Theater

2007-2008 Theatre

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NO WORD FROM YET:

Acadia University (Theatre Studies, in Dept of English)

Brown University

Cornell College

Eastern Mennonite (VA)

Indiana University, SE

University of Iowa (Scenic Design)

Kutztown (Acting/Directing)

La Verne, University of

Mass, Boston

Metro State, Denver (Generalist)

Miami University (One-year position)

Middlebury College (Acting)

Minnesota ''has anyone received confirmation from U Minnesota? I've received nothing as of Jan 3'' No, nothing here. Word is they dropped the search this time because they didn't feel they had an "appropriate" candidate. They intend to repost with a new description for a 2 year visiting.

Missouri State Southern University (Acting/Directing)

Oberlin (Visiting)

University of Montana (Acting/Directing)

University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Performance Non-t-t)

University of North Carolina, Charlotte (Acting)

Penn State Berks

St. Lawrence (1 year visiting)

SUNY Fredonia

Tennessee, University of

Truman State (MO)

Winona State (MN)

University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire (Acting/Directing)

NOTIFICATION RECEIVED: (please note dates and what kind of notification) -- once further contact occurs, these dates have been shifted to the appropriate category below (to decrease the clutter).

American University: letter/materials received (11/01)

Colorado, Boulder (Non-Western): letter/materials received (12/3)

U of Connecticut (2/12)

Denison (Acting/Directing): letter/materials received (11/10)

Elizabethtown College (design): email/materials received (09/13)

Franklin and Marshall College: letter/materials received (09/26)

University of Georgia: letter/materials received (1/24)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Design) (3/08 Email)

Maryland Baltimore County, University of: email/materials received (10/10)

Missouri State University: letter/materials received (9/29)

Montevallo, University of: letter/materials received (10/12)

Old Dominion: letter/materials received (10/13)

Reed College: letter/materials received (12/2)

Rider: Short list is made and they should be calling to schedule interviews in late Feb/Early March (1/31)

Stanford: email/materials received (11/15)

Trinity University: letter/materials received (10/13)

University of No. Carolina Chapel Hill: have been moved forward to second round of consideration (1/7/08)

Vassar College: letter/materials received (12/2)

Washington U (11/7)

Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of: email/materials received (11/07)

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS REQUESTED: (please note dates and what materials)

Amherst (Visiting): Writing Sample (Feb)

Baylor: Statement of faith (11/26)

Colorado, Boulder (Acting) (1/18) video of creative work, statement of teaching philosophy

Davidson College 11/20 confidential rec letters

Eastern Mennonitie (2/10) Personal statement of faith, response to questions regarding EMU mission statement, etc.

U of Georgia: writing sample [published article] (2/8)--- has anyone heard anything since this intial material request (they told me they were still in process but wanted to know if I minded if my application be considered for a post-doc there as well --haven't heard since then).

Knox: Info on directing, a statement of how I saw my role at Knox, updated letter of rec. letter/materials received (09/27)

Montana, University of (history position): request for permission to contact references (3/17)

Notre Dame, University of: letter/materials received (11/16) (as per English Lit drama page)

Reed College: statement on ability/approach to teaching playwriting (2/5)

Reed College: statement of teaching theater history, pre-20th C. (2/4) Any idea what their time line is? (I am moving to this site from the other--will post more here)

Yale (Theatre Studies): dissertation requested (11/26) (letter/materials received (11/6)

PHONE INTERVIEWS:

American, Jan. 2008

University of Arizona (Dramaturgy), 12/10

Bellarmine, Jan. 2008

Central Washington University (Design): 2/29

College of Santa Fe (Acting) mid-Feb. 2008

Colorado, Boulder (Acting), Jan. 2008

Colorado, Boulder (Non-Western), Jan 2008 (said there were 6 candidates left at that stage and would narrow for campus visits soon)

Daemen contacted but no follow-up

Hartwick College (02/01)

Indiana University Bloomington(Theatre History): sent email requesting phone conversation 1/28 (letter/materials received (12/13))

Knox College, contact on 11-09

Lake Erie College (letter/ materials received (10/25))

LSU Head of Acting  early April

Moravian College, January

Penn State Schuylkill 3/31

Reed College 2/22 DID REED SCHEDULE YESTERDAY OR DO THE INTERVIEW YESTERDAY? Interviewed on 2/22. They said they would be phone interviewing others next week.

