SCHOOL OF THEATER June 9, 1998

Submitted by Toni Dorfman, Director, School of Theater

Before describing this past year's innovations in our ongoing project to improve our assessment of students' work, I want to emphasize the point that growth for artists is not measured by tests. It is in fact difficult even for the artist to assess one's own work over the course of a lifetime.

Because we work in a school, helping young artists develop tools and forge connections, we have developed ways to measure whether techniques are being used, how skillfully or "appropriately" they are being chosen to accomplish a specific task -- whether creating a design, a performance, a theatrical idea.

We feel ambivalent pointing to career outcomes for two reasons. First, despite the fact that almost all of our graduates of the master's programs work or have worked in the professional theater, it is the case that the theater as an art form is grievously badly supported by our society. For this reason we believe that it is a betrayal of our undergraduate students to "promise them careers" at the conclusion of their degrees. Second, we are clear that the School of Theater is not a vocational school. We do teach "skills" and "techniques"; we do help our students make the transition between school and the profession via an ample use of the professional internship. But our aim is to teach artists, those who will form the theater of the future, and use their theatrical and dramatic training the make the world a better place.

Questionnaires asking recent graduates, especially undergraduates, whether they believe their training was adequate, satisfactory, or excellent miss the point that there is little way, when jobs are nonexistent for 88 percent of the members of Actors' Equity, for recent grads to judge the answer to that question.

Wee expect to train artists, not craftsmen. Our hope is to encourage individual students to develop their own ways of working, to communicate to an audience their private dreams, hopes, and fears; to learn to ask the right questions in order to rise to the occasion of trying to answer them.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to us that despite the problems of the American theater, all of our MFA and MA student graduates in the last five years work or have worked in the American professional theater. However they are being prepared, the theater appears to want them and have places for them.

In order to gain national accreditation three years ago we as a faculty identified and articulated the following set of goals, developed over the course of the past nine years and reaffirmed in the School's 1995-96 self-study for 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 culminated formally in national accreditation in 1997.

Means to our goals specific to this school of theater and not necessarily to others schools of theater have traditionally included ongoing assessment: tracking all students individually through the curriculum with multiple, ongoing faculty assessment, public presentation, guest artist assessment, and the completion of good work in professional venues -- the professional internship, assessed, as for example at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for our MFA acting students, by the artistic director of that regional theater and others..

In 1997-98 the whole faculty staff were engaged in the implementation of capstone experiences for every student, graduate and undergraduate, in every program. It is as a result of hard work by the curriculum committee, with input from the rest of the faculty and the Director of the School, that all undergraduate programs now culminate in a capstone experience, evaluated by the faculty as a whole or by smaller faculty committees, as both the test of and the demonstration by the student of what he/she has learned, with opportunities for synthesis.

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.

We track our students via yearly alumni/ae questionnaires, our own computer database of all alumni/ae, our School of Theater home page Website that serves as an alumni bulletin board, and our alumni/ae newsletter, Stage Directions, which serves as a report on alumni/ae and School activities.

As mentioned above, an essential component of student assessment is the professional internship, in place in every program, graduate and undergraduate. See below under individual program descriptions for more detailed evidence, focusing on innovations this past year and plans for next year, of how well we accomplish our goals and how better we hope to encourage students to assess their own goals.

Three years ago at the suggestion of NAST we tailored our alumni/ae questionnaire specifically to address how well we achieve our goals. The results of Michael Williford's most recent Ohio University Career and Further Education Study -- of 1996 theater graduates -- indicate that most would recommend OU School of Theater very highly or somewhat highly. One hundred percent of those responding again this year rate the quality of the master's programs as either excellent or good . One hundred percent of those responding rate the quality of the bachelor's programs as either excellent or good .

With the encouragement of NAST two 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). I am pleased to note that this year, the second recommendation of NAST was also implemented, with the hiring of Cindy Dietrich as director of development and alumni relations. She is the editor of the alumni/ae newsletter, Stage Directions; and is working with Development to develop a database of all alumni/ae .

Stage Directions:

See attached the most recent issue (spring-summer 1998) of our newsletter, Stage Directions.

School of Theater Home Page Website:

Please look up the School of Theater homepage at www.cats.ohiou.edu/~thardept

All students in the graduate programs are expected to complete at least one professional internship off campus before graduating, when what they have been taught here is put to use and is evaluated by professional theater people working in the field.

Many students in the undergraduate programs are also expected to complete an internship as their capstone experience.

Please see last year's assessment report for innovations in the undergraduate programs including the minimum grade requirement for required theater courses, the creation of the Departmental Honors Program, the creation of the position of Associate Director of the School of Theater, and public presentations of work by the acting studio.

New assessment plans for 1998-99, highlighting the capstone experience (for example, the Student Learning Portfolio in the Honors Tutorial and MA Theater History and Criticism programs; and the professional internship in the MFA programs) include:

1) Student Learning Portfolio. Each student will be required to asemble a portfolio for his or her full education. This portfolio will include

a) all syllabi

b) all papers

c) all goals statements.

2) Yearly goals statements. Each student will be required each year to submit a list of goals for the year and for the full college education.

3) Yearly goals assessment. The Director of Studies will meet annually with each student to review how his or her goals have been achieved, and how the goals need to be modified. The Student Learning Portfolio will be used in this assessment.

