Student Blog: The Privilege of a Season

Close to the end of last school year, my friend Harper gave me a ride home from a late-night tech rehearsal. We were talking about season planning stuff since everyone was waiting to hear what UCSD was programming for the 24-25 year, and I said at one point, “what’s stopping them from producing a big musical? What's stopping them from putting up Sweeney Todd?” And she replied along the lines of “because it’s BORING.” Not Sweeney Todd itself, but the idea of it being done by the department. I’ve learned over the course of my final year that she’s 1000% right. 

College theater departments are like their own little bubbles. It’s a closed pool of talent that all are looking to fit themselves into what the department has in mind. And although the majority of them are suffering financially due to budget cuts and the Trump administration’s poisonous decision to slash the National Endowment for the Arts, ticket sales are not really a factor. At UCSD, student tickets are offered at a major discount, and all theater majors get a free ticket for every production. Selling seats isn’t the same kind of necessity that it would be for a community or regional theater. But on the other hand, before it closed down in 2022, San Diego Repertory Theater relied on season ticket holders for over half their annual revenue. The pandemic hiatus hurt a lot of theaters across the country beyond repair.
So as a result, community and regional theaters have been a lot more conservative about their programming choices. Not politically conservative, but artistically. Music Theater International publishes the listings for the most oft-produced shows nationwide, and you will always see Mamma Mia, Addams Family, and Beauty and the Beast among the top scorers. No shade to the shows themselves— having been in a production of the latter two myself and had unforgettable amounts of fun— but it makes for seasons that aren’t motivated by the art or the storytelling. They are motivated by what wider audiences will pay to see. 

A theater department like UCSD grants all of us the gift of working on shows we never had heard of before as both an educational and artistic venture. This past February featured the magnificent madcap thesis production directed by Ludmila de Brito: Ariano Suasunna’s The Rogue’s Trial. A translation of a piece of Brazilian folklore, this genre-bending morality play combines modern theater with circus performance to weave a fantastical story over the course of three hours. It did have a Brazilian movie adaptation last year, but the only other record I could find from an American stage production was at Harvard in 1973. While a thrilling show, it isn’t the kind of thing that your average theater would be willing to put on. This is the privilege of our seasons. Graduate directors and professors are able to present ideas while leading with intrinsic drive, not the extrinsic push of needing to make back their investments through ticket sales.

A university department also gives the privilege of collaboration. True, most of the student population is made up of actors, but I find myself very fortunate to be surrounded by talented writers, directors, designers, and stage managers. At any given moment, your classmates might be working on creating something incredible and will need people to be part of it. Taking a playwriting class sheds light on just how remarkable the talent is in your student body, and there are few things more fun than getting people together for a new play reading over a couple of pizzas. Being in frequent contact with your fellow artists is sure to get the wheels turning and set exciting new projects into motion.

Things like these are what I’m ruminating on with a day left before graduating. I will shortly be without a regularly scheduled season for the first time. Of course I'll still be in contact with the artists I’ve come to know these last few years, but not in the same kind of proximity. Making waves will be more of a challenge, but I still feel optimistic about my place in the San Diego theater sphere. I can only hope that this isn’t the last time I’ll be seeing the collaborators I’ve enjoyed most. And hey, with any luck, I’ll be in New York chasing the dream before I know it. Time to make "someday" now.