University of Louisville (3/25)

Wayne State (January)

MLA INTERVIEWS:

Hunter College (12/17 as per English / drama page)

CAMPUS INTERVIEWS: (please note dates)

American University - in the next month

Amherst (Visiting) - scheduled as of 3/10

Arizona (Theatre Studies) February, 2008

Baylor, January

Bellarmine University, Feb. 2008

College of the Canyons, CA (March 2008, but I had already accepted a job)

U of California Davis, late Feb, early March

U of California, Santa Barbara (all three positions) beg. Jan 29

Illinois Wesleyan University Feb. 2008

Indiana (Theatre History), mid-February [3]

Knox College, January 2008

Loyola University (Scenic/Lighting Design) March 2008

University of New Mexico (Scenic Design) 3/08

Notre Dame, January 2008

Penn State Behrend/Erie 2/21

Reed College, March 2008

St. Lawrence, March 2008

South Carolina, University of (Dramaturgy), March 2008

SUNY Buffalo February 2008

SUNY Fredonia, February 2008

SUNY, Potsdam (Design) 3/08

Trinity 12/1

Wayne State, February

Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of (History/Lit/Crit): late January

Yale (scheduled by phone, 12/7)

ACCEPTANCES:

Baylor University

Elizabethtown College (design) 2/29/08 Trinity--candidate was a former Trinity student

UNC Greensboro (When exactly did campus interviews for this position take place???)

Arizona (unconfirmed)

Oberlin

IWU

Indiana

Wayne State University / Hilberry Repertory Theatre (3/08)

U Wisconsin-Milwaukee

St. Lawrence

Notre Dame (unconfirmed)

REJECTIONS: (please note dates and what form the rejection takes)

College of the Canyons Acting, etc.  3-17-08

Davidson College: Acting  1/28/08

Drew University  Acting   2/4/08

Fordham University: rejection letter received (10/30) and was dated the same day my materials arrived in the theatre department. disrespectful and unprofessional.

Grinnell - Acting/Directing (1/30/08)

Knox College: letter (11/8)

U of Maine (Scenic Design) 3/08 Email naming the candidate they hired.

Missouri State University: letter (10/12)

Rockford College - acting - 11/16/08

Santa Clara - acting - 11/16/08

Stanford U-letter dated March 5, 2008 and sent via mail. The letter stated that they "kept my file open to further consideration until very recently." Did any other letters state this? Could be boiler-plate language, but very nice. Another poster on the wiki remarked that his/her rejection letter from Stanford arrived (3/17/08), saying they had made a recommendation to the dean for a hire. **Yes, mine had the same language. But I too was touched and still am. Shows you that a well-written rejection letter does mean something.

Trinity U San Antonio: Letter rec'd (11/03) Letter indicated that candidates have already been asked for additional materials.

Washington U.--sent me the wrong rejection letter--but then sent an e-mail to correct it. It's always nice to be rejected twice.

UC Santa Barbara - 3 positions - letter 3/19/08

University of Colorado Boulder - Acting- 3/2208

University of Maryland Baltimore Acting 4/1/08

U. Of North Carolina Chapel Hill Acting   3/22/08

University of San Diego

University of San Francisco (1/14/08)

University of Wyoming (1/22/08)

Notre Dame (1/26/08)

UC Davis (2/5/08)

University of Washington (Scenic Design): Letter stating that they had decided on a short list.

University of Minnesota (2/15/08)

Yale (acting) 3/17/08)

University of North Carolina, Greensboro. (3/14). Even named the successful candidate in the letter! (Don't feel comfortable posting that info on this site, but hey, if you're reading this: congratulations!) [Why not name names; where's the unwritten rule?] (As far as I know, the unwritten rule remains written only on my heart).

SEARCH ABANDONED:

UC Santa Barbara - Acting/Directing - per letter dated 3/19/08

Great Basin College (2/08)

U of Minnesota- Any idea why? I heard secondhand of internal disputes, but no details. (No "appropriate" candidate is what I heard, with no real details.) The job description was odd, I'm not suprised they couldn't find any suitable candidates.

Sonoma State University (notification 2/21); email/materials received (11/20) FYI - this is the 2nd year in a row that SSU has abandoned their search.

COMMENTS: Go Franklin and Marshall! Get it right this time; 10th time's the charm!

Does this years market really suck or is it just me?

Nope, it really sucks.

Give it time...things will start to heat up soon.

it is still early, esp for tech/design jobs. Tech/design jobs seem to be everywhere, my kingdom for a directing job!

Is it still early at this point? Or is this it? Where are all the jobs?

As someone who is going out on the market for the fifth time, let me assure you: it's not late yet. More jobs should be trickling out in December, and a handful will keep showing up in January and February. Then, around March/April, expect to see short-term gigs start cropping up (as departments scramble to accommodate sabbaticals, etc.)

Is it possible to start listing area that the opening is in? Some of these schools have multiple openings.

Anybody know the story on U of Montana, why there are so many openings?

I am used to applying for English jobs where the MLA is the expected deadline. Noting the vast number of schools unaccounted for above, I am curious when you expect the majority of them to have responded by.

