'We've lost several key committee members the past few seasons due to retirements, changes in staffing, and other causes,' said Alfred Sheffield, a member of the design team for the festival's stage productions. 'We have a number of important projects that need directors to plan activities and supervise the numerous student interns assigned to festival tasks.'
Roger Ellis, founding director of Grand Valley's Theatre Arts program, is stage director of this year's production of the Bard's 'Measure for Measure.' He pointed to the need for an education director to guide festival's extensive programs aimed at tri-county schools. 'We need an education specialist interested in establishing more effective liaisons with teachers in the community who rely on our cultural programming,' Ellis said. 'We directly serve nearly 2,500 K-12 students each season, and the number of requests from that sector continues to increase.'
Other areas in need of faculty and staff participation include audience development, fundraising, publicity, accounting and budgeting, and volunteer services. In addition, Ellis pointed out, such cultural activities such as GVSF's film series, scholarship offerings, the Boarshead Feast, new works-in-progress, and the all-campus student competition have languished for lack of strong direction and leadership.
For the past 10 years, the Shakespeare Festival has served as an outstanding example of how an all-campus, interdisciplinary effort can have a big impact both on- and off-campus and showcase Grand Valley as a regional leader in arts and culture, Ellis said. In order to accomplish this, the festival planning committee has benefited from expertise from such diverse disciplines as economics, English, physics, music, history, theatre, and film/video production. Continued contributions from faculty and staff in many academic areas are sorely needed, Ellis noted.
While some GVSF committee appointments are compensated, others are voluntary. Those interested in learning more are asked to visit the GVSF website at www.gvsu.edu/shakes or contact Festival Director Robin Reese at (616) 331-2149.
