Professor, students upset by structure of new musical theater program

Wednesday, May 6, 1998

Professor, students upset by structure of new musical theater
program

THEATER: School of Arts and Architecture, music department not
involved with development

By Emi Kojima

Daily Bruin Staff

A proposed program in the School of Theater, Film and Television
(STFT) has caused controversy between excluded students, a 20-year
veteran professor, and UCLA’s separate music and theater
departments.

Gilbert Cates, dean of the STFT, announced the Ray Bolger
Musical Theater program on Jan. 10 after the School received a $2.5
million fund from the Gwen and Ray Bolger trusts.

A committee of faculty members in the theater department devised
a musical theater program after receiving news of the
endowment.

Professor John Hall and his students said the program ignores
talent in other schools and that too few students will be able to
participate in the new program.

For the past 20 years, Hall has taught musical theater at UCLA
in the music department. His Musical Comedy Workshop has been run
out of the School of Arts and Architecture (SAA).

Hall said that direct collaboration between the music department
in the SAA and the theater department in the STFT would be a better
path to take in the development of the program.

"It could have been a perfect time to establish an
interdisciplinary link between schools (SAA and STFT)," Hall
said.

"I’m sorry it didn’t happen. Together we could have been
unbeatable," he said.

The STFT is developing the new musical theater program, which is
still in its infant stages.

The musical theater course option sequence is awaiting review by
the Undergraduate Council.

"We want to create the best possible musical theater training
program for students and we’ll do whatever it takes to create
that," said Teri Bond Michael, a spokesperson for the STFT.

"We have proposed an expansion of our course offerings as part
of a general theater B.A. degree," Michael said.

Once established, UCLA will have the only program offering
intensive musical theater training at a public post-secondary
institution.

It will rival the quality of the prestigious Carnegie Mellon and
Northwestern musical theater programs, according to Rich Rose, a
professor who helped design the program.

Though students are happy that musical theater will be
recognized, they do not like some of the specifics of the
program.

"It’s wonderful something is being done for musical theater. But
I’m only a second-year (student), and I can’t participate," said
Brian Bennitt, a theater student enrolled in Hall’s workshop.

In Spring 1999, 16 to 20 new freshman theater students will
enter the program. Their first musical theater production will not
happen until 2001.

Students have complained about the program by talking to
Chancellor Albert Carnesale during his office hours and writing
letters to administrators.

"The program doesn’t include the talent of students that the
(entire) school holds," said Roya Hekmat, a third-year political
science student who is enrolled in the Musical Comedy Workshop.

The STFT, however, maintains that a small number of students
will provide the best musical theater training.

"The theater major is open to anyone who wants to apply as a
freshman," Michael said. "A smaller group does make for a more
effective and professional training environment."

"We want to be inclusive, not exclusive. We are proposing an
intensive learning environment of 16 to 20 students, and over three
years, this group will grow to 40 and 60 students," she said.

Students also have voiced concerns that Hall was not asked to
participate in the designing of the program.

"Basically, it’s a waste of money if it’s not going to take
advantage of the excellent talent and love that (Hall) gives
students everyday," Hekmat said.

Michael could not comment on why Hall had not been
contacted.

Hall heard about the program after reading an article in the
Bruin.

"It really hurt my feelings when I heard about it," he said, "I
tell you, they’ve kept it a very big secret from me.

"I feel weird, after 25 years, after doing music theater every
quarter to not even be asked (to participate)," Hall said.

Students from all different years and majors auditioned to
participate in his Musical Comedy Workshop. Hall has directed at
least one musical theater production every year in the SAA.

Although students in the theater major from the STFT enroll in
the musical theater workshop, the School is not affiliated with the
musical theater workshop.

The STFT has offered courses in musical theater, such as musical
theater writing and history. Additionally, a "Musical Theater
Emphasis" class has been taught.

Despite the overlap in some of the subject matter of classes in
two schools, feelings of resentment over how the STFT has handled
the new program points to a larger rift between the two
schools.

Hall said that the music department is furious that the STFT did
not talk to it about the new musical theater program.

"Sooner or later (the STFT) is going to want an orchestra. Where
are they going to get it?" he asked.

Hall said he met the late Ray Bolger, who is best known for
playing the Scarecrow in the "Wizard of Oz" about 22 years ago when
Bolger sat and watched the class. It was Bolger’s experience
watching his class at UCLA, Hall says, that influenced him to leave
his money to the school.

Though Michael could not comment on the history of the relations
between Bolger and UCLA, she maintained that the the "gift was
finalized under Dean Cates’s leadership."

"Cates is the most responsible person to close the deal," she
said.