By Jay Schreiber

hree performing arts

students sit on the ground

lining the halls of Douglas
College’s arts department. Amidst
the homework, practicing and
other hard work put in by these
students, they discuss what they
are going to do with the rest of
their lives post Douglas College.
This is typical behaviour of
Douglas students who tend to
spend a lot of time thinking about
other options.

The Arts at Douglas

A review of the 2008-2009 season in
Douglas college’s Arts community

Bob Caldwell

 

 

 

 

Echoing the school’s motto
“You can go anywhere from here,”
most people take that too seriously,
and often I believe a fitting saying
would be “You can go here while
you decide what to do next.” It’s a
sad story but Douglas is a school
where college community is at
an all-time low, and people seem
to just plan class time into their
lives rather than having a focus on
school.

So, in an institution that
flounders in community, the
arts still soldier on, firing
on all cylinders with weekly
performances, and multiple ways
to get involved. In a talk with Dr.
David Duke, the dean of the fine
arts department, the role of the
arts in our society and college
environment was made more
evident.

“In my opinion, there is a
lot going on in the arts and it’s
very exciting,” Duke remarked.
“The ongoing trouble with the
arts is how we appeal to younger
audiences. In this way, Douglas
College is at the front line of the
battlefield educating the younger
generations of future artists.”

This year’s cutting edge
performances in English studies
and literature include Pearls, an
anthology of creative writing done
by arts students and released on
February 27". Pearls has been
a long time in the making, and
finally surfaced this semester. If
you’re looking for a good read
of student literature, then this
collection is definitely worth a
gander.

Musically, the arts at Douglas
College are still going strong
as they have been for almost 40
years. Bob Caldwell, a 20-year
veteran of the music department

sat down with me to share his
opinions of Douglas College’s arts
scene.

“T’d always like to see more,”
Bob remarked, “but on a large
scale I think that the arts is a
healthy thing at our institution.”
The College offers both a basic
introduction to music skills and
a two-year university transfer
program.

“Since I’ve been here, the
demographic has changed quite
dramatically,” Bob continued.
“Originally, this program started
in classical training and was used
as a jump-off point for UBC or
UVic. Now, we have a few older
musicians that have spent time
in the music scene and want to
upgrade their chops or get a better
education by taking university
courses.”

The music program promotes
annual concerts to the public at
the end of each year featuring the
concert band, small ensembles,
jazz bands, chorale and chorus
vocal groups, plus an entire night
dedicated to the compositions
of Douglas college students.

In addition to that, weekly
performances every Thursday in
the Arts at One series are free and
open to anyone with a wide variety
of music from classical ensembles,
to jazz and even world music.

Ellen Silverman, the head
of the keyboard department at
Douglas College and member
of the Arts at One committee
would like to see more of a
college presence in the weekly
performances. “These events are
for everyone to see, it used to be
that everybody college wide has
a break at | o’clock, so why not
come watch?” she asked.

One of the more recent
ways of getting the word out
about events is through social
networking and web pages such as
Facebook or the Douglas College
homepage. Angela Hubert, the
performing and creative arts
liaison in the LLPA office is on the
ball with regards to this medium of
communication.

“The thing about artistic types
is that they all travel around in
their own little pods and are only
interested in what their friends
are doing, it becomes the same
people at the same shows,” she
said. Through social networking,
Angela has been able to contact
a younger audience and promote
more efficiently.

“When I first came here,
the only advertising that the arts
department did was with the
posters you see up on the dart
boards,” she said. “Just about

-&
Sats

everyone under 30 has a Facebook
account, and that web page alone
has helped us reach a younger
audience quicker, without wasting
paper.”

Allan Lysell, theatre
coordinator, has felt nothing
but excitement for the last two
seasons. In the 2007-2008 year,
the theatre program celebrated
its 100" production and has been
performing four scripts a year on
two stages since the programs
existence at Douglas College. This
year, the program was blessed with
a script commissioned specifically
for the school about the
Woodlands Hospital, an important
part of New Westminster history.

“The ideal thing about our
program is that we are a two-
year school that offers courses to
those who may or may not want
to pursue a career in theatrical
performance,” Lysell said. “Most
of our students are straight
out of high school, whereas
UBC requires one year of post-
secondary experience.”

Allan believes that there is
a strong presence in the Douglas
College community but often feels
like it’s overlooked. “You could
travel to the south side of the
building and find people who have
no idea that our program even
exists,” he said.

In 2005, the Student Union
at Douglas were involved in a
scandal resulting in a collapse
of special programs and funding
provided by students for students.
One of these programs was the
Performing Arts Fund, a large sum
of money put to use as seen fit by
a committee of performing arts
students. As it stands now, this
fund has not been resurrected but
still collects money from student
fees.

“We used to have fully-funded
plays written and performed by
students involving members of
music and stagecraft. We had
this all throughout the summer in
addition to the regular season, and
had enough funding to take these
shows downtown to a bunch of
local stages. Since the troubles at
the DSU, this has all gone away,”
Allan commented
With looming budget cuts and
the Performing Arts Fund sitting
untapped, it’s hard to say what’s to
happen next in the arts. However,
one thing still remains the same:
it’s always good to stop and
observe your college community
and be supportive in any way
possible.

7