Liza Holtmeier
UNL dance
program
deserves
resources
What kind of message is the
UNL administration sending out?
Recently, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln faculty mem
bers have complained about the
“top-down” budget reallocations,
which have trimmed the budgets
of departments all over campus.
The UNL dance program has
not been exempt from this matter.
However, the program’s predica
ment involves more than money.
Last fall, the situation became
so precarious that rumors of the
possible dissolution of the dance
major seeped through the College
of Fine and Performing Arts. Plans
were discussed to stop the enroll
ment of new freshman dance
majors and to decrease the pro
gram’s offerings to a dance minor.
You see, for a small program,
the request to trim an already lean
budget creates more than just fin
gernail-biting and handkerchief
wringing. It’s not a matter of sim
ply shuffling some priorities to
maintain the status quo. For a
small program, budget cuts
involve a major overhaul - hence,
the speculation that the dance
major would cease to exist.
Luckily, it’s still here. Thanks to
the problem-solving skills of
Charlotte Adams, former dance
director, and dance Professor Lisa
Fusillo, the program has been given
another chance. It remains to be
seen how long that chance will last.
This fall, the dance program
proceeds without its director and
exists in limbo between two
departments. A new director will
not arrive until the College of Fine
and Performing Arts conducts a
national search. The NU Board of
Regents is waiting to vote on a rec
ommendation to move the Dro
gram from the theater to the music
department.
Though the dance program has
received the budget to continue, it
may lack what it needs most -
moral support.
The constant speculation and
upheaval in the dance program has
left many students and faculty
wondering if the fate of the pro
gram is a priority ... even though
it’s the only program in the state
that offers a major in dance... even
though it has maintained a gradua
tion rate almost equaling the rate of
incoming freshmen ... even
though its students have gone on to
dance with prestigious companies
and to work in arts administration.
The resignation of Charlotte
Adams as dance program director
is one piece of evidence signaling
a lack of administrative support.
Adams, who served as director for
2Vi years, said she resigned
because her goals for the program
Please see DANCE on 17
“Jeffrey,” a comic-romantic look at modern gay society coping with AIDS, was among the many avant-garde and experimental plays that appeared at the
now-defunct Futz Theatre.
Futz Theatre closing leaves void
Other local venues attempt to fill avant-garde shoes
By Liza Holtmeier
Staff writer
It may be a while before “The
Lesbian Vampires of Sodom” returns
to Lincoln.
The Futz Theatre, known for its
productions of cutting-edge theater
such as “Vampires,” shut its doors for
the last time in May.
Its closing signals an end to an era
of contemporary theater in Lincoln.
“Theater has always been meant
to create dialogue between parties,”
explained Robin McKercher, artistic
director at Lincoln Community
Playhouse. “A lot of commercial the
aters feel the need to stay away from
that kind of material, because they
feel they might offend an audience.
The Futz was not afraid to explore
any of those shows.”
Those shows included produc
tions such as “Quills,” about the last
days of the Marquis de Sade, and
“Children of a Lesser God,” the strug
gle of a deaf woman and her teacher
to find common ground on which to
communicate.
The Futz’s portion of the avant
garde helped to complete the bal
anced diet of theater the Lincoln
community offers.
“It’s important that theater audi
ences have a broad cross-section of
opportunity to see material from the
Greeks to the present day,” said Julie
Hagemeier, theater manager for the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln the
ater department. “They have to see all
types of theater to be well-rounded,
educated citizens.”
The Futz also provided a forum
for playwrights by serving as a show
case tor new works.
McKercher said the theater com
munity has lost more and more play
wrights to television and movies -
mediums more willing to explore
progressive works. Theaters such as
the Futz encourage new talent to
work in theater.
The Futz also provided a low cost
alternative to produce new theater.
Bob Hall, who directed
“Frankenstein” in March at thelFutz,
said he chose the space because of the
low financial risk.
“One can gain a lot from doing
something where a great deal of
money is not on the line. We were
looking to get ‘Frankenstein’ in front
of200 people - to test the waters for a
new script,” Hall said. “At the Futz,
you could do it all on a credit card and
make the money back.”
With all the acclaim the Futz
received, some may wonder why
owner Paul Pearson decided to close
the theater.
Pearson said he tired of carrying
the torch for the whole community.
“I wanted my time back to
myself,” Pearson said. “There were
other projects that I wanted to do. I
couldn’t run the Futz by myself
unless that was the only thing I did.”
Eventually, Pearson thinks he will
embark on a venture similar to the
Futz. For now, his No. 1 goal is to
clean his house. After that, he’ll be
busy preparing the costume shop,
Fringe and Tassel, 735 O St., for the
Halloween season. Until then, he
said, he won’t even have the chance to
miss having a theater.
Various Lincoln theaters plan to
attempt to fill the gap left by the Futz.
The Lincoln, ^Community
Playhouse plans to produce a Gallery
Season of contemporary plays next
spring and summer.
The avant-garde season will open
with “How I Learned to Drive,” a play
by Paula Vogel that won the 1998
Pulitzer Prize for Drama award. The
play, set in Maryland in the 1960s,
explores the relationship between L’il
Bit and her Uncle Peck, a pedophile.
The next Gallery play will be
“Gross Indecency: The Three Trials
of Oscar Wilde,” written by Moises
Kaufman. The play depicts the arrest
and sentencing of Oscar Wilde to two
years in prison because of his sexual
preferences.
“Raised in Captivity,” written by
Nicky Silver, will be the final play
presented in the Gallery Season.
“The play is a rather wicked, satir
ical view of middle-class society,”
McKercher explained. “(Silver) is not
afraid to make people upset. He’s
been called the Oscar Wilde of our
generation.”
Though the season consists of
new works, it still lacks the daring
and often outrageous element that
made the Futz.
Hagemeier said UNL’s Theatrix
season comes closest to presenting
tiie progressive works like those pro
duced by the Futz. However, she said,
Theatrix can’t take the risks the Futz
did because it has certain require
ments associated with UNL’s theater
department.
The Futz’s space also created an
intimacy and immediacy that is diffi
cult to duplicate. The farthest audi
ence member was 8 feet away from
the cast.
“You couldn’t go away from what
was happening in that theater at all,”
Hagemeier said. “Your mind can drift
off in other theaters. The Futz put you
right in the middle of the action.”
In contrast, the Studio Theatre,
where most of the Theatrix produc
tions are performed, is twice the size
of the Futz.
The Futz also had an audience
and a community of volunteers that
was indigenous to it. Drawing those
people into a new venue may be diffi
cult. *
For a small theater, the Futz cer
tainly seemed to accomplish an
immense task.
“We were still the best-kept little
secret in Lincoln,” Pearson said.
u—
Your mind can drift off in other
The Futz put you right in the middle of the
action
Julie Hagemeier
University of Nebraska-Lincoln theater manager
