Oakland University Theater Department confronts race, COVID-19
The world-changing events of this spring and summer have forced the Oakland University School of Music, Theatre and Dance to adjust the way it approaches performance in more ways than one.
When schools shut down to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus in March, the OU theater department moved to remote video conference classes. Shows that were to be performed during the remainder of the semester were either postponed or canceled.
Then last month, after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, and protests broke out around the world, awareness of racial inequality came home to OU as well.
Anthony Guest, chairman and associate professor for the Department of Theatre at OU, sent a letter to students addressing these issues. According to Guest’s letter, the department will be looking to start discussions on diversity.
“We are sorry that it has been this way for too long,” Guest wrote. “So it is time for The Department of Theatre at Oakland University to renew the commitment of ‘doing’; one that involves listening and is accompanied with action; and one that creates opportunities for us as an artistic community to dedicate ourselves to the inclusion of stories that are long overdue.”
Guest’s letter addresses the importance of discourse on race in the United States. He expresses that if the department does not tell stories from diverse perspectives, “then we are not doing our job.” The letter puts emphasis on “the now.”
That means the department, according to the letter, wants to diversify representations of people in the community.
“Theater is “doing,” writes Guest. “It is an art form that dives headfirst into the deepest wells of our humanity. This exploration of the human condition must be steeped in the present.”
He states in the letter that people of color have been losing traces of unique identity and that theater can help combat this. Along with people of color, the letter also highlights the recognition of the LGBTQ+ community in the theater setting.
The situation with COVID-19 has, for the remainder of the semester, changed several elements in terms of teaching and practice, but the teamwork of the department’s faculty, Guest says, has been appreciated by students. Teachers and students used the Zoom teleconference app while social distancing, and Guest illustrates its benefits. “This tool has become a way to connect with people from all across the country and globe that we could have never really imagined before the crisis,” he says.
“We didn’t have time to react, we just quickly went into problem-solving mode, which is what artists do,” Guest says.
While some of the plays that were planned for the spring semester were either postponed or canceled entirely — including “Cabaret,” “Major Barbara” and “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” — students were still able to perform remotely.
“We taught dialects (accents), voice, acting, stage combat, vocal coaching and lectures through video conferencing,” Guest says. “In some instances, students had to find space in their rooms to work on voice and movement techniques, record themselves performing techniques, and had to work remotely with their vocal coach.”
Despite the changes that COVID-19 made necessary, the students and faculty were able to celebrate the achievements they accomplished during spring semester. “We ended with congratulating each other for the fine work we did,” Guest says.
Another important event for the department, the MaTilDa Award ceremony, which gathers the Schools of Theatre, Music and Dance to celebrate the achievements of students, may be held in some form in the fall, he says.