular touch with them by mail and phone.

Stage Directions:

See attached the most recent issue (spring 1997) of our alumni newsletter, Stage Directions. This publication is a clearinghouse for alumni activity reports.

School of Theater Home Page Website:

Augmenting Stage Directions this year is our new School of Theater home page web site, with an alumni bulletin board. Professor Robert St. Lawrence is spending this summer getting the electronic bulletin board up to speed. The bulletin board will keep current alumni news, foster instant communication among our alumni for networking, and allow for constant instead of yearly feedback from alumni about how well we are preparing them and what we can do to prepare them better.

Because of the multiple programs in the School of Theater on the undergraduate and graduate levels, each program is described separately.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS:

Innovative undergraduate assessment activities, new this year, include:

1. Establishment of a minimum grade requirement for required theater courses. This step bolsters the undergraduate education by establishing minimum proficiency requirements for all theater majors in all required theater courses. We are clearly stating that we consider knowledge of all areas of theater essential for an undergraduate education.

2. Creation of the Departmental Honors Program. This program has long-term implications for outstanding undergraduates. Truly excellent students are recognized midway through their undergraduate education and are provided with special learning opportunities and incentives.

3. Creation of the position of Associate Director, School of Theater. This position will have far-reaching implications for the School, in that it clearly establishes a position with the responsibility to integrate the diverse programs within the School -- graduate and undergraduate -- foster educational reform, and maintain the integrity of all degree programs.

BFA Theater Performance Program:

1. Each student receives quarterly written comments from each of three faculty members as well as an assessment meeting at the start of the following quarter to discuss the assessment and set goals. Newly this year, 1996-97, every acting studio presented publicly, to the whole faculty, staff, and student body, at the end of every quarter.

2. Student interns are assessed in written comments from the supervisor on site. Our standard internship questionnaire, submitted to the supervisor on site, was changed to make it both easier to use and more specific, and every student is evaluated by his/her supervisor in shops at the Santa Fe Opera, Cobalt Studios, Circle Repertory Theater, and elsewhere.

3. The program head meets with each student regularly. There is an exit interview with every student.

4. All majors take a one-credit senior project involving the writing of a paper accompanying s senior practicum in acting or other culminating experience (e.g., internship). As of this year these papers are available for perusal by students and all faculty.

5. Guest artists serve as visiting evaluators and comment favorably on the skill and seriousness of our students. These have included internationally eminent theater artists such as Tony Church of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Denver Theater Center, Fan Yi Song of the Beijing Opera, and Arnold Bratov of the Kiev Circus.

John Bell, member of the Bread and Puppet Theater and a noted theater historian, wrote after his four days here this May: "I was impressed and inspired by the students, as well as by the faculty I met there and the whole School of Theater in general. I have been able to visit a number of theater departments in the past few years, and from my viewpoint I find yours to be most impressive as a wonderful example of the kind of theater environment in which all kinds of students and scholars can thrive" (letter dated June 2, 1997).

6. Current performance undergraduates are on internship with the Sarah Lawrence/London Theater Training Year, the Trinity/La Mama Theater in New York Program, and the Actors Theater of Louisville.

BFA Theater Arts and Drama Program is under new leadership as of 1995 and has been totally reshaped, providing for four possible emphases in the junior and senior years: playwriting, directing, theater management, and dramaturgy. Each emphasis requires an appropriate capstone project and includes ongoing quarterly faculty evaluation of all students.

Practicum work is required of all students every quarter. Professional internships at Bay Street Theater in East Hampton, New York; Directors Company, New York City; J. Michael Bloom in New York City; and in regional theaters such as Actors Theater of Louisville, the Cleveland Play House and other theaters have been completed with distinction by students in stage management, literary management, and dramaturgy. New this year: internships have included a stage management position every quarter with the Skilken-Brown Touring Company of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

Honors Tutorial College BA/BFA Theater Studies has the following goals: basic knowledge of the dramatic canon and theater history; detailed knowledge of selected areas of theater history, basic experience in most areas of theatrical production, significant experience in one area of theatrical production, and the ability to write well according to commonly accepted scholarly standards.

