During the first week of each semester, a sense of excitement and energy fills Milbank Hall 118, home of the Minor Latham Playhouse, as student actors from both Barnard and Columbia vie for roles in the College’s upcoming productions. This fall, the Barnard Theatre Department will mount two shows. The play Trouble in Mind, by Alice Childress (October 17-19), explores racism, sexism, and hierarchy inside a Broadway rehearsal room in the 1950s. Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov, with its themes of change and suffering among 13 characters, will follow (November 21-23).
The auditions, callbacks, and casting for these productions take place the first week of school. Those who land roles can look forward to performing four times in one weekend. Landing a spot on stage or backstage is more than an opportunity to get practical experience — it’s also a step toward fulfilling degree requirements, as every actor, producer, director, or scene builder enrolled in a Barnard Theatre Department class receives course credit. There are also work-study opportunities.
“Our productions are classes,” said Michael Banta, director of production for the department. “There is nothing that is extracurricular in the Theatre Department.”
Once rehearsals begin during the second week of the semester, classwork is a six-days-a-week commitment for six weeks straight. “It’s not a conventional classroom class but a practicum course,” said Banta.
In addition to the College’s productions and courses, there is a vast mix of student-driven theatrical productions on both sides of Broadway. The Varsity Show, founded in 1894, Columbia’s oldest performing arts tradition, is open to Barnard students. The Columbia University Performing Arts League (CUPAL) comprises more than 30 performing groups in a range of genres, including musical theatre, student-written plays, music, dance, and comedy.
When Abby Svelan ’25 entered Barnard, she’d already amassed a résumé of school and local theatre acting credits. But she arrived at the College with other plans and chose to major in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
“I came in thinking that theatre was the thing I did for fun in high school — ‘I’m not going to focus on that anymore.’ That is not how things worked out,” she said, laughing.
During her first semester, Svelan decided to explore the College’s theatre scene for fun and to meet people. That’s when she discovered the many student-driven performing arts groups, auditioned, and took part in the Columbia University Players (CUP) production of The Dead, a staged version of the James Joyce story. Svelan has continued to perform various roles on stage and was part of the cast of XMAS!, billed as “an annual student-written holiday extravaganza,” when another kind of theatrical opportunity came her way.
“I got back from Thanksgiving break, and the director called me and said, ‘Can you please produce XMAS!? We have a negative $300 budget, we don’t have our performance space yet, and we don’t really know what to do,’” recalled Svelan. XMAS! is performed on the last day of the fall semester. To perform and produce with little time to rehearse would be a heavy lift, but Svelan said, “Okay, sounds fun.”
Turns out the experience was more than fun for Svelan. She enjoyed the role of producer so much that she decided to explore more theatre management opportunities. She is now working part-time for 101 Productions, where she interned this past summer. 101 is a Broadway management company that handles marquee productions such as Suffs and Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.
“This is something I’ve found that I can see myself doing the rest of my life, and I would never have known that if I hadn’t [tried] all these different student theatre things,” said Svelan.
This academic year, Svelan is also serving as president of CUPAL and is on the board of First Stages, a student-driven company that produces original musicals.
Producing, acting, playwriting, and directing are among many specialty areas to learn and practice at Barnard, both within the College’s theatre arts program and the many student-driven productions. The benefits of participating can go far beyond the footlights.
“There’s a lot to be gleaned for people who aren’t pursuing theatre careers. Our theatre graduates, probably more than half, go on to do things that aren’t theatre,” said Barnard Theatre Department administrator Kate Purdum ’22. “[Many] work in corporate theatre jobs or arts administration jobs.”
Purdum also observed that performing onstage has helped students develop presentation abilities that translate across fields. “People go to law school with the public speaking skills they developed doing acting classes,” said Purdum.
Being involved in the theatre scene at Barnard is also a potent way to connect with the community. “One of the things that really draws people — like me — to theatre and keeps them involved is the enjoyment of the collaborative art form,” said Banta. “Everyone is, in theory, rowing towards the same point on the horizon where we’re all trying to make the best show that we can. There’s a real camaraderie that develops in any production group.”
