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ANU drama students forced on to the street

By MEL CERATO
DRAMA students at ANU are being told to engge in street theatre, after the cancellation of all 2010 scheduled productions.

An external review held last year concluded that the ANU drama curriculum is not up to national and international standards. The review recommended that the course be updated and that the drama course concentrate on theory.

Professor Joan Beaumont, head of the College of Arts and Social Science, believes that the review opens up relations for drama students.

‘Some recommendations from the review are that we work closely with other theatres in Canberra in order to ensure students have the opportunity to do practical work’, Professor Beaumont said. ‘I would rather that they were out there working in community theatres because it gives that engagement with the community and gives them, in the end, more professional opportunities’ Professor Beaumont said students should not worry that their course will be drastically changed.

‘[The] curriculum that they had begun to study, what we have advertised, is still on offer’ Professor Beaumont said.

However, some students say the cancellation will lead to bigger problems.

Cathy Haines and Genevieve Kenneally are two undergraduates leading the “Save the Humanities ” campaign, which aims to bring attention to the university’s recent course changes.

They feel that many students are unhappy and cite cases of courses being cut at other universities as precedent for what they believe is the start of a major overhaul of the humanities department at ANU.

“The University of Melbourne went through a similar situation a few years ago, resulting in nearly 50% of their English Literature courses being cut and lecturers leaving… the quality of education declined,”, Haines said.

She believes that the cancellation of drama productions in 2010 is the beginning of ANU’s much-publicised plan to make the university a 60% research-based institute.

Andrew McBain, a member of the National University Theatre Society (NUTS), says that the ANU should communicate with and learn from the local arts scene.

“There has been a big emphasis on theatre and the role that the arts play in Canberra, and the ANU deciding to cancel drama productions seems to be taking a step in the opposite direction’.

McBain believes that Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s “Theatre in the ACT – Strategic Directions Statement 2010 – 2013” paper, released in February, is a perfect example of what ANU should be striving for.

“Stanhope wants Canberra to embrace the arts and create a theatre culture, but how can we do that when we are limited in our choices of production and performance?”

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