Assessment of student learning in HTC includes weekly, one-on-one discussion of the student's understanding of assigned reading and the quality of student writing; written assessement at the end of every quarter by the tutor, kept on permanent file in Honors Tutorial College; new this year: major review of the student's work at the end of the sophomore year, prior to entry into an area of emphasis; comprehensive examination; creative project at the end of the junior year; and required thesis.

The sequence of assessment activities and particular sequential accomplishments in effect make the theater HTC program new for 1997-98, with clearer tracking and expectations.

BFA Production Design and Technology Program:

All students' work in technology and design is viewed every quarter and evaluated publicly and privately. There are quarterly portfolio reviews, exit portfolio reviews, regional and national portfolio reviews (Southeastern Theater Conference [SETC], New York Portfolio Review), periodic portfolio review by visiting artists of such international eminence as Ming Cho Lee, Kirk Bookman, and Linda Rose. Public presentation and evaluation are based on the School's active production schedule: eight mainstage productions this past year along with 14 designed laboratory productions a year.

Future improvements:

We will focus on our formal review process of undergraduate majors. Our current structure is driven predominantly by the formal assessment of student performance by individual advisors. We need to focus as a faculty on our formal undergraduate review process fully to benefit our students and to clarify the specific review goals for sophomore entrance in the design programs. Although the formal review process will have something in common with our new modifications to the MFA design program (see below), it will also reflect the primary need of undergraduates: to get a broad and deep liberal arts education.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS:

Goals for student learning include basic knowledge of the dramatic canon and theater history; detailed knowledge of selected areas of theater history and drama; ability to write well according to commonly accepted scholarly standards; and evidence of individual research, for dissemination in journals or theatrical production ((dramaturgy).

Assessment of the above goals includes (new this year) quarterly review of coursework and assignments, with a one-on-one meeting at the beginning of each quarter, reviewing in detail the work of the previous quarter; and a capstone project, consisting of one of the following: comprehensive examination; or a scholarly, master's level thesis, including the completion of an oral defense of this thesis, which constitutes an assessment of the work by three professors; or a professional internship in dramaturgy or literary managment at a major regional theater, assessed by the on-site supervisor, with the results sent to the student's advisor.

Visiting evaluators assess students' work on a regular basis. Recent visiting artists include John Bell, quoted above, internationally noted authority on toy theaters and artist in the Bread and Puppet Theater.

Students undergo detailed written and oral evaluations at the close of each quarter. Written evaluations are prepared by teachers in the acting, movement, and voice studios. Oral evaluations of each student are conducted by the program head and the director of the School of Theater.

Students audition regularly for mainstage and lab show productions, and their sucess in being cast provides perhaps the most accurate gauge of their growth. They are also graded for practicum roles each quarter by the head of the program. In addition, students regularly perform in end-of-quarter scene showings, to which the faculty and other students are invited. The faculty meet weekly to discuss students' progress and special needs.

Many students are hired as actors at Monomoy Theater in Chatham, Massachusetts, where they perform a season of eight plays for the public. Hiring is based on auditions. The artistic director of the Monomoy, Alan Rust, praises the current crop of actors as the best he has ever seen.

Third-year students, engaged in a year-long internship at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, are evaluated daily by the director of education, the artistic director, and -- new this year -- the associate artistic director, who is assigned as their mentor. The associate artistic director is a new position at the Playhouse, created primarily to oversee and evaluate our students' work.

As performers in mainstage and outreach programs, students are subject to public scrutiny as well as one-on-one evaluations. All work toward the accumulation of points that will allow them to join Actors Equity Association.

New this year:

1) This spring all eight interns appeared in rotating repertory in their own season at the Cincinnati Playhouse.

2) All performed in a special New York showcase for agents and managers in April 1997. As a result of that showcase half the class were approached for work by the casting director of the George Street Playhouse, two met with the casting director for Fox, and two auditioned for "One Life to Live." All four have been approached as well by Jerry Brisky of Talent Representatives. One has received multiple offers to free-lance and/or sign with talent agents. The New York Showcase is a sink-or-swim assessment measure and an immediate test of how well the program is training students for the theater profession.