Hey folks, I recently noticed the older wiki is active again and has updates this one doesn't. Does anyone know if its safe again? Are most people sticking with this one whats the story?

Last I checked the old wiki had flamed out again.- As of Feb 23rd its still active with new info, I tried to update this one today from the old one but it seems different groups of people posting on each version with a few posting on both.

Where is the old wiki? I cannot find it. http://wikihost.org/wikis/academe/programm/gebo.prg?name=theater

I see that there's an unconfirmed acceptance for the UNC-Greensboro job but this page indicates an update on 3/6/2008 and the other page says it was updated 3/10/2008. Can anyone tell me what is the most recent information. I'm particularly anxious about the status of UNCG's search. [Just received the letter today, 3/19. As noted above, they even included the name of the successful candidate in my rejection letter.) ... That's odd, they didn't include her name in my rejection letter.

Job Search Status Poll: Come on folks, add yourself in under the catagory that you fit below- unemployed PhD, PhD/MFA combo, MFA or any of the above in a seriously bad job. So if there is a total of 1 by the catagory add yourself and change it to 2 and the next person should then change the total to 3 and so forth-this could be interesting. An unscientific poll to give us an idea of how many of us are out there. Add a catagory if you don't fit the existing ones.

1) Anybody know exactly how many unemployed Ph.D.'s in theatre there are right now? Total= 2

2) I'd also be interested to know how many unemployed MFA(theatre)/PhD(performance studies) combos (like myself) are knocking around still w/out tenure-track positions. Total = 0

3) Unemployed MFA. Total = 0

4) Add to that the total of us who are employed in REALLY bad jobs? Total= 2

5) Finally landed a job? PhD Total= 0, MFA Total= 0, MFA/PhD Total= 0

6) PhD's back on the market after being cut from a tenure-track job. Total= 1

When I began in my PhD program the chair said that they keep the program small because they don't want to grant more degrees than there are jobs. I feel that man owes me a job b/c he gave me an entirely incorrect view of the market, i.e., that there exists even the possibility for all PhDs to have jobs.

[I'd say you probably should have checked out the validity of those statements. Even before I decided to go to grad school, I knew that the job prospects in the humanities were not great. Full employment in academia is ludicrous on its face: Schools with theatre programs (x) multiplied by the number of freshly-scrubbed Ph.D.s regurgitated annually (y) equals. . . well, WAAAY more than the number of jobs available in any given year. (NOT a math grad, obviously.) And then you calculate all the people (like us, apparently) who don't get jobs in their first year on the market. . . if the Ph.D. didn't have some instrinsic value to me personally, I would have been a fool to pursue it, knowing something of these market conditions. It did and I still sometimes feel like a fool -- but I have something that I've always wanted and I just have to believe that I did all that for a reason, even if that reason doesn't turn out to be a career in academia.]
 * I'd say it might be nice if you didn't tell others what they "should have" done! This is a stressful time.

This is the same kind of Uncle Tom thinking that keeps academia in chains. Wake-up!

I do regret the "should have". Fair criticism. No less stressful on this end, btw, but I offer my sincerest apology. I was simply reflecting on my own reasons for doing this and did not mean to imply that you must feel the same way. All I was saying was that the presumed extrinsic rewards of a career in academia were not MY reason for going to graduate school, though I do sustain some hope for a non-traditional version of that career. Not sure I understand the "Uncle Tom" criticism, which seems to be from a different poster. Wake up to what, exactly? Would you care to elaborate? Am I to infer that you believe some kind of collective action is in order? How would that work exactly? Will our employed, comfortably tenured and tenure-tracked fellows support us in our action? (As gently illuminating as your response was to my musings above, you will pardon me if I doubt the kind, supportive intentions of everyone on the other side of the job search fence).

The "intrinsic value" argument is like being sold a broken television and being told by the salesperson that it is still a good piece of furniture. Collective action? Yes, demand of ASTR and ATHE to spend the time and money to do real research into the state of the profession as does the MLA.


 * You make a good point. ASTR and ATHE should both put some more effort into institutional research.  I have a publication dated 1999, compiled by Tom Postlewait, that lists all the doctoral programs in the US and Canada, with lists of recent dissertations and schools where graduates are currently working.  I would have liked a little more detail than this provides (i.e. actual statistics of how many graduates are hired in academic jobs of various kinds how long after completion), but as far as I know, nobody has attempted to update even this much in the past decade.  This disconnect between the numbers admitted to grad programs and the actual market for these graduates has been ongoing as long as I've been in the field (since the early 90s).  Rumors of mass boomer retirements any year now have fueled irrational hopes for nearly two decades.  Unsurprisingly, a fair number of grad programs have suspended enrollments or closed their PhD programs altogether in the past two decades to cries of alarm from throughout the field (about a half dozen of the programs in Postlewait's book don't exist anymore).  But shouldn't we rather applaud some faint hint of realism when programs admit that they are not supported by economic reality?  The mere existence of so many PhD programs does not indicate the health of our discipline.  And real statistical institutional research is a necessary first step to better practices.

