Issues

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.