Formal faculty review of students' work.

The Seabury Quinn, Jr., Playwrights Festival included for the first time this spring 1997 a series of six student-written and -directed lab shows, which supplemented the rehearsed readings that are the focus of the Festival. Assessment of students' work was provided by the faculty and three visiting mentors from New York and Chicago. Susan Booth, dramaturg for the Goodman Theater in Chicago, has asked one student, Anita Gabrosek, to submit her new play to the Goodman this fall for mainstage consideration.

Our first MFA playwright with a three-year program, Scott Marshall Taylor, graduates this June. We shall schedule a full production of his TAMICANFLY at OU next spring for its world premiere.

We have added internships in playwriting with the Crossroads Theater in New Jersey, the Goodman Theater in Chicago, and the Intiman Theater in Seattle. All internships include evaluation by on-site supervisors.

Future plan:

We are working to add a third year to this course of study in order systematically to include internships in professional theaters as part of the training.

Public presentation of student work almost every quarter, with faculty review, in the laboratory series. Capstone project: public presentation with a paying audience of the thesis production on the mainstage in the students' third year. Performance in student internships in professional theaters here and abroad in the third year, with written evaluation provided by the professional theater person overseeing the internship on site, e.g., David Thacker of the Old Vic and Royal National Theater in London, and Josephine Abady of the Circle in the Square, New York.

We have instituted interdisciplinary courses in directing and design to provide fuller faculty assessment of students' work. At the same time we are continuing the spring-quarter Mainstage Design/Directing Symposium to provide ample ongoing assessment of the planning and implementation of production concept before shows go into the actual build. This symposium is attended by faculty and student directors, designers, and the director of the School of Theater.

New this year: the Hahne series for second-year MFA directing students, providing a public presentation in the Hahne Theater for paying audience members. The Hahne is a proving ground for student designer/director collaboration, and a side benefit appears to be the immense popularity with subscription audiences of the Hahne series in the intimate Hahne space.

New this year: Since last year's assessment report PD&T has formalized its process for assessment in order to target more specific yearly training goals. Our reassessment of our review process prompted by the 1996 Assessment Report has helped to formalize and quantify the number of projects and experences required programmatically and to focus on specific progressive development. Talent, originality, professionalism, work habits, communication skills, technical and managerial facility are all carefully reviewed by the faculty and in consultation with outside professionals.

New this year: The faculty conceived and tried out in practice a series of test projects and professional job opportunities that students must accomplish each year. Four forms of evaluation are being used to test the success of the goals outlined in the next section:

1) Review of professional theater and film processes through direct field experience by the faculty in the regional theater and independent film markets.

2) Evaluation of a great national cross section of student training and project work through direct participation in the National Portfolio Review in New York and the Southeastern Theater Conference (SETC) student portfolio review. The National Portfolio Review in New York is organized by Ming Cho Lee of the Yale Drama School, and 60-some student portfolios from a dozen different training programs in the country (including OU) are reviewed by several dozen of the top professional designers and directors in the country (including the OU design faculty). The SETC portfolio review concentrates on the southeastern region training institutions.

3) Consultation on training methods with shop heads from the Santa Fe Opera, Washington Opera, Berkshire Theater Festival, Williamstown Theater Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Folger Shakespeare Theater, National Theater in London, and the following Broadway designers' studios: Tony Walton, William Ivey Long, and Marty Pakledinaz.

4) Reassessment of training methodologies based on the review process detailed above.

Goals, Test Projects, and Professional Job Opportunities Required for Student Learning:

The overall goal is the core preparation for student entry into the highest levels of the professional theater and film job markets. A series of test projects and professional job opportunities each year assess the progressive development of design, technical and managerial skills and enrich the student's awareness of the state of the art through direct field experience.

Year One:

On campus production experience concentrating on testing technical skills through a progressively difficult series of assignments that develop core technical craftsmanship.

On campus training in designing a mainstage production for the following school year.

