The Department of Theatre and Drama has migrated north this semester from the now-closed Frieze Building to the Walgreen Center, enabling it to centralize classes, workshops and theaters in one location. It has taken six years of planning and construction to make the center a reality, and the new facility should greatly benefit the department, which has long operated in the run-down lower levels of the Frieze. But the department is not traveling alone - the new facilities, including the Arthur Miller Theater, will also be home to Basement Arts and Musket, two student-run theater groups. As much as the move may benefit the department, the loss of a central campus theater for student-run productions could hurt recruitment efforts and reduce audience sizes. By making space for a small theater and rehearsal space on Central Campus, the University can ensure these student groups are able to continue producing quality shows that give non-theater majors a chance to take the stage.

North Campus may seem far at first for students accustomed to going no farther than State Street and Washington Avenue to attend classes. But the pioneering engineers who first made the move north in the 1950s survived, as did the art, architecture and music students who later followed. Ultimately, the move will benefit the theater department and the University. The presence of the theater program will mean more performances and events on North Campus, providing students more reason to pay a visit and bringing the University more in touch with its northernmost reaches.

But for student theater groups like Basement Arts, the new Walgreen Center is bad news. A central location may not matter for the ticketed events sponsored or put on by the School of Music, Theatre and Dance that attract a larger audience, but it is key for low-budget, student-run theater productions that attract primarily non-theater students. These shows draw small audiences that may not plan on attending weeks in advance: couples looking for a last-minute date, or curious students lured in by a flyer on the Diag. With the Frieze building closed and all theater facilities moving to North Campus, attendance to these only slightly less-polished theater productions could plummet. Efforts to coerce even close friends into attending may be thwarted by dread of a 20-minute bus ride each way. A trip to North Campus requires only slightly more planning than walking down to the Frieze, and that may be sufficient deterrent to keep audiences at home.

Audience turnout would not be the only casualty. Actors, directors and crew members put in long hours, and their time would be stretched even thinner while jumping back and forth between Central and North Campus. Recruiting may become more difficult, especially as underclassmen may be reluctant to join a production that requires such a lengthy commute. The move to North Campus could cost these groups both their audiences and the participants needed to pull off a show.

The University offers few acting classes for non-theater majors, and student-run performances provide an outlet for students with a passion for drama who elect a broader liberal arts education over a four-year concentrated study of theater. The new Arthur Miller Theater promises to provide adequate facilities for performances and rehearsals, but logistics may prevent many students outside the theater department from taking advantage of them. Securing space for a small theater, perhaps somewhere in North Quad, would ensure that student-run theater can maintain its presence at the University.