Thomas More University’s theatre program is working toward exposing its students to other aspects of arts and entertainment that can open their experiences after they graduate.
The university’s new theatre director, Phillip Webster, is looking to put his own stamp on the program after starting as the theatre director in August. He has begun to reconceptualize the curriculum to not just a theater program but what he calls “dramatic media,” which would include elements of film, podcasting, and game design.
“What we’re trying to do is to broaden your idea of what a career in the arts could look like,” Webster said.
Webster said all of those may fall under dramatic media, but they don’t necessarily comfortably fall into theater. In the past, Thomas More’s theatre program focused on training traditional theater generalists and teachers.
The university already offers things like podcast production courses, but Webster wants to combine expertise between programs. He said they are trying to figure out how to give students the skills without them necessarily having to take a course.
“We’re trying to combine our brains (a faculty member in podcasting) with taking her technical expertise, my experience in storytelling and acting, and moving toward being able to do film stuff,” Webster said. “And the same with podcasting. I think all the podcasting projects they’re doing are more essayistic journalism-type things, and I want to move toward like radio dramas.”
Another area that Webster said was important to him was the use of film in the program. He said many theater programs offer an acting-for-the-camera type of class, but they might not actually sit down and make a movie.
“They might have a class dedicated to that, but it isn’t really folded into their artistic practice in the same way,” Webster said.
He is setting up plans for the next school year to start offering a class that would teach students some of those skills with the end goal of creating a film that would premiere in the theatre. The program already has three to four big plays they put on each year, and a movie would replace one.
Webster said theatre is really tough, and not everyone goes on to success.
“If you’re not thinking about film, television, making your own YouTube series, or making your own podcast as an actor, you’re crazy,” Webster said. “If you’re not thinking about how I can do voiceovers, can I do voiceovers for video games and audiobooks? Two of my most successful colleagues from NKU, whom I went to undergrad with, do audiobooks.”
One of those colleagues from Northern Kentucky University, Webster said, trained as an opera singer, and all of that studying refined her speaking voice, and now she does a lot of voiceover work.
Theatre versus other methods of art can be challenging to get into by yourself, Webster said. You need costumes, somewhere to put on the play, and other actors unless it’s a one-person show. It is also expensive to gain licensing fees for the production and music if it’s a musical. You must pay the actors and musicians.
“So, in traditional theater, you’re at the whim of people saying you can do your art,” Webster said.
Whereas with something like a podcast, technology has made it accessible to people through their phones and computers.
“I think the more we can show students that hey theater is about using yourself to tell stories,” Webster said. “I’m trying to train storytellers who use their body and voice to tell a story. You can do that in a theater. You can do that in a movie. You can do that in a podcast.”
Webster said that game design can even fulfill that idea, though the program isn’t creating a degree in video game design. He said companies don’t just have coders and programmers; they have people who write the stories and create the characters. They have actors who do motion capture with suits to display themselves in the game.
Thomas More alumni Kieran Casey was involved in theatre for four years before graduating in 2021 and is now involved as a director. Casey is directing the program’s next production, “Christmas Carol Untold,” from Dec. 1-3.
Casey said he believes Webster’s ideas for the future of the theatre program would have improved his experience as a student.
“Every time I hear all this new stuff that they’re doing, especially the film and podcasting, I’m like, ‘Man, I wish I was born four or five years later’ so that I can experience this stuff now,” Casey said. “I think it’s very exciting what we’re doing. I think Thomas More and the Department of Creative Media is pushing into a great new direction and giving a lot of new opportunities for students in the future.”
With Thomas More having roughly 1,300 full-time students in undergrad, Webster said the theatre program is very good at collaboration. He said theater majors and minors enrolled at the university are less than 15. For example, Webster said there is only one other theatre faculty member, and he teaches set design classes but also teaches sculpting.
“So, when we need some people in the set design classes, and we don’t have enough theater majors, he finds some art majors who may be interested in both,” Webster said. “So, now we’re trying to bridge that gap with people interested in production elements of how to record sound outdoors and do podcasting or take great photography shots. We’re trying to pull those in this sphere.”
Webster has already begun making changes to the program this semester by incorporating more original works into the theatre program. “Christmas Carol Untold” is an original by playwrights Zach Robinson and Alexx Rouse, who are locals and NKU graduates.
“To my knowledge, I don’t think Thomas Moore has ever done a completely original work—I’m sure that at some point in the 67 years, somebody’s done a student-written show, but they’re usually not part of the mainstage shows,” Webster said.
With the playwrights being local, he said they also get the unique experience of working with them while practicing and not just for the final performance.
Going into the program’s future, Webster said he wants to establish ongoing relations with more local artists.
Since he was a student at Thomas More, Casey has directed four productions at the school. He said working on original pieces allows for more creative freedom.
“I think it’s more difficult because you don’t have the frame of reference, but also, since it’s the first time it’s being done, you have more freedom with what you’re doing,” he said.
Casey said because Thomas More is a smaller school, he had more hands-on experience acting and directing than his friends who went to larger institutions.
“With Thomas More, especially with our program as it’s set up, instead of just having a concentration in acting, in lighting, design, costuming, with the set core that you have to do for theater, you’re doing a little bit of everything,” Casey said. “So even if you come in mainly focusing on acting, you can have a better appreciation for lighting and set design, and then maybe you decide, ‘maybe this is what I’m meant to do.’ I think that’s really cool.”