What impact can a university have on an alternative theater scene?

        The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music drama department chair Richard Hess states unequivocally that former chairman and colleague Michael Burnham “is the grandfather of the alternative theater scene in Cincinnati.”

        Mr. Burnham demurs that he is more of an “uncle,” but there's no arguing the current scene would not exist without him.

        A few of the players can trace their way back to student days with Mr. Burnham: Brian Robertson, Regina Pugh and Stephanie Cotton-Snell of Performance Gallery, Matthew Pyle of Know Theatre Tribe, free-lance director Taren Frasier and actress/playwright Sarah Mann.

        Ms. Mann entered the alternative scene when Mr. Burnham called her and asked for a piece for a theater festival. Ms. Cotton-Snell talks happily about “the countless hours writing, rewriting and rehearsing” her monologue that opened Performance Gallery.

        Mr. Pyle says Mr. Burnham “never stops questioning. "Let's see how people will react,' he'll say, that's how we learn what we're teaching.”

        Mr. Burnham says that ideally, a university can “play a major but indirect role. People can't come in off the street and ask "Can you help me?' — we probably can't.

        “But if we're allowed to go out and play in a community, then it can happen. And a component of our job description is community service.”

        Mr. Burnham credits Ron Mielech at Thomas More College and Charles Holmond, now teaching in Indiana, as two other mentors to the alternative scene.

        Mr. Burnham has acted at Playhouse and in storefront theaters. He teaches, he mentors, he cheerleads.

        Jasson Minadakis at Cincinnati Shakespeare, “is putting on the plays nobody dares to put on,” Mr. Burnham says.

        The puppetry art of Mark Fox and Tony Luensman's Saw Theatre “should be an international touring star. That's what we haven't figured out, how to get (good artists) to move on with such good grace that they want to come back. That's the piece that's missing.”

        If the foundation was laid more than a decade ago, Mr. Hess talks about what's going on now.

        “Alternative programming at CCM drama, is in many ways the core of what we do and who we are.”

        Recent grads developed original material in lab settings that then went on to public performance before they moved on. Last year that included Eydie Cohen's Pages of My Diary . . .and Tom Korbee's original musical Will It Ever Stop Raining?

        Nick Mangano, head of the master's directing program, is interested in finding an off-campus site for students to show off projects from his Alternative Forms class.

        The experiment, Mr. Mangano believes, would benefit students and audiences.

        “Directing students need to explore their own creativity and imagination,” says Mr. Mangano. “And if an audience is truly interested in theater as an art form rather than as an occasional night out, it's incumbent that they talk to friends about new ideas the same way they would talk about novels and current events.

        “The more informed you are, the more there is to talk about.”
       

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