Horizons Fall 2015

24 NSU HORIZONS Students working in more than one discipline find a beneficial synergy. Butler found that psychology and theater matched. “Both disciplines are trying to make sense of the human condition,” said Butler. “Psychology works from the out- side in as practitioners try to crack the code of what’s going on in someone’s head. Theater works from the inside out as we express these complex inner workings on the stage,’’ she added. “The only dif- ference I see is that psychology tries to explain it all and theater just lets it be— allows it to exist on stage for the audience to judge. I think the catharsis you experience as a theater audience member is probably similar to the relief one may feel after a therapy session.” PUTTING IT TOGETHER Butler’s observations echo the goals of the curriculum that provides a Bachelor of Arts degree for majors with emphases in stage and screen or musical theatre. But it also offers tracks for minors, and opportunities for students from across NSU’s colleges to select individual courses that will help them. For many, “it’s how do I make this part of my life rather than how do I get to Broadway and be a star,” said Bill J. Adams, D.M.A., associate professor, coordinator of performing arts in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. On recruiting trips around the region and state, “students and parents want to know what do you do with this degree, what does this prepare you for?” Duncan said. “First, I talk about the transfer of skills. You may be in theater next year or not, but the skills that you’re picking up are transferable to anything you do: project management, public speaking, writing, all of that … on deadline,” added Duncan. Additionally, theatre majors are discouraged from focus- ing unduly on one skill set, but instead are helped to evolve as a well-rounded artist. “When they get to work at a small company, they are going to have to know more than how to act,’’ Duncan noted. “More importantly, they might need to know how to write a grant, how to market their show.” Butler, who acted, stage-managed, directed, and served as a dramaturge at NSU, said that after graduation, she has discovered the truth of that while auditioning and per- forming with local troupes. “You are so much more of a valuable commodity,” Butler said, “they want people who can do a little of everything.” The entrepreneurial spirit endemic to NSU permeates the theatre program’s philosophy as well. At other institutions in the past, students were taught craft in a stand-alone vacuum and graduated unprepared for the realities of build- ing and sustaining a career. “You relied on somebody else to give you that break, which is not the way the film or music industry or theater industry is built anymore,” Duncan said. “Today, you make your own breaks—which requires a broader knowledge than how to parse iambic pentameter,’’ he added. “You and your friends might put together a bud- get on a shoe string for your own company, and you might try to rent a space, and you might stumble the first five or six times, but you’re learning how to be a theater practitioner.” A prime example is Cristina Meléndez, who constructed a career as an award-winning actress and head of her own film and television production company in El Salvador. She had entered NSU planning to major in communication stud- ies, but when Duncan met her in an art class, his description of theater struck a chord. She became one of the program’s earliest students. “For the first time in all my student life, it just clicked for me, I belonged to a group where everyone was as passionate as I was for the same thing. I did not have to go to class anymore; I wanted to go to class,” she wrote in an email. She added theatre as a major and graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in both majors. Alexandra Hernandez finishes Tobias Barton’s makeup for a role in Bat Boy: The Musical , which was the first production of the 2015–2016 year.