OU doesn’t renew lease with Cape Cod theater, looks for opportunities closer to home.
After more than 450 performances in 57 summers, Ohio University ended its affiliation with the Monomoy Theatre in Chatham, Massachusetts.
More than 50 years ago, Elizabeth Baker, wife of OU’s then-president John Baker, purchased the property so students could have a summer theater. The university has leased the land from the Baker family in three-year periods.
Each summer, OU students comprised the majority of a 37-person company that performed eight shows in 12 weeks. This season’s lineup included Twelfth Night, South Pacific and Blood Knot.
In May, OU President Roderick McDavis notified the owners of Monomoy that the university would not renew its lease after Dec. 31, due to academic and economic reasons, saying the resources would be shifted to opportunities closer to the Athens campus. Chatham and the Cape Cod area are about 13 hours from Athens.
“I was heart broken,” Alycia Kunkle, a third-year graduate actor, said. “These are pivotal points in our lives as artists and a historic training program didn’t seem valuable to them … It made me feel like our training was a mockery because it didn’t seem fiscally beneficial.”
Michael Lincoln, artistic director and head of the Division of Theater, said the Division supported OU’s continuance with Monomoy, but said he wasn’t surprised when he heard the news of the president’s decision.
The lease was scheduled to increase again, and Lincoln said maintenance issues, such as a broken commercial dishwasher or a new roof, continued to increase the deficit. Most notably, the cost to bring all the buildings up to code would be about $2 million.
Though OU is no longer financially responsible, Monomoy is not closing. The University of Hartford will take OU’s place as the new university supporter. Chatham group, Friends of Monomoy Theatre, will also continue its support.
“Regardless of who writes the check, students have the experience and that won’t change,” Alan Rust, artistic director of Monomoy, said.
He added the theater will still accept OU students to the program and said he applauded the university for providing an unprecedented 50 years of support.
“The College of Fine Arts strongly supports the continuance of the Monomoy Theatre program even though Ohio University is not renewing the lease,” Margaret Kennedy-Dygas, dean of the College of Fine Arts, said in an email.
To counter the loss of Monomoy, the College and Division have accelerated their talks with the city of Dublin to create a professional theater company that would be affiliated with the university.
“If Monomoy had continued, we would not have as heavily looked into Dublin,” Lincoln said.
For now, Lincoln said the university has toured Dublin high schools as summer venues for productions, starting summer 2015. The ultimate goal, he said, is to have a permanent arts space that can serve the entire College of Fine Arts.
One major problem they are confronting is housing. There is no residential campus for the high schools or of a college nearby. But Lincoln added this is the most common problem affecting resident professional theater companies.
“We have a historic opportunity to refocus what we do in the summer and make something really great,” Lincoln said.
@buzzlightmeryl
mg986611@ohio.edu
