The audience is still clapping at the last acknowledgements as Gwen pivots, her eyes digging into the crowd. “Now, before we begin, I would like to quickly clarify something to you all. Ever since the Evergreen Theatre Club has been putting on shows, we hear comments from new students of “Oh! I can’t wait to take theatre classes!” or “I’m so excited to be part of the school’s theatre program!”. The Evergreen State College does not have a theatre program.” Boos rise from the crowd, and Gwen smiles before moving forward. “This show and every show that you may have seen in the past year has been put on by students. Students have been putting their own time and resources into these shows on top of balancing academics, jobs, and other commitments on the side. Isn’t that incredible?” The audience hoots and hollers.
My hands are sore from clapping so much, and I know my throat is going to be made of gravel tomorrow, but that is far away from me as I look at the set pieces on stage on the final night of the Evergreen Theatre Club’s production of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. This audience doesn’t know how true Gwen’s words are. This production wasn’t just a balancing act, it asked for students to give their minds, bodies, and souls to the show, and then asked if it could borrow your garage, too. I was barely involved and yet somehow my yellow backpack ended up on Charlie Brown’s shoulders on stage. The more committed, like Gwenyth Allison, the director and conductor of the show, ended up giving up her and her roommates’ garage for use as a makeshift scene shop for the show.
“One of the saddest things about working in this building is all of the history I see every day on the walls of previous performances and concerts and shows that have been done and it’s such a rich, vast history. Why is this not here anymore? Why haven’t we continued to keep this theater and performing arts community at Evergreen?” Gwen is sitting behind the desk in the information office of the COM building. This building is only partially open right now, because in 2018, as a consequence of mismanagement of money, there wasn’t enough funds to pay the expert staff necessary to keep open the system of interconnected spaces that makes up the back half of the building. These spaces include the experimental theater, a 3 story black box that holds 350-400 audience members, a scene shop, a loft of props, a costume shop, a dressing room, a fabric dyeing room, a costume storage closet, a set storage room, a large elevator (to move big set pieces and costume racks, etc.), and a spiral staircase connecting all three floors. To try and open these spaces would be a whole ordeal, Gwen says.
“To get those spaces up and running again, it would take a bunch of inspections to see if the utilities in there and spaces are still safe, and we would need faculty and employees who are proficient and certified to use the equipment that’s in there. A big reason why we haven’t changed the lights in the recital hall for five years is because we have no employee or faculty who is certified to mess with lights or change stage lights. And so, it’s a lot of money that is needed to even prepare the spaces before they can be used, let alone fund the programs that would then be in them.” Further, because these spaces are all open to each other, it is difficult to open a single room for experimental use. “The one that’s a possibility is the costume shop. [Drew] has mentioned the possibility of using it for different purposes, just to have the space open and used. Which I think would be amazing. I also think I don’t want to see it used as like a… I don’t know. There’s so much history that it’s hard to think of using it for a different purpose. It feels like disrespecting the space in a way. Because there really is, I mean, the times that I have walked in there as an employee, it really feels like a dead, haunted space.”
Andrew Buchman, Evergreen’s only full-time theater faculty, agrees that it is unlikely that the COMM will be fully open any time soon. “We can’t hire back a full staff crew in the foreseeable future.” Drew was on the committee to decide next hiring priorities as the school tries to grow staff to support student interests, and says a full-time performing arts professor ended up, “just below the cutoff. It was a little heartbreaking, but it happens all the time.” This doesn’t mean that we won’t be seeing more pushes for performance art in the future, however. Drew emphasizes how important it is to keep pushing for this kind of programming: “I think that’s a message that I need to keep repeating. that we’re not a liberal arts college unless we have strong arts and humanities offerings. We’re just not.”
