This May marks the end of my third year as chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. Time is a funny thing: it feels like I've barely begun to wrap my head around all that this responsibility entails while at the same time it feels like I have been doing this for a lifetime! With the support of my colleagues, I am excited to begin a second three-year term; we have seen a lot of change in the past three years, and as the dust has started to settle, I can see exciting things coming for the Department.

In just this past year, we have replaced much of our lighting equipment with new, LED-based lighting fixtures; upgraded our architectural lighting control and production lighting control equipment; replaced the audio equipment in the recording studio; updated the speakers in the Nancy T. Hansen Theatre as well as the mixing consoles in both the Hansen and the Carole and Gordon Mallett Theatres. In collaboration with the Fusion Studio for Entertainment and Engineering we have started equipping the cutting-edge John Martinson Entertainment and Engineering Labs with industry-standard controls, automation, and animatronics equipment and materials.

Our faculty and staff have been performing, designing, writing, publishing, and presenting all year. (Check out the news stories below and on our website for a taste of some of their accomplishments.) Purdue students designed scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound, built scenery, patterned, stitched, and altered costumes, hung and focused lights, installed and calibrated sound systems, created animatronics for, and acted and danced in four stellar theatre productions (including one they helped create from the ground up!) and two amazing dance concerts this year. And, while ticket sales across the country continue to be sluggish, ticket sales for Purdue Theatre have increased by almost 40% in the past year over sales in 2021-2022, with significant increases in student attendance.

I could not be prouder of our Theatre and Dance community and all that we have accomplished this year.

As proud as I am, I am also anxious about the state of the performing arts. The last five years has seen the largest contraction of the non-profit theatre industry since the Great Recession of 2007/2008, spurred on in large part by the ongoing impact of the 2020 pandemic audience attendance. Recent weeks have seen NEA funding to non-profit performing arts venues rescinded; arts education in our schools continues to be deprioritized; federal support for the arts has begun dictating and mandating content. Indiana’s recent budget bill threatens smaller academic programs at state universities—like ours—and the budgetary impact of price increases due to tariffs and logistics complications are unpredictable at best.

If you are financially able, I encourage you to support your local arts institutions by buying season tickets and making donations—they need our help. And, if you missed the chance to make a donation to support the Department of Theatre and Dance during Purdue Day of Giving, know that you can make a donation at any time by visiting this portal and making a gift to directly support Purdue Theatre or the Dance Program.

We also want to hear from you! Let us know what you have been up to and we will celebrate your achievements with the rest of the Department of Theatre and Dance family!