Quit Screwing Around

Yet another letter I found in the bowels of my computer sent by email and never received a response.

Is this more evidence that a student is only a means to more funding or some dumbass kid expecting special treatment?

Given that at the time a degree would cost twenty thousand dollars at the school I feel I was paying for an answer.

27^th January 2007

Dear (Department Chair for the Theatre Arts Department),

One of your staff told me to e-mail you because I’m focusing on lighting and sound. I have to say that my welcome as a transfer student who has a full time job has been less then warm and the teachers feel I should be chasing dreams.

The man I took play writing from has a MFA in writing and makes his living as a lighting designer. When I told him that I intended to study sound he was unhappy that I would not follow play writing, but told me that he wished that he had dun the same. He noted that he had many job offers for sound but was unqualified to take them and he really could have used the money. MFA and having trouble supporting himself. It proves that going into debt to get your education is no longer a good idea.

   

I don’t know, are there grants I should be looking at? It seems all the transfer students were told that they can’t succeed at (This state college) and have work detracting from their studies. As true as that may be we all need to pay our bills, and student loans defeat the purpose of going to college in the first place.

The slogan for theatre at (junior college) was “Come Out and Play”.  My slogan is “quit screwing around.”

ALD and other stuff

This is a letter sent by email to the department chair of the Theatre Arts department of my college. I recall that I received no reply. My success was never a goal of that department. They felt that the thousands of dollars I was paying wasn't reason enough for me to be looked after.

They were still willing to take my money, but at no point did they say that I didn’t belong or wasn’t good enough. The opportunities to practice my art simply never came my way.

By the time I dropped the Theatre major I had a good number of reasons to do so. I was angry and felt cheated. When I tried to talk to people within the department they treated me as if I was worthless and refused to hear a word I said.

You tell me, was it right for a state funded school to ignore this letter?

12^th of May 2008

Subject: ALD and other stuff

Dear (Department Chair),

At this point, I’m not opposed to doing anything light related. I have two years left at (State College), but as I will be taking advanced sound next spring my last year will likely have more to do with that side of design.

I’m still shaky on the Vector Works stuff, but I’m improving.

I have presently planned a 15 unit semester involving three days a week without (the 2 unit lab class) so I can take two sections of it, but I only need one more to put towards my degree. I’m always angry when there are units that I’m paying for and not taking, but the situation is what it is.

I’d also like to know who I should talk to about what the department is looking for in terms of plays. Like I said, one of my full-length plays is a 25 character monster and might suit the needs of the department once I clean it a bit. I had planned to write three full-length pieces of theatre in playwriting last semester and only failed to do so because I was refused in-class readings. I did turn in more than one hundred pages of never before viewed work. I know I can write to the needs of the department. I can’t promise that the plays will be good, and I know the likelihood of the school putting them on is still very small, but if I don’t try then I have no one to blame but myself.

“Nothing left but trying cept’in lying down and dying” Charles Dickens