Both Drew and Gwen emphasized the importance of student interest and student voices to show administration that there are enough students to fill any potential performing arts programs. The Evergreen Singers, for instance, have been growing steadily, showing the school that there is substantial interest in music and choir. “Trying to sneak in all of those theater classes is tricky because summer is the easiest time to do those, but students are not here during the summer, and so if in the future we get programs of musical theater workshops or costuming work or stuff like that and if it’s over the summer and students don’t enroll, then that shows admissions, okay, we do not have an interest in this kind of thing.” Gwen says. “It’s kind of a nasty loop of students wanting these programs and wanting to do theater and the school being able to provide these programs and not [doing so] because students haven’t shown that there’s interest in theater.”
However, opportunities for students to show interest will be coming soon. The school is investing in part-time performing arts faculty to test the waters, and they will be putting out a few experimental programs this summer. Gwen encourages students to be on the lookout, and to enroll in those classes if they can, to show those who have the power to open these spaces and fund these programs that we do care. “It can’t be the students who get the space open. The students are the voice and the students are the reason to open the spaces. The people who have to open them are faculty and employees we do not have. And so, any next steps for those spaces would be through the provost or admissions.”
Drew, who was considering retirement this year but decided against it, says there is noticeable change happening, and that the administration is paying attention. Talking about Sean Williams, one of the only other full-time music faculty, who is retiring this year, he said, “Well, let me say Sean and I were gonna retire at the same time, but part of the reason I’m staying for another two years is because I feel like we have been heard. Sean and I have been talking to the deans and others about what we can do to keep the performing arts going at Evergreen, and not just music, which is still strong, but building back theater and dance when we can and keeping them going on, it feels like a wing in a prayer, sometimes, but it’s more than that. It’s really good, really talented folks doing it for themselves. That’s the other thing that’s so great about the theater club is really, I just kind of marvel at how much is working. I feel like people are really making it work with what they have, which is the goal.”
Gwen feels much the same. “I think it definitely feels like there’s something here. I mean, as a student, that can sometimes be hard to identify, but we’ve had multiple new students be like, I want to join the Evergreen programs, or I want to do the theater programs here at Evergreen, thinking that our club is the things provided to students academically. It’s sad, but it definitely shows that we have done something in the past two years. We have awoken something. And it’s amazing to see the clubs around us, particularly improv club, also thriving, because between both of us, that is showing that this is important and this is something that students want.”
Both Gwen and Drew encourage students to utilize the tools available to them; ILCs, Drew’s advanced studies class, internships, and more, to pursue their interests in the performing arts. “Come to me and let’s see if we can make a way out of no way. Surprisingly often there’s somebody at Evergreen who can make this work,” Drew says. “I wish we didn’t spend so much time wishing we had things we didn’t have and just went ahead and did more shows. You can do a show anywhere, you really can.”
Back in the mostly dark recital hall, Gwen takes a breath as the applause comes to an end. “So why are we doing this? Why are we putting in so much time and effort for something that ends up being more work than we have time or energy for? It’s because theatre creates community. It gives people an opportunity to learn, grow, and participate in something greater. Our club’s mission is to provide students experience and opportunities in theatre, to give students a place to learn and create projects they could not have done on their own. This is a mission, that I believe, to be very important to have on a college campus. And of course, we hope that one day Evergreen is able to invest in a theatre program filled with classes, faculty and resources, but for now, we want to applaud the students who made this happen without any program. Who have grown this community organically, and have advocated for the shows they’ve put on.” The force of the following applause makes my ears pop.
For any students interested in getting involved with a production from the Evergreen Theatre Club, they will be putting on Alice in Wonderland during Spring quarter, and there are a variety of ways to get involved on and off stage. Follow evergreen.theatre on Instagram, join the discord, or reach out to evergreentheatreclub@gmail.com for more information.
Everyone I have talked to about performing arts at Evergreen knows the pain of locked doors and dark hallways. Together, we have the power to change this. Send your thoughts to the Cooper Point Journal to lift your voice out of dorm rooms and into board rooms. We need your passion. We can and will make them listen.
