Theater options…

…as they appear to me now:

1. Get involved in Theater Arts at Caltech (TACIT): The name is actually really apt, because so far their existence has only been implied to me by their website. I haven’t heard anything back from the contact I emailed, and there’s no new information on their website about upcoming shows or who else to get in touch with. Also, I’ve heard that funding has been cut, so there may be just one show instead of two or something…I think one would be great – I just would like to hear about it!

2. Get involved in student theater at Caltech: Well, only one student theater group exists, as far as I can tell, the One Act Theater (OAT…what’s with the names?). I emailed one of the producers, and he wrote me back a very excited email about how he wants to bring the group to the grad student community, especially since he’s graduating and leaving and can’t run it anymore. A little more responsibility than I was looking for, and he never even got back to me about meeting to talk about how theater works on campus. Sigh.

3. Get involved in theater off-campus: Umm, worth looking more into, I suppose…but it’s LA, so I don’t know if there’s the kind of community theater that exists in Boston. The Pasadena Playhouse is entirely Equity, so cross that off the list. Pasadena City College has no theater groups that I could find. There are other universities, but they’re pretty far and it would probably be difficult to commute, even if I had a car. I’ll keep an eye out for other opportunities, but I’m not that hopeful.

4. Create my own theater group: Tempting, I’ll admit. Everything seems a bit more laid back here than at MIT, and they say it’s easy to get funding for student groups. But there are many many things I don’t know…like whether grad students can start groups like that, or where the funding really comes from, etc. I would probably also want it to be pretty low-tech and low-key, and allow for all kinds of commitment levels (since I don’t know exactly how much time I’ll have myself..). Things along the lines of Scene Nights, on-demand style, first folio technique, and pickup theater have come to mind, and I’m sorting through the possibilities. I’ll try to use September to become more familiar with how student groups work…hopefully there will be enough people around to help me out with that. Feel free to drop me suggestions =)

Well, whatever I end up doing, I’ll probably wait a bit before getting into it heavily, since I have reason to believe my first year here will be very busy with grad student stuff. Still, I’d like to be involved somehow…getting the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble announcements just makes me nostalgic.