A grandparent of a member of the class of 2008 donated $5 million at the beginning of the summer to theater arts at Brown. The anonymous gift was received after a long pursuit of the donor by the Office of Development.
"This major gift, like all of the major gifts to the campaign, was indeed solicited by the campaign staff," said Ronald Vanden Dorpel MA'71, senior vice president for University advancement. "In this particular case, it was solicited by the president and our associate vice president for development," he added.
Though the donation was given generally to theater arts, it will be split up in use between the different theater programs at the University.
"The gift, as I understand it, is not just for this department but for theater at Brown, which includes the playwriting program and literary arts, our program here in theatre, speech and dance and Rites and Reason (Theater) and all the fabulous theater programs," said Rebecca Schneider, associate professor of theatre, speech and dance and chair of the department.
She pointed out that one of the chief needs of the Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance is an upgrade of Lyman Hall, where many of its programs take place.
"We have a long list of renovation needs. We have some really poor office space, and we need lighting to be completely redone. The dance studio also needs lighting," Schneider said. With laughter she added, "In some ways this building - we like to think of it as a well-loved teddy bear. We use it, and it shows."
The different directors of theater programs at the University will work with the administration to determine the donation's specific uses.
"In terms of splitting it between other programs, all of the programs are really communicating well together. We're in a good place at recognizing collectively what all our needs are," Schneider said.