Also, the writer who started this strain doesn't reach the full depth of the problem. It isn't just that there are too many fresh PhDs or even PhDs going out on the market a second time. The decreased likelihood of junior scholars being tenured is sending many seasoned PhD's back out on the market from year to year. Imagine assistant professors, some of whom may even have been your advisers in grad school, competing for the same jobs as you because their publication dossiers didn't quite pass muster or some other exacting reason. These "tainted" faculty aren't necessarily preferable to fresh PhDs in a faculty search, but there are also many very successful junior faculty who go on the market to better their position, and may take a new job if their home schools don't bargain well enough. Many desirable jobs are going to scholars making lateral moves, leap-frogging from less to more desirable positions. I heard Sue-Ellen Case quip a few years back that academia is becoming increasingly like the military. Constantly being shifted to a new assignment.

All this suggests that our doctoral programs may be way out of step with the reality of the job market. But someone has to step forward and do the numbers.

The MLA has just published the worthwhile "Report of the MLA Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion" and its PROFESSION 2007 has excellent commentary about the report. Would that the esteemed senior faculty of our discipline would take on the task of doing the same and even relating it to the MLA's report. Obviously, the variability in theatre departments is greater while the population is smaller; it would be a tricky task, but an ethical one. One structural problem: the membership of ASTR is not wholly from departments of theatre and is not representative of the profession in the same way that MLA is. In this way, the "discipline" of theatre studies is incongruent with the "profession" in a way that is harmful to both.

I'd like to add my two cents. I finally landed a tenure track job after two visiting positions, one for three years and another for one. Given my first year of applying ABD, that totals five years on the market--a lot of interviews and phone conversations but no job. I have seen jobs I was perfect for not even give me a nod and gotten calls for jobs that seemed completely out of left field. I share the frustration and despair I hear in these pages, and I know very well of the anxiety that comes when April rolls around and one has no employment other than adjuncting and/or working at Borders. The key (in my experience) is persistence...there often seems to be no rhyme or reason for why people get some jobs and do not get others. For the record, I got more phone calls and interviews this year than ever before, so I think that experience does matter. I also know a fair number of junior faculty who have made lateral moves, and it is difficult for a newly minted PhD. with less teaching/publication experience to realistically compare. I agree with Sue Ellen Case that academia has become like the military in that you must be willing to go where the jobs are. For example, my institution had an opening and we only have 25 applications...and only 3-4 completed PhDs. applied. I encourage anyone on the market to keep looking--I got a call today from a major institution, so clearly all searches have not been completed, and I was once hired as late as July. That being said, I wonder what we could do with the numbers. Clearly, Postlewait's work needs to be updated, but I think it would be difficult to determine an"average" number of PhDs. and/or job openings. There have been, in the five years on the market, great job years and terrible ones. In addition, if we are counting PhDs on the market, do we count those applying ABD? What about those who may be leaving the profession for a more lucrative career (I always thought about being a plumber)? What about ABD's adjuncting or in full time non-tenure positions (as I am in now)? I'm not saying its impossible, but I think these are questions worth thinking about. Just as a side note, I have found (as a theatre historian and director) that ATHE was a much better conference for job networking than ASTR (since ASTR is primarily people who already have jobs as theatre historians). Finally, I want to stress that sites such as this have been very helpful to me in terms of venting, sharing info, communicating, etc. I hope for the best for everyone on here, and trust me, I understand, sympathize, and hope you get a good job soon.

Without the numbers, I have no idea whether the "problem" is the sheer volume of competition, a flaw in my materials, or whether I am just not good enough, especially in a field where (as a traditionalist) I feel like an outsider already; the experience of graduate school has destroyed my self-worth and my financial future.

What is a traditionalist?

Since we don't have "the numbers" and won't for a while, I suggest to the person above that you have a senior colleague at a different institution than yours look at your materials; that way you can know if there is a flaw in the materials or if you need to do something else to improve your chances (i.e., write a better cover letter, get more publications/productions, etc.). I did this and it was very helpful. Finally, I think that we have to accept the fact that there is no such thing as a cookie cutter approach to the job hunt. Unlike other industries, it seems as if each academic job is an individualized search...sometimes with narrow criteria and sometimes with broad criteria. Given this, I would not worry about competition as much as finding the "right" position.

Anybody hear *anything* from Reed or Montana?