Off campus summer employment at a high-quality, nationally recognized, faculty-approved summer stock company as a technician. Students prepare a professional resume and are reviewed by shop heads at top professional companies. Job offers are the final test of a student's skills. Photo documentation of the student's summer work is required, for formal review by the faculty.

Year Two:

On campus production experience extending the range of technical, management, and design skills, with students functioning as crew heads or head artisans in mainstage production. Paper projects required for a mainstage design, evaluated by their directors, shop heads, and design faculty, in terms of originality and quality of interpretation, craftsmanship, and professionalism of the process.

On campus academic training through three professional portfolio-worthy projects, evaluated via Broadway shop standards. Students required to submit designs to enter the SETC competition for public review by a panel of Broadway designers.

Off campus summer employment at a high-quality, nationally recognized, faculty-approved summer stock company as a technician or designer, with guidelines similar to those in Year One. In addition, a short-term winter-break professional internship in a regional theater or with a Broadway designer is encouraged for all students, and required for accelerated students.

Year Three:

On campus production experience as crew head or head artisan on one mainstage production and a designer or shop head on another mainstage production, so that the student completes at least one complex technical project and one fully documented complex managerial or design project for the production portion of their thesis and exit portfolio review.

On campus academic training designed along the lines of the entrance requirements for professional theater design and technical unions, including the submission of an exit portfolio of at least six different projects reflecting a broad range of problems and techniques.

Off campus, a full quarter of professional internship with a nationally recognized, faculty- approved professional theater or film company either in the United States or abroad. Documentation of internship work is reviewed by the faculty, along with formal review by the designers or shop heads with which students have worked. Selected students are required to participate in the National Portfolio Review ("Ming's Clambake") in New York. All students are strongly advised to participate in the SETC design competition and portfolio review.

Analyzing the Data, Diagnosing Strengths and Weaknesses, and Evidence of Accomplishing Our Goals

Measuring our students against professional market standards by the quality of their professional placement, feedback from their professional supervisors, and how their work is evaluated in national competitions and reviews, we find that the progressive development plan has gained our students entry into Broadway studios, major American regional theater companies, major theater companies in Great Britain, Austria, and Germany, and now the Hollywood film market. Major Broadway designers tell us they would welcome as many students as we can send them. Our students are consistently placed in the highest-quality theaters in the country. They fare very well at the National Portfolio Review and regularly win top honors at the SETC competition. At the moment we are pleased to report that 100% of our graduates in the past four years are working or have worked professionally in the field, with a good number getting job offers while still students at OU.

Prompted by the NAST accreditation process, the Theater General Program is undergoing a radical reappraisal of its goals and means. A faculty committee chaired by the director of the School is assessing how to intensify its academic requirements, hone its educational goals, most probably in the direction of multidisciplinary theater studies, and tighten up its admission procedures, while maintaining its flexibility. Target date for committee recommendations is February 1998.

In the meantime it is important to point out that recent alumni of the Theater General program regard it as a jewel of the School and essential for their current careers. One alumna, Ann Turner MFA '96, has just been appointed artistic director of the prestigious Naa Kahidi Theater in Juneau, Alaska. Another alumnus, Dale Shields, MFA '95, was hired immediately on graduation in a regular faculty line at the College of Wooster.

In addition to the requirement that every undergraduate undergo at the end of his/her sophomore year an interview, audition, or portfolio presentation in order to be accepted into one of the BFA emphases beginning in the junior year -- a requirement put into place at the beginning of 1994 -- the faculty voted this April to establish a minimum grade requirement, to be in place for fall 1998.

The faculty has also voted to establish a Department Honors Program in Theater, with research skills and a thesis requirement, to be in place for fall 1997.

We wish to institute a senior project requirement for ALL undergraduate programs.

We wish to require a comprehensive examination, including area and theater/dramatic history components, for ALL graduate students before graduation. Logistically this has proven difficult in the past, because most of our graduate students are interning off-campus in their last year of training. In particular we are studying how to test students on their familiarity with works on the massive reading list with which they matriculate here.

A respondent in the 1995 alumni questionnaires also raised the issue of how to test students' knowledge of the works on the reading list -- another example of how our assessment procedures teach us.