photo by Dominique Hildebrand
A model of the Playhouse stands in the University Center lobby.
Cinema students may no longer have to go from building to building to use their editing bays and labs, with plans in place to finally consolidate the major’s facilities under one roof.
That plan was put in place after leaders in the cinema department voiced concerns that facilities originally included in the new Playhouse were recently removed in the updated set of plans.
But when administrators at Point Park learned that the cuts were the subject of a myriad of complaints from cinema department professors, they eventually hosted a meeting with the instructors to rectify the concerns and promised to centrally locate them in the new theatre.
Presently, the labs, classrooms and faculty offices for the cinema department are housed in three separate buildings: West Penn, Patterson and University Center, creating major challenges for student filmmakers. But after last week’s meeting between President Paul Hennigan and cinema faculty, plans are being made to consolidate the department’s facilities in one place.
“We were told West Penn and Patterson was a temporary move,” said former cinema department chair Nelson Chipman, who worked with administration on the project to draft the first set of plans for the Playhouse.
The saga began three years ago when cinema department leaders complained to administrators about the fact that they didn’t have one single building to call home, a building that could house all of their labs and offices in one place to create an identity for the department.
Administrators made space for administrative offices and a few labs on the second floor of University Center, leaving the rest of the department’s facilities scattered about campus.
They were promised that when the new playhouse was built, the entire cinema program would be moved there.
“The whole idea was to pull [Conservator of Performing Arts (COPA) majors] together in the basement area with computer and editing labs,” Chipman said.
Chipman and other department chairs worked with administration to construct the first set of plans for the Playhouse that included an excavated basement housing editing labs, a sound stage and other space specifically designated for cinema students. The department believed this would remedy the issue.
“I was excited as department chair and for the students,” Chipman said. “Cinema and Theatre majors interact anyway, this would be a way to do it more formally. The new sound stage and the consolidation of post production facilities will be a real benefit to the students.”
However, the most recent updates to the Playhouse plans cut the cinema department’s post-production space.
“We wanted cinema to have one home with all of COPA,” Cinema professor Rick Hawkins said.
According to both Chipman and Hawkins, the plans to excavate the basement were scrapped in the updated plans, removing almost all of the designated spaces for the department and leaving only the sound stage, which will be shared among all COPA majors.
This raised a number of complaints from Cinema faculty about the program, which includes over 250 students.
Hawkins stressed the need for more collaboration between all COPA majors, something the Playhouse was supposed to foster.
“If you want people to collaborate, 99 percent of it is geography,” Hawkins said.
Another issue raised by cinema faculty caused by the lack of consolidation is access.
With cinema facilities spread out in different buildings on campus, students did not have 24/7 access to those facilities on weeknights or weekends. But the faculty hopes this change could fix that problem, because the new Playhouse will be open 24/7.
When the professors complained about the problem to The Globe and a reporter brought the issue to administration, Lou Corsaro, Managing Director of University Marketing and Public Relations, released a statement.
“The new Point Park University Pittsburgh Playhouse will stand as an excellent resource for faculty, staff and students from all parts of the university,” Corsaro said. “All of this planning has been done with one goal – to make sure the finished product properly serves everyone connected to the University who will make use of it.”
President of the United Student Government (USG) Julian Singleton believes cinema students were acknowledged by the administration.
“From my understanding, cinema students were fully taken into account,” Singleton said. “I know [administration] wants to find a way to make the building useful for all students.”
In President Hennigan’s regular meetings with academic departments, he sat with the cinema department to resolve this issue, shortly after the University released its statement on the matter.
The meeting resulted in administration pledging to allocate funds to consolidate the program.
While no plans have been finalized, according to Hawkins, plans are in place to move the editing, sound and animation suites from buildings all over campus into University Center. The University Center will adjoin the Playhouse and theatre facilities, creating the synergy that the cinema faculty originally wanted.
Faculty will meet with architects this week to discuss alternative ways to design the labs for consolidation in University Center.
If everything goes according to plan, the move will effectively end ten years of the department being spread out all over campus.
