BWW Blog: The Power of Adaptation and Innovation on Campus - Frosty's World #1

What type of facemask goes best with Mickey Mouse ears?

Questions like this were unimaginable a year ago! Now, I volunteer as a university social distancing monitor at campus arts events. Last week, at our Baldwin Wallace University Musical Theatre Does Disney Showcase, we even wielded a six-foot long distance stick to serve as a guide for the audience. Though the bright lights of Broadway are dark, college students are adapting and innovating to keep the spirit and activities of the theater alive.

My name is Laura Frost, and I'm a junior Arts Management major and Theatre minor living on campus at Baldwin Wallace, a private university a few minutes south of Cleveland. I was born in Cleveland, and I've stayed close by to take advantage of the rich theater resources in our city and at my college. As a child, Broadway musicals (particularly Annie and Wicked) became my obsession. Even though Baldwin Wallace's Prism organization provides fun performance opportunities to students of every talent level, I learned early on that my singing voice could not match Sutton Foster and Phillipa Soo. I've dropped my Broadway diva ambitions -- but found that participation opportunities in the theatre go way beyond onstage stardom.

Our Arts Management curriculum at Baldwin Wallace is unique and challenging. It has opened my eyes to the broad network of arts enterprises outside of the theater, including museums, music venues and festivals. At Baldwin Wallace, advanced level courses in Accounting and Economics merge with time-intensive participation requirements in backstage, technical and production work. I go from discussions about deferred ticket revenue to theatre set preparation. Right now, I'm becoming an expert with a hot glue gun. Our University fall musical, Spring Awakening, needs a large prop tree, and those leaves are not going to stick themselves to the branches!

Adaptation and innovation on campus keeps the theatre flame glowing. The lineup includes outdoor student performances and open mic nights framed by the beauty of our campus' fall colors. Most activities are virtual. Tickets for our first two virtual performances, Blue Stockings and Devised Blues (a showcase of original student reflections on current racial issues) sold out quickly. Stagecraft construction and performance preparation is very much alive, and has shifted dramatically in scale to accommodate an online experience. With the pandemic, our social groups are probably smaller, but laughs and sophomoric behavior survive intact. The professors and students have shown that they will go the extra mile to make an on-campus experience sustainable. Compliance with mask wear is excellent, and the community is learning to deal with asynchronous classroom schedules, online testing, and restrictive rules in the dorms and dining halls.

All this disruption comes during a contentious election year, and in an environment of heightened racial tensions across the world. Our student body is a very diverse crowd. This year, our performance lineup was constructed to align with these social concerns. Republican or Democrat, it has been great to see one thing that all of our theatre, music and management students agree on -- the importance of public funding for the arts. We're thrilled to throw our support behind the Ohio Arts Council and Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (our county government agency) and educate our fellow citizens about the importance of taxpayer support for these resources. Our local communities need the economic engine of local professional arts performances to thrive -- so many jobs are at stake! To quote one of my stickers, "I love the arts and I vote!"

Despite the temporary restrictions of our campus theaters, our many community playhouses, and the eleven performance spaces in downtown Cleveland, virtual connections have been maintained. Recently, Cleveland's Playhouse Square featured a virtual dialog between two Broadway performers with Cleveland roots. Rory O'Malley and Baldwin Wallace alum Warren Egypt Franklin, both from the cast of Hamilton, talked about their formative experiences at our legendary Beck Center community theater. Cleveland theater fans couldn't be more proud. Broadway veterans Corey Cott (Bandstand) and Baldwin Wallace alum Colton Ryan (Dear Evan Hansen) add to the list of local performers who have hit the big time, and they encourage us to aim our sights high!

I wish you well, and it's back to the hot glue gun!

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