Photo: James Murphy, music/acting junior, and Chris Layton, music senior, paint a spider float for The Oklahoma Gazette’s Ghouls Gone Wild Parade Oct. 26, 2011 in the shop of the Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center. Photo by: Courtney Zanetti/The Campus
By Rachel Morse, Multimedia Editor
Fundraising for the New York City senior showcase is not on TheatreOCU’s schedule for the 2012-13 school year.
It was not on last year’s either.
The showcase comprises musical theater and theater students who travel at the end of spring semester to New York City. Students perform monologues and songs for a panel of agents and directors.
The department’s members instead are focusing on other activities this semester, including the fall lineup of shows and a co-production of Othello with Shakespeare in the Park, said Dr. David Herendeen, director of opera and musical theater.
“There are no real plans for fundraising this year,” he said.
The Big Apple showcase is a primarily self-funded opportunity, Herendeen said.
“The students should always specifically share the cost because they are specifically sharing the benefit,” he said. “We try to make it very possible for the students.”
The showcase expenses range from hiring casting directors to renting off-Broadway theaters for the actual event, Herendeen said. Costs also depend on whom TheatreOCU officials hire and how many students attend.
Residual funds from a fundraiser initiated in 2009 were applied to last year’s showcase cost.
TheatreOCU members, mostly students, operated a nightly haunted house during October in 2009 and 2010, Herendeen said. The profits added to the department’s available funds.
Officials are using the funds economically, Herendeen said. He would not discuss the actual finances.
Students look forward to the opportunity to promote their work in New York, said Emily Meier, acting senior. Receiving financial assistance makes it even better.
“People would be even more excited about the senior showcase if they knew they had financial help,” she said.
Officials ended the fundraiser last year because of potential safety issues, according to Student Publications’ archives.
One student was punched in the face during the first year. Last year’s location would have been at Crossroads Mall, which Herendeen said seemed too dangerous.
Students volunteered at The Oklahoma Gazette’s Ghouls Gone Wild Parade last year, but this was a service to the Oklahoma City community not a fundraiser, he said.
Officials will review last year’s showcase and plan for the upcoming showcase during a trip in October to New York City , Herendeen said.
Meetings during this trip will determine what to add to or improve in the upcoming showcase.
“I want to bump this up to a different level,” he said.