1) Student Learning Portfolio. Each student will be required to assemble a portfolio for his or her full education. This portfolio will include

a) all syllabi

b) all papers

c) all goals statements

2) Goals statements. Each student will be required each quarter to submit a list of goals for his or her graduate education.

3) Goals assessment. The Program Head will meet quarterly with each student to review how his or her goals have been achieved, and how the goals need to be modified. The Student Learning Portfolio will be used in this assessment.

4) Exit assessment interview. The Program Head will meet before graduation with each student to assess

a) his or her education

b) how the goals have been achieved

c) how the program might be changed in the future

d) student goals after graduation

The Student Learning Portfolio will be used in this assessment.

5) Conference Proposals. Each student in the Theater History and Criticism Program will be required to hand in a mock or actual proposal in response to an actual call for papers from national or regional conferences each quarter. Before the end of the year, each student will be expected to submit an actual proposal to the conference itself.

1. At the conclusion of the second year of training, each student must audition for acceptance into the Internship Program at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Each spring, Edward Stern, Producing Artistic Director of the Playhouse, travels to Athens to see our students' auditions, which consist of two pieces: one classical and one contemporary. Those who are singers present a song. Moreover, in an effort to determine how "direct-able" an actor is, Mr. Stern asks students to make adjustments in their approach to a piece, adjustments that must be done on the spot.

A test of our students' work is clearly in place here, and I am pleased to report that all students who have applied for this unique intership have been accepted, based on their audition.

2. During winter quarter of the first year of training, students audition for places in the summer stock company at Monomoy Theatre, in Chatham, Massachusetts. Places in this company are secured on a competitive basis. Each winter, Alan Rust, artistic director of Monomoy, travels to Athens to see our students' auditions, consisting of one classical and one contemporary selection. Singers also demonstrate their musical skills.

A test of our students' work is clearly in place here, and I am pleased to report that within the last three years, only one student, out of 22, has failed to earn a place in the Monomoy company.

3. The Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival has hired one of our students, again based on competitive audition, to join its company this summer as a full-fledged member. He will be performing among working professionals as an equal.

4) One of our second-year actors has been accepted into the prestigious Saratoga International Theatre Institute, led by Anne Bogart. Admission to this summer program is based on training, practical experience, and the submission of an essay meant to reveal the student's insight into his/her development as an actor.

5. During the course of their work at Monomoy Theatre, our students encounter a variety of professional directors, who often give feedback on their progress. Such distinguished artists as Malcolm Morrison, Russell Treyz, and Mary O'Brady have ranked our students as among the best-trained they've worked with. One of them, James Pickering, was so impressed with our young actors that he asked whether they might be sent to do an internship with him at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

6) As of last year, our students now participate in a New York showcase, meant to introduce them to casting agents and talent representatives. This event allows them the kind of access -- in one evening -- that a New York actor might work for years to achieve, if ever. Last year, out of a class of eight, four students received immediate response, leading to associations with those in a position to promote their careers in the professional market. This year, out of a class of eight, seven received immediate response.

BFA Theater Arts and Drama Program

This program has been wholly reshaped in the past two years , providing for four possible emphases in the junior and senior years: playwriting, directing, theater management, and dramaturgy. Each emphasis requires an appropriate capstone project, whether in the lab series or on the mainstage, and includes ongoing quarterly faculty evaluation of all students.

Practicum work is required of all students every quarter.

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 this past year by visiting artists of such international eminence as Michael Lincoln and Michael Vaugh Sims. 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.

This program was cited by one of America's leading educators, Howard Stein, emeritus playwriting head of Yale and Columbia, in two national publications in 1995, TheaterWeek and American Theater, as one of the strongest playwriting programs in the country.

See last year's assessment report for new assessment means including formal faculty review of students' work, the playwriting festival, and added internship opportunities.

A third year of training was offered this past year.

For the first time in the history of the School, a graduate student's script has been deemed worthy by the faculty of inclusion in the mainstage season 1998-99: DISENGAGED by Anita Gabrosek, scheduled for all 1998 production. This piece was developed starting in last year's Playwrights Festival, where as a reading it was praised by Janet Allen of Indiana Rep. It was developed further in New York at Milan Stitt's dramatic workshop and then performed in the lab series during this year's Playwrights Festival in May. In every incarnation it has been rewritten and assessed by theater professionals and the pitiless evaluation of the audience.

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.

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 last year: the Hahne series for second-year MFA directing students, provided 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.

The head of PD&T has been on sabbatical in Germany and England for all of the past year, working professionally in European theater and exploring training methods and the development of an ongoing exchange program between Ohio University and Central St. Martins School of Design in London.

See last year's assessment report for the plethora of innovations instituted in design, including the monitoring of progressive development; the institution of test projects, including the capstone; and most saliently the three-year plan for the development of a professional portfolio, the capstone that can be taken away from Ohio University and used to gain employment in the field.

We are pleased to report again this year that 100% of our graduates in the past five years are working or have worked professionally in the field, with a good number getting job offers while still students at OU.

We have received approval by the National Association of Schools of Theater to reconceive the MFA Theater General Program, with a recommendation due to NAST in February 1999. The new director of the School of Theater, Vincent J. Cardinal, with the Chair of Academic Studies, William F. Condee, will be working with the faculty in developing the final recommendation.