By By Mike Golz
Students anticipating their theatrical debut at the University’s New College received some tragic news last Tuesday. New College will permanently close the curtains on its drama program after the spring semester.
“It will affect the entire campus and Hofstra University life,” Kyle Miller, a senior who is a New College drama major, said. “It [New College Drama] helps provide the community with free theater; we are extremely upset.”
The decision arrived last Tuesday during a town hall meeting held for New College drama majors.
“The drama program is now a very small program for which we don’t have sufficient resources,” Barry Nass, vice dean for the New College, said. “And now it is not sustainable.”
Nass said students can still earn New College degrees by continuing to take courses within the college and taking drama classes at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Once current drama students finish their degrees, the New College Drama Program will come to an official end on Aug. 31, 2006.
“Having two distinct [drama] programs, one of which is very small, is not the most productive use of resources,” Nass added.
Nass said the decision has made most students unhappy.
“He [Nass] said there were no freshmen that were interested in the program; I know at least 12,” Emma Servant, a sophomore, said. “I don’t agree, but I understand where the decision came from. We were asking for the most money, and students can still graduate with a drama degree.”
Students currently enrolled in the program voiced opinions about the decision, which will affect the duration of their stay at the University.
“The only reason I stayed at Hofstra is because of the New College Drama Program,” Servant said. “I’m still not sure I will be here at Hofstra. Over winter break I will be looking at other schools.”
A major difference between the main campus drama program and New College drama is a sense of community that some feel will fade away once the program ends.
“They are telling me that it will be the same, but it is a different style of acting,” Servant said. “It will destroy the community we have in the Hofstra Theatre. I know people I don’t even have classes with, which is something I never had before.”
Servant added that New College drama majors were accustomed to relaxing and talking in the drama lounge, which fostered close relationships among the students.
Miller said they are not only losing a unique program, they are losing a great professor, Jeffery Romano.
Romano is an adjunct professor who also is the New College Theatre Director.
“Romano is my mentor. He started the program and now he is getting pushed out,” Servant said.
Romano, an adjunct professor who is also the New College theater director, said he has been at the University for almost 20 years. He explained that the administration had offered him a position he chose not to take; and at this juncture, he will not continue to teach at the University.
“He is free to pursue other options on campus if he wishes to do so,” Nass said. “I sincerely regret that [his leaving], but this is a decision that was necessary to make.”
While the theatre program at New College is ending, there are a handful of remaining plays that the program will be hostings.
Lips Together, Teeth Apart, a play by Terrence Mcnally, will be showing from Dec. 14 to 17 at the New College Theater in Roosevelt Hall.
There will be more New College Theatre showings in the coming months, including Waiting Room and Imaginary Life.
“I encourage everyone to see New College Theatre to see what is out there [at New College] before it closes,” Miller said.
Emma Servant and Casey Killoran, actors in one of the New College Drama Program’s last performances, will have to look to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for drama courses next year. (Margaret Hawryluk/The Chronicle)