Lights, camera, action! Acting majors take the stage, always performing plays, but never musicals. NIU should offer musicals in order to benefit acting majors.

NIU’s School of Theatre and Dance offers many performances throughout the semester, including plays and dance performances. However, they don’t offer musicals. 

Roxanna Conner, director of NIU’s school of theatre and dance, said musicals don’t align with the technique NIU’s acting majors learn.

“Our program focuses on what’s called the Meisner technique, which is predominantly used for plays and not musicals, so pedagogically we are not producing musicals because it doesn’t align with the coursework,” Conner said.

However, offering musicals on NIU’s campus could engage acting majors in a new way and help them expand on the techniques they learn in class. 

Acting majors with the opportunity to participate in musicals would receive more hands-on experience and get more out of their degree. 

Georgi Dimitrov, a junior music education major, said musicals could help students enhance their education.

“It (musicals) would bring more attention to the arts community. The arts are often overlooked and taken for granted. Students want to show the hard work they put into their craft, to as many people as possible,” Dimitrov said. “In addition to that, it gives students new opportunities and experiences. It could give art majors the chance to help with set design and props, for instrumentalists they can be part of the pit orchestra, for anyone with sound and recording arts skills can be part of the sound and lighting board. It’ll give students more chances to better their education.”

Students are paying for college and should be able to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible. Incorporating musicals into the School of Theatre and Dance would provide acting majors with more opportunities.

Richmond Fredrickson, a first-year fine arts major with an emphasis in acting, believes musicals could increase diversity throughout NIU.

“I think by us (NIU) doing musicals that have many different casts and many different themes about races and different ethnicities, I think it would bring more people to feel represented,” Friedrickson said.

Throughout the history of Broadway, there hasn’t been much diversity. Although diversity has become more prevalent in Broadway with productions like “West Side Story” that focus on the Latinx community or “Dreamgirls” with a predominantly Black cast, there is still more work to be done, according to Broadway Seats.

By offering musicals and letting college students of all races and ethnicities participate, NIU would encourage increased diversity in Broadway.

However, one of the main challenges of putting on a musical is the lack of a pit in the O’Connell Theater in the Stevens Building. 

“We’d also have to coordinate with the School of Music to get members of the orchestra and the pit, and we don’t actually have a pit in the O’Connell Theater, so that’s something that would have to be figured out as well,” Conner said. “It’s not as simple as deciding to get the rights to a musical and putting one on.” 

Although this is a challenge to performing musicals in the School of Theatre and Dance, there are always ways to work around obstacles. NIU could hire faculty that have a background in musical theater. 

Although the School of Theatre and Dance doesn’t have a pit, the Egyptian Theatre located at 135 N. Second St. does, according to their technical facilities guide. Additionally, the Egyptian Theatre’s facilities can be rented out.  

The Egyptian Theatre should provide the opportunity for NIU students to perform musicals there, perhaps through NIU, if the School of Theatre and Dance isn’t an option. 

However, recording the soundtrack of a musical could be another option, rather than having music students perform in a pit. Even if the background track music isn’t live, it’s still an opportunity for theater and music students to collaborate and work together while allowing NIU students to practice the art of musicals. 

Conner said although NIU doesn’t put on musicals, students should come and see performances.

“I would encourage students to come see us at our plays, but then also check out what the School of Music is offering,” Conner said.

Students can attend the School of Theatre and Dance performances for free but must reserve a ticket ahead of time.  

Producing musicals on NIU’s campus could provide experiences that current acting majors do not receive.