Theater Upheaval: The end of UAA's stage tech training pipeline.

• Author: Rhode, Scott

"We're going dark!" From center stage, Kristinne Daquis calls out the next item on her checklist, testing the lights before a preview of Dead Man's Cell Phone. The play is the season's first full production by the UAA Theater & Dance Department, and it is also the last. Ever.

"The overwhelming message of the piece," says director Brian Cook, is that "things happen in our lives--we lose our jobs, programs close down--but life continues. We're resilient people, and we move on. We find a way to recover." Cook is also the department chair, but he's moving to Colorado because his job is disappearing.

In 2020, the University of Alaska Board of Regents announced deep cuts to academic programs. UAA lost bachelor's degrees in sociology, environment and society, hospitality administration, and theater. No new students were admitted after that point, so the class of 2023 is the last to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in theater.

That class is one person, Cade Harris. By designing the sound effects and acting in Dead Man's Cell Phone, Harris earns his final credits. He's been acting since he was 6. "It's all I've ever known. I've given my whole life to this passion," he says.

His stage manager, Daquis, continues her pre-show lighting checklist with one more call: "We are dark."

A Walking Shadow

The regents' decision was a consequence of the state fiscal crisis. "It was a bunch of bad news all at once," says associate professor Dan Anteau. "We learned we were losing the program, and then we fell into a pandemic."

Once the degree was eliminated, Anteau explains, there was no need for a department. The dance program is also ending upon the retirement of the last instructor. Anteau might end up attached to the music department, but for now he works under the dean's office.

Cook, with no department to lead, heads to Colorado with no prospects at this time. "The grieving process has been long and constant," he says. "Every time a group of students graduates, you know that no new ones are coming in to replace them."

The last senior, Harris, hesitated to continue his studies. "It took a massive toll on my mentality when news of the program first broke out," he says, but he remained committed.

His castmate in Dead Man's Cell Phone, Robin Bidwell, had no choice. "The year I decided to become an actor was the year it was cut, which was very heartbreaking," Bidwell says. Instead of starting at UAA last fall as a theater major, Bidwell is getting a two-year associate degree before transferring out of state. Bidwell was able to take Cook's acting class, building on experience from performing with groups like TBA Theatre.

The artistic director of TBA, Shane Mitchell, protested the UAA program cuts. "Right up until now, I had hoped that there was going to be a letter of reprieve, and it just didn't happen," he says. "I find it surprising to have a liberal arts college without a theater department. It doesn't seem logical."

Regents had to balance multiple considerations, in addition to feedback from the arts community. "Certainly, we did give input," says

Codie Costello, president of the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts (PAC). "No one ever wants to see things